Ariosto tells a pretty story of a fairy, who, by some mysterious law of her nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a foul and poisonous snake.  Those who injured her during the period of her disguise were forever excluded from participation in the blessings which she bestowed.  But to those who, in spite of her loathsome aspect, pitied and protected her, she afterwards revealed herself in the beautiful and celestial form which was natural to her, accompanied their steps, granted all their wishes, filled their houses with wealth, made them happy in love and victorious in war.  Such a spirit is Liberty.  At times she takes the form of a hateful reptile.  She grovels, she hisses, she stings.  But woe to those who in disgust shall venture to crush her!  And happy are those who, having dared to receive her in her degraded and frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by her in the time of her beauty and her glory!

There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces; and that cure is freedom.  When a prisoner first leaves his cell he cannot bear the light of day; he is unable to discriminate colors or recognize faces.  But the remedy is, not to remand him into his dungeon, but to accustom him to the rays of the sun.  The blaze of truth and liberty may at first dazzle and bewilder nations which have become half-blind in the house of bondage.  But let them gaze on, and they will soon be able to bear it.  In a few years men learn to reason.  The extreme violence of opinions subsides.  Hostile theories correct each other.  The scattered elements of truth cease to contend, and begin to coalesce; and at length a system of justice and order is educed out of the chaos.

Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom.  The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.  If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever.

Therefore it is that we decidedly approve of the conduct of Milton and the other wise and good men who, in spite of much that was ridiculous and hateful in the conduct of their associates, stood by the cause of public liberty.  We are not aware that the poet has been charged with personal participation in any of the blamable excesses of that time.  The favorite topic of his enemies is the line of conduct which he pursued with regard to the execution of the King.  Of that celebrated proceeding we by no means approve.  Still, we must say, in justice to the many eminent persons who, concurred in it, and in justice, more particularly, to the eminent person who defended it, that nothing can be more absurd than the imputations which, for the last hundred and sixty years, it has been the fashion to cast upon the Regicides....