Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1880-01-10 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

MILTON'S BLINDNESS.—R wan about the early part of the year 1652 that the calamity was consummated. At the age of forty-three he was in total dark ness. The deprivation of sight, one of the severest afllictions of which humanity is capable, falls more heavily upon the man whore occupation lies among books than upon others. He who has most to lose, lams most. To most persons books are but an amuse meet, an interlude between the hours of serious occupation. The scholar is who has found the key to knowledge, and knows his way about in the world of printed books. To find this key, to lawn the map of this country, requires along apprenticeship. Thu is a point few men can hope to reach much before the age of forty. Milton had attained it only to find fruition snatched from him. He had barely time to spell one line in the book of wisdom, before, like the wmard's volume in romance, it was hopelessly closed against him for ever. Any human being is shut out by loss of sight from accustomed pleasures, the scholar is shut out from knowledge. Shut out at forty-three, when his great work was not even begun ! He consoles himself with a fancy that in his pamphlet, the "Detensio," he had done a.great work (quanta maxima guiri) for his country. This poor delusion helped him, doubtless, to support his calamity. He could not foresee that, in less than ten years, the great work would be totally annihilated, his pamphlet would be merged in the obsolete mass of civil war tracts, and the " Defensio." on which he had expended his last year of eyesight. only mentioned because it had been written by the author of" Paradise Lost." The nature of Milton's disease is not ascertainable from the account he has given of it. In the well-known passage of " l'aradise Lost," iii. 25, he hesitates between amourosis (" drop serene") and cataract (" suffusion"): .. „ . . .  So thick drop serene lath quenclid their orbs, Or dim suffusion wird. A medical friend referred to by Professor Alfred Sterne tells him that come of the symptoms are more likeglaucoma. Milton himself has left such an account as a patient ignorant of the anatomy of the organ could give. It throws no light on the nature of the malady. But it is characteristic of Milton that even his affliction does not destroy his solicitude shout his personal appearance. The taunts of his enemies about "the lack-lustre eye, guttering with prevalent rhearn," did not pass unfelt. In his "Second Defence"Milton informs the world that his eyes" are externally uninjured. They shine with an unclouded light, just like the eyes of one whose vision is perfect. This is the only point in which I aro, against my will, a hypocrite.', The vindication appears again in Sonnet am. "These eyes, though clear to outward view of blemish or of spot." In later years, when the exordium of Book iii. of "Paradise Lost" was composed in the pathetic story of his blindness, this little touch of vanity fades away as incompatible with the solemn dignity of the ocirotion.—Mitten, by Hark Danis. D.D.  WAGER OF &Tr' LlR—The last occasion on I which this right woe exercised in England was in the case of " Ashford r. Tlivnton." Ashford hod accused Thornton of the murder of one of his relations, and the latter desired to fight. By the ancient laws of , England, when a person was murdered, the nearest I relative of the deceased might bring what wassailed an appealof death against thepersonaccusedof the murder. I Under this process the accuser and she accused fought. The weapons were clubs. The battle began at sunrise, and was fought in presence of the judges, by whom also the dress of the combatants and all formalities were arranged. Part of the preliminary oath administered , was that neither combatant should resort to witchcraft. If the accused was slain it was taken to be proof cols his guilt. If the accuser, of his innocence. If the accused held out till starlight, that also attested his innooence. If either yielded while able to fight, it worked his condemnation and disgrace. The cam of "Ashford v. Thornton" woo argued in the Court of Ring's Bench on the 16th of April, 1810, before Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough. Mr. Chitty argued against the right of bottle; Mr. Tindall being on the other side. Finally, the Court decided that trial by battle was in fors, It had never been repealed. No battle, how , on this occasion was fought. A technical plan interposed. And Parliament passed a repealing statute.— ' Once a Week.  A