factions were so noble, "every one a testimony of peace and goodwill," offered to defray the expense of a Milton memorial window in St. Margaret's Church, and Archdeacon F. W. Farrar, who was asked to take the matter in charge, wrote the following to Mr. Childs: "Mr. Lowell wrote me a quatrain for the Raleigh window. I can think of no one so suitable as Mr. J. G. Whittier to write four lines for the Milton window. Mr. Whittier would feel the fullest sympathy for the great Puritan poet, whose spirit was so completely that of the Pilgrim Fathers." Mr. Childs forwarded the letter to Mr. Whittier, who accepted the invitation and composed the following: "The new world honors him whose lofty plea For England's freedom made her own more sure, Their common freehold while both worlds endure." Dr. Farrar on receiving these lines wrote to Mr. Whittier as follows: "Let me thank you for the four lines on Milton. They are all that I can desire, and they will add to the interest which all Englishmen and Americans will feel in the beautiful Milton window. I think that if Milton had now been living, you are the poet whom he would have chosen to speak of him, as being the poet with whose whole tone of mind he would have been most in sympathy." In his memorable address at the unveiling of this window Mr. Matthew Arnold, alluding to the Anglo-Saxon Contagion' and its effect upon the ideal of a high and rare excellence, said: "I treat the gift of Mr. Childs as a gift in honour of Milton, although the window given is in memory of his second wife. This fair and gentle daughter of the rigid sectarist of Hackney, this lovable companion with whom Milton had rest and happiness one year, is a part of Milton indeed, and in calling up her memory we call up his. . . If to our English race an inadequate sense for perfection of work is a real danger, if the discipline of respect for a high and flawless excellence is peculiarly needed by us, Milton is of all our gifted men the best lesson, the most salutary influence. In the sure and flawless perfection of his rhythm and diction he is as admirable as Virgil or Dante, and in this respect he is unique amongst us. No one else in English literature and art possesses a like distinction. . . . From style really high and pure Milton never departs. That Milton, of all our English race, is by his diction and rhythm the one artist of the highest rank in the great style whom we have; this I take as requiring no discussion, this I take as certain. . . . All the Anglo-Saxon contagion, all the flood of Anglo-Saxon commonness, beats vainly against the great style but cannot shake it, and has to accept its triumph. But it triumphs in Milton, in our own race, tongue, faith, and morals. The English race overspreads the world, and at the same time the ideal of an excellence the most high and the most rare abides a possession with it forever." Mr. Henry Van Dyke says: "Of woman, woman as God meant her to be, woman as she is in true purity and unspoiled beauty of her nature, Milton never thought otherwise than nobly and reverently. Surely there is no more beautiful and heartfelt praise of perfect womanhood in all literature than this sonnet." Cf. Wordsworth's tribute to his wife in She was a Phantom of Delight: "The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight, strength and skill; And yet a spirit still, and bright Cf. Tennyson, Princess: "My wife, my life. O we will walk this world, And so thro' those dark gates across the wild Dedication to Enoch Arden: "Dear, near and true. -no truer Time himself Can prove you, tho' he make you evermore Dearer and nearer." Cromwell died in August, 1658, and during Richard's Protectorate Milton remained in office. He wrote the State papers and composed three pamphlets. The first was A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes: showing that it is not lawful for any Power on Earth to compel in Matters of Religion. In this he criticised Cromwell for supporting a State Church. The second, Considerations touching the Likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out of the Church, was also an attack upon Cromwell's unjust interference in "free election of ministers." These were both in the spirit of Vane and the Republicans. In May, 1659, Richard abdicated, and on Monk being made Dictator, in March, 1660, the third pamphlet appeared. It was A Ready and Easy Way to establish a Free Commonwealth. Monk and the Parliament disregarded this splendid plea for a Republic. In May the Restoration came and the hunt for Regicides began. Milton fled from his home and took hiding at a friend's in Bartholomew Close, until the 29th of August, when the Act of Indemnity was passed. He was nevertheless taken into custody by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and his Defensio and Eikonoklastes burned by the hangman. He was released from custody by the intercession of friends, Andrew Marvel, or Sir William Davenant, the new Poetlaureate. "On evil days now fallen, and evil tongues, In darkness, and with dangers compassed round," his cause lost, his enemies in triumph, his name a byword, his fortune impaired, at fifty-two he is thrown back upon himself, and he asks "by which means, Now blind, disheartened, shamed, dishonoured, quelled, My nation, and the work from Heaven imposed ?" He begins to work upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought; he is attired with sudden brightness like a man inspired. Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes reveal to us 66 Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." Lowell says: "It is idle to talk of the loneliness of one the habitual companions of whose mind were the Past and Future. I always seem to see him leaning in his blindness a hand on the shoulder of each, sure that one will guard the song which the other had inspired." "What though the music of thy rustic flute Kept not for long its happy country tone; Lost it too soon, and learnt a stormy note Of men contention-tost, of men who groan, Which task'd thy pipe too sore, and tired thy throat It fail'd and thou wast mute! Yet hadst thou always visions of our light And long with men of care thou couldst not stay, And soon thy foot resumed its wandering way, Left human haunt, and on alone till night." 2. like Alcestis, etc. An allusion to the Alcestis of Euripides, where Hercules rescues the heroine from the lower world and restores her to her husband. 66 Euripides the human with his droppings of warm tears And his touching of things human 'till they seem to reach the spheres." 6. Purification. Cf. Leviticus xii. 10. Her face was veiled. Milton had never looked upon her face. Masson thinks there is here a possible allusion to Alkestis when restored to Admetus. "There is no telling how the hero twitched The veil off." BROWNING, Balaustion's Adventure. ELEGIA PRIMA AD CAROLUM DIODATUM TANDEM, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, Non ego vel profugi nomen sortemve recuso, O utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset 10 20 20 |