his change of life, he quitted his large house in Barbican for a smaller one in Hol

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born, among those (says his nephew) that open backwards into Lincoln's Inn Fields," where he lived, according to the same author, in great privacy, and perpetually engaged in a variety of studies.

Three years elapsed without any new publication from his pen; a silence which the various affecting occurrences in his family would naturally produce. In 1649, he published The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates; and in his summary account of his own writings, he relates the time and occasion of this performance. He declares, that without any personal malevolence against the deceased monarch, who had been tried and executed before this publication appeared, it was written to compose the minds of the people, disturbed by the duplicity and turbulence of certain presbyterian ministers, who affected to consider the sentence against the king as contrary to the principles of every protestant church, "a falsehood (says Milton) which, without

inveighing against Charles, I refuted by the testimony of their most eminent theologians."

His observations on the articles of peace between the Earl of Ormond and the Irish papists appeared in the same year; a performance that he probably thought too in-considerable to enumerate in his own account of what he had published; it includes

* Tum verò tandem, cûm presbyteriani quidam ministri, Carolo priús infestisimi, nunc independentium partes suis anteferri, et in senatu plus posse indignantes, parliamenti sententiæ de rege latæ (non facto irati, sed quod ipsorum factio non fecisset) reclamitarent, et quantum in ipsis erat tumultuarentur, ausi affirmare protestantium doctrinam, omnesque ecclesias reformatas ab ejusmodi in reges atroci sententiâ abhorrere, ratus falsitati tam apertæ palàm eundum obviám esse, ne tum quidem de Carolo quicquam scripsi aut suasi, sed quid in genere contra tyrannos liceret, adduetis haud paucis summorum theologorum testimoniis ostendi; et insignem hominum meliora profitentium, sive ignorantiam sive impudentiam propé concionabundus incessi. Liber iste non nisi post mortem regis prodiit, ad componendos potius hominum animos factus, quam ad statuendum de Carolo quicquam quod non mea, sed magistratuum intererat, et peractum jam tum erat.-Prose works, vol. ii. p. 385.

however, some remarkably keen strictures on a letter written by Ormond, to tempt Colonel Jones, the governor of Dublin, to desert the Parliament, who had entrusted him with his command. Ormond, having imputed to the prevailing party in England a design to establish a perfect Turkish tyranny, Milton, with great dexterity, turns the expression against Ormond, observing, that the design of bringing in that tyranny is a monarchical design, and not of those who have dissolved monarchy. "Witness (says he) that consultation had in the court of France, under Charles the IXth, at Blois, wherein Poncet, a certain court projector, brought in secretly by the chancellor Biragha, after many praises of the Ottoman government, proposes ways and means at large, in the presence of the king, the queen regent, and Anjou the king's brother, how, with best expedition and least noise, the Turkish tyranny might be set up in France." I transcribe the passage as an example of Milton's applying historical anecdotes with peculiar felicity.

He now began to employ himself in one of the great works, with which he hoped to enrich his native language. The sketch that he has drawn of himself and his studies, at this period, is so interesting and honourable, that it would be injurious not to translate the Latin expressions to which I allude.

*

"Thus (says Milton) as a private

Hanc intra privatos parietes meam operam nunc ecclesiæ, nunc reipublicæ, dedi; mihi vicissim vel hæc vel illa præter incolumitatem nihil; bonam certe conscientiam, bonam apud bonos existimationem, et honestam hanc dicendi libertatem facta ipsa reddidere: commoda alii, alii honores gratis ad se trahebant; me nemo ambientem, nemo per amicos quicquam petentem, curiæ foribus affixum petitoris vultu aut minorum conventuum vestibulis hærentem nemo me unquam vidit. Domi fere me continebam; meis ipse facultatibus, tametsi hoe civili tumultu magnâ ex parte sæpe detentis, et censum fere iniquius mihi impositum et vitam utcunque frugi tolerabam. His rebus confectis, cum jam abunde otii existimarem mihi futurum, ad historiam gentis ab ultima origine repetitam ad hæc usque temporum, si possem, perpetuo filo deducendam me converti: Quatuor jam libros absolveram, cum ecce nihil tale cogitantem me Caroli regno in rempublicam redacto, concilium status

citizen, I gratuitously gave my assistance to the church and state; on me, in return, they bestowed only the common benefit of protection; but my conduct assuredly gave me a good conscience, a good reputation among good men, and this honorable freedom of discourse: others have been busy in drawing to themselves unmerited emoluments and honor; no one has ever beheld me soliciting any thing, either in person or by my friends; I have confined myself much at home; and by my own property, though much of it has been withheld from me in this civil tumult, I have supported life, however sparingly, and paid a tax imposed upon me, not in the most équitable proportion.

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Having now a prospect of abundant leisure, I directed my studies to the history of my country, which I began from its remotest source, and intended to bring down

quod dicitur cum primúm authoritate parlamenti constitutum ad se vocat, meâque operâ ad res præsertim externas uti voluit.-Prose Works, vol. ii. p. 386.