in the enthusiasm, subdued but not extinguished, which gives zest to
his speculations and poignancy and colouring to his style. He who
seeks to measure great men in their strength and in their weakness,
and what operation of literary analysis is more instructive or
delightful, will find ample employment for collation and comparison
in this extraordinary book, in which, keen as is the penetration
displayed on almost every subject of imposition and delusion, he
appears still to cling, with the obstinacy of a veteran, to some of
the darling Dalilahs of his youth, "to the admirable and
soul-ravishing knowledge of the three great Hypostatical principles of
nature, salt, sulphur, and mercury," and, _proh pudor!_ to alchemy and
astrology--and those seraphic doctors and professors, Crollius,
Libavius, and Van Helmont. He closed his literary performances with
this noble fabric of logic and learning, not the less striking, and
scarcely less useful, because it is chequered by some of the mosaic
work of human imperfection,--a performance which may be said to have
grown up under the umbrage of Pendle, and which he might have
bequeathed to its future Demdikes and Chattox's as an amulet of
irresistible power.[30]

[Footnote 27: What would Dr. Whitaker have thought of the following
explosion, in which Webster sounds the tocsin with a vehemence and
vigour which no Macbriar or Kettledrumle of the period could have
surpassed. The extract is from his _Judgment Set and Books Opened_:--

"All those that claim an Ordination by Man, or from Man, that speak
from the Spirit of the World, from Wit, Learning and Humane Reason,
who Preach for Hire, and make Merchandize of the Souls of Men; I
witness they are all Baal's Priests and Idol-Shepherds, who destroy
the Sheep, and are Theives and Robbers, who came not in by the Door of