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"While, like the froward Miltonist,
"We our old nuptiall knot untwist:
"And with the hands, late faith did joyn,
"The bill of plain Divorce now figne."

It had been treated alfo as an (6 W errour fo grofs as to need no other confutation," than the mere mention of it. But before these remarks had been made upon a doctrine, at which the fhafts of ridicule as well as cenfure might indeed be fairly levelled, the innovation of the author had alfo been oppofed from the pulpit. The prefbyterian clergy had not only caufed him to be fummoned before the Houfe of Lords, by whom however he was quickly difmiffed ; but one of them, in a fermon before the Lords and Commons on a fast-day, had endeavoured in vain to excite their indignation against him. Milton notices this attack in the beginning of his Tetrachordon, and thanks the auditors for not repenting of what the preacher called their fin, the neglecting to brand his book with fome mark of their difpleafure. This opponent, who has been hitherto unnoticed, was Herbert Palmer, B. D. a Member of the Affembly of Divines, and parliamentary Mafter of Queen's College, Cambridge. "* If any," fays he to his judicial audience,

In "A Glaffe for the Times, &c. With a briefe Collection of the Errors of our Times, and their Authors Names. Collected by T. C. a friend to Truth. Lond. 1648." 4to. Milton and his doctrine are noticed in p. 6. T. Forde, the dramatick writer, appears to have entertained no favourable opinion of incompatibility of temper being urged as a reafon for divorce. See his letter to T. C. apparently written at the time when Milton's treatise was first published, in the collection of his Letters, 8vo. Lond. 1660, p. 103-106.

* I had examined many fingle fermons of this period, under

"plead confcience for the lawfulneffe of polygamy; (or for divorce for other causes than Chrift and his Apostles mention; of which a wicked booke is abroad and uncenfured, though deferving to be burnt, whose author hath been fo impudent as to fet his name to it, and dedicate it to yourselves,) or for liberty to marry

the hope of difcovering the author who had thus publickly attacked Milton; but without fuccefs. I am indebted to my liberal friend, James Bindley, Efq; for pointing out, after a long refearch alfo, this forgotten difcourfe; of which I will give the title: "The Glaffe of God's Providence towards his Faithfull Ones. Held forth in a Sermon preached to the two Houses of Parliament at Margaret's Westminster, Aug. 13, 1644. being an extraordinary day of Humiliation. Wherein is difcovered the great failings that the best are liable unto, &c. The whole is applyed fpecially to a more carefull obfervation of our late Covenant, and particularly against the ungodly toleration pleaded for under pretence of Liberty of Confcience. By Herbert Palmer, B. D. &c."

And yet it feems, in the Confefio Fidei of the Affembly of Divines published in 1656, that Milton's doctrine had not been entirely neglected. See Cap. xxiv. "De Conjugio et Divortio. §. 6. Quamvis ca fit hominis corruptio, ut proclivis fit ad excogitandum argumenta indebitè illos, quos Deus connubio junxit, diffociandi; nihilominus tamen extra adulterium ac defertionem ita obftinatam ut cui nullo remedio nec ab ecclefia nec à magiftratu civili fubveniri poffit, fufficiens caufa nulla effe potest conjugium diffolvendi." Conf. Fid. 12mo. Cantab. 1656, p. 65. I am indebted to Mr. Octavius Gilchrift, the ingenious editor of bishop Corbet's poetry, for the notice of the following stroke of fatire, evidently pointed at Milton, both in respect to this and to another fubject, fo late as in 1670, in the Preface to Echard's Grounds and Occafions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion; " I am not, I'll affure you, any of thofe occa fional writers, that, miffing preferment at the University, can prefently write you their new ways of education; or, being tormented with an ill-chofen wife, fet forth the Doctrine of Divorce to be truly evangelical."

incestuously, will you grant a toleration for all this?" Milton now became an enemy to the Prefbyterians, whom he before had favoured. Notwithstanding their oppofition, however, he proceeded to illuftrate his opinion more forcibly by paying his addreffes to a young lady of great wit and beauty, the daughter of one Dr. Davis, with a defign to marry her! But this defire of carrying his doctrine into practice was not countenanced by the lady. What is more remarkable, the proceeding contributed to effect a reconciliation with the difcarded wife.

