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gainst him; but whether by the diffuafion of friends, as thinking him a fellow not worth his notice, or for what other caufe Mr. Philips knoweth not, this anfwer was never published. And indeed the best vindicator of him and his writings hath been Time. Pofterity hath univerfally paid that honor to his merits, which was denied him by great part of his contemporaries.

After a life thus spent in ftudy and labors for the public he died of the gout at his houfe in Bunhill Row on or about the 10th of November 1674, when he had within a month completed the fixty-fixth year of his age. It is not known when he was first attacked by the gout, but he was grievously afflicted with it feveral of the last years of his life, and was weakened to such a degree, that he died without a groan, and thofe in the room perceived not when he expired. His body was decently interred near that of his father (who had died very aged about the year 1647) in the chancel of the Church of St. Giles's Cripplegate; and all his great and learned friends in London, not without a friendly concourfe of the common people, paid their last refpects in attending it to the grave. Mr. Fenton, in his fhort, but elegant account of the Life of Milton, fpeaking of our author's having no monument, fays, that "he defi"red a friend to inquire at St. Giles's Church; "where the fexton fhowed him a fmall monument, "which he faid was fuppofed to be Milton's; but "the infcription had never been legible fince he "was employed in that office, which he has poffef"fed about forty years. This fure could never have happened in fo fhort a fpace of time, unless the epitaph had been induftrioufly erafed: and that fup

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pofition, fays Mr. Fenton, carries with it fo much inhumanity, that I think we ought to believe it "was not erected to his memory." It is evident that it was not erected to his memory, and that the fexton was miftaken. For Mr. Toland in his account of the life of Milton fays, that he was buried in the chancel of St. Giles's Church," where the picty of "his admirers will fhortly erect a monument be

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coming his worth and the encouragement of let"ters in King William's reign." This plainly implies that no monument was erected to him at that time, and this was written in 1698: and Mr. Fenton's account was first published, I think, in 1725; fo that not above twenty-feven years intervened from the one account to the other; and confequently the fexton, who it is faid had been poffeffed of his office about forty years, muft have been miftaken, and the monument must have been defigned for fome other perfon, and not for Milton. A monument indeed has been erected to his memory in Weftininfter Abbey by Auditor Benfon in the year 1737; but the beft monument of him is his writings.

In his youth he was efteemed extremely handfome, fo that while he was a ftudent at Cambridge, he was called the Lady of Chrift's College. He had a very fine fkin and fresh complexion; his hair was of a light brown, and parted on the foretop hung down in curls waving upon his fhoulders; his features were exact and regular; his voice agreeable and mufical; his habit clean and neat; his deportment erect and manly. He was middle-fized and well proportioned, neither tall nor fhort, neither too lean nor too corpulent, ftrong and active in his younger years, and tho' afflicted with frequent head-akes,

blindness,

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blindness, and gout, was yet a comely and welllooking man to the laft. His eyes were of a light blue color, and from the firft are faid to have been nene of the brighteft; but after he loft the fight of them, (which happened about the 43d year of his age) they fill appeared without fpot or blemish, and at first view and at a little diftance it was not easy to know that he was blind. Mr. Richardfon had an account of him from an ancient clergyman in Dorfetfhire, Dr. Wright, who found him in a small house, which had (he thinks) but one room on a floor in that, up one pair of flairs, which was hung with a rufty green, he faw John Milton fitting in an elbow chair, with black clothes, and neat enough, pale but not cadaverous, his hands and fingers gouty, and with chalk ftones; among other difcourfe he expreffed himself to this purpofe, that was he free from the pain of the gout, his blindnefs would be tolerable. But there is the lefs need to be particular in the defcription of his perfon, as the idea of his face and countenance is pretty well known from the numerous prints, pictures, bufts, medals, and other reprefentations which have been made of him. There are two pictures of greater value than the reft, as they are undoubted originals, and were in the poffeffion of Milton's widow: the first was drawn when he was about twenty one, and is at prefent in the collection of the Right Honorable Arthur Onflow Efq; Speaker of the Houfe of Commons; the other in crayons was drawn when he was about fixty two, and was in the collection of Mr. Richardfon, but has fince been purchased by Mr. Tonfon. Several prints have been made from both thefe pictures; and there is a pring done, when he was about fixty two or fixty three,

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after the life by Faithorn, which tho' not fo handfome, may yet perhaps be as true a refemblance, as any of them. It is prefixed to fome of our author's pieces, and to the folio edition of his profe works in three volumes printed in 1698.

In his way of living he was an example of fobriety and temperance. He was very fparing in the ufe of wine or ftrong liquors of any kind. Let meaner poets make use of fuch expedients to raise their fancy and kindle their imagination. He wanted not any artificial fpirits; he had a natural fire, and poetic warmth enough of his own. He was likewife very abftemious in his diet, not faftidiously nice or delicate in the choice of his dishes, but content with any thing that was moft in feafon, or eafieft to be procured, eating and drinking (according to the distinction of the philofopher) that he might live, and not living that he might eat and drink. So that probably his gout defcended by inheritance from one or other of his parents; or if it was of his own acquiring, it must have been owing to his ftudious and fedentary life. And yet he delighted sometimes in walking and ufing exercise, but we hear nothing of his riding or hunting; and having early learned to fence, he was fuch a master of his fword, that he was not afraid of refenting an affront from any man; and before he loft his fight, his principal recreation was the exercise of his arms; but after he was confined by age and blindness, he had a machine to fwing in for the prefervation of his health. In his youth he was accustomed to fit up late at his ftudies, and feldom went to bed before midnight; but afterwards finding it to be the ruin of his eyes, and looking on this cuftom as very pernicious

to health at any time, he used to go to reft early, seldom latter than nine, and would be stirring in the fummer at four, and in the winter at five in the morning; but if he was not difpofed to rife at his ufual hours, he still did not lie fleeping, but had fome body or other by his bed fide to read to him. At his first rifing he had ufually a chapter read to him out of the Hebrew Bible, and he commonly studied all the morning till twelve, then used fome exercife for an hour, afterwards dined, and after dinner played on the organ, and either fung himself or made his wife fing, who (he faid) had a good voice but no ear; and then he went up to ftudy again till fix, when his friends came to vifit him and fat with him perhaps 'till eight; then he went down to fupper, which was usually olives or fome light thing; and after fupper he smoked his pipe, and drank a glass of water, and went to bed. He loved the country, and commends it, as poets ufually do; but after his return from his travels, he was very little there, except during the time of the plague in London. The civil war might at first detain him in town; and the pleasures of the country were in a great measure loft to him, as they depend moftly upon fight, whereas a blind man wanteth company and converfation, which is to be had better in populous cities. But he was led out fometimes for the benefit of the fresh air, and in warm funny weather he used to fit at the door of his house near Bunhill Fields, and there as well as in the house received the vifits of perfons of quality and diftinction; for he was no lefs vifited to the last both by his own countrymen and foreigners, than he had been in his florifhing condition before

the Restoration.

Some

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