Life Of John Milton - Richard Garnett (i wanna iguana read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Richard Garnett
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Spenser, And Destined Ou Have Come
At Last, My Son! Now Stay, With Me!"
There Was, However, No Place For Him In The House. A Strange
Apprentice From Jericho Was Established In The Workshop. He Worked At
The Wood With The Hatchet And Saw That Jesus Had Once Handled; Sat By
The Hearth And At The Table Where Jesus Had Once Sat; Slept In The Bed
On Which Jesus Had Once Reposed. But It Did Not Seem That He Enjoyed
The Same Pleasant Dreams For He Groaned And Tossed About, And When He
Awakened Was Ill-Pleased At Having To Continue The Same Work Which He
Had Ill-Humouredly Laid Aside The Evening Before. How Often Did Mary
Look At Him In Silence, And Think Of The Difference Between Him And Her
Jesus. And She Saw How The Man Carelessly Ate His Meals, And Went To
His Bed Each Day, While Her Son Was Perhaps Perishing In A Strange
Land, And Had No Stone Whereon To Lay His Head.
And Now Jesus Was Once Again With Her. "Mother," He Said To Mary,
"Don't Speak Impatiently To Aaron. He Is Poor, Discontented, And
Sullen; He Has Found Little Kindness In Men And Without Exactly Knowing
It, Thirsts For Kindness. When You Would Bring Me Water In The Morning
To Wash With, Take It To Him. When You Would Prepare Dinner For Me,
Prepare It For Him. When You Would Bless Me In The Evening, Bless Him.
Love May Perhaps Do What Words Cannot. Everything That You Think To Do
For Me In My Absence, Do For Him."
"And You--You Will Have Nothing More From Me?"
"Mother, I Want Everything From You. I Am Always With You. You Can Be
Good To Me In Showing Kindness To Every Poor Creature. I Must Lead Men
By Stern Measures, Be You Gentle. I Must Burn The Ulcers From Out The
Dead Flesh, You Shall Heal The Wounds. I Must Be The Salt, Be You The
Oil."
How Happy She Was When He Spoke To Her Like That. For That Was Her
Life--To Be Kind, To Help, Wherever She Could. And Here Was Her Son
Consecrating Such Deeds Of Kindness Till They Became A Covenant Between
Her And Him, A Bond Of Memory For Mother And Child When Parted From
Each Other. Now That He Had Appealed To Her Love, She Did Not Feel So
Chapter 1 Pg 10Lonely; She Felt Once More At One With Him, And Had A Sort Of
Presentiment That In Future Times Her Bleeding Mother's Heart Would Be
Satisfied Beyond Measure.
Once Again Jesus Went Through His Native Land To See If The Seed Of His
Teaching Had Sprung Up Anywhere. But The Earth Was Barren. He Was Not
So Much Troubled By The Passionate Enmity With Which Many Regarded Him,
Or The Angry Murmurings Against Him And His Word, As By Indolence Of
Mind, By Obstinate, Stupid Adherence To Commonplace Inanities, By
Entire Lack Of Perception, By Indifference Towards Spiritual Life. At
First The Novelty And Strangeness Of His Appearance Had Compelled
Attention, But That Was Over. Whether The Prophet Was Old Or New, It
Was All One To Them. One Was Just Like Another, They Declared, And
They Remained Indifferent. "The Hot And The Cold," Jesus Exclaimed One
Day, "I Can Accept, But Those Who Are Lukewarm I Cast From Me. Had I
Preached In Heathen Lands, Or In The Ruined Seaports Of Tyre And Sidon,
They Would Have Repented In Sackcloth And Ashes. Had I Taught In Sodom
And Gomorrah, Those Towns Would Still Be Standing. But These Places
Here In Galilee Are Sunk In A Quagmire Of Shame; They Scorn Their
Prophet. When The Day Of Reckoning Comes, It Will Go Worse With This
Land Than With Those Towns. My Poor Bethsaida, And Thou, Fair Magdala!
And Thou, Capernaum The Beautiful! How I Loved You, My People, How
Highly Did I Honour You; I Desired To Lift You To Heaven. And Now You
Sink In The Abyss. Pray To Him, Your Mammon, In The Days Of Your Need;
There Will Be No Other Consolation For You. Carouse, Laugh, And Be
Cruel To-Day; To-Morrow You Will Be Hungry And You Will Groan: Ah, We
Have Delayed Too Long! Believe Me A Day Will Come When You Fain Would
Justify Your Lives To Me, Crying: 'Lord, We Would Willingly Have Given
You Food, Drink, And Lodging, But You Did Not Come To Us.' But I Did
Come To You. I Came In The Starving, Thot Coege. But
Aubrey Can Hardly Mean Anything More Than That Chappell On Some Occasion
Struck Or Beat His Pupil, And This Interpretation Is Supported By
Milton's Verses To Diodati, Written In The Spring Of 1626, In Which,
While Acknowledging That He Had Been Directed To Withdraw From Cambridge
("_Nec Dudum Vetiti Me Laris Angit Amor_") He Expresses His Intention
Of Speedily Returning:--
"Stat Quoque Juncosas Cami Remeare Paludes,
Atque Iterum Raucae Murmur Adire Scholae."
