The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon

You may suppose me, if you please, come by this time into those Northern Kingdoms I mention'd before, where my Old Philosopher was a Native, and not to trouble you with any of the needful Observations, Learned Inscriptions, &c. on the way, according to the laudable practices of the Famous Mr. Br-mly, 'tis sufficient to tell you I found there an Opulent, Populous, Potent and Terrible People.

I found them at War with one of the greatest Monarchs of the Lunar World, and at the same time miserably rent and torn, mangl'd and disorder'd among themselves.

As soon as I observ'd the Political posture of their Affairs, (for here a Man sees things mighty soon by the helps of such a Masterly Eye-sight as I have mention'd) and remembring what is said for our Instruction, That a Kingdom divided against its self cannot stand; I ask'd the Old Gentleman if he had any Estate in that Country? He told me, no great matter; but ask'd me why I put that Question to him? Because, said I, if this People go on fighting and snarling at all the World, and one among another in this manner, they will certainly be Ruin'd and Undone, either subdu'd by some more powerful Neighbour; whilst one Party will stand still and see the t'others Throat cut, tho' their own Turn immediately follows, or else they will destroy and devour one another. Therefore I told him I would have him Turn his Estate into Money, and go some where else; or go back to the other World with me.

No, no, reply'd the Old Man, I am in no such Fear at this Time, the Scale of Affairs is very lately chang'd here, says he, in but a very few Years.

I know nothing of that, said I, but I am sure there never was but one spot of Ground in that World which I came from, that was divided like them, and that's that very Country I liv'd in. Here are three Kingdoms of you in one spot, said I, One has already been Conquer'd and Subdu'd, the t'other suppres'd its Native lnhabitants, and planted it with her own, and now carries it with so high a Hand over them of her own Breed, that she limits their Trade, stops their Ports, when the Inhabitants have made their Manufactures, these wont give them leave to send them abroad, impose Laws upon them, refuse to alter and amend those they would make for themselves, make them pay Customs, Excises, and Taxes, and yet pay the Garrisons and Guards that defend them, themselves; Press their Inhabitants to their Fleets, and carry away their Old Veteran Troops that should defend them, and leave them to raise more to be serv'd in the same manner, will let none of their Mony be carry'd over thither, nor let them Coin any of their own; and a great many such hardships they suffer under the Hand of this Nation as meer Slaves and Conquer'd People, tho' the greatest part of the Traders are the People of the very Nation that treats 'em thus.

On the other hand, this creates Eternal Murmurs, Heart-burnings and Regret, both in the Natives and the Transplanted Inhabitants; the first have shewn their Uneasiness by frequent Insurrections and Rebellions, for Nature prompts the meanest Animal to struggle for Liberty; and these struggles have often been attended with great Cruelty, Ravages, Death, Massacres, and Ruin both of Families and the Country it self: As to the Transplanted Inhabitants, they run into Clandestine Trade, into corresponding with their Masters Enemies, Victualling their Navies, Colonies and the like, receiving and importing their Goods in spight of all the Orders and Directions to the contrary.

These are the effects of Divisions, and Feuds on that side; on the other hand there is a Kingdom Entire Unconquer'd and Independent, and for the present, under the same Monarch with the rest. – But here their Feuds are greater than with the other, and more dangerous by far because National: This Kingdom joins to the North part of the first Kingdom, and Terrible Divisions ly among the two Nations.

The People of these two Kingdoms are call'd if you please for distinction sake, for I cannot well make you understand their hard Names, Solunarians and Nolunarians, these to the South and those to the North, the Solunarians were divided in their Articles of Religion; the Governing Party, or the Establish'd Church, I shall call the Solunarian Church; but the whole Kingdom was full of a sort of Religious People call'd Crolians, who like our Dissenters in England profess divers sub-divided Opinions by themselves, and cou'd not, or wou'd not, let it go which way it will, joyn with the Establish'd Church.

On the other hand, the Establish'd Church in the Northern Kingdom was all Crolians, but full of Solunarians in Opinions, who were Dissenters there, as the Crolians were Dissenters in the South, and this unhappy mixture occasion'd endless Feuds, Divisions, Sub-divisions and Animosities without Number, of which hereafter.

