Very curious too is the case of the people who, desiring to go by sea to Margate, found the cabin occupied by a "mixed multitude who spoke almost all languages but that of Canaan"; and started a weekly hoy on which "no profane conversation was allowed." The advertisements are as quaint as the correspondence.--
"'Wanted, a man of serious character, who can shave.' 'Wanted, a serious young woman, as servant of all work.' 'Wants a place, a young man who has brewed in a serious family.'"
On these eccentricities of mistaken devotion, Sydney pounces with delighted malice; and his jokes, acrid as they are, seem to be the vehicles of a real conviction. He honestly believed that "enthusiasm" in religion tended to hysteria and insanity; that it sapped plain morality; and turned the simple poor into "active and mysterious fools." Something, he thought, "in the way of ridicule," might be done towards checking Methodism, and to that task he addressed himself with hearty goodwill.
Equally unfair, and equally insensible to all the appeals of religious fervour, is the article on Indian Missions, for which, fifty years after, Archbishop Tait found it hard to forgive him.[133] Here again the artificial quaintness of religious phrase and thought gave him the necessary material for his fun. As he had found delight in the proper names of Methodist ministers--Shufflebottom and Ringletub[134]--so he delighted in lampooning "Ram Boshoo," and "Buxoo a brother," and "the Catechist of Collesigrapatuam." The saintly and scholarly Carey[135] ought to have been safe from his attacks, but the Baptist Missionary Society rather invited ridicule.--
"Brother Carey, while very sea-sick, and leaning over the ship to relieve his stomach from that very oppressive complaint, said his mind was even then filled with consolation in contemplating the wonderful goodness of God."
And Brother Carey's own journal was calculated to raise a smile.--
"_1793. June 30. Lord's-day_. A pleasant and profitable day: our congregation composed of ten persons."
"_July 7_. Another pleasant and profitable Lord's-day: our congregation increased with one. Had much sweet enjoyment with God."
"_1794. Jan, 26. Lord's-day_. Found much pleasure in reading Edwards's _Sermon on the Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners_."