Sicily and Greece, those two homes of ancient letters and arts. Of all the flowers that opened to the Southern sun under the influence of the two great Paganisms, he gathered freely the balmiest and the most exquisite, but without staining himself with the mud which surrounded them. "I call the Deity to witness," he wrote later, "that in all those places in which vice meets with so little discouragement, and is practised with so little shame, I never once deviated from the paths of integ rity and virtue, and perpetually reflected that, though my conduct might es ut Greek and Latin literature, not only | to England, and thought of traversing the great writers, but all the writers down to the half of the middle age; and studying simultaneously ancient Hebrew, Syriac and rabbinical Hebrew, French and Spanish, old English literature, all the Italian literature, with such zeal and profit that he wrote Italian and Latin verse and prose like an Italian or a Roman; in addition to this, music, mathematics, theology, and much besides. A serious thought_regulated this great toil. "The church, to whose service, by the intentions of my parents and friends, I was destined of a child, and in mine own resolutions: till coming to some maturity of years, and per-cape the notice of men, it could not ceiving what tyranny had invaded the church, that he who would take orders must subscribe slave, and take an oath withal, which unless he took with a conscience that would retch, he must either straight perjure, or split his faith; I thought it better to prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office of speaking bought, and begun with servitude and forswearing."* He refused to be a clergyman from the same feelings that he had wished it; the desire and the renunciation all sprang from the same source-a fixed resolve to act nobly. Falling back into the life of a layman, he continued to cultivate and perfect himself, studying passionately and with method, but without pedantry or rigor: nay, rather, after his master Spenser, in L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, he set forth in sparkling and variegated dress the wealth of mythology, nature, and fancy; then, sailing for the land of science and beauty, he visited Italy, made the acquaintance of Grotius and Galileo, sought the society of the learned, the men of letters, the men of the world, listened to the musicians, steeped himself in all the beauties stored up by the Renaissance at Florence and Rome. Everywhere his learning, his fine Italian and Latin style, secured him the friendship and attentions of scholars, so that, on his return to Florence, he 66 I was as well received as if he had returned to his native country." He collected books and music, which he sent Milton's Prose Works, ed. Mitford, 8 vols., The Reason of Church Government, i. 150. elude the inspection of God."* Amid the licentious gallantries and inane sonnets like those which the Ci cisbei and Academicians lavished forth, he retained his sublime idea of poetry: he thought to choose a heroic subject from ancient English history; and as he says, "I was confirmed in this opinion, that he who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem; that is, a composition and pattern of the best and honorablest things; not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men, or famous cities, unless he have in himself the experience and the practice of all that which is praise-worthy." Above all, he loved Dante and Petrarch for their purity, telling himself that "if unchastity in a woman, whom St. Paul terms the glory of man, be such a scandal and dishonor, then certainly in a man, who is both the image and glory of God, it must, though commonly not so thought, be much more deflouring and dishonorable." ↑ He thought "that every free and gentle spirit, without that oath, ought to be born a knight," for the practice and defence of chastity. and he kept himself virgin till his mar riage. Whatever the temptation might be, whatever the attraction or fear, it found him equally opposed and equally * Milton's Prose Works (Bohn's edition, 1848), Second Defence of the People of Eng land, i. 257. See also his Italian Sonnets. with their religious sentiment. + Milton's Prose Works, Mitford, Apology for Smectymnuus, i. 270. Ibid. 273. See also his Treatise on Di vorce, which shows clearly Milto s meaning. firm. From a sense of gravity and propriety he avoided all religious dis putes; but if his own creed were attacked, he defended it "without any reserve or fear," even in Rome, before the Jesuits who plotted against him, within a few paces of the Inquisition and the Vatican. Perilous duty, instead of driving him away, attracted him. When the Revolution began to threaten, he returned, drawn by concience, as a soldier who hastens to danger when he hears the clash of arms, convinced, as he himself tells us, that it was a shame to him leisurely to spend his life abroad, and for his own pleasure, whilst his fellow-countrymen were striving for their liberty. In battle he appeared in the front ranks as a volunteer, courting danger everywhere. Throughout his education and throughout his youth, in his profane readings and his sacred studies, in his acts and his maxims, already a ruling and permanent thought grew manifest -the resolution to develop and unfold within him the ideal man. II. Two powers chiefly lead mankindimpulse and idea: the one influencing sensitive, unfettered, poetical souls, capable of transformations, like Shakspeare; the other governing active, combative, heroic souls, capable of immutability, like Milton. The first are sympathetic and effusive; the second are concentrative and reserved.