...another and concluding space of seventeen years, bated nevertheless not one jot of heart and hope, and On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues, In darkness and with danger compassed round, found in his lowest estate his highest inspiration, and converted his season...

...combined weight of this disappointment and blindness, and the contempt and hatred of the ruling party. Fallen on evil days — on evil days though fallen and evil tongues, with darkness and with danger compassed round — -he remains unbroken, confident in the ultimate triumph...

...on earth, nor rapt above the pole, More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, On evil days though fallen and evil tongues, In darkness, and with dangers compass'd round And solitude ; yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when morn...

...buoyant with hope, and surrounded by troops of friends ; now, poor, old, blind, " fallen on evil days and evil tongues, in darkness, and with dangers compassed round, and solitude," racked with disease, the cause to which he had sacrificed his eyesight and devoted his life irretrievably...

...for " a paper of verses." For Milton was Unchanged " To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil da-s, On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues ; In...dangers compassed round, And solitude ; yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when morn Purples the east : still govern thou my song,...

...on earth, not rapt above the pole, More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues ; In darkness, and with dangers compass'd round,* And solitude ; yet not alone, while thou * For illustration of these mournful utterances...

...dangers compass'd round, and solitude," obnoxious to the government, and hav153 PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues ; In darkness, and with dangers compass'd round, And solitude ; yet not alone, while thou Visit' st my slumbers nightly, or when morn...

...on Earth, not rapt above the pole, More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, On evil days though fallen,...dangers compassed round, And solitude ; yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when Morn Purples the East. Still govern thou my song,...

...of the Restoration, disowned by it, and disdaining it, the blind Milton lived — " On evil days now fallen, and evil tongues, In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, And solitude." Such friends as did still come about him were chiefly Nonconformists of the more devout and extreme...

...but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." Milton delights in these iterations : — " Though fallen on evil days, On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues.* " Was I deceived, or did a sable eloud Turn forth its silver lining on the night ? 1 did not err, there...