3.

Their defcriptions are more faithful to the acuteness of their own feelings than to the real qualities of the objects defcribed. Paradoxical as it may found, they are often deficient in truth, in proportion to the excess of their fincerity ; the charm or the merit they celebrate is partly the phantom of their own fancy; but they believe it real, while they praise it as a reality; and as long as their belief is fincere, it is unjust to accuse them of adulation. Milton himself gives us an excellent touchstone for the trial of praise in the following paffage of his Areopagitica; "there are three

principal things, without which all praifing is but court"ship and flattery; first, when that only is praised, which "is folidly worth praise; next, when greatest likelihoods are brought that such things are truly and really in those perfons to whom they are ascribed; the other, when he "who praises, by fhewing that fuch his actual persuasion "is of whom he writes, can demonftrate that he flatters not." If we try Milton by this his own equitable law, we must honourably acquit him of the illiberal charge that might almost be thought sufficiently refuted by its apparent inconsistency with his elevated spirit.

Though in the temperate judgment of pofterity, Cromwell appears only a bold bad man, yet he dazzled and deceived his contemporaries with such a strong and continued blaze of real and visionary splendor, that almost all the power and all the talents on earth seemed eager to pay him unfolicited homage: but I mean not to reft the vindication of Milton on the prevalence of example, which, however high and dignified it might be, could never ferve as a fanc

tion for the man, to whom the rare union of spotless integrity with confummate genius had given an elevation of character that no rank and no powers unfupported by probity could poffibly bestow; though all the potentates and all the literati of the world confpired to flatter the ufurper, we might expect Milton to remain, like his own faithful Abdiel,

Unfhaken, unfeduc'd, unterrified.

Affuredly he was fo; and in praifing Cromwell he praised a perfonage, whofe matchlefs hypocrify affumed before him a mask that the arch apoftate of the poet could not wear in the prefence of Abdiel, the mask of affectionate zeal towards man, and of devout attachment to God; a mask that: Davenant has described with poetical felicity in the following couplet:

Diffembled zeal, ambition's old disguise,

The vizard in which fools outface the wife.

It was more as a faint than as an hero that Cromwell deluded the generous credulity of Milton; and, perhaps, the recollection of his having been thus deluded infpired the poet with his admirable apology for Uriel deceived by Satan.

For neither man nor angel can difcern
Hypocrify, the only evil that walks

Invifible, except to God alone,

By his permiffive will, thro' heav'n and earth:
And oft, tho' wisdom wake, fufpicion sleeps

At wisdom's gate, and to fimplicity

Refigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems.

That fublime religious enthusiasm, which was the predominant characteristic of the poet, expofed him particularly to be duped by the prime artifice of the political impostor, who was indeed fo confummate in the art of deception, that he occafionally deceived the prudent unheated Ludlow and the penetrating inflexible Bradshaw; nay, who carried his habitual deception to such a length, that he is supposed, by fome acute judges of human nature, to have been ultimately the dupe of his own hypocritical fervour, and to have thought himself, what he induced many to think him, the felected fervant of God, exprefsly chosen to accomplish wonders, not only for the good of his nation, but for the true intereft of Chriftendom.

Though Cromwell had affumed the title of Protector, when Milton in his fecond defence sketched a masterly portrait of him (as we have seen he did of Bradshaw in the fame production) yet the new potentate had not, at this period, completely unveiled his domineering and oppreffive character; on the contrary, he affected, with the greatest art, such a tender concern for the people; he represented himself, both in his public and private proteftations, fo perfectly free from all ambitious defires, that many perfons, who poffeffed not the noble unsuspecting fimplicity of Milton, believed the Protector fincere in declaring, that he reluctantly submitted to the cares of government, merely for the fettlement and

fecurity

fecurity of the nation. With a mind full of fervid admiration for his marvellous atchievements, and generally difposed to give him credit for every upright intention, Milton hailed him as the father of his country, and delineated his character: if there were fome particles of flattery in this panegyric, which, if we adhere to our author's juft definition of flattery we cannot allow, it was completely purified from every cloud or speck of fervility by the most splendid and fublime admonition that was ever given to a man poffeffed of great talents and great power by a genuine and dauntless friend, to whom talents and power were only objects of reverence, when under the real or fancied direction of piety and virtue.

* Revere (fays Milton to the Protector) the great expectation, the only hope, which our country now refts upon

Reverere tantam de te expectationem, fpem patriæ de te unicam; reverere vultus et vulnera tot fortium virorum, quotquot, te duce, pro libertate tam ftrenuè decertarunt ;manes etiam corum qui in ipfo certamine occubuerunt; reverere exterarum quoque civitatum exiftimationem de nobis atque fermones, quantas res de libertate noftra tam fortiter partâ, de noftra republica tam gloriose exorta fibi polliceantur; quæ fi tam citò quafi aborta evanuerit, profecto nihil æquè dedecorofum huic genti, atque pudendum fuerit; teipfum denique reverere, ut pro quâ adipifcenda libertate tot ærumnas pertulifti, tot pericula adiifti, eam adeptus violatam per te, aut ulla in parte imminutam aliis ne finas effe. Profecto tu ipfe liber fine nobis. effe non potes, fic enim natura comparatum eft, ut qui aliorum libertatem occupat, fuam ipfe primum omnium amittat; feque

you-revere the fight and the sufferings of so many brave men, who, under your guidance, have fought so strenuously for freedom-revere the credit we have gained in foreign nations-reflect on the great things they promise themselves from our liberty, fo bravely acquired; from our republic, fo glorioufly founded, which, should it perish like an abortion, must expose our country to the utmost contempt and dif

honour.

Finally, revere yourself; and having fought and sustained every hardship and danger for the acquifition of this liberty, let it not be violated by yourself, or impaired by others, in the smallest degree. In truth, it is impoffible for you to be free yourself unless we are fo; for it is the ordinance of nature, that the man who firft invades the liberty of others must first lose his own, and firft feel himself a flave.. This indeed is juft. But if the very patron and tutelary angel of liberty, if he who is generally regarded as pre-eminent in justice, in fanctity, and virtue; if he should ultimately invade that liberty which he afferted himfelf, such invasion must indeed be pernicious and fatal, not only to himself, but to the general intereft of piety and virtue. Truth, probity, and religion would then lofe the estimation