'
That a man, who venerated the Church and Monarchy as Johnson did, should
speak with a just abhorrence of Milton as a politician, or rather as a
daring foe to good polity, was surely to be expected; and to those who
censure him, I would recommend his commentary on Milton's celebrated
complaint of his situation, when by the lenity of Charles the Second, 'a
lenity of which (as Johnson well observes) the world has had perhaps no
other example, he, who had written in justification of the murder of his
Sovereign, was safe under an Act of Oblivion[148].'
'No sooner is he safe than he finds himself in danger, _fallen on evil
days and evil tongues_, [and] _with darkness and with danger compassed
round_[149]. This darkness, had his eyes been better employed, had
undoubtedly deserved compassion; but to add the mention of danger, was
ungrateful and unjust. He was fallen, indeed, on _evil days_; the time
was come in which regicides could no longer boast their wickedness. But
of _evil tongues_ for Milton to complain, required impudence at least
equal to his other powers; Milton, whose warmest advocates must allow,
that he never spared any asperity of reproach, or brutality of
insolence[150].
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