and Duke had
informed Cromwell in a letter dated Nov. 10. The present is a reply
to that letter, and is very characteristic. "We give you thanks for
this good office; and now we make this farther request,--that, as
soon as the merchants have undertaken that satisfaction shall be
made to the, Turks, the said Master be liberated from custody, and
the ship and her lading be forthwith let off, lest perchance we
should seem to have made more account of the Turks than of our own
citizens. Meanwhile we relish so agreeably your Highness's
singular, conspicuous, and most acceptable good-will towards us
that we should not refuse the brand of ingratitude if we did not
eagerly desire a speedy opportunity of gratifying you in return by
the like promptitude, by means of which we might prove to you in
very deed our readiness also in returning good offices. Your
Highness's most affectionate OLIVER."

To the same month as the last three of these Latin State-Letters
belong two more of Milton's Latin Familiar Epistles. The persons to
whom they are addressed are already known to us:

"To the very distinguished MR. HENRY DE BRASS.

"Having been hindered these days past by some occupations,
illustrious Sir, I reply later than I meant. For I meant to do so
all the more speedily because I saw that your present letter, full
of learning as it is, did not so much leave me room for suggesting
anything to you (a thing which you ask of me, I believe, out of
compliment to me, not for your own need) as for simple
congratulation. I congratulate myself especially on my good fortune
in having, as it appears, so suitably explained Sallust's meaning,
and you on your so careful perusal of that most wise author with so
much benefit from the same. Respecting him I would venture to make
the same assertion to you as Quintilian made respecting
Cicero,--that a man may know himself no mean proficient in the
business of History who enjoys his Sallust. As for that precept of
Aristotle's in the Third Book of his Rhetoric [Chap. XVII] which
you would like explained--'Use is to be made of maxims both in the
narrative of a case and in the pleading, for it has a moral
effect'--I see not what it has in it that much needs explanation:
only that the _narration_ and the _pleading_ (which last
is usually also called the _proof_) are here understood to be
such as the Orator uses, not the Historian; for t