acter which is called Puritanism. It
is not a creed for weak natures; so that as the nominal religion of a
whole populace it has inevitably fallen into some well-merited disrepute.
Puritanism for him was not a body of law to be imposed outwardly on a
gross and timid people, but an inspiration and a grace that falls from
Heaven upon choice and rare natures--

Nor do I name of men the common rout,
That, wandering loose about,
Grow up and perish as the summer fly,
Heads without name, no more remember'd;

so sings the Chorus in _Samson Agonistes_--

But such as thou hast solemnly elected,
With gifts and graces eminently adorned,
To some great work, thy glory,
And people's safety, which in part they effect.

Under one form or another Puritanism is to be found in almost all
religions, and in many systems of philosophy. Milton's Puritanism enabled
him to combine his classical and Biblical studies, to reconcile his pagan
and Christian admirations, Stoicism, and the Quakers. It was with no
sense of incongruity that he gave to the Christ a speech in praise of--

Quintus, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus,...
Who could do mighty things, and could contemn
Riches, though offered from the hand of Kings.

To reject common ambitions, to refuse common enticements, to rule
passions, desires, and fears, "neither to change, nor falter, nor
repent,"--this was the wisdom and this the virtue that he set before
himself. There is no beatific vision to keep his eyes from wandering
among the shows of earth. Milton's heaven is colder than his earth, the
home of Titans, whose employ is political and martial. When his
imagination deals with earthly realities, the noble melancholy of the
Greeks lies upon it. His last word on human life might be translated into
Greek with no straining and no loss of meaning--

His servants He, with new acquist
Of true experience from this great event,
With peace and consolation hath dismissed,
And calm of mind, all passion spent.

He is therefore one of the few English poets (alone in this respect among
the greatest) who have not sung of Love. His only English love-poem, the
sonnet _To the Nightingale_, is his earliest and poorest sonnet. He
elected in his later poems to sing of Marriage, its foundation in reason,
its utility, its respectability and antiquity as an institution, and,
above all, its amazing dangers. He has thus lost the devotion of the
young, who, while they read poet