The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1853-08-05
MILTON.

Blind Milton approaches nearly 10 that
srue conception OF a right>minded hero
which must ever be esteemed. What q
picture bave we Of that sublime old man,
os sick, poor, blind, and abandoned OF n
his friends, he still held fast his heroic
integri,y-rebuking, with his unbendng
republicanism, the treachery, cowardice,
and servility Of his old associates. He
had outlived the hopes and beati6c visions
Of his youih-he had seen the loud
mouthed advocates Of liberty throwing
down nations freedom at the foot o
the shameless, debauched, and pejsred
Charles II.--crouching to the harlot'
lhrongede court Of the tyrani, and for
swearing at once their religion and thelI
repubIicanism. The executioner's axe
had been busy among his friends: Vane
and Hampden slept in their bloody
graves; Cromwell's ashes had been drag
ged from their resting place, for, even in
death, the effeminate monarch hated and
feared the conqueror of Naseby and
q Marston moor. He was left alone in
, age and penury and blindness, oppressed
with the knowledge that all which his
free soul abhorred had returned upon his
beloved country. Ye, the spirit of the
stern old republican remained 10 the last
unbroken, reaising the truth of his own
"Samson Agonsies:"
~Pntience is the exercise
OF saints, the trials Of their fortitude,
Making them each their own deliverer,
And victor over all
That tyranny or fortune can inAlct."
True, the overwhelming curse had gone
over his country; harlotry and atheism
sa, in The high places, and the curses Of
wan,ons and the jes!s of buffoons
regulated the measures of a government,
which had just ability enough TO deceive,
lust religion enough 10 persecute. But,
wi lie Milton mourned over this disastrous
change, no self,reproach mingled with
p his sorrow. To the last lie had striven
against the oppressor, and, when confined
10 his narrow alley, prisoner in his own
mean dwelling, like another Prometheus
on his rock, he still exhibited an unsub,
dued defiance. Who that has read his
powerful appeal TO his country, even
when it was on the eve Of welcoming
back the Tyranny and misrule which, al
tho expense of SO much blood and trca-
snrc, had been thrown off, can ever forget
III How nolly does liberty speak through
him! "If," said he, "ye welcome back
monarchy, i, will be the triumph Of all
tyrants hereafter over any people who
shall resist oppression, and their s"ng
shall then be, to others, 'How sped the
rebellious English?' but TO our posteri.y
.IIow sped the rebels your fatheIs!" "
How solemn and awful is his closing
paragraph: -"Wha, | have spoken is the
Language Of that which is not called
amiss sThe Good Old Cnuse.' IL il
seen strange TO any, it will not, | hope,
seem more strange than convincing ,o
backsliders. This much | should have
said, though | were sure | should have
spoken only TO trees and stones, and hat
nono 10 cry to but with the prophet, "Oh
earth, earth, earth!" TO tell The very sol
itself what its perverse inhabitants are
deafio-nay, though what have spokel
should prove to be the last words of ou
expiring liberties which Thou suffer no
who dds, make mankind free, nor Thol
mex, who ddst redeem us from being
servants of SIM