deed, fuggested to the public, with infernal malignity, that he was a mifcreant, "who ought, in the 66 name of Christ, to be stoned to death.". This antagonist, as Milton fuppofed, was a son of bishop Hall, and fcrupled not to write thus outrageously against one, who (to use the milder words of our author) "in all his writing spake not that any man's "fkin fhould be razed."

"The style of this piece," fays Johnson, in speaking of this apology, " is rough, and fuch, perhaps, "is that of his antagonist." The different degrees of roughness that the two writers difplayed give a fingular effect to this obfervation of the critic, who confounds the coarfe and intemperate vehemence of the one with the outrageous barbarity of the other.

Milton fometimes wrote with the unguarded and ungraceful afperity of a man in wrath; but let equity add, that when he did fo, he was exasperated by foes, who exerted against him all the perfecuting ferocity of a fiend.

The incidents of his life were calculated to put his temper and his fortitude to the most arduous trials, and in the feverest of thefe he will be found conftant and exemplary in the exercife of gentle and beneficent virtue. From the thorns of controverfy he was plunged into the ftill fharper thorns of connubial diffention. During the Whitfuntide of the year 1643, at the age of thirty-five, he married. Mary, the daughter of Richard Powell, a gentleman who refided at Foreft Hill, near Shotover, in Oxfordshire. This ill-ftarr'd union might arife from an infantine acquaintance, as the grandfather of Mil

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ton had probably lived very near the feat of the Powells. What led to the connection we can only conjecture, but we know it was unhappy, as the lady, after living only a few weeks with her hufband in London, deferted him, under the decent pretence of paffing the fummer months on a vifit to her father, with whom the indulgent poet gave her permiffion to remain till Michaelmas: during the interval he was engaged in kind attention to his father, whom he now established under his own roof. The old man had been fettled at Reading, with his younger fon Christopher, a lawyer and a royalift, but thought it expedient to quit that place on its being taken by Effex, the parliamentary general, and found a comfortable afylum for the refidue of his long life in the filial piety and tender protection of the poet.

At the time appointed, Milton folicited the return of his wife; fhe did not condescend even to answer his letter he repeated his request by a messenger, who, to the best of my remembrance (fays Philips) reported, that he was difmiffed with fome fort of contempt. This proceeding, in all probability (continues the biographer, whofe fituation made him the beft judge of occurrences fo extraordinary) was grounded upon no other caufe but this, namely, "that the family, being generally addicted to the "cavalier party, as they called it, and fome of "them poffibly engaged in the king's fervice, who "by this time had his head quarters at Oxford, and "was in fome profpect of fuccefs, they began to "repent them of having matched the eldest daugh

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❝ ter

"ter of the family to a person so contrary to them "in opinion, and thought it would be a blot in "their efcutcheon whenever that Court came to "flourish again; however, it fo incenfed our au"thor, that he thought it would be dishonourable "ever to receive her again after fuch a repulse."

Milton had too tender and too elevated a fpirit not to feel this affront with double poignancy, as it affected both his happiness and his dignity; but it was one of his noble characteristics to find his mental powers rather invigorated than enfeebled by injury and affliction: he thought it the prerogative of wisdom to find remedies against every evil, however unexpected, by which vice or infirmity can embitter life. In reflecting on his immediate domestic trouble, he conceived the generous defign of making it fubfervient to the public good. He found that in discordant marriage there is mifery, for which he thought there exifted a very easy remedy, and perfectly confiftent both with reason and religion: with thefe ideas he published, in 1644, the Doctrine and Difcipline of Divorce. He addreffes the work to the Parliament, with great fpirit and eloquence, and after afferting the purity of his precepts, and the beneficence of his defign, he fays, with patriotic exultation, "let not England forget her precedence of "teaching nations how to live."

Sanguine as Milton was in the hope of promoting the virtue and happiness of private life by this publication, the Prefbyterian clergy, notwithstanding their paft obligations to the author, endeavoured to perfecute him for the novelty and freedom of

his fentiments.

"The affembly of divines, fitting "at Weftminifter, impatient," fays Antony Wood, "of having the clergy's jurifdiction, as they rec"koned it, invaded, did, instead of anfwering or

..

difproving what thofe books had afferted, cause "him to be fummoned before the Houfe of Lords; but that houfe, whether approving the doctrine, 66 or not favouring his accufers, did foon dismiss

" him."

Milton, whom no oppofition could intimidate when he believed himself engaged in the cause of truth and justice, endeavoured to fupport his doctrine by fubfequent publications; first, "The "Judgment of Martin Bucer concerning Divorce ;” this alfo he addreffes to the Parliament, and fays, with his ufual fpirit, "God, it feems, intended to

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prove me, whether I durft alone take up a right"ful caufe against a world of difefteem, and “found I durft. My name I did not publish, as "not willing it fhould fway the reader either for

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me or against me; but when I was told that the "ftile (which what it ails to be so soon distinguish"able I cannot tell) was known by most men, and "that fome of the clergy began to inveigh and ex"claim on what I was credibly informed they had

not read, I took it then for my proper season, "both to fhew them a name that could eafily con"temn fuch an indifcreet kind of cenfure, and to "reinforce the question with a more accurate di

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ligence; that if any of them would be fo good as to leave railing, and to let us hear fo much of "his learning and chriftian wifdom, as will be " strictly

"ftrictly demanded of him in his anfwering to this problem, care was had he fhould not spend his preparations against a nameless pamphlet."

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Thefe expreffions difplayed the frankness and fortitude of a noble mind, perfectly conscious of its own integrity, in difcuffing a very delicate point, that materially affects the comfort of human life. This integrity he had indeed protested very folemnly in his former Address to the Parliament, where, after afferting that the fubject concerned them chiefly as redreffers of grievances, he proceeds thus, "Me it concerns next, having, with much labour " and faithful diligence, first found out, or at least "with a fearlefs communicative candour firft pub

lished, to the manifest good of christendom, that "which, calling to witness every thing mortal and "immortal, I believe unfeignedly to be true." The folemnity of this proteftation, confirmed as it was by the fingular regularity of his morals, and the fincerity of his zeal as a christian, could not fecure him from cenfures of every kind, which, vehement as they were, he seems to have defpifed. His ideas were derided by libertines, and calumniated by hypocrites and bigots; but, fuperior to ridicule and to flander, he proceeded refolutely in what he thought his duty, by fhewing how completely his doctrine was confonant, in his own opinion, to that gofpel, which he had feduloufly made not only the favourite ftudy, but the conftant guide of his life. With this view he published, in 1645, his Tetrachordon, expofitions upon the four chief places of fcripture, which speak of marriage. He introduces