The Northern Men are Bold, Terrible Numerous and Brave, to the last Degree, but Poor, and by the Encroachments of their Neighbours, growing poorer every Day.

The Southern are equally Brave, more Numerous and Terrible, but Wealthy and care not for Wars, had rather stay at Home and Quarrel with one another, than go Abroad to Fight, making good an Old Maxim, Too Poor t'Agree, and yet too Rich to Fight.

Between these the Feud is great, and every Day growing greater; and those People who pretend to have been in the Cogitator or thinking Engine tell us, all the lines of Consequences in that Affair point at a fatal period between the Kingdoms.

The Complaints also are great, and back'd with fiery Arguments on both sides; the Northern Men say, the Solunarians have dealt unjustly and unkindly by them in several Articles; but the Southern Men reply with a most powerful Argument, viz. they are Poor, and therefore ought to be Oppress'd, Suppress'd, or any thing.

But the main Debate is like to lye upon the Article of Choosing a King; both the Nations being under one Government at present, but the Settlement ending in the Reigning Line, the Northern Men refuse to joyn in Government again, unless they have a rectification of some Conditions in which, they say, they have the worst of it.

In this case, even the Southern Men themselves, say, they believe the Nolunarians have been in the Chair of Reflection, the thinking Engine, and that having screw'd their Understandings into a Direct Position to that Matter before them, they have made a right Judgment of their own Affairs, and with all their Poverty stand on the best Foot as to Right.

But as the matter of this Northern Quarrel comes under a Second Head, and is more properly the Subject of a Second Voyage to the Moon; the Reader may have it more at large consider'd in another Class, and some farther Enlightnings in that Affair than perhaps can be reasonably expected of me here.

But of all the Feuds and Brangles that ever poor Nation was embroild in, of all the Quarrels, the Factions and Parties that ever the People of any Nation thought worth while to fall out for, none were ever in reality so light, in effect so heavy, in appearance so great, in substance so small, in name so terrible, in nature so trifling, as those for which this Southern Country was altogether by the Ears among themselves.

And this was one Reason why I so earnestly enquir'd of my Lunarian Philosopher, whether he had an Estate in that Country or no. But having told him the Cause of that enquiry, he reply'd, there was one thing in the Nature of his Country-men which secur'd them from the ruin which usually attended divided Nations, viz. that if any Foreign Nation thinking to take the advantage of their Intestine Divisions fell upon them in the highest of all their Feuds, they'd lay aside their Parties and Quarrels and presently fall in together to beat out the common Enemy; and then no sooner had they obtain'd Peace abroad, by their Conduct and Bravery, but they would fall to cutting one anothers Throats again at home as naturally as if it had been their proper Calling, and that for Trifles too, meer Trifles.

Very well, said I to my learned Self, pretty like my own Country still, that whatever Peace they have abroad, are sure to have none at home.

To come at the historical Account of these Lunarian Dissentions, it will be absolutely necessary to enter a little into the Story of the Place, at least as far as relates to the present Constitution, both of the People, the Government, and the Subject of their present Quarrels.

And first we are to understand, that there has for some Ages been carry'd on in these Countries, a private feud or quarrel among the People, about a thing call'd by them Upogyla, with us very vulgarly call'd Religion.

This Difference, as in its Original it was not great, nor indeed upon Points accounted among themselves Essential, so it had never been a Difference of any height, if there had not always been some one thing, or other, hapning in the State which made the Court-Polititians think it necessary to keep the People busy and embroil'd, to prevent their more narrow Inspection into Depredations and Encroachments on their Liberties, which was always making on them by the Court.

'Tis not deny'd but there might be a Native want of Charity in the Inhabitant, adapting them to Feud, and particularly qualifying them to be alwavs Piquing one another; and some of their own Nation, who by the help of the famous Perspectives before-mentioned, pretend to have seen farther into the Insides of Nature and Constitution than other People, tell us the cross Lines of Nature which appear in the make of those particular People, signify a direct Negative as to the Article of Charity and good Neighbour-hood.

