58 The present times have very properly been stigmatized as the age of cant. The increase of the puritans, the smooth-faced evangelical, and the lank-haired sectarian, with their pious love-meetings and bible associations, have at last roused the slumbering spirit of the constituted authorities, who are now making the most vigorous efforts to impede the progress of these anti-national and hypocritical fanatics, who, mistaking the true dictates of religion and benevolence, have, in their inflamed zeal, endeavoured to extirpate every species of innocent recreation, and have laid formidable siege to honest-hearted mirth and rustic revelry. "I am no prophet, nor the son of one; "but if ever the noble institutions of my country suffer any revolutionary change, it is my humble opinion it will result from these sainted associations, from these pious opposers of our national characteristics, and the noblest institution of our country, the foundation stone of our honour and glory, the established church of England. There is (in my opinion) more mischief to be apprehended to the state from the humbug of piety than from all the violence of froth, political demagogues, or the open-mouthed howl of the most hungry radicals. Let it be understood I speak not against toleration in its most extended sense, but war only with hypocrisy and fanaticism, with those of whom Juvenal has written--"_Qui aurios simulant el baechemalia vivinit_." ~197~~ Low, execrable vices. Cease, persecutors, mock reclaimers, Ye jaundiced few, ye legal maimers Of the lone, poor, and meek; Ye moral fishers for stray gudgeons, Ye sainted host of old curmudgeons, Who ne'er the wealthy seek! If moralists ye would appear, Attack vice in its highest sphere, The cause of all the strife; The spring and source from whence does flow Pollution o'er the plains below, Through all degrees of life. [Illustration: page197] THE OPERA. The Man of Fashion--Fop's Alley--Modern roue and Frequenters--Characteristic Sketches in High Life--Blue Stocking Illuminati--Motives and Mariners--Meeting with the Honourable Lillyman Lionise--Dinner at Long's--Visit to the Opera--Joined by Bob Transit--A Peep into the Green Room-- Secrets behind the Curtain--Noble Amateurs and Foreign Curiosities--Notes and Anecdotes by Horatio Heartly.