* The first give themselves up, the others withhold themselves. These, by reliance and sociability, with an artistic instinct and a sudden imitative comprehension, involuntarily take the tone and disposition of the men and things which surround them, and an immediate counerpoise is effected between the inner and the outer man. Those, by mistrust and rigidity, with a combative instinct and a quick reference to rule, become naturally thrown back upon themselves, and in their narrow limits no longer *“Though Christianity had been but slightly taught me, yet a certain reservedness of natural disposition and moral discipline, learnt out of the noblest philosophy, was enough to keep ne in disdain of far less incontinences than this of the bordello."—Apology for Smectymnuus Mitford, i. 272. feel the solicitations and contradictions of their surroundings. They have formed a model, and thenceforth this model like a watchword restrains or urges them on. Like all powers destined to have sway, the inner idea grows and absorbs to its use the rest of their being. They bury it in themselves by meditation, they nourish it with rea soning, they put it in communication with the chain of all their doctrines and all their experiences; sc that when a temptation assails them, it is not an is lated principle which it attacks, but it encounters the whole combination of their belief, an infinitely ramified com. bination, too strong for a sensuous seduction to tear asunder. At the same time a man by habit is upon his guard; the combative attitude is natural to him, and he stands erect, firm in the pride of his courage and the inveteracy of his determination. * A soul thus fortified is like a diver in his bell; it passes through life as he passes through the sea, unstained but isolated. On his return to England, Milton fell back among his books, and received a few pupils, upon whom he imposed, as upon himself, continuous toil, serious reading, a frugal diet, a strict behavior; the life of a recluse, almost of a monk. Suddenly, in a month, after a country visit, he married. † A few weeks afterwards, his wife returned to her father's house, would not come back to him, took no notice of his letters, and sent back his messenger with scorn. The two characters had come into collision. Nothing displeases women more than an austere and selfcontained character. They see that they have no hold upon it; its dignity awes them, its pride repels, its preoccupations keep them aloof; they feel themselves of less value, neglected for general interests or speculative curiosi ties; judged, moreover, and that after an inflexible rule; at most regarded with condescension, as a sort of less reasonable and inferior beings, debarred from the equality which they demand, and the love which alone can reward them for the loss of equality. The * An expression of Jean Paul Richter. See an excellent article on Milton in the Nat. Re view, July, 1859. † 1643, at the age of 35. ་ un parts of his domestic life were neither better managed nor happier. He had taken his daughters for secretaries, and made them read languages which they did not understand,-a repelling task, of which they bitterly complained. Ir return, he accused them of being dutiful and unkind," of neglecting him, not caring whether they left him alone, of conspiring with the servants to rob him in their purchases, of stealing his books, so that they would have dis posed of the whole of them. Mary, the second, hearing one day that he was going to be married, said that his marriage was no news; the best news would be his death. An incredible speech, and one which throws a strange light on the miseries of this family. Neither circumstances nor nature had created him for happiness. III. "priest" character is made for solitude; the tact, ease, charm, pleasantness, and gentleness necessary to all companionship, is wanting to it; we admire him, but we go no further, especially if, like Milton's wife, we are somewhat dull and commonplace,* adding mediocrity of intellect to the repugnance of our hearts. He had, so his biographers say, a certain gravity of nature, or severity of mind which would not condescend to petty things, but kept him in the clouds, in a region which is not that of the household. He was accused of being harsh, choleric; and certainly he stood upon his manly dignity, his authority as a husband, and was not so greatly esteemed, respected, studied, as he thought he deserved to be. In short, he passed the day amongst his books, and the rest of the time his heart lived in an abstracted and sublime world of which few wives catch a glimpse, his wife least of all. He had, in fact, chosen They had created him for strife, and like a student, so much the more at after his return to England he had random because his former life had thrown himself heartily into it, armed been of "a well-governed and wise with logic, anger, and learning, proappetite." Equally like a man of the tected by conviction and conscience closet, he resented her flight, being the When "the liberty of speech was nɔ more irritated because the world's longer subject to control, all mouths ways were unknown to him. Without began to be opened against the bishdread of ridicule, and with the stern- ops. . . I saw that a way was openness of a speculative man suddenlying for the establishment of