Life Of John Milton - Richard Garnett (i wanna iguana read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Richard Garnett
Book online «Life Of John Milton - Richard Garnett (i wanna iguana read aloud txt) 📗». Author Richard Garnett
Is Certain That In Them Wordsworth Sacrificed To Bacchus.
For Milton's Own Sake And Ours His Departure From The University Was The
Best Thing That Could Have Happened To Him. It Saved Him From Wasting
His Time In Instructing Others When He Ought To Be Instructing Himself.
From The Point Of View Of Advantage To The University, It Is Perhaps The
Most Signal Instance Of The Mischief Of Strictly Clerical Fellowships,
Now Happily Things Of The Past. Only One Fellowship At Christ's Was
Tenable By A Layman: To Continue In Academical Society, Therefore, He
Must Have Taken Orders. Such Had Been His Intention When He First
Repaired To Cambridge, But The Young Man Of Twenty-Three Saw Many
Things Differently From The Boy Of Sixteen. The Service Of God Was Still
As Much As Ever The Aim Of His Existence, But He Now Thought That Not
All Service Was Church Service. How Far He Had Become Consciously
Alienated From The Church's Creed It Is Difficult To Say. He Was Able,
At All Events, To Subscribe The Articles On Taking His Degree, And No
Trace Of Arianism Appears In His Writings For Many Years. As Late As
1641 He Speaks Of "The Tri-Personal Deity." Curiously Enough, Indeed,
The Ecclesiastical Freethought Of The Day Was Then Almost Entirely
Confined To Moderate Royalists, Hales, Chillingworth, Falkland. But He
Must Have Disapproved Of The Church's Discipline, For He Disapproved Of
All Discipline. He Would Not Put Himself In The Position Of Those Irish
Clergymen Whom Strafford Frightened Out Of Their Conscientious
Convictions By Reminding Them Of Their Canonical Obedience. This Was
Undoubtedly What He Meant When He Afterwards Wrote: "Perceiving That He
Who Would Take Orders Must Subscribe Slave." Speaking Of Himself A
Little Further On As "Church-Outed By The Prelates," He Implies That He
Would Not Have Refused Orders If He Could Have Had Them On His Own
Terms. As Regarded Milton Personally This Attitude Was Reasonable, He
Chapter 1 Pg 13Had A Right To Feel Himself Above The Restraints Of Mere Formularies;
But He Spoke Unadvisedly If He Meant To Contend That A Priest Should Be
Invested With The Freedom Of A Prophet. His Words, However, Must Be
Taken In Connection With The Peculiar Circumstances Of The Time. It Was
An Era Of High Church Reaction, Which Was Fast Becoming A Shameful
Persecution. The Two Moderate Prelates, Abbot And Williams, Had For
Years Been In Disgrace, And The Church Was Ruled By The Well-Meaning,
But Sour, Despotic, Meddlesome Bigot Whom Wise King James Long Refused
To Make A Bishop Because "He Could Not See When Matters Were Well." But
If Laud Was Infatuated As A Statesman, He Was Astute As A Manager; He
Had The Church Completely Under His Control, He Was Fast Filling It With
His Partisans And Creatures, He Was Working It For Every End Which
Milton Most Abhorred, And Was, In Particular, Allying It With A King Who
In 1632 Had Governed Three Years Without A Parliament. The Mere Thought
That He Must Call This Hierarch His Father In God, The Mere Foresight
That He Might Probably Come Into Collision With Him, And That If He Did
His Must Be The Fate Of The Earthen Vessel, Would Alone Have Sufficed To
Deter Milton From Entering The Church.
Even So Resolute A Spirit As Milton's Could Hardly Contemplate The
Relinquishment Of Every Definite Calling In Life Without Misgiving, And
His Friends Could Hardly Let It Pass Without Remonstrance. There Exists
In His Hand The Draft Of A Letter Of Reply To The Verbal Admonition Of
Some Well-Wisher, To Whom He Evidently Feels That He Owes Deference. His
Friend Seems To Have Thought That He Was Yielding To The Allurements Of
Aimless Study, Neglecting To Return As Service What He Had Absorbed As
Knowledge. Milton Pleads That His Motive Must Be Higher Than The Love Of
Lettered Ease, For That Alone Could Never Overcome The Incentives That
Urge Him To Action. "Why Should Not All The Hopes That Forward Youth And
Vanity Are Afledge With, Together With Gain, Pride, And Ambition, Call
Me Forward More Powerfully Than A Poor, Regardless, And Unprofitable
Sin Of Curiosity Should Be Able To Withhold?" And What Of The "Desire Of
Honour And Repute And Immortal Fame Seated In The Breast Of Every True
Scholar?" That His Correspondent May The Better Understand Him, He
Encloses A "Petrarchean Sonnet," Recently Composed, On His Twenty-Third
Birthday, Not One Of His Best, But Precious As The First Of His Frequent
Reckonings With Himself:--
"How Soon Hath Time, The Subtle Thief Of Youth,
Stolen On His Wing My Three-And-Twentieth Year!
My Hasting Days Fly On With Full Career;
But My Late Spring No Bud Or Blossom Shew'th.
