Having already mentioned the writer of the historical and biographical articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica, I here recommend to Laicus to cultivate a more intimate correspondence with that accurate compiler, if he be still engaged in historical pursuits. They will thus reciprocally gather improvement by communication of their respective discoveries; they will mutually support each other, and advance the common cause in which they are engaged. How strange it is, that the historian of the Encyclopedia, so well informed of whatever concerns Jesuits, should not have known, that Louis XIV was a professed member of that order, bound by four solemn {300} vows; _viz._ of voluntary poverty, perpetual chastity, and entire obedience to the general of the society in all things, and likewise to the pope with respect to foreign missions! Surely he would have enriched the Encyclopedia with this prominent fact, so undoubtedly ascertained by Laicus and cardinal de Noailles. How strange again it is, that the penetrating Laicus should have been ignorant, that this very Louis XIV, this professed Jesuit, so far forgot the humility of his religious profession, as to arrogate to himself the worship and honours, which religion appropriates to the Divinity! And yet this important fact, which had escaped all the writers of that royal Jesuit's life, is consigned to posterity for an historical truth, in the seventh volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica, page 432, in the following words: "He (Louis XIV) was so blinded by flattery, that he arrogated to himself the _divine honours_, paid to the pagan _emperors of Rome_." The circulation of this fact by Laicus, would at one stroke have crushed the Jesuits, and would have conciliated immortal {301} honour and credit to the TIMES. Who can contemplate the historical labours of these three worthies, the historian of the Encyclopedia, the editor of the TIMES, and the incomparable Laicus, without thinking of the fate of their predecessor Prynne? It is remarkable, that while the Jesuits were thus insulted by Prynnes and De Thous, and their numerous disciples, they were everywhere befriended by princes and states, who freighted them to foreign missions at the public expense, and who multiplied their colleges and settlements throughout Europe, in which they quietly assisted the clergy in the functions of religion, and successfully conducted those schools, which our famous Bacon so much admired: _Consule scholas Jesuitarum_, is his well known text; _nihil enim quod in usum venit, his melius_.--De dign. et augm. Scient. l. 6. He had already said (l. 1) of the Jesuits, "_Quorum cum intueor industriam solertiamque, tam in doctrina excolenda, quam in moribus informandis, illud {302} occurrit Agesilai de Pharnabaso: Talis cum sis, utinam nostor esses_."