times, as Dandolo of Venice, the incomparable Doge; or Boemar Zisca, the bravest of generals, and the champion of the cross; or Jerome Zanchius, and some other theologians of the highest reputation? For it is evident that the patriarch Isaac, than whom no man ever enjoyed more of the divine regard, lived blind for many years; and perhaps also his son Jacob, who was equally an object of the divine benevolence. And in short, did not our Saviour himself clearly declare that poor man whom he restored to sight had not been born blind, either on account of his own sins or those of his progenitors? And with respect to myself, though I have accurately examined my conduct, and scrutinized my soul, I call thee, O God, the searcher of hearts, to witness, that I am not conscious, either in the more early or in the later periods of my life, of having committed any enormity, which might deservedly have marked me out as a fit object for such a calamitous visitation. But since my enemies boast that this affliction is only a retribution for the transgressions of my pen, I again invoke the Almighty to witness, that I never, at any time, wrote anything which I did not think agreeable to truth, to justice, and to piety. This was my persuasion then, and I feel the same persuasion now. Nor was I ever prompted to such exertions by the influence of ambition, by the lust of lucre or of praise; it was only by the conviction of duty and the feeling of patriotism, a disinterested passion for the extension of the civil and religious liberty. Thus, therefore, when I was publicly solicited to write a reply to the Defense of the royal cause, when I had to contend with the pressure of sickness, and with the apprehension of soon losing the sight of my remaining eye, and when my medical attendants clearly announced, that if I did engage in the work, it would be irreparably lost, their premonitions caused no hesitation and inspired no dismay. I would not have listened to the voice even of Esculapius himself from the shrine of Epidauris, in prefer ence to the suggestions of the heavenly monitor within my breast; my resolution was unshaken, though the alternative was either the loss of my sight, or the desertion of my duty and I called to mind those two destinies, which the Oracle of Delphi announced to the son of Thetis: : Two fates may lead me to the realms of night; If staying here, around Troy's wall I fight, I considered that many had purchased a less good by a greater evil, the meed of glory by the loss of life; but that I might procure great good by little suffering; that though I am blind, I might still discharge the most honourable duties, the performance of which, as it is something more durable than glory, ought to be an object of superior admiration and esteem; I resolved, therefore, to make the short interval of sight, which was left me to enjoy, as beneficial as possible to the public interest. Thus it is clear by what motives I was governed in the measures which I took, and the losses which I sustained. Let then the calumniators of the divine goodness cease to revile, or to make me the object of their superstitious imaginations. Let them consider, that my situation, such as it is, is neither an object of my shame or my regret, that my resolutions are too firm to be shaken, that I am not depressed by any sense of the divine displeasure; that, on the other hand, in the most momentous periods, I have had full experience of the divine favour and protection; and that, in the solace and the strength which have been infused into me from above, I have been enabled to do the will of God; that I may oftener think on what he has bestowed, than on what he has withheld; that, in short, I am unwilling to exchange my con sciousness of rectitude with that of any other person; and that I feel the recollection a treasured store of tranquillity and delight. But, if the choice were necessary, I would, sir, prefer my blindness to yours; yours is a cloud spread over the mind, which darkens both the light of reason and of conscience; mine keeps from my view only the coloured surfaces of things, while it leaves me at liberty to contemplate the beauty and stability of virtue and of truth. How many things are there besides which I would not willingly see; how many which I must see against my will; and how few which I feel any anxiety to see! There is, as the apostle has remarked, a way of strength through weakness. Let me then be the most feeble creature alive, as long as that feebleness serves to invigorate the energies of my rational and immortal spirit; as long as in that obscurity, in which I am enveloped, the light of the divine presence more clearly shines. Then, in proportion as I am weak, I shall be invincibly strong; and in proportion as I am blind, I shall more clearly see. O! that I may thus be perfected by feebleness, and irradiated by obscurity! And, indeed, in my blindness, I enjoy in no inconsiderable degree the favour of the Deity, who regards me with more tenderness and compassion in proportion as I am able to behold nothing but himself. Alas! for him who insults me, who maligns and merits public execration! For the divine law not only shields me from injury, but almost renders me too sacred to attack; not indeed so much from the privation of my sight, as from the overshadowing of those heavenly wings which seem to have occasioned this obscurity; and which, when occasioned, he is wont to illuminate with an interior light, more precious and more pure. BIBLIOGRAPHY EDITIONS The Works of John Milton in Prose and Verse. Edited by John Mitford. London, 1851; eight volumes. Complete, except for the De Doctrina Christiana and minor items. Latin texts of prose; no translations. Index, no notes. The Poetical Works of John Milton. Edited by H. J. Todd. First Edition, London, 1801; six volumes. Second Edition, much enlarged, London, 1809; seven volumes. Todd's Variorum Edition is the readiest means of access to the results of eighteenth century critical and scholarly work in Milton. The Poetical Works of John Milton. Edited by David Masson. London, 1874; three volumes. Elaborate introduct tions, notes, and essays. The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton. Edited by William Vaughn Moody, Boston, 1899 (The Cambridge Poets). New Edition with revision of the translations by E. K. Rand, 1924. Brilliant introductions but occasionally inaccurate. The Poetical Works of John Milton. Edited by H. C. Beeching. London, 1900 (Oxford Edition); one volume. Reprints the texts in their original spelling. No notes. The Poetical Works of John Milton. Edited by W. A. Wright. Cambridge, 1903. Gives variant readings in full; the best modernized text. The Poems of John Milton. Edited by H. J. C. Grierson. London, 1925. All the poems arranged chronologically; at tempts to preserve significant features of the original text. Arcades and Comus, Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity, etc.; L'Allegro, Il Penseroso and Lycidas, Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes. Edited by A. W. Verity. Cambridge, 1891-1912 (Pitt Press Series); eleven volumes. Revised edition of Paradise Lost in one volume, 1910. The most learnedly annotated of all modern editions. The Prose Works of John Milton. Edited by J. A. St. John. London, 1848-1853 (Bohn Library); five volumes. Translations only of Latin works, including De Doctrina Christiana. Prefaces and notes. BIOGRAPHIES Of Education, Areopagitica, etc., with Early Biographies of Milton. Edited by Laura E. Lockwood. Boston, 1911 (The Riverside Literature Series). Contains the recently discovered Anonymous Life, John Aubrey's Collections on Milton, and the biographies by Anthony Wood and Edward Phillips. The Life of Milton, by David Masson; London, 18591894. First volume revised 1881. Seven volumes including index The standard authority on Milton and the political, ecclesiastical, and literary background of his career. Milton und seine Zeit, by A. Stern. Leipzig, 1877-1879. A parallel work to Masson. One volume biographies by Mark Pattison, London, 1879; Richard Garnett, London, 1890; W. P. Trent, New York, 1899; Walter Raleigh, New York, 1900. Books OF REFERENCE John Milton: Topical Bibliography. By E. N. S. ThompNew Haven, 1916. son. A Concordance to the Poetical Works of John Milton. By J. Bradshaw. London, 1894. |