shrunk. If I should misrepresent any of
these circumstances, my falsehood must in-
stantly be detected by thousands of my own
countrymen, and by many foreigners, who
are acquainted with my person, and to whose
ridicule and contempt I should justly be ex-
posed: it might then be fairly concluded that
he who, in an affair of no moment, could un-
necessarily be guilty of a gross and wanton
violation of truth, could not be deserving of
credit in any thing which he asserted. Thus
much have I been compelled to speak of
my own person ;-of your's, though I have
been informed that it is the most contemp-
tible and the most strongly expressive of the
dishonesty and malice which actuate it, I am
as little disposed to say any thing as others
would be to hear.
I wish that it were in my power,

with the same facility, with which I have repelled his other attacks, to refute the charge, which my unfeeling adversary brings against ine, of blindness: but, alas! it is not in my power, and I must consequently submit to.it. It is not, however, miserable to be blind: he only is miserable who cannot acquiesce in his blindness with fortitude. And why should I repine at a calamity, which every man's mind ought to be so prepared and disci

admirable mo What is hand

augur Tiresia

Plineus Apol

pally recoma terece exhib a variety of

bonpetent et plined as to be able, on the contingency of falschoud mento its happening, to tolerate with patience: a - usands of angive calamity to which man by the condition of

bis nature is liable; and which I know to

have been the lot of some of the greatest and Jould justly

the best of my species. Among those, on whom it has fallen, I might reckon a few of the wisest of the bards of remote antiquity, whose want of sight the Gods are said to have compensated with extraordinary and far more valuable endowments, and whose vir

tues were so venerated that men would ravied to start

ther arraign the Gods themselves of injustice than draw from the blindness of these admirable mortals an argument of their guilt. What is handed down to us respecting the augur l'iresias is very commonly known. Of Phineus Apollonius, in his Argonautics, thus sings

- Careless of Jove, in conscious virtue bold,

His daring lips the will of Heaven unfold.
The God hence gave him years without decay,
But robb'd his eyeballs of the pleasing day."

against in merp

it to je

blind: brak juiesce durhre

But independently of its communications respecting its author, by which it is principally recommended to us, the “ Second Defence” exhibits many striking passages and a variety of entertaining matter. It introduces to our notice many of the writer's re

d

publican friends, and, besides an animated address to Cromwell, which it is our intention to extract, it presents us with an eloquent eulogy on Christina the Queen of Sweden. This extraordinary character, whose extravagances had not yet been so completely unveiled as to disgust the world, was, at this moment, renowned throughout Europe for her liberality, her erudition, her love and patronage of the learned. On the favour of Milton the daughter of the great Adolphus had a particular claim in consequence of the praise which, though a sovereign, she had liberally given to his Defence of the People of England;" and on all occasions he seems anxious to requite her with the most prodigal panegyric. Of this not only the passage, to which I have now referred, is an instance, but the verses also, which, at a period, as we may conjecture, somewhat earlier than the present, he had written under a portrait of the Protector, transmitted as an official compliment to the northern Potentate from the fortunate usurper of England. To transcribe the prose eulogy would detain us too long from more interesting matters; but the poetic compliment, at once concise and. splendid, shall be inserted to gratify our readers.

vureren

, ali vince of the H

h the most pas

. Some doubts have been raised about the author of these verses, and a few, among whom is Mr. Warton, have assigned them to the pen of Andrew Marvell. For my own part I cannot find any reason to dispute Milton's title to them. To write them was evidently within the province of the Latin Secretary, and, as they must have been composed before 1654, in which year Christina abdicated her throne, and as Marvell was not associated in the office of Latin Secretary till 1657, they must have been written when Milton sustained the duties of his place without an assistant. Is it likely, then, I will ask, that he should solicit aid for the composing of eight verses, addressed to a person who was manifestly a great object of his regard The notion entertained by Mr. Warton, that Milton, who was perpetually conversant with the classics and with latin composition, should, by the disuse of a few years, so far lose his facility in the constructing of latin verse, as to be unable to write them, strikes me as ludicrously absurd. The inference from their being found in a posthumous publication of Marvell's works is surely of no consequence. A friend might certainly transcribe a friend's verses, and place them by his own on the sme subject, without suspecting that he was thus bringing the author's first claim to them into suspicion. Induced probably by the same reasons which have influenced my opinion in this instance, Bishop Newtoo, Dr. Birch, and, the late ingenious editor of Paradise Regained, Mr. Dunster have concurred in considering these verses as the property of Milton.

under a pa

ed as an

a Potentate laud. loni Id detained

Christina! view this helmet-furrow'd brow;
This age, that arms have wory, but cannot bow;
As through the pathless wilds of fate I press;
And bear the people's purpose to success.
Yet see! to you this front submits its pride:

Thrones are not always by its frown defied.

Before we proceed to ' exhibit the address to Cromwell, it will be proper to direct our attention to the state of the British public at this remarkable conjuncture.

That part of the Long Parliament, which had been permitted by Cromwell and the fanatic army to continue its sittings, and which, in derision, was called the Rump Parliament, had conducted the political vessel with great ability and effect. It had lately been augmented by many of its old members who, having seceded in consequence

of their opposition to the trial of the king, were now, on their subscribing THE ENGAGEMENT, re-admitted to their seats; and with their presence they imparted a more imposing speciousness of aspect to the Legislative Assembly. If some of its laws betrayed the severity and narrowness of the presbyterian priesthood, the greater number of them dis

Dis

. If it w spect, it was conciliate Many of its

been repreh the murder estensibly in lave pretende ment of High

sequent disul

criminals, co

odium, whod regular tribu

wwusness V pasp of po

p The form of this test, of the submission of the subject to the existing government, was simple and concise; it was nothing more than a solemn promise " to be true and faithful to the government established without king or house of peers." The " Engagement" was substitutedl, on the death of the king, for the famous “ Solemn League and Covenant."

Verence to

people, laid