The Consolidator Part 9

The Queen invited them all to Peace and Union, but 'twas in vain; nay, one had the Impudence to publish that to procure Peace and Union it was necessary to suppress all the Crolians, and have no Party but one, and then all must be of a Mind.

From this heat of Parties all the moderate Men fell in with their Queen, and were heartily for Peace and Union: The other, who were now distinguish'd by the t.i.tle of High Solunarians, call'd these all Crolians and Low Solunarians, and began to Treat them with more Inveteracy than they us'd to do the Crolians themselves, calling them Traytors to their Country, Betrayers of their Mother, Serpents harbour'd in the Bosom, who bite, sting and hiss at the Hand that succour'd them; and in short the Enmity grew so violent, that from hence proceeded one of the subtilest, foolishest, deep, shallow Contrivances and Plots that ever was hatcht or set on foot by any Party of Men in the whole Moon, at least who pretended to any Brains, or to half a degree of common Understanding.

There had always been Dislikes and Distasts between even the most moderate Solunarians and the Crolians, as I have noted in the beginning of this Relation, and these were deriv'd from Dissenting in Opinions of Religion, ancient Feuds, private Interest, Education, and the like; and the Solunarians had frequently, on pretence of securing the Government, made Laws to exclude the Crolians from any part of the Administration, unless they submitted to some Religious Tests and Ceremonies which were prescrib'd them.

Now as the keeping them out of Offices was more the Design than the Conversion of the Crolians to the Solunarian Church, the Crolians, at least many of them, submitted to the Test, and frequently Conform'd to qualify themselves for publick Employments.

The most moderate of the Solunarians were in their Opinion against this practice, and the High Men taking advantage of them, drew them in to Concur in making a Law with yet more Severity against them, effectually to keep them out of Employment.

The low Solunarians were easy to be drawn into this Project, as it was only a Confirming former Laws of their own making, and all Things run fair for the Design; but as the High Men had further Ends in it than barely reducing the Crolians to Conformity, they coucht so many gross Clauses into their Law, that even the Grandees of the Solunarians themselves could not comply with; nay even the Patriarchs of the Solunarian Church declar'd against it, as tending to Persecution and Confusion.

This Disappointment enrag'd the Party, and that very Rage entirely ruin'd their Project; for now the n.o.bility, the Patriarchs, and all the wise Men of the Nation, joining together against these Men of Heat and Fury, the Queen began to see into their Designs, and as she was of a most pious and peaceable Temper, she conceiv'd a just Hatred of so wicked and barbarous a Design, and immediately dismiss'd from her Council and Favour the Great Scribe, and several others who were Leaders in the Design, to the great mortification of the whole Party, and utter Ruin of the intended Law against the Crolians.

Here I could not but observe, as I have done before in the Case of the banish'd King, how impolitick these high Solunarian Church-men acted in all their Proceedings, for had they contented themselves by little and little to ha' done their Work, they had done it effectually; but pushing at Extremities they overshot themselves, and ruin'd all.

For the Grandees and Patriarchs made but a few trifling Objections at first, nay and came off, and yielded some of them too; and if these would ha' consented to ha' parted with some Clauses which they have willingly left out since, they had had it pa.s.s'd; but these were as hot Men always are, too eager and sure of their Game, they thought all was their own, and so they lost themselves.

If they rail'd at the low Solunarian Church-men before, they doubled their Clamors at them now, all the Patriarchs, and all the n.o.bility and Grandees, nay even the Queen her self came under their Censure, and every Body who was not of their Mind were Prestarians and Crolians.

As this Rage of theirs was implacable, so, as I hinted before, it drove them into another Subdivision of Parties, and now began the Mysterious Plot to be laid which I mention'd before; for the Cortez being summon'd, and the Law being proposed, some of these high Solunarians appear'd in Confederacy with the Crolians, in perfect Confederacy with them, a thing no Body would have imagin'd could ever ha' been brought to pa.s.s.

Now as these sorts of Plots must always be carry'd very nicely, so these high Gentlemen who Confederated with the Crolians, having, to spight the other, resolv'd effectually to prevent the pa.s.sing the Law against the Qualification of the Crolians, it was not their Business immediately to declare themselves against it as a Law, but by still loading it with some Extravagance or other, and pushing it on to some intolerable Extreme, secure its miscarriage.

