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" after I had taken two degrees, as the manner is, fignified many times how much better it would " content that I fhould ftay.-As for the common ap"probation or dislike of that place, as now it is, "that I fhould efteem or difefteem myself the more "for that, too fimple is the anfwerer, if he think to obtain with me. Of fmall practice were the phy"fician who could not judge, by what the and her "fifter have of long time vomited, that the worfer "ftuff the strongly keeps in her ftomach, but the better "fhe is ever kecking at, and is queafy; fhe vomits "now out of fickness; but before it will be well "with her, the muft vomit with ftrong phyfick. The "univerfity, in the time of her better health, and my younger judgement, I never greatly admired,.

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"but now much less.

This is furely the language of a man who thinks that he has been injured. He proceeds to defcribe the course of his conduct, and the train of his thoughts; and, because he has been suspected of incontinence, gives an account of his own purity: "That if I be juftly charged," fays he, "with this "crime, it may come upon me with tenfold fhame.”

The style of his piece is rough, and fuch perhaps was that of his antagonist. This roughness he juftifies, by great examples, in a long digreffion. Sometimes he tries to be humorous: "Left I fhould take "him for fome chaplain in hand, fome fquire of the "body to his prelate, one who ferves not at the "altar only, but at the Court-cupboard, he will beflow "onus a pretty model of himself; and fets me out half a "dozen ptifical mottoes,wherever he had them,hopping

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"fhort in the measure of convulfion fits; in which "labour the agony of his wit having scaped narrowly, "inftead of well-fized periods, he greets us with a "quantity of thumb-ring poefies.-And thus ends this "fection, or rather diffection of himself." Such is the controverfial merriment of Milton; his gloomy feriousness is yet more offenfive. Such his is malignity, that bell grows darker at his frown.

His father, after Reading was taken by Effex, came to refide in his houfe; and his fchool increased. At Whitfuntide, in his thirty-fifth year, he married Mary, the daughter of Mr. Powel, a justice of the peace in Oxfordshire. He brought her to town with him, and expected all the advantages of a con. jugal life. The lady, however, seems not much to have delighted in the pleasures of fpare diet and hard study; for, as Philips relates," having for a month "led a philofophick life, after having been used at "home to a great houfe, and much company and

joviality, her friends, poffibly by her own defire, "made earneft fuit to have her company the remain. "ing part of the fummer; which was granted, upon a promise of her return at Michaelmas."

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Milton was too busy to much mifs his wife; he pursued his ftudies; and now and then vifited the Lady Margaret Leigh, whom he has mentioned in one of his fonnets. At laft Michaelmas arrived; but the Lady had no inclination to return to the fullen gloom of her husband's habitation, and therefore very willingly forgot her promife. He fent her a letter, but had no answer; he fent more with the fame fuccefs. It could be alledged that letters mifcarry; he therefore difpatched a meffenger, being by

this time too angry to go himself. His meffenger was fent back with fome contempt. The family of the Lady were Cavaliers.

In a man whofe opinion of his own merit was like Milton's, lefs provocation than this might have raised violent refentment. Milton foon determined to repudiate her for difobedience; and, being one of those who could eafily find arguments to juftify inclination, published (in 1644) The Doctrine and Dif cipline of Divorce; which was followed by The Judgement of Martin Bucer, concerning Divorce; and the next year, his Tetrachordon, Expofitions upon the four chief Places of Scripture which treat of Marriage.

This innovation was oppofed, as might be expected, by the clergy, who, then holding their famous affembly at Westminster, procured that the author should be called before the Lords; "but that "House," says Wood, "whether approving the doc"trine, or not favouring his accufers, did foon "difmifs him."

There seems not to have been much written against him, nor any thing by any writer of eminence. The antagonist that appeared is ftyled by him, a Serving Man turned Solicitor. Howel in his Letters mentions the new doctrine with contempt; and it was, I fuppose, thought more worthy of derifion than of confutation. He complains of this neglect in two fonnets, of which the first is contemptible, and the fecond not ex

cellent.

From this time it is obferved, that he became an enemy to the Prefbyterians, whom he had favoured before. He that changes his party by his humour is not more virtuous than he that changes

it by his intereft; he loves himself rather than truth.

His wife and her relations now found that Milton was not an unrefifting fufferer of injuries; and perceiving that he had begun to put his doctrine in practice, by courting a young woman of great accomplishments, the daughter of one Doctor Davis, who was however not ready to comply, they refolved to endeavour a re-union. He went fometimes to the houfe of one Blackborough, his relation, in the lane of St. Martin's le-Grand, and at one of his usual vifits was surprised to fee his wife come from another room, and implore forgiveness on her knees. He refifted her intreaties for a while: "but partly," fays Philips, his own generous nature, more inclinable "to reconciliation than to perfeverance in anger or

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revenge, and partly the strong interceffion of friends "on both fides, foon brought him to an act of obli"vion and a firm league of peace." It were injurious to omit, that Milton afterwards received her father and her brothers in his own house, when they were diftreffed, with other Royalifts.

He published about the fame time his Areopagitica, a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of unlicenfed Printing. The danger of fuch unbounded li, berty, and the danger of bounding it, have produced a problem in the fcience of Government, which human understanding feems hitherto unable to folve. If nothing may be published but what civil authority fhall have previously approved, power muft always be the ftandard of truth; if every dreamer of innovations may propagate his projects, there can be no fettlement; if every murmurer at government

may

may diffuse discontent, there can be no peace; and if every sceptick in theology may teach his follies, there can be no religion. The remedy against these evils is to punish the authors; for it is yet allowed that every fociety may punish, though not prevent, the publication of opinions which that fociety fhall think pernicious; but this punishment, though it may crush the author, promotes the book; and it seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained because writers may be afterwards cenfured, than it would be to fleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief.

But whatever were his engagements, civil or domeftick, poetry was never long out of his thoughts.

About this time (1645) a collection of his Latin and English poems appeared, in which the Allegro and Penferofo, with fome others, were first pub

lished.

He had taken a larger houfe in Barbican for the reception of scholars; but the numerous relations of his wife, to whom he generously granted refuge for a while, occupied his rooms. In time, however, they went away; "and the house again," fays Philips, "now looked like a houfe of the Mufes only, though "the acceffion of scholars was not great. Poffibly "his having proceeded fo far in the education of "youth may have been the occafion of his adverfaries "calling him pedagogue and school-mafter; whereas "it is well known he never fet up for a publick "school, to teach all the young fry of a parish; but "only was willing to impart his learning and know"ledge to his relations, and the fons of gentlemen "who were his intimate friends, and that neither

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