of the Greek Teftament, and to hear his learned expofition of it. The next work after this was to write from his dictation fome part of a fyftem of divinity, which he had collected from the ableft divines, who had written upon that fubject. Such were his academic inftitutions; and thus by teaching others he in fome measure inlarged his own knowledge; and having the reading of fo many authors as it were by proxy, he might poffibly have preferved his fight, if he had not moreover been perpetually bufied in reading or writing fomething himfelf. It was certainly a very reclufe and ftudious life, that both he and his pupils led; but the young men of that age were of a different turn from thofe of the prefent; and he himself gave an example to those under him of hard ftudy and fpare diet; only now and then, once in three weeks or a month, he made a gawdy day with fome young gentlemen of his acquaintance, the chief of whom, fays Mr. Philips, were Mr. Alphry and Mr. Miller, both of Gray's-Inn, and two of the greatest beaus of thofe times.

But he was not fo fond of this academical life, as to be an indifferent fpectator of what was acted upon the public ftage of the world. The nation was now in a great ferment in 1641, and the clamor run high against the bishops, when he joined loudly in the cry, to help the puritan minifters, (as he fays himself in his fecond Defenfe) they being inferior to the bishops in learning and eloquence; and published his two books, Of Reformation in England, . written to a friend. About the fame time certain minifters having published a treatise against episcopacy,

in answer to the Humble Remonftrance of Dr. Jofeph Hall Bishop of Norwich, under the title of Smectymnuus, a word confifting of the initial letters of their names, Stephen Marshal, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurftow; and Archbishop Ufher having published at Oxford a refutation of Smectymnuus, in a tract concerning the Original of Bifhops and Metropolitans; Milton wrote his little piece Of Prelatical Epifcopacy, in oppofition chiefly to Ufher, for he was for contending with the moft powerful adverfary; there would be either lefs difgrace in the defeat, or more glory in the victory. He handled the fubject more at large in his next performance, which was the Reafon of Church Government urged against Prelaty, in two books. And Bishop Hall having published a Defense of the Humble Remonftrance, he wrote Animadverfions upon it. All these treatises he published within the course of one year, 1641, which show how very diligent he was in the cause that he had undertaken. And the next year he fet forth his Apology for Smectymnuus, in anfwer to the Confutation of his Animadverfions, written as he thought himself by Bifhop Hall or his fon. And here very luckily ended a controverfy, which detained him from greater and better writings which he was meditating, more ufeful to the public, as well as more fuitable to his own genius and inclination but he thought all this while that he was vindicating ecclefiaftical liberty.

In the year 1643, and the 35th of his age, he married; and indeed his family was now growing fo numerous, that it wanted a mistress at the head of

it. His father, who had lived with his younger fon
at Reading, was, upon the taking of that place by
the forces under the Earl of Effex, neceffitated to
come and live in London with this his elder fon,
with whom he continued in tranquillity and devotion
to his dying day. Some addition too was to be
made to the number of his pupils. But before his
father or his new pupils were come, he took a
journey in the Whitfuntide vacation, and after a
month's abfence returned with a wife, Mary the
eldest daughter of Mr. Richard Powell, of Forefthill
near Shotover in Oxfordshire, a juftice of the peace,
and a gentleman of good repute and figure in that
country. But she had not cohabited with her hus-
band above a month, before fhe was earneftly foli-
cited by her relations to come and spend the remain-
ing part of the fummer with them in the country.
If it was not at her instigation that her friends made
this request, yet at least it was agreeable to her in-
clination; and fhe obtained her husband's confent
upon a promise of returning at Michaelmas. And
in the mean while his ftudies went on very vigo-
rously; and his chief diverfion, after the business of
the day, was now and then in an evening to vifit the
Lady Margaret Lee, daughter of the Earl of Marl-
borough, Lord High Treasurer of England, and
Prefident of the Privy Council to King James I.
This Lady, being a woman of excellent wit and
understanding, had a particular honor for our au-
thor, and took great delight in his converfation
as likewife did her husband Captain Hobfon, a
very accomplished gentleman. And what a
gard Milton again had for her, he has left upon

record

récord in a fonnet to her praife, extant among his

other poems.

Michaelmas was now come, but he heard nothing of his wife's return. He wrote to her, but received no anfwer. He wrote again letter after letter, but received no answer to any of them. He then difpatched a treffenger with a letter, defiring her to return; but the pofitively refufed, and difmiffed the meffenger with contempt. Whether it was, that fhe had conceived any diflike to her husband's perfon or humor; or whether fhe could not conform to his retired and philofophical manner of life, having been accuftomed to a house of much gaiety and company; or whether being of a family ftrongly attached to the royal caufe, fhe could not bear her hufband's republican principles; or whether the was overperfuaded by her relations, who poffibly might repent of having matched the eldest daughter of the family to a man fo distinguished for taking the contrary party, the King's head-quarters being in their neighbourhood at Oxford, and his Majesty having now fome fairer profpect of fuccefs; whether any or all of these were the reafons of this extraordinary behaviour; however it was, it fo highly incenfed her husband, that he thought it would be difhonorable ever to receive her again after fuch a repulfe, and he determined to repudiate her as she had in effect repudiated him, and to confider her no longer as his wife. And to fortify this his refolution, and at the fame time to juftify it to the world, he wrote the Doctrin and Difciplin of Divorce, wherein he endevors to prove, that indisposition, unfitness, or contrariety of mind, proceeding from any unchangeable

unchangeable caufe in nature, hindering and ever likely to hinder the main benefits of conjugal fociety, which are folace and peace, are greater reafons of divorce than adultery or natural frigidity, especially if there be no children, and there be mutual confent for feparation. He published it at firft without his name, but the ftile eafily betrayed the author; and afterwards a fecond edition, much augmented, with his name; and he dedicated it to the Parlament of England with the Affembly of Divines, that as they were then confulting about the general reformation of the kingdom, they might alfo take this particular. cafe of domeftic liberty into their confideration. And then, as it was objected, that his doctrin was a novel notion, and a paradox that no body had ever afferted before, he endevored to confirm his own opinion by the authority of others, and published in 1644 the Judgment of Martin Bucer &c: And as it was ftill objected, that his doctrin could not be reconciled to Scripture, he published in 1645 his Tetrachordon or Expofitions upon the four chief places in Scripture, which treat of marriage, or nullities in marriage. At the first appearing of the Doctrin and Difciplin of Divorce the clergy raised a heavy outcry against it, and daily folicited the Parlament to pafs fome cenfure upon it; and at last one of them, in a fermon preached before the Lords and Commons on a day of humiliation in August 1644, roundly told them, that there was a book abroad which deserved to be burnt, and that among their other fins they ought to repent, that they had not yet branded it with some mark of their displeasure. And Mr. Wood informs us, that upon Milton's publishing