THE PURITANS.
(From the essay on Milton.)
By T. B. Macaulay.
We would speak first of the Puritans, the most remarkable body of men,
perhaps, which the world has ever produced. The odious and ridiculous
parts of their character lie on the surface. He that runs may read
them; nor have there been wanting attentive and malicious observers to
point them out. For many years after the Restoration, they were the
theme of unmeasured invective and derision. They were exposed to the
utmost licentiousness of the press and of the stage, when the press and
the stage were most licentious. They were not men of letters;
they were, as a body, unpopular; they could not defend themselves;
and the public would not take them under its protection. They were
therefore abandoned, without reserve, to the tender mercies
of the satirists and dramatists. The ostentatious simplicity of their
dress, their sour aspect, their nasal twang, their stiff posture, their
long graces, their Hebrew names, the Scriptural phrases which they
introduced on every occasion, their contempt of human learning, their
destestation of polite amusements, were indeed fair game for the
laughers.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222