them out in one of his first pamphlets, and requested his readers to let him 'go on trust' with them for a few years. 'His most enthusiastic eulogists are compelled merely to echo the remarks of his earliest and greatest critic, himself.' They can only say, that is, that the pledge was not disproportionate to his power, and that he redeemed it amply. Though Milton's mood changed under hard experiences, the essential Milton remains identical from boyhood to age; and, to exhibit the man fully is also to characterise his work. The old critics assume that epic poetry is to be judged by certain rules equally applicable to the Paradise Lost and the Iliad, and make no more reference to Milton's personality than to Homer's. Biography had not formed an alliance with criticism. Though Johnson's admirable Lives marked the growing importance of biographical data, he still keeps the two subjects apart. A poem must, of course, stand upon its own basis. If we knew as little of Milton as we know of Shakespeare, we might find the same pleasure in Paradise Lost; and the Comus would be equally exquisite if it were anonymous. Yet even in Comus, that excellent elder brother, who has unkindly been called a prig, speaks more
