It is impossible to exaggerate the susceptibility of young minds to first impressions.

The probability is that ere Mistress Milton departed this life, she had intentionally or unintentionally avenged all the injuries she could imagine herself to have received from her husband, and furnished him with a stronger argument than any that had found a place in the "Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce." It is something in favour of the Milton girls that they were at least not calculating in their undutifulness.

Had they reflected, they must have seen that their behaviour was little to their interest.

If they brought a stepmother upon themselves, the blame was theirs.

Something must certainly be done to keep Milton's library from the rag-women; and in February, 1663, by the advice of his excellent physician Dr.Paget, he married Elizabeth Minshull, daughter of a yeoman of Wistaston in Cheshire, a distant relation of Dr.Paget's own, and exactly thirty years younger than Milton.