excusing only the eldest daughter by reason of her bodily infirmity
and difficult utterance of speech (which, to say truth, I doubt was
the principal cause of excusing her), the other two were condemned
to the performance of reading and exactly pronouncing of all the
languages of whatever book he should, at one time or other, think
fit to peruse, viz., the Hebrew (and I think the Syriac), the Greek,
the Latin, the Italian, Spanish, and French. All which sorts of
books to be confined to read, without understanding one word, must
needs be a trial of patience almost beyond endurance. Yet it was
endured by both for a long time, though the irksomeness of this
employment could not be always concealed, but broke out more and
more into expressions of uneasiness; so that at length they were
all, even the eldest also, sent out to learn some curious and
ingenious sorts of manufacture, that are proper for women to learn,
particularly embroideries in gold or silver."

In the scene of misery which this mode of intellectual labour sets
before our eyes, it is hard to determine whether the daughters or
the father are most to be lamented. A language not understood can
never be so read as to give pleasure, and very seldom so as to
convey meaning. If few men would have had resolution, to write
books with such embarrassments, few likewise would have wanted
ability to find some better expedient.

Three years after his "Paradise Lost" (1667) he published his
"History of England," comprising the whole fable of Geoffrey of
Monmouth, and continued to the Norman Invasion. Why he should have
given the first part, which he seems not to believe, and which is
universally rejected, it is difficult to conjecture. The style is
harsh; but it has something of rough vigour, which perhaps may often