OPINIONS OF ON RELIGION. In what precedes we have given such particulars of the life of Milton as have been transmitted to our times. His opinions on religion, politics, and other important subjects are now to claim our attention; and it surely must be a matter of the utmost interest to ascertain what a man so eminently endowed, and so free from the restraints of authority and custom in his sentiments, thought on matters which men have agreed in regarding as those of the deepest importance. We commence naturally with the subject of Religion, the speculative portion of which so much occupied the minds of men in the centuries immediately subsequent to the Reformation. And here we have a most valuable aid in the work on Christian Doctrine, of which we have already spoken,* and which was unknown till the present century. This is in every respect a most valuable and important work, without a parallel perhaps at its time,―exhibiting the efforts of a powerful mind to arrive at truth, disregarding authority, and guided only by the rules of logic and criticism, as far as they were known *See above, p. 111. and followed at the time. It also shows the force of early prejudices, and how utterly impossible it is for even the most powerful mind totally to emancipate itself from their influence; for we shall find Milton, while fancying he is following Scripture alone, maintaining opinions which were the mere inventions of the Fathers. It is a question if it was possible, in the time of Milton, to arrive at the knowledge of the exact sense of the language of Scripture; and we are of opinion that it was not. The following are, we apprehend, the requisites for the Scriptural critic, and we will apply them to the case of Milton. 1. The first and most absolutely necessary is the sincere love of truth for its own sake, independent of the worldly advantages which may be connected with it. Nothing is more rare than this; but probably no man could lay claim to it with more justice than Milton. 2. The next is moral courage, that will set at naught the argumentum ad verecundiam; and refuse unconditional submission to the authority of Councils, Fathers, and theologians, as well knowing that infallibility belongs not to man either individually or collectively; that it is only in matters of fact that authority, when free from suspicion, is to be received; and that in matters of opinion every one is bound to produce his reasons and submit them to examination. Here too Milton will not be found wanting. 3. The third requisite is what is termed the critical sense, that power of discerning, by a delicate application of the principles of logic and grammar, what is genuine and what is not so in a work,-what is the exact meaning of a word, a phrase, or a passage. This, which in some cases is termed tact, was defective not only in Milton, but in all the scholars of his time and of the preceding century; for though, like every other mental power, it is the gift of Nature, yet there is none which has more need of example and exercise for its perfection. It would surely have amazed the contemporaries of Milton to have been told that many of the letters and speeches of Cicero are not the composition of that great orator; yet what critic since the time of Tunstall, who first discerned a portion of the truth, has had any doubt on the subject? And even Tunstall himself might wonder at finding his own principles applied, successfully we think, even to three of the orations against Catilina.* In that time also no one had any suspicion that the Ilias was not one organic piece, the product of one mind, as much as the Æneis or the Paradise Lost; while now the ablest critics are agreed to regard it as the work of more minds than one. Again, no one will say that the scholars of the present day are more, or even as familiar with the Classics as were those of Milton's time, and yet it is not presumption to assert that they understand them more completely; for knowledge of this kind, like that in natural science, is progressive, and the students of the coming centuries may elucidate passages which we deceive ourselves in fancying that we understand perfectly. All that has been said here applies with still greater force to the interpretation of Scripture, on which in the time of Milton the critical sense had only ventured to exercise itself with timidity. 4. To these internal qualities, in order to form the perfect Biblical critic, must be added what we may term the *See our note on Sall. Cat. lii. 1. Thus there are errors, as we shall show, in Milton's own translation of Horace's Ode to Pyrrha. |