There were many political biographies. Historians did not yet
study history as a continuous process, but narrated self-contained
stories to instruct by example. William Fleetwood wrote about
economic history in "Chronicon Preciogum". George Hicks put
together a "Thesaurus" of the northern languages. Thomas Hyde
wrote on ancient Persian religion. John Spenser compared Jewish
rites with those of other Semitic people, thus starting
comparative religion. Richard Bentley, William's librarian, wrote
a "Dissertation" on the ancient Greeks. He compared the ancient
Greek life with modern life. He also confuted atheism on the
Newtonian system. A translated version of "Critical History of Old
Testament" by Frenchman Richard Simon identified the old testament
as history instead of divine revelation. John Milton wrote
"Paradise Lost", which retells the Biblical story of the Creation
and the fall of Adam and Eve against the backdrop of Satan's
rebellion and expulsion from heaven and emphasized God's justice
in spite of everything. The poem deals with the puritan struggling
against evil and the problem of sin and redemption. It has a cold
and severe conception of moral virtue and stoical self repression
in its characters. There is no sympathy with the human condition.
Reading this book made the English more serious, earnest, and
sober in life and conduct and more firm in the love of freedom.
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