Page:Babell, a satirical poem (1830).djvu/13

When Fanaticism and Folly will not listen to the dictates of Reason, Satire, though a bitter, is often found a powerful corrective. Pinkerton asserts that Sir David Lindsay, in satirizing the vices of the Catholic clergy, and the abuses of religion, 'was more the reformer of Scotland than John Knox; for he prepared the ground, and John only sowed the seed.' With equal plausibility it may be maintained, that the satirical writers of the seventeenth century, by ridiculing the austerity and correcting the follies of the Presbyterian divines, paved, in a great measure, the way for that liberality of opinion, and propriety of conduct, which now so highly distinguish the clergy of Scotland. While Butler ably and severely satirized the wild theories of the Puritans and Millenarians in England; Colvil, Pitcairne, and others, lashed, with equal spirit and ingenuity, the absurd conduct and opinions of the more bigoted Presbyterians of Scotland.

The seventeenth century was fraught with new doctrines in religion, and changes in the constitution of Britain. The Civil War broke down those venerable attributes of Monarchy, which had hitherto been respected with implicit