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His father, after Reading was taken by Effex, came to refide in his houfe; and his fchool increased. At Whitfuntide, in his thirty-fifth year, he married Mary, the daughter of Mr. Powel, a justice of the peace in Oxfordshire. He brought her to town with him, and expected all the advantages of a conjugal life. The lady, however, feems not much to have delighted in the pleasures of spare diet and hard ftudy; for, as Philips relates," having for a month led a philofophic "life, after having been used at home to a great house, "and much company and joviality, her friends, poffibly 66 by her own defire, made earnest suit to have her coin66 pany the remaining part of the fummer; which was "granted, upon a promise of her return at Mi"chaelmas."

Milton was too busy to much mifs his wife: he pursued his studies; and now and then visited the Lady Margaret Leigh, whom he has mentioned in one of his fonnets. At laft Michaelmas arrived; but the Lady had no inclination to return to the fullen gloom of her husband's habitation, and therefore very willingly forgot her promife. He fent her a letter, but had no anfwer; he fent more with the fame fuccefs. It could be alleged that letters mifcarry; he therefore difpatched a meffenger, being by this time too angry to go himself. His meffenger was fent back with fome contempt. The family of the Lady were Cavaliers.

In a man whofe opinion of his own merit was like Milton's, lefs provocation than this might have raised violent refentment. Milton foon determined to repudiate her for disobedience; and, being one of those who could eafily find arguments to justify inclination,

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published (in 1644) The Doctrine and Difcipline of Divorce; which was followed by The Judgement of Martin Bucer, concerning Divorce; and the next year, his Tetrachordon, Expofitions npon the four chief Places of / Scripture which treat of Marriage.

This innovation was oppofed, as might be expected, by the clergy, who, then holding their famous affembly at Westminster, procured that the author fhould be called before the Lords; "but that Houfe," fays Wood, "whether approving the doctrine, or not "favouring his accufers, did foon difmifs him."

There feems not to have been much written against him, nor any thing by any writer of eminence. The antagonist that appeared is ftyled by him, a Serving man turned Solicitor. Howel in his letters mentions the new doctrine with contempt; and it was, I fuppofe, thought more worthy of derifion than of confutation. He complains of this neglect in two fonnets, of which the first is contemptible, and the fecond not excellent.

From this time it is obferved that he became an enemy to the Prefbyterians, whom he had favoured before, He that changes his party by his humour, is not more virtuous than he that changes it by his intereft; he loves himself rather than truth.

His wife and her relations now found that Milton was not an unresisting fufferer of injuries; and perceiving that he had begun to put his doctrine in practice, by courting a young woman of great accomplishments, the daughter of one Doctor Davis, who was however not ready to comply, they refolved to endeavour a reunion. He went fometimes to the house of one Blackborough, his relation, in the lane of St. Martin's-leGrand, and at one of his ufual vifits was furprifed to

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fee his wife come from another room, and implore forgiveness on her knees. He refifted her intreaties for a while; "but partly," fays Philips, "his own ge

nerous nature, more inclinable to reconciliation than "to perfeverance in anger or revenge, and partly the 66 ftrong interceffion of friends on both fides, foon "brought him to an act of oblivion and a firm league "of peace." It were injurious to omit, that Milton afterwards received her father and her brothers in his own houfe, when they were diftreffed, with other Royalifts.

He published about the fame time his Areopagitica, a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of unlicenfed Printing. The danger of such unbounded liberty, and the danger of bounding it, have produced a problem in the fcience of Government, which human underftanding feems hitherto unable to folve. If nothing may be published but what civil authority fhall have previously approved, power must always be the ftandard of truth; if every dreamer of innovations may propagate his projects, there can be no fettlement; if every murmurer at government may diffufe difcontent, there can be no peace; and if every fceptick in theology may teach his follies, there can be no religion. The remedy against these evils is to punish the authors; for it is yet allowed that every fociety may punish, though not prevent, the publication of opinions, which that fociety fhall think pernicious; but this punifhment, though it may crush the author, promotes the book; and it feems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unreftrained, because writers may be afterwards cenfured, than it would be to fleep with

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doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief.

But whatever were his engagements, civil or domestic, poetry was never long out of his thoughts. About this time (1645) a collection of his Latin and English poems appeared, in which the Allegro and Penferofo, with fome others, were first published.

He had taken a larger house in Barbican for the reception of scholars; but the numerous relations of his wife, to whom he generously granted refuge for a while, occupied his rooms. In time, however, they went away; "and the house again," fays Philips, "now looked like a house of the Mufes only, though "the acceffion of fcholars was not great. Poffi"bly his having proceeded fo far in the education of "youth, may have been the occafion of his adverfaries "calling him pedagogue and school-mafter; whereas "it is well known he never fet up for a publick school, "to teach all the young fry of a parish; but only was "willing to impart his learning and knowledge to "relations, and the fons of gentlemen who were his "intimate friends; and that neither his writings nor "his way of teaching favoured in the leaft of pe❝dantry."

Thus laboriously does his nephew extenuate what cannot be denied, and what might be confeffed without difgrace. Milton was not a man who could become mean by a mean employment. This, however, his warmest friends feem not to have found; they therefore shift and palliate. He did not fell literature to all comers at an open fhop; he was a chamber-milliner, and measured his commodities to his friends.

Philips, evidently impatient of viewing him in this state of degradation, tells us that it was not long continued; and, to raise his character again, has a mind to inveft him with military fplendour: "He is much "mistaken," he fays, "if there was not about this "time a defign of making him an adjutant-general in "Sir William Waller's army. But the new-modelling "of the army proved an obftruction to the defign." An event cannot be fet at a much greater distance than by having been only defigned, about fome time, if a man be not much mistaken. Milton fhall be a pedagogue no longer; for, if Philips be not much mistaken, fomebody at fome time defigned him for a foldier.

About the time that the army was new-modelled (1645) he removed to a smaller houfe in Holbourn, which opened backward into Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. He is not known to have published any thing afterwards till the King's death, when, finding his murderers condemned by the Prefbyterians, he wrote a treatise to justify it, and to compose the minds of the people.

He made fome Remarks on the Articles of Peace bebetween Ormond and the Irish Rebels. While he contented himself to write, he perhaps did only what his confcience dictated; and if he did not very vigilantly watch the influence of his own paffions, and the gradual prevalence of opinions, firft willingly admitted and then habitually indulged; if objections, by being overlooked, were forgotten, and defire fuperinduced conviction; he yet fhared only the common weakness of mankind, and might be no lefs fincere than his opponents. But as faction feldom leaves a man honeft, however it might find him, Milton is fupected of hav