MILTON 



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MILTON 



plained bitterly when called on to read to their 

 father, and they even went so far as to sell 

 some of his most valued books without his 

 knowledge. Elizabeth Minshull proved a de- 

 voted wife, and Milton's last years were passed 

 in peace and comfort. 



After the Restoration. After the return to 

 power of the royalist party, Milton narrowly 

 escaped the fate which other prominent sup- 

 porters of Cromwell met. The last years of his 

 life were spent in retirement and were devoted 

 to the composition of a work for which he had 



MILTON'S HOME 



This building stands in Chalfont Saint Giles, 

 little changed in appearance since 1665, when Mil- 

 ton fled to it from London to escape the plague. 

 In this cottage he wrote Paradise Lost. 



been planning for many years. He had con- 

 sidered several great themes before he finally 

 fixed on Paradise Lost as the subject of the 

 sublime epic which he published in 1667. Writ- 

 ten in a style of impressive grandeur, this work 

 represents such colossal figures as Satan and 

 his fallen angels and the hosts of God engaged 

 in conflict. Paradise Regained, a second epic, 

 and Samson Agonistes, a tragedy which follows 

 closely Greek models in construction, show a 

 decline of Milton's power. These were both 

 published in 1671, and three years later oc- 

 curred the poet's death. He was buried in 

 Saint Giles's Church, Cripplegate, London. 



His Literary Rank. Milton's literary life di- 

 vides, itself naturally into three parts: the pe- 

 riod spent at Horton, that in which he was 

 actively in politics, and that of his final retire- 

 ment. In the first period he reached a height 

 of lyric excellence which not only he himself 

 never attained again, but which few, if any, 

 other English poets have reached. The prose 

 works of the second period are elegant in style, 

 and must have been powerful in effect in their 

 time, but they are often biased in sentiment and 

 violent in tone. They were of such nature, 



moreover, as to rouse little interest beyond 

 their own day. A number of sonnets are the 

 best products of this second period, that On His 

 Blindness ranking with the greatest of English 

 sonnets. In the epics the delicate beauty and 

 airy grace of the early poems are largely re- 

 placed by majesty and sublimity, in which he 

 was unsurpassed. All in all, he is entitled to 

 a rank among English poets second only to 

 Shakespeare. 



Among well-known quotations from Milton 

 may be given the following: 



Where glowing embers through thfc room 

 Teach light to counterfeit a gloom. 



Where more is meant than meets the ear. 



And storied windows richly dight, 

 Casting a dim, religious light. 



Peace has her victories 

 No less renown' d than war. 



They also serve who only stand and wait. 



C.W.K. 



Consult Jenks' In the Days of Milton ; William- 

 son's Milton; Woodhull's The Epic of Paradise 

 Lost. 



MILTON, MASS., a town of Norfolk County, 

 which played an interesting part in the dra- 

 matic history of Revolutionary times. On the 

 summit of Great Blue Hill, the highest of the 

 Blue Hills, which lie almost entirely within the 

 limits of Milton, huge signal fires were kindled 

 to announce to the people events of special 

 interest and importance. The repeal of the 

 Stamp Act, the adoption of the Declaration of 

 Independence, the surrender of Burgoyne and 

 of Cornwallis and other similar events were so 

 heralded, and the patriots came to have a spe- 

 cial affection for the Great Blue Hill. To-day 

 its summit, 635 feet above sea-level, is crowned 

 with a meteorological observatory. 



The town, which is now a residence suburb 

 of Boston, was founded in 1640 and given the 

 Indian name of Uncataquissett. It was origin- 

 ally a part of Dorchester, but was incorporated 

 separately in 1662 and given the name of Mil- 

 ton, either because some of its prominent men 

 came from Milton Abbey, in England, or be- 

 cause it had gristmills and paper mills, Milton 

 being a shortened form of Milltown. To-day 

 the manufacturing industries include the mak- 

 ing of chocolate, paper and crackers ; the raising 

 of garden stuff, which finds a ready market in 

 the near-by city of Boston, and the quarrying 

 of granite. Milton is six miles from Boston, on 

 the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- 

 road, and had in 1910 a population of 7,924. 



