Before a third edition was required his fame had spread. The
house in which he had been born, in Bread Street, was shown with
pride to foreign visitors; parents sent their sons to read to
him, that they might reap the benefit of his remarks. The latter
testimony to his genius was a tribute the blind poet appreciated.
But it happened there were times and seasons when these obliging
youths were not at hand, or when it was inconvenient for him to
receive them. On such occasions he demanded that his daughters
should read him the books he required, though these were
frequently written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, and Spanish
--languages of which they were wholly ignorant. The torment this
inflicted on those striving to pronounce unaccustomed words which
had no meaning to their ears, and the torture endured by him, may
readily be conceived. Expressions of complaint on the one side,
and of pain on the other, continually interrupted the readings,
which were eventually wholly abandoned; the poet sending his
children, whose education was so limited that they were unable to
write, to learn "ingenious sorts of manufacture proper for women,
particularly embroideries in gold and Silver."
When in 1665 Milton had shown his poem to Elwood, the good quaker
observed, "Thou hast said a great deal upon Paradise Lost: what
hast thou to say upon Paradise Found?" This question resting in
the poet's mind, in due time produced fruit; for no sooner had
his first poem been published than he set about composing the
latter, which, under the name of "Paradise Regained," was given
to the world in 1670 "This," said he to Elwood, "is owing to
you; for you put it into my head by the question which you put to
me, which otherwise I had not thought of.
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