• Algernon Sidney, and of the right honourable Henry viscount Sydney of Sheppey, the other brother of the faid Algernon, that it be declared and enacted, &c. That the faid conviction and attainder be repealed, reverfed, &c. And to the end that right be done to the memory of the faid Algernon Sydney, deceased, be it • further enacted, That all records and proceedings relating to the faid attainder be wholly cancelled and taken off the file, or otherwife defaced and obliterated, to the intent that the fame may not be visible in afterages and that the records and proceedings relating to the faid conviction, judgment and attainder, in the court of King's-bench, now remaining, fhall and be forthwith brought into the court this prefent Eafter term, and then and there be taken off the file and can • celled.'

6

Bishop Burnet's character of him is, That he was a man of most extraordinary courage; a fteady man even to obftinacy; fincere but of a rough and boisterous temper that could not bear contradiction. He feemed to be a christian, but in a particular form of his own; he thought it was to be like a divine philofophy in the • mind: but he was against all public worship and every thing that looked like a church. He was ftiff to all • republican principles, and fuch an enemy to every thing that looked like a monarchy, that he fet himself in high oppofition againft Cromwell, when he was made pro⚫tector. He had studied the hiftory of government in

• all

[*~ He had fudied the hiftory of government, in all its branches, beyond any man I ever knew.]

Lords

e all its branches, beyond any man I ever knew. He had a particular way of infinuating himself into people,

• that

Lords and Commons of England, confider what Nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governours: a Nation not flow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing fpirit, acute to invent, futtle and finewy to difcours, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can foar to. Therefore the ftudies of learning in their deepeft fciencies have bin fo ancient, and fo eminent among us, that writers of good antiquity, and ableil judgment have bin perfwaded that ev'n the fchool of Pythagoras and the Perfian wisdom took beginning from the old philofophy of this ifland. And that wife and civil Roman, Julius Agricola, who go. vern'd once here for Caefar, preferr'd the natural wits of Britain, before the labour'd ftudies of the French.- -Behold now this vaft city; a city of refuge, the mansion houfe of liberty, encompast and surrounded with his protection; the shop of warre hath not there more anvils and hammers wakmg, to fashion out the plates and inftruments of armed juftice in defence. of beleaguer'd truth, than there be pens and heads there, fitting by their ftudious lamps, mufing, fearching, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith to prefent, as with their homage and their fealty the approaching Reformation: others as faft reading, trying all things, affenting to the forceof reafon and convincement. What could a man require more from a Nation fo pliant and fo prone to feek after knowledge. What wants there to fuch a towardly and pregnant foile, but wife and faithful labourers, to make a knowing people, a nation of prophets, of fages, and of worthies.

Areopagitica. A fpeech of John Milton for the liberty of unlicenc'& printing. [GVARD IT YE BRITONS!] To the Parliament of England. London, printed in the yeare 1644-in quarto.

Cromwell feemeth to be distinguished in the most eminent manner, with regard to his abilities, from all other great and wicked men, who have overturned the liberties of their country. The times in which others fucceeded in this attempt, were fuch as faw the fpirit of liberty fuppreffed. and ftifled by a general luxury and venality: but Cromwell fubdued his Country, when this spirit was at its height, by a fuccefful struggle against courtoppreffion; and while it was conducted and fut ported by a fit of the greatest genailles for government the world ever faw.

8

The very eminent Prelate, Dr. Warburton, in his notes on Pope's Effay on Man.

Cromwell was one of thofe geniuses who are oftimes buried in obfcurity, through want of occafion of being known. Thousands fpend their lives in retirement, who are capable of greater things than most of those whofe names are toffed from every tongue and voic'd for wife, fkilful, able, valiant. In times of peace thefe men are little known or notic'd. They are overlook'd among the herd, or treated with a coolness or disregard, that damps their ambition and establishes their virtue. .etc.

The Rev. William Harris, a fenfible, candid writer, in his "Hitto. ical and critical account of the life of O. Cromwell."

The

that would hearken to his notions, and not contradict ' him.'

