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Some objections indeed have been made to his temper; and I remember there was a tradition in the univerfity of Cambridge, that he and Mr. King (whofe death he laments in his Lycidas) were competitors for a fellowship, and when they were both equal in point of learning, Mr. King was preferred by the college for his character of good nature, which was wanting in the other; and this was by Milton grievoufly refented. But the difference of their ages, Milton being at leaft four years elder, renders this fory not very probable; and befides Mr. King was not elected by the college, but was made fellow by a royal mandate, fo that there can be no truth in the tradition; but if there was any, it is no fign of Milton's refentment, but a proof of his generolity, that he could live in fuch friendship with a fuccefsful rival, and afterwards fo paffionately lament his decease. His method of writing controverfy is urged as another argument of his want of temper: but fome allowance must be made for the cuftoms and the manners of the time. Controverfy, as well as war, was rougher and more barbarous in thofe days, than it is in thefe. And it is to be confidered too, that his adverfaries firft began the attack; they loaded him with much more perfonal abufe, only they had not the advantage of fo much wit to feafon it. If he had engaged with more candid and ingenuous difputants, he would have preferred civility and fair argument to wit and fatir : "to do fo was my choice, and to have done thus "was my chance," as he expreffes himfelf in the conclufion of one of his controverfial pieces. All who have written any accounts of his life agree, that he was affable and inftructive in converfation,

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of an equal and chearful temper; and yet I can eafily believe, that he had a fufficient fenfe of his own merits, and contempt enough for his adverfaries.

His merits indeed were fingular; for he was a man not only of wonderful genius, but of immense learning and erudition; not only an incomparable poet, but a great mathematician, logician, hiftorian, and divine. He was a mafter not only of the Greek and Latin, but likewife of the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac, as well as of the modern languages, Italian, French, and Spanish. He was particularly skilled in the Italian, which he always preferred to the French language, as all the men of letters did at that time in England; and he not only wrote elegantly in it, but is highly commended for his writings by the moft learned of the Italians themfelves, and especially by the members of that celebrated academy called della Crufca, which was eftablished at Florence for the refining and perfecting of the Tufcan language. He had read almost all authors, and improved by all, even by romances, of which he had been fond in his younger years; and as the bee can extract honey out of weeds, fo (to ufe his own words in his Apology for Smectymnuus)" those books, which to many others have "been the fuel of wantonnefs and loofe living, "proved to him fo many incitements to the love "and obfervation of virtue." His favorite author after the Holy Scriptures was Homer. Homer he could repeat almoft all without book; and he was advifed to undertake a tranflation of his works, which no doubt he would have executed to admiration. But (as he fays of himfelf in his poftfcript to the Judgment of Martin Bucer) "he never could

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"delight in long citations, much lefs in whole "traductions." And accordingly there are few things, and thofe of no great length, which he has ever tranflated. He was poffeffed too much of an original genius to be a mere copyer. "Whether it

"be natural difpofition, fays he, or education in me, "or that my mother bore me a fpeaker of what "God made my own, and not a tranflator." And it is fomewhat remarkable, that there is fcarce any author, who has written fo much, and upon fuch various fubjects, and yet quotes fo little from his contemporary authors, or fo feldom mentions any of them. He praises Selden indeed in more places than one, but for the rest he appears difpofed to cenfure rather than commend. After his feverer ftudies, and after dinner as we obferved before, he ufed to divert and unbend his mind with playing upon the organ or bafs-viol, which was a great relief to him after he had loft his fight; for he was a mafter of mufic as was his father, and he could perform both vocally and inftrumentally, and it is faid that he compofed very well, tho' nothing of this kind is handed down to us. It is alfo faid that he had fome skill in painting as well as in mufic, and that fomewhere or other there is a head of Milton, drawn by himself: but he was bleffed with fo many real excellences, that there is no want of fictitious ones to raise and adorn his character. He had a quick apprehenfion, a fublime imagination, a strong memory, a piercing judgment, a wit always ready, and facetious or grave as the occafion required: and I know not whether the lofs of his fight did not add vigor to the faculties of the mind. He at least thought fo, and often comforted himself with that reflection.

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But his great parts and learning have fcarcely gained him more admirers, than his political principles have raised him enemies. And yet the darling paffion of his foul was the love of liberty; this was his conftant aim and end, however he might be mistaken in the means. He was indeed very zealous in what was called the good old caufe, and with his spirit and his refolution it is fomewhat wonderful, that he never ventured his perfon in the civil war; but tho' he was not in arms, he was not unactive, and thought, I fuppofe, that he could be of more service to the cause by his pen than by his fword. He was a thorough republican, and in this he thought like a Greek or Roman, as he was very converfant with their writings. And one day Sir Robert Howard, who was a friend to Milton as well as to the liberties of his country, and was one of his constant visitors to the laft, inquired of him how he came to fide with the republicans. Milton anfwered among other reasons, because theirs was the moft frugal government, for the trappings of a monarchy might fet up an ordinary commonwealth. But then his attachment to Cromwell must be condemned, as being neither confiftent with his republican principles, nor with his love of liberty. And I know no other way of accounting for his conduct, but by prefuming (as I think we may reafonably prefume) that he was far from entirely approving of Cromwell's proceedings, but confidered him as the only perfon who could refcue the nation from the tyranny of the Prefbyterians, who he faw were erecting a worfe dominion of their own upon the ruins of prelatical epifcopacy; and of all things he dreaded spiritual flavery, and therefore VOL. I. f

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clofed with Cromwell and the Independents, as he expected under them greater liberty of confcience. And tho' he ferved Cromwell, yet it must be faid for him, that he ferved a great mafter, and ferved him ably, and was not wanting from time to time in giving him excellent good advice, especially in his fecond Defense: and fo little being said of him in all Secretary Thurloe's ftate-papers, it appears that he had no great share in the fecrets and intrigues of government; what he difpatched was little more than matters of neceffary form, letters and answers to foreign states; and he may be juftified for acting in fuch a station, upon the fame principle as Sir Matthew Hale for holding a Judge's commiffion under the ufurper and in the latter part of his life he frequently expreffed to his friends his entire fatisfaction of mind, that he had conftantly employed his ftrength and faculties in the defenfe of liberty, and in oppofition to flavery.

In matters of religion too he has given as great offense, or even greater, than by his political principles. But ftill let not the infidel glory: no fuch man was ever of that party. He had the advantage of a pious education, and ever expreffed the profoundest reverence of the Deity in his words and actions, was both a Chriftian and, a Proteftant, and studied and admired the Holy Scriptures above all other books whatsoever; and in all his writings he plainly showeth a religious turn of mind, as well in verfe as in profe, as well in his works of an earlier date as in thofe of later compofition. When he wrote the Doctrin and Difciplin of Divorce, he appears to have been a Calvinift; but afterwards he entertained a

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