495 
M I L T O N. 
the young fludent into fcience and language by the fame 
procefs, and to make an acquaintance with things the im¬ 
mediate result of an acquaintance with words. Between 
the years of twelve and twenty-one, the pupil is to be led 
through various languages from grammar to ethics, logic, 
rhetoric, politics, law, theology, criticifm, and the prac¬ 
tice of compofition. Geography was to exhibit to him 
the furface of the globe, and the principles of afironomy 
were to unfold to him the heavens ; natural philofophy, 
comprehending anatomy and phyiiology, was to make him 
converfant with the phenomena of nature, and with the 
wonders of his own frame ; the mathematics were to in¬ 
troduce him to the fciences of architecture, engineering 
or gunnery, fortification ai?d navigation. With this kind 
of education, Milton’s pupil was to be accomplifhed, and 
fit for any duty to which his country might fummon him, 
in the pulpit or at the bar, in the fenate or the field. 
During the courfe of thefe ltudies, the body of the Itu- 
dent was to receive its due fhare of cultivation, to be 
maintained in health by temperance, and to be invigo¬ 
rated by exertion. This little piece is written in an ea- 
fier and purer ftyle than the preceding works of its au¬ 
thor ; but of its practical value little idea is entertained 
at prefent. “ Education in England,” fays Dr. Johnfon, 
“ has been in danger of being hurt by two of its greatelt 
men, Milton and Locke. Milton’s plan is impracticable, 
and I fuppofe has never been tried. Locke’s, I fancy, 
has been tried often enough, but is very imperfeft.” 
A more favourable judgment will be palled on another 
compofition, produced nearly at the fame time, by the 
fame pen, and addreffed to the parliament, with the title 
of “ Areopagitica, or a Speech for the Liberty of unli- 
cenfed Printing.” The prelbyterians, on their riling into 
power, forgot the principles which they had profelied in 
their adverfity ; and, declaring againlt unlimited tolera¬ 
tion, difcovered, by their readinefs to violate the rights 
of others, that their tendernefs w’as only for their own. 
Againlt thefe apofiates to the caufe of liberty, Milton 
advanced as the champion of free difculfion j and the ef- 
feft of his zeal in this inltance, for theinterefis of genuine 
liberty, has received the unanimous acclamation of the 
world. 
Though his controverfial and other engagements had 
for fome time fufpended the exertion of his poetical ta¬ 
lents, yet he did not fuller his character as a poet to fink 
into oblivion ; and, in 164.5, he publilhed his juvenile 
poems in Latin and Englilh. In 1646, Milton’s wife pro¬ 
duced her firlt child ; and in the following year, in which 
his father died, the Powells returned to their own manlion, 
and his houfe was refigned once more to literature. In 
this houfe, in which his fecond daughter Mary was born, 
he did not continue long, but exchanged it for one of 
lmaller dimenfions in High Holborn. 
Milton’s principles of the origin and end of govern¬ 
ment, carried him to a full approbation of the trial and 
execution of king Charles; and, in order to conciliate 
the minds of the people, which were agitated by the out¬ 
cries, as well of the prelbyterians as the loyalifis, againlt 
that aft, he publilhed early in 1649, a work, entitled 
“ The Tenure of Kings and Magifirates ; proving that it 
is lawful, and that it hath been fo held through all ages, 
for any who have the power, to call to account a tyrant 
or wicked king, and, after due conviftion, to depole and 
put him to death, if the ordinary magiltrate have negleft- 
ed or denied to do it.” He loon after attempted to fup- 
port the new order of things, by a pamphlet animadvert¬ 
ing upon the revolt of the Scotch Prelbyterians, fettled at 
Belfalt, from the parliament. With the view of preferv- 
ing the republican fpirit of the nation, he alfo employed 
himlelf in compoling “ A Hillory of England” from the 
earlieft periods ; but left the work unfinilhed. His pro- 
grel's was Hopped by appointment of Latin fecretary to 
the council of ltate. 
