Note 295 — CHAPTER FOUR.

Lord Halifax, who is described by Dryden under the character of “Jotham” in Absalom and Achitophel, was at the head of the party called Trimmers; and in his “Preface to the Character of a Trimmer,” thus explains the term: “This innocent word Trimmer signifies no more than this: that if men are together in a boat and one part of the company would weigh it down on one side, another would make it lean as much to the contrary, it happens that there is a third opinion, of those who conceive it would be as well if the boat went even, without endangering the passengers. Now, ’tis hard to imagine by what figure in language or by what rule in sense this comes to be a fault; and it is much more a wonder it should be thought a heresy.”