The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-01-10

Latin Secretary to the Council of State.
This was a responsible position, but he
proved himself more than equal to the
duties of his new Office.
In description of his services to the
government we read that at the instlga-
ton of Charles H., then an exile in France,
Salmasius, an eminent scholar and picked
champion of the Royalists, published an
elaborate and powerful pamphlet in Latin.
maintaining the divine right of kings, and
invoking vengeance upon the regicides in
England. The Royaists declared the ar
gument to be unanswerable, and indeed,
1t was too weighty to be disregarded. The
Council, therefore, commanded Milton to
undertake reply. Accordingly he pre-
pared his "Defensio Populi Anglicanl"
In elegant Latinity he proved himself the
equal of his adversary. In yituperation
and in weight of argument he was adj
judged the better, and he received public
thanks for the victory won.
After the Restoration he was prosecuted
beyond measure and proclamations hay-
ing Seen issued against him, lbs tate w..s
for time very uncertain.
He lived in conceaIment until the Act
of Indemnity placed him in safety.
Lamertine writes that Charles II. Of
fered to reinstate Milton in his Office of
government advocate, if he would devote
his talents to the cause of monarchy. His
wife entreated HIM to comply with the
proposal. You are woman, replied
Milton, and your thoughts dwell on the
domestic interests OF our house think
only of posterity, and / will die consist
emily with my character
About 1850 Milton became totally blind.
Wrapped in the everlasting darkness
which surrounded him, prosecuted and
alone, there is no more sublime spectacle
in the history of our literature than this
great man retiring from active life to com
pose the greatest masterpiece which
crowns the greatest of all languages.
AS the great Pyramids of Egypt shrowd-
ed by centuries which, have long since
sunk into oblivion, still tower toward the
sky, SO will Paradise Lost stand as an
everlasting landmark before the world
throughout all time. The name of Milton
and Paradise Lost" 60 side by side. and
SO they always will.
Cowper said, "Was there ever anything
so delightful as the music of Paradise
Lost? 1t is like that Of a fine organ; has
the fullest and the deepest tones Of males
ty, with all the softness and elegance of
the Dorian flute variety without end; and
never equalled. unless perhaps, by Virgil "
Millions first idea of Paradise Lost, !"
as given US by Voltaire, is that as Milton
was travelling in Italy in his youth he saw
a comedy at Florence called "AdaEo."
The subject of the play was the "Fall Of
Nam; the actors, God, the Angels, Adam,
Eve, the Serpent Death, and the seven
Mortal Sins. That topic, SO important for
drama, was handled in manner entire
ly conformable to the extravaganza of the
design. The scene opens with chorus
Of angels. and cherub thus speaks for
the rest "Let the rainbow be the fiddle
stick of the heavens let the planets be
the notes of the music; let time beat care
fully her measure, ETC." Thus the play be-
gins. and every scene rises above the last
in impertinence. Milton pierced through
the absurdity of the performance to the
hidden majesty of the subject, which, be-
Jog altogether unfit for the stage, yet
might be, for the genius of Milton, and
his only, the foundation of an epic poem.
He took from that ridiculous trife the
first hint of the noblest work which the
human imagination has ever attempted
and which he executed more than twenty
years after.
The composition of Paradise Lost occu-
pied about seven years; from 1858 to 1855,
although the work must necessarily have
been the outcome of long and earnest con-
temptation.
The discussion of such subject as the
"Fall of Man." from purely an imagina
tive standpoint, was task which no
other man could have hoped to under
take.
The scenes in heaven above in the
earth, in hell. in the waters under the
earth, are too grand to picture here; moth
ing can be of satisfaction hut thorough
perusa Of every page, and of every line.
Some one has pronounced Paradise
LOST "the dream of Puritan who has fall
en- asleep over the first pages of his
Bible.' And yet Mailer wrote, 1.-THE
old blind poet hath published tedious
poem on the fall of man If its length be
not considered as a merit it hath no
other"
And Oliver Goldsmith said. .'There is
no force in his reasonings, no eloQuence
in his style, no taste in his compositions"
But Landor wrote, after have been
reading Paradise Lost can take up no
other poet with satisfaction. seem to
have left the music Of Handel for the
music of the street" And Wordsworth
wrote the old familiar lines,
''Thy soul was like star ana dwelt apart
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the
Pure as the naked heavens majestic, free;
SO didst thou travel on LIES common way
In cheerful Goodness ana yet thy heart
The owliest duties on herself did lay"
II is probable that Milton had some
difficulty in finding publisher for his
epic but in 1867 he effected sale of the
copyright to Samuel Symons. BY the
terms Of the sale Milton was to receive
| five pounds on signing the agreement,
| five pounds more on the sale Of the first
edition nf th rteea hundred copies, and five
pounds for each Of the two following ell
| tions when til should be exhausted.
/ He lived to receive the second payment.
lin 1850 bis widow sold to the publisher all
Eof her right, title and interest" in the
i1nnupounds. DO that the author