Ainsworth—Milton as a Writer on Education. 
45 
his skill in hydrostaticks or astronomy; but his moral and prudential character 
imm.ediately appears. 
Those authors, therefore, are to be read at schools that supply most axioms 
of prudence, most principles of moral truth, and most materials for conver¬ 
sation; and these purposes are best served by poets, orators, and historians.^ 
This is rather an uncompromising statement of the case for 
humanism; and yet for this very reason it is wide of the mark as 
a criticism of Milton. For Milton himself, above all things else, 
was a humanist. His life was dominated by intellectual and spirit¬ 
ual ideals. He devoted himself, for the good of humanity, to one 
of the noblest of human endeavors—the creation of beauty in art. 
And the art to which he dedicated his great powers of intellect 
and imagination was the art of poetry; poetry, too, not conceived 
of as amusement or pastime, but inspired by the most vital prin¬ 
ciple in human nature—the religious instinct. 
One who has read Milton’s works with attention and without 
prejudice can hardly doubt that he was in fundamental agree¬ 
ment with Johnson on the question of what studies are really the 
most ^‘practical.” The general substance of Johnson’s remarks 
may be found in different passages of Paradise Lost,^^ and per¬ 
haps Milton himself, in deliberate prose, could not have stated his 
principles more faithfully than Johnson has done. 
How, then, has the conception risen that Milton’s scheme of edu¬ 
cation is materialistic? Simply through judging by the lists of 
reading alone, without sufficient attention to Milton’s own explana¬ 
tion of his purpose and method. 
Two definitions of education are an outstanding feature of the 
treatise. Near the beginning Milton says: ‘‘The end then of 
learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining 
to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to 
imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing 
our souls of true virtue, which, being united to the heavenly grace 
of faith, makes up the highest perfection. After discussing 
the mistakes of the schools and universities, he says: “ I call, there¬ 
fore, a complete and generous education that which fits a man to 
perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, both 
private and public, of peace and war.”^^ 
It is possible to see in these two definitions two distinct pur¬ 
poses, not wholly in accord with each other. The first is a religious 
^ Lives of the Poets, ed. by Waugh, 1:73-74. 
Paradise Lost, 7:111-130; 8:172-197; 12:553-587. 
^ Prose Works, 3 :464. 
^Ibid., 3:467. 
