his ambition has coft the world? where is it? Why, his fon (you will fay) has the whole crop ; I doubt he will find it quickly blasted; I have nothing to fay against the gentleman [], or any living of his family; on the contrary, I wish him better fortune than to have a long and unquiet poffeffion of his master's inheritance. Whatsoever I have spoken against his father, is that which I should have thought (though decency, perhaps, might have hindered me from faying it) even against mine own, if I had been fo unhappy, as that mine, by the fame ways, fhould have left me three kingdoms."

Here I ftopt; and my pretended protector, who, I expected, fhould have been very angry, fell a laughing; it feems at the fimplicity of my discourse, for thus he replied: "You seem to pretend extremely to the old obfolete rules of virtue and confcience, which makes me doubt very much whether from this vast prospect of three kingdoms you can fhew me any acres of your own. But these are so far from making you a prince, that I am afraid your friends will never have the contentment to see you so much as a juftice of peace in your own country. For this I perceive which you call virtue, is nothing elfe but either the frowardness of a Cynic, or the laziness of an Epicurean. I am glad you

[o]-nothing to say against the gentleman] A remarkable teftimony to the blameless character of Richard Cromwell!

allow me at least artful diffimulation, and un-
wearied diligence in my hero; and I affure you,
that he, whose life is constantly drawn by those
two, fhall never be misled out of the way of
greatnefs. But I fee you are a pedant, and
Platonical statesman, a theoretical common-
wealth's-man, an Utopian dreamer. Was ever
riches gotten by your golden mediocrities? or
the fupreme place attained to by virtues, that
must not stir out of the middle? Do you study
Ariftotle's politics, and write, if you please, com-
ments upon them; and let another but practise
Machiavel, and let us fee then which of you two
will come to the greatest preferments. If the
defire of rule and fuperiority be a virtue (as fure
I am it is more imprinted in human nature than
any of your lethargical morals; and what is the
virtue of any creature, but the exercise of those
powers and inclinations which God has infufed
into it?) if that (I fay) be virtue, we ought not
to esteem any thing vice, which is the most pro-
per,
if not the only, means of attaining of it:

It is a truth fo certain, and fo clear,
That to the first-born man it did appear;
Did not, the mighty heir, the noble Cain,
By the fresh laws of nature taught, difdain
That (though a brother) any one should be

A

greater favourite to God than he?

He ftrook him down; and, fo (faid he) fo fell The sheep, which thou didst facrifice so well. Since all the fulleft fheaves, which I could bring, Since all were blafted in the offering,

Left

Left God should my next victim too despise,
The acceptable priest I'll facrifice.

Hence coward fears; for the first blood so spilt
As a reward, he the first city built.
'Twas a beginning generous and high,
Fit for a grand-child of the Deity.

So well advanc'd, 'twas pity there he staid;
One ftep of glory more he should have made,
nds of greatnefs gone;

And to the ut

Had Adam too beca kill'd, he might have reign'd

alone.

}

One brother's death, what do I mean to name,
A small oblation to revenge and fame?
The mighty-foul'd Abimelec to fhew
What for high place a higher spirit can do,
A hecatomb almoft of brethren flew,
And seventy times in nearest blood he dy'd
(To make it hold) his royal purple pride.
Why do I name the lordly creature, man?
The weak, the mild, the coward woman, can,
When to a crown fhe cuts her facred way,
All that oppose with manlike courage flay.
So Athaliah, when she saw her fon,
And with his life her dearer greatness gone,
With a majestic fury slaughter'd all
Whom high birth might to high pretences call:
Since he was dead who all her power fuftain'd,
Refolv'd to reign alone; refolv'd, and reign'd []
In vain her fex, in vain the laws withstood,
In vain the facred plea of David's blood,

[p] refolv'd, and reign'd.] Turned much in the manner of that famous line in Milton

"Tempt not the Lord thy God: he said, and stood."

D3

P. R. iv. 561

A noble,

A noble, and a bold contention, fhe,
(One woman) undertook with destiny.
She to pluck down, destiny to uphold
(Oblig'd by holy oracles of old)

The great Jeffæan race on Juda's throne;
Till 'twas at last an equal wager grown,
Scarce fate, with much ado, the better got by one.
Tell me not, fhe herself at last was slain ;
Did he not firft feven years (a life-time) reign?
Seven royal years t' a public fpirit will feem
More than the private life of a Methufalem.
'Tis godlike to be great; and as they say
A thousand years to God are but a day:
So to a man, when once a crown he wears,

The coronation day's more than a thousand years.”

He would have gone on, I perceived, in his blafphemies, but that by God's grace I becamefo bold, as thus to interrupt him. "I underftand now perfectly (which I gueft at long before) what kind of angel and protector you are; and, though your style in verse be very much mended [q] fince you were wont to deliver oracles, yet your doctrine is much worfe than ever you had formerly (that I heard of) the face to publish; whether your long practice with mankind has increafed and improved your ma

[9]-your Ayle in verfe be very much mended] This compliment was intended, not fo much to the foregoing, as to the following verfes; of which the author had reafon to be proud, but, as being delivered in his own perfon, could not fo properly make the panegyric.

lice,

lice, or whether you think us in this age to be grown fo impudently wicked, that there needs no more art or disguises to draw us to your party."

"My dominion (faid he hastily, and with a dreadful furious look) is fo great in this world, and I am so powerful a monarch of it, that I need not be ashamed that you should know me; and that you may fee I know you too, I know you to be an obftinate and inveterate malignant; and for that reafon I shall take you along with me to the next garrifon of ours; from whence you fhall go to the Tower, and from thence to the court of justice, and from thence you know whither." I was almost in the very pounces of the great bird of prey:

When, lo, ere the laft words were fully fpoke,
From a fair cloud, which rather op'd, than broke,
A flash of light, rather than lightening, came,
So fwift, and yet fo gentle, was the flame.
Upon it rode, (and, in his full career,
Seem'd to my eyes no fooner there, than here,)
The comeliest youth of all th' angelic race;
Lovely his fhape, ineffable his face.

The frowns, with which he ftrook the trembling fiend,

All fmiles of human beauty did tranfcend ;
His beams of locks fell part difhevell'd down,
Part upwards curl'd, and form'd a nat'ral crown,
Such as the British monarchs us'd to wear ;
If gold might be compar'd with angels hair.
D 4

His