Vulgar Scoffers.—Religion is one of their favorite topics; it is all priestcraft; and an invention contrived and carried on by priests, of all religions, for their own power and profit; from this absurd and false principle flow the commonplace, insipid jokes and insults upon the clergy. With these people, every priest, of every religion, is either a public or a concealed unbeliever, drunkard, and whoremaster; whereas I conceive that priests are extremely like other men, and neither the better nor the worse for wearing a gown or a surplice; but, if they are different from other people, probably it is rather on the side of religion and morality, or at least decency, from their education and manner of life. [Same date.]
Wit—False and Vulgar.—Another common
topic for false wit and cold raillery is matrimony.
Every man and his wife hate each other cordially,
whatever they may pretend, in public, to the contrary.
The husband certainly wishes his wife at the
devil, and the wife certainly cuckolds her husband.
Whereas I presume that men and their wives neither
love nor hate each other the more upon account of
the form of matrimony which has been said over
them. The cohabitation, indeed, which is the consequence
of matrimony, makes them either love or
