JOHN MILTON, THE POET AND PATRIOT.

SOME of our young readers have heard, and we hope they all will if they live long enough, of a remarkable book called "Paradise Lost," a poem in blank verse, which describes the overthrow of satan and his angels, the creation of our world, the happiness of our first parents in the garden of Eden, and their temptation, fall, and expulsion from Paradise. It is indeed a wonderful book, and it has often excited surprise that any man could conceive such thoughts, and write them down in such beautiful language.

On the opposite page is a picture of the House in which the writer of that book lived, and the following is a brief sketch of his early life.

John Milton was born in Bread Street, in the city of London, December 9, 1608. He was descended of an ancient family of that name at Milton, near Abingdon, in Oxfordshire, where there still exists a monument of the family in the parish church. During the bloody contests between the Houses of York and Lancaster, his ancestors allied themselves to the weaker side, and nearly all the family estates were forfeited. The father of Milton was a man of considerable ability, a great proficient in music, and by profession a scrivener, or money-changer,— -an honourable occupation at that period, and one by which he speedily acquired a considerable fortune; but his parents were bigotedly attached to the Romish faith; and upon his abjuring its errors, and embracing the Protestant religion, he was disinherited by them.

Doubtless, under the instructions of a father who had suffered for conscience-sake, Milton early acquired those high views of civil and religious liberty which he advocated so strenuously throughout the whole period of his life. His mother also is said to have been "a woman of incomparable virtue and goodness," so that he enjoyed the highest advantages of domestic education and example. He early exhibited

a lively fancy, and quick powers of perception; his progress in every department of knowledge within his reach was so rapid as to outstrip the efforts of his instructors. Even at the premature age of twelve, he manifested such a thirst for learning, that it required restraint rather than encouragement, and he seldom forsook his studies till midnight.

Milton's father was himself a student at Oxford, and he early destined his son for a scholar. His education was at first pursued at home, under the care of Thomas Young, a Puritan, who was afterwards appointed chaplain to the English merchants at Hamburgh. The opinions of his tutor would tend to confirm him in the views already inculcated by his father; and this may in some degree furnish a clue to his conduct in public life.

From the instructions of his domestic tutor, young Milton passed to St. Paul's School, and from thence, at the age of fifteen, to Christ's College, Cambridge, there to acquire the higher branches of education. Even thus early he gave evidence of his poetic genius, and during the first two years of his residence at Cambridge, he composed his poem on the Gunpowder Plot, with other productions in verse, that have led an eminent critic to say of him,-" Milton's writings show him to have been a man from his childhood." There he continued his studies till he attained his twenty-fourth year; when, after taking his degree as Master of Arts, he finally quitted the University, carrying with him the esteem and admiration of all.

After visiting London for a short period, he retired to his father's estate at Horton, in Buckinghamshire, and there he spent the greater portion of the next five years of his life, occupied with the study of the ancient classics, and the finest works of modern European literature, and giving full play to all the powers of his fine intellect, amid the sweet scenes of rural retirement, a period of literary leisure and quiet domestic

JOHN MILTON, THE POET AND PATRIOT.

enjoyment, that may justly be regarded as the happiest of his life. He inherited from his father a passionate love of music, which afforded him the means of pleasing relaxation; and long after, when shut out for ever from the light of day, it solaced the declining years of the great poet.

Here he wrote several poems; and then, on the death of his mother, in 1637, he went out on travel, and visited France and Italy. At Paris he met with the learned Grotius, and visited Galileo, the astronomer, who was then confined in the dungeon of the Inquisition at Rome, for asserting that the earth moved round the sun! After fifteen months' travel he returned home, and took an active part in opposing the tyranical proceedings of Charles I. On the death of the King he became Latin Secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and was engaged in writing various public documents, of great importance, in favour of truth and freedom, during which he lost his eyesight. His great poem, "Paradise Lost," was written after he became blind. Charles II. was at length restored to the throne of his father, and Milton, who narrowly escaped a public execution, retired into obscurity.

The following story has been preserved, exhibiting this in a very characteristic manner.

The Duke of York, afterwards James II., expressed one day to the King, his brother, a great desire to see old Milton, of whom he had heard so much. The king replied that he had not the slightest objection to the duke's satisfying his curiosity; and, accordingly, soon afterwards, James went privately to Milton's house, where, after an introduction, which explained to the old republican the rank of his guest, a free conversation ensued between these very dissimilar and discordant characters. In the course, however, of the conversation, the duke asked Milton whether he did not regard the loss of his eye-sight as a judgment inflicted on him for what he had written

against the late king. Milton's reply was to this effect:-"If your Highness thinks that the calamities which befall us here are indications of the wrath of heaven, in what manner are we to account for the fate of the king, your father? The displeasure of heaven must, upon this supposition, have been much greater against him than me-for I have only lost my eyes, but he has lost his head."

Much discomposed by this answer, the duke speedily took his leave. On his return to court, the first words which he spoke to the king were, "Brother, you are greatly to blame that you dont have that old rogue Milton hanged." 'Why, what is the matter, James? Have you seen Milton ?" "Yes," answered the duke, "I have seen him." Well," said the king, "in what condition did you find him ?" "Condition?

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why he is old and very poor." "Old and poor!

Well, and he is blind, too-is he not ?" "Yes, blind as a beetle." Why, then," observed the king, “you are a fool, James, to have him hanged as a punishment: to hang him would be doing him a service; it will be taking him out of his miseries. No-if he is old, poor, and blind, he is miserable enough; in all conscience let him live."

The story is so consistent throughout, and so characteristic of the different dispositions of the parties, that it bears internal evidence of authenticity, and exhibits very strikingly the gay and gloomy malignity of the two royal brothers, Charles and James.

When one of his enemies cruelly insinuated that his blindness was a judgment on him from God, this great and noble-minded man replied:

"Let, then, the calumniators of the divine goodness cease to revile, or make me the object of their superstitious imaginings. Let them consider that my situation, such as it is, is neither an object of my shame or regret; that my resolutions are too firm to be shaken; that I am not depressed by any sense of