Perhaps My Semblance Might Deceive The Truth,
That I To Manhood Am Arrived So Near;
And Inward Ripeness Doth Much Less Appear,
Than Some More Timely-Happy Spirits Indu'th.
Yet Be It Less Or More, Or Soon Or Slow,
It Shall Be Still In Strictest Measure Even
To That Same Lot, However Mean Or High,
Towards Which Time Leads Me, And The Will Of Heaven.
All Is, If I Have Grace To Use It So,
Chapter 1 Pg 14As Ever In My Great Taskmaster's Eye."
The Poetical Temperament Is Especially Liable To Misgiving And
Despondency, And From This Milton Evidently Was Not Exempt. Yet He Is
The Same Milton Who Proclaimed A Quarter Of A Century Afterwards--
"I Argue Not
Against Heaven's Hand Or Will, Nor Bate A Jot
Of Heart Or Hope; But Still Bear Up And Steer
Right Onward."
There Is Something Very Fine In The Steady Resolution With Which, After
So Fully Admitting To Himself That His Promise Is Yet Unfulfilled, And
That Appearances Are Against Him, He Recurs To His Purpose, Frankly
Owning The While That The Gift He Craves Is Heaven's, And His Only The
Application. He Had Received A Lesson Against Over-Confidence In The
Failure Of His Solitary Effort Up To This Time To Achieve A Work On A
Large Scale. To The Eighth And Last Stanza Of His Poem, "The Passion Of
Christ," Is Appended The Note: "This Subject The Author Finding To Be
Above The Years He Ly At His Comrades. "Did You
Recognise Him? Wasn't It Saul, The Dread Weaver? They Were Saying In
The Town Yesterday That He Was Coming With A Legion Of Soldiers To
Arrest The Nazarenes."
Then They Urged In Terror; "Master, Let Us Flee."
He Was Not Accustomed To Flee Before Zealous Pharisees, But There Was
Another Reason For Removing His Innocent Disciples From The Atmosphere
Of These Big Cities. Simon Was Always Suggesting That It Would Be No
Bad Thing To Spend The Coming Passover On The Tiber, For He Felt Less
Afraid Of The Heathens In Rome Than Of The Jews In Jerusalem. He Had
No Idea Of What Was Before Them.
"Not In Rome," Said Jesus, "But Rather In Jerusalem Will We Eat The
Paschal Lamb."
Soon After They Wandered Forth And Left The Noisy Seaport Behind Them.
As The Roads Became More And More Unsafe, They Climbed The Rocks And
Took The Way Across The Mountains.
The Gods Came Down From High Olympus, The Law Came Down From Sinai,
Light Came Down From Lebanon. For It Was At Lebanon That The Great
Revelation Came, Which My Shrinking Soul Is Now To Witness.
Chapter 2 Pg 15
The Following Incident Took Place During The Journey Among The
Mountains Of Lebanon. One Day They Were Resting Under An Old
Weather-Beaten Cedar. The Rain Trickled Through The Bristling Bush Of
Chapter 2 Pg 16Needles From One Branch To Another On To The Hats Under The Broad Brims
Of Which The Men Cowered, Their Legs Drawn Up Under Them, Their Arms
Crossed Over Their Chests. Tired And Somewhat Out Of Humour, They
Looked Out Into The Damp Mist Against Which The Near Summits And Masses
Of Rock Stood Out. The Hair And Beards Of The Older Men Had Turned
Grey, And Even The Faces Of The Younger Seemed To Have Aged. For Their
Hardships Had Been Great. But The Glow In Their Eyes Was Not Quenched.
They Had Laid Aside Their Long Staffs; The Sacks Which Some Carried On
Their Backs Were Wrinkled And Empty. A Little Way Off Was A
Tree-Trunk, So Big That Three Men Could Hardly Have Encompassed It; The
Bark Was White And Rough, So That It Seemed As If Spirits Had Carved
Mysterious Signs Thereon In Pure Silver. Jesus, A Little Apart From
His Disciples, Was Resting Under This Tree. He Was, As Usual, Without
A Hat, And His Abundant Nut-Brown Hair Fell Over His Shoulders. His
Indescribably Beautiful Face Was Paler Than Formerly. He Leaned
Against The Trunk Of The Tree And Closed His Eyes.
The Disciples Thought He Slept, And In Order Not To Wake Him They
Looked At One Another And Spoke In Whispers. Their Hearts Were Full Of
The Impressions Of Their Late Experiences. They Thought Of The
Persecution In Their Native Land, The Attractiveness Of The Big World,
And Their Ignorance Of The Future. Many Of Them During This Gloomy
Rest-Time Thought Of Their Former Lives. Who Is Managing My Boat? Who
Tends My Fruit-Trees? Who Works In My Workshop? Who Sits In The
Profitable Toll-House? Who Is Providing For My Wife, My Children?
There Had Been A Triumphant Progress Through The Land And Then A
Flight. Men Had Not Recognised The Master. If He Would Only Say
Distinctly And Clearly Who He Was! Meanwhile The Outlook Was
Desperate. As If They Had Run After A Demagogue, A Traitor, An
Anti-Jew! How Could An Anti-Jew Be King Of The Jews? If He Would Only
Say Who He Was!
Snow Lay On The Mountains. The Ice-Wastes Stretched
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