His success was the undertaking;

'from Lilly,' as he expresses it, to the time of his commencing Master of Arts.' answerable to his capacity for and in this kind of scholastic solitude he continued for some time: but his academical studies did not lead him to remain an indifferent spectator of what was acting upon the public theatre of his country.

The nation being in a great ferment in 1641, and the clamor against episcopacy running extremely high, Milton, who discovered how much inferior in eloquence and learning the Puritan ministers were to the Bishops, engaged warmly with the former in the support of their common cause, and exerted all the powers of reason and learning to overthrow the National Establishment. The effects of his controversial power upon this occasion were five tracts on the subject of Church-Government, of which four were published in London in the course of a single twelvemonth: the Apology for Smectymnuus,' with which he closed the controversy, was the production of the following year.

In the year 1643, Milton married Mary, the eldest daughter of Richard Powell, Esq. of Forest Hill in Oxfordshire. This lady had not resided with her husband much more than a month, when she procured an invitation from her father to pass the summer

* The first was entitled, Reformation touching ChurchDiscipline in England, and the Causes that have hitherto hindered it. In Two Books: written to a Friend:' The second was, Of Prelatical Episcopacy,' against Archbishop Usher: The third, The Reason of Church-Government urged against Prelacy, in Two Books:' The fourth, Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence against Smectymnuus;' and the last,' An Apology for Smectymnuus.'

with her friends at his house: and the indulgence of her husband allowed her to accept the invitation, on her promise of returning to him at Michaelmas. In the mean time, he applied himself closely to his studies; and his chief amusement was an occasional visit in the evening to Lady Margaret Ley, daughter of the Earl of Marlborough, Lord High Treasurer of England, and President of the Privy Council under James I. This Lady, possessing an excellent understanding, took great delight in his conversation, and with her husband Captain Hobson showed him particular respect. Milton's sense of her merit and her politeness is discovered in a Sonnet, which he addressed to her, and which is preserved with his other poems.

At the appointed time he expected the return of his wife, and on her failing to come, wrote a letter to her; but without obtaining an answer. Repeated applications failing to overcome her silence, he sent her a special messenger upon the subject, whom she instantly dismissed with contempt. For this extraordinary conduct Milton's biographers have assigned various reasons; but it seems most probable, that she had conceived a dislike to her husband's retired and philosophic mode of life, which offered a striking contrast to the gayety of her father's affluent and social mansion. Whatever was the cause of it, he was so highly incensed at her conduct, that he resolved to repudiate her; and published upon this occasion his Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' to prove that indisposition, unfitness, or contrariety of mind proceeding from any unchangeable cause in nature, hindering and ever likely to hinder the main benefits of conjugal society, which are solace

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and peace, are greater reasons of divorce than adultery or natural frigidity, especially if there be no children, and there be mutual consent for separation.' This piece was, at first, given to the world anonymously; but the stile betraying it's author, he printed with his name a second edition of it, and dedicating it to the Parliament of England and the Assembly of Divines, desired that the subject might be taken into serious consideration.' On the promulgation of this novel doctrine, he was warmly attacked from the press; and, in his defence, published Martin Bucer's opinions on divorce, as supporting and sanctioning his own. To answer other objections likewise, which represented his opinions as anti-scriptural, he produced, in 1645, his Tetrachordon, or Expositions upon the Four Chief Passages in Scripture' (Gen. i. 27, 28. Deut. xxiv. 1, 2. Matt. v. 31, 32. and 1 Cor. vii. 13-16.) which treat of marriage and nullities of marriage. Of these publications the Assembly of Divines so highly disapproved, that they summoned the writer before the House of Lords; but by them he was dismissed, without even a reprimand. In reply to two pamphlets, which appeared against him, one entitled Divorce at Pleasure,' and the other An Answer to the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' he drew up his Colasterion,' and here ended the contest. Resolved to evince his sincerity at least upon this subject, he now proceeded to pay his addresses to a young lady and regarding himself as wholly freed from his former matrimonial engagement, would undoubtedly have solemnised his second nuptials; if the decisiveness of his conduct had not alarmed his first wife and her relations, and induced them to be

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anxious for a re-union. The mode and management, by which this was effected, were remarkable. As he was visiting at the house of a relation, of the name of Blackborough in St. Martin's le Grand, it was contrived (with the concurrence of that gentleman, who was friendly to the plan) that Milton's wife should be in an adjacent room; and, when he was quite unaware of such a circumstance, he was surprised by seeing her on her knees before him, with tears imploring his forgiveness. At first, he discovered a resolution to resist: but his firmness presently yielded; and the intercession of friends speedily procured an entire reconciliation, and an oblivion of the past. In his own words respecting Eve,

· Soon his heart relented

Toward her, his life so late and sole delight,
Now at his feet submissive in distress."

His generous behaviour to his wife's father and the rest of her family, whom he took under his protection after their royalist friends were ruined, does great honour to his character. He entertained them all at his own house, till through his interest their estate and effects were restored to them by the parliament. In 1646, his wife bore him a daughter, and it appears that they subsequently lived very happily together.

About this time, his zeal for the republican party had so far recommended him, that a design was formed for making him Adjutant General in Sir William Waller's division; but the new-modelling of the army proved an obstruction to the accomplishment of the measure. Soon after the march of Fairfax and Cromwell through the city, in order to sup

press the insurrection which Brown and Massey were endeavouring to raise against their proceedings, he quitted his large house in Barbican for a smaller in High Holborn, where he prosecuted his studies till after the trial and execution of Charles I. He, then, published his Tenure of Kings and Magistrates;' to prove that it is lawful, and hath been held so through all ages, for any persons, who have the power, to call to account a tyrant or wicked king, and after due conviction to depose and put him to death, if the ordinary magistrates have neglected or refused to do it.' In the same year, 1649, appeared his Observations on the Articles of Peace between James Earl of Ormond for King Charles I. on the one hand, and the Irish Rebels and Papists on the other hand; and a Letter sent by Ormond to Colonel Jones, Governor of Dublin; and a Representation of the Scotch Presbytery at Belfast in Ireland.'

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He was now admitted into the service of the Commonwealth, and was appointed Latin Secretary to the Council of State, who had resolved neither to send nor to receive letters but in the Latin tongue, as a language common to all nations.* He was employed however not only as Latin Secretary, but likewise as a political writer; for the famous Eikon Basilike, or Royal Image,' reputedly composed by Charles I. in his own vindication, having made it's appearance soon after his death, Milton was requested to draw up an answer to it; a service, which he performed in a publication entitled Eikonoclastes, or the ImageBreaker.' In 1651, he published his Pro Populo

*Upon the propriety of this decision, and the folly of continuing to use the French language in diplomacy, Eustace in his Classical Tour' descants with equal justness and patriotism.