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relate that, previous to his marriage, Milton suffered seriously from the ill-treatment of those whom this venerable father, in his noncupative will, quite recently discovered and published, which shows Milton to have been amiable and forgiving in all those domestic scenes in which alone he has seemed liable to censure or unworthy of sympathy, calls his "unkind children." We are assured that against these unnatural daughters Milton was frequently obliged to appeal for protection even to his servants, one of whom, in a deposition under oath, affirms that the poet's complaints were not extorted from him by slight wrongs, or uttered by capricious passion upon trivial provocations; but that his children, with the probable exception of Deborah, then a little thing but nine years old, would even sell his books, and that they habitually combined with the maid-servant, advising her to cheat her master and their father in her mar'keting, since he was sightless and would be none the wiser. One of them, Mary, upon

*It was first published by Thornton in an appendix to the preface of his second edition of Milton's Juvenile Poems, and is well entitled to the reader's attentive perusal.

being informed of her father's intention to marry, replied that "that was no news; but if she could hear of his death, that would be something."*

Milton had taught two of his daughters to read and pronounce with the nicest propriety the English, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew languages. There was therefore no work in any of these tongues which he could not hear read to him, though they did not understand any but their mother tongue. Learning that his daughters complained of this, employment as drudgery, the proud spirit of John Milton would not brook such grudged assistance, and he instantly dispensed with their aid, and procuring for them the knowledge of some useful trades suited to their sex and tastes, he secured, though he was now poor and could ill afford the expense, the services of a private secretary.

From the domestic tyranny of his daughters Milton's marriage at once secured him, and he gained that ease of mind and tranquillity of spirit which were necessary to enable * Symmons' Life, pp. 441, 442. † Ivimey's Life, p. 221.

him to prosecute his transcendent literary projects to a successful conclusion.

It is a curious fact, and a remarkable tribute to Milton's unrivalled genius and statesmanship, that he was offered about this time, 1662-3, the Latin Secretaryship of State under the king. But to accept office under a government in which he did not believe, whose hands were still red with the blood of his old political friends of the Commonwealth, would have been an act of recreant sycophancy to which his high and unsullied spirit could never stoop. Accordingly, when his wife, attentive only to the advancement of his worldly fortunes, urged him to accept the appointment, he silenced her with, "You are in the right; you, as other women, would ride in your coach; but my aim is to live and die an honest man.

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* This high anecdote rests on the authority of Richardson, who received it from Henry Bendish, a grandson of Cromwell's, and an intimate in Milton's house at this time.

CHAPTER XVIII.

BANISHING, SO far as possible, all cares and anxieties from his mind, Milton forgot the instability of fortune, the treachery of parties, the fickleness of the unthinking multitude, and, seated in his study, gave himself up to the full pleasure of that poetic composition which had ever been his passion. After the publication of several trifles,* he surrendered himself completely to the work of elaborating and finishing that immortal epic, "Paradise Lost," which, as we have seen, he had commenced in 1655, while acting as Latin Secretary to the Commonwealth, and which had until lately been laid aside, owing to the manifold distractions and misfortunes which had beset his career. Now however, resuming his epic pen, he daily approached nearer and yet more near to the transcendent climax of his poem.

*A short treatise on "Accidence in Grammar," for juvenile students, and another manuscript of Sir Walter Raleigh's, entitled, Aphorisms of State."

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It was about the time of Milton's marriage that he formed the now historic acquaintance with Thomas Ellwood, a pious and learned Quaker, and one of the ablest writers of the society of Friends. Ellwood, who has left a history of his own life, thus relates his connection with Milton:

"John Milton, a gentleman of great note. for learning throughout the learned world, for the accurate pieces he had written on various subjects and occasions. This person having filled a public station in former times, lived now a private and retired life in London; and having wholly lost his sight, kept always a man to read to him, which usually was the son of some gentleman of his acquaintance, whom in kindness he took to improve in learning. Thus by the mediation of my friend Isaac Pennington with Dr. Paget, and of Dr. Paget with John Milton, was I admitted to come to him; not as a servant to him, which at that time he needed not, nor to be in the house with him; but only to have the liberty of coming to his house, at certain times when I would, and to read to him what books he should appoint me.

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