ich he made government repose, that Hobbes really
influenced all later politics.

[Sidenote: Cromwell's consciousness of failure.]

That Cromwell discerned the strength of such currents of opinion as
those which we have described may fairly be doubted. But he saw that
Puritanism had missed its aim. He saw that the attempt to secure
spiritual results by material force had failed, as it always fails. It
had broken down before the indifference and resentment of the great mass
of the people, of men who were neither lawless nor enthusiasts, but who
clung to the older traditions of social order, and whose humour and good
sense revolted alike from the artificial conception of human life which
Puritanism had formed, and from its effort to force such a conception on
a people by law. It broke down too before the corruption of the Puritans
themselves. It was impossible to distinguish between the saint and the
hypocrite as soon as godliness became profitable. Ashley Cooper, a
sceptic in religion and a profligate in morals, was among "the loudest
bagpipes of the squeaking train." Even amongst the really earnest
Puritans prosperity disclosed a pride, a worldliness, a selfish hardness
which had been hidden in the hour of persecution. What was yet more
significant was the irreligious and sceptical temper of the younger
generation which had grown up amidst the storms of the Civil War. The
children even of the leading Puritans stood aloof from Puritanism. The
eldest of Cromwell's sons made small pretensions to religion. Milton's
nephews, though reared in his house, were writing satires against
Puritan hypocrisy and contributing to collections of filthy songs. The
two daughters of the great preacher, Stephen Marshall, were to figure as
actresses on the infamous stage of the Restoration. The tone of the
Protector's later speeches shows his consciousness that the ground was
slipping from under his feet. He no longer dwells on the dream of a
Puritan England, of a nation rising as a whole into a people of God. He
falls back on the phrases of his youth, and the saints become again a
"peculiar people," a remnant, a fragment among the nation at large.

[Sidenote: Dissolution of the Parliament.]

But with the consciousness of failure in realizing his ideal of
government the charm of government was gone; and now to the weariness of
power were added the weakness and feverish impatience of disease.
Vigorous and energetic as Cromwell's life had se