if he 'fometimes failed of attaining them, it was not because he loved any thing better; it was because he overfhot the object of fincere affection from the fondness and ardor of his pursuit. His wife ftill perfifted in her desertion, but he amused his mind under the mortification her conduct had occafioned by frequent vifits to the Lady Margaret Ley, whose manners and conversation were peculiarly engaging. Her father, the Earl of Marlborough, had held the higheft offices. in a former reign, and of his virtues she used to speak with fuch filial eloquence as infpired Milton with a fonnet in her praise. He continued alfo to manifeft his firm affection to the public good, by two compofitions intended to promote it; the little tractate on education, addreffed to Mr. Hartlib, who had requested his thoughts upon that interefting fubject, and his Areopagitica, a fpeech for the liberty of unlicensed printing. The latter has been re-printed, with a spirited preface by Thomson, a poet whom a passion for freedom, united to genius, had highly qualified as an editor and eulogift of Milton. Had the author of the Paradife Loft left us no compofition but his Areopagitica, he would be ftill entitled to the affectionate veneration of every Englishman, who exults in that intellectual light, which is the nobleft characteristic of his country, and for which England is chiefly indebted to the liberty of the prefs. Our conftant advocate for freedom in every department of life, vindicated this moft important privilege with a mind fully fenfible of its value; he poured all his heart into this vindication, and, to speak of his work in his own energetic language, we may juftly call it, what he has defined a good book to be," the precious life-blood of a master "fpirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose "to a life beyond life." His late biographer, inftead of praising Milton for a service fo honorably rendered to literature, seems rather defirous of annihilating its merit, by directing his sarcastic animofity against the liberty of the prefs. "It feems not more "reasonable, fays Johnson, "to leave the right "of printing unreftrained, because writers may "be afterwards cenfured, than it would be to "fleep with doors unbolted, because by our "laws we can hang a thief." This is fervile fophiftry; the author's illuftration of a thief may be turned against himself. To fuffer no book to be published without a licence, is tyranny as abfurd as it would be to fuffer no traveller to pass along the highway without producing a certificate that he is not a robber. Even bad books may have their use, as Milton obferves; and I mention this observation, chiefly to fhow how liberally he introduces a juft compliment to a great author of his own time in fupport of this idea. "What better witness, fays the advocate for unlicenfed printing, ❝ can 66 ye expect I fhould produce, than one of your own, now fitting in parliament, the chief of "learned men reputed in this land, Mr. Selden, "whofe volume of natural and national laws proves, not only by great authorities brought 66 together, but by exquifite reafons and theorems "almost mathematically demonstrative, that all opinions, yea errors, known, read, and collated, are of main service and affiftance to"wards the speedy attainment of what is trueft." This eulogy alone appears fufficient to refute a remark unfriendly to Milton, that he was frugal of his praise; fuch frugality will hardly be found united to a benevolent heart and a glowing imagination. 66 In 1645, his early poems, both English and Latin, were first published in a little volume by Humphry Mofely, who informs the reader in his advertisement, that he had obtained them by folicitation from the author, regarding him as a fuccefsful rival of Spencer. Milton had now passed more than three years in that fingular state of mortification, which the difobedience of his wife occafioned. His time had been occupied by the inceffant exercise of his mental powers; but he probably felt with peculiar poignancy " "A craving void left aching in the breast. As he entertained ferious thoughts of enforcing, by his own example, his doctrine of divorce, and of marrying another wife who might be worthy of the title, he paid his addreffes to the daughter of Doctor Davies: the father feems to have been a convert to Milton's arguments; but the lady had fcruples. She poffeffed, according to Philips, both wit and beauty. A novelift could hardly imagine circumftances more fingularly diftreffing to fenfibility, than the fituation of the poet, if, as we may reasonably conjecture, he was deeply enamoured of this lady; if her father was inclined to accept him as a fon-in-law; and if the object of his love had no inclination to reject his fuit, but what arose from a dread of his being indiffolubly united to another. Perhaps Milton alludes to what he.felt on this occafion in those affecting lines of Paradise Loft, where Adam prophetically enumerating the miferies to arise from woman, fays, in clofing the melancholy lift, that man fometimes "His happieft choice too late "Shall meet, already link'd and wedlock-bound "To a fell adverfary, his hate or shame! "Which infinite calamity fhall cause "To human life, and household peace confound." However ftrong the scruples of his new favorite might have been, it seems not improbable that he would have triumphed over them, had not an occurrence, which has the air of an incident in romance, given another turn to the emotions of of his heart. While he was converfing with a relation, whom he frequently vifited in St. Martin's-lane, the door of an adjoining apartment was fuddenly opened he beheld his repentant wife kneeling at his feet, and imploring his forgiveness. After the natural ftruggles of honeft pride and just refentment, he forgave and received her," partly from the interceffion of "their common friends, and partly, " fays his nephew, "from his own generous nature, more " inclinable to reconciliation, than to perseverance in anger and revenge. 66 Fenton juftly remarks, that the strong impreffion which this interview must have made on Milton," contributed much to the painting "of that pathetic scene in Paradife Loft, in "which Eve addresses herself to Adam for pardon "and peace;" the verses, charming as they are, acquire new charms, when we confider them as descriptive of the poet himself and the penitent destroyer of his domeftic comfort. "Her lowly plight "Immoveable, till peace obtain'd from fault "Towards her, his life fo late and fole delight, 66 " |