Were not dissenters, for instance, a
class of people, with strict truth, characterized as cunning? And
may I not lay some stress on this fact to prove, that when any
power but reason curbs the free spirit of man, dissimulation is
practised, and the various shifts of art are naturally called
forth? Great attention to decorum, which was carried to a degree
of scrupulosity, and all that puerile bustle about trifles and
consequential solemnity, which Butler's caricature of a
dissenter, brings before the imagination, shaped their persons as
well as their minds in the mould of prim littleness. I speak
collectively, for I know how many ornaments to human nature have
been enrolled amongst sectaries; yet, I assert, that the same
narrow prejudice for their sect, which women have for their
families, prevailed in the dissenting part of the community,
however worthy in other respects; and also that the same timid
prudence, or headstrong efforts, often disgraced the exertions of
both. Oppression thus formed many of the features of their
character perfectly to coincide with that of the oppressed half
of mankind; or is it not notorious that dissenters were, like
women, fond of deliberating together, and asking advice of each
other, till by a complication of little contrivances, some little
end was brought about? A similar attention to preserve their
reputation was conspicuous in the dissenting and female world,
and was produced by a similar cause.
