as ———-_--~— 
JOHN MILTON 65 
gout, which at length proved fatal. On a Sunday 
night in November, 1674, he passed away so quietly 
that his friends in the room did not know when he 
died. 
“ Paradise Lost,” like Dante’s great poem, the only 
one with which it can be compared, was the outcome 
of many years of meditation. Asa young man Milton 
thought of writing an epic poem, and he took much 
time in selecting a subject. For a while the legends 
of King Arthur attracted him, as they have fascinated 
Tennyson and so many other poets. In the course 
of his studies of early British history and legend, he 
was led to write a “ History of England,” to the year 
1066, in one volume. Aftera while he abandoned this 
idea. The subject of an epic poem must be one of 
wide interest. Homer and Virgil dealt with the 
legendary beginnings of national history. Ifa national 
subject, like the Arthur legends, were not adopted, 
something of equal or wider interest must be pre- 
ferred; and the choice of the Puritan poet naturally 
fell upon the story of the “ Creation and Fall of Man.” 
The range of such a subject was limited only by that 
of the poet’s own vast stores of knowledge. No theme 
could be loftier, none could afford greater scope for 
gorgeous description, none could sound the depths of 
human experience more deeply, none could appeal more 
directly to the common intelligence of all readers in 
Christendom. Of all these advantages Milton made 
the most, and “ Paradise Lost” has been the epic of 
the Christian world, the household book in many a 
family and many a land where Puritanism has not 
otherwise been honoured. As Huxley once remarked, 
the popular theory of creation, which Lyell and Darwin 
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