d, married Mary Powell, a girl
of just half his own age, daughter of a royalist residing near Oxford. We
must imagine this young wife as coming to preside, somewhat in the
capacity of matron, over a family of boys held severely to their tasks of
study by a master in whom the sense of humor was almost entirely lacking,
and whose discipline was of the sternest. That she could not endure the
situation was but natural. Very soon after the wedding she went home with
the understanding that she was to make a short visit to her parents and
sisters; but she did not return for two years. Her husband summoned her,
but she would not come back. In 1645 she at last repented of her
waywardness, sought reconciliation, and was forgiven. These two years had
wrought a change in Mary Powell Milton. She was now ready to live with
her husband, and did so till her death in 1652. She left him three
daughters, the youngest of whom, Deborah, lived till 1723, and was known
to Addison and his contemporaries, from whom she received distinguished
honors.

In reading Milton we find that all the vicissitudes of his life reflect
themselves in his works, so that the political and social events in which
he is personally concerned usurp his attention, color his views, and
often become his themes. Thus he is not, like Shakespeare, a critic of
the whole of humanity, but is usually an advocate or an accuser of the
leaders in church and state and of the principles which they profess. He
is by nature a partisan. All the energy of his mind goes into
denunciation or vindication. His experience of wedded life made him an
advocate of easier divorce, and determined in him a mood which expressed
itself in writings that naturally brought upon him obloquy even from
those who held him most in honor.

It would be most interesting to know something of the daily routine of
Milton's school, to ascertain what his pupils knew and could do when he
had done with them. But we must remember that during all the years of his
teaching the great Revolution was in progress, that all men of thought
were profoundly stirred on public questions, and that Milton himself was
a politician and an eager partisan of the cause of Parliament. He did not
consider himself a teacher finally and for good. His school did not
develop into anything great or conspicuous, and never became an object of
curiosity. While yet engaged in such teaching as he found to do, he had
written the pamphlets on educat