is not always realized in the sense of the mere realist; his sense of the thing done is limited by that which stands present, complete, and accomplished to the eye; to him, therefore, all failure or incompleteness, is baffled or foiled existence. But the great poet, to whom we have referred, teaches us that it is not so. There is a world of work which is out of sight, which has told upon, and borne along, the individual soul, and it may be, the soul of the age or ages, along with it; and hence at the close of Cromwell's day, or life, as with Sordello, so it may be yet more truly said of him, "The real way seemed made up of all the ways, Power to uplift his power, this moon's control CHAPTER XVI. FOREIGN POLICY AND POWER OF CROMWELL. R EFERRING to the foreign policy of Crom well, the wisdom of which several wise little critics have chosen to call in question, it will be in the memory of our readers how he once said, He hoped he should make the name of an Englishman as great as ever that of a Roman had been." It is not too much to say that England had never before so overawed the nations of Europe as during the reign of Cromwell. Perhaps some readers will say, What right has any nation, or any man, to overawe other nations or other princes? This is very plausible, but in Cromwell's case it does not correctly state the matter. It should be remembered that in that age, in Cromwell's time, the strong nations of Europe were set upon crushing the principles of freedom as represented by Protestant principles and in Protestant states. France and Spain were almost equally obnoxious to freedom, but in those days Spain was incomparably the strongest power; true, her power was on the wane, but she had the traditional inheritance of amazing empire, and she had the actual possession of the greatest and most wealthy |