ly, bring my mind
to credit--that there is a man living among Christians who, being
himself a concrete of every form of outrageous iniquity, could so
censure others?"

MILTON'S PRODIGIOUS SELF-ESTEEM:--"All which has so elated you that
you would be reckoned next after the very first man in England, and
sometimes put yourself higher than the supreme Cromwell himself;
whom you name familiarly, without giving him any title of rank,
whom you lecture under the guise of praising him, to whom you
dictate laws, assign boundaries to his rights, prescribe duties,
suggest counsels, and even hold out threats if he shall not behave
accordingly. You grant him arms and rule; you claim genius and the
gown for yourself. '_He only is to be called great_,' you say,
'_who has either done great things_'--Cromwell, to
wit!---'_or teaches great things_'--Milton on Divorce, to
wit!--'_or writes of them worthily_'--the same twice-great
Milton, I suppose, in his Defence of the English People!"

How does Morus proceed in the main business of clearing his own
character from Milton's charges? His plan was to produce a dated and
authenticated series of testimonials from others, extending over the
period of his life which had been attacked, and to interweave these
with explanations and an autobiographic memoir. He has reached the
eightieth page of his book before he properly begins this enterprise.
He gives first a testimonial from the Genevan Church, dated Jan. 25,
1648, and signed by seventeen ministers, of whom Diodati is one; then
another from the Genevan Senate or Town Council, dated Jan. 26, 1648;
then two more, one from the Church again, and one from the Senate
again, both dated April 1648; then, among others, a special
testimonial from Diodati, in the form of a long letter to Salmasius,
dated "Geneva, 9th May, 1648." Diodati's testimonial, which is given
both in French and in Latin, is the most interesting in itself, and
will represent the others. "As to his morals," says Diodati, writing
of Morus to Salmasius, "I can speak from intimate knowledge, and do
so with, strict conscientiousness. His natural disposition is good
and without deceit or reservation, frank and noble, such as ought to
put him in very harmonious relations with all persons of honour and
virtue, of whatsoever condition,--quick and very sensible to
indignities, but easily coming to himself again: not one to provoke
others, but yet one who ha