et be it lefs or more, or foon or flow,

1

It shall be still in ftricteft measure even

To that fame lot, however mean or high,

ΤΟ

Toward which Time leads me, and the will of

Heaven;

All is, if I have grace to use it so,

As ever in my great Task-Master's eye.

When

"fhould be able to withhold me, "whereby a man cuts himself off "from all action, and becomes the "moft helpless, pufillanimous, and

cafion is, of this my tardy mov-" unprofitable fin of curiofity ing, according to the precept of my confcience, which I firmly truft is not without God. Yet now I will not ftrain for any fet Tapology, but only refer myfelf" unweapon'd creature in the "to what my mind fhall have at "world, the moft unfit and unable any time to declare herself at her to do that which all mortals moft "beft eafe. But if you think, as "afpire to, either to be useful to "you faid, that too much love of "his friends, or to offend his enelearning is in fault, and that I "mies. Or if it be to be thought have given up myfelf to dream" a natural proneness, there is a away my years in the arms of " gainst that a much more potent ftudious retirement, like Endy- "inclination inbred, which about "mion with the moon as the tale "this time of life folicits moft, the " of Latmus goes; yet confider" defire of house and family of his "that if it were no more but the " own, to which nothing is esteem" mere love of learning, whethered more helpful than the early it proceed from a principle bad," entring into credible employgood, or natural, it could not ment, and nothing more hinder"have held out thus long against 66 ing than this affected folitariness. "fo strong oppofition on the other" And though this were enough, "fide of every kind; for if it be " yet there is to this another act, if "bad, why should not all the fond "not of pure, yet of refin'd nahopes that forward youth and ture, no lefs available to diffuade "vanity are fledge with, together" prolonged obfcurity, a defire of

"with gain, pride, and ambition, "call me forward more powerfully, than a poor regardless and

"honor and repute and immortal "fame feated in the breaft of every "true fcholar, which all make

"hafte

VIII.

* When the affault was intended to the City.

Captain or Colonel, or Knight in arms,

66

Whose chance on these defenfelefs doors may feife, If deed of honor did thee ever please,

Guard them, and him within protect from harms.

He

"how beft to undergo; not taking " thought of being late, fo it give "advantage to be more fit; for "thofe that were lateft loft no.

"hafte to by the readiest ways of publishing and divulging con"ceived merits, as well thofe that fhall, as thofe that never shall "obtain it. Nature therefore" thing, when the master of the "would presently work the more "vineyard came to give each one "prevalent way, if there were "his hire. And here I am come to "nothing but this inferior bent of "a ftream-head copious enough to herself to restrain her. Lastly "difburden itself like Nilus at fe the love of learning, as it is the "ven mouths into an ocean; but purfuit of fomething good, it "then I fhould alfo run into a rewould fooner follow the more "ciprocal contradiction of ebbing excellent and fupreme good" and flowing at once, and do that "known and presented, and fo be " which I excufe myself for not doquickly diverted from the empty "ing, preach and not preach. Yet and fantastic chafe of fhadows" that you may fee that I am fomeand notions to the folid good" thing fufpicious of myself, and flowing from due and timely "do take notice of a certain beobedience to that command in "latednefs in me, I am the bolder the Gofpel fet out by the terrible "to fend you fome of my nightfeifing of him that hid the talent. "ward thoughts fome while fince, It is more probable therefore "because they come in not altoge"that not the endlefs delight of "ther unfitly, made up in a Pefpeculation, but this very confi- "trarchian ftanza, which I told deration of that great command- " ment, does not prefs forward, as foon as many do, to undergo, "but keeps off with a facred reverence and religious advisement **

you of.

"How foon hath Time &c.

By this I believe you may well repent of having made mention

at

le can requite thee, for he knows the charms

That call fame on fuch gentle acts as these,

And he can spread thy name o'er lands and feas, Whatever clime the fun's bright circle warms.

ift not thy fpear against the Muses bow'r:

The great Emathian conqueror
The house of Pindarus, when temple' and tow'r

Went to the ground: And the repeated air
Of fad Electra's poet had the pow'r

To fave th' Athenian walls from ruin bare.
IX.

To a virtuous young Lady.

Lady that in the prime of earliest youth

Wifely haft fhunn'd the broad

way

and the green,

And with those few art eminently seen, That labor up the hill of heav'nly truth, The better part with Mary and with Ruth Chofen thou haft; and they that overween, And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen,

Ποτι σαν αγροτέραν αλαν Πανίας επικλαπίαι, και φανηναι χέτλιον εργον των έτως έχλες και

No anger find in thee, but pity' and ruth. Thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends

To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light,

ΤΟ

And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful friends Paffes to bliss at the mid hour of night, Haft gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wife and pure. X.

*To the Lady Margaret Ley.

Daughter to that good Earl, once Prefident
Of England's Council, and her Treasury,
Who liv'd in both, unftain'd with gold or fee,

7018785 avɗegs peprσav aveλev naι Sipyao aσðal The won. Vol. 1. P. 441. Edit. Paris. 1624.

5.-with Mary and with Ruth] So it is in Milton's Manufcript, and in the edition of 1673. In the first edition of 1645 it was faifly printed

with Mary and the Ruth. 7. And at thy growing virtues] In the Manufcript it was at firft, And at thy blooming virtue or profpering.

8. - but pity and ruth.] Here Ruth and ruth are made to rime to each other, and it may perhaps offend the niceness of modern ears

And

that the fame word should rime to itself though in different fenses: but our old poets were not fo very delicate, and the reader may fee parallel inftances in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. 1. Cant. 6. St. 39. and B. 7. Cant. 6. St. 38.

13. Paffes to blifs at the mid hour of night,] Instead of this line he had written at first,

Opens the door of bliss that hour of night:

but he rightly alter'd it, the better to accommodate it to the parable to which he is alluding. See Mat. XXV.

is

* We have given the title which in Milton's Manufcript, To the Q 2 Lady