wife, who urged him to accept the office, he replied: "Ah! my dear, you are like most other females: you would be a lady and ride in a coach; my aim is to live and die an honest man."

The general feeling entertained towards the poet was, however, of the most bitter kind. The Royalists were sufficiently infamous to attribute his blindness to God's retributive vengeance. As an instance, the interview between the Duke of York, afterwards James II., and Milton may be cited. The Duke had intimated to the King, his brother, that he much desired an opportunity to see old Milton, of whom he had heard so much. Charles told the Duke that he had no objection to his satisfying his curiosity; and accordingly, shortly after, the Duke, having informed himself of the residence of the poet, went privately to his house. Milton was informed of the rank and position of his visitor, upon which a free and open conversation ensued, in the course of which the Duke took occasion to ask him whether he did not consider that the loss of his eye-sight was a judgment upon him for what he had written against the late King. Milton thus replied: "If your Highness thinks that the calamities which befall us here are indications of the wrath of Heaven, in what manner are we to account for the fate of the King your father? The displeasure of Heaven must, upon this supposition, have been much greater against him than me, for I have only lost my eyes, but he lost his head."

When the duke returned to court, which he did Commediately, feeling mach rexed at the answer which he had received, he said to the king, "Brother, you are greatly to blame that you don't have that old rogue Milton Langed." "Why," said the king, “what is the matter, James? have you seen Milton ?” "Yes," said the duke, "I have seen him." "Well,” said the king," in what condition did you find him?” "Condition! why, he is old and very poor." "Old and poor! Well, and he is blind too, is he not ?" “Yes, blind as a beetle." "Why, then," observed the king, “you are a fool, James, to have him hanged as a punishment; to hang him will be doing him a service; it will be taking him out of his miseries. No, if he is old, poor, and blind, he is miserable enough; in all conscience, let him live."

For the honour of humanity it is fortunate that Charles, and not James, then occupied the throne. Weakness, levity, folly, indolence, profligacy, and wickedness in almost every shape, were the distinguishing features of the character of Charles. He would make any sacrifice for his pleasures. It is said that, had Cromwell offered him a good pension, he would cheerfully have resigned to him his crown. James, on the other hand, was a bigot in his religion and a despot in his principles. "Some historians, however, have ascribed to him the virtues of sincerity, bravery, and frankness. His sincerity was poorly evinced, when, in spite of reiterated promises to preserve the

religion and liberties of the people, his whole reign exhibited the most scandalous violations of both. His bravery, though less questionable than his sincerity, was as poorly illustrated at the Battle of the Boyne, where, instead of being the last, he was the first to set an example of flight." Had the historian now to record of him that he was accessory to the death of Milton, universal execration would for ever follow the mention of his name.

Milton, however, came to his end without violence, although he had been frequently threatened during his life. On the 12th of November, 1674, he expired so peacefully that the attendants in his chamber were not aware of the precise hour of his departure. His remains were interred beside those of his father in a vault in Cripplegate Church. His funeral was attended "by all the author's great and learned friends in London, and not without a friendly concourse of the vulgar.”

Dr. Johnson, in summing up the character of Milton as an epic poet, says, "The highest pride of genius is original invention. Milton cannot be said to have contrived the structure of an epic poem, and must, therefore, yield to that vigour and amplitude of mind to which all generations must be indebted for the art of poetical narration, for the texture of the fable, the variation of incidents, the interposition of dialogue, and all the stratagems that surprise and chain attention. But of all borrowers from Homer, Milton is perhaps the least indebted to him. He was

naturally a thinker for himself; confident of his own. abilities, and disdainful of help or hindrance, he did not refuse admission to the thoughts or images of his predecessors, but he did not seek them. From his contemporaries he neither courted nor received support; there is in his writings nothing by which the pride of other authors might be gratified or favour gained; no exchange of praise nor solicitation of support. His great works were performed under discountenance and in blindness; but difficulties vanished at his touch; he was born for whatever is arduous, and his work is not the greatest of heroic poems, only because it is not the first.”

K

THE INTERVIEW BETWEEN ANDREW

MARVELL AND DANBY, THE LORD

THE

TREASURER.

man that attains dignity, position, and eminence from a lowly origin, demands and secures for himself the esteem and admiration of all men ; provided always that that position has been won by honest and laudable means. Such a man certainly is entitled to a greater share of respect than pedigree could have bestowed, and stands higher in the order of moral beings than the name of any father could have placed him.

The honest patriot, Andrew Marvell, is a singularly apposite example. He was the son of a clergyman, who sent him, after a preparatory education, to Trinity College, Cambridge. Here, however, like many other young men, he was perverted to the Romish Church by some Jesuits, who took him to London, where, in a bookseller's shop, he was found by his father, who again conveyed him back to college, and soon reconciled him to the faith he had renounced.

His father was subsequently drowned while crossing the Humber. The interesting circumstances