After this work he wrote his “Tenure of Kings.” The design of this pamphlet has been already explained. We may judge of its liberal character by these few passages. At first he alludes to the treasonable desertion of principles by those, who were then turbulent for the king’s release, and who had mainly helped to provoke and carry on the war. Afterward he declares this general principle; “No man, who knows aught, can be so stupid as to deny that all men naturally _were born free_, being the image and resemblance of God himself.” And after this proclamation of that essential truth, he proceeds to analyze the history of society, and shows by reason, scriptural authority, general history, and the universal opinions of mankind, that all government proceeds from the people, is created by them for their comfort and good, and is subject to their control, whether it be patriarchal, despotic, or aristocratic; and that no king or potentate holds by any other authority than the consent of the people; which being withdrawn his rule ceases, and for his crimes his life may be forfeited—declaring that this must be so, “unless the people must be thought created all for him singly, which were a kind of treason against the dignity of mankind to affirm.” And after all this he shows his charity for his fellow men, wherever they may be, by saying, “Who knows not that there is a mutual bond of amity and brotherhood between man and man all over the world; neither is it the English sea that can sever us from that duty and relation.” It is this sentiment, and such like this, that demands of us our admiration and regard for this purest of men. In the same manner does he fight the same fight in his Eikonoklastes, and “Defense of the English People,” fearlessly breaking new ground in behalf of the “Rights of Man,” as if he considered it to be his greatest glory to be the champion of his race, while he was defending his countrymen. In the Eikonoklastes, after refuting the many lies uttered by the king’s lip-workers, he says, “It is my determination that through me the truth shall be spoken, and not smothered, but sent abroad in her native confidence of her single self, to earn how she can her entertainment in the world, and to find out her own readers.” Hearken then again to his words, which now, near two hundred years after they were published, come like a solemn and prophetic voice from out the writings of the old, blind republican. “Men are born and created with a better title to their freedom, than any king hath to his crown. And liberty of person and right of self-preservation is much nearer, and more natural, and more worth to all men than the property of their goods and wealth.”