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Some of the Members, it is said, commenced Writers, and openly propagated Atheism, Deism, Immorality, Indecency, and all Kinds of Scurrility against the best and worthiest Men of those Times.
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About the same Time a Set of infernal Spirits appeared in London, and held a nocturnal Meeting under the Name of THE HELL-FIRE CLUB. One Prank of this Club is confirmed by so many Writers, that it would be ridiculous Infidelity to deny our assent to it. This was the taking up the Theatre which then stood in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and carrying it on their Shoulders, together with all the Audience, into Covent Garden, where are still some Remains of that Theatre now to be seen. Here we are well assured that many Devils used frequently to appear during the Time of acting, and dance to divert the Company, 'till at last a most immense Dragon descended from above, and carried them all up to Hell.
Several other very extraordinary Matters are reported in good Authors of this Club. Some of the Members, it is said, commenced Writers, and openly propagated Atheism, Deism, Immorality, Indecency, and all Kinds of Scurrility against the best and worthiest Men of those Times. It hath been greatly lamented by the Learned, that not the least Remains of these Works have come down to us, as this would have sufficiently silenced those Objections of some Critics; who would persuade us, in Opposition to the whole Current of Historical Evidence, that all which is related of this Club is a mere Fable, and the Invention of a certain Legend Writer in the twenty-third Century.
The chief Argument which these Critics rest upon is this, that it is impossible to suppose a Nation arrived at such an enormous Degree of Corruption and Prostitution, to have existed even a few Years upon the Face of the Earth. And this, I confess, would have some Weight, was it not overthrown by that Account of the thorough Reformation, which, accord ing to the best Chronologists, happened in the Year 1753, brought about by one General DRAWCANDSIR, who at the Head of a vast Army, set up his Standard in the Common Gardens, and with a certain Weapon called a Ridicule, or Ridicle, or as one conjectures a Wry-Sickle, brought the People by main Force to better Manners.
Sources
The Covent-Garden Journal by Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knt. Censor of Great Britain (Henry Fielding) (1752). Edited by Gerard Edward Jensen (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1915), p. 208-209. Full text from Archive.org.