h surprise and filled him with admiration: observing
which the honest bookseller besought him to speak in favour of the poem,
for it lay upon his hands like so much waste-paper. My lord bought a
copy, carried it home, read and sent it to Dryden, who, in due time
returning the volume, expressed his opinion of its merits in flattering
terms. "The author," said he, "cuts us all out--aye, even the ancients
too."

Such instances as these were, however, few in number. That the work did
not meet with wider appreciation and quicker sale is not surprising
when it is called to mind that from 1623 to 1664 but two editions of
Shakespeare's works, comprising in all about one thousand copies, had
been printed. In an age when learning was by no means universal, and
polite reading uncommon, it was indeed a scource of congratulation,
rather than a topic for commiseration, that the work of a republican had
in two years reached a sale of thirteen hundred copies.

Before a third edition was required his fame had spread. The house in
which he had been born, in Bread Street, was shown with pride to foreign
visitors; parents sent their sons to read to him, that they might reap
the benefit of his remarks. The latter testimony to his genius was a
tribute the blind poet appreciated. But it happened there were times
and seasons when these obliging youths were not at hand, or when it was
inconvenient for him to receive them. On such occasions he demanded that
his daughters should read him the books he required, though these
were frequently written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, and
Spanish--languages of which they were wholly ignorant. The torment this
inflicted on those striving to pronounce unaccustomed words which had
no meaning to their ears, and the torture endured by him, may readily be
conceived. Expressions of complaint on the one side, and of pain on
the other, continually interrupted the readings, which were eventually
wholly abandoned; the poet sending his children, whose education was
so limited that they were unable to write, to learn "ingenious sorts
of manufacture proper for women, particularly embroideries in gold and
Silver."

When in 1665 Milton had shown his poem to Elwood, the good quaker
observed, "Thou hast said a great deal upon Paradise Lost: what hast
thou to say upon Paradise Found?" This question resting in the poet's
mind, in due time produced fruit; for no sooner had his first poem been
published than he set abou