The
passionate enthusiasm of the early tracts is gone, and all the old
faults, the obscurity, the inconsecutiveness, the want of arrangement,
are exaggerated. In the _Ready Way_ there is a monster sentence of
thirty-nine lines, containing 336 words. Though his instincts were
perturbed, he was unaware what turn things were taking. In February
1660, when all persons of ordinary information saw that the
restoration of monarchy was certain, Milton knew it not, and put out a
tract to show his countrymen a _Ready and easy way to establish a free
Commonwealth_. With the same pertinacity with which he had adhered
to his own assumption that Morus was author of the _Clamor_, he now
refused to believe in the return of the Stuarts. Fast as his pen
moved, events outstripped it, and he has to rewrite the _Ready and
easy way_ to suit their march. The second edition is overtaken by the
Restoration, and it should seem was never circulated. Milton will ever
"give advice to Sylla," and writes a letter of admonition to Monk,
which, however, never reached either the press or Sylla.
The month of May 1660, put a forced end to his illusion.
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