And if some Men will fall into absurd and ridiculous Opinions, Habits, Forms, Figures and Grimaces; there will be those who will _laugh_, nay, cannot help _laughing_ at them. Hence most Parties laugh at one another, without the least Scruple, and with great Applause of their own Parties; and the Leaders of the same Party laugh with one another, when they consider the absurd and ridiculous Opinions they profess, and how they cheat and govern their Followers; agreeably to what _Cicero_ reports of _Cato_[54], "_Vetus autem illud_ Catonis _admodum scitum est, qui_ mirari se _aiebat, quod non rideret haruspex cum haruspicem vidisset_." I think it may be justly suppos'd, that Pope _Alexander_ and _Thomas Becket_ could not but laugh together at the Simplicity and Weakness of their Followers, the Papists, who receiv'd for truth the following Story. It was told as a Fact[55], "that when _Thomas Becket_, who never drank any thing but Water, sat at Table with _Pope Alexander_, and that his Holiness would needs taste of his Cup; lest his abstemiousness should be known, God turn'd the Water into Wine: so that the _Pope_ found nothing but Wine in the Cup. But when _Becket_ pledg'd him, it was turn'd into Water again." _Laughing_ therefore, and _Ridicule_ in _serious Matters_, go round the World with no inconsiderable Applause, and seem highly proper for this World of Nonsense and Folly. To hinder _laughing_ upon such just Occasions as are given, is almost all one as to hinder _breathing_. A very witty, drolling, Dramatick Poet, and of the first Rank for Quality, says in a _Prologue_ to his Auditors. "_Suppose now, at this Instant, one of you_ "_Were tickled by a Fool, what would you do?_ "_'Tis ten to one you'd_ laugh: _here's just the Case._ "_For there are Fools that tickle with their Face._ "_Your gay Fool tickles with his Dress and Motions;_ "_But your_ grave Fool _of_ Fools _with_ silly Notions. "_Is it not then unjust that Fops should still_ "_Force one to_ laugh, _and then take laughing ill?_