literature have raised her above all other nations, to the level of Greece herself!” Upon his release from arrest he retired to the obscurity and solitude of his own dwelling, where he passed his time in the composition of his Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. During this time he also produced a History of Britain, with several other prose works. In 1674 he expired, worn out with illness and a life of toil; he died without a groan, and so gentle and placid was his departure, that they who were round him did not perceive it. Although all of his political writings were called forth by the events that were passing before him, and were for that reason local in their immediate application, yet they are so catholic and elemental in their spirit, that we can hardly believe that they were written in an age when feudal tenures were not abolished, and before any people had as yet secured their own freedom. His Areopagitica was his first political work; and although it was written for a special purpose, and with a view to a then existing evil, it is still a pamphlet that might very well be published at this day, as the declaration of our opinions upon this subject of the liberty of the press. The very motto of the book, taken from Euripides, and translated by himself, indicates the whole spirit and intent of it. “This is true liberty when freeborn men, Having to advise the public, may speak free, Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise, Who neither can, or will, may hold his peace; What can be juster in a state than this?” After discussing the real merits of the question then before him, he departs altogether from that topic; and as he always did, generously claimed the same right for mankind, that he had sought for Englishmen. And then it is he utters this fine sentence, which shows a noble enthusiasm in his cause, and a firm belief in its justice. “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience above _all liberties_!”