Life Of John Milton by Richard Garnett (best free novels TXT) 📖
- Author: Richard Garnett
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Gone With The Boy To The Place Where The Boats Land, In Order To Offer
His Baskets For Sale. There Was A Stir Among The People: Soldiers In
Brilliant Uniforms And Carrying Long Spears Marched Along; Then Came
Two Heralds Blowing Their Horns As If They Would Split The Air With
Their Sharp Tones; And Behind Came Six Black Slaves Drawing A Golden
Chariot In Which Sat Pharaoh. He Was A Pale Man With Piercing Eyes,
Dressed In Costly Robes, A Sparkling Coronet On His Black, Twisted
Hair. The People Shouted Joyfully, But He Heeded Them Not; He Leaned
Back Wearily On His Cushions. But All At Once He Lifted His Head A
Little; A Boy In The Crowd, The Stranger Basket-Maker's Little Son,
Attracted His Attention. Whether It Was His Beauty Or Something
Unusual About The Boy That Struck Him, We Cannot Say, But He Ordered
The Carriage To Be Stopped, And The Child To Be Brought To Him.
Joseph Humbly Came Forward With The Boy, Crossed His Hands On His
Breast, And Made A Deep Obeisance.
"That Is Your Son?" Said The King In His Own Language.
Joseph Bowed Affirmatively.
"You Are A Jew! Will You Sell Me The Boy?" Asked Pharaoh.
And Then Joseph: "Pharaoh! Although I Am A Descendant Of Jacob, Whose
Sons Sold Their Brother Joseph Into Egypt, I Do Not Deserve Your Irony.
We Are Poor People, But The Child Is Our Most Cherished Possession."
"I Only Spoke In Kindness About The Selling," Said The King. "You Are
My Subjects, And The Boy Is My Property. Take Him, Hamar."
The Servant Was Ready To Put His Hand On The Little Boy, Who Stood By
Quietly And Looked Resolutely At The King. Joseph Fell On His Knees
And Respectfully Represented That He And His Family Were Not Egyptian
Subjects, But Lived There As Strangers, And Implored The Almighty
Pharaoh To Allow Him The Rights Of Hospitality.
"I Know Nothing About All That, My Good Man," S Rights Oent To A Severe Test Act Against Roman Catholics. The Good Sense And
Good Nature Which Inclined Charles To Toleration Were Unfortunately
Alloyed With Less Creditable Motives. Protestants Justly Suspected Him
Of Insidiously Aiming At The Re-Establishment Of Roman Catholicism, And
Even The Persecuted Nonconformists Patriotically Joined With High
Churchmen To Adjourn Their Own Deliverance Until The Country Should Be
Safe From The Common Enemy. The Wisdom And Necessity Of This Course Were
Abundantly Evinced Under The Next Reign, And While We Must Regret That
Milton Contributed His Superfluous Aid To Restrictions Only Defensible
On The Ground Of Expediency, We Must Admit That He Could Not Well Avoid
Making Roman Catholics An Exception To The Broad Tolerance He Claims For
All Denominations Of Protestants. And, After All, Has Not The Roman
Catholic Church's Notion Of Tolerance Always Been That Which Macaulay
Imputes To Southey, That Everybody Should Tolerate Her, And That She
Should Tolerate Nobody?
Chapter 10 Pg 103
A More Important Work, Though Scarcely Worthy Of Milton's Industry, Was
His "History Of Britain" (1670). This Was A Comparatively Early Labour,
Four Of The Six Books Having Been Written Before He Entered Upon The
Latin Secretaryship, And Two Under The Commonwealth. From Its Own Point
Of View, This Is A Meritorious Performance, Making No Pretensions To The
Character Of A Philosophical History, But A Clear, Easy Narrative,
Sometimes Interrupted By Sententious Disquisition, Of Transactions Down
To The Conquest. Like Grote, Though Not Precisely For The Same Reason,
Milton Hands Down Picturesque Legendary Matter As He Finds It, And It Is
To Those Who Would See English History In Its Romantic Aspect That, In
These Days Of Exact Research, His Work Is Chiefly To Be Recommended. It
Is Also Memorable For What He Never Saw Himself, The Engraved Portrait,
After Faithorne's Crayon Sketch.
"No One," Says Professor Masson, "Can Desire A More Impressive And
Authentic Portrait Of Milton In His Later Life. The Face Is Such
As Has Been Given To No Other Human Being; It Was And Is Uniquely
Milton's. Underneath The Broad Forehead And Arched Temples There
Are The Great Rings Of Eye-Socket, With The Blind, Unblemished
Eyes In Them, Drawn Straight Upon You By Your Voice, And
Speculating Who And What You Are; There Is A Severe Composure In
The Beautiful Oval Of The Whole Countenance, Disturbed Only By The
Singular Pouting Of The Rich Mouth; And The Entire Expression Is
That Of English Intrepidity Mixed With Unutterable Sorrow."
