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are the same to us both name and thing." But the bard kindles, as if in prophetic vision with his theme. London was to him a great spiritual arsenal, in which weapons of all kinds were in course of preparation, that great achievements might follow. "Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation, rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks methinks I see her as an eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam; purging and unscaling her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms." Our readers must turn to this speech, must read and ponder it, to have a just impression as to the lofty and prophetic spirit which pervades it.

In 1645 Milton published a collection of his poems, including a number of sonnets written during that year. The new sonnets were those on the noise which had been raised by the author's publications on the divorce question; also those on Lawrence, Cyriack Skinner, and Henry Lawes, and those on Lady Margaret Ley, and A Virtuous Young Lady. In the preface to this volume, Moseley, the publisher, says: "The poems of Spenser, in these English ones, are as nearly imitated as sweetly excelled."

The young lady in whose praise one of the new sonnets is written is supposed to have been a Miss Davis, to whom Milton, in his deserted state, began to look in hope of finding in her a second wife. The lady, who is described as young and handsome, and of a respectable family, hesitated, we are told, about committing herself to a relationship, which, however agreeable it might have been in other respects, could not fail to subject her to much social injury and obloquy. Meanwhile, a sudden change was to take place in the circumstances of Milton, of a nature to put an end to the suit. The summer of 1645 gave the Parliamentarians the crowning victory of Naseby. The Royal cause was prostrated from that day. The Powells now saw that an alliance with Milton would be not only safe, but might be advantageously acknowledged. The woman's heart in Mary Powell, too, we have reason to think, had its relentings; and the rumour that her husband was seeking another partner for his home, may not have tended to render her less dissatisfied with the present state of

It was while affairs were in this posture, that Milton paid a visit to a friend named Blackborough, in St. Martin's-le-Grand. Blackborough was not alone among the friends of Milton in wishing to see the breach between himself and his wife healed, and this visit was chosen as an occasion on which to ascertain if this might not be accomplished. Mrs. Milton was stationed in an inner room. She presently made her appearance, threw herself at the feet of her husband, and entreated, with tears, and by the affectionate memories of the past, that she might be forgiven. It is said that Milton at first hesitated; but he was at length subdued, and when he declared the past forgiven, we may be sure that it was so. No one can doubt that the poet's description of Adam's reconciliation to Eve was written with a vivid remembrance of the feeling awakened by this scene.

In the following year Mr. R. Powell, of Forest Hill, was "in the city and garrison of Oxford at the surrender thereof." In the State Paper Office is a document signed by General Fairfax, of the 27th of June, 1646, giving Powell full liberty to pass the guards with his servants, horses, arms, goods, and all other necessaries, and to repair unto London or elsewhere upon his necessary occasions. Powell and his large family made their way to the capital, where the son-in-law whom they had so deeply wronged and insulted received them under his roof, and gave them a home during many months. A few weeks after these arrivals Milton's first child was born.

The last Latin poem by Milton was written early in 1647. This was the Ode on John Rouse, the

keeper of the Bodleian Library. Early in 1646 his wife's father had died under his roof. Twelve months later, his own father, who had been for some years a quiet inmate with him, breathed his last. His house being gradually freed from the members of his wife's family, and the death of his father having probably rendered him more independent of tuition, Milton removed sometime in 1647 from his large house in Barbican to a smaller in Holborn. The house in Holborn, it is said, opened backwards into Lincoln's Inn Fields-a space which better answered to its name at that time than at present. In the house at Holborn, Milton's second daughter, Mary, was born.

During 1648 Milton translated nine in his series of translated Psalms. That year was not favourable to tranquil studies in the case of any man feeling as an Englishman should have felt in relation to public affairs. The king's party had been everywhere dispersed. Charles had become a prisoner, first with the Scots, then with the English Presbyterians, and then with the Independents. The Independents, and especially Cromwell, were concerned not only to spare the life of the king, but, if possible, to come to some settlement with him. But his majesty's procrastinations, intrigues, and duplicities, not only frustrated all hope of that nature, but exasperated the men who would have served him, and convinced the army that his life would never be anything but a tissue of conspiracies against the lives of the persons who had dared to resist his will. What were the thoughts of Milton concerning events as they tended towards this result? Where was he when Charles appeared before the high court of justice? Where, when that discrowned head fell upon the scaffold? We know not. But we know that in his mind, in common with his countrymen generally, the war waged had not been waged against monarchy. The object of the strife had been to settle the monarchy on a constitutional basis that should be compatible with liberty. That issue failing, the alternative was a republic; and when that came, men were heard to say, "We have not sought this, but it has come; and seeing in it, as we do, the will of a Power above our own, we give our adhesion to it, and, if needs be, reason enough can be shown to justify us in so doing." Milton was one of these men.

On the death of the king, the Presbyterians raised a loud lament, and discharged the most bitter invectives against the Independents, as the alleged perpetrators of that deed. Mills could have excused anything of that sort from the old Royalists, or from the ignorant among the people, could not brook it as coming from that quarter. Hence, a few weeks after the king's death, he sent forth his pamphlet, intitled The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, the design of which, in so far as it touched on the proceedings against Charles, was said to be "rather to reconcile the minds of men to the event, than to discuss the legitimacy of that particular sentence." The Argument itself, however, goes further than these words would indicate. The proposition it is designed to prove is given in the following words: "That it is lawful, and bath been held so through all ages, for any who have the power, to call to account a tyrant, or wicked king, and, after due conviction, to depose, and to put him to death, if the ordinary magistrate have neglected or denied to do it." It is further shown that the Presbyterians, who now so much blame the deposing of the king, were themselves the men who long since deposed the monarch in the senate, and levelled their instruments of death against him in the field. The startling facts, and the high-handed logic of this publication, wounded the Presbyterians deeply. They had denounced Milton before, they denounced him more than ever now. But the object of the writer was not so much to conciliate that party, as to compel them to silence, by exposing their inconsistency and insincerity.

The next voice from Milton was in his Observations on the Articles of Peace with the Irish Rebels. Those articles, drawn up by Ormond, the Lord-Lieutenant, in the name of the king, demonstrated