a political as well as a literary side, and was intended to further the cause of his party as it existed in 1825.

As Macaulay takes for granted a knowledge of the life and times of Milton, it is advisable, before reading the essay, to read the following brief account of Milton's life.

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John Milton was born in Cheapside, London, Dec. 9, 1608. His father was a scrivener in prosperous circumstances, and lived with his family in London until Milton left home for Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1624-25. Here, where he studied for seven years, four as undergraduate, and three as a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts, his intellectual preeminence was quickly acknowledged. He showed signs of his poetical genius by composing, besides many Latin rhetorical pieces in verse, several English poems, the chief among which are the Ode on the Death of a Fair Infant, the beautiful Christmas ode On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, and the celebrated sonnet On Arriving at the Age of Twentythree.

Milton's father had meanwhile retired from business and gone to live at the little village of Horton, not far from Eton. Here Milton went upon quitting the University. He had been educated with a view of taking Holy Orders; but being unwilling to take the necessary oaths, he turned his thoughts for a moment, first to the law, and then to literature. He, therefore, decided to settle quietly at Horton, and remained with his father until 1638. During these six years he wrote L'Allegro and Il Penseroso,

which are said by Mr. Leslie Stephen to be the most perfect record in the language, of the impression made by, natural scenery upon a thorough scholar." Here, too, he wrote the famous masque of Comus, which was performed in 1634, and the last of the great poems of his youthful period- Lycidas (1637), - the grandest elegy in the English language. Of this early poetry, Mr. Stephen says, "It would by itself entitle him to the front rank in our literature, and has a charm of sweetness which is absent from the sublimer works of his later years."

The politics of England were at this time much disturbed. Charles I., daily making himself more unpopular, had continually quarreled with Parliament, and had decided to do without its assistance, and to take over the entire government into his own hands. Laud and Strafford were his advisers and his tools; and the High Church and ritualistic doctrines of the one, and the persecutions and intrigues of the other, forced a spirit of discontent and revolt upon all parties not entirely agreeing with them. The Puritans, the Presbyterians, the Independents, all murmured against the want of a Parliament and against this ritualistic tendency, which threatened to bring the Church of England under the supremacy of Rome. Such was the condition of affairs when, in 1638, Milton left England for a sixteen months' tour through France and Italy.

Upon his return to England he found politics even worse than before, and almost immediately turned his at

tention from poetry and higher literature to ecclesiastical controversies. Charles, in attempting to force Episcopacy upon Scotland, soon roused the whole 'country to the verge of civil war. Attacks upon Episcopacy were immediately forthcoming, and the struggle was continued for some time by means of pamphlets and books, many of which were written by Milton, who devoted twenty years to this kind of political and ecclesiastical warfare. All these pamphlets are characteristic of the man. They breathe throughout a vehemence of passion which distorts the style, perplexes the argument, and disfigures his invective with unworthy personalities." From their spirit and tone, it is clear that Milton was at the time in favor of the Root and Branch Reformers," as the staunchest Presbyterians were called.

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Toward the end of 1642 the great Civil War broke out; the war between the Parliamentarians, taking the part of the majority of the House of Commons, on one side, and the Royalists, supporting the King and the majority of the nobles, on the other. Milton was, of course, a Parliamentarian. Unfortunately disputes arose among the Parliamentarians themselves, which divided their forces.

On Nov. 24, 1644, Milton published the best and most popular of his prose works, the Areopagitica, or Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, a noble defense of the freedom of the press. From this work and from other writings, it is evident that Milton was now siding with the

Independent branch of the Parliamentary party. The Presbyterian Scots and Charles had come to terms on condition that he would establish universal Presbytery in England, and allow no toleration. This infuriated the Independents, who finally captured the King and marched him triumphantly to London. Charles, however, escaped to the Isle of Wight, where he plotted with the Presbyterians to put down the Independents if he should regain the throne.

Civil War.

Thus in 1648 began the second part of the The Scots marched into England, but were met and defeated at Preston by Cromwell and his invincible army. Charles was brought from the Isle of Wight, tried at London by a High Court of Justice, and executed Jan. 30, 1649.

Then began a republican form of government for England, to which Milton lent his full support, defending it and the conduct of the army in a treatise called The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. He was rewarded for his services by the appointment of Latin Secretary to the Council of State,' in which position he conducted the foreign and diplomatic correspondence of the Commonwealth with great credit. At this time he was also employed by the new government to defend it against the written attacks of its enemies. There appeared a book, called Eikon Basilike (The Royal Image), said to have been written by the late King Charles, though now known to have been the work of another, containing the thoughts and prayers of the King during his imprisonment.

The government was well aware that this work, by its pathetic tone, was likely to make an unfavorable and dangerous impression on the minds of many who already were beginning to regret the execution of Charles, and it consequently employed Milton to write a reply. This he did in a work entitled Iconoclastes (The Image Breaker). In 1650 Salmasius published in Holland a work in defense of Charles, called Defensio Regis. This, too, Milton was requested to answer, and he replied in 1651, in his Defensio Populi Anglicani.

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Strange as it may appear, Milton, an adherent of the Parliamentary party, had, in 1643, married the daughter of a Cavalier,—Mary Powell, a girl of only seventeen. The two were ill matched in tastes, in disposition, and in age, and the girl soon growing tired of Milton's philosophical life, returned to her father. Her conduct and the separation set Milton to writing on divorce, and he produced a work in which he held that indisposition, unfittness, or contrariety of mind, arising from a cause in nature unchangeable," is amply sufficient reason for divorce. 1645, however, when the Royalists had been ruined and the Powells among them, Mary was persuaded to return to her husband who, after some doubts, was finally induced to receive her. They lived together after this until 1652, when she died, leaving Milton with three daughters.

In

By his continual application to study and by his incessant writing, Milton had so weakened his eyes that in