In the spring of his thirty-fifth year Milton went to Oxford and returned a month later, bringing home a bride and a party of her relatives. After several days spent in feasting, the young wife of seventeen summers was left alone with her husband, who became once more absorbed in his books. Mrs. Milton cared nothing for literature, and before the summer was over she went to visit her father, promising to return during September. She refused to go home at the appointed time and remained away for two years. During the meantime Milton’s father had come to live with him, and the number of his pupils had so increased that he had taken a larger house. After the death of his father, Milton decided to devote more time to writing, so he dismissed his pupils and removed to a smaller house. He became deeply interested in politics, writing some bold and daring essays on the questions of the day. When he was forty years old he was appointed Secretary of Foreign Tongues, with a large salary and a residence in Whitehall Palace in Scotland Yard. His eyesight had begun to fail, and three years after accepting this office he became blind. He continued, however, to attend to his duties with the aid of two assistants. Shortly after he lost his sight his wife died, leaving three little daughters. Four years later he married a second time, but this wife lived but a short time. [Illustration: MILTON DICTATING “PARADISE LOST.”] In 1660, when Milton was fifty-two years old, there came another change in the government, and Milton’s life was in danger. He was obliged to hide for several months. Life seemed very gloomy to the blind man. His friends were dead or in exile, he had lost a large share of his property, and his work during the last twenty years seemed thrown away. Many years before, Milton had planned to write his great poem of “Paradise Lost.” He now devoted himself to this work, dictating it to Dorothy, his youngest and favorite child, who bore some resemblance to her father, and who was most in sympathy with him. Milton married for the third time during his fifty-fifth year. This wife proved a blessing to him. She was a lover of music, and sang to him while he accompanied her upon the organ or bass viol. They walked together and talked about his favorite books and men of learning. His poem “Paradise Lost” was finished during the next two years. He loaned a copy to a friend, who suggested his writing “Paradise Regained,” which was published about four years later. These poems rank as the grandest works of one of the greatest minds that the world has ever known. The poet’s humble home became an attraction for many visitors, who wished to look upon and talk with the man whose genius was so great. Milton died in 1674. DEATH OF SAMSON. JOHN MILTON. _Scene_--In Gaza.