hand at that) says, that "such was his malignity that Hell grew darker at his frown." What an impartial inquirer may think of the malignity of the Doctor, I leave to you and others to determine; but, I confess, without being so uncharitable as to apply his own elegant quotation to himself, I think it apparent that party feeling has quite as much misled him as Milton; and I am compelled to observe that the only excuse or solution I can find for his mode of treating Milton, is the consciousness of the severe blows, and powerful assaults, made by him on some of the Doctor's favourite notions of civil and ecclesiastical government.

His next works related to a subject of a domestic nature; for Milton, like some other great men, was unhappy in his first affections. His wife deserted him scarcely a month after their marriage, her family being Royalists; and he then maintained in several works of different titles, but all bearing on this point, the lawfulness of Divorce under such circumstances. His doctrine is "that indisposition, unfit

ness, or contrariety of mind, arising from a cause in nature, unchangeable, hindering, and ever likely to hinder the "main benefits of conjugal society, which are solace and peace, is a reason of divorce, especially if there be no chil"dren, and that there be mutual consent." But he protests against being understood to mean, "that licence and levity, "and unconsented breach of faith, should herein be coun"tenanced"; but only "that some conscionable and tender "pity might be had of those who have unwarily, in a thing 66 never practised before, made themselves the bondmen of luckless and helpless matrimony," and brought upon themselves "a drooping and disconsolate household cap"tivity, without refuge or redemption." This doctrine is to my mind impracticable here,* even if it were not danger

“

a

*The Theodosian code permitted the dissolution of marriage by consent; and in the German States, a magistrate has the power of dissolving the matrimonial tie, for the reasons assigned by Milton. A philosophical observer of that country has pointed out the peculiar causes which there prevent the evils that would arise in other countries from this facility of divorce. In Madame De Staël's work on Germany, and in her chapter on 'Women,' she observes: "On ne sauroit le nier, la facilité du divorce dans les provinces protestantes porte atteinte à la sainteté du mariage. On y change aussi "paisiblement d'epoux que s'il s'agissoit d'arranger les incidents d'un drame. "Le bon naturel des hommes et des femmes fait qu' on ne méle point d'amer

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as

ous and impolitic, and almost certain to produce much more moral evil than it would cure; but it must be confessed, that all which learning and argument can do in support of it, is to be found in these books of Milton. I shall only read one extract from them, they are purely controversial, and relate to a subject which, however interesting to us all, ladies as well as gentlemen, would not, I fear, procure the illustrious author much favour, especially from the former, for his views.— Most of us will probably agree that the circumstances which Milton contended justify, and ought to permit divorce, should have been looked at by him, and should be looked at by others, before and not after marriage; and we shall, probably, assent to the soundness of the observations made by Lord Stowell on this subject, in the course of delivering that one of his admirable judgments, to which the general opinion of his profession assigns the first place in judicial oratory. His Lordship says:*

"The Law has said that married persons shall not be separated on the mere disinclination of one or both to live "together. The disinclinations must be founded on reasons "such as the Law approves. To vindicate its policy is no "necessary part of the duty of a Judge; but if it were, it "would not be difficult to show that the Law has in this

respect acted with its usual wisdom and humanity; with "that true wisdom, and that real humanity, which regards "the general interests of mankind. For, though in parti"cular cases, the repugnance of the Law to dissolve the

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tume à ces faciles ruptures, et comme il y a chez les Allemands plus d'imagi"nation que de vraie passion, les évènements les plus bizarres s'y passent avec une tranquillité singulière-cependent c'est ainsi que les mœurs et le caractère "perdent toute consistance, l'esprit paradoxal ébranle les institutions les plus "sacrées, et l'on n'y a sur aucun sujet les regles assez fixes." And in the following chapter,‘On the influence of the Spirit of Chivalry upon Love and Honour,' she observes, the Germans " se croient plus engagés par les affections que par les devoirs. Ce que nous avons dit sur la facilité du divorce, en est

la preuve; chez eux l'amour est plus sacré que le mariage. Cést par une "honourable délicatesse sans doute qu'ils sont surtout fidèles aux promesses que "les lois ne garantissent pas." But Madame De Staël, notwithstanding the experience of Germany, delivers her opinion in the sentence immediately succeeding, that the security of the laws should be adopted,-" mais celles que ** les lois garantissent sont plus importantes pour l'ordre social."

* In the case of Evans v. Evans, reported in the 1st vol. of Dr. Haggard's Consistory Reports.

"matrimonial obligations, may operate with great severity "on individuals, yet it must be carefully remembered that "the general happiness of the married life is secured by its "indissolubility."

