But they cannot wholly suppress the Thinkers; [kog-ti-te] (as the _reformers_ are called); and these honestly think that some revision may be made with safety and advantage. They are sneered at by the larger part of the _literati_, and by all the priests, as _Tinkers_. A tinker is one who mends and patches, not a real artisan; and the majority will have it that nothing in England requires mending or patching. They are also stigmatised, sarcastically, as members of a _Mutual Admiration_ Society. A society where the members laud everything written or said by any other member; and where, as the members think, all true wisdom alone illuminates the surrounding darkness. I suspect this society is a _mith_ [pho-gti]; that the true sense of the sarcasm is, that the Thinkers overrate the value of their published thoughts, and that wisdom will not die with them. Certainly, some of the thoughts which I have seen in books, though not so gross and hateful as the Idolatry, are quite as useless. Only one thing I do respect them for--they do not subscribe to the pretensions of the priest; and are really influencing the people by giving them hints of value. They do act upon the upper classes, at least, with a reforming effect. I have not referred to obscure _sects_, of which there are many. Some of these shout and howl; some keep absolute silence; some lash themselves into a sort of phrensy, and fall down in fits, fancying that they are possessed by the _Holy Spirit_. Some will only be _baptised_ by going into a river, and there, under the Incantations of the Priest, be violently plunged all over in the water, both women and men. Still, all of these, and many others, hold to the _Sacred Writings_ and the other Idolatries: the main points are alike in all.