discipline of the Puritan. Before he was twelve years old he had
formed the habit of studying far into the night; and his field
included not only Greek, Latin, Hebrew and modern European
literatures, but mathematics also, and science and theology and
music. His parents had devoted him in infancy to noble ends, and he
joyously accepted their dedication, saying, "He who would not be
frustrate of his hope to write well ... ought himself to be a true
poem, that is, a composition and pattern of the best and
honorablest things."

[Sidenote: MILTON AT HORTON]

From St. Paul's school Milton went to Christ's College, Cambridge,
took his master's degree, wrote a few poems in Latin, Italian and
English, and formed a plan for a great epic, "a poem that England
would not willingly let die." Then he retired to his father's
country-place at Horton, and for six years gave himself up to
music, to untutored study, and to that formal pleasure in nature
which is reflected in his work. Five short poems were the only
literary result of this retirement, but these were the most perfect
of their kind that England had thus far produced.

Milton's next step, intended like all others to cultivate his
talent, took him to the Continent. For fifteen months he traveled
through France and Italy, and was about to visit Greece when,
hearing of the struggle between king and Parliament, he set his
face towards England again. "For I thought it base," he said, "to
be traveling at my ease for culture when my countrymen at home were
fighting for liberty."