In the managing this Plot, one of their Authors was specially employ'd, and that all that was really true of the Crolian Dissenters might be ridicul'd, his Work was to draw monstrous Pictures of them, which no Body could believe; this took immediately, for now People began to look at their Shooes to see if they were not Cloven Footed as they went a long Streets; and at last finding they were really shap'd like the rest of the Lunar Inhabitants, they went back to the Author, who was a Learned Member of a certain Seminary, or Brother-hood of the Solunarian Clergy, and enquir'd if he were not Mad, Distracted and Raving, or Moon-blind, and in want of the thinking Engine; but finding all things right there, and that he was in his Senses, especially in a Morning when he was a little free from, &c. that he was a Good, Honest, Jolly, Solunarian Priest, and no room could be found for an Objection there. Upon all these Searches it presently appear'd, and all Men concluded it was a meer Fanatick Crolian Plot; that this High Party of all were but Pretenders, and meer Traytors to the True High Solunarian Church-Men, that wearing the same Cloth had herded among them in Disguise, only to wheedle them into such wild Extravagancies as must of necessity confuse their Councils, expose their Persons, and ruin their Cause.

---- According to the like Practice, put upon their Abrograzian Prince, and of which I have spoken before.

And since I am upon the detection of this most refin'd Practice, I crave leave to descend to some particular Instances, which will the better evince the Truth of this Matter, and make it appear that either this was really a Crolian Plot, or else all these People were perfectly Distracted; and as their Wits in that Lunar World, are much higher strain'd than ours, so their Lunacy, where it happens, must according to the Rules of Mathematical Nature, bear an extream Equal in proportion.

This College Fury of a Man was the first on whom this useful Discovery was made, and having writ several Learned Tracts wherein he invited the People to Murther and Destroy all the Crolians, Branded all the Solunarian Patriarchs, Clergy and Gentry that would not come into his Proposal, with the name of Cowards, Traytors and Betrayers of Lunar Religion; having beat the Concion.a.z.imir at a great a.s.sembly of the Cadirs, or Judges, and told them all the Crolians were Devils, and they were all Perjur'd that did not use them as such: He carry'd on Matters so dexterously, and with such surprizing Success, that he fill'd even the Solunarians themselves with Horror at his Proposals.----- And as I happen'd to be in one of their publick Halls where all such Writings as are new are laid a certain time to be read by every Comer, I saw a little knot of Men round a Table, where one was reading this Book.

There were two Solunarian High Priests in their proper Vestments, one Privy Councellor of the State, one other n.o.ble Man, and one who had in his Hat a Token, to signifie that he possest one of the fine Feathers of the Consolidator, of which I have given the Description already.

The Book being read by one of the habited Priests, he starts up with some warmth, by the Moon, says he, I have found this Fellow out, he is certainly a Crolian, a meer Prestarian Crolian, and is crept into our Church only in Disguise, for 'tis certain all this is but meer Banter and Irony to expose us, and to ridicule the Solunarian Interest.

The Privy Councellor took it presently, whether he is a Crolian or no, says he, I cannot tell, but he has certainly done the Crolians so much Service, that if they had hir'd him to act for them, they could not have desir'd he should serve them better.

Truly, says the Man of the Feather, I was always for pulling down the Crolians, for I thought them dangerous to the State; but this Man has brought the Matter nearer to my View, and shown me what destroying them is, for he put me upon examining the Consequences, and now I find it would be lopping off the Limbs of the Government, and laying it at the Mercy of the Enemy that they might lop off its Head; I a.s.sure you he has done the Crolians great Service, for whereas abundance of our Men of the Feather were for routing the Crolians, they lately fell down to 134 or thereabouts.

All this confirm'd the first Man's Opinion that he was a Crolian in Disguise, or an Emissary employ'd by them to ruin the Project of their Enemies; for these Crolians are d.a.m.n'd cunning People in their way, and they have Mony enough to engage Hirelings to their side.

Another Party concern'd in this Plot was an old cast-out Solunarian Priest, who, tho' professing himself a Solunarian, was turn'd out for adhering to the Abrograzian King, a mighty Stickler for the Doctrin of absolute Subjection.

This Man draws the most monstrous Picture of a Crolian that could be invented, he put him in a Wolf's Skin with long a.s.ses Ears, and hung him all over full of a.s.sociations, Ma.s.sacres, Persecutions, Rebellions, and Blood. Here the People began to stare again, and a Crolian cou'd not go along the Street but they were alway's looking for the long Ears, the Wolf's Claws, and the like; 'till at last nothing of these Things appearing, but the Crolians looking and acting like other Folks, they begun to examine the Matter, and found this was a meer Crolian Plot too, and this Man was hir'd to run these extravagant lengths to point out the right meaning.

