35 civilization (in a humorous mood, let us hope). Here, he claims further (if it be he) the honors for Great Britain of having invented the theory of immortality. He explains that in ancient chronicles (he was reading them at the time for his History) it is recorded that "King Druis [hence the name druids] to encourage his subjects to fight, invented immortality of the soul." And yet Milton's patriotism does not go so far as to adopt the theory. The small volume ends on the ingenious couplet (and can this be another Miltonic addition?): Qualis in novissimo vitæ die quisque moritur, Our last three chapters have placed Milton in his own times and among his countrymen. We cannot undertake here to trace further back the origin of his ideas, of the ideas of the group and tradition he belonged to. We have seen the development of certain sixteenth-century conceptions that originated partly in the Kabbalah, were further developed by Fludd into a immensely complicated but more coherent system, were brought back to earth and plain common-sense by the Mortalists, and finally this being the goal we wanted to reach-were elevated by Milton into the permanent sphere of supreme artistic beauty. 35 Prose Works, II, 90. There have, however, been many who held the opinion seriously. I CONCLUSION T is of interest to note that the next great step taken by European thought, the pantheism of Spinoza, only marks a further stage of evolution of the ideas we have been studying in England. There has been a good deal of controversy as to whether or not Spinoza derived his ideas from the Kabbalah. There are intellectual worlds between the two; but when the history of European thought in the seventeenth century is properly investigated, it will be seen that throughout Europe there was in progress an evolution of thought of which the English line from Fludd to Milton is only one manifestation.' And there is no doubt that Spinoza takes his proper place—one of the very highest-at the end of that evolution. The froth of the Renaissance was being analyzed and the results confronted with the findings of a scientific century; but a kernel of great ideas remained alive and fruitful. It is possible, and even probable, that Milton had occasion in his later life to discuss Spinoza's ideas. They had a common friend, Oldenburg, a frequent correspondent of both. In 1661, Oldenburg had a memorable conversation with Spinoza on God, thought and extension, and the nature of the union of body and soul. Spinoza sent Oldenburg a long letter on the subject-probably 2 1 In France, Jean d'Espagnet, a Bordeaux magistrate (Enchiridion, 1647), represents Fludd's stage of evolution in a much more concise and literary form. 2 Oldenburg to Spinoza, Aug. 26, 1661. See The Chief Works of ... Spinoza (London, 1912), II, 275. the most interesting letter of his that has survived. He explains therein his conception of the One Substance, which cannot have been created and is infinite and perfect.' It seems to me probable that Oldenburg, who was then in London and visited Milton, showed the poet this interesting letter; if so, Milton must certainly have been struck by the resemblances between his conception of substance and Spinoza's. Milton had but little of the scientific spirit: he was essentially a great rhetorician in the service of a great moralist; but he was deeply interested in science; he admired Bacon; Galileo was one of his heroes. Through Oldenburg, he was in connection with Boyle and the founders of the Royal Society. But Milton has a greater value than that of a representative of his own time; his thinking occasionally reaches a depth that makes it permanently valid. What do we mean by that word "depth"? It seems to me that we apply it to whatever, in works that are now antiquated in thought and feeling, strikes us, men of today, as new and original, as carrying still a revelation for us. In the middle of Plato's theosophy, which seems to us so puerile; of the Hindoo mythology, which seems to us so artificial; of Pascal's religion - whatever may be our own religious opinions -we come upon phrases and ideas that still bring to us the sensation of a superior power of thought, and shreds of truth otherwise hidden from us. Above all systems and modes of thought, such ideas remain eternally true, new, and surprising for mankind. They give life to books which, without them, would have been forgotten long ago, even as, for instance, Fludd is forgotten because that power is not in him. But that power is in 8 Ibid., II, 276–79. Milton. His work is full of phrases like these, which strike and penetrate our minds: While other animals inactive range, And of their doings God takes no account. Of her, who sees when thou art seen most weak. Evil into the mind of God or man May come and go. Even today, man can use such splendid forms and moulds of thought as these, pour his mind into them, and obtain results. For Milton has not only constructed a cosmology: he has reached deeper; he has looked for ultimate reality within the heart of man, and placed the laws of destiny in man's soul and will. The lesson that emerges from Milton's poems is the same as the lesson of the magnificent series of novels of that modern among the moderns, George Meredith: man's destiny is but the translation into outward events of his inner history; his weaknesses bring catastrophe; his qualities, victory; the God of this world is an internal God; He is the inevitable Force that expresses in outward facts the tendencies of our souls. Meredith said—and Milton might have said: And: Forgetful is green Earth, the Gods alone By their great memories the Gods are known.* ... the Fates are within us. Those which are the forces of the outer world are as shadows to the power we have created within It is true that our destiny is of our own weaving." us. ♦ Odes in Contribution to the Song of French History: "France, December, 1870." 5 Vittoria, Chap. XLV. Meredith's ideal of marriage, too, is the same as Milton's: . . the senses running their live sap, and the minds companioned, and the spirits made one by the whole natured conjunction . between the ascetic rocks and the sensual whirlpools.® Their conceptions of woman are not so different as might appear: Meredith's women, like Diana, generally find their leader in a man; and that is all Milton demands; and Milton admits them to all the privileges Meredith claims for them. It was Milton who said, and Meredith who might have wished to have said: ... smiles from reason flow and delight to reason joined:" essential definitions of the Comic Spirit as Meredith conceives it in his Essay on Comedy: the Comic Spirit that flows from intellectual relationship between the sexes, since it is Adam who proposes this ideal to Eve. Human thought has not left Milton behind, and has still to revere in him, as well as the marvellous poet, the profound thinker. His contact with Spinoza gives us the measure of his strength; his contact with Meredith, that of his lasting value. Those two great minds, so different one from the other, will serve as witnesses to the permanent worth of Milton the thinker. • Diana of the Crossways, Chap. XXXVII. |