Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 7 . ght on all questions of impor-tagce. Yet at this time he undertook a service to the state, more invidious, andperhaps more perilous, than any in which his politics ever involved him. On thevery day of the kings execution, and even below the scaffold, had been sold theearliest copies of a work admirably fitted to shake the new government, and for thesensation which it produced at the time, and the lasting controversy which it hasengendered, one of
Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 7 . ght on all questions of impor-tagce. Yet at this time he undertook a service to the state, more invidious, andperhaps more perilous, than any in which his politics ever involved him. On thevery day of the kings execution, and even below the scaffold, had been sold theearliest copies of a work admirably fitted to shake the new government, and for thesensation which it produced at the time, and the lasting controversy which it hasengendered, one of the most remarkable known in literary history. This was the Eikon Basilike, or Royal Image, professing to be a series of meditations drawnup by the late king, on the leading events from the very beginning of the nationaltroubles. Appearing at this critical moment, and co-operating with the strong re-action of the public mind, already effected in the kings favor by his violent death,this book produced an impression absolutely unparalleled in any age. Fifty thou-sand copies, it is asserted, were sold within one year ; and a posthumous power was. zo to I- _i LiJ oo U> JOHN iMILTON 63 thus given to the kings name by one little book, which exceeded, in alarm to hisenemies, all that his armies could accomplish in his lifetime. No remedy couldmeet the evil in degree. As the only one that seemed fitted to it in kind, Miltondrew up a running commentary upon each separate head of the original; and asthat had been entitled the kings image, he gave to his own the title of Eikono-clastes, or Image-breaker, the famous surname of many Greek emperors, whobroke all superstitious images in pieces. This work was drawn up with the usual polemic ability of Milton ; but by itsvery plan and purpose it threw upon him difficulties which no ability could meetIt had that inevitable disadvantage which belongs to all ministerial and secondaryworks : the order and choice of topics being all determined b
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbiography, bookyear18
