for, he acknowledges, that most of those, who had even the largest share of the king's favour, followed him chiefly for the sake of their own interests and lusts; or rather that they may gain such an ascendency over his mind, that they may he able to lead him whithersoever they pleased.

I say nothing of his making excuses for the perjuries of the king, than whom, on this account, he is guilty of no less impiety and imprudence; nor likewise of his sudden and severe condemnation of those perjuries. These things do not appear to me to need a refutation.

At last, having exhausted upon us all his foul abuse, his dire execrations, he has a mind, however it happens, to make a show of his charity. But we, who fear not his slanders and imprecations, regard as little his good wishes and his prayers in our behalf. Let me put an end therefore to this contest, which was undertaken, indeed, with no great alacrity, with so egregious a trifler. There is one consideration, however, which, if it fail to give any pleasure to others, at least to myself affords some gratification—it is, that I have thus been furnished with the first opportunity of writing, by which I have mani. fested my rectitude, my devotion to my country-my gratitude to my friends.

A

SECOND DEFENCE

OF THE

PEOPLE OF ENGLAND,

AGAINST

The infamous anonymous Libel, entitled,

THE CRY OF THE ROYAL BLOOD TO HEAVEN, AGAINST THE ENGLISH PARRICIDES.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN, BY THE EDITOR.

As it is the first of duties, throughout the life of man, and in every condition, to be ever thankful to God, and mindful of his benefits; and as it should be our earliest and especial care, when events have been prosperous beyond our hopes and even our wishes, to return, on that account, our peculiar and soleinn thanks-this I now feel incumbent on myself; and chiefly for three reasons. First, that I was born in those times of my country,. when the effulgent virtue of it's citizens-when their magnanimity and steadiness, surpassing the highest praise of their ancestors, under the inspection of God. first implored, and under his manifest guidance, setting examples and performing decds of valour, the greatest since the foundation of the world-delivered the Commonwealth from a grievous domination, and religion from a most debasing thraldom. And secondly, when there suddenly appeared many, who, as is customary with the

vulgar, hatefully calumniated deeds nobly done; and when one, above the rest, inflated and confident with literary pride, and with the opinion entertained of him by those of his own herd, nefariously undertook the defence of all tyrants, in a book beyond example scandalous, levelled against us-that I, rather than another, deemed not unequal to an adversary of so great a name, nor to speaking on so great a subject, accepted, of those very deliverers of the country, and by general consent, the part spontaneously assigned me; namely, to defend publicly (if any one ever did) the cause of the people of England, and thus of liberty itself. Lastly, I return thanks to God, that, in a task so arduous, so full of expectation, I neither disappointed the hopes nor the opinions of my fellow-citizens, nor failed to satisy no small number of foreigners, as well among the learned, as among persons conversant with public affairs; that I even so completely routed my adversary, though of the most audacious order, that he retired with his spirit broken, his reputation shattered; and for the three years which he afterwards lived, much as in his rage he threatened, he gave us no farther trouble, than to solicit, for his support, the secret services of certain persons of the vilest character, and to suborn I know not what senseless and unconscionable applauders, to patch up, if possible, his unexpected and recent ignominy. This will immediately appear. As I conceived these fortunate, and even great events to have happened to me from above, and indeed, that they were particularly suited not only to discharge my debt of gratitude to the Deity, but to supply the most favourable omen for my proposed work, I thought it behoved me to begin, as I do, with the reverend mention of them. And who is there who considers not the honourable achievements of his country as his own?

And what can be more for the honour or glory of any country, than liberty, restored alike to civil life, and to divine worship? What nation, what city has struggled for it, in both kinds, more successfully or more coura geously? Indeed as courage shines out not exclusively in war and arms, but displays its intrepid power equally against every species of fear, those Greeks and Romans, whom we most admire, brought along with them, for the expulsion of tyrants from their states, scarcely any other virtue but zeal for liberty, accompanied with disciplined arms, and dexterous hands. The rest they achieved in their exultation from the impulse thence derived, amid the general shout and applause. They were even less eager for distinction, and for uncertain enterprize, than for the trial of virtue fair and glorious, and for rewards and crowns, and the certain hope of immortality. For, the sovereign authority was not yet consecrated to tyrants. Tyrants, suddenly transformed into vice-roys, for. sooth, and vicars of Christ, could not yet exercise their power through royal grace; had not yet fortified themselves by the blind superstition of the vulgar. The lower orders, stupified by the wicked arts of priests, had not yet degenerated into a barbarism viler than what disgraces the Indians, dullest of mortals: for these merely worship as gods those malignant dæmons they are unable to put to flight; while those, that they might not cashier tyrants when they had it in their power, exalted them into gods most impotent to rule over them--deifying the pests of the human race for their own destruction. Now against all these close embattlements of long-received opinions, religions, slanders, and terrors, more dreaded far by others than the enemy himself, had Englishmen to contend; and being better taught, and without doubt inspired from heaven, such

was their confidence in their cause, such their firmness and strength of mind, that all these they overcame. Hence, though, in number, they were indeed a great people, yet were they, in spirit, so erect and lofty, that they were no longer a mere populace; even Britain herself, which heretofore has been said to be a land fruitful in tyrants, shall henceforward deserve the perpetual celebration of succeeding ages, as a country far more fruitful in deliverers. These men were never let loose, by a contempt or violation of the laws, to an unreigned licence; they were inflamed by no delusive vision of virtue and of glory, or by any foolish emulation of the ancients for the empty name of liberty; they were taught the straight and only way to true liberty, by innocence of life and sanctity of manners; they were compelled by necessity to arm in the just defence of the laws and of religion. Thus, confident of the divine aid, they drove out slavery in their glorious warfare. Of this glory, though I claim no share for myself, it is easy for me to defend myself against the charge, if any such be brought against me, either of timidity or of cowardice. For, if I avoided the toils and the perils of war, it was only that I might earnestly toil for my fellow-citizens in another way, with much greater utility, and with no less peril. In doubtful postures of our affairs, my mind never betrayed any symptom of despondence, nor was I more afraid than became me of malice, or even of death. Devoted even from a child to the more humanizing studies, and always stronger in mind than in body, I set an inferior value upon the service of the camp, in which I might have been easily surpassed by any ordinary man of a more robust make, and betook myself to those occupations, where my services could be of more avail; that, if I were wise, I might contribute my utmost power,