Till that were cancelled; and when that was gone,
We left an air behind us which alone

Was able to make the two next companies

Right witty, though but downright fools."

Something of all this the youthful eyes of Milton must have taken in. But more important than contact with the world of city sights and the gay humors of the town, was the daily routine of his home existence. Let us then step across the threshold of the Spread-eagle, and while the roar of Cheapside and the surrounding city is muffled in the distance, catch a glimpse of the family circle.

We see a warm and happy home. Peace, comfort, and industry reign within it. During the day the scrivener is busy with his apprentices and clients; but in the evening the family are gathered together, the father on one side, the mother on the other, the eldest daughter Anne and her brother John seated near, with little Kit, afterwards Sir Christopher Milton, who was seven years younger than John, at his mother's knee. A grave, Puritanic piety was then the order of the day in the households of most of the respectable citizens of London. Religious reading and

devout exercises would therefore be the daily practice of the family. In this way a predisposition towards the serious, a regard for religion as the chief concern of life, and a dutiful love of the parents who so taught him, would be cultivated in Milton from his infancy. Happy child to have such parents; happy parents to have such a child.

Reference has already been made to the fondness of Milton's father for music. The composer of a variety of madrigals, he had also devoted his talent to harmonizing a number of the Psalms-those familiar tunes, Norwich and York, being both of them his lyrical productions. "The tenor part of York tune," says old Sir John Hawkins, "was so well known in my days, that half the nurses in England were used to sing it by way of lullaby," and the chimes of many country churches had "played it six or eight times in twentyfour hours, from time immemorial."

That his father was a man so gifted was very material to Milton. In his scheme for an improved education for children, he gives a high place to music. "The intervals of more

severe labor," he says, "might both with profit and delight be taken up in recreating and composing their travailed spirits with the solemn and divine harmonies of music heard or learned, either while the skilful organist plies his grave or fanciful descant in lofty fugues, or the whole symphony with artful and unimaginable touches, adorn and grace the wellstudied chords of some choice composer; sometimes the lute or soft organ-stop waiting on elegant voices, either to religious, martial, or civil ditties, which, if wise men and prophets be not extremely out, have a great power over dispositions and manners, to smooth and make them gentle." Of this kind of education Milton had the full advantage, and it was a source of amusement and praise which yielded him throughout the stormy phases of his life the sweetest consolation. Often as a child he must have bent over his father while composing, or listened to him as he played. Often, at evening, when two or three of his father's musical acquaintances would call, the voices. in the Spread-eagle would suffice for a little household concert. Then if one of his father's

compositions were selected, the words might

be,

"O had I wings, like as a dove,

Then should I from these troubles fly;
To wilderness I would remove,

To spend my life, and there to die."

Or perhaps the selection was the 27th Psalm, especially adapted to York, and pregnant with deep significance:

"The Lord is both my health and light,

Shall man make me dismayed?

Sith God doth give me strength and might,
Why should I be afraid?

While that my foes with all their strength,
Begin with me to bawl,

And think to eat me up at length,

Themselves have caught the fall."

Joining in the chorus with his sweet young voice, Milton became a singer almost as soon as he could speak. We can see him tottling to the organ, his tiny feet scarce able to bear their burden, and picking out little melodies by ear, and stretching his fingers in search of pleasing chords! According to Aubrey, his father taught him the whole theory of music, and made him an accomplished organist. Afterwards, when his philanthropic labors had brought upon him persecution, poverty, and

distress, when the hoarse clamors of the fickle multitude sounded ominously in his ears, the young musician, then grown old, blind, and infirm, would still, as in happier days, repair serenely to his organ

Here the sightless poet, forgetting the cares and vexations of his checkered career, peopled the dim twilight with the Seraphim and Cherubim of his august dreams. So David, flying from the vanities of earth, poured out his soul in praises to his Creator upon the psaltery and the harp. So Luther sought, in his tumultuous age, recreation and composure from his plaintive violin.

But in the most musical household, music occupies but a portion of the domestic evening; and sometimes it would not be musical friends, but acquaintances of more general or different tastes, that would step in to spend an hour or two at the Spread-eagle.

The Rev. Richard Stocke, pastor of the parish of All-hallows, was a frequent and welcome visitor. "This worthy," says Fuller, "was a