which, upon the strongest presumptions, is ascribed to this
period of his life. In the same neighborhood, and within the same five
years, it is believed that he produced also the "Arcades," and the
"Lycidas," together with "L'Allegro," and "Il Penseroso."

In 1637 Milton's mother died, and in the following year he commenced
his travels. The state of Europe confined his choice of ground to
France and Italy. The former excited in him but little interest. After
a short stay at Paris he pursued the direct route to Nice, where he
embarked for Genoa, and thence proceeded to Pisa, Florence, Rome, and
Naples.

Sir Henry Wotton had recommended, as the rule of his conduct, a
celebrated Italian proverb, inculcating the policy of reserve and
dissimulation. From a practised diplomatist, this advice was
characteristic; but it did not suit the frankness of Milton's manners,
nor the nobleness of his mind. He has himself stated to us his own
rule of conduct, which was to move no questions of controversy, yet
not to evade them when pressed upon him by others. Upon this principle
he acted, not without some offence to his associates, nor wholly
without danger to himself. But the offence, doubtless, was blended
with respect; the danger was passed; and he returned home with all his
purposes fulfilled. He had conversed with Galileo; he had seen
whatever was most interesting in the monuments of Roman grandeur, or
the triumphs of Italian art; and he could report with truth that, in
spite of his religion, everywhere undissembled, he had been honored by
the attentions of the great, and by the compliments of the learned.

After fifteen months of absence, Milton found himself again in London
at a crisis of unusual interest. The king was on the eve of his second
expedition against the Scotch; and we may suppose Milton to have been
watching the course of events with profound anxiety, not without some
anticipation of the patriotic labor which awaited him. Meantime he
occupied himself with the education of his sister's two sons, and soon
after, by way of obtaining an honorable maintenance, increased the
number of his pupils.

In 1641 he conducted his defence of ecclesiastical liberty, in a
series of attacks upon episcopacy. These are written in a bitter
spirit of abusive hostility, for which we seek an insufficient apology
in his exclusive converse with a party which held bishops in
abhorrence, and in the low personal respectability of a large port