Scarcely was Milton feated in his new office, when he 
was fummoned by the government to the dilcliarge of a 
y.OL. XV. No. 1052. 
duty well adapted to the extent of his powers* and one 
of confiderable importance; it was to write an anfwer to 
the famous royal work, as it was then l'uppofed to be, en¬ 
titled “ Icon Bcjilike, or the Portraiture of his l'acred 
Majefiy in his folitudes and fufferings.” Milton chofe 
for the title of his work “ Iconoclaftes, or Image-breaker.” 
This piece, fays his biographer, Dr. Symmons, “ may be 
regarded as one of the molt perfeft and powerful of Mil¬ 
ton’s controverfial compofitions. Prelfing clolely on its 
antagonilt, and tracing him Hep by Hep, it either expofes 
the fallacy of his reafoning, or the falfehood of his afier- 
tions, or the hollownefs of his profelfions, or the conve¬ 
nient fpecioufnefs of his devotion. In argument, and in 
Hyle comprefled and energetic, perfpicuous and neat, it 
diicovers a quicknefs which never mifles an advantage, 
and a keennels of remark which carries an irrefiftible edge ” 
This work was firfi printed in 1649, and a fecond edition 
of it appeared in the following year ; it was publilhed 
again in London in 1652, in a French tranllation ; and was 
anfwerecl in 1651 in a work entitled “ Icon-aclaftos, or the 
Image unbroken and alfo forty years afterwards in an¬ 
other piece, called Vindicice Carolina;. 
On the appointment of Milton to the office of Latin 
fecretary, he removed to a lodging at Charing Crofs, and 
afterwards to apartments in Scotland Yard. Here his 
wife prefented him with a third child, a fon, who died in 
his infancy. In 1652 he changed his refidence to Petty 
France,, were he occupied for eight years, till the criiis of 
the relloration, a handlome houfe opening into St. James’s 
Park. Scarcely had he finilhed his reply to the Icon Bali- 
like, than he was called upon to juftify the principles of 
the commonwealth in England, in oppolition to Salmafius 
an honorary profeHor in the univerfity of Leyden, who 
had been hired by Charles II. to write a work in favour 
of the royal caufe, which he entitled Defenjio Rc»ia_ Sal¬ 
mafius was _a powerful antagonifl ; and the'contefi was'to 
be decided in a more ample field than that in which Milton 
had engaged with the Icon Bafilike. The powers of his 
mind were now to be exhibited to Europe, and the whole 
circle of the civilized and ChriHian community was to 
witnefs his triumph or defeat. In 1651, he performed the 
talk allotted him in a work under the title of Defenjio pro 
Populo Anglicano. In this he exercifed all the powers of 
Latin rhetoric, as well to jufiify the republican party, as 
to confound and vilify the celebrated fcholar againlt whom 
he took up his pen ; and by it, notwithfianding the party- 
virulence, with which, by thecufiom of the times, it was 
debafed, he acquired a high reputation both at home and 
abroad. He was vifited on the occafion by all the foreign 
ambafladors then in London, was complimented by fede¬ 
ral eminent fcholars on the continent, and received, as a 
remuneration for his labours, a thoufand pounds from the 
Englilh government. His book was generally read by li¬ 
terary enquirers of all parties ; while, on the other hand, 
the work of Salmafius was condemned and iupprelfed by 
the Hates of Holland. One l'ource of triumph arofe to 
Milton’s enemies; in conlequence of this controverfv, 
his intenfe application to lludy deprived him of that light/, 
which had been for lome years declining. His phydcians* 
had warned him, that the exertion neceflary to accom- 
pliffi fuch a work would probably induce total blindnefs ; 
but his attachment to the public caufe of his country and 
the world made him readily iubmit to any privations 
which were merely perlonal, fo that he might render that 
fervice which the exigencies of the times required. 
His intellectual powers, however, iuH'ered no diminu¬ 
tion from this abridgment of the feniitive faculties ; and 
he purfiued, without intermiffion, both his official and 
controverfial employment.' In 1652 a book was publilhed 
at the Hague, entitled “ Regii languinis clamor ad Cce- 
lum adverfus parricidas Anglicanos ;” the author was 
Peter Moulin the younger. Milton replied to it in his 
“ Defenlio iecunda pro Populo Anglicano.” In this was 
a high panegyric upon Cromwell, who had now aflfimed 
the l'upreme power with the title of Protector. “ Milton’s 
5 k iubfervience 