A Short Rustication Would Be Just The Notice The University Would Be
Likely To Take Of The Conduct Of A Pupil Who Had Been Engaged In A
Scuffle With His Tutor, In Which The Fault Was Not Wholly Or Chiefly
His. Formal Corporal Punishment Would Have Rendered Rustication
Unnecessary. That Milton Was Not Thought Wholly In The Wrong Appears
From His Not Having Been Mulcted Of A Term's Residence, His Absence
Notwithstanding, And From The Still More Significant Fact That Chappell
Lost His Pupil. His Successor Was Nathaniel Tovey, In Whom His
Patroness, The Countess Of Bedford, Had Discerned "Excellent Talent."
What Milton Thought Of Him There Is Nothing To Show.
This Temporary Interruption Of The Smoothness Of Milton's University
Life Occurred, As Has Been Seen, Quite Early In Its Course. Had It
Indeed Implied A Stigma Upon Him Or The University, The Blot Would In
Chapter 1 Pg 11Either Case Have Been Effaced By The Perfect Regularity Of His
Subsequent Career. He Went Steadily Through The Academic Course, Which
To Attain The Degree Of Master Of Arts, Then Required Seven Years'
Residence. He Graduated As Bachelor At The Proper Time, March, 1629, And
Proceeded Master In July, 1632. His General Relations With The
University During The Period May Be Gathered Partly From His Own Account
In After Years, When Perhaps He In Some Degree "Confounded The Present
Feelings With The Past," Partly From A Remarkable Passage In One Of His
Academical Exercises, Fortunately Preserved To Us, The Importance Of
Which Was First Discerned By His Editor And Biographer Mitford.
Professor Masson, However, Ascertained The Date, Which Is All Important.
We Must Picture Milton "Affable, Erect, And Manly," As Wood Describes
Him, Speaking From A Low Pulpit In The Hall Of Christ's College, To An
Audience Of Various Standing, From Grave Doctors To Skittish
Undergraduates, With Most Of Whom He Was In Daily Intercourse. The Term
Is The Summer Of 1628, About Nine Months Before His Graduation; The
Words Were Latin, But We Resort To The Version Of Professor Masson:--
"Then Also There Drew And Invited Me, In No Ordinary Degree, To
Undertake This Part Your Very Recently Discovered Graciousness To
Me. For When, Some Few Months Ago, I Was About To Perform An
Oratorical Office Before You, And Was Under The Impression That
Any Lucubrations Whatsoever Of Mine Would Be The Reverse Of
Agreeable To You, And Would Have More Merciful Judges In Aeacus
And Minos Than Almost Any Of You Would Prove, Truly, Beyond My
Fancy, Beyond My Hope If I Had Any, They Were, As I Heard, Nay, As
I Myself Felt, Received With The Not Ordinary Applause Of
All--Yea, Of Those Who At Other Times Were, On Account Of
Disagreements In Our Studies, Altogether Of An Angry And
Unfriendly Spirit Towards Me. A Generous Mode Of Exercising
Rivalry This, And Not Unworthy Of A Royal Breast, If, When
Friendship Itself Is Wont Often To Misconstrue Much That Is
Blamelessly Done, Yet Then Sharp And Hostile Enmity Did Not Grudge
To Interpret Much That Was Perchance Erroneous, And Not A Little,
Doubtless, That Was Unskilfully Said, More Clemently Than I
Merited."
It Is Sufficiently Manifest From This That After Two Years' Residence
Milton Had Incurred Much Anger And Unpopularity "On Account Of
Disagreements In Our Studies," Which Can Scarcely Mean Anything Else
Than His Disapprobation Of The University System. Notwithstanding This
He Had Been Received On A Former Occasion With Unexpected Favour, And On
The Present Is Able To Say, "I Triumph As One Placed Among The Stars
That So Many Men, Eminent For Erudition, And Nearly The Whole University
Have Flocked Hither." We Have Thus A Miniature History Of Milton's
Connection With His Alma Mater. We See Him Giving Offence By The Freedom
Of His Strictures On The Established Practices, And Misliking Them So
Much As To Write In 1642, "Which [University] As In The Time Of Her
Better Health And Mine Own Younger Judgment, I Never Greatly Admired, So
Chapter 1 Pg 12Now Much Less." But, On The Other Hand, We See His Intellectual Revolt
Overlooked On Account Of His Unimpeachable Conduct And His Brilliant
Talents, And Himself Selected To Represent His College On An Occasion
When An Able Representative Was Indispensable. Cambridge Had All
Imaginable Complacency In The Scholar, It Was Towards The Reformer That
She Assumed, As Afterwards Towards Wordsworth, The Attitude Of
"Blind Authority Beating With His Staff
The Child That Would Have Led Him."
The University And Milton Made A Practical Covenant Like Frederick The
Great And His Subjects: She Did What She Pleased, And He Thought What He
Pleased. In Sharp Contrast With His Failure To Influence Her Educational
Methods Is "That More Than Ordinary Respect Which I Found Above Any Of
My Equals At The Hands Of Those Courteous And Learned Men, The Fellows
Of That College Wherein I Spent Seven Years; Who, At My Parting, After I
Had Taken Two Degrees, As The Manner Is, Signified Many Ways How Much
Better It Would Content Them That I Would Stay; As By Many Letters Full
Of Kindness And Loving Respect, Both Before That Time And Long After, I
Was Assured Of Their Singular Good Affection Toward Me." It May Be Added
Here That His Comeliness And His Chastity Gained Him The Appellation Of
"Lady" From His Fellow Collegians: And The Rooms At Christ's Alleged To
Have Been His Are Still Pointed Out As Deserving The Veneration Of Poets
In Any Event; For Whether Milton Sacrificed To Apollo In Them
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