m observes that Milton's plan has more of show than value. ""Education in England," Dr. Johnson has remarked," has been in danger of being hurt by two of its greatest men, Milton and Locke. Milton's. plan is impracticable, and I suppose has never been tried. Locke's, I fancy, has been tried often enough, but is very imperfect; it gives too much to one side, and too little to the other; it gives too little to literature." It is perhaps not generally known that Milton's treatise on this subject has been translated into French. The translator has bestowed much eulogium upon the author. In the same year, Mil m See his first edition of Milton's Smaller Poems, p. 117.. n Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. 1799, vol. iii. p. 382. • "Dans les tems que nous nous proposions de donner ces Lettres au Public, il nous en est tombé entre les mains une de Milton, qui n'a pas encore paru dans notre langue, &c.—Rien ne fait tant d'honneur à l' Angleterre que de voir que le plus grand poëte, et l'un des plus celebres philosophes [Locke], qu' elle ait eus, ont assez senti de quelle importance étoit l'éducation des enfans, pour s'en occuper serieusement.-Dans cette Lettre il est aisé de s' appercevoir que ç' a été un des plus sçavans hommes qui ayent vêcu. C'est par cette vaste érudition, joint à un heureux génie, qu'il est devenu le plus grand de tous les poëtes modernes. Aussi son Paradis Perdu n'est-il pas l'ouvrage de sa jeunesse : Peut-être alors en avoit-il conçu l' idée; mais avant que de l' exécuter, il avoit vêcu avec les hommes, il avoit connu l'usage et la puissance des passions, il avoit l'ésprit orné de la connoissance de toutes les sciences et de tous les arts. Sans examiner si la maniere d' élever la jeunesse que Milton propose est aisée à réduire en pratique; il est sur que son plan est rempli de vûës très-fines et très-sages, et qu' il paroît contenir tout ce qui est nécessaire pour former un citoyen utile à sa patrie et agréable à la société." Lettres sur L'Education des Princes. Avec une Lettre de Milton, &c. 1746. Preface, pp. lxxv. lxxix. ton published his Areopagitica, a Speech for the liberty of unlicensed Printing: perhaps the best vindication, as Dr. Newton observes, that has been published at any time, or in any language, of that liberty which is the basis and support of all other liberties, the liberty of the press. But the candid critick adds, that it produced not the desired effect; for the Presbyterians were as fond of exercising the licensing power, when they got it into their own hands, as they had been clamorous before in inveighing against it, while it was in the hands of the Prelates. His father having come to live with him, after the surrender of Reading to the Earl of Essex in 1643, and his scholars now encreasing, he required a larger house; before his removal to which, he was surprised, at one of his usual visits to a relation in the lane of St. Martin's-le-grand, to see his wife come from another room, and beg forgiveness on her knees. The interview on her part had been concerted. The declining state of the royal cause, and consequently of her father's family, as well as the intelligence of Milton's determination to marry again, caused her friends to employ every method to re-unite the insulted husband and disobedient wife. It was contrived that she should be ready, when he came, in another apartment. Fenton, in his elegant sketch of the poet's life, judiciously remarks, that "P it is not P Prefixed to his edition of Paradise Lost, first published in 1725. to be doubted but an interview of that nature, so little expected, must wonderfully affect him: and perhaps the impressions it made on his imagination contributed much to the painting of that pathetick scene in Paradise Lost, in which Eve addresses herself to Adam for pardon and peace. At the intercession of his friends who were present, after a short reluctance, he generously sacrificed all his resentment to her tears: "Soon his heart relented "Towards her, his life so late, and sole delight, And after this re-union so far was he from retaining an unkind memory of the provocations which he had received from her ill conduct, that, when the king's cause was entirely oppressed, and her father who had been active in his loyalty was exposed to sequestration, Milton received both him and his family to protection and free entertainment, in his own house, till their affairs were accommodated by his interest in the victorious faction." Mr. Powell, however, seems to have smarted severely for his attachment to the royal party. I observe, first, in the " Catalogue of the Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen, that have compounded for their Estates," printed at London in 1655, that he had been thus branded as well as fined: "Richard Powel, Delinquent, per John Pye, Esq; 576l. 12s. 3d." And his house had been before seized by the rebels. But a full account of his delinquency and of his composition, and of the share in both which consequently was transferred upon his widow and upon Milton himself, has been found in the First and Second Series of Royalists' Composition-Papers in his Majesty's State-Paper-Office; which presents indeed a most curious portion of domestick history, combined with publick transactions, in regard to the family of the poet's first wife, the sufferings and losses of the loyal parent, and a debt which was due to Milton. Of the following documents, which till now have never met the publick eye, the account consists; commencing in the year 1646. 1. "Richard Powell of Forrest hill in the County of Oxon, Esq. "His Delinquency, that he deserted his dwellinge and went to Oxford, and lived there whiles it was a Garrison holden for the Kinge against the Parliamente, and was there at the tyme of the Surrender, and to have the benefit of those Articles as by Sir Thomas Fairfax's certificate of the 20 of June 1646 doth appeare. "He hath taken the Nationall Covenant before William Barton, Minister of John Zacharies, the 4th of December 1646, and the Negative Oath heere the same daye. "He compounds upon a Perticuler delivered in, under his hand, by which he doth submitt to such Fine &c. and by which it doth appeare: Second Series of Royalists' Comp. Papers, vol. xxi. No. 1137. "That he is seized in Fee to him and his Heirs in possession, of and in the Tythes of Whatley in the Parish of Cudsden, and other Lands and Tenements there of the yeerely value before theis troubles, 40%. "That he is owner and possessed of a personall Estate in goods, and there was owinge unto him in good debts, in all amountinge unto 6007.; and there is 400%. more in Tymber, which is alledged to be questionable. "That he is indebted by Statutes and Bonds 15007. "He hath lost by reason of theis warrs 30007. "He craves to be allowed 4007. which by a demise and lease dated the 30th of January 1642, of the lands and tenements aforesaid, is secured to be paid unto one Thomas Ashworth, gentleman, and is deposed to be still oweinge. "8 December, 1646, (Signed) "D. WATKINS. Price at 2 yeeres value, 1807." The case of Mr. Powell, who died in 1646-7, was not entirely settled, it seems, so late as in 1653. For the next document details the proceedings upon it in that year. 2. " Accordinge to your order of 30 August 1653 upon the order of judgment of the Court of Articles of the 15th of July, 1653, in the case (heard 4o May, 1654,) of Anne Powell, widow, relict and administratrix of Richard Powell, late of Forrest hill, in the |