real liberbrought into collision with actual life, ty; that the foundation was laying for he wrote treatises on Divorce, signed the deliverance of man from the yoke them with his name, dedicated them of slavery and superstition; ... and to Parliament, held himself divorced as I had from my youth studied the disde facto, because his wife refused to re- tinction between religious and civil turn, de jure because he had four texts rights,... I determined to relinquish of Scripture for it; whereupon he paid the other pursuits in which I was encourt to another young lady, and sud-gaged, and to transfer the whole force denly, seeing his wife on her knees and weeping, forgave her, took her back, renewed the dry and sad marriage-tie, not profiting by experience, but on the other hand fated to contract two other unions, the last with a wife thirty years younger than himself. Other * Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, Mitford, . 27, 29, 32. "Mute and spiritless nate." ." "The bashful muteness of the virgin may oftentimes hide all the unliveliness and natural sloth which is really unfit for conversation.' "A man shall find himself bound fast to an image of earth and phlegm, with whom he looked to be the copartner of a sweet and gladsome society." A pretty woman will say in reply: I cannot love a man who carries his head like the Sacrament. of my talents and my industry to this one important object."* And thereupon he wrote his Reformation in England, jeering at and attacking with haughtiness and scorn the prelacy and its defenders. Refuted and attacked in turn, he ecame still more bitter, and crushed those whom he had beaten.t Transported to the limits of *Second Defence of the People of England, Prose Works (Bohn), i. 257. + Of Reformation touching Church Disci line in England,and the Causes that hitherto have hindered it. Of Prelatical Episcopacy. The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty: 1641. Apology for Smer tymnuus: 1642. his creed, and like a night making a | For what king's majesty sitting upon rush, and who pierces with a dash the an exalted throne, ever shone sc whole line of battle, he hurled himself brigntly, as that of the people c upon the prince, wrote that the aboli-England then did, when, shaking cf tion of royalty as well as the overthrow that old superstition, which had preof Episcopacy were necessary; and vailed a long time, they gave judgment one month after the death of Charles upon the king himself, or rather upco I., justified his execution, replied to an enemy who had been their king the Eikon Basilike, then to Salmasius' caught as it were in a net by his own Defence of the King, with incomparable laws (who alone of all mortals al breadth of style and scorn, like a sol- lenged to himself impunity by a dine dier, like an apostle, like a man who right), and scrupled not to inflict the everywhere feels the superiority of same punishment upon him, being guil his science and logic, who wishes to ty, which he would have inflicted upon make it felt, who proudly tramples any other?"* After having justified upon and crushes his adversaries as the execution, he sanctified it; conseignoramuses, inferior minds, base crated it by decrees of heaven after he hearts.* 66 'Kings most commonly," he had authorized it by the laws of the says, at the beginning of the Eikono- world; from the support of Law he klastes, "though strong in legions, are transferred it to the support of God. but weak at arguments; as they who This is the God who "uses to throw ever have accustomed from their cra- down proud and unruly kings, dle to use their will only as their right and utterly to extirpate them and all hand, their reason always as their left. their family. By his manifest impulse Whence unexpectedly corstrained to being set on work to recover our althat kind of combat, they prove but most lost liberty, following him as our weak and puny adversaries." Yet, guide, and adoring the impresses of for love of those who suffer themselves his divine power manifested upon all to be overcome by this dazzling name occasions, we went on in no obscure of royalty, he consents to "take up but an illustrious passage, pointed out King Charles's gauntlet," and bangs and made plain to us by God himself."† him with it in a style calculated to Here the reasoning ends with a song make the imprudent men who had of triumph, and enthusiasm breaks out thrown it down repent. Far from re- through the mail of the warrior. Such coiling at the accusation of murder, he * Ibid. Preface to the Defence of the People accepts and boasts of it. He vaunts of England, vi. pp. 1, 2. the regicide, sets it on a triumphal car, decks it in all the light of heaven. He relates with the tone of a judge, "how a most potent king, after he had trampled upon the laws of the nation, and given a shock to its religion, and began to rule at his own will and pleasure, was at last subdued in the field by his own subjects, who had andergone a long slavery under him; how afterwards he was cast into prison, and when he gave no ground, either by words or actions, to hope better things of him, was finally by the supreme council of the kingdom condemned to die, and beheaded before the very gates of the royal palace. . . The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. Eikonoklastes: 1648-9. Defensio Populi Anglicani: 1651. Defensio Secunda: 1654. Authoris pro se defensio. Responsio: 1655. + Milton's Prose Works, M ford, vol. . 