bility of establishing a
monarchy, on the advisability of establishing a republic, on the
advisability of establishing an empire; and before we proceed to
examine the arguments, we cannot help being struck at the strange
contrast which this multiplicity of open questions presents to our own
uninquiring acquiescence in the hereditary polity which has descended
to us. "Kings, Lords, and Commons" are, we think, ordinances of
nature. Yet Milton's political writings embody the reflections of a
period when, for a few years, the government of England was nearly as
much a subject of fundamental discussion as that of France was in 1851.
An "invitation to thinkers," to borrow the phrase of Necker, was given
by the circumstances of the time; and with the habitual facility of
philosophical speculation, it was accepted, and used to the utmost.

Such are not the kind of speculations in which we expect assistance
from Milton. It is not in its transactions with others, in its
dealings with the manifold world, that the isolated and austere mind
shows itself to the most advantage. Its strength lies in itself. It
has "a calm and pleasing solitariness." It hears thoughts which others
cannot hear. It enjoys the quiet and still air of delightful studies;
and is ever conscious of such musing and poetry "as is not to be
obtained by the invocation of Dame Memory and her twin daughters, but
by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all
utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim with the hallowed
fire of his altar."

"Descend from heaven, Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above th' Olympian hill I soar.
Above the flight of Pegasean wing.
The meaning, not the name, I call; for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st, but heavenly born:
Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of th' Almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee,
Into the heaven of heavens I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy tempering. With like safety guided down,
Return me to my native element:
Lest from this flying steed unreined (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime),
Dismounted, on th' Aleian field I fall,
Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.
Half yet remains un