No More Learning

We can easily conceive, under ordinary circum-
stances. Dissenters becoming Churchmen, and
Churchmen becoming Dissenters ; Tories and
Whigs changing sides ; Protestants and Koman-

* The Reheaital Transproudj vol. i. pp. 97, 98, 99, 100, 101.



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XXVm NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.

ists, like those two brothers mentioned in Locke's
second ''Letters on Toleration/'* so expert in
logic as to convert one another, and then, unhap-
pily, not expert enough to convert one another
back again — and all without any suspicion of in-
sincerity. But when we find very great revolu-
tions of opinion, at the same time very sudden,
and exquisitely well-timed in relation to private
interest ; — when we find these changes, let them
be what they may, always, like those of the helio-
trope, towards the sun ; — when we find a man
utterly uncharitable even to his own previous
errors, and maligning and abusing all who still
retain them, it is impossible to doubt the motives
which have animated him. On this subject. Mar-
veil himself well observes — " Though a man be
obliged to change a hundred times backward and
forward, if his judgment be so weak and variable,
yet there are some drudgeries that no man of
honour would put himself upon, and but few sub-
mit to if they were imposed; as, suppose one
had thought fit to pass over from one persuasion
of the Christian religion into another, he would
not choose to spit thrice at every article that he
relinquished, to curse solemnly his father and
mother for having educated him in those opinions,
to animate his new acquaintances to the mas-
sacring of his former comrades. These are busi-

* Locke's Works, vol. v. p. 79.



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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
XXlX

nesses that can only be expected from a renegade of Algiers and Tunis — to overdo in expiation,
and gain better credence of being a sincere Mus-
sulman. '**

Marvell gives an amusing account of the pro-
gress of Parker's conversion— of the transforma-
tion by which the maggot became a carrion-fly.
In the second part of the Rehearsal^ after a humor-
ous description of his parentage and youtli, he
tells us that at the Restoration ^' he came to Lon-
don, where he spent a considerable time in creep-
ing into all corners and companies, horoscoping
up and down ** (" astrologizing " as he elsewhere
expresses it) " concerning the duration of the
government ; — not considering any thing as hest^
but as most lasting^ and most profitable. And
after having many times cast a figure, he at last
satisfied himself that the Episcopal government
would endure as long as this king lived, and from
thenceforward cast about how to be admitted into
the Church of England, and find the highway to
her preferments. In order to this, he daily en-
larged not only his conversation but his con-
science, and was made free of some of the town
vices : imagining, like Muleasses, King of Tunis,
(for I take witness that on all occasions I treat
him rather above his quality than otherwise,)
that, by hiding himself among the onions, he

♦ RehearBol TVantprotedf vol. i. pp. 91, 92.



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XXX NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.

should escape being traced by his perfumes. "*
Marvell sketches the early history and character
of Parker in both parts of the Rehearsal — though,
as might be expected, with greater severity in the
second than in the first. A few ludicrous sen-
tences may not displease the reader. He says : —

** This gentleman, as I have heard, after he had read
Don Quixote and the Bible, besides such school-books
as were necessary for his age, was sent early to the
university ; and there studied hard, and in a short time
became a competent rhetorician, and no ill disputant.
He had learned how to erect a thesis^ and to defend it

pro and con with a serviceable distinction

And so, thinking himself now ripe and qualified for
the greatest undertakings and highest fortune, he
therefore exchanged the narrowness of the university
for the town ; but coming out of the confinement of
the square cap and the quadrangle into the open air,
the world began to turn round with him, which he
imagined, though it were his own giddiness, to be
nothing less than the quadrature of the circle. This
accident concurring so happily to increase the good
opinion which he naturally had of himself, he thence-
forward applied to gain a like reputation with others.
He followed the town life, haunted the best companies ;
and, to polish himself from any pedantic roughness,
he read and saw the plays with much care, and more
proficiency than most of the auditory.