Of public fraud. In vain doth valour bleed, XVI. TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL. Written 1652. CROMWELL, Our chief of men, who, through a cloud XVII. TO SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.* VANE, young in years, but in sage counsel old, Than whom a better senator ne'er held The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repell'd The fierce Epirot, and the African bold, Whether to settle peace, or to unfold The drift of hollow states, hard to be spell'd; Then to advise how war may, best upheld, Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, In all her equipage: besides, to know Both spiritual power & civil, what each means, What severs each, thou hast learn'd, which few have The bounds of either sword to thee we owe : [done. Therefore, on thy firm hand Religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son. • Sir Henry Vane the younger was the chief of the Independents, and therefore Milton's friend. He was the contriver of the Solemn League and Covenant. In the pamphlets of that age he is called Sir Humorous Vanity. He was beheaded in 1662. XVIII. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT, 1655. AVENGE, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones To Heaven. Their martyr'd blood & ashes sow XIX. ON HIS BLINDNESS. WHEN I consider how my light is spent, XX. TO MR. LAWRENCE. * LAWRENCE, of virtuous father virtuous son,' * The virtuous son was author of a work "Of our Communion with Angels," printed in 1646. The father was member for Herefordshire, in the Little Parliament which began in 1653, and was active in settling the protectorate of Cromwell. Help waste a sullen day, what may be won From the hard season gaining? time will run On smoother, till Favonius re-inspire The frozen earth, and clothe, in fresh attire, The lily and rose, that neither sow'd nor spun. What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice Warble immortal notes, and Tuscan air? He, who of those delights can judge, and spare To interpose them oft, is not unwise. CYRIACK, whose grandsire, on the royal bench Toward solid good what leads the nearest way; For other things, mild Heaven a time ordains, And disapproves that care, though wise in show, That with superfluous burden loads the day, And when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains. XXII. TO THE SAME. CYRIACK, this three-years-day, these eyes, though Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot "an Cyriack Skinner was one of the principal members of Harrington's political club. Wood says that he was ingenious young gentleman, and scholar to John Milton; which Skinner sometimes held the chair."-Ath. Oxon. ii. 591. In liberty's defence, my noble task, Of which all Europe rings from side to side. [mask, This thought might lead me through the world's vain Content, though blind, had I no better guide. XXIII. ON HIS DECEASED WIFE. METHOUGHT I Saw my late espoused saint, And such, as yet once more I trust to have Her face was veil'd, yet, to my fancied sight, Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined So clear, as in no face with more delight. But O, as to embrace me she inclined, I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night This Sonnet was written about the year 1656, on the death of his second wife, Catherine, the daughter of Captain Woodcock, of Hackney, a rigid sectarist. She died in child-bed of a daughter, within a year after their marriage. Milton had now been long totally blind. ODES ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY." THIS is the month, and this the happy morn, That he our deadly forfeit should release, That glorious form, that light unsufferable, He laid aside; and here with us to be, Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose, with us, a darksome house of mortal clay. Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, Now while the Heaven, by the sun's team untrod, See how from far, upon the eastern road, The star-led wizards haste, with odours sweet: And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; * This Ode, in which the many learned allusions are highly poetical, was probably composed as a college exercise at Cambridge, our author being now only twenty-one years old. In the edition of 1645, in its title it is said to have been written in 1629. |