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Untitled Article
charity , and poured forth unwarrantable invective , we see and lament . But the purity and loftiness of his mind break forth amidst his bitterest invectives . We see a noble nature still . We see that no feigned love of truth and free ^ dom was a covering- for selfishness and malignity . He did indeed love and adore uncorrupted religion and intellectual liberty , and let his name be enrolled among their true champions . " Freedom in all its forms and branches was dear to him , but especially freedom of thought and speech , of conscience and worship , freedom to seek , profess , and propagate truth . The liberty of ordinary politicians , which protects men ' s outward rights , and removes restraints to the pursuit of property and outward good , fell very short of that for which Milton lived and was ready to die . The tyranny which he hated most was that which broke the
intellectual and moral power of the community . The worst feature of the institutions which he assailed was , that they fettered the mind . He felt within himself that the human mind had a principle of perpetual growth , that it was essentially diffusive and made for progress , and he wished every chain broken that it might run the race of truth and virtue with increasing ardour and success . "
There is one class of readers who will not be pleased with Milton ' s prose wotIcs—the supporters of corruption in church and state ; men who would sacrifice freedom at the shrine of interest , and suffer despotism to make the greatest encroachments on the liberties of mankind tinder the sanction of what used to be called ( we trust the phrase is now for ever ejected from the political vocabulary of Europe ) the divine right of kings . It is to be hoped , however , that few such men as these remain . The interests of the many
have been too long subservient to those of one or a few ; and the monopolizers of both spiritual and temporal power must prepare to yield up what they have unjustly obtained . Nations have , at length , opened their eyes to the enormity of the crime of the chief magistrate trampling upon those sacred rights he was invested with public power for no other purpose than to protect ; and the French , in ejecting Charles the X . from the throne , have taught a lesson to tyrants , as instructive to them and as beneficial to the
world , as was inculcated by the English in the decapitation of Charles I ., and the deposition of his despotic son James II . We hail this event as a proof of the increasing intelligence of the times , and a precursor of better things to come ; and , whilst we look forward with confiding hope to the rapidly advancing period , when both the civil and religious rights of men shall be acknowledged in every country on the earth , and the triumphs of
liberty be complete and universal , we look back with kindling gratitude on the noble exertions of such patriotic spirits as Milton in the great conflict for freedom in our native land , revering them as the best benefactors of their species , and holding them up to the admiration and esteem of the present and every future generation . J . B . Rotherham .
Untitled Article
690 Autobiography of John Milton .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1830, page 690, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2589/page/34/
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