Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1894-09-20

John Milton was born in Bread street,
London, on the 9th of December, 1908.
His father belonged to good old county
Iamliy, but having early embraced repub-
lican and spiritual opinions, was disin-
herited by his relatives. Thrown on his
own resources, he went to London, where
he set up as money scrivener, or, as we
should now say, bill-discounter and
money-lender, emassed moderate
fortune.
He was passionately fond of music, ex
ceiling both as performer and composer.
Our poet began his education at home
under private tutors, among whom was
DIR. Young, afterwards pastor of en Eng
lish church at Hamburg.
In personal appearance John Milton
was under medium height, but with a
firm frame. His hair was light brown
auburn during his younger years., eyes
gray, face oval and complexion ruddy.
His best portrait is said to be that pre-
fixed to his 'History of Britain" 1670-7D.
He was afterwards sent to st. Pauls
school, then under the instruction of DR..
Gill; where from his twelfth year he was
accustomed to study till midnight,
habit to which was doubtless owing his
loss of sight. In his seventeenth year he
entered Christ's college, Cambridge,
where he remained for seven years, grad
uating B. A. 1929 and NJ. A. in 1882. In
1888, on the death of his mother, he de-
cided to travel, and obtaining letters of
introduction from his friend Sir H. Wot
ton, set off for Italy, stopping few days
in Paris, where he met the celebrated
Grotius. But he soon started for Italy,
'the classic land of poetry and art"
The greatest Of Italian poets, painters
and sculptors had lived and died. and for
a year Milton feasted his eyes and stored
his memory with the wealth of beauty
there to be found. Returning by Geneva
he formed the lifelong friendship with
the Protestant translator of the Bible.
Milton, on arriving in London, took
house in Aldersgate street and returned
to his studies, when the tempest was
about to break on throne and church,
arousing the energy of his character.
From 1911 to the Restorato he was
holly engaged in the strife, using pen
mightier than a sword
In 1913 he marrier Mary Powell daugh-
ter of a spendthrift Royalst; after her
death in 1856 he married Katherine
Woodcock, who died two years later.
On the Restoration, though at first
passed over, he was for a short time put
under arrest, but was given his liberty
through Sir w. Davenant, who had owed
his life to him.
lntirm and blind, he married in his
tifty-Gfth year, Elizabeth Minshull, who,
much younger than himself, kindly cared
for him in his Old age.
1t is said of Milton, Gwen had he
never published single poem, his name
would have been enrolled among those
of he greatest of thinkers and most
powerful writers of his own, or indeed, of
any age; and he seems to have been i'm
pressed from his very boyhood with a
deep conviction that he was called to be
a poet, and his idea of poet was the
highest that ever entered into the mind
of man.
He held the gift of poetry to be from
God, and burned with indignation when
he saw the poets of the day wasting their
time and talents at the altar of impurity
or wasting them on elegant but mean
tribes. Some of the early poems that he
published We're "L'Alegro" and al PEN
seroso;" his ''Lycidas" and ''Comus, =" are
said to be simply perfect in their way;
but his aim that he had was so lofty,
thst he felt himself incapable of reaching
it, He was silent during his whole life
because of the responsibility he had taken
upon himself, and his whole life was a
preparation of the browning work of his
old age, although he did not know when
he first determined on the subject of
paradise Lost or in what form it was
to take. The first edition of paradise
Lost was published in 1867.
Millions work with his pen was very
great. No man ever tried harder to use
time and talent ''as even in the great
Taskmaker's eyes" No man that ever
had so great gifts or talents as Milton was
ever less ready trust in his own powers,
From his youth he was temperate in all
things, and had consecrated himself
against vice, error and darkness in all
/ their forms.
As student Milton had the rare
quality of intellectual honesty; if his
opinion is not always sound, no one can
question that they are always honest.
As man his was life of principle and
as writer, his efforts are always de
termined by his belief. For scholarship
and education no writer can challenge
comparison with him. In the elements
of poetical art Milton is unsurpassed; he
fails in his most ambitious efforts if We
regard in reference to the art form.
Milton's great poems may serve tc
quicken our intellectual interests in re-
gard to religion, but it is doubtful If q
Christian in distress would go to them
for spiritual consolation. paradise Lost
is the grandest poem the world has ever
l. I'D ,iN Inns ion hi 10 he