The Discovery being made, People ever since understand him that when he talks of the Dissenters a.s.sociations, Murthers, Persecutions, and the like, he means that his Readers should look back to the Murthers, Oppressions and Persecutions they had suffered for several past years, and the a.s.sociations that were now forming to bring them into the same Condition again.

From this famous Author I could not but proceed to observe the farther Progress of this most refin'd piece of Cunning, among the very great Ones, Grandees, Feathers, and Consolidators of the Country. For these Cunning Crolians manag'd their Intriegues so nicely, that they brought about a Famous Division even among the High Solunarian Party themselves; and whereas the Law of Qualification was reviv'd again, and in great Danger of being compleated; these subtle Crolians brought over One Hundred and Thirty Four of the Feathers in the Famous Consolidator to be of their side, and to Contrive the utter Destruction of it; and thus fell the Design which the High Solunarian Church Men had laid for the Ruin of the Crolians Interest, by their own Friends first joyning in all the Extremes they had proposed, and then pushing it so much farther, and to such mad Periods that the very highest of them stood amaz'd at the Design, startled, flew back and made a full stop; they were willing to Ruin the Crolians, but they were not willing to Ruin the whole Nation. The more these Men began to consider, the more furiously these Plotters carry'd on their Extravagances; at last they made a General push at a thing in which they knew if the other High Men joyn'd, they must throw all into Confusion, bring a Foreign Enemy on their Backs, unravel all the Thread of the War, fight all their Victories back again, and involve the whole Nation in Blood and Confusion.

They knew well enough that most of the High Men would hesitate at this, they knew if they did not the Grandees and Patriarchs would reject it, and so they plaid the surest Game to blast and overthrow this Law, that could possibly be plaid.

If any Man, in the whole World in the Moon, will pretend this was not a Plot, a Crolian Design, a meer Conspiracy to destroy the Law, let him tell me for what other end could these Men offer such extreams as they needs must know would meet with immediate opposition, things that they knew all the Honest Men, all the Grandees, all the Patriarchs, and almost all the Feathers would oppose.

From hence all the Men of any fore-sight brought it to this pa.s.s, as is before Noted, that either these One Hundred and Thirty Four were Fools or Mad-Men, or that it was a Phanatick Crolian Plot and Conspiracy to Ruin the makeing this Law, which the rest of the Solunarian Church Men were very forward to carry on.

I heard indeed some Men Argue that this could not be, the breach was too wide between the Crolians and these Gentlemen ever to come to such an Agreement; but the Wiser Heads who argu'd the other way, always brought them, as is noted above, to this pinch of Argument; that either it must be so, be a Fanatick Crolian Plot, or else the Men of Fury were all Fools, Madmen, and fitter for an Hospital, than a State-House, or a Pulpit.

It must be allow'd, these Crolians were Cunning People, thus to wheedle in these High Flying Solunarians to break the Neck of their dear Project.

But upon the whole, for ought I cou'd see, whether it went one way or t'other, all the Nation esteem'd the other People Fools ------ Fools of the most extraordinary Size in all the Moon, for either way they pull'd down what they had been many Years a Building.

I cannot say that this was in kindness to the Crolians, but in meer Malice to the Low Solunarian Party, who had the Government in their Hands, for Malice always carries Men on to monstrous Extremes.

Some indeed have thought it hard to call this a Plot, and a Confederacy with the Crolians.------ But I cannot but think it the kindest thing that can be said of them, and that 'tis impossible those People who push'd at some imaginary Things in that Law could but be in a Plot as aforesaid, or be perfectly Lunatick, down right Mad-Men, or Traytors to their Country, and let them choose which Character they like.

I cannot in Charity but spare them their Honesty, and their Senses, and attribute it all to their Policy.

When I had understood all things at large, and found the exceeding depth of the Design; I must confess the Discovery of these things was very diverting, and the more so, when I made the proper Reflections upon the a.n.a.logy there seem'd to be between these Solunarian High Church-Men in the Moon, and ours here in England; our High Church-Men are no more to compare to these, than the Hundred and Thirty Four, are to the Consolidators.

Ours can Plot now and then a little among themselves, but then 'tis all Gross and plain Sailing, down right taking Arms, calling in Foreign Forces, a.s.sa.s.sinations and the like; but these are nothing to the more Exquisite Heads in the Moon. For they have the subtillest Ways with them, that ever were heard of. They can make War with a Prince, on purpose to bring him to the Crown; fit out vast Navies against him, that he may have the more leisure to take their Merchant Men; make Descents upon him, on purpose to come Home and do nothing; if they have a mind to a Sea Fight, they carefully send out Admirals that care not to come within half a Mile of the Enemy, that coming off safe they may have the boasting Part of the Victory, and the beaten Part both together.