But though we may be inclined to agree with the great Judge, that an unhappy marriage is one of those cases in which the exigencies of society and the general good require the sacrifice of individual feelings and interests; and imperatively demand of those who have entered into matrimony, without that mutual sympathy which alone can ensure mutual happiness, that they must suffer under the inconveniences which they have produced for themselves; yet I think we shall all equally agree in the view of that holy union which Milton has described with his usual force and beauty of language. In the 6th chap. of the first book of the Treatise on the " Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce," he thus opens

Fourthly, Marriage is a covenant the very being whereof consists not in a forced cohabitation, and counterfeit performance of duties, but in unfeigned love and peace; and of matrimonial love no doubt but that was chiefly meant, which by the ancient sages was thus parabled; that love, if he be not twin-born, yet hath a brother wondrous like him, called Anteros; whom while he seeks all about, his chance is to meet with many false and feigning desires, that wander singly up and down in his likeness: in their borrowed garb, Love, though not wholly blind, as poets wrong him, yet having but one eye, as being born an archer aiming, and that eye not the quickest in this dark region here below, which is not Love's proper sphere, partly out of the simplicity and credulity which is native to him, often deceived, embraces and consorts him with these obvious and suborned striplings, as if they were his mother's own son; for so he thinks them, while they subtelly keep themselves most on his blind side. But after, as his manner is, when soaring up into the high tower of his Apogeum, above the shadow of the earth, he darts out the direct rays of his then most piercing eyesight, upon the impostures and trim disguises that were used with him, and discerns that this is not his genuine brother as he imagined; he has no longer the power to hold fellowship with such a personated mate: for strait his arrows lose their golden heads, and shed their purple feathers-his silken braids untwine, and slip their knots-and that original and fiery virtue, given by fate, all on a sudden goes out, and leaves him undeified and despoiled of all his force; till finding Anteros at last, he kindles and repairs the almost faded ammunition of his deity, by the reflection of a coequal and homogeneal fire. Thus mine author sung it to me:

and, by the leave of those who would be counted the only grave ones, this is no mere amatorious novel (though to be wise and skilful in these matters, men heretofore of greatest name in virtue, have esteemed it one of the highest arcs, that human contemplation circling upwards can make from the globy sea whereon she stands) but this is a deep and serious verity, showing us that love in marriage cannot live nor subsist unless it be mutual; and where love cannot be, there can be left of wedlock nothing but the empty husk of an outside matrimony, as undelightful and unpleasing to God as any other kind of hypocrisy."

:

Such is his poetical description in his Prose work, and so thoroughly imbued was his mind with these principles of marriage, that throughout the "Paradise Lost" he describes the state of our first parents with this view: thus the 5th book opens with this charming description of Adam's love

"Now morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sow'd the earth with orient pearl,-
When Adam waked, so custom'd, for his sleep
Was aery-light, from pure digestion bred,
And temp'rate vapours bland, which the only sound
Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan
Lightly dispersed, and the shrill matin song
Of birds on every bough; so much the more,
His wonder was to find unwaken'd Eve
With tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek,
As through unquiet rest-he on his side
Leaning half raised, with looks of cordial love
Hung over her enamour'd, and beheld
Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice
Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
Her hand soft touching, whisper'd thus: Awake,
My fairest, my espoused, my latest found
Heav'n's last best gift, my ever new delight,
Awake: the morning shines, and the fresh field
Calls us; we lose the prime, to mark how spring
Our tender plants, how blows the citron grove,
What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed,
How nature paints her colours, how the bee
Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet."

And in another part (B. iv, 1. 641) he puts sentiments of equal tenderness and truth into the mouth of Eve—

"Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet
With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun,
When first on this delightful land, he spreads
His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,

Glistening with dew; fragrant the fertile earth
After short showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild-then silent night
With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon
And these the gems of heav'n, her starry train :
But neither breath of morn, when she ascends
With charm of earliest bird, nor herb, fruit, flower
Glistening with dew, nor fragrance after showers;
Nor grateful evening mild-nor silent night
With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon,
Nor glittering starlight, without thee is sweet."

Here are pictures of exquisite elegance and pathos !— Here is an accumulation of all lovely things in natural scenery, wrought up with the highest poetic genuis, but brought before our view, only to show us the far greater beauty and intenser interest of conjugal tenderness and moral feeling!

I must mention, in justice to Milton, that when his wife expressed regret for her misconduct, and requested permission to return to him, he received her to his home, and during the troubles which ensued, supported her family: which may serve to convince the incredulous of his good feeling and sincerity.

In 1644 we find his "Tractate, or Treatise, on Education," of which the whole tone and tenour are full of the nervous, bracing, manly spirit of its author, although it may contain suggestions, some of which are impracticable, and others undesirable. Whilst I admit them to be so, I claim for this work, notwithstanding, the merit of bearing the impress of a high and independent soul, deeply anxious for the elevation of youth, by implanting in their minds and feelings principles of "true generous breeding," and of a different kind indeed to what were then, and are even too frequently now, regarded as the only possible ones, fitted for controul instead of direction. The 'Science' of Education, let us remember, was then quite in its infancy, nay, did not exist. Seventy or eighty years afterwards, Locke followed Milton in the all important attempt to reform the system of instruction throughout the land, and his philosophic work it is impossible to read without admiration; but it is only of late years that the science of