that he, whose life is constantly drawn by those two, shall never be misled out of the way of greatness. But I see you are a pedant, and Platonical statesman, a theoretical commonwealth's-man, an Utopian dreamer. Was ever riches gotten by your golden mediocrities? or the supreme place attained to by virtues that must not stir out of the middle? Do you study Aristotle's politics, and write, if you please, comments upon them; and let another but practise Machiavel: and let us see, then, which of you two will come to the greatest preferments. If the desire of rule and superiority be a virtue, (as sure 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 infused into it? if that (I say) be virtue, we ought not to esteem any thing vice, which is the most proper, if not the only, means of attaining of it:

T is a truth so certain, and so 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, disdain
That (though a brother) any one should be
A greater favourite to God than he?

He strook him down; and, so (said he) so fell
The sheep, which thou didst sacrifice so well.
Since all the fullest sheaves, which I could bring,
Since all were blasted in the offering,

Lest God should my next victim too despise,
The acceptable priest I'll sacrifice.

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 step of glory more he should have made,
And to the utmost bounds of greatness gone;

Had Adam too been 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-soul'd Abimelec, to shew
What for a high place a higher spirit can do,
A hecatomb almost of brethren slew,

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 she cuts her sacred way,
All that oppose, with manlike courage, slay.
So Athaliah, when she saw her son,

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 sustain'd,
Resolv'd to reign alone; resolv'd, and reign'd.
In vain her sex, in vain the laws withstood,
In vain the sacred plea of David's blood;
A noble, and a bold contention, she
(One woman) undertook with destiny.
She to pluck down, destiny to uphold
(Oblig'd by holy oracles of old)

The great Jessæan 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, she herself at last was slain;

Did she not, first, seven years (a life-time) reign?
Seven royal years t'a public spirit will seem

More than the private life of a Methusalem.

'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 blasphemies, but that, by God's grace, I became so bold, as thus to interrupt him: "I understand now perfectly (which I guest at long before) what kind of angel and protector you are; and, though your style in verse be very much mended20 since you were wont to deliver oracles, yet your doctrine is much worse than ever you had formerly (that I heard of) the face to publish; whether your long practice with mankind has increased and improved your malice, or whether you think us in this age to be grown so impudently wicked, that there needs no more art or disguises to draw us to your party."

"My dominion (said he hastily, and with a dreadful furious look) is so 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 see I know you too, I know you to be an obstinate and inveterate malignant; and for that reason I shall take you alorg with me to the next garrison of ours; from whence you shall 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 :

20 This compliment was intended, not so much to the foregoing as to the following verses, of which the author had reason to be proud; but, as being delivered in his own person, could not so properly make the panegyric.

HEN, lo, ere the last words were fully spoke,
From a fair cloud, which rather op'd than broke,
A flash of light, rather than lightening, came,

So swift, and yet so gentle, was the flame.
Upon it rode, (and, in his full career,

Seem'd to my eyes no sooner there, than here,)
The comeliest youth of all th'angelic race;
Lovely his shape, ineffable his face.

The frowns, with which he strook the trembling fiend,
All smiles of human beauty did transcend;
His beams of locks fell part dishevel'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 angel's hair.
His coat and flowing mantle were so bright,
They seem'd both made of woven silver light:
Across his breast an azure riband went,2
At which a medal hung, that did present
In wondrous living figures to the sight,
The mystic champion's, and old dragon's fight;
And from his mantle's side there shone afar,
A fix'd, and, I believe, a real star.

21

In his fair hand (what need was there of more ?)
No arms, but th'English bloody cross, he bore,
Which when he tow'rds th'affrighted tyrant bent,
And some few words pronounc'd (but what they meant,

21 We must reflect that the tutelar genius of England is here introduced, not merely to unravel the intricacy of the scene, but to form a striking contrast to the foul fiend who had usurped his place; and still further to disgrace the usurper by a portrait of the rightful heir to the British crown, presented to us under an angelic form, and in all the force and beauty of poetic colouring.

Or were, could not, alas, by me be known,
Only, I well perceiv'd, Jesus was one)
He trembled, and he roar'd, and fled away;
Mad to quit thus his more than hop'd-for prey.
Such rage inflames the wolf's wild heart and eyes
(Robb'd, as he thinks, unjustly of his prize)
Whom unawares the shepherd spies, and draws
The bleating lamb from out his ravenous jaws :
The shepherd fain himself would he assail,
But fear above his hunger does prevail,

He knows his foe too strong, and must be gone:
He grins, as he looks back, and howls, as he goes on.