engaged in any publication till the year 1659, excepting a political manufcript of Sir Walter Raleigh, called the Cabinet Council, which he printed in 1658, with a brief advertisement. What his fentiments were concerning the last years of Cromwell, and the following distracted period, we have a ftriking proof in one of his private letters, written not long after the death of the protector. In reply to his foreign friend Oldenburg (he fays) * "I am very far from preparing a history of our commotions, as you feem to advise, for they are more worthy of filence than of panegyric; nor do we want a perfon with ability to frame an history of our troubles, but to give thofe troubles a happy termination; for I sympathife with you in the fear, that the enemies of our liberty and our religion, who are recently combined, may find us too much expofed to their attack in these our civil diffentions, or rather our fits of frenzy; they cannot, however, wound our religion more than we have done ourselves by our own enormities." The interest of religion appears on every occafion to · have maintained its due afcendency in the mind of Milton, and to have formed, through the whole * Ab hiftoria noftrorum motuum concinnanda, quod hortari videris, longe absum; funt enim filentio digniores quam præconio: nec nobis qui motuum hiftoriam concinnare, fed qui motus ipfos componere feliciter poffit eft opus; tecum enim vereor ne libertatis ac religionis hoftibus nunc nuper focietatis, nimis opportuni inter has noftras civiles difcordias vel potius infanias, videamur; verum non illi gravius quam nofmetipfi jamdiu flagitiis noftris religioni vulnus intulerint.-Profe Works, vol. 2. p. 585. course 4 courfe of his life, the primary object of his purfuit; it led him to publish, in 1659, two diftinct treatifes, the first on civil power in ecclefiaftical causes; the fecond, on the likelieft means to remove hirelings out of the church; performances which Johnfon prefumes to characterize by an expreffion not very confonant to the spirit of Christianity, representing them as written merely to gratify the author's malevolence to the clergy; a coarse reproach, which every bigot bestows upon enlightened folicitude for the purity of religion, and particularly uncandid in the prefent cafe, because the devout author has confcientiously explained his own motives in the following expreffions, addreffed to the long parliament restored after the decease of Cromwell. "Of civil liberty I have written heretofore by the appointment, and not without the approbation, of civil power; of Chriftian liberty I write now, which others long fince having done with all freedom under heathen emperors, I fhould do wrong to fufpect that I now fhall with lefs under Christian governors, and fuch especially as profess openly their defence of Chriftian liberty; although I write this not otherways appointed or induced than by an inward perfuafion of the Chriftian duty, which I may ufefully difcharge herein to the common Lord and Master of us all, and the certain hope of his approbation, firft and chiefeft to be fought." Milton was not a being of that common and reptile clafs, who affume an affected devotion as the mafk of malignity. In addreffing his fecond treatise alfo to the Parliament, he defcribes himself himself as a man under the protection of the legiflative affembly, who had used, during eighteen years, on all occafions to affert the just rights and freedom both of church and state. Had he been confcious of any base fervility to Cromwell, he would certainly have abftained from this manly affertion of his own patriotic integrity, which, in that cafe, would have been only ridiculous and contemptible. His opinions might be erroneous, and his ardent mind over heated; but no man ever maintained, with more steadiness and refolution, the native dignity of an elevated spirit, no man more fedulously endeavoured to discharge his duty both to earth and heaven. In February 1659, he published The ready and eafy Way to establish a Free Commonwealth, a work not approved even by republican writers: I will only make one obfervation upon it: the motto to this performance feems to display the juft opinion that Milton entertained concerning the tyranny of Cromwell. et nos, Confilium Syllæ dedimus, demus populo nunc.. -e'en we have given Counsel to Sylla-to the people now; a very happy allufion to the noble but neglected advice which he bestowed on the Protector. Amidst the various political distractions towards the end of the year 1659, he addreffed a letter to a nameless friend, who had converfed with him the preceding preceding evening on the dangerous ruptures of the commonwealth. This letter and a brief paper, containing a sketch of a commonwealth, addreffed to general Monk, were, foon after the author's death communicated by his nephew to Toland, who imparted them to the public. Milton gave yet another proof of his unwearied attention to public affairs, by publishing brief notes on a fermon preached by Dr. Griffith, at Mercer's Chapel, March 25th, 1660," wherein (fays the an"notator) many notorious wreftings of scripture, "and other falfities, are observed.” When the repeated protestations of Monk to fupport the republic had ended in his introduction of the king, the anxious friends of Milton, who thought the literary champion of the parliament might be expofed to revenge from the triumphant royalifts, hurried him into concealment. The folicitude of thofe who watched over his fafety was fo great, that, it is faid, they deceived his enemies by a report of his death, and effectually prevented a fearch for his perfon (during the first tumultuary and vindictive rage of the royalists) by a pretended funeral. A few weeks before the restoration (probably in April) he quitted his houfe in Weftminster, and did not appear in public again till after the act of oblivion, which paffed on the 29th of Auguft. In this important interval fome events occurred, which greatly affected both his fecurity and reputation. The Houfe of Commons, on the 16th of June, manifefted their refentment against his perfon as well as his writings, by ordering the attorney general to commence commence a profecution against him, and petitioning the king, that his two books, the Defence of the People, and his Answer to Eikon Bafilike, might be publicly burnt. Happily for the honour of England, the perfon of the great author was more fortunate than his writings in escaping from the fury of perfecution. Within three days after the burning of his books, he found himself relieved from the neceffity of concealment, and fheltered under the common protection of the law by the general act of indemnity, which had not included his name in the lift of exceptions. It has been thought wonderful by many, that a writer, whofe celebrated compofitions had rendered him an object of abhorrence to the royal party, could elude the activity of their triumphant revenge, and various conjectures have been started to account for the fafety of Milton, after his enemies had too plainly discovered an inclination to crush him. One of these conjectural caufes of his escape represents two contemporary poets in fo amiable a light, that though I am unable to confirm the anecdote entirely by any new evidence, I fhall yet dwell upon it with pleasure. Richardfon, whose affectionate veneration for the genius and virtue he celebrates makes ample amends for all the quaintnefs of his ftyle, has the following paffage on the fubject in question: 66 Perplexed and inquifitive as I was, I at length "found the fecret, which he from whom I had it thought he had communicated to me long ago, "and wondered he had not. I will no longer |