also to the recurrence of love, what he appeared to concede only to the solicitations of his friends, and dismissing every irritating recollection from his bosom, he re-admitted the wife, who had deserted and insulted him, into the full possession of his affections. Not satisfied with this single triumph over his resentment, he extended his placability to those who were the abettors, if not the instigators of her offence; and, receiving her parents and her family under his roof, he protected and maintained them in this hour of their danger and distress. If his interest with the victorious party was unable to obtain complete immunity for his royalist connexions, it availed to save them from ruin, and to preserve the bulk of a property," from which he was destined to receive not even the stipulated fortune of his wife. Conduct of so high a character, the offspring of a large and a feeling

a Mr. Todd, to whose industry and accuracy I am frequently indebted, says upon this occasion, "I observe in the Catalogue of the lords, knights, and gentlemen, who have compounded for their estates," printed at London in 1655, that he (Milton's) father-in-law) is thus branded as well as punished. "Richard Powel, delinquent, per John Pye, esq. 576l. 12s. 3d." Delinquent, was the usual term assigned to the Royalists by the Parliament and its adherents, and expressed the idea of disaffected or failing in duty to the public cause: in this place it may mean nothing more than defaulter with reference to the composition, which was not a very heavy one.

heart, is above the ornament of any laboured panegyric. Let the facts, in the intercourse of Milton with the Powells, be placed distinctly and at once in our view, and nothing but atrocious prejudice can withhold us from admiring the magnanimity of the former, and from despising while we pity the meanness of the latter.

Milton was now reunited to his wife; but, his augmented family being too large for his present habitation, he was obliged to place her in a friend's house till a more spacious mansion, which he had recently hired in Barbican, could be made ready for her гесерtion. When the necessary preparations were completed, she removed to her new resi dence; whither she was soon followed by her parents and her numerous brothers and sisters, who were not unwilling to share in the entertainment which was now become requisite for their support. In this asylum they continued till the question respecting their property was adjusted with the government, and till a period subsequent to the death of the author's father in 1647.

Under the pressure of these domestic embarrassments, and of the momentous interest at this crisis of the public scene, the intellect of Milton, obedient to a heart actuated by

the purest benevolence, was busy in promoting the welfare of the human race. The year 1644, which saw this great man immersed in his controversy about divorce, beheld him also imparting to the world his ideas on the subject of education, and defending, with a power which has never been exceeded, that great guardian of liberty and truth, the freedom of the press.

His "Treatise on Education" is addressed, in the form of a letter, to Mr. Samuel Hartlib; a man to whom sir William Petty subsequently inscribed one of his first works; and who was celebrated for the compass of his learning, and the energy of his public spirit. We have already had occasion to notice the peculiar system of instruction adopted by Milton. Convinced of the lavish expenditure of time in the public schools, where the highest object proposed to hope was the acquisition of the classic tongues, he conceived it to be possible to initiate the young student into science and language by the same process; and to make an acquaintance with things the immediate result of an acquaintance with words.

Between the years of twelve and twentyone, the pupil, in the schools recommended by our author, was to be led through various

languages from grammar to ethics, logic, rhetoric, politics, law, theology, criticism, composition. Geography was to exhibit to him the surface of the globe, and astronomy to unfold the heavens: natural philosophy, comprehending anatomy and physiology, was to make him conversant with the phanomena of nature, and with the wonders of his own frame: the mathematics were to introduce him to the sciences of architecture, enginry or gunnery, fortification and navigation; and, on his issuing into the world from one of these academies, he was to be accomplished for any duty, to which his country might summon him, in the pulpit or at the bar, in the senate or in the field. During the course of these studies, which visited every region of science, the body of the student was to receive its share of cultivation, to be maintained in health by temperance and to be invigorated by exertion. The exercises, directed on this occasion, were to be of a military nature," to instruct the youth in the exact use of their weapons, and in the rudiments of their soldiership." After their exercises and their meals, "their spirits were to be recreated and composed with solemn and divine harmonies of music heard or learnt; and their minds sent back to study

in good tune and satisfaction." These institutions, in short, were to resemble the old philosophic schools of Greece, with the rare advantage of uniting the martial gymnasia of Sparta with the Academus and Lyceum of Athens.

This must be allowed to be a magnificent plan of education: but we believe it to be calculated only to amuse the fancy, while it would be found by experience to disappoint the expectation. It was suited however to the gigantic mind of Milton, which from its own altitude could not distinguish small difficulties, and in its pride of power could not easily condescend to the effects of inferior capacity. That he was fully persuaded of the practicability of his system cannot well be doubted. "I shall detain you," he says to Hartlib, "now no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but strait conduct ye to a hill-side, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charining. I doubt not but we shall have more ado to drive our dullest and laziest youth, our stocks and stubs from the

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