139. + Mitford, vi. pp. 2-3. This "Defence was in Latin. Milton ends it thus: 99 "He (God) has gloriously delivered you, the first of nations, from the two greatest mischiefs of this life, and most pernicious to virtue, tyranny and superstition; he has endued you kind, who after having conquered their own with greatness of mind to be the first of manking, and having had him delivered into their hands, have not scrupled to condemn him judicially, and, pursuant to that sentence of condemnation, to put him to death. After the performing so glorious an action as this, you ought to do nothing that is mean and little, not so much as to think of, much less to do, anything but what is great and sublime. Which to attain to, this is your only way; as you have subdued your enemies in the field, so to make appear, that unarmed, and in the highest out ward peace and tranquillity, vou. all mankind are best able to subdue ambition, avarice, the love of riches, and can best avoid the corrup tions that prosperity is apt to introduce (which generally subdue and triumph over other na tions), to show as great justice, temperance, and moderation in the maintaining your liber ty, as you have shown courage in freeing your selves from slavery.”—Ibid. voi, vi. 251-3. infusing into their young breasts such an ingenuous and noble ardor as would not fail to make many of them renowned and matchless men." * Milton had taught for many years and at various times. A man must be insensible to experience or doomed to illusions who retains such deceptions after such experiences. he displayed himself in all his actions | he advances from consequence to con and in all his doctrines. The solid sequence, trampling upon the prejudi files of bristling and well-ordered argu- ces, inclinations, habits, wants of men ments which he disposed in battle-ar- as if a reasoning or religious spiri ray were changed in his heart in the were the whole man, as if evidence almoment of triumph into glorious pro-ways created belief, as if belief always cessions of crowned and resplendent resulted in practice, as if, in the strughymns. He was transported by them, gle of doctrines, truth or justice gave he deluded himself, and lived thus doctrines the victory and sovereignty. alone with the sublime, like a warrior- To cap all, he sketched out a treatise pontiff, who in his stiff armor, or his on education, in which he proposed to glittering stole, stands face to face teach each pupil every science, every with truth. Thus absorbed in strife art, and, what is more, every virtue. and in his priesthood, he lived out of "He who had the art, and proper elo the world, as blind to palpable facts as quence might in a short space he was protected against the seduc- gain them to an incredible diligence tions of the senses, placed above the and courage, stains and the lessons of experience, as incapable of leading men as of yielding to them. There was nothing in him akin to the devices and delays of the statesman, the crafty schemer, who pauses on his way, experimentalizes, with eyes fixed on what may turn up, who gauges what is possible, and employs logic for practical purposes. Milton was speculative and chimerical. Locked up in his own ideas, he sees but them, is attracted but by them. Is he pleading against the bishops? He would extirpate them at once, without hesitation; he demands that the Presbyterian worship shall be at once established, without forethought, contrivance, hesitation. It is the command of God, it is the duty of the faithful; beware how you trifle with God or temporize with faith. Concord, gentleness, liberty, piety, he sees a whole swarm of virtues issue from this new worship. Let the king tear nothing from it, his power will be all the stronger. Twenty thousand democratic assemblies will take care that his rights be not infringed. These deas make us smile. We recognize he party-man, who, on the verge of he Restoration, when "the whole nul:itude was mad with desire for a king," published A Ready and Easy Way to establish a Free Commonwealth, and described his method at length. We recognize the theorist who, to obtain a law of divorce, only appealed to Scripture, and aimed at transforming the civil constitution of a people by changing the accepted sense of a verse. With closed eyes, sacred text in hand, But his obstinacy constituted his power, and the inner constitution, which closed his mind to instruction, armed his heart against weaknesses. With men generally, the source of devotion dries up when in contact with life. Gradually, by dint of frequenting the world, we acquire its tone. We do not choose to be dupes, and to abstain from the license which others allow themselves; we relax our youthful strictness we even smile, attributing it to our heat ed blood; we know our own motives, and cease to find ourselves sublime. We end by taking it calmly, and we see the world wag, only trying to avoid shocks, picking up here and there a few little comfortable pleasures. Not so Milton, He lived complete and pure to the end, without loss of heart or weakness; experience could not instruct nor misfortune depress him; he endured all, and repented of nothing. He lost his sight by his own fault, by writing, though ill, and against the prohibition of his doctors, to justify the English people against the invectives of Salmasius. He saw the funeral of the Republic, the proscription of his doctrines, the defamation of his honor. Around him ran riot, a distaste for liberty, a thusiasm for slavery. A whole people * Of Education. Mitford, ii. 385. en |
