THE LEGEND OF EROS AND ANTEROS. 93 exempt from all that can be harmful to us from without, yet the perverseness of our folly is so bent, that we should never cease hammering out of our own hearts, as it were out of a flint, the seeds and sparkles of new misery to ourselves, till all were in a blaze again. And no marvel if out of our own hearts, for they are evil; but even out of those things which God meant us, either for a principal good or a pure contentment, we are still hatching and contriving upon ourselves matter of continual sorrow and perplexity. THE GREEK LEGEND OF EROS AND ANTEROS. * Marriage is a covenant, the very being whereof consists, not in a forced cohabitation and counterfeit performance of duties, but in unfeigned love and peace: and of matrimonial love, no doubt but that chiefly meant, which by the ancient sages was thus parabled, that Love, if he be not twin-born, yet hath a brother wondrous like him, called Anteros; whom while he seeks all about, his chance is to meet with many false and feigning desires, that wander singly up and down in his likeness: by them in their borrowed garb, Love, though not wholly blind, as poets wrong him, yet having but one eye, as being born an archer aiming, and that eye not the quickest in this dark region here below, which is not Love's proper sphere, partly out of the simplicity and credulity which is native to him, often deceived, embraces and consorts him with these obvious and suborned striplings, as if they were his mother's own sons; for so he thinks them, while they subtilly keep themselves most on his blind side. But after a while, as his manner is, when soaring up into the high tower of his Apogæum,† above the shadow of the earth, he darts out the direct rays of his then most * In this exquisite fable Eros, or love, is described as seeking its twinborn Anteros, or responsive love. The two exist for each other, and are seeking each other through the wide world. Only where the two meet in mutual love can there be true marriage. A spot so far removed from the earth as to be outside its shadow. piercing eyesight upon the impostures and trim disguises that were used with him, and discerns that this is not his genuine brother as he imagined; he has no longer the power to hold fellowship with such a personated mate for straight his arrows lose their golden heads, and shed their purple feathers, his silken braids untwine, and slip their knots, and that original and fiery virtue given him by fate, all on a sudden goes out, and leaves him undeified and despoiled of all his force; till finding Anteros at last, he kindles and repairs the almost faded ammunition of his deity by the reflection of a coequal and homogeneal fire. Thus mine author sung it to me and by the leave of those who would be counted the only grave ones, this is no mere amatorious novel (though to be wise and skilful in these matters, men heretofore of greatest name in virtue have esteemed it one of the highest arcs, that human contemplation circling upwards can make from the globy sea whereon she stands): but this is a deep and serious verity, shewing us that love in marriage cannot live nor subsist unless it be mutual; and where love cannot be, there can be left of wedlock nothing but the empty husk of an outside matrimony, as undelightful and unpleasing to God as any other kind of hypocrisy. GOD'S LAW IMMUTABLE. If it be affirmed, that God, as being Lord, may do what He will, yet we must know that God hath not two wills, but one will, much less two contrary. If He once willed adultery should be sinful, and to be punished with death, all His Omnipotence will not allow Him to will the allowance that His holiest people might as it were by His own antinomy, or counterstatute, live unreproved in the same fact as He Himself esteemed it, according to our common explainers. The hidden ways of His providence we adore and search not, but the law is His revealed will, His complete, * * An opposing law. His evident and certain will: herein He appears to us as it were in human shape, enters into covenant with us, swears to keep it, binds Himself like a just lawgiver to His own prescriptions, gives Himself to be understood by men, judges and is judged, measures and is commensurate to right reason; cannot require less of us in one cantle* of His law than in another, His legal justice cannot be so fickle and so variable, sometimes like a devouring fire, and by and by conniventt in the embers, or, if I may so say, oscitant and supine. The vigour of His law could no more remit, than the hallowed fire upon His altar could be let go out. The lamps that burned before Him might need snuffing, but the light of His law never. CHARITY. To conclude, as without charity God hath given no commandment to men, so without it neither can men rightly believe any commandment given. For every act of true faith, as well that whereby we believe the law, as that whereby we endeavour the law, is wrought in us by charity, according to that in the divine hymn of St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiii. : 66 Charity believeth