Historical and Political Notes on the Life of Oliver Cromwell

...rested on the favor of the army, he strove to win over those whom he knew to possess singular authority among the soldiers; hence, measuring affinities by utility, he entangled those most in whose faith he conjectured his own safety was placed.

Ad §. VIII.

It is so ordained by nature that if anyone is removed from the common lot of the rabble by the blandishments of a luxuriant fortune and is set on high, the rest of mortals, as if blinded, not only look up to his virtues, but also, struck by the external splendor, admire his various outbursts of emotion and their fluctuations—indeed, sometimes even the vices themselves—so impotently that whatever necessity has expressed, or the weakness of his powers has committed, or they have perpetrated more basely driven by a whirlwind of passions, they persuade themselves has proceeded from a deep and impenetrable prudence, the effect of which is revealed to the world only after several centuries have passed. They would be worthy of pity, were they not also to add contumacy, and if anyone attempts to penetrate into this political holy of holies with an inquiry of the mind, to remove the curtain of splendor, to separate the cataracts A medical metaphor; glaucoma/cataract as a clouding of vision. from reality, and to examine the errors more deeply, they would consider it a crime. I do not think there is anyone who would not grant with both hands that his body was of extraordinary stature, fit for labors, and that nature had impressed upon his face (albeit a rather truculent one) certain signs suited to both terror and Majesty. A resourceful, versatile, and extemporaneous genius, so that you would not easily miss craftiness and cunning in councils, nor presence of mind in dangers, nor an equable tolerance of spirit in both fortunes. Military fortitude, affability, courtesy, and whatever other virtues were the coverings of lesser peoples before he ruled, with which he hid his most burning desire to rule. And those very things were the veils with which, while capturing a good mind, he lulled his Britons to sleep—admirers of the gifts of body and soul prodigally bestowed upon him, and forgetful of liberty—under a most true dominion. In the remaining things which the author has procured by adulating, he acts more as a perfect orator than an explainer of the truth. For I am so far from allowing myself to be deceived by them that throughout the entire context (except for the happiness of his genius, which, however, was not miraculous, for he often used fortune instead of wisdom, and what chance offered...