'Twould be endless to call over the Roll of their sublime Politicks.

They d.a.m.n Moderation in order to Peace and Union, set the House on Fire to save it from Desolation, Plunder to avoid Persecution, and consolidate Things in order to their more immediate Dissolution.

Had our High Church-Men been Masters of these excellent Arts, they had long ago brought their Designs to pa.s.s.

The exquisite Plot of these High Solunarians answer'd the Crolians End, for it broke all their Enemies Measures, the Law vanish'd, the Grandees could hardly be perswaded to read it, and when it was propos'd to be read again, they hist at it, and threw it by with Contempt.

Nor was this all; for it not only lost them their Design as to this Law, but it also absolutely broke the Party, and just as it was with Adam and Eve, as soon as they Sinn'd they Quarrell'd, and fell out with one another; so, as soon as things came to this height, the Party fell out one among another, and even the High Men themselves were divided, some were for Consolidating, and some not for Consolidating, some were for Tacking, and some not for Tacking, as they were, or were not let into the Secret.

If this Confusion of Languages, or Interest, lost them the real Design, it cannot be a wonder; have we not always seen it in our World, that dividing an Interest, weakens and exposes it? Has not a great many both good and bad Designs been render'd Abortive in this our Lower World, for want of the Harmony of Parties, and the Unanimity of those concern'd in the Design?

How had the knot of Rebellion been dissolv'd in England, if it had not been untied by the very Hands of those that knit it? All the contrary Force had been entirely broken and subdu'd, and the Restoration of Monarchy had never happen'd in England, if Union and Agreement had been found among the managers of that Age.

The Enemies of the present Establishment have shown sufficiently that they perfectly understand the shortest way to our infallible Destruction, when they bend their principle Force at dividing us into Parties, and keeping those parties at the utmost variance.

But this is not all, the Author of this cannot but observe here that as England is unhappily divided among Parties, so it has this one Felicity even to be found in the very matter of her Misfortunes, that those Parties are all again subdivided among themselves.

How easily might the Church have crusht and subdu'd the Dissenters if they had been all as mad as one Party, if they had not been some High and some Low Church-men. And what Mischief might not that one Party ha' done in this Nation, had not they been divided again into Jurant Jacobites and Non-Jurant, into Consolidators and Non-Consolidators?

From whence 'tis plain to me, that just as it is in the Moon these Consolidating Church-men are meer Confederates with the Whigs; and it must be so, unless we should suppose them meer mad Men that don't know what they are a doing, and who are the Drudges of their Enemies, and kno' nothing of the Matter.

And from this Lunar Observation it presently occur'd to my Understanding, that my Masters the Dissenters may come in for a share among the Moon-blind Men of this Generation, since had they done for their own Interest what the Laws fairly admits to be done, had they been united among themselves, had they form'd themselves into a Politick Body to have acted in a publick, united Capacity by general Concert, and as Persons that had but one Interest and understood it, they had never been so often Insulted by every rising Party, they had never had so many Machines and Intrigues to ruin and suppress them, they had never been so often Tackt and Consolidated to Oppression and Persecution, and yet never have rebell'd or broke the Peace, incurr'd the Displeasure of their Princes, or have been upbraided with Plots, Insurrections and Antimonarchical Principles; when they had made Treaties and Capitulations with the Church for Temper and Toleration, the Articles would have been kept, and these would have demanded Justice with an Authority that would upon all Occasions be respected.

Were they united in Civil Polity in Trade and Interest, would they Buy and Sell with one another, abstract their Stocks, erect Banks and Companies in Trade of their own, lend their Cash to the Government in a Body, and as a Body.

If I were to tell them what Advantages the Crolians in the Moon make of this sort of management, how the Government finds it their Interest to treat them civilly, and use them like Subjects of Consideration; how upon all Occasions some of the Grandees and n.o.bility appear as Protectors of the Crolians, and treat with their Princes in their Names, present their Pet.i.tions, and make Demands from the Prince of such Loans and Sums of Mony as the publick Occasions require; and what abundance of Advantages are reapt from such a Union, both to their own Body as a Party, and to the Government also they would be convinc'd; wherefore I cannot but very earnestly desire of the Dissenters and Whigs in my own Country that they would take a Journy in my Consolidator up to the Moon, they would certainly see there what vast Advantages they lose for want of a Spirit of Union, and a concert of Measures among themselves.

The Crolians in the Moon are Men of large Souls, and Generously stand by one another on all Occasions; it was never known that they deserted any Body that suffer'd for them, my Old Philosopher excepted, and that was a surprize upon them.