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ON HIS BLINDNESS.

"When I consider how my life is spent

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide,

Lodged wi h 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 works, or his own gift; who best
Bears his mild yoke they serve him best: his state
Is kingly thousands at his bidding speed,
And post c'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.'"

In a letter expressive of his entire resignation to the will of God, under this painful affliction, addressed to his friend, Leonard Philarus of Athens, dated Westminster, September 28th, 1654, he gives this further account of

his blindness.

"That I might not seem," he says, "to neglect any means, perhaps of divine suggestion, for my relief, I will hasten to comply with your request :—

"It is now about ten years, I think, since I first perceived my sight beginning to grow weak and dim, and at the same time my spleen and other visura heavy and flatulent. When I sate down to read as usual in the morning, my eyes gave me considerable pain, and refused their office till fortified by moderate exercise of body. If I looked at a candle, it appeared surrounded by an iris. In a little time, a darkness covering the left side of the left eye, which was partially clouded some years before the other, interrupted the view of all things in that direction. Objects also in front seemed to dwindle in size whenever I closed my right eye. This eye too for three years gradually failing, a few months previous, while I

was perfectly stationary, every thing seemed to swim backward and forward: and now thick vapours appear to settle upon my forehead and temples, which weigh down my eyes with an oppressive sense of drowsiness, especially in the interval between the dinner and evening; so as frequently to remind me of Phineus, the Salmydissim, in the Argonautics.

"In darkness swam his brain, and where he stood,
The stedfast earth seemed rolling like a flood.
Nerveless his tongue, and, every power oppressed,
He sunk, and languished into torpid rest."

"I ought not to omit mentioning that, before I wholly lost my sight, as soon as I lay down in bed, and turned upon either side, brilliant flashes of light used to issue from my closed eyes; and afterwards upon the gradual failure of any power of vision, colours proportionably dim and faint, seemed to rush out with a degree of vehemence and a kind of inward noise. These have now faded into uniform blackness, such as ensues on the extinction of a candle; or blackness varied only and intermingled with a dunnish grey. The constant darkness, however, in which I live day and night, inclines more to a whitish than a blackish tinge; and the eye in turning itself round admits, as through a narrow chink, a very small portion of light. But this, though it may offer a similar glance of hope to the physician, does not prevent me from making up my mind to my case, as evidently beyond the reach of cure and I often reflect, that as many days of darkness, according to the wise man, (Eccle. xi. 8.) are allotted to us all, mine, which by the singular favour of the Deity, are divided between leisure and study, and are recruited by the conversation and intercourse of my friends, are more agreeable than those deadly shades of

which Solomon is speaking. But if, as it is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God," (Matt. iv. 4.) why should not each of us likewise acquiesce in the reflection, that he derives not the benefit of his sight from his eyes alone, but from the guidance and providence of the same Supreme Being? Whilst he looks out and provides for me as he does, and leads me about as it were with his hand through the paths of life, I willingly surrender my own faculty of vision in conformity to his good pleasure: and with a heart as strong and as stedfast as if I were a Lynceus, I bid you, my Philarus, farewell!"

It may perhaps be thought by some, that MILTON need not have noticed such contemptible charges. But what despicable pigmies must those have been, who compelled him to talk as vain and worthless fools do, who have nothing in view but selfish ends, by the vanity of their selfcommendations: so PAUL, who was cast in a similar mould, (and to whom I consider MILTON stands next of uninspired men,) said to the ungrateful Corinthians :"I say again, let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting."-2 Cor. xi. 16, 17.

The following beautiful Sonnet will put a suitable conclusion to this painful subject of a good man having probably "been made the song of the drunkard," on account of the affliction with which it had pleased God to visit him :

TO CYRIAC SKINNER.

"CYRIAC, 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
In liberty's defence, my noble task,

Of which all Europe rings from side to side.

This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask
Content, though blind, had I no better guide.”

ALEXANDER MORUS took the field again, and published what he called " Fides Publica," and MILTON replied, in a work entitled “Defencio pro," or a defence of himself, and so completely baffled his opponent, that he prudently quitted the field, and MILTON was proclaimed, by general consent, the People's Champion and Conqueror: an honour this, greater than what many monarchs have ob. tained even from their sycophants and parasites-more valuable, more permanent !

It appears that MILTON was now advanced from his office to the Council, to be Latin Secretary to that most extraordinary man, OLIVER CROMWELL: for whose statue I venture to bespeak a niche among the illustrious dead in Westminster Abbey: not doubting, from recent events, but the time will come, when the governors of the nation will be so sensible of the obligations of Britain to that illustrious ruler and his noble compatriots, as, maugre the mean power of ignorance and prejudice, will decree him a monumental inscription in the sepulchres of our kings.

CHAPTER V.

1653-1660.

OLIVER CROMWELL was now declared the chief magis. trate, under the title, not of king, which he was strongly solicited to accept, but of Lord Protector. He was installed into this high office, with great solemnity and magnificence, on the 16th day of December, 1654; and MILTON, all republican as he was, fell in with that arrange. ment, and acknowledged that title, because "he confidently hoped," says Toland, "that Cromwell would employ his power and trust to extinguish the numerous factions in the State, and to settle such a perfect form of a free government, wherein no single person should enjoy any power above or beside the laws!" There can be no doubt but MILTON's chief reason was his knowledge of the Protector's principles in regard to liberty of conscience in religion; that he would establish equal rights in religion, as well as in politics; and as he had delivered the nation from civil tyranny, so he would protect all persons, professing regard for, and being subject to the laws, whatever their religious sentiments might be, from the oppression of the dominant religious sect: and compel the Presbyterians now they were in power, to grant that protection to other sects, which they themselves had pleaded for, when writhing as Puritans under the lash of the Prelates.

The following expressive Sonnet will give the just character of the LORD PROTECTOR: at least, what were the

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