Though that dragon cannot sting the vitals of
the elect mortally, yet that Beelzebub can fly-blow their intellectuals
miserably."
He is often a bitter satirist, a sort of colonial Carlyle, as this attack
on woman shows:--
"I honor the woman that can honor herself with her attire; a good text
always deserves a fair margent; I am not much offended if I see a trim
far trimmer than she that wears it. In a word, whatever Christianity or
civility will allow, I can afford with London measure: but when I hear a
nugiperous gentledame inquire what dress the Queen is in this week: what
the nudiustertian fashion of the Court; I mean the very newest; with egg
to be in it in all haste, whatever it be; I look at her as the very
gizzard of a trifle, the product of a quarter of a cipher, the epitome of
nothing, fitter to be kicked, if she were of a kickable substance, than
either honored or humored."
He does not hesitate to coin a word. The preceding short selection
introduces us to "nugiperous" and "nudiustertian." Next, he calls the
women's tailor-made gowns "the very pettitoes of infirmity, the giblets of
perquisquilian toys.
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