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In the mean time, Milton purfued his studies with unabating vigour; and, in 1644, at the request of his friend, Mr. Samuel Hartlib, published his tractate Of Education; or plan of academical institution: in which, as he expreffes it, he leads his fcholar from Lilly to his commencing mafter of arts. Mr. Warton obferves that Milton's plan has more of fhow than value. "Education in England," Dr. Johnson has remarked, "has been in danger of being hurt by two of its greatest 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 imperfect; it gives too much to one fide, and too little to the other; it gives too little to literature." It is perhaps not generally known that Milton's treatife on this fubject has been translated

z Of this remarkable perfon the reader may find an account, written by himfelf, in Kennet's Regifter, 1728. p. 868. See alfo Mr. Warton's first edition of Milton's Smaller Poems, p. 116, &c. A Life of Hartlib is a defideratum in English biography.

a See his first edition of Milton's Smaller Poems, p. 117. Bofwell's Life of Johnfon, ed. 1799. vol. iii. p. 382.

into French. The tranflator has beftowed much

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eulogium upon the author. In the fame year, Milton published his Areopagitica, a Speech for the liberty of unlicenfed Printing: perhaps the best vindication, as Dr. Newton obferves, that has been published at any time, or in any language, of that liberty which is the bafis and support of all other liberties, the liberty of the prefs. But the candid critick adds, that it produced not the defired effect; for the Prefbyterians were as fond of exercifing the licensing power, when they got it into their own hands, as they had been clamorous before in inveighing against it, while it was in the hands of the Prelates,

"Dans les tems que nous nous propofions de donner ces Lettres au Public, il nous en eft tombé entre les mains une de Milton, qui n'a pas encore paru dans notre langue, &c.—Rien ne fait tant d'honneur à l'Angleterre que de voir que le plus grand poëte, et l'un de plus celebres philofophes [Locke], qu'elle ait eus, ont affez fenti de quelle importance étoit l'éducation des enfans, pour s'en occuper ferieufement.-Dans cette Lettre il eft aifé de s' appercevoir que ç'a été un des plus fçavans hommes qui ayent vêcu. C'est par cette vaste érudition, joint à un heureux génie, qu'il eft devenu le plus grand de tous les poëtes modernes. Auffi fon Paradis Perdu n' eft-il pas l'ouvrage de fa jeunesse: Peut-être alors en avoit-il conçu l'idée; mais avant que de l' exécuter, il avoit vêcu avec les hommes, il avoit connu l' ufage et la puiffance des paffions, il avoit l'éfprit orné de la connoiffance de toutes les fciences & de tous les arts. Sans examiner fi la maniere d'élever la jeuneffe que Milton propofe eft aisée à réduire en pratique; il eft fur que fon plan eft rempli de vûës très-fines & très-fages, & qu' il paroît contenir tout ce qui eft néceffaire pour former un citoyen utile à fa patrie & agréable à la fociété." Lettres fur L'Education des Princes. Avec une Lettre de Milton, &c. 1746. Preface, pp. lxxv, lxxix.

His father having come to live with him, after the furrender of Reading to the Earl of Effex in 1643, and his fcholars now encreafing, he required a larger houfe; before his removal to which, he was furprised, at one of his ufual vifits to a relation in the lane of St. Martin's-le-grand, to fee his wife come from another room, and beg forgiveness on her knees. The interview on her part had been concerted. The declining state of the royal caufe, and confequently of her father's family, as well as the intelligence of Milton's determination to marry again, caufed her friends to employ every method to re-unite the infulted husband and difobedient wife. It was contrived that the fhould be ready, when he came, in another apartment. Fenton, in his elegant sketch of the poet's life, judiciously remarks, that "it is not to be doubted but an interview of that nature, fo little expected, muft wonderfully affect him: and perhaps the impreffions it made on his imagination contributed much to the painting of that pathetick fcene in Paradife Loft, in which Eve addreffes herself to Adam for pardon and peace. At the interceffion of his friends who were prefent, after a fhort reluctance, he generously facrificed all his refentment to her tears:

Soon his heart relented

Towards her, his life fo late, and fole delight,

Now at his feet fubmiffive in diftrefs.'

And after this re-union fo far was he from retaining an unkind memory of the provocations which he had

1725.

Prefixed to his edition of Paradife Loft, firft published in

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