Whiston informs us that, some time before the publication of this book, a message was sent to him from Lord Godolphin "that the affairs of the public were with difficulty then kept in the hands of those that were for liberty; that it was therefore an unseasonable time for the publication of a book that would make a great noise and disturbance; and that therefore they desired him to forbear till a fitter opportunity should offer itself," - a message that Clarke of course entirely disregarded.
It is worthy of notice that this intercourse with Cromwell occurred when Baxter was summoned to London to assist in settling "the fundamentals of religion," and made the memorable declaration, in answer to the objection that what he had proposed as fundamental "might be subscribed by a Papist or Socinian," - "So much the better, and so much the fitter it is to be the matter of concord."
Terence was by birth an African, and was thus perhaps a fitter medium of connexion between the genius of Greece and that of Italy than if he had been a pure Greek or a pure Italian; just as in modern times the Jewish type of genius is sometimes found more detached from national peculiarities, and thus more capable of reproducing a cosmopolitan type of character than the genius of men belonging to other races.
His grandfather, William Scott of Sandgate, a suburb of Newcastle, was clerk to a "fitter" - a sort of water-carrier and broker of coals.
A trained fitter would also be able to tell you.