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studied to testify their abhorrence of all Puritan grimace, and to proclaim their undoubted attachment to the church and the king, were only the vices of men- but spiritual pride, hypocrisy, rebellion, and tyranny, these were the vices of devils, and these were the chosen passions of his enemies. Concerning the charge of insincerity it is more difficult to speak, inasmuch as, from its connection with strong religious impressions, it would often be least suspected in the case of those persons who were most influenced by it. The suppression of all amusements considered as tending to produce dissoluteness among the populace, was a great object with the Presbyterians, and led to some impolitic interferences with popular feeling. It was no uncommon thing to see players conducted through the streets of the metropolis in their theatrical costume, having been seized by the police while in the act of strutting their hour away upon the stage.

We have had occasion to note the manner in which the Presbyterians and royalists obtained supplies of money during the period of the civil war. When that contest was decided, four sources remained from which aids of this nature were derived the customs, the excise, the monthly assessments, and the estates of political delinquents. The two former branches of revenue were farmed in 1657 at £1,100,000 a year, and with monthly assessments made an income of somewhat more than £2,000,000. The church lands and the estates of delinquents were rarely sold at more than ten years' purchase. About £200,000 a year are supposed to have been obtained from these sources. During Richard's protectorate, the expenditure was declared to be above £2,200,000, the revenue falling short more than £300,000 of that amount.

In 1652 the army of the commonwealth was not less than fifty thousand. Cromwell subsequently reduced the number nearly one-half, but was obliged, on occasions, to increase it again. The general pay of the foot soldiers was a shilling a day, the cavalry, as of a superior order, and liable to greater expense, received two shillings and sixpence. When the army consisted of forty thousand, which was the case in 1648, its pay was estimated at £80,000 a month. Beside the regular force in the pay of the government, there was the volunteer corps, in every county, under the name of militia. At the time of the battle of Worcester, the militia appears to have been nearly as numerous as the standing army, and both together are said to have numbered about eighty thousand men.

Commerce, which made considerable progress during the early part of the reign of Charles I, experienced some check from the civil war, but assumed an importance under the commonwealth unknown in our previous history. This arose, principally, from the war carried on by the English republic with the Dutch, and from the new navigation laws. Families of pretension and long-standing began to direct the attention of their sons to commerce, and such pursuits became more reputable from that time in England than in any of the old monarchical states in Europe. The chartered companies, having derived their exclusive privileges from an exercise of the prerogative, which had often called forth the complaints of parliament, found their power of monopoly thus assigned to them of small value at this juncture, and the free competition which sprung up proved a great benefit to the community at large.

The fine arts obtained but small patronage during this period. Charles I possessed considerable taste in architecture, furniture, pictures, and music, and had the circumstances of his reign afforded him the means and the opportunities of bestowing encouragement on such pursuits, great advances would, no doubt, have been made in them. But the causes which prevented the

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indulgence of such tastes on the part of the monarch, tended to prevent the formation of them on the part of his people. Both were called to engage in a struggle for existence, and both deemed it necessary that all matters having respect only to the luxury and ornament of life should be placed for a while in abeyance. So far was this spirit carried under the commonwealth, that some of the royal palaces were put up for sale, and not a few of the pictures and curiosities which had been collected by the king, with much taste and judgment, and at a great expense, were sold to foreigners.

It is hardly possible that an Englishman should glance at this barbarian conduct on the part of men possessing the supreme power in his country less than two centuries ago, and not blush at the remembrance. It is vain to say that these things were the baubles of royalty, and that this reason, beside the necessities of the government, concurred to make the disposal of them desirable-since nothing could be a greater libel on republican institutions, or a more manifest untruth, than to describe them as repugnant to the splendour of national edifices, or to the most costly adornment of them by the aid of the fine arts. But the feeling which consented to these acts of rude spoliation was not that of the nation, nor is it the only point to be considered in the character of the faction upon which this disgrace is certainly chargeable. In regard to the great interests of the community, their views were large and generous, and to the nature of the questions with which they were chiefly occupied, and to the earnestness and talent which they brought to the discussion of them, we have to attribute a marked improvement in the character of the literature. In the literary character of the works on theology which belong to this period, the taste of the present age will find little to admire, and often much with which to be offended. But notwithstanding the tedious scholastic form in which divines continued to treat of the subjects within their province, and the frequent confusion and obscurity of thought observable in their lengthened and parenthetical sentences, an increasing mastery of the language may be perceived even in such works, particularly in the smaller controversial pieces of the age, which were generally characterised by a natural directness and earnestness suited to the immediate occasion. Baxter is a favourable specimen of this class of writers. We do not advert to the eloquence of Bishop Taylor, because his style, in whatever age he had lived, would have been more that of the man than of his times.

