In this last line of one of his sonnets is found Milton’s rejection of every form of outward religious authority in face of the supreme Puritan principle, the liberty of the individual soul before God.—William J. Long, “English Literature.”
(1782)
Liberty, Promoting—See [Emancipation].
LIBERTY, SPIRITUAL
Madam Guyon, in the Bastile, speaks to us still of patience in suffering. The walls of her prison were nine feet thick and a narrow slit through the massive masonry admitted all the light that ever reached her. The cell was narrow and dirty with the mold of ages. Dreary and cold in winter and suffocating in summer. No privileges, no books, no recreations or employments. But here was born that blithe bird-song of her captivity:
“My cage confines me round:
Abroad I can not fly;
But tho my wings are closely bound,
My heart’s at liberty.
My prison walls can not control