246 FANATICISM. 



lament the sweeping destruction of many 

 exquisite works of art, that adorned our 

 cathedrals and churches; effected by those 

 redoubtable heroes, whose pious zeal con- 

 verted their venerable aisles into stables, 

 and otherwise desecrated the splendid 

 edifices, from which ruin they have never 

 recovered. While their % pulpits, which 

 had boasted of the pure doctrine and 

 simple eloquence of the followers and 

 admirers of a Parker or a Whitgift, 

 were usurped by an ignorant preacher, 

 with lank hair and doleful visage, 

 bellowing, in a strong nasal twang, a 

 jargon of confused and almost unin- 

 telligible phrases, which his deluded 

 congregation mistook for divine inspira- 

 tion ; and thus became the means of 

 substituting cant and hypocrisy for true 

 religion, and a miserable and morose 

 fanaticism for the kindly duties presented 

 by the first teachers of the gospel. 

 The casual observer must think it 



