JOHN MILTON. 525 



royal cause) was unshaken, though the alternative was either the loss of 

 my sight, or the desertion of my duty ; and I called to mind those two 

 destinies which the oracle of Delphi announced to the son of Thetis : 



" Two fates may lead me to the realms of night ; 

 If staying here, around Troy's walls I right, 

 To my dear home no more I must return, 

 But lasting glory will adorn my urn. 

 But if I withdraw from the martial strife IL. ix. 



I considered that many had purchased a less good by a greater evil 

 the meed of glory by the loss of life ; but that I might procure great good 

 by a little suffering; that though I am blind, I might discharge the most 

 honourable duties, the performance of which, as it is something more 

 durable than glory, ought to be an object of superior admiration and 

 esteem. I resolved, therefore, to make the short interval of sight which 

 was left me to enjoy, as beneficial as possible to the public interest/ 

 Early in the year 1651, out came ' Something in Answer to the Book of 

 Salmasius' the immortal ' Defence of the People of England' the most 

 costly won and brilliant achievement in the annals of controversy. 



" It is allowed by all that the triumph of Milton was decisive, and the 

 humiliation of his adversary complete. Salmasius, like another Milo, but 

 without his strength, attempted to rive the British oak, and his presump- 

 tion was rewarded by a fate equally miserable and ridiculous. Great was 

 the advantage which, in all encounters, Milton had over his enemies, in the 

 consistency of his moral and political character. ( I again invoke the Al- 

 mighty to 'witness, that I never, at any time, wrote any thing which I did 

 not think agreeable to truth, to justice, and to piety. Nor was I ever 

 prompted to such exertions by the influence of ambition, by the lust of 

 lucre, or of praise ; it was only by the conviction of duty, and the feeling 

 of patriotism, a disinterested passion for the extension of civil and religious 

 liberty.' " 



The " Defence of the People of England" may be considered as a 

 continuation or second part of the " Tenure of Kings and Magis- 

 trates/' No higher praise can be given to this work than to say 

 that the continuance is worthy of the commencement. It is the last 

 of Milton's writings the last work which he wrote with his own 

 hand. Before the end of the year in which he completed it, he 

 became quite blind. The English version (for Milton provided only 

 the Latin original) is ascribed to Mr. Washington, a gentleman of 

 the Temple. 



The " Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes" is more re- 

 markable for the display of a mystic theology, than for any definite 

 circumscription of the rights of the magistrate to legislate concerning 

 religion. The encroachments of the state on the church form the 

 objects of Milton's jealousy : he was no disciple of Hobbes. 



The likeliest means to remove hirelings out of the church are, in 

 Milton's opinion, to withdraw wholly the salaries of preachers. This 

 plan of leaving religion to its own resources has been admirably de- 

 fended by Adam Smith, in his fifth book (art. 3.) of the " Wealth of 

 Nations." Milton denies the moral obligation of the Sabbath, and 

 thinks every tenth day as proper as every seventh. He recommends 

 to inculcate religion by the occasional mission of itinerant preachers ; 

 and to leave the intervening perpetuation of it to lay-elders, who are 

 to be provided with homilie and liturgie books. Surely in all this 



M.M. No. 107. 3 Y 