Several

The Parliament of Nov. 3, 1640, that MASTER Parliament having fingularly promoted learning, witness their pupils who ñgur'd in all profeffor: down to and beyond the Revolution, and obtained it too; the following note, taken from Dr. John Wal is's "Account of fome paffages of his own life," who, in the Year 1644, was one of the Secretaries to the Affembly of Divines at Webminster, and in the year 1649, became public profeffor of Geometry, of the foundation of Sir Henry Savile, at Oxford, may not be unacceptable.

"About the year 1645, while I lived in London, at a time, when, by our civil wars, academical studies were much interrupted in both our Univerfities, befide the converfation of divers eminent Divines, as to marters theological; I had the opportunity of being acquainted with divers worthy pe fons, inquifitive into natural philofophy and other parts of human learning: and particularly of what hath been called the new philofophy or experimental philofophy.

We did by agreement divers of us, meet weekly in London, on a certain day, to treat and difcourfe of fuch affairs. Of fuch number were Dr. John Wilkins, afterward Bishop of Chefter, Dr. Jonathan Goddard, Dr. George Ent, Dr. Giffon, Dr. Merret, doctors in phyfick, Mr. Samuel Fofter, then profeffor of aftronomy at Gresham College, Mr. Theodore Haak, a German of the Palatinate and then refident in Londen (cuko, I think, gave the firft occafion and firft suggested thofe meetings) and many others.

Thefe meetings we held fometimes at Dr. Goddard's lodgings in Woodftreet, or fome convenient place near, on occafion of his keeping an opera tor for grinding glaffes for telescopes and microfcopes; and fometimes at a convenient place in Cheapfide; fometimes at Gresham College or some place near adjoining.

Our business was, precluding matters of theology and state affairs, to d.fcourfe and confider of philofophical enquiries, and fuch as related thereunto; as phyfick, anatomy, geometry, aftronomy, navigation, ftaticks, magneticks, chymicks, mechanicks and natural experiments, with the state of thefe ftudies, as then cultivated, at home and abroad.

About the year 1648, 1649, fome of us being removed to Oxford, first Dr. Wilkins, then 1, and foon after Dr. Goddard, our company divided. Those in London continued to meet there, as before, and we with them, when we had occafion to be there. And thofe of us at Oxford, with Dr. Ward, fince bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Ralph Bathurst, now prefident of Trinity Coll ge in Oxford, Dr. Petty, fince Sir William Petty, Dr. Willis, then an eminent Phyfician in Oxford, and divers others, continued fuch meetings in Oxford, and brought thofe ftudies into fashion there; meeting firft at Dr. Pettie's lodgings in an apothecary's houfe, because of the convenience of infpecting drugs,

But

Notions! a ftrange word after what had been juft before declared. the character is roughly, inaccurately drawn. Would it had been drawn at large, by Mr. Pelbam! [See the note in the trial,] this magnanimous character!

* Several manufcript treatifes of his in Latin and Italian, and an "Effay on virtuous love" in English, are still extant among the papers of his family at Penshurst : but his "Difcourfes concerning Government" alone will immortalize his name,, and are fufficient to fupply the lofs of Cicero's fix books "De Republica," which has been so much regretted by men of sense and probity. In fhort, t it is one of the nobleft books that ever the mind

of

drugs, and the like, as there was occafion; and after his remove to Ireland, tho' not fo conftantly, at the lodgings of Dr. Wilkins, then warden of Wadham college, and after his removal to Trinity College in Cambridge, at the lodgings of the honourable Mr. Robert Boyle, then refident for divers years in Oxford.

Those meetings in London continued; and, after the King's return in 1660, were incicafed with the acceffion of divers worthy and honourable perfons; and were afterwards incorporated by the name of the Royal Society, etc. and fo continue to this day."

In the year 1744, a work was published in 2 vols. oct. intitled, "Of the Ufe and Abufe of Parliaments; in two hiftorica! difcourfes, viz. I. A general View of Government in Eur pe. II. A Detection of the Parliaments of England, from the year 1660." To that work the following advertisement is prefixed. "As an act of justice to the memory of a great man, it is neceflary to acquaint the Reader, that he ftands indebted for the first of the following difcourfes, to the celebrated Algernon Sydney.

