The difficulties which lie in the way of the ordinary reader who wishes to become acquainted with the works of Rabelais are very considerable.[233] The fantastical style of the satirist, his countless allusions to contemporary persons and events, his out-of-the-way learning, the care with which he conceals at such length the seriousness of his purpose, and the incredible grossness of manners which so often disfigures his pages, are obstacles which can with difficulty be surmounted. The last-mentioned characteristic is, indeed, a grave and ingrained fault, which must for ever be a slur upon the writer's fame. Yet we may say of him what Don Pedro says of Benedick, "The man doth fear God howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests he will make"; or what Mrs Blower in _St Ronan's Well_ says of her deceased husband, "He was a merry man, but he had the root of the matter in him for a' his light way of speaking." Coleridge--"the brother," according to Mr Birrell, "whose praise is throughout all the churches"--speaks of Rabelais in very high terms indeed; "Beyond a doubt," he says, "he was among the deepest, as well as boldest thinkers of his age. His buffoonery was not merely Brutus' rough stick, which contained a rod of gold: it was necessary as an amulet against the monks and legates.[234] Never was there a more plausible, and seldom, I am persuaded, a less appropriate line than the thousand times quoted 'Rabelais laughing in his easy chair' of Mr Pope. The caricature of his filth and zanyism show how fully he both knew and felt the danger in which he stood. I could write a treatise in praise of the moral elevation of Rabelais' work, which would make the church stare and the conventicle groan,[235] and yet would be truth, and nothing but the truth. I class Rabelais with the great creative minds of the world, Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, etc."