'Twas particularly unhappy to this wrangling People, that Reasons of State should always fall in, to make that uncharitableness and continual quarrelling Humour necessary to carry on the Publick Affairs of the Nation, and may pass for a certain Proof, that the State was under some Diseases and Convulsions, which, like a Body that digests nothing so well as what is hurtful to its Constitution, makes use of those things for its Support, which are in their very Nature, fatal to its being, and must at last tend to its Destruction.

But as this however enclin'd them to be continually Snarling at one another, so as in all Quarrels it generally appears one Side must go down.

The prevailing Party therefore always kept the Power in their Hands, and as the under were always Subject to the lash they soon took care to hook their Quarrel into the Affairs of State, and so join Religious Differences, and Civil Differences together.

These things had long embroil'd the Nation, and frequently involv'd them in bitter Enmities, Feuds, and Quarrels, and once in a tedious, ruinous, and bloody War in their own Bowels, in which, contrary to all expectation, this lesser Party prevail'd.

And since the allegorick Relation may bear great Similitude with our European Affairs on this side the Moon: I shall for the ease of Expression, and the better Understanding of the Reader, frequently call them by the same Names our unhappy Parties are call'd by in England, as Solunnarian Churchmen, and Crolian Dissenters, at the same time desiring my Reader to observe, that he is always to remember who it is we are talking of, and that he is by no means to understand me of any Person, Party, People, Nation, or Place on this side the Moon, any Expression, Circumstance, Similitude, or Appearance to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

This premis'd, I am to tell the Reader that the last Civil War in this Lunar Country ended in the Victors confounding their own Conquests by their intestine Broils, they being as is already noted a most Eternally Quarrelling Nation; upon this new Breach, they that first began the War, turn'd about, and pleading that they took up Arms to regulate the Government, not to overthrow it, fell in with the Family of their Kings, who had been banish'd, and one of them destroy'd, and restor'd the Crown to the Family, and the Nation to the Crown, just for all the World as the Presbyterians in England did, in the Case of King Charles the Second.

The Party that was thus restor'd, accepted the return the others made to their Duty, and their Assistance in restoring the Family of their Monarch, but abated not a Tittle of the old Rancour against them as a Party which they entertain'd at their first taking Arms, not allowing the return they had made to be any attonement at all for the Crimes they had been guilty of before. 'Tis true they pass'd an Act or Grant of General Pardon, and Oblivion, as in all such Cases is usual, and as without which the other would never ha' come in, or have join'd Powers to form the Restoration they were bringing to pass, but the old Feud of Religion continu'd with this addition, that the Dissenters were Rebels, Murtherers, King-killers, Enemies to Monarchy and Civil Government, lovers of Confusion, popular, anarchial Governments, and movers of Sedition; that this was in their very Nature and Principles, and the like.

In this Condition, and under these Mortifications this Party of People liv'd just an Egyptian Servitude, viz. of 40 Years, in which time they were frequently vex'd with Persecution, Harass'd, Plunder'd, Fin'd, Imprisoned, and very hardly Treated, insomuch that they pretend to be able to give an account of vast Sums of their Country-Mony, levy'd upon them on these Occasions, amounting as I take it to 2 Millions of Lunatians, a Coin they keep their Accounts by there, and much about the value of our Pound Sterling; besides this they were hook't into a great many Sham Plots, and Sworn out of their Lives and Estates in such a manner, that in the very next Reign the Government was so sensible of their hard treatment, that they revers'd several Sentences by the same Authority that had Executed them; a most undeniable Proof they were asham'd of what had been done; at last, the Prince who was restor'd as abovesaid, dyed, and his Brother mounted the Throne; and now began a third Scene of Affairs, for this Prince was neither Church-man, nor Dissenter, but of a different Religion from them all, known in that Country by the Name of Abrogratzianism, and this Religion of his had this one absolutely necessary Consequence in it, that a Man could not be sincerely and heartily of this, but he must be an Implacable hater of both the other. As this is laid down as a previous Supposition, we are with the same Reason to imagine this Prince to be entirely bent upon the Suppression and Destruction of both the other, if not absolutely as to Life and Estate, yet entirely as to Religion.

To bring this the more readily to pass like a true Polititian, had his Methods and Particulars been equally Politick with his Generals, he began at the right End, viz. to make the Breach between the Solunnarian Church, and the Crolian Dissenters as wide as possible, and to do this it was resolv'd to shift Sides, and as the Crown had always took part with the Church, crush'd, humbl'd, persecuted, and by all means possible mortify'd the Dissenters, as is noted in the Reign of his Predecessor. This Prince resolv'd to caress, cherish, and encourage the Crolians by all possible Arts and outward Endearments, not so much that they purpos'd them any real Favour, for the destruction of both was equally determin'd, nor so much that they expected to draw them over to Abrogratzianism, but Two Reasons may be suppos'd to give Rise to this Project.

1. The Lunarian Church Party had all along Preach'd up for a part of their Religion, that Absolute undisputed Obedience, was due from every Subject to their Prince without any Reserve, Reluctance or Repining; that as to Resistance, it was Fatal to Body, Soul, Religion, Justice and Government; and tho' the Doctrine was Repugnant to Nature, and to the very Supreme Command it self, yet he that resisted, receiv'd to himself Damnation, just for all the World like our Doctrine of Passive Obedience. Now tho' these Solunarian Church-Men did not absolutely believe all they said themselves to be true, yet they found it necessary to push these things to the uttermost Extremities, because they might the better fix upon the Crolian Dissenters, the Charge of professing less Loyal Principles than they. For as to the Crolians, they profess'd openly they would pay Obedience to the Prince, as far as the Laws directed, but no farther.

These things were run up to strange heights, and the People were always falling out about what they would do, or wou'd not do, if things were so or so, as they were not, and were never likely to be; and the hot Men on both sides were every now and then going together by the Ears about Chimeras, Shadows, May-be's and Supposes.

The hot Men of the Solunarian Church were for knocking the Crolians in the Head, because as they said they were Rebels, their Fathers were Rebels, and they would certainly turn Rebels again upon occasion.

The Crolians insisted upon it, that they had nothing to do with what was done before they were Born, that if they were Criminal, because their Fathers were so, then a great many who were now of the Solunarian Church were as Guilty as they, several of the best Members of that Church having been Born of Crolian Parents.

In the matter of Loyalty they insisted upon it, they were as Loyal as the Solunarians, for that they were as Loyal as Nature, Reason and the Laws both of God and Man requir'd, and what the Other talk'd of more, was but a meer pretence, and so it would be found if ever their Prince should have occasion to put them to the Tryal, that he that pretended to go beyond the Power of Nature and Reason, must indeed go beyond them, and they never desir'd to be brought into the extream, but they were ready at any time to shew such Proofs, and give such Demonstrations of their Loyalty, as would satisfy any reasonable Prince, and for more they had nothing to say.

In this posture of Affairs, this new Prince found his Subjects when he came to the Crown, the Solunarian Church Caress'd him, and notwithstanding his being Devoted to the Abrogratzian Faith, they Crown'd him with extraordinary Acclamations.

They were the rather enclin'd to push this forward by how much they thought it would singularly mortify the Crolians, and all the sorts of Dissenters, for they had all along declar'd their abhorrence of the Abrogratzians to such a Degree that they publickly endeavour'd to have got a general Concurrence of the whole Nation in the Publick Cortez, or Dyet of the Kingdom, to have joyn'd with them in Excluding this very Prince by Name, and all other Princes that should ever embrace the Abrogratzian Faith.

And it wanted but a very little of bringing it to pass, for almost all the Great Men of the Nation, tho' Solunarians, yet that were Men of Temper, Moderation, and Fore-sight, were for this exclusive Law. But the High Priests and Patriarchs of the Solunarian Church prevented it, and upon pretence of this Passive Obedience Principle, made their Interest and gave their Voices for Crowning, or Entailing the Crown and Government on the Head of one of the most Implacable Enemies both to their Religion and Civil Right that ever the Nation saw; but they liv'd to Repent it too late.

