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ivhefri stwtiftitig nfefcr , alid a cow , p % s , and generally sheep , not far off . Need you wonder then if this journey has tended to raise this country very much in our estimation , or that , whilst I still love my native soil as the scene of many tender associations ,
my judgment pronounces this to be the country of peace , plenty and freedom ? The principal towns that we passed on our return were Batavia , Genesee , Bath , Williamsport , Pennesbury , Northumberland , Harrisburg , Reading and Norristown ; and thus you see we made a complete circuit . ¦ ^^^ rtT ^ ra ^^
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Domestic Character of Milton . Whether his first design be to withdraw Our fealty from God , or to disturb Conjugal love , thau which , perhaps , no bliss Enjoyed by us excites his envy more ; Or this or worse , leave not the faithful side
That gave thee being , still shades thee and protects : The wife , where danger or dishonour lurks , Safest and seemliest by her husband stays—Who guards her . or , with her , the worst
endures ! Milton . Islington , Sir , October 25 , 1826 . ri ^ HE domestic character of this _ X great and good man has been misrepresented and traduced . He was thrice married . This proves he was an admirer of the fair sex . Nor could
the author of our motto fail of having a teen relish for the felicities of wedded love , which lie has here portrayed with so much pathos and beauty . The subject is deserving of examination . The first marriage of John Milton is thus described : —
" About Whitsuntide , 1643 / ' ( says his nephew , Mr . Phillips , ) " he took a journey into the country , nobody about him certainly knowing the reason , or that it was more than a journey of recreation . After a month ' s stay he returned a married man , who
set out a bachelor ; his wife being Mary , the eldest daughter of Mr . Richard Powell , then a Justice of the Peace , of Forest Hill , near Shotover , m Oxfordshire . " This lady , however , strange to tell , at the end of the honey-moon visited her parents , and re-
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rased to return home ! Hers was a gfry * loyal family , where- 'there--was 94 great deal of company and merriment and dancing , " and therefore it is supposed that ** she would not find much gratification in the frugal
establishment , the retired and studious habits , or the political conversation of her literary and republican husband /' Letters entreating her return were unanswered , and even a messenger dispatched to bring her back , did not succeed in his commission . The
injured Milton was now determined to repudiate his wife , and at length , 1644 , published a Treatise on the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce , inscribed to the Parliament . This created many enemies , especially among the
Presbyterians , whom his biographer , Dr , Symmons , denominates *• the sanctified advocates of insurrection and tyranny . " The lady of John Milton , however , returned to him , in a way which shall be described . It savours
of the romantic , but was matter of fact . ' * The desperate situation of the Royal cause after the decisive battle of Naseby , made the family of Milton ' s wife reiuctantlv sensible of the
folly of their conduct , and solicitous to propitiate the resentment of an injured husband , whose assistance might now probably be immediately requisite for their protection or subsistence . With no resemblance to the
elevated equanimity of the man who had honoured them with his alliance , they rose or fell , like the mob of their species , with the flow or ebb of fortune , and were insolent or abject as
this unstable power visited or deserted them . The plan for the accomplishment of their purposes was conceived and executed with successful ingenuity . Combining with his friends , who concurred in the wish for a
reconciliation between the pair who had been united at the altar , they watched our author ' s visits , and as he was in the house of a relation , ( of the name of Blackborough , and in St .
Martin ' s-Ie-Grand , ) they stationed his wife in an inner apartment , with instructions to appear at the proper time , and to supplicate him for his pardon on her knees 1 Faithful to
the lesson of her friends , she sustained her part with skill , and probably with feeling . The scene was surprising ,
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Domestic Character of Milton . 657
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1826, page 657, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2554/page/21/
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