"Of the plenty of books, and dearth of sense; the advantages of the
Oratory to the booksellers, in advertising for them; and to their
customers, in making books useless; with all the learning, reason, and
wit more than are proper for one advertisement."
Amid these eccentricities it is remarkable that "the Zany" never
forsook his studies; and the amazing multiplicity of the MSS. he left
behind him confirm this extraordinary fact. "These," he says, "are six
thousand more or less, that I value at one guinea apiece; with 150
volumes of commonplaces of wit, memoranda," &c. They were sold for
much less than one hundred pounds; I have looked over many; they are
written with great care. Every leaf has an opposite blank page,
probably left for additions or corrections, so that if his nonsense
were spontaneous, his sense was the fruit of study and correction.
Such was "Orator Henley!" A scholar of great acquirements, and of no
mean genius; hardy and inventive, eloquent and witty; he might have
been an ornament to literature, which he made ridiculous; and the
pride of the pulpit, which he so egregiously disgraced; but, having
blunted and worn out that interior feeling, which is the instinct of
the good man, and the wisdom of the wise, there was no balance in his
passions, and the decorum of life was sacrificed to its selfishness.
He condescended to live on the follies of the people, and his sordid
nature had changed him till he crept, "licking the dust with the
serpent."[57]