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he went up to study 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 ufually olives, or fome light thing; and after fupper he smoked his pipe, 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 ineafure loft to him, as they depend mostly 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 houfe near Bunhill-Fields, and there, as well as in the house, received the vifits of perfons of quality and diftinction; for he was no less vifited to the laft, both by his own countrymen and foreigners, than he had been in his flourishing condition before the Reftoration.

Some objections indeed have been made to his temper; and 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 least four years elder, renders this story not very probable; and, befides, Mr. King was not elected by the college, but was made fellow by a royal mandate: So that there can be no truth in the tradition; but if there was any, it was no fign of Milton's refentment, but a proof of his generofity, that he could live in fuch friendship with a fuccefsful rival, and afterwards fo paffionately lament his deceafe. His method of writing controver fy is urged as another argument of his want of temper. But fome allowance must be made for the cuf toms and manners of the time. Controversy, as well

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as war, was rougher and more barbarous in those days, than it is in thefe. It is to be confidered too, that his adverfaries first began the attack; they loaded him with much more perfonal abufe, only they had not the advantage of so 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 fