The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-03-10
Literary Notes.


Men of Letters. Harper d i2-others. 70 cents)
Can any Englishman who has no Puritan blood
in his veins-who looks upon Dissent as a sort
Of semi treachery to the faith delivered to the
sainthood of Preacy-who has been nurtured
upon the traditions of the divine right OF kings;
can such one ever fairly weigh and measure
the characters of men like Cromwell and Mllton1
And yet the author of this Memoir comes nearer
to doing it than was to have been expected
Milton was so thoroughly the man of his times,
his whole history was so inwoven with that OF
the Revolution and the Commonwealth that, as
Prof. Mason most truly says in his exhaustive
Life, his history necessarily embraces that of the
entire period in which he lived. This is what
makes Prof Massons voluminous work so valu
able much as readers may be disposed to com
plain that it the History of Civil and Religious
Liberty in Europe, with the record of the great
poet interleaved. DIR. Pattison's Life is also
obliged to occupy itself with the momentous
questions of the age that helped to mould this
master mind and while he is eminently fair,
for Churchman, and temperate in his discus
sions, he is not sufficiently persuaded that the
period of /" storm and stress which called for
such a controlling spirit as Cromwells to guide
IT. was of paramount Importance in clearing the
moral atmosphere of England He considers as
worse than lost, the twenty golden years "
during which Milton deliberately gave up his
darling idea of writing such an Epic as would
"redown to the glory of his country" in order
that he might devote his undivided energies of
soul mind, and body to the cause of that idol
lied liberty for which he would gladly, at any
time, have died He honors what he thinks was
mistaken sense of duty, but mourns no less
over the sacrilegious waste of splendid genius.
He owns the grand selfabnegaton that allowed
the superbly furnished scholar, all ready for the
great life work which had been before him since
his very boyhood-to lay aside everything, and
devote his erudition to the production of poiti-
cal pamphlets. He mourns his being chained to
the oar as Cromwells Latin secretary, and can
not forgive him that he should undertake a
Latin reply to Salmasius' Defensio regia, in
which, as he says, he exhausts the Latin vo-
cabulary of abuse, to pile up every ep1thet of
contumely and exscration" If Milton did ex-
pend time and money unworthily, or at least
unsuccessfully, see in what spirit of selfsacri
fee he went about It'll Being md by his
physician that blindness might be the result, he
writes The choice lay before me, between
dereliction of a supreme duty and loss of eye
sight: in such case 1 could not listen to the
physician, not if Esculapius had spoken from
his sanctuary. 1 could not but obey that inward
monitor, that spake to me from heaven
therefore concluded to employ the little remain
ing eyesight was to enjoy, in doing the great
est service to the common veal that it was in
my power to render" Macaulay saws that it is
matter of regret that Millions prose writings
should be so little read" Astounding, as thew
do, with passages compared with which. the
finest declarations of Burke sink into insigni6
canoe. They are perfect field of cloth of gold
stiff with gorgeous embroidery" DR. Pattison
grants that even in hisprose, the style of Milton
was majestic, but he says he breaks out into
ferocious reprobation, into terrific blasts of.vi-
tuperation, beneath which the language creaks,
rs the tinGbers of ship in storm. The arch
angel is recognizable by the energy of his NAL
lce.' But when the man of the times is for
gotten, and the magnificent poet and scholar is
passed under review, splendid justice is done by
the biographer He narrates tenderly the pa
thetic story of the poets life, and thinks his only
truly happy years were those passed at Horton
under his indulgent fathers kind roof. He
shows conclusively that in no way was Milton
to blame in the matter of Mary Powell his first
"iAOB OACoIb lOl Vic Mistake OF ever marrying
empty headed girl at ALL The mercenary cav
Alier Powells arranged it wholly, while the cav
alier cause was in disgrace and when the Par
Elementary cause seemed likely to be in the
ascendant back they brought the runaway wife,
who for two years never saw, or exchanged a
letter with her husband, although living but
few hours journey distant That his last wife
cared very kindly for the sad blind poet. and
consulted all his physical comfort, is pleasant to
think of. The twenty years of public service
were wholly unrewarded years His salary az
Latin secretary to the Protector was inadequate.
and there seems to have been no bond of sym
Pathy between them. The man of action did
not understand the withdrawn student and il is
question if they ever met. Millions property
was confscated at the Restoration. and there
after he lived in almost indulgence. His noble
undaunted courage, when at fifty two, blind.
poor, and almost frendless, with the wrecks Of
his hopes all lying crushed around him. he began
his immortal Epic, is very finely elaborated bv
his biograPher. The scholarly criticisms on all
the poetic labors Of the poet, make this Memoir
an admirable study and one closes the book
with profounder veneration for the gplendor
Of the genius that has given the world ITS greatest
Christian E,pic opd ie ro,d,, 81 81, 81 "a