shall be laughing at ourselves! Among the
objects which Henley discriminates in his general design, were, to
supply the want of a university, or universal school, in this capital,
for persons of all ranks, professions, and capacities;--to encourage a
literary correspondence with great men and learned bodies; the
communication of all discoveries and experiments in science and the
arts; to form an amicable society for the encouragement of learning,
"in order to cultivate, adorn, and exalt the genius of Britain;" to
lay a foundation for an English Academy; to give a standard to our
language, and a digest to our history; to revise the ancient schools
of philosophy and elocution, which last has been reckoned by
Pancirollus among the _artes perditae_. All these were "to bring all
the parts of knowledge into the narrowest compass, placing them in the
clearest light, and fixing them to the utmost certainty." The religion
of the Oratory was to be that of the primitive church in the first
ages of the four first general councils, approved by parliament in the
first year of the reign of Elizabeth. "The Church of England is really
with us; we appeal to her own principles, and we shall not deviate
from her, unless she deviates from herself." Yet his "Primitive
Christianity" had all the sumptuous pomp of popery; his creeds and
doxologies are printed in the red letter, and his liturgies in the
black; his pulpit blazed in gold and velvet (Pope's "gilt tub"); while
his "Primitive Eucharist" was to be distributed with all the ancient
forms of celebrating the sacrifice of the altar, which he says, "are
so noble, so just, sublime, and perfectly harmonious, that the change
has been made to an unspeakable disadvantage." It was restoring the
decorations and the mummery of the mass! He assumed even a higher
tone, and dispersed medals, like those of Louis XIV., with the device
of a sun near the meridian, and a motto, _Ad summa_, with an
inscription expressive of the genius of this new adventurer, _Inveniam
viam aut faciam_! There was a snake in the grass; it is obvious that
Henley, in improving literature and philosophy, had a deeper
design--to set up a new sect! He called himself "a Rationalist," and
on his death-bed repeatedly cried out, "Let my notorious enemies know
I die a Rational."[50]

His address to the town[51] excited public curiosity to the utmost;
and the floating crowds were repulsed by their own violence from
this new paradise,