This Conquest over the Crolians and the Moderate Solunarians, if it did not suppress them entirely, it yet gave the other Part such an ascendant over them, that they made no Doubt when that Prince came to the Crown, they had done so much to oblige him, that he could deny them nothing, and therefore in expectation they swallow'd up the whole Body of the Crolians at once, and began to talk of nothing less than Banishing them to the Northern part of the Country, or to certain Islands, and Countries a vast way off, where formerly great numbers of them had fled for shelter in like Cases.

And this was the more probable by an unhappy Stroke these Crolians attempted to strike, but miscarry'd in at the very beginning of this Prince's Reign: for as they had always profest an aversion to this Prince on account of his Religion, as soon as their other King was dead, they set up one of his Natural Sons against this King, which the Solunarians had so joyfully Crown'd. This young Prince invaded his Dominions, and great Numbers of the most zealous Crolians joyn'd him- But to cut the Story short, he was entirely routed by the Forces of the new Prince, for all the Solunarian Church joyn'd with him against the Crolians without any respect to the Interest of Religion, so they overthrew their Brethren: The young invaded Prince was taken and put to Death openly, and Great Cruelties were exercis'd in cold Blood upon the poor unhappy People that were taken in the Defeat!

Thus a second time these Loyal Solunarian Church-men Establish'd their Enemy, and built up what they were glad afterwards to pull down again, and to beg the assistance of those Crolians whom they had so rudely handled, to help them demolish the Power they had erected themselves, and which now began to set its foot upon the Throat of those that nourish'd and supported it.

Upon this exceeding Loyalty and blind Assistance given to their Prince, the Solunarians made no question but they had so Eternally bound him to them, that it would be in their Power to pull down the very Name of Crolianism, and utterly destroy it from the Nation.

But the time came on to Undeceive them, for this Prince, whose Principle as an Abrogratzian, was to destroy them both, as it happened, was furnish'd with Counsellors and Ecclesiasticks of his own Profession, ten thousand Times more bent for their general Ruin, than himself.

For abstracted from the Venom and Rancour of his Profession as an Abrogratzian, and from the furious Zeal of his Bramin, Priests, and Religious People, that continually hung about him, and that prompted him to act against his Temper and Inclination, by which he ruin'd all, he was else a forward and generous Prince, and likely to have made his People Great and Flourishing.

But his furious Church-Men ruin'd all his good Designs, and turn'd all his Projects to compass the Introduction of his own Religion into his Dominions.

Nay, and had he not fatally been push'd on by such as really design'd his Ruin, to drive this deep Design on too hastily and turn the Scale of his Management from a close and conceal'd, to an open and profess'd Design, he might have gone a great way with it. – - Had he been content to have let that have been twenty Year a doing, which he impatiently as well as preposterously attempted all at once. – Wise Men have thought he might in time have supprest the Solunarian Religion, and have set up his own.

To give a short Scheme of his Proceedings, and with them of the reason of his Miscarriage.

1. Having defeated the Rebellious Crolians, as is before noted, and reflecting on the Danger he was in upon the sudden Progress of that Rebellion, for indeed he was within a trifle of Ruin in that Affair; and had not the Crolians been deceiv'd by the darkness of the Night and led to a large Ditch of Water, which they could not pass over, they had certainly surpriz'd and overthrown his Army, and cut them in pieces, before they had known who had hurt them. Upon the Sense of this Danger, he takes up a pretence of necessity for the being always ready to resist the Factious Crolians, as he call'd them, and by that Insinuation hooks himself into a standing Army in time of Peace; – nay, and so easy were the Solunarian Church to yield up any point, which they did but imagin would help to crush their Brethren the Crolians, that they not only consented to this unusual Invasion of their antient Liberties, but sent up several Testimonials of their free Consent, nay, and of their Joy of having arriv'd to so great a Happiness, as to have a Prince that setting aside the formality of Laws would vouchsafe to Govern them by the glorious Method of a Standing Army. —