Targum," and they read some chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel in Syriac. He also instructed them in mathematics and astronomy, the latter, we fear, on the Ptolemaic system. It must be mentioned to his praise, that he did not neglect the modern languages, for he gave them instructions in both French and Italian; yet here too he adopted the same perverse course, for the book which he read with them in Italian was the Florentine History of Giovanni Villani, and, in French, a great part of Pierre Davitz, the famous geographer of France in his time. A very laudable portion of his course must not be omitted. Every Sunday his pupils read a chapter of the New Testament in Greek, which he then expounded to them; a less useful part was their writing, from his dictation, a portion of a system of divinity which he had compiled from the writings of Fagius and other theologians.

In his treatment of his pupils, Aubrey says, "As he was severe on one hand, so he was most familiar and free in his conversation to those whom he must serve in the way of education ;" an account likely enough to be the truth. He set them an example of hard labour and spare diet; but once in every three or four weeks he used to relax and give himself a day of indulgence with some young gentlemen of his acquaintance, "the chief of whom were Mr. Alphry and Mr. Miller, the beaux of those times, but nothing near so bad as those nowadays," writes Phillips after the Revolution; "with these gentlemen he made so far free with his body as now and then to keep a gaudy day."

* The works named by Phillips are: "Uestitius his Arithmetic, Riff's Geometry, Pitiscus his Trigonometry, and Johannes De Sacro Bosco De Sphæra."

It has never seemed to enter into the mind of any of Milton's biographers to inquire how he, a single young man, could have kept house with such a number of pupils. Neither Phillips nor Aubrey gives a hint on the subject; but the most probable and rational supposition would be, that he had engaged some pious and respectable matron to act as his housekeeper and manager, and relieve him from domestic cares.*

Johnson, who omits no occasion of showing his hostility to Milton, who differed so very widely from him in religion and politics, and whose views in both, if not more correct and practical, were as much more elevated as those of a great poet should be over those of a mere moralist,―sneeringly inquires, what man of eminent knowledge and talents proceeded from "this wonderworking academy." As this objection goes on the theory of man's being the mere creature of education, it is a sufficient reply to observe, that such is not the case, that doctrina sed vim promovet insitam is the truth, and that if nature has not given the original powers, no teacher can bring them into existence. We have however no reason to suppose that Milton's pupils were not superior to what they would have been, if educated at one of the great public schools. Phillips very candidly and justly observes: "If his pupils had received [i. e. had been capable of receiving] his documents with the same acuteness of wit and apprehension, the same industry, alacrity, and thirst after knowledge, as the instructor was

* This view appears to be confirmed by a record in the Exchequer (quoted by Mr. Hunter, p. 25) of the names, etc., of the inhabitants of the ward of Aldersgate, in 1641, in which occurs "Jo. Milton, Gent., Jane Yates his servant," and she is the only servant whose name is mentioned, perhaps as being of a higher order.

indued with, what prodigies of wit* and learning might they have proved!"†

While Milton was thus engaged in training the mind of youth, and instilling into it principles of piety and virtue, the civil and religious despotism under which men had groaned for years reached its close. The monarch, foiled in his efforts to impose this double yoke on his northern subjects, found it necessary to call a Parliament; and on the 3rd of November, 1640, the Long Parliament met at Westminster. Soon were seen Strafford and Laud, the great upholders of the twin despotism, the one perishing on the block, the other a close prisoner in the Tower. Men now might speak and write without danger; and Milton was one of the first to break the silence. In the early part, as it would appear, of 1641, he published a treatise named Of Reformation in England, and the Causes that hitherto have hindered it; in two books, written to a Friend. In this same year the learned and excellent Hall, Bishop of Norwich, published, at the request of Laud, An humble Remonstrance in favour of Episcopacy; which institution Milton had vigorously assailed. To this an answer was written under the title of Smectymnuus (a word composed out of the initials of their names), by five Puritan ministers. Archbishop Ussher, renowned for learning and integrity, then published in reply, The Apostolical Institution of Episcopacy; and Milton, whose former tutor

Wit at that time, and perhaps down to the middle of the eighteenth century, retained its original Anglo-Saxon sense of mind, talent, and answered to the French esprit.

Aubrey says, that in a year's time he made his nephews capable of interpreting a Latin author at sight.

Stephen Marshall, Edward Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spenstow. The w in this last was resolved into two us.

and friend was one of the Smectymnuans, again buckled on his controversial armour, to engage this doughty champion of prelacy. He published in reply to him, first, a treatise Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and then The Reasons of Church Government urged against Episcopacy. Bishop Hall now produced a defence of his Remonstrance in reply to Smectymnuus; on which Milton wrote Animadversions. Such was the state of the controversy at the close of the year 1641. In the following year appeared an anonymous reply to the Animadversions, under the title of A Modest Confutation against a Slanderous and Scurrilous Libel, written, as was generally believed, by a son of Bishop Hall's. As in this very intemperate production Milton's private character was assailed, he took occasion to vindicate it in his reply named An Apology for Smectymnuus. With this the controversy terminated. The question which had occupied it, namely the divine origin and the authority of Episcopacy, had been by this time settled in a somewhat different manner by the Parliament.

We do not conceive ourselves to be called on to enter into this controversy, or to give any opinion on the subject. In learning Ussher, in wit and literary talent Hall, were, in Milton's own opinion, superior to their antagonists, and therefore, he says, he came to their aid. But such controversies are to be decided neither by learning nor by wit; the truth is only to be arrived at by the application of just rules of logic and sound principles of interpretation; things never in much favour with controversialists we must confess, and never less so than at that time, when he who could bring into the field the largest park of book-artillery and of authorities was generally regarded as the victor.

Milton thus gives his reasons for engaging in the controversy. "As soon as liberty, at least of speech, began to be conceded, all mouths were opened against the bishops; some complained of the faults of the men, others of those of the order itself, and that we alone differed from all the other Reformed churches, and said that the Church ought to be guided after the example of our brethren, but chiefly after the Word of God. Aroused at this when I saw the true path to liberty taken, and men proceeding in the best manner from this beginning, with these steps, to free from servitude the whole of human life, if a discipline originating in religion should flow to the manners and institutions of the Commonwealth; when even from my younger days I had so prepared myself that above all things I should not be ignorant of anything relating to divine or human laws, and had asked myself if ever I should be of any use if I were now wanting to my country, nay, rather to the Church and to so many brethren who were exposing themselves to danger for the sake of the Gospel,-I resolved, although I was then meditating some other things, to transfer hither all my mental power and industry."

It would appear that it was toward the end of this year, when the royal forces had advanced to Brentford, that Milton wrote his sonnet "Captain or Colonel," etc.

The year 1643 found Milton at rest from religious controversy, and only occupied with his pupils. We may now therefore suppose him to be revolving in his mind the great poetic work of which he had already given so many intimations, particularly that splendid one in the Apology for Smectymnuus; his daily and

*Defensio Secunda.