se days. _Corruptio optimi
pessima_: such a man as Milton, if he once descends to the bandying of
foul language, will beat the very bargemen themselves. But what
astonished his contemporaries was not his violence but his courage. An
unknown Englishman had dared to meet the giant of learning on his own
ground and had at least held his own. It may have been partly as the
result of this {61} that Salmasius no longer found Holland a pleasant
place of residence and removed to Sweden. A more certain result is
that the English David who had stood up to Goliath was from henceforth
a European celebrity. With his usual proud courage he had put his own
name on the title-page of his book, challenging to himself both the
glories and the dangers that might come of it. He was not to be
disappointed of either.

From henceforth he was in the thick of a violent controversy, which
made so much more noise than it deserved in its own day that it need
make none here. Replies came out both to his _Eikonoklastes_ and to
his _Defensio_: new books grew out of the controversy; Milton's nephew
wrote on his behalf, and anonymous friends of Salmasius on his; the
adversaries of Milton no more spared his character than he had spared
theirs; a _Defensio Secunda_ from his own hand seemed necessary, and
appeared in 1654; and so with minor pamphlets and second editions we
get on to the end of the weary controversy, in which for contemporaries
there was perhaps some fire and light, but for us now little but smoke
and darkness of confusion.

Such was the work which was Milton's chief occupation during the
Commonwealth, to the {62} doing of which he deliberately sacrificed his
eyesight. Within a year after the publication of his book against
Salmasius its foreseen result was complete. From henceforth Milton was
dependent upon the eyes of others. He was only forty-four when
overtaken by this calamity. Yet his courage seems never to have failed
him. "I argue not," he tells Cyriack Skinner in his sonnet--

"Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer
Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask?
The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied
In Liberty's defence, my noble task,
Of which all Europe rings from side to side."

Whoever had begun to have doubts about the course taken in 1649 and
since, he had none; and no one had suffered more in defence of it. The
other a