But Milton, it is well known, never entered the profession here referred to, although it was to the service of the church, as he tells us,* that by the intentions of my parents and friends I was destined of a child, and in mine own resolutions, till coming to some maturity of years, and perceiving what tyranny had invaded the church, that he who would take orders must subscribe slave, and take an oath withal, which unless he took with a conscience that would retch, he must either straight perjure or split his faith, I thought it better to prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office of speaking, bought and begun with servitude and forswearing.' But that' calm and pleasing solitariness,' in which he so much delighted, was destined to be broken, and, 'put from beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies,' the poet and the scholar was ere long to 'embark in a troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes.'

The parties which rent the kingdom, were daily assuming towards each other a more menacing aspect. The resistance of the Scots, from which Milton dates the commencement of the civil war, had actually taken place, and the hum of preparation for the conflict, was becoming more audible even in England. In 1638, however, he saw so little to detain him at home, that he set out upon a visit to the continent. After a short delay at Paris, where he was introduced to Grotius, he passed into Italy, a country, which, already interwoven with his most cherished associations by its elder and its later literature, was ever after to be recurred to with

* Vol. I. of this Selection, p. 149.

b*

the fondest recollections of friendship. His personal beauty, his cheerfulness and affability, his intellectual power, his uncommon learning, and above all, perhaps, his critical familiarity with the Italian tongue and its treasures, insured him a ready reception wherever he went, and were acknowledged and praised in the manner at once most flattering to his selfestimation, and congenial to his tastes. It was in Italy he saw Galileo, then under the restraint of the Inquisition, from whom it is suspected he caught those glimpses of a better philosophy of the heavens, which are seen in Paradise Lost. In Italy, too, he became acquainted with Manso, the accomplished and virtuous Marquis of Villa, the patron of Tasso. And it was in Italy, he formed more than one friendship, that was destined to solace and cheer him when old, blind, and, as the world calls it, disgraced. From Italy, he was desirous to pass into Sicily and Greece, countries by his course of study impressed upon his imagination as deeply, and connected with his finer feelings as strongly, as that which he was about to leave. But at Naples, the melancholy news reached him from England, that the civil war had begun; and I thought it base,' he says, ' when my fellow citizens were fighting for liberty at home, that I, even for the improvement of my mind, should be travelling at my ease abroad.'* His intended visit

*'In Siciliam quoque et Græciam trajicere volentem, me tristis ex Angliâ belli civilis nuntius revocavit. Turpe enim existimabam, dum mei cives domi de libertate dimicarent, ne animi causâ, otiosè peregrinari.' Defensio Sec. Prose Works, vol. V. p. 231. I quote from what is commonly called Symmons's edition. Dr Symmons, howeyer, though his Life of Milton is prefixed to it, did not edit it.

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to the lands of Theocritus and of Homer, he therefore did not for a moment hesitate to forego, but hastening homewards, arrived in London after an absence of about fifteen months, nearly at the time when Charles renewed the war with the Scots, in which his forces were defeated by General Lesley, in August, 1639.* He took part, as it is needless to say, with those of his countrymen who were opposed to the bishops and the king; but not in arms. Relying upon God, they, indeed,' he says, 'repelled servitude with the most justifiable war; of which praise though I claim no share, I can yet easily defend myself from the charge, if any such be brought against me, either of timidity or of indolence. For I declined the toils and dangers of war, for no reason but that I might, with much more effect and not less danger to myself, assist my countrymen in another way, and show a spirit neither dejected by misfortune, nor more than justly apprehensive of calumny, or even of death. As from a child I had been devoted to the more liberal studies, and was always stronger in intellect than body, declining the labors of the camp, in which any robust common soldier would easily have surpassed me, I betook myself to those weapons with which I could do most execution, that, by bringing into action, not the inferior, but if I were wise, the better and more efficient part of my nature, I might do the utmost in my power for my country and her excellent cause.'†

* Ibid. p. 232.

Atque illi quidem Deo perinde confisi, servitutem honestissimis armis pepulêre; cujus laudis etsi nullam partem mihi vindico, à reprehensione tamen vel timiditatis vel ignaviæ, si qua infertur, facilè

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It was not immediately, however, that Milton could exert himself in the way he proposed. But as soon as the parliament, which Charles was obliged to assemble, had lessened the restraints of the press, every mouth,' he tells us, was opened against the bishops. Some -complained of their personal vices, some of the vice of the order itself. It was wrong, they maintained, that they alone should differ from all the reformed churches besides; that the church should be governed according to the example of the brethren, but, above all, by the word of God. At the sight of these things, I was indeed aroused, and when I perceived that the right way to liberty was taken, that if discipline beginning from religion held its course to the morals and institutions of the commonwealth, the advance would be direct from these beginnings, by these steps, to the deliverance of the whole life of man from slavery; as also I had taken care from my youth above all things not to be ignorant of law, human or divine, and had considered with myself whether I should ever be useful at all, if I should now be wanting to my country, to the church, and to so many brethren exposing themselves

me tueor. Neque enim militiæ labores et pericula sic defugi, ut non aliâ 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, quâ me gregarius quilibet robustior facilè superâsset, ad ea me contuli, quibus plus potui; ut parte mei meliore ac potiore, si saperem, non deteriore, ad rationes patriæ, causamque hane præstantissimam quantum maximè possem momentum accederem.' p. 199.

Ibid.

to danger for the sake of the gospel; I resolved, although I was then intent upon other objects, to bestow upon them my whole mind, the whole strength of my application.'*

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The first fruits of this resolution appeared in a piece published at London in 1641, entitled, Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England, and the Causes that hitherto have hindered it. In two Books. Written to a Friend.' In the same year, five presbyterian divines published a treatise against episcopacy, which they called An Answer to a Book, entitled, "An humble Remonstrance;" in which the Original of Liturgy and Episcopacy is discussed, and Queries propounded concerning both; the Parity of Bishops and Presbyters in Scripture demonstrated; the Occasion of their Imparity in Antiquity discovered; the Disparity of the ancient and our modern Bishops manifested; the antiquity of ruling Elders in the Church vindicated; the prelatical Church bounded. Written by Smectymnuus;' a quaint title, and a quaint device.

* Ut primùm loquendi saltem cœpta est libertas concedi, omnia in episcopos aperiri ora; alii de ipsorum vitiis, alii de ipsius ordinis vitio conqueri; iniquum esse, se solos ab ecclesiis omnibus, quotquot reformatæ sunt, discrepare; exemplo fratrum, sed maximè ex verbo Dei, gubernari ecclesiam convenire. Ad hæc sanè experrectus, cùm veram affectari viam ad libertatem cernerem, ab his initiis, his passibus, ad liberandam servitute vitam omnem mortalium, rectissimè procedi, si ab religione disciplina orta, ad mores et instituta reipublicæ emanaret, cùm etiam me ita ab adolescentiâ parâssem, ut quid divini, quid humani esset juris, ante omnia possem non ignorare, meque con, suluissem ecquando ullius usûs essem futurus, si nunc patriæ, immo verò ecclesiæ totque fratribus, evangelii causâ periculo sese objicientibus, deessem, statui, etsi tunc alia quædam meditabar, huc omne ingenium, omnes industriæ vires transferre.' Ibid. pp. 232, 233.