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It has been faid, that Milton refembled · his own Adam in the comeliness of his

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fill more in much nobler endowments, and particularly in uniting great tenderness of heart to equal dignity of mind. Soon after he had pardoned, and lived again with his wife, he afforded an afylum, in his own houfe, to both her parents, and to their numerous family. They were active royalifts, and fell into great diftrefs by the ruin of their party: these were the perfons who had not only treated Milton with contemptuous pride, but had imbittered his existence for four years, by inftigating his wife to perfift in deferting him. The mother, as Wood intimates', was his greateft enemy, and occafioned the perverfe conduct of her daughter. The father, though fumptuous in his mode of life when he first received Milton as his fon-inlaw, had never paid the marriage portion of a thousand pounds, according to his agreement, and was now ftript of his property by the prevalence of the party he had oppofed. On perfons thus contumelious and culpable towards him, Milton bestowed his favor and protection. Can the records of private life exhibit a more magnanimous example of forvigeness and beneficence ?

At the time of his wife's unexpected return, he was preparing to remove from Alderfgate to a larger house in Barbican, with a view of

increafing the number of his fcholars. It was in this new manfion that he received the forgiven penitent, and provided a refuge for her relations, whom he retained under his roof, according to Fenton, to Fenton, till their affairs were accommodated by his intereft with the victo"rious party.

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They left him foon after the death of his father, who ended a very long life, in the year 1647, and not without the gratification, peculiarly foothing to an affectionate old man, of beftowing his benediction on a grand-child; for, within the year of Milton's re-union with his wife his family was increased by a daughter, Anne, the eldeft of his children, born July 29th, 1646. When his apartments were no longer occupied by the guefts, whom he had fo generoufly received, he admitted more fcholars; but their number was small, and Philips imagines, that he was induced to withdraw himfelf from the bufinefs of education by a profpect of being appointed adjutant general in Sir William Waller's army whatever might have been the motive for his change of life, he quitted his large house in Barbican for a fmaller in Holborn, among those ( fays his nephew) that "open bakwards into Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he lived, according to the fame author, in great privacy, and perpetually engaged in a variety of ftudies.

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Three years elapfed without any new publication from his pen; a filence which the various affecting occurrences in his family would naturally produce. In 1649 he published The Tenure of Kings and Magiftrates; and in his fummary account of his own writings, he relates the time and occafion of this performance. He declares, that without any perfonal malevolence against the deceased monarch, who had been tried and executed before this publication appeared, it was written to compofe the minds of the people, difturbed by the duplicity and turbulence of certain prefbyterian minifters, who affected to confider the fentence againft the king as contrary to the principles of every protestant church, "a falfhood ( fays Milton) which, without "inveighing againft Charles, I refuted by the "teftimony of their most eminent theologians". "

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*Tum vero tandem cum prefbyteriani quidam miniftri. Carolo prius infeftiffimi, nunc independentium partes fuis anteferri, & in fenatu plus poffe indignantes, parliamenti fententiæ de rege lata (non facto irati, fed quod ipforum factio non feciffet) reclamitarent, & quantum in ipfis erat tumultuarentur, aufi affirmare proteftantium doctrinam, omnefque ecclefias reformatas ab ejufmodi in reges atroci fententia abhorrere, ratus falfitati tam aperta palam cundem obviam effe, ne tum quidem de Carolo quicquam fcripti aut fuafi, fed quid in genere contra tyrannos liceret, adductis haud paucis fummorum theologorum teftimoniis, oftendi; & infignem hominum meliora profitentium, five ignorantiam five impudentiam prope concionabundus inceffi. Liber ifte non nifi poft mortem regis prodiit, ad componendos potius hominum animos

His obfervations on the articles of peace between the Earl of Ormond and the Irifh papists appeared in the fame year; a performance that he probably thought too inconfiderable to enumerate in his own account of what he had publifhed; it includes, however, fome remarkably keen strictures on a letter written by Ormond, to tempt Colonel Jones, the governor of Dublin, to defert the Parliament, who had intrusted him with his command. Ormond, having imputed to the prevailing party in England a defign to establish a perfect Turkish tyranny, Milton, with great dexterity, turns the expreffion against Ormond, obferving, that the defign of bringing in that tyranny is a monarchical defign, and not of those who have diffolved monarchy. "Witness (fays he) that confultation "had in the court of France, under Charles "the IXth, at Blois, wherein Poncet, a certain court projector, brought in fecretly by the "chancellor Biragha, after many praifes of the "Ottoman government, propofes ways and means at large, in the prefence of the king, "the queen regent, and Anjou the king's bro"ther; how, with beft expedition and leaft noise, "the Turkish tyranny might be fet up in France." I transcribe the paffage as an example of Milton's applying hiftorical anecdotes with peculiar felicity.

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factus, quam ad ftatuendum de Carolo quicquam, quod non mea, fed magiftratuum intererat, & peractum jam, tum erat -Prose Works, vol. ii, p. 385.

He now began to employ himself in one of the great works, with which he hoped to enrich his native language. The sketch that he has drawn of himfelf and his ftudies, at this period, is fo interefting and honorable, that it would be injurious not to tranflate the Latin expreffions to which I allude,

"Thus, (fays Milton) as a private citizen, "I gratuitoufly gave my affiftance to the church "and state; on me, in return, they beflowed "only the common benefit of protection; but "my conduct affuredly gave me a good con"fcience, a good reputation among good men, "and this honorable freedom of difcourfe: others

Hanc intra privatos parietes meam operam nunc ecclefiæ, nunc reipublicæ, gratis dedi; mihi viciffim vel hæc vel illa præter incolumitatem nihil; bonam certe confcientiam, bonam apud bonos exiftimationem, & honeftam hanc dicendi libertatem facta ipfa reddidere : commoda alii, alii honores gratis ad fe trahebant; me nemo ambientem, nemo per amicos quicquam petentem, curiæ foribus affixum petitoris vultu aut minorum conventuum veftibulis hærentem nemo me unquam vidit. Domi fere me continebam; meis ipfe facultatibus, tametfi hoc civili tumultu magna ex parte fæpe detentis, & cenfum fere iniquius mihi impofitum & vitam utcunque frugi tolerabam. His rebus confectis, cum jam abunde otii exiftimarem mihi futurum, ad hiftoriam gentis ab ultima origine repetitam ad hæc ufque tempora, fi poffem, perpetuo, filo deducendam me converti: Quas tuor jam libros abfolveram, cum ecce nihil tale cogitantem me Caroli regno in rempublicam redacto, concilium ftatus quo dicitur cum primum authoritate parliamenti conftitutum ad fe vocat, meaque opera a ad res præfertim externas uti voluit. Profe Works, vol. ii. p. 386.

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