FOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENC'D PRINTING. .THEY who to States and Governours of the Commonwealth' direct their Speech, High Court of Parlament! or wanting such accesse in a private condition, write that which they foresee may advance the publick good; I suppose them as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little 1 They who to States and Governours of the Commonwealth—] Again, in his Translation of Psalm lxxxii. "GOD in the great assembly stands "Of Kings and lordly States." One sense of this word then was, a Personage of rank and power, a Ruler: "I can do nothing without all the States of "Arcadia: what they will determine I know not."-Sidney's Arcadia; p. 426, fol. 1655. And Ben Jonson, satirically: "There's a letter sent me from one o' th' States, and to that purpose; he cannot write his Name, but that's his Mark."Volpone; A. iv, S. 1. B alter'd and mov'd inwardly in their mindes: some with doubt of what will be the successe, others with feare of what will be the censure; some with hope, others with confidence of what they have to speake. And me perhaps each of these dispositions, as the subject was whereon I enter'd, may have at other times variously affected; and likely might in these formost expressions now also disclose which of them sway'd most, but that the very attempt of this addresse thus made, and the thought of whom it hath recourse to, hath got the power * Not a little alter'd and mov'd inwardly in their mindes :] He means that such men write under the impulse of a high mental excitement. What he intended more expressly appears where Adam contrasts his evenness of mind previously to the creation of Eve, with his rapturous emotions on beholding her transcendant beauty. "Thus have I told thee all my state, and brought "My story to the sum of earthly bliss, "Which I enjoy; and must confess to find "In all things else delight indeed, but such "As, us'd or not, works in the mind no change, "Nor vehement desire; these delicacies "I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers, "Against the charm of Beauty's powerful glance." Par. Lost, VIII, 521. What Poet has surpassed MILTON in descriptions of female Beauty, and its power? I know of none. within me to a passion, farre more welcome then incidentall to a Preface3. Which though I stay 3 The thought of whom it hath recourse to, hath got the power within me to a passion, farre more welcome then incidentall to a Preface.] He repeated this thought in the opening to the Defensio Secunda: " quoties animum refero, fateor me mihi "vix temperare, quin altiùs atque audentiùs quàm pro exordii "ratione insurgam." It is observable, that on every occasion MILTON bent the utmost force of his mind to the object before him. Writing familiarly to his early friend Diodati, he describes very forcibly the impetuosity with which his ardour in composition urged him forward to the completion of any work he took in hand. "Meum sic est ingenium, nulla ut mora, nulla quies, nulla "ferme illius rei cura, aut cogitatio distineat, quoad pervadam quo feror, et grandem aliquam studiorum meorum quasi pe"riodum conficiam.”—Pr. W. II, 567, ed. 1738. Yet while his thoughts were full of life and his fancy warm, on some points enthusiastic, his spirit was indefatigable; neither did his rectitude of judgment often desert him. The use of the word passion to denote any mental perturba-· tion had not yet become antiquated. At the commencement of MILTON'S Tract, Of Reformation, &c. he says, "I do not "know of any thing more worthy to take up the whole passion "of Pity on the one side, and Joy on the other," &c.—ubi sup. I. 1. Marlow's beautiful Ballad is entitled "The passionate Shep" herd to his Love;" in the same sense Shakspeare has, ""Twas Ariadne, passioning "For Theseus' perjury, and unjust flight." III. 271. Johns. & Steev. ed. 1793. A judicious Critic, commenting on "High actions and high "passions best describing," (a verse in Par. Reg.) conceives that "High actions refer to Fate and Chance, the arguments and "incidents of Tragedy; high passions to the peripetia, or change "of Fortune, which included the Tabos, or affecting part." See not to confesse ere any aske, I shall be blamelesse, if it be no other, then the joy and gratulation which it brings to all who wish and promote their Countries Liberty; whereof this whole Discourse propos'd will be a certaine testimony, if not a trophey. For this is not the Liberty which wee Mr. Dunster's Note in his Edit. of Par. Reg. p. 223, 4to. 1795. Is not this an overstrained interpretation? Need we dive so deep for the meaning? I apprehend it floats on the surface, and that our text concurs with the authorities I have produced to prove, that by "high passions" the Poet intended generally the impassioned emotions of the mind. Neither should we, I think, ascribe to "high actions" any larger extent of signification than heroic deeds. This whole Discourse propos'd will be a certaine testimony, if not a trophey.] Did our Authour by Trophey anticipate a triumph of his work over the Parliament's Order? Or, are we to seek for a covert sense? Thus to use words is no very unfrequent practice with him. If so; he intended only to say, that this Speech would prove a memorial. The latter construction coincides with the following passage in his Tract, Of Reformation, &c. "This is the Trophey of their Antiquity, and "boasted Succession through so many ages." (p. 76. 4to. 1641.) And probably also with the epilogistic verses to his Book of Elegies, when declaring that he had weaned himself from amatory sing-song, and the lighter parts of poetry, with which in maturer life he thought that he had squandered the vacant hours. of his earlier days: "Hæc ego, mente olim læva, studioque supino, His meaning, then, is that this Oration would be-"an unde"niable testimony to the Liberty enjoyed under the Parliament, though he would not assume so far as to call it a work durable can hope, that no grievance ever should arise in the Commonwealth, that let no man in this world expect; but when complaints are freely heard, deeply consider'd, and speedily reform'd, then is the utmost bound of civill Liberty attain'd, that wise men looke for. To which if I now manifest by the very sound of this which I shall utter, that wee are already in good part arriv'd, and yet from such a steepe disadvantage of tyranny and superstition grounded into our principles as was beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery, it will bee attributed first, as is most due, to the strong assistance of GOD our deliverer, next, to your faithfull guidance and undaunted wisdome, Lords and Commons of England! Neither is it in GOD's esteeme the diminution of his glory, when honourable things are spoken of good men and worthy Magistrates; which if I now first should begin to doe, after so fair a progresse of your laudable deeds, and such a long obligement upon the whole Realme to your indefatigable vertues, I might be justly reckn'd among the tardiest, and the unwillingest of them that praise yee. Neverthelesse there being three principall things, without which all praising is but " enough for a monument by which it should be perpetuated to after-times." There is the same thought in his Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano: "Ego quæ eximia, quæ excelsa, quæ omni laude "propè majora fuere, iis testimonium, prope dixerim monumentum, perhibui, haud citò interiturum." Pr. W. II. 349, edit. "1738. |