Milton's Care To Set His House In Order Extended To His Poetical
Writings. In 1673 The Poems Published In 1645, Both English And Latin,
Appeared In A Second Edition, Disclosing _Novas Frondes_ In One Or Two
Of Milton's Earliest Unprinted Poems, And Such Of The Sonnets As
Political Considerations Did Not Exclude; And _Non Sua Poma_ In The
Tractate Of Education, Curiously Grafted On At The End. An Even More
Important Publication Was The Second Edition Of "Paradise Lost" (1674)
With The Original Ten Books For The First Time Divided Into Twelve As We
Now Have Them. Nor Did This Exhaust The List Of Milton's Literary
Undertakings. He Was Desirous Of Giving To The World His Correspondence
When Latin Secretary, And The "Treatise On Christian Doctrine" Which Had
Employed So Much Of His Thoughts At Various Periods Of His Life. The
Government, Though Allowing The Publication Of His Familiar Latin
Correspondence (1674), Would Not Tolerate The Letters He Had Written As
Secretary To The Commonwealth, And The "Treatise On Christian Doctrine"
Was Still Less Likely To Propitiate The Licenser. Holland Was In That
Day The One Secure Asylum Of Free Thought, And Thither, In 1675, The
Year Following Milton's Death, The Manuscripts Were Taken Or Sent By
Daniel Skinner, A Nephew Of Cyriack's, To Daniel Elzevir, Who Agreed To
Publish Them. Before Publication Could Take Place, However, A
Clandestine But Correct Edition Of The State Letters Appeared In London,
Probably By The Agency Of Edward Phillips. Skinner, In His Vexation,
Appealed To The Authorities To Suppress This Edition: They Took The
Hint, And Suppressed His Instead. Elzevir Delivered Up The Manuscripts,
Which The Secretary Of State Pigeon-Holed Until Their Existence Was
Forgotten. At Last, In 1823, Mr. Robert Lemon, Rummaging In The State
Paper Office, Came Upon The Identical Parcel Addressed By Elzevir To
Daniel Skinner's Father Which Contained His Son's Transcript Of The
State Letters And The "Treatise On Christian Doctrine." Times Had
Chapter 10 Pg 104Changed, And The Heretical Work Was Edited And Translated By George The
Fourth's Favourite Chaplain, And Published At His Majesty's Expense.
The "Treatise On Christian Doctrine" Is By Far The Most Remarkable Of
All Milton's Later Prose Publications, And Would Have Exerted A Great
Influence On Opinion If It Had Appeared When The Author Designed.
Milton's Name Would Have Been A Tower Of Strength To The Liberal
Eighteenth-Century Clergy Inside And Outside The Establishment. It
Should Indeed Have Been Sufficiently Manifest That "Paradise Lost" Could
Not Have Been Written By A Trinitarian Or A Calvinist; But Theological
Partisanship Is Even Slower Than Secular Partisanship To See What It
Does Not Choose To See; And Milton's Arianism Was Not Generally Admitted
Until It Was Here Avouched Under His Own Hand. The General Principle Of
The Book Is Undoubting Reliance On The Authority Of Scripture, With
Which Such An Acquaintance Is Manifested As Could Only Have Been Gained
By Years Of Intense Study. It Is True That The Doctrine Of The Inward
Light As The Interpreter Of Scripture Is Asserted With Equal Conviction;
But Practically This Illumination Seems Seldom To Have Guided Milton To
Any Sense But The Most Obvious. Hence, With The Intrepid Consistency
That Belongs To Him, He Is Not Only An Arian, But A Tolerator Of
Polygamy, Finding That Practice Nowhere Condemned In Scripture, But Even
Recommended By Respectable Examples; An Anthropomorphist, Who Takes The
Ascription Of Human Passion To The Deity In The Sense Certainly Intended
By Those Who Made It; A Believer In The Materiality And Natural
Mortality Of The Soul, And In The Suspension Of Consciousness Between
Death And The Resurrection. Where Less Fettered By The Literal Word He
Thinks Boldly; Unable To Conceive Creation Out Of Nothing, He Regards
All Existence As An Emanation From The Deity, Thus Entitling Himself To
The Designation Of Pantheist. He Reiterates His Doctrine Of Divorce; And
Is As Strong An Anti-Sabbatarian As Luther Himself. On The Atonement And
Original Sin, However, He Is Entirely Evangelical; And He Commends
Public Worship So Long As It Is Not Made A Substitute For Spiritual
Religion. Liturgies Are Evil, And Tithes Abominable. His Exposition Of
Social Duty Tempers Puritan Strictness With Cavalier High-Breeding, And
The Urbanity Of A Man Of The World. Of His Motives For Publication And
Method Of Composition He Says:--
"It Is With A Friendly And Benignant Feeling Towards Mankind That
I Give As Wide A Circulation As Possible To What I Esteem My Best
And Richest Possession.... And Whereas The Greater Part Of Those
Who Have Written Most Largely On These Subjects Have Been Wont To
Fill Whole Pages With Explanations Of Their Own Opinions,
Thrusting Into The Margin The Texts In Support Of Their Doctrines,
I Have Chosen, On The Contrary, To Fill My Pages Even To
Redundance With Quotations From Scripture, So That As Little Space
As Possible Might Be Left For My Own Words, Even When They Arise
From The Context Of Revelation Itself."
There Is Consequently Little Scope For Eloquence In A Treatise
Consisting To So Large An Extent Of Quotations; But It Is Pervaded By A
Moral Sublimity, More Easily Felt Than Expressed. Particular Opinions
Will Be Diversely Judged; But If Anything Could Increase Our Reverence
For Milton It Would Be That His Last Years Should Have Been Devoted To A
Labour So Manf-Bared Limbs Stood
Chapter 10 Pg 105Close To The Guests And Fanned Them Into Coolness. Young Jesus Was To
Do That For Pharaoh, But He Did Not Do It, And Sat On The Floor And
Never Grew Weary Of Looking At Pharaoh's Pale Face. The King Answered
His Gaze Kindly: "I Think That Is The Proud Youth From The Nile, Who
Does Not Desire To Sit At The Feet Of Pharaoh."
"He Shall Sit At The Right Hand Of God," Sang The Choir. Slowly, With
The Air Of An Irritated Lion, The King Turned His Head In Order To See
What Stupid Choirmaster Mingled Hebrew Verses With The Hymn Of Osiris.
Then Ensued Noise And Confusion. The Windows, Behind Which Was The
Darkness, Shone With A
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