ut such The comlangwap the lost century. Note to The Dedication of the History of the league. Vol. 2. p. 434 · "if by this mildness they recover from the great frost which has almost blasted them to the roots"& This no doubt alludes to a simarhably hard frosh the winter pre- to their conversion, is, to make them sensible of their errours; and this your Majesty out of your fatherly indulgence, amongst other experiments which you have made, is pleased to allow them in this book, which you have commanded to be translated for the publick benefit, that at least all such as are not wilfully blind may view in it, as in a glass, their own deformities. For never was there a plainer parallel than of the troubles of France and of Great Britain; of their leagues, covenants, associations, and ours; of their Calvinists and our Presbyterians: they are all of the same family, and Titian's famous table* of the altar-piece, with the pictures of Venetian senators from great-grandfather to great-grandson, shews not more the resemblance of a race than this: for as there, so here, the features are alike in all; there is nothing but the age that makes the difference; otherwise the old man of an hundred, and the babe in swadling-clouts, that is to say, 1584, and 1684, have but a century and a sea betwixt them to be the same. But I have presumed too much upon your Majesty's time already, and this is not the place to shew that resemblance, which is but too manifest in the whole history. It is enough to say, your Majesty has allowed our rebels a * A table (tableau, Fr.) in old language, signified-a picture, or painted board. The picture of Titian here alluded to is, I believe, that of the Cornaro family, now in Northumberland-House.-Pictures, in the next line, is inelegantly used for portraits/ : but such wns the com Mon century. greater favour than the law; you have given them the benefit of clergy: if they can but read, and will be honest enough to apply it, they may be saved. God Almighty give an answerable success to this your royal act of grace! may they all repent, and be united as the body to their head! May that treasury of mercy which is within your royal breast, have leave to be poured forth upon them, when they put themselves in a condition of receiving it! And in the mean time, permit me to implore it humbly for myself; and let my presumption in this bold address be forgiven to the zeal which I have to your service, and to the publick good. To conclude, may you never have a worse-meaning offender at your feet, than him who, besides his duty and his natural inclinations, has all manner of obligations to be perpetually, SIR, Your MAJESTY's most humble, Most obedient, and most faithful Subject, and Servant, JOHN DRYDEN. POSTSCRIPT TO THE TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE. THAT government, generally considered, is of divine authority, will admit of no dispute; for whoever will seriously consider, that no man has naturally a right over his own life, so as to murder himself, will find by consequence, that he has no right to take away another's life; and that no pact betwixt man and man, or of corporations and individuals, or of sovereigns and subjects, can entitle them to this right; so that no offender can lawfully, and without sin, be punished, unless that power be derived from GOD. It is he who has commissioned magistrates, and authorized them to prevent future crimes by punishing offenders, and to redress the injured by distributive justice. Subjects therefore are accountable to superiours, and the superiour to Him alone; for the sovereign being once invested with lawful authority, the |