To measure life learn thou betimes, and know XXII. TO THE SAME. CYRIAC, this three years day these eyes, though clear, Against Heav'n's hand or will, nor bate a jot Of which all Europe talks from side to side. This thought might lead me thro' the world's vain mask When Milton was engaged to answer Salmasius one of his eyes had nearly lost its sight. The physicians predicted the loss of both, if he used them. But Milton told Du Moulin, "I did not long balance whether my duty should be preferred to my eyes." 2 The celebrated controversy with Salmasius originated thus: Charles II. employed that great scholar to write a "Defence of Monarchy," and to vindies* XXIII. ON HIS DECEASED WIFE.1 METHOUGHT I saw my late espoused saint Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, And such, as yet once more I trust to have But oh! as to embrace me she inclined, I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. Catherine, the daughter of Captain Woodcock, of Hackney. She died in iving birth to a daughter, a year after er marriage. She was Milton's second wife. 2 Alcestis, being told by an oracle that her husband, Admetus, could never re cover from a disease unless a friend died for him, willingly laid down her life for him. Hercules, "Jove's great son," brought her back from hell. Miscellaneous Poem and Translations. ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 1647. BECAUSE you have thrown off your prelate lord, From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorr'd, Dare To force our consciences that Christ set free, Taught ye by mere A. S.2 and Rotherford ?3 In classes, or classical assemblies. The Iresbyterians distributed London into twelve classes; each chose two ministers and four lay elders to represent them in a Provincial Assembly. 2 Adam Stuart, a Polemical writer of the times, who answered the "Independents' Plea for Toleration." 3 Samuel Rutherford, one of the Chief Commissioners of the Church of Scotland, and an avowed enemy to the Independents, Milton's sect. 4 Thomas Edwards, who wrote against the Independents, 6 5 Perhaps George Gillespie, a Scotch writer against the Independents. Milton hated the Scotch, and ridiculed their names. The Council of Trent. 7 Balk, or bauk, is to spare. The meaning is, "Your errors will be corrected, and your ears spared." Our readers will remember that the Star Chamber had inflicted the cruel punishment of loss of ears on Prynne. 8 More tyrannical than of old, TRANSLATIONS. THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, LIB. I. WHAT slender youth, bedew'd with liquid odours, In wreaths thy golden hair, Plain in thy neatness? O how oft shall he Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold, Unmindful. Hapless they my To whom thou untried seem'st fair. Me, in To the stern God of sea. vow'd FROM GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.1 Brutus thus addresses Diana in the country of Leogecia : GODDESS of shades, and huntress, who at will 1 An ancient British historian and writer. He died 1154. To whom, sleeping before the altar, Diana answers in a vision the same night :— BRUTUS, far to the west, in the ocean wide, And kings be born of thee, whose dreadful might FROM DANTE. AH, Constantine, of how much ill was cause, FROM DANTE. FOUNDED in chaste and humble poverty, 'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn, FROM ARIOSTO. THEN past he to a flow'ry mountain green, FROM HORACE. WHOM do we count a good man? Whom but he |