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ed his domineering and oppreffive character; on the contrary, he affected, with the greatest art, such a tender concern for the people; he reprefented himself, both in his public and private proteftations, fo perfectly free from all ambitious defires, that many perfons, who poffeffed not the noble unfufpecting fimplicity of Milton, believed the Protector fincere in declaring, that he reluctantly fubmitted to the cares of government, merely for the fettlement and fecurity of the nation. With a mind full of fervid admiration for his marvellous atchievements, and generally disposed 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 just definition of flattery we cannot allow, it was completely purified from every cloud or fpeck of fervility by the mosft fplendid 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 coun

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*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 eorum qui in ipfo certamine occubuerunt; reverere exterarum quoque civitatum exiftimationem de nobis atque fermones, quantas res de libertate noftra tam fortiter partâ, de nof

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try now refts upon you-revere the fight and the fufferings of fo many brave men, who under your gui

tra republica tam gloriofe 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 primum omnium intelligat ferviri; atque id quidem non injuriâ. At vero, fi patronus ipfe libertatis, et quafi tutelaris deus, fi is, quo nemo juftior, nemo fanctior eft habitus, nemo vir melior, quam vindicavit ipfe, eam poftmodum invaserit, id non ipfi tantum fed univerfæ virtutis ac pietatis rationi perniciofum ac lethale prope modum fit neceffe eft: ipfa honeftas ipfa virtus decoxiffe videbitur religionis augufta fides, exiftimatio perexigua in pofterum erit, quo gravius generi humano vulnus, poft illud primum, infligi nullum poterit. Onus longè graviffimum fufcepifti, quod te penitus explorabit totum te atque intimum perfcrutabitur atque oftendet, quid tibi animi, quid virium infit, quid ponderis; vivatne in te verè illa pietas, fides, juftitia, animique moderatio, ob quas evectum te præ cæteris Dei numine ad hanc fummam dignitatem credimus. Tres nationes validiffimas confilio regere, populos ab inftitutis pravis ad meliorem, quam antehac, frugem ac difciplinam velle perducere, remotiffimas in partes, follicitam mentem, cogitationes immittere, vigi lare, prævidere, nullum laborem recufare, nulla voluptatum blandimenta non fpernere, divitiarum atque potentiæ oftentationem - fugere, hæc funt illa ardua, præ quibus bellum ludus eft; hæc te ventilabunt atque excutient, hæc virum pofcunt divino fultum auxilio, divino penè colloquio monitum atque edoctum. Quæ tu et, plura, fæpenumero quin tecum reputes atque animo revolvas, non dubito; uti et illud, quibus potiffimum queas modis et illa maxima perficere et libertatem falvam nobis reddere et auctiorem. Profe Works, vol. 2. p. 399.

dance,

dance, have fought fo ftrenuously 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 gloriously founded, which, fhould it perifh like an abortion, muft expofe our country to the utmost contempt and difhonour.

"Finally, revere yourfelf; 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 fmallest 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 first invades the liberty of others must first lose his own, and first feel himfelf 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 himself, fuch invafion muft indeed be pernicious and fatal, not only to himself, but to the general interest of piety and virtue. Truth, probity, and religion would then lose the estimation and confidence of mankind, the worst of wounds, fince the fall of our first parents, that could be inflicted on the human race. have taken upon you a burthen of weight inexpreffible; it will put to the feverest perpetual test the inmoft qualities, virtues, and powers of your heart and foul; it will determine whether there really exists in your character that pięty, faith, juftice, and moderation, for the fake of which we believe

You

you

raised above others, by the influence of God, to this fupreme charge.

"To direct three moft powerful nations by your counsel, to endeavour to reclaim the people from their depraved inftitutions to better conduct and discipline, to fend forth into remotest regions your anxious spirit and inceffant thoughts, to watch, to forefee, to fhrink from no labour, to fpurn every allurement of pleafure, to avoid the oftentation of opulence and power, these are the arduous duties, in comparison of which war itself is mere fport; thefe will fearch and prove you; they require, indeed, a man fupported by the affiftance of heaven, and almoft admonished and inftructed by immediate intercourse with God. These and more I doubt not but you diligently revolve in your mind, and this in particular, by what methods you may be most able to accomplish things of highest moment, and fecure to us our liberty not only fafe but enlarged."

If a private individual thus fpeaking to a man of unbounded influence, whom a powerful nation had idolized and courted to affume the reins of government, can be called a flatterer, we have only to wish that all the flatterers of earthly power may be of the fame complexion. The admonition to the people, with which Milton concludes his fecond defence, is by no means inferior in dignity and fpirit to the advice he bestowed on the protector. The great misfortune of the monitor was, that the two parties, to whom he addreffed his eloquent and patriotic exhortation, were neither of them fo worthy of his counsel as he wished them to be, and endeavoured

voured to make them. For Cromwell, as his fubsequent conduct sufficiently proved, was a political impoftor with an arbitrary foul; and as to the people, they were alternately the difhonoured inftruments and victims of licentioufnefs and fanaticism. The protector, his adherents, and his enemies, to speak of them in general, were as little able to reach the difinterested purity of Milton's principles, as they were to attain, and even to eftimate, the fublimity of his poetical genius. But Milton, who paffionately loved his country, though he saw and lamented the various corruptions of his contemporaries, still continued to hope, with the native ar dour of a fanguine fpirit, that the mafs of the English people would be enlightened and improved. His real fentiments of Cromwell, I am perfuaded, were these he long regarded him as a perfon not only poffeffed of wonderful influence and ability, but difpofed to attempt, and likely to accomplish, the purest and nobleft purposes of policy and religion; yet often thwarted and embarraffed in his best designs, not only by the power and machinations of the enemies with whom he had to contend, but by the want of faith, morality, and fenfe in the motley multitude, whom he endeavoured to guide and govern. As religious enthusiasm was the predominant characteristic of Milton, it is most probable that his fervid imagination beheld in Cromwell a perfon destined by heaven to reduce, if not to annihilate, what he confidered as the most enormous grievance of earth, the prevalence of popery and fuperftition. The feveral humane and spirited

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