Areopagitica

whom he is here injuriously ranked. He there states, that he dared be known to think Spenser a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas. When therefore Mr. Warton charged him in addition with the adoption of “ unpoetical principles" the accusation was equally groundless. The current of general opinion, \ I admit, then drove in this direction; we have seen that MILTON set himself individually to stem it.

He can no more be said to have deserted Poetry than Locke can be said to have deserted Philosophy, because this great Writer for a season dedicated himself to assert the right of private judgment in religious concerns, and to justify the People's expulsion of James from the throne. In the stead of such light and air-built surmises, we must require unobjectionable testimony before it will enter our belief, that he, who published to the world the interesting anecdote in the history of his own mind which now follows, would ever have harboured a thought incompatible with a love for Poetry. He introduced this digressive narration to show, that if he had sought for praise by the ostentation of Talents and Learning, he would never have

written, till, in pursuance of the plan which he had marked out for himself, he had completed to his satisfaction the full circle of his private studies*. To demonstrate this, he appeals to the character of the work by which he first appeared as an authour-a disquisition on Ecclesiastical Government. Left to his free choice, he tells the reader, that he should have selected a subject purposely; some subject which would have admitted "time enough to

pencil it over with all the curious touches "of art; even to the perfection of a fault"less picture." After enforcing these arguments to prove, that he was impelled into the service of the Anti-prelatical Party by the mandate of Conscience, and did not enlist in it to gratify any personal considerations, nor without repugnance, he pro

* He repeats much the same in his Defensio Secunda : "Equidem tacere diu, et posse non scribere, quod nunquam "potuit Salmasius, didiceram; eáque in sinu gestabam "tacitus, quæ si tum proferre libuisset, æquè ac nunc, in"claruisse jamdudum poteram: sed cunctantis famæ avidus "non eram, ne hæc quidem, nisi idoneâ datâ occasione

unquam prolaturus; nihil laborans etsi alii me quæcunque "nôssem scire nesciebant; non enim famam sed opportu"nitatem cujusque rei præstolabar."-Pr. W. II, 330. edit. 1738.

ceeds, " Lastly, I should not choose this "manner of writing wherein knowing myself “inferior to myself, led by the genial power "of Nature to another task*, I have the

use, as I may account it, but of my left "hand. And though I shall be foolish in saying more to this purpose, yet since it "will be such a folly, as wisest men going "about to commit, have only confest and so "committed, I may trust with more reason, "because with more folly, to have courteous "pardon. For although a Poet, soaring in "the high region of his fancies, with his "garland and singing robes about him,

might without apology speak more of him

* Compare what he wrote to Oldenburg in 1654: “Ad "alia ut me parem, nescio sane an nobiliora aut utiliora "(quid enim in rebus humanis asserenda Libertate nobilius ❝aut utilius esse possit ?) siquidem per valetudinem et hanc "luminum orbitatem, omni senectute graviorem, si denique "per hujusmodi Rabularum clamores licuerit, facile induci "potero: neque enim iners otium unquam mihi placuit, et "hoc cum Libertatis adversariis inopinatum certamen, di❝versis longe, et amonioribus omnino me studiis intentum, ❝ad se rapuit invitum; ita tamen ut rei gestæ quando id "necesse erat, nequaquam pœniteat: nam in vanis operam "consumpsisse me, quod innuere videris, longe abest, ut "putem." Epist. Fam.

"self than I mean to do; yet for me sitting "here below in the cool element of Prose,

a mortal thing among many readers of no

empyreal conceit, to venture and divulge "unusual things of myself, I shall petition to "the gentler sort, it may not be envy to me. "I must say therefore, that after I had from 66 my first years, by the ceaseless diligence "and care of my Father*, whom GOD recompence, been exercised to the Tongues, "and some Sciences, as my age would "suffer, by sundry Masters and Teachers "both at home and at the schools, it was "found, that whether aught was imposed "me by them that had the overlooking, or "betaken to of mine own choice in English, "or other tongue, prosing or versing, but

chiefly this latter, the style, by certain “vital signs it had, was likely to live. But "much latelier in the private Academies "of Italy, whither I was favoured to resort,

* Again, in the Defensio Secunda, he says, "Pater me "puerulum humaniorum literarum studiis destinavit; quas "ita avide arripui, ut ab anno ætatis duodecimo vix unquam "ante mediam noctem a lucubrationibus cubitum disce"derem ; quæ prima oculorum pernicies fuit:" &c. Pr. W. II, 331. ed. 1738.

perceiving that some trifles which I had in

memory, composed at under twenty or "thereabout (for the manner is, that every

one must give some proof of his Wit and “and Reading there) met with acceptance "above what was looked for, and other things which I had shifted in scarcity of "Books and conveniences to patch up

among them, were received with written

encomiums, which the Italian is not for"ward to bestow on Men of this side the Alps, I began thus far to assent both to "them and divers of my friends here at "home; and not less to an inward prompt"ing which now grew daily upon me, that

by labour and intent Study, (which I take "to be my portion in this Life) joined with "the strong propensity of Nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after"times, as they should not willingly let it “die*."

Sufficient has been said in these preceding remarks to satisfy all who read them, that in taking on him for the Speech before us

* Prefatory Section to the second Book on "the Reason " of Church Government urged against Prelaty."

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