"have been bufy in drawing to themselves un"merited emoluments and honor; no one has ever beheld me foliciting any thing, either in

perfon or by my friends; I have confined my"felf much at home; and by my own property, though much of it has been withheld from me in this civil tumult, I have fupported life," "however fparingly, and paid a tax impofed upon me, not in the most equitable proportion.

"Having now a profpect of abundant lei"fure, I directed my ftudies to the hiftory of my country, which I began from its remoteft "fource, and intended to bring down, if pof“fible, in a regular process, to the present times.". "I had executed four books, when, on the "fettlement of the republic, the council of ftate, “ then first established by the authority of parliament, called me moft unexpectedly to its "fervice, and wifhed to employ me chiefly in It has not yet, I believe, been afcertained to whom Milton was particularly indebted for a public appointment.

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"its foreign concerns."

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"He

was (fays Wood) without any feeking of his, by the endeavours of a private acquaintance, "who was a member of the new council of flate,' "chofen Latin fecretary." The new council confifted of thirty nine members, including two perfons, whom we may fuppofe equally inclined to promote the intereft of Milton; thefe were Serjeant Bradshaw and Sir Harry Vane the younger :

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to a trial by twelve Englishmen, to be chofen even by Cromwell himself.

This oppofition to the ufurper was affuredly magnanimous, and the more fo as Bradfhaw perfifted in it, and actually went his circuit as chief juftice without paying any regard to what Cromwell had required. The odium which the prefident juftly incurred in the trial of Charles feems to have prevented even our liberal hiftorians from recording with candor the great qualities he poffeffed: he was undoubtedly not only an intrepid but a fincere enthusiast in the cause of the commonwealth. His difcourfe on his death-bed is a fanction to his fincerity; he regarded it as meritorious to have pronounced fentence on his king, in those awful moments when he was paffing himself to the tribunal of his God. Whatever we may think of his political tenets, let us render juftice to the courage and the confiftency with which he fupported them. The mind of Milton was in unifon with the high-toned fpirit of this refolute friend, and we fhall foon fee how little ground there is to accufe the poet of fervility to Cromwell; but we have firft to notice the regular feries of his political compofitions.

Soon after his publie appointment, he was requefted by the council to counteract the effect of the celebrated book, entitled, Icon Bafilike, the Royal Image, and in 1649 he published his Iconoclaftes, the Image Breaker. The fagacity of Milton enabled him to discover, that the pious

work imputed to the deceased king was a political artifice to ferve the cause of the royalifts; but as it was impoffible for him to obtain fuch evidence to detect the impofition as time has fince produced, he executed a regular reply to the book, as a real production of the king, intimating at the fame time his fufpicion of the fraud..

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This reply has recently drawn on the name of Milton much liberal praife, and much injurious obloquy. A Scottish critic of great eminence, Lord Monboddo, has celebrated the opening of the Iconoclaftes as a model of English profe, or, to use his own juft expreffions, “a a specimen of "noble and manly eloquence." Johnson, from the fame work, takes occafion to infinuate, that Milton was a difhoneft man. A charge fo ferious, and from a moralift who profeffed fuch an attachment to truth, deferves fome difcuffion. "As "faction (says the unfriendly biographer) seldom "leaves a man honeft, however it might find "him, Milton is fufpected of having interpolat"ed the book called Icon Bafilike, by inferting a prayer taken from Sidney's Arcadia, and'im

puting it to the king, whom he charges, in "his Iconoclaftes, with the use of this prayer as "with a heavy crime, in the indecent language "with which profperity had emboldened the "advocates for rebellion to infult all that is ve"nerable and great."

A fimple queftion will fhow the want of candor in this attempt to impeach the moral credit

Because they are partly borrowed from a line in Virgil, addreffed by a heathen; goddess to her child:

"Nate, meæ vires, mea magna potentia folus.

The heat of political animofity could thus throw a mift over the bright intellects of Milton; yet his Iconoclaftes, taken all together, is a noble effort of manly reason, it uncanonized a fictitious faint, who affuredly had no pretenfion to the title.

Having thus fignalized himself as the literary antagonist of Charles, when the celebrated Salmafius was hired to arraign the proceedings of England against him, every member of the English council turned his eyes upon Milton, as the man from whofe fpirit and eloquence his country might expect the moft able vindication. In 1651, he published his defence of the people, the most elaborate of all his Latin compofitions; the merits and defects of this fignal performance might be moft properly discussed in a preliminary discourse to the profe works of Milton; here I fhall only remark, that in the compofition of it he gave the most fingular proof of genuine public fpirit that ever patriot had occafion to display; fince, at the time of his engaging in this work, the infirmity in his eyes was fo alarming, that his phyficians affured him he must inevitably lose them if he perfifted in

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his labor. "On this occafion, " (fays Milton to a favage antagonist, who had reproached him with blindness ) " I reflected that many "had purchased with a fuperior evil a lighter "good, glory with death; to me, on the contrary, greater good was proposed with an "inferior evil; fo that, by incurring blindness " alone, I might fulfil the most honorable of "all duties, which, as it is a more folid advantage than glory itself, ought to be more eligible in the estimation of every man ; I "refolved therefore to make what fhort use I might yet have of my eyes as conducive as

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* Unde fic mecum reputabam, multos graviore malo minus bonum, morte gloriam, redemiffe; mihi contra majus bonum minore cum malo proponi; ut poffem cum cæcitate fola vel honeftiffimum officii munus implere quod ut ipfa gloria per fe eft folidius, ita cuique optatius atque antiquius debet effe. Hac igitur tam brevi luminum ufura quanta maxima quivi cum utilitate publica, quoad liceret, fruendum effe ftatui. Videtis quid prætulerim, quid amiferim, qua inductus ratione, defignant ergo judiciorum Dei calumniatores maledicere, deque me fomnia fibi fingere: fic denique habendo me fortis meæ neque pigere neque pœnitere; immotum atque fixum in fententia perftare; Deum iratum neque fentire, neque habere, immo maximis in rebus clementiam ejus & benignitatem erga me paternam experiri atque agnofcere; in hoc præfertim quod folante ipfo atque ánimum confirmante in ejus divina voluntate acquiefcam ; quid is largitus mihi fit quam quid negaverit fæpius cogitans; poftremo nolle me cum fuo quovis rectiffime facto, facti mei confcientiam permutare, aut recor dationem ejus gratam mihi femper atque tranquillam depopere. Profe Works, vol. 2. p. 376.