ed and esteemed Sir, given your little
work entire to a friend of mine to be translated into Dutch, with a
desire to have it printed soon. Not knowing, however, whether you
would like anything corrected therein or added, I take the liberty
to give you this notice, and to request you to let me know your
mind on the subject. Best wishes and greetings from

"Your very obedient

"LEO AITZEMA[1]

"Hague: Jan. 29, 1654-5."

[Footnote 1: Communicated by the late Mr. Thomas Watts of the British
Museum, and published by the late Rev. John Mitford in Appendix to
Life of Milton prefixed to Pickering's Edition of Milton's Works
(1851).]

Milton's answer, rather unusually for him, was immediate.

TO LEO VAN AITZEMA.

It is very gratifying to me that you retain the same amount of
recollection of me as you very politely showed of good will by once
and again visiting me while you resided among us. As regards the
Book on Divorce which you tell me you have given to some one to be
turned into Dutch, I would rather you had given it to be turned
into Latin. For my experience in those books of mine has now been
that the vulgar still receive according to their wont opinions not
already common. I wrote a good while ago, I may mention, _three_
treatises on the subject:--the first, in two books, in which _The
Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce_ (for that is the title of the
book) is contained at large; a second, which is called
_Tetrachordon_, and in which the four chief passages of Scripture
concerning that doctrine are explicated; the third called
_Colasterion_, in which answer is made to a certain sciolist. [The
_Bucer Tract_ omitted in the enumeration.] Which of these Treatises
you have given to be translated, or what edition, I do not know:
the first of them was twice issued, and was much enlarged in the
second edition. Should you not have been made aware of this
already, or should I understand that you desire anything else on my
part, such as sending you the more correct edition or the rest of
the Treatises, I shall attend to the matter carefully and with
pleasure. For there is not anything at present that I should wish
changed in them or added. Therefore, should you keep to your
intention, I earnestly hope for myself a faithful translator, and
for you all prosperity.

Westminster: Feb. 5, 1654-5.[1]

[Footnote 1: Epist. Fam. 16.]

The next letter, written