Prose Writers

The fault mentioned as belonging to the theological literature of this period attaches, in a great degree, to its prose literature generally. We find, for example, both in Mrs. Hutchinson m and in Clarendon, a crowd of thoughts pressed together into one long sentence, which an author of a later period, with less power, but more skilled in the art of composition, would have separated into small lucid apportionments, and by giving completeness to the parts, and presenting them in succession, would have communicated the whole more clearly, and with much less demand on the reader's power of attention. The writers of this period moved the more slowly, in consequence of moving at every step amidst such a procession of ideas; but this stately march comported well with the expansion and vigour of their understanding. Such writers are fine examples of the majestic compass of our language in that age, but the best specimens of its lucid energy, and bounding capabilities, will be found in the smaller pieces called forth by the political strifes of the hour-productions in which the writers evidently intend to state their case

[1660 A.D.] with a clearness not to be mistaken, and with a force not to be resisted. Ludlow,d though a soldier rather than an author, has less, perhaps, of the fault so observable in Clarendon, than any other considerable writer whose mind was formed during the period of the civil war.

But notwithstanding the frequent obscurity, from the cause mentioned, in the works of this period, and the weariness, in consequence, which is so often felt in reading them, they nearly all evince a singular degree of freedom from those pedantic allusions and studied conceits by which the literature of the age of Elizabeth and James had been so greatly disfigured. In this later period, every man was constrained to be more or less in earnest in regard to the great interests which were then at stake. The English language, accordingly, had never afforded such specimens of oratorical and argumentative efficiency as were produced during this period. The eloquence of strong partisan feeling will ever demand-as in the case of a Dante and a Milton the loftiest forms of speech in which to express itself; and the language, in consequence, began to display new freedom, copiousness, and power.

The Poets

Cowley the poet flourished during this period, and died in 1667. Charles II, on hearing of his decease, said that England had not a better man; and the testimony of contemporaries to his character is uniformly favourable, notwithstanding his known attachment to the court, and the spirit of faction which continued to prevail to the end of his days. He has been described as the last, or nearly the last, in our old school of metaphysical poets-writers in whom there were stronger indications of pedantry than of the inspiration proper to their art, and who often appear to have mistaken verses for poetry, and singularity for excellence. They indulged much in the personification of the passions; but the general effect of their works is to produce reflection rather than emotion, their strength consisting in an occasional acuteness and playfulness of imagination, much more than in force or pathos of sentiment. Cowley was distinguished from his predecessors by more of the latter quality, by greater sprightliness when the subject was of a nature to demand it, and by a more frequent command of those thoughts which strike at once by their grandeur or their propriety. Suckling and Cleveland were contemporaries and imitators of Cowley, but did not disturb his sovereignty as the fashionable poet of his day.

Denham was three years older than Cowley, and his elegy on the death of that writer was his last performance. His Cooper's Hill, on which his fame principally rests, was published in 1643. Its subject, which was in a great degree a novelty in our literature, embraces a description of natural scenery, elevated by historical allusions, and reflections on human character. Pope commends the strength and majesty of this author, and he is generally regarded as one of the fathers of English poetry. His versification, in its smoothness, vigour, and harmony, makes a near approach to that which has been since made familiar to us by the pen of Dryden and his successors. Waller, who was contemporary with Cowley and Denham, survived them both. He is entitled to much of the praise bestowed on Denham. But though he discovers a similar independence of the old models, and even more refinement, his works have little of that compressed power of expression which characterised the Cooper's Hill. The polished dress, however, in which he clothed conceptions little removed from commonplace, possessed

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the charm of novelty in his own age, and most be allowed to secure the name of Waller a conspicuous place in the history of English literature.

Concerning the genius of Milton, and the dignity conferred by him on his native tongue, and on the mind of his country, there is now little need to expatiate. Critics who know not how to pardon his republicanism, have in general extended their enmity to the character of the man, and the productions of the author. But when every fair concession shall have been made with regard to the imperfections of his temper and his writings, the excellence which remains will be found to place him so far above his assailants, as to render their puny efforts to lower his pretensions a matter more calculated to amuse than irritate the friends of his memory. His attainments as a classical scholar were extensive and profound. In Latin composition he had scarcely a rival. Every European language possessing a literature to recommend it was known to him; and few divines possessed the same intimate acquaintance with the Hebrew scriptures and all rabbinical learning. cations of these various acquisitions break upon us in almost every page of his works, imparting to his style a grace, a comprehensiveness, and a wonderful power, which must be perceived and felt in the greatest degree by those who have studied him the most.

