Since this Essay was finish'd, I have seen a Book written by a _French_ Gentleman, which has been receiv'd with much Civility; and as that Gentleman is commanded to make Remarks on our Manners in _England_, he will not do us Justice unless he puts the Reception his Book has met with, among the Instances of our Humanity to Strangers. I must own I have not learnt a good deal by it, and the Reading of it has not excited any Impatience in me to read any new _Heroick_ Poem. I have long despair'd to see another good _Dramatick_, and much more an _Epick_ Poem in _English_, and cannot hope now to see one in _French_, which never yet was seen: However, I wish so well to all such generous Enterprizes, that I think it barbarous to give them the least Discouragement. My Objections to this Gentleman's Criticisms are for what he says too ill of _Milton_'s Poem, and too good of _Clarendon_'s History, which he highly commends for the fine Characters, tho' he seems not to understand them, or not to have inform'd himself sufficiently of the Facts on which they are founded. He assures us the Lord _Clarendon_ has _unravell'd all the Springs of the Civil Wars_. I pass by the Expression to _unravel a Spring_, for that probably it sounds better in the _French_ Idiom than in the _English_: But the Sense of it is not true in Fact. _He has drawn, at full Length, the pictures of those whose Ambition shook the Foundation of his Country._ He has drawn them at full Length indeed, but as _Milton_ drew his shadowy Beings, _Death_, _Sin_, _Chaos_, by the Extent of his Imagination, and with little Regard to Historical Likeness, or copying after Nature; his Pictures on the King's Side being to a Man, all so many Heroes; on that of the Parliament so many _Scoundrels_; which was impossible to be true: For, besides that it was not in the Course, so it was not in the Nature of the Thing, that so many heroical Persons should take Party for Oppression and Superstition, and so many Blockheads and Poltrons espouse the Cause of Religion and Liberty.