head were woven with a web, however closely fastened, "he went away with both the pin of the beam and the web." He dispatched with almost infinite ease all the sophistry, and learning, and opprobrium employed by the bishops and others to bind and afflict him:

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Who single combatant

Duel'd their armies rank'd in proud array,
Himself an army, now unequal match
To save himself against a coward arm'd
At one spear's length. O ever failing trust

In mortal strength! And oh! what not in man
Deceivable and vain ?"*

But on this subject of divorce, oh! how weak are
his struggles, how nerveless his arguments, how
pettish his temper, how peevish his language! The
weakest of his opponents, in this controversy, were
his match, more than his equal; and like Samson
too, he does not appear to have been aware that
"the Lord had departed from him!" That he
who had treated the Fathers with such contempt
should now have appealed to them; and even to
an apocryphal writer for support! That so pow-
erful a mind should have rested an argument in
relation to positive law, upon the shifting ground
of expediency!
Oh! what merriment it must
have afforded to his enemies to see this mental
giant bound with fetters of brass, and grinding
in the prison house of Gaza! And how must
he have been annoyed by the noise of the "owls,

* Samson Agonistes.

Alas!

and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs!"
that he should have been entirely ignorant of the
ungodly temper which he was himself manifest-
ing, and of the erroneous and inconsistent prin-
ciples which he was pleading. Is it not surpris-
ing that he could not see his own face in the
mirror of his own transparent lines upon this sub-
ject? namely, those

"That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,
And still revolt when truth would make them free;
Licence they mean when they cry Liberty;

For who loves that, must first be wise and good."

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COWPER, though a bachelor, understood this subject of "Domestic Duties," better than MILTON the married man! In his inimitable little piece, entitled “ Mutual forbearance necessary to the Marriage state;" he has in fine satire exposed the trifling circumstances which often lead to 66 jar and tumult, and intestine war." He there says, in his own best manner:

"Alas! and is domestic strife,

That sorest ill of human life,
A plague so little to be feared,
As to be wantonly incurred,
To gratify a fretful passion,
On every trivial provocation?
The kindest and the happiest pair
Will find occasion to forbear;
And something, every day they live,
To pity, and perhaps forgive."

It appears most evident to me, that in regard to his treatment of his wife, MILTON was neither "wise nor good;" and that he unconsciously, while pleading with the parliament to grant him "domestic liberty," was seeking a "license" to absolve him from the just and equitable restraints of the laws of God and man. And oh! what a closing scene, when his obstinate wife, rather than see her place occupied by another, bathed in tears, falls at the feet of her still inexorable husband, supplicating his forgiveness! It was well for both parties that "his hair had begun to grow again after he had been shaven;" rather that his God had mercifully returned to him, and stirred up the generosity of his nature to forgive his humbled companion, who seems to have at last consented to receive forgiveness upon the condition of being obliged to accept a kind of servitude at home below the dignity of a woman!" And this domestic lord received to his bosom a slave, instead of an equal! At all events, I rejoice that they were again reconciled, and that our English SAMSON had afterwards sufficient strength, as he evinced in his Defences of the People of England, by removing the two pillars of passive obedience and non-resistance, to pull down the temple of despotism upon the lords of the Philistines!

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The first of the before-named elaborate works,

on this most painful and humiliating subject, as has been mentioned, he dedicated "To the Parliament of England, with the Assembly of Divines at Westminster." He thus commences his appeal: "If it were seriously askt, (and it would be no untimely question, renowned Parliament, select Assembly,) who, of all teachers and masters that ever have taught, hath drawn most disciples after him, both in religion and manners, it might not be untruly answered-Custom. Though Virtue be commended for the most persuasive in her theory, and Conscience, as the plain demonstration of the spirit, finds most evincing; yet, whether it be the secret of divine will, or the original blindness we are born in, so it happens, for the most part, that Custom still is silently received for the best instructor. You it concerns chiefly, worthies in Parliament, on whom, as on our deliverers, all our grievances and cares, by the merits of your eminence and fortitude are devolved; me it concerns next, having, with much labour and faithful diligence, first found out, or at least, with a fearless and communicative candour, first publisht, to the manifest good of Christendom, that which, calling to mind every thing mortal and immortal, I believe unfainedly to be true. Let not other men think their conscience bound to search continually after truth, to pray for enlightenings from above, to publish what they think they have

G

so attained, and debar me from conceiving myself tied by the same duties."

Having asserted that the inviolability of marriage had no other law but custom, he then states, in few words, the arguments of his opponents, founded upon the practice of divorces having been permitted by Moses, though not sanctioned by the law of God. "This," he says, "is the common doctrine, that adulterous and injurious divorces were not connived only, but, with eye open, outlaw'd of old for hardness of heart. But that opinion, I trust, by this following argument hath been well read, will be left for one of the mysteries of an. indigent Antichrist to farm out incest by, and those his other tributary pollutions. The superstition of the Papist is, touch not, taste not, when God bids both; and ours is part not, separate not, when God and charity both permit and command. 'Let all your things be done in charity,' saith St. Paul; and his Master saith, 'she is the fulfilling of the law;' yet now a civil, an indifferent, a somewhat dissuaded law of marriage must be forc't upon us to fulfil, not only without charity, but against her. No place in heaven or earth, except hell, where charity may not enter; yet marriage, the ordinance of our solace and contentment, the remedy of our loneliness, will not admit now of either charity or mercy to come in, and mediate or pacifie the fierceness of this gentle or