The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-01-03

sued loomy countenance,
with M IND often with false
Interpretation.
There came out from among the Pres
byterians the Independents the fifth
monarchy men. shouting for King Jesus
the Seekers, the Antinomians.
Even in the army sprang up the level
ers. who wished to abolish monarchy and
aristocracy, and to mingle the ranks in
one grand whole. To each religious party
there was political character, ranging
from High Church and the divine right
of kings, to absolute Jewelers. in Church
and State.
This disintegrating process was long re-
sisted by the conservatives of all opinions,
but, at length, the issue came, and the
king was prisoner, without shadow or
sign of power
The parliament was still firm, and
would have favored the king by consid-
cradle majority, but it was surrounded by
troops, and more than two hundred Of the
Presbyterians and moderate men were ex
cluded. The crippled parliament then APP
pointed the high court of Justice to try the
king for treason
Charles l. fell before the storm. His
was lost cause from the day he erected
his standard at Nottingham, in 1912, to
that on which, after his noble bearing on
the scaffold, the executioner held up his
head, and cried out. This is the head Of
traitor !"
Milton came into the world to find him
self face to face with this awful storm,
which was shaking the entire kingdom
from its foundation, but yet slowly pay
ing the way FOR future liberty, and for
which the great poet himself did SO much.
Even in his earliest childhood, Milton
seems to have been aware of his great
gift of learning, and a desire to learn
he seems to have been conscious of SUI
perior powers, and even as he began his
life's work, everything combined to aid
his genius, and to spur him on to that
great success which was IN store for him.
He must have led the life Of an ordin-
airy London boy, surrounded by little
more than moderate circumstances, until
he first began his studies with tutor.
However. when Thomas Young had
done all that he could for the boy, he was
sent for several years to st. Paul's school
in London, where he studied on.
Even at this early age he was hard
worker, which we admire, as well as re-
greet in his after life, for he has told us
that this continual study twas the first
source of injury to my eyes. 10 the natural
weakness of which were added frequent
headaches"
His mental powers must have developed
very rapidly, for at the age of sixteen he
had entered Christ's College, at Cam
bridge.
His course while at this institution.
would no doubt correspond to classical
course in our foremost universities yet
he really went so far beyond his years,
that he had read and translated some
works which the other students could
hardly hope to begin. Overwhelmed by
strong desire to know well the classics,
and as some one has told us, "poetical lit
erature," he equally disliked the ,day
sciences which were at that time forced
upon him.
To him these did not compare with the
higher and more fully developed knowl-
edge of the ancient and modern writers.
Undoubtedly he did not then know that
he was to rank in the near future among
the greatest of epic poets that ever lived.
The dislike for the sciences soon grew to
hatred, and he expressed his feelings upon
the subject SO freely that at one time he
was involved in serious trouble with the
college authorities. But then we read
that the disgrace could not have lasted
long, for he received both his degrees at
the customary time.
During his life as student he did even
much more than to tend to his regular
work, for while he was at Christ's College,
he wrote number of poems in Latin, and
his famous Hymn of the Nativity" was
produced as a college exercise. In these
lines he took up the old. old theme, and
when he sang bis song, it was like an
echo down the ages, still distinctly heard
from the plains of Judea on the night Of
the Magi pilgrimage.
Jean Paul Richter wrote, IF we can
often repeat to ourselves sweet thoughts
without ennui, why should not another
be suffered to awaken them within us
still oftener."
The simple fact of his being able to
write poetry in Latin at his age, furnishes
US with ample proof that his mind was far
above the average in natural talent and
in early and thorough developement-
Milton evidently realized this, and seeing
the bright future that was before him,
even after leaving college he determined to
store his mind with such an abundance of
knowledge, that in after years he would
have much to draw from, in the way of
the best education it was at that time
possible to procure. Accordingly he re-
tired to his fathers country seat at Hor-
ton. in Buckingham, where he spent FIVE
years in the closest kind of study. The
object of his seclusion seems mainly to
have been for the purpose of disciplinIng
his mind, for the hated sciences were now
taken up in earnest and likewise the
higher mathematics, while he found
pleasure in his compositions, and also in
dulged in music; and that he had q pas
sionate tondness for the art, the rhythm
Of his verse bears ample testimony
Here we see that he gave up all else for
that self discipline, which be gained by
the most difficult kind of work. For one
to sit down and devote his time to some
thing utterly distasteful is task from
which we would all shrink and yet he
kept on, never wearying never firing of
the drudge he had undertaken. His
music, too. must have aided him much,
for it could not but have the effect of
bringing out all that was refined and cul-
tuIed. 1t must also have spoken to him
Of human feelings, which he so beautifully
portrayed in after years. It must have
awakened him to the good and true