Vena

It It is one of the nobleft books that ever the mind of man preduced.] Many circumstances at prefent cali loudly upon us to exert ourselves. hy and corruption kave well nigh extinguished all principles of liberty. The bad bocks aljo that this age bath produced, kave ruined our youth. The novels and romances which are eagerly purckafid and read, emafculate the mind, and banish every thing grave and manly. One remedy for thefe evils is, to revive the reading of our old writers, of which we have good ftore, and the fudy where f would fortify our youth against the blandisements of pleasure and the arts of corruption.

MILTON in particular ought to be read and ftudied by all our young gentle

men as an oracle.

He was a great and noble genius, perhaps the greateft that ever appeared amongst men; and his learning was equal to his genius. He had the highest fenfe of liberty, glorious thoughts, with a strong and nervous style. His works are full of wifdom, a treasure of knowledge. In them the Divine, the Statesman, the Hiftorian, the Philologist, may be all instructed and entertained. It is to be lamented that bis divine writings are fo little known. Very

K

few

of man produced; and we cannot with a greater or more extensive bleffing to the world, than that it may be every where

few are acquainted with them, many have never heard of them. The fame is true, with respect to another great turiter, contemporary with Milton, and an advocate for the fame glorious caufe; I mean ALGERNON SYDNEY, whose Difcourfes concerning Government are the meft precious legacy to thefe Nations.

All Antiquity cannot fhew two writers equal to thefe. They were both great mafters of reafon, both great mafters of expreffion. They had the ftrongest thoughts, and the boldest images, and are the best models that can be followed. The ftyle of Sydney is always clear and flowing, strong and mafculine. The great Milton has a style of his own, one fit to express the aftonishing fublimity of his thoughts, the mighty vigour of his fpirit, and that copia of invention, that redundancy of imagination, which no writer before or fince hath equalled. In fome places, it is confeffed, that his periods are too long, which renders him intricate, if not altogether unintelligible to vulgar readers; but thefe places are not many. In the book before us his flyle is for the most part free and cafy, and it abounds both in eloquence and wit and argument. I am of opinion that the ftyle of this work is the best and most perfect of all his profe writings. Other men have commended the ftyle of his Hiftory as matchlefs and incomparable, whofe malice could not fee or would not acknowledge the excellency of his other works. It is no fecret whence their averfion to Milton proceeds; and whence their cantion of naming him as any other writer than a Poet. Milton combatted fuperftition of every form, and in every degree. Against them he imployed his mighty ftrength, and, like a BATTERING RAM, beat down all before him. But notwithstanding thefe mean arts either to hide or to difparage him, a little time will make him better known; and the more he is known, the more he will be admired. His works are not like the fugitive fhort-lived things of this age, few of which furvive their authors; they are fubftantial, durable, eternal writings, which will never die, never perith, whiift reafon, truth and liberty have a being in thefe Nations.

The Editor's preface to Eikonoklastes, printed for A. Millar, 1756, in quarto.

There is a long and fingular paffage in the Leviathan, edit. 1651, p. 110, under this marginal head, "the libertie which writers praife is the libert e of Soveraigns not of private men," which concludes in the following manner, "And by reading of thefe Greek and Latine authors, men from their childhood have gotten a habit, under a fife fhew of libertie, of favouring tumults and of licentious controlling the actions of their Soveraigns; and again of controlling thofe controllers; with the effufion of fo much blood, as I think I may truely fay, there never was any thing fo dearly bought, as these western Farts have bought the learning of the greek and latine tongues."

The accomplished, beneficert Earl of Shafterbury, in his "Effay on the freedom of wit and humour" remarks on this paffage, "And yet an able and witty Philosopher of our Nation was, we know, of late years, fo poffefs'd with a horrour of this kind, that both with respect to Politics and Morals, he directly acted in thi spiat of MA SACRE. The fright he took

upon