all things;" not as if she were so credulous, which is the exposition hitherto current, for that were a trivial praise, but to teach us that charity is the high governess of our belief, and that we cannot safely assent to any precept written in the Bible, but as charity commends it to us. Which agrees with that of the same apostle to the Ephesians, iv. 14, 15; where he tells us, that the way to get a sure undoubted knowledge of things, is to hold that for truth which accords most with charity. * A fragment or portion. That which connives. ON EDUCATION. то MASTER SAMUEL HARTLIB. [IN the year 1644, Milton, having just completed his treatises on Divorce, published a short tract on Education. It was addressed to Samuel Hartlib, of whom little or nothing is known except that he was a friend of Milton and of Sir William Petty,* who likewise dedicated to him one of his works. He seems to have been a foreigner, for Milton speaks of him as "a person sent hither by some good providence from a far country, to be the occasion and incitement of great good to this island." In this, as in all his writings, Milton regards the subject under discussion from the highest possible point of view. "The end of learning," he says, "is to repair the ruins of our first parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him, as we may by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up the highest perfection." Proposing to himself this lofty aim, he rejects as inadequate the common modes of education then and still in vogue: "We do amiss to spend seven or eight years in scraping together so much miserable Latin and Greek as might otherwise be pleasantly and easily learned in one year." Proceeding to develope his method of teaching the languages, he anticipates much which philosophical writers on Education in the present day announce as novelties. He urges the importance of extending the range of study so as to include Art, Science, and Philosophy, in the curriculum; using language which recalls the lines in Comus: "How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, * Sir William Petty was an eminent physician and man of science. He accompanied Henry Cromwell to Ireland, and was one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society. He is now chiefly known as the founder of the Lansdowne family. His treatises on Political Science, however, may still be read with interest and profit. ON EDUCATION. But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets 97 Entering into further details, he advises that a spacious house and grounds should be selected, "big enough to lodge a hundred and fifty persons, whereof twenty or thereabouts should be attendants." This is to be pleasantly situated, with ample space to allow of sports, horticulture, agriculture, and military exercises, in the adjacent grounds. The studies are to be carried on simultaneously,—that is to say, things are to be learned at the same time with words. In reading Cato, Varro, and Columella, who treat of agriculture, the youths are to study agriculture practically; geography and history are to be learned whilst the classical historians are being translated, and so on. By this system of education Milton would escape the sneer which Gibbon launches at the mere grammarians who expound the classics in ignorance of the subjects of which they treat; instancing the case of one who wrote on the art of weaving amongst the Greeks and Romans, and yet had never seen a loom in his life. Since the youths were to be citizens of a free country, the principles of law and equity were to be carefully studied. Theology was to be learned by a studious perusal of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures. Manly and graceful exercises were not to be neglected. "The exercise which I commend first, is the exact use of their weapon, to guard and strike safely with edge or point; this will keep them healthy, nimble, strong, and well in breath. This is also the likeliest means to make them grow large and tall, and to inspire them with a gallant and fearless courage, which may turn into a mature and heroic fortitude, and make them hate the cowardice of doing wrong. They must also be practised in all the locks and gripes of wrestling, wherein Englishmen are wont to excel." They are to be trained to equestrian and military exercises, so as to become perfect horsemen, and be ready to stand for the defence of liberty and their country." If opportunity offer, the scholars should be taken in parties to the coast, and there learn something of seamanship. Within doors they should find recreation "in the solemn and divine harmonies of music, whilst the skilful organist plies his grave and fancied descant in lofty fugues, or the whole symphony, with artful touches, adorn and grace the well-studied chords of some choice composer." The diet is not overlooked. It should be liberal, but "plain, healthful, and moderate." * * One is reminded here of the old Persian apothegm, that the three essential parts of education are-To ride well, throw the javelin truly, and speak the truth always. H |