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safe to conclude that she was a Caston, of a genteel family derived originally from Wales.*

Above all, both the parents of the future champion of civil and religious liberty were conscientious and earnest Christians, of which, as we have seen, the father had given convincing proof by his renunciation of the errors of Romanism, in which he had been educated, and which were sanctioned by parental authority, and powerfully enforced by the persuasion of temporal interest. The sense of religious duty must have been keen, and the knowledge of theologic truth considerable, which could enable a man to turn his face resolutely away from such inducements, and accept cheerfully and without a murmur disinheritance and early penury.

We have thus dwelt upon the characteristics of Milton's parents, not only because they are in themselves interesting and instructive, but also because they had a marked influence upon his whole life. Their religious tenets made on the reflective, strong, and enthusias

Todd's Life of Milton, p. 111. Vol. I. Masson's Life, chap. I., Passim. Symmons' Life, p. 7, Vol. VII.

tic mind of Milton an early and lasting impression.

Milton was remarkable even in his infancy. Aubrey* says of him that "he was a poet at ten." This bud of genius was fondly noticed, wisely encouraged, and anxiously matured by his parents and instructors, until it bloomed in the marvellous glories of his riper manhood. Taught from the outset with scrupulous care, he was so happy as to share the benefits both of public and private education.

His first instruction was gotten from a private tutor named Thomas Young, whom Aubrey calls "a Puritan in Essex who cut his hair short." He appears to have been a man of rare parts, and succeeded in speedily winning the love and respect of his pupil, both of which he ever after retained. Under his able and conscientious instruction Milton made rapid progress, and from Thomas Young he doubtless imbibed many of those religious and political principles which he was called later so powerfully to vindicate. Milton publicly

* John Aubrey, born in 1626. He was a celebrated antiquary, and made the history and antiquities of England his peculiar study.

evinced his gratitude by addressing to Mr. Young his fourth elegy and two elegant Latin epistles. Afterwards, when in the zenith of his power, he caused his old tutor to return from Hamburg, whither he had repaired in the commencement of the reign of Charles First, on account of his religious opinions, and where he was officiating as chaplain to the English merchants under Cromwell's rule, and accept the mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge. This fine incident shows the tenacity of Milton's friendship, and it further proves his kindness of heart, and that in his own prosperity he did not forget his more unfortunate associates.

In 1618 a very beautiful portrait of Milton's boyish face was painted. The picture is now widely known. It was drawn by a young Dutch painter, Cornelius Jansen, recently arrived from Amsterdam, and then rising into fame. The portrait cost five broad pieces, about twenty pounds in the present English money, or nearly one hundred dollars in United States currency, a large price for those days. It was executed in order to operate as

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an additional incentive to the continued exertion of the thoughtful boy. The prevailing expression of the face is a lovable seriousness; and in looking at it one can well fancy that those lines from "Paradise Lost" which the first engraver ventured to inscribe beneath the portrait, were really written by the poet with some reference to his own recollections of his boyhood:

"When I was yet a child, no childish play

To me seemed pleasing; all my mind was set
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do
What might be public good; myself I thought
Born to that end--born to promote all truth
And righteous things."

Thomas Young quitted England in 1623, upon which event Milton was sent at St. Paul's school, London, then in charge of Alexander Gill, with whose son, then acting as usher, he contracted a warm and lasting friendship. Here the young student was initiated into several of the modern languages. His insatiable thirst for knowledge habitually kept him at his books till long past midnight—this precocious boy of fifteen years. His passionate devotion to letters, making him utterly inat

tentive to his health, was the unquestionable source of that blindness in which his sight was quenched in after-life.

Writing in 1641, while his father was yet alive, Milton thus describes his early studies: "I had from my first years, by the ceaseless diligence and care of my father-whom God recompense-been exercised to the tongues, and some sciences, as my age would suffer, by sundry masters and teachers both at home and at the schools." And again, after his father's death, he writes, "My father destined me, while yet a little child, for the study of humane letters. Both at the grammarschool and at home, he caused me to be instructed daily." These sentences summarily describe Milton's education prior to his collegiate course.

In 1623, while in his fifteenth year, he gave several proofs of his precocious poetical genius, among other things translating the one hundred and fourteenth and the one hundred and thirty-sixth Psalms into English verse. These have won high praise from most critics, as being clear, firmly worded, and harmoni

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