_And he walks_; 'He said on one occasion, _He goes furthest who knows not
whither he is going_': (Ranke: xii: 1).
_Purrs about God_; Examples, (the tone of which justifies this phrase,
and might deserve a severer), may be found by the curious in the
frailties of poor human nature, _passim_, in Cromwell's 'Letters and
Speeches,' for which, (although not always edited with precise accuracy),
we are indebted to Mr. T. Carlyle. But the view which he takes of his
'hero,' whether in regard of many particular facts alleged or neglected,
or of the general estimate of Cromwell as a man,--as it appears to the
author plainly untenable in face of proved historical facts, is here
rejected.
The familiar figure of the Tyrant, too long known to the world,--with the
iron, the clay, and the little gold often interfused also in the
statue,--has been always easily recognisable by unbiassed eyes in Oliver
Cromwell. His tyranny was substantially that of his kind, before his
time and since, in its actions, its spirit, its result. Fanaticism and
Paradox may come with their apparatus of rhetoric to blur, as they
whitewash, the lineaments of their idol. Such eulogists may 'paint an
inch thick': yet despots,--political, military, ecclesiastical,--will
never be permanently acknowledged by the common sense of mankind as
worthy the great name of Hero.
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