gross conclusions, which would hereafter contribute to designs not yet set on foot, when he found them sufficiently backed by majority of voices, he would withdraw himself before the question, that he might seem not to consent to so much visible unreasonableness; which produced as great a doubt in some as it did approbation in others, of his integrity. What combination soever had been originally with the Scots for the invasion of England, and what farther was entered into afterwards in favour of them, and to advance any alteration of the government in parliament, no man doubts was at least with the privity of this gentleman.

After he was amongst those members accused by the king of high treason, he was much altered; his nature and carriage seeming much fiercer than it did before. And without question, when he first drew his sword, he threw away the scabbard; for he passionately opposed the overture made by the king for a treaty from Nottingham, and as eminently, any expedients that might have produced an accommodation in this that was at Oxford; and was principally relied on to prevent any infusions which might be made into the earl of Essex towards peace, or to render them ineffectual if they were made; and was indeed much more relied on by that party than the general himself. In the first entrance into the troubles, he undertook the command of a regiment of foot, and performed the duty of a colonel on all occasions most punctually. He was very temperate in diet, and a supreme governor over all his passions and affections, and had thereby a great power over other men's. He was of an industry and vigilance not to be tired out, or wearied by the most laborious; and of parts not to be imposed upon by the most subtle or sharp; and of a personal courage equal to his best parts; so that he

was an enemy not to be wished wherever he might have been made a friend, and as much to be apprehended where he was so as any man could deserve to be. And therefore his death was no less congratulated on the one party, than it was condoled on the other. In a word, what was said of Cinna might well be applied to him; he had a head to contrive, and a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute, any mischief. His death therefore seemed to be a great deliverance to the nation.-History of the Rebellion.

6. Clarendon's Letter to the Vice-Chancellor
of Oxford.

For Mr. Vicechancellor of Oxford.

Good Mr. Vicechancellor,

HAVING found it necessary to transport myselfe out of England, and not knowing when it will please God that I shall returne againe; it becomes me to take care that the University may not be without the service of a person better able to be of use to them, then I am like to be; and I doe therefore hereby surrender the office of Chancellor into the hands of the said University, to the end that they make choyce of some other person better qualifyed to assist and protect them then I am, I am sure he can never be more affectionate to it. I desire you, as the last suite I am like to make to you, to believe that I doe not fly my Country for guilt, and how passionately soever I am pursued, that I have not done any thing to make the University ashamed of me, or to repent the good opinion they had once of me, and though I must have noe farther mention in your publique devotions (which

I have alwayes exceedingly valued) I hope I shall be alwayes remembered in your private prayers as

Good Mr. Vicechancellor,

Your affectionate servant,

Calice, this Dec. 1667.

CLARENDON.

MS. in Bodleian Library.

XIV.

JOHN MILTON.

1608-1674.

JOHN MILTON, magnum et venerabile nomen, was born in Bread Street, London, on the 9th December, 1608. He was descended from an ancient family settled at Milton in Oxfordshire. His father had been disinherited because of his desertion of the Roman Catholic faith, and had settled in London in order to support himself as a scrivener. John Milton, after receiving the first rudiments of learning from a domestic tutor, Thomas Young, was educated at St. Paul's School, and Christ's College, Cambridge. At school he began to distinguish himself by his eager application to his studies, and by his skill in Latin versification. In 1632 he left the University after a residence of seven years, having taken the degree of M.A.

He was deterred from entering the Church, as he had originally intended, by scruples which appear to have referred rather to her order of government and discipline than to her doctrine.

He spent the next five years at Horton, in Buckinghamshire, whither his father had retired from business. These years were devoted to severe study, ranging not only over the widest field of classical and modern literature, but including theology, and more than one Oriental language, in addition to Hebrew. During this time several of his finest poems, Comus, L' Allegro, Il Penseroso, and Lycidas were composed.

On his mother's death in 1638 Milton went abroad, visited Grotius in Paris, and passed into Italy, the language and literature of which country had special attraction for him. At Florence,

Sienna, Rome, and Naples he was received with honour by the learned societies of those cities, and gave a favourable impression of the culture and learning of his own country. He was about to visit Sicily and Greece when, as he says, 'the melancholy intelligence of the Civil War recalled me and I esteemed it dishonourable for me to be lingering abroad, even for the improvement of my mind, when my fellow-citizens were contending for their liberty at home.'

After this tour, which had occupied nearly two years, he settled in London, and very early engaged in the controversies of the time, publishing, in 1641, the Tractate of Reformation, which was followed in 1642 by The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelacy. His life was strictly retired, almost ascetic, passed in his studies or among his pupils.

In 1643 Milton married Mary Powell, the daughter of a zealous Royalist gentleman. The change of habits and associations displeased the lady, and in a month she left her husband's home, and it was long before she was persuaded to return to it, though when she did so the reconcilement appears to have been complete, and the marriage not unhappy. In 1644 Milton wrote his Tractate on Education, followed in the same year by Areopagitica, a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, the most celebrated perhaps and powerful of his prose writings. Upon the trial and execution of Charles I Milton wrote The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, in vindication of the act and of the new order of things. To strengthen the republican spirit of the nation he had just commenced The History of England, when, without any solicitation on his part, he was invited by the Council of State to become their Foreign Secretary. Diplomatic correspondence was then carried on in Latin, and Milton was the first Latinist of his age and country.

In 1652, the blindness which had threatened him for some time became complete, and nearly at the same time his wife died, leaving him with three daughters. Shortly afterwards he was married to the lady whose premature death within the year is the subject of the sonnet, 'Methought I saw my late espoused saint.' After the death of Cromwell, Milton continued to labour

VOL. I.