Bishop Burnet's testimony, too, must be allowed of some weight against the Icon.
It is not easy to conceive the general compassion excited towards the king, by the publishing, at so critical a juncture, a work so full of piety, meekness, and humanity.

Many have not scrupled to ascribe to that book the subsequent restoration of the royal family.

Milton compares its effects to those which were wrought on the tumultuous Romans by Anthony's reading to them the will of Caesar.

The Icon passed through fifty editions in a twelvemonth; and, independent of the great interest taken in it by the nation, as the supposed production of their murdered sovereign, it must be acknowledged the best prose composition which, at the time of its publication, was to be found in the English language..