Indi

It is true, in his prose works we are never allowed to forget that it is the prose of a poet, and some critics, whom the stars never destined to be poets, affect to regret that the author's taste with regard to the style proper to performances of that nature should have been so defective and erroneous. But the man who can read the Areopagitica, or the Eikonoclastes, and not feel a strange awe produced within him by the surpassing greatness of the spirit which has been in converse with his own, so as to be charmed out of all wish that the author had spoken otherwise than he has done, must be a person incapable of sympathising with great eloquence and lofty argument. His style, indeed, in those works is not to be recommended as a model. On the contrary, an attempt to imitate it must betray a want of judgment incompatible with real excellence in anything. It is a sort of costume, which, like that assumed by Jeremy Taylor, must always be peculiar to the individual, and can never become the badge of a class. Modes of expression and illustration which with such men have all the freshness and vigour of nature, become cold and feeble, or, at best, inflated by an artificial warmth, when produced by the mechanic process of the imitator.

In his poetry, the mind of Milton is found open to all the beauties and sublimities of nature, and seems to portray with equal truth the good and evil of the rational universe- the heavens above, and hell beneath. That upon a theme so difficult and so comprehensive, and prosecuted to so great an extent, he should sometimes fail, was perhaps inevitable. But if something less than one-third of the Paradise Lost be excepted, the remainder may be safely declared to consist of such poetry as the world had never before seen. In his happier moments, his descriptions of physical existence are the most perfect supplied by human language; but it is when employed in exhibiting the moral energies of the perfect or the fallen, that he rises most above all who preceded him.

WILLIAM HARVEY

Harvey, whose discovery with respect to the circulation effected so great a revolution in medical science, died in 1657. encouraged in his experiments and studies by Charles I.

of the blood He was much But it was

[1660 A.D.] remarked that no physician in Europe, who had reached forty years of age when Harvey's discovery was made public, was known to adopt it. His maintaining it is even said to have diminished his own practice and celebrity. So general is the force of prejudice even on matters of the most practical nature, and so liable is it to become fixed beyond all hope of removal after a certain period of life! r

GUIZOT ON THE RESTORATION

On the 29th of May, 1660, the royalist party, which had not conquered, had not even fought, was nevertheless national and all-powerful. It was England. England might justly think herself entitled to trust in her hopes; she was not unreasonable in her requirements; weary of great ambitions and disgusted with innovations, she only asked for security for her religion, and for the enjoyment of her ancient rights under the rule of her old laws. This the king promised her. The advisers who then possessed his confidenceHyde, Ormonde, Nicholas, Hertford, Southampton - were sincere Protestants and friends of legal government. They had defended the laws during the reign of the late king. They had taken no part in any excessive assumptions of power on the part of the crown. They had even co-operated in promoting the first salutary measures of reform which had been carried by the Long Parliament. They expressed themselves resolved, and so did the king, to govern in concert with the two houses of parliament. The great council of the nation would therefore be always by the side of royalty, to enlighten and, if necessary, to restrain its action. Everything seemed to promise England the future to which her desires were limited. But when great questions have strongly agitated human nature and society, it is not within the power of men to return, at their pleasure, into a state of repose; and the storm still lowers in their hearts, when the sky has again become serene over their heads. In the midst of this outburst of joy, confidence, and hope, in which England was indulging, two camps were already in process of formation, ardent in their hostility to each other, and destined ere long to renew, at first darkly, but soon openly, the war which seemed to be at an end.

During the exile of the sons of Charles I, one fear had constantly preyed upon the minds of their wisest counsellors and most faithful friends; and that was lest, led astray by example and seduced by pleasure, they might adopt a creed, ideas, and manners foreign to their country- the creed, ideas, and manners of the great courts of the Continent. This was a natural fear, and one fully justified by the events. Charles II and his brother the duke of York returned, in fact, into England, the one an infidel libertine, who falsely gave himself out to be a Protestant, and the other a blindly sincere Catholic; both imbued with the principles of absolute power; both dissolute in morals, the one with elegant and heartless cynicism, the other with shocking inconsistency; both addicted to those habits of mind and life, to those tastes and vices, which render a court a school of arrogant and frivolous corruption, which rapidly spreads its contagious influence through the higher and lower classes who hasten to the court to imitate or serve it.

Afar from the court, among the laborious citizens of the towns, and in the families of the landowners, farmers, and labourers of the country districts, the zealous and rigid Protestantism of the nation, with its severe strictness of manners, and that stern spirit of liberty which cares neither for obstacles nor consequences, hardens men towards themselves as well as towards their enemies, and leads them to disdain the evils which they suffer or inflict