Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains.
Help us to save free conscience from the paw
Of hireling wolves, whose Gospel is their maw.

XVII.

TO SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.

VANE, young in years, but in sage counsel old,
Than whom a better senator ne'er held

The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled
The fierce Epirot, and the African bold,

Whether to settle peace, or to unfold

The drift of hollow states hard to be spelled;
Then to advise how war may best upheld
Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold,

In all her equipage; besides, to know

Both spiritual power and civil, what each means,

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What severs each, thou hast learned, which few have
done.

The bounds of either sword to thee we owe :
Therefore on thy firm hand Religion leans
In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.

XVIII.

ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT.

AVEGNE, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones,

Forget not in thy book record their groans

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans

The vales redoubled to the hills, and they

To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway
The triple Tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.

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XIX.

[ON HIS BLINDNESS.]

WHEN I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest He returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is kingly thousands at his bidding speed,

And post o'er land and ocean without rest;

They also serve who only stand and wait.”

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XX.

[TO MR. LAWRENCE.]

LAWRENCE, of virtuous father virtuous son,

Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire,
Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire
Help waste a sullen day, what may be won
From the hard season gaining? Time will run
On smoother, till Favonius reinspire

The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire
The lily and rose, that neither sowed nor spun.

C

What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,
Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise
To hear the lute well touched, or artful voice
Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air?

He who of those delights can judge, and spare
To interpose them oft, is not unwise.

XXI.

[TO CYRIACK SKINNER.]

CYRIACK, whose grandsire on the royal bench
Of British Themis, with no mean applause,
Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws,
Which others at their bar so often wrench,
To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench
In mirth that after no repenting draws;
Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause,

And what the Swede intend, and what the French. To measure life learn thou betimes, and know

Toward solid good what leads the nearest way; 10 For other things mild Heaven a time ordains, And disapproves that care, though wise in show, That with superfluous burden loads the day, And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.

XXII.

[TO THE SAME.]

CYRIACK, this three years' day these eyes, though clear,
To outward view, of blemish or of spot,
Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot;
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear
Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year,
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not

Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot

Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask?

The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied 10
In Liberty's defence, my noble task,

Of which all Europe talks from side to side.

This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask

Content, though blind, had I no better guide.

XXIII.

[TO THE MEMORY OF HIS SECOND WIFE.]

METHOUGHT I saw my late espoused saint

Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave,

Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, Rescued from Death by force, though pale and faint. Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint Purification in the Old Law did save,

And such as yet once more I trust to have
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,
Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.

Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined

So clear as in no face with more delight.

But, oh as to embrace me she inclined,

I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.

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NOTES.

SONG ON MAY MORNING.

This piece is generally assigned to the first of May, 1630. Prof. Masson is inclined to date it three years later, thus bringing it within the Horton group of Milton's earlier poems. It certainly associates itself with these through its bright allusions to the spring-time of external nature and of human life; and it gives sure evidence of Milton's "divine ear " for metrical effect. The trochaic effect prevails in the lines in which May is welcomed; compare the welcome to Mirth and Melancholy in L'Allegro and Il Penseroso respectively. The contemplative side of Milton's youth does not here reveal itself; we see rather the spirit of those days

"When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns
Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.

Comus, 670.

1. morning-star. The planet Venus, as the morning-star, was called Phosphorus or Lucifer (the light-bringer), and, as the evening-star, Hesperus. Hence Tennyson's allusion

"Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,
Sweet Hesper-Phosphor, double name.

In Memoriam.

In Comus 93, it is the "star that bids the shepherd's fold," and in Lyc. 30, "the star that rose at evening bright." In the last of these passages the pronoun his is applied to the star; in this poem (line 2) her is used. This is in allusion to the planet as Venus, fit companion for the flowery May.

harbinger, forerunner. This is the current sense of the word; radically, it means 'harbourer,' one who goes before another and prepares a 'harbour' or lodging for him (M.E. herbergeour). The origin of the word is disguised by the intrusion of the letter n, as in messenger from 'message,' porringer from 'porridge,' etc.

2. Comes dancing from the east. Compare Spenser's Astrophel, iv.: The dancing day, forthcoming from the east.' Dancing is in adverbial relation to comes.

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