But while his greater designs were advancing, having now, like many
other authors, caught the love of publication, he amused himself, as
he could, with little productions. He sent to the press (1658) a
manuscript of Raleigh, called "The Cabinet Council;" and next year
gratified his malevolence to the clergy, by a "Treatise of Civil
Power in Ecclesiastical Cases, and the Means of removing Hirelings
out of the Church."

Oliver was now dead; Richard constrained to resign; the system of
extemporary government, which had been held together only by force,
naturally fell into fragments when that force was taken away; and
Milton saw himself and his cause in equal danger. But he had still
hope of doing something. He wrote letters, which Toland has
published, to such men as he thought friends to the new
commonwealth; and even in the year of the Restoration he "bated no
jot of heart or hope," but was fantastical enough to think that the
nation, agitated as it was, might be settled by a pamphlet, called
"A Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth;" which was,
however, enough considered to be both seriously and ludicrously
answered.

The obstinate enthusiasm of the commonwealth-men was very
remarkable. When the king was apparently returning, Harrington,
with a few associates as fantastical as himself, used to meet, with
all the gravity of political importance, to settle an equal
government by rotation; and Milton, kicking when he could strike no
longer, was foolish enough to publish, a few weeks before the
Restoration, Notes upon a Sermon preached by one Griffiths,
entitled, "The Fear of God and the King." To these notes an answer
was written by L'Estrange, in a pamphlet petulantly called "No Blind