Page images
PDF
EPUB

from region to region; that they are disseminating the blessings of civilization and freedom among cities, kingdoms, and nations. Nor shall I approach unknown, nor perhaps unloved, if it be told that I am the same person, who engaged in single combat that fierce advocate of despotism, till then reputed invincible in the opinion of many, and in his own conceit, who insolently challenged us and our armies to the combat; but whom, while I repelled his virulence, I silenced with his own weapons; and over whom, if I may trust to the opinion of impartial judges, I gained a complete and glorious victory."

In 1659 Milton published his Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes, showing, that it is not lawful for any Power on earth to compel in matters of religion.'

[ocr errors]

The same year he published Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove Hirelings out of the Church; wherein is also discoursed of Tithes, Church-fees, and Church-revenues; and whether any Maintenance of Ministers can be settled by law.'

He wrote also A Letter to a Friend concerning the Ruptures of the Commonwealth;' and, 'The Present Means and Brief Delineation of a Free Commonwealth, easy to be put in practice, and without delay; in a Letter to General Monk.' In 1660 he published The ready and easy way to establish a free Commonwealth, and the excellence thereof compared with the inconveniences and dangers of re-admitting Kingship in the realm.'

6

In the same year he published' Brief Notes upon a late Sermon, titled the Fear of God, preached and since published by Matthew Griffith, D. D., and Chaplain to the late King, wherein many notorious wrestings of Scripture, and other falsities, are observed.'

I cannot help lamenting that Milton spent so many years in these bitter political and sectarian squabbles: coarser minds' would have done for that work. He was always powerful—sometimes splendid; but here his passions were human, and too often mingled with earthly dross. That magnificent and stupendous imagination must have often slept his faculties duly employed might have produced other epic poems equal to Paradise Lost' he might even have gained something more of facility and softness: other gardens of Eden might have been described, and human passions of half-etherial sublimity might have been embodied: his youthful purpose of some romantic tale of chivalry might also have been executed.

[ocr errors]

Perhaps he would never have attained to the rich profusion of Spenser; but he would have been far more nervous, gigantic, and heavenexalted in his characters and descriptions: he would have painted castles and battles and enchantments with a darker, more awful, and more prophet-like power: he would have given, by a few mighty strokes, what Spenser somewhat weakens by the expanded multiplicity of his touches. With the collected sternness of Dante, and the gloomy touches of his inspired vein, he

would have filled the imagination with something of superhuman exaltation of visionary grandeur.

What themes for a creative mind did the superstitions, manners, and traditionary tales of chivalry offer! Milton's memory was stored with this branch of literature, and delighted in it; and his faculty of sublime fiction could have added to it any ornaments he chose: but mighty as was his imagery, the spiritual part of his power was still mightier magnificence of thought and sentiment is his prime characteristic. It is his force of reflection and comment, which overcomes and electrifies us; the vast extent of his views; his comprehension, and stupendous grasp and, while he speaks as a poet, he speaks also as a sage, and a philosopher.

How would he have described the Crusades above all other poets! What endless diversity of scenery, heroism, customs, incidents, moral and intellectual character; observation, learning, opinion, reasoning, principles, would he have supplied! This would have been far superior to the story of King Arthur,' in which, perhaps, there is some mixture of childishness, unbecoming the lofty bard's austere grandeur.

6

While Milton's mind was immersed for twenty years in all those mean contests of human ambition or bigotry, in which intrigue, artifice, and selfish passions pervert and darken the heart and the head, he must have stifled those radiant visions of spiritual purity, which were his natural food and delight. A suppressed fire often turns

to poison; and perhaps it gave some embitterment to the poet's feelings: but the fire now and then blazed unexpectedly in a glorious flame amid endless pages of subtle or heavy prose.

Perhaps he would not have lost his eye-sight, if he had pored less over these controversial mysteries, dry as the dust of the barren desert. The dreams of imagination give rest to the eyes, and are brightest when the outward view is closed.

The vexatious humours with which the poet had to contend must have added to the irritable temperament of his frame. He was naturally "a choleric man," according to the report of Mrs. Powell, the mother of his first wife; and he had a scorn of mean intellects and unlearned persons. Loftiness was a prime ingredient in his disposition, as well as in his mental faculties: detraction and contumely enraged him: his opinions were strong and fixed-he would bend to no man. As he never deviated from the paths of duty he had chalked out, so opposition embittered his temper, or excited his scorn: he was not one, therefore, who could buffet in troubled waters without a great wear of his frame. He himself says, that he lost his sight "overplied in liberty's defence." This was, no doubt, true :-the sour humours of the body might, by a natural effect, disease the eyes: they were tender even in his youth.

The cause of liberty, pursued from the purest motives, if it could be separated from the constant participation of the great body who are actuated

by a love of licentiousness, and an envious desire to overturn and plunder the great and the rich, would become such a mind as Milton's: but the large mass of the active movers of that celebrated contest was of a temper, and passion, and principle utterly unfitted to the bard's holy spirit. He was blinded by his zeal in a cause in which his heart and his convictions were embarked, and he reaped the fruit of the food he sought in bitterness and sorrow: he found thorns and brambles and weeds without end, wherever he applied his sickle.

Opinions differ concerning the character of the sovereign, against whom he lifted his voice and his hand. That unhappy monarch was so placed by birth and circumstances, that perhaps the wisest man and the greatest hero could not have escaped safe, much less victorious. He had some weaknesses, of which a leading one was ductility: he was a man of elegant taste, numerous accomplishments, varied learning, with a sensitive, generous heart, and undoubted piety: he entertained some notions of kingly power, which in these days would be generally condemned; but in the times in which he imbibed and persevered in them, it would have been truly extraordinary if he had thought otherwise. The most plausible charge laid against his character is insincerity: this arose from want of firmness. He was sometimes led into momentary concessions contrary to his conviction.

The trust he put in Buckingham cannot be

« PreviousContinue »