While Milton's occupation, as a teacher, Nec sinit optatas posse sequi tenebras? Light, and unfever'd with excess, I send The circling glass, the winter's joyous blaze, At tu siquid agam scitabere, (si modo saltem Dona quidem dedimus Christi natalibus illa, preserved his familiarity with many of the Roman and Greek authors, and was, consequently, not without its use to him, it was not permitted to interfere with what he conceived to be his duties as a citizen, and with that patriotic object, which had recalled him from the shores of Sicily and Greece. Determined, from his first acquaintance with the struggles of his country, to devote himself to her service, he did not hesitate with respect to the part in which he was to act. Con Illa sub auroram lux mihi prima tulit. But thou, should interest, kind or curious, bend, And new born stars, and fanes with their dumb idols A solemn tribute on his natal day Or ere the point of dawn I framed the lay. And thee, my friend, awaits the English strain: Thy critic ear shall judge, nor I recite in vain. The reader need not be informed that, in these lines, Milton alludes to his ode on Christ's nativity. The expressions, in italics, are borrowed from the ode. scious of his own proper strength, and sensible that genius, armed with knowledge, was a power of far greater and more extensive efficiency than the bodily force of any individual, he decided in favour of the pen against the sword; and stationed himself in the closet, where he was himself an host, rather than in the field, where every muscular common man would be his superior. This is substantially the account which we have from himself; and the motives of his conduct must obtain our approbation as honourable and wise.' The long Parliament was now assembled as the representative of a nation, irritated and alarmed by very flagrant abuses of power у "Atque illi quidem Deo perinde confisi, servitutem honestissimis armis pepulere: cujus laudis etsi nullam partem mihi vindico, à reprehensione tamen vel timiditatis vel ignaviæ, siqua infertur, facilè me tueor. Neque enim militiæ labores et pericula sic defugi, ut non alia ratione, et operam, multò utiliorem, nec minore cum periculo meis civibus navarim, et animum dubiis in rebus neque demissum unquam, neque ullius invidiæ, vel etiam mortis plus æquo metuentem præstiterim. Nam cùm ab adolescentulo humanioribus essem studiis, ut qui maximè deditus, et ingenio semper quàm corpore validior, posthabitâ castrensi operâ, qua me gregarius quilibet robustior facilè superasset, ad ea me contuli, quibus plus potui; ut parte mei meliore ac potiore, si saperem, non deteriore, ad rationes patriæ, causamque hanc præstantissimam, quantum maximè possem momentum accederem." in the civil and in the ecclesiastical department. The king's violent conduct to his four former parliaments, with his unrelenting imprisonment of their members, one of whom had died under the length and rigours of the confinement; his violent attempts to govern by prerogative alone; his arbitrary exactions in violation of all law, and the severe sentences, with which his council and his courts abetted and enforced his injudicious despotism, had alienated all the orders of the com Relying on the assistance of God, they, indeed, repelled servitude with the most justifiable war; and though I claim no share of their peculiar praise, I can easily defend myself against the charge, (if any charge of that nature should be brought against me,) of timidity or of indolence. For I did not for any other reason decline the toils and the dangers of war than that I might in another way, with much more efficacy, and with not less danger to myself, render assistance to my countrymen, and discover a mind neither shrinking from adverse fortune, nor actuated by any improper fear of calumny or of death. Since from my childhood I had been devoted to the more liberal studies, and was always more powerful in my intellect than in my body, avoiding the labours of the camp, in which any robust common soldier might easily have surpassed me, I betook myself to those weapons, which I could wield with the most effect; and I conceived that I was acting wisely when I thus brought my better and more valuable faculties, those which constituted my principal strength and consequence, to the assistance of my country, and her most honourable cause." Defen. Sec. P.W. vol. v. 199. z Sir John Elliot expired from the severity of his treatment in prison. munity, and had made them ripe for resistance and innovation. The despotism of the leaders of the church party had walked side by side with that of the court; and their rigorous persecution of the Puritans, which was offensive to the feeling of the humane, and to the moderation of the liberal, had excited the fears and the jealousies of the wise. The power of the episcopal courts had every where been urged into unusual animation and energy by the superintendance and ineitement of the formidable High-Commission; and almost every diocese had witnessed scenes of rigour similar to those which had disgraced and exasperated the capital. In this tender state of things, when Milton perceived that his country was proceeding resolutely to assert her liberty, he imagined that he was complying with a necessary duty, and was taking his proper part in the promotion of the common cause, by engaging, for ecclesiastical freedom, with the bishops. The church of England, at this unfortunate crisis, could boast, among her prelates, of a Williams, a Davenant, a Hall, and an Usher;-men illustrious for their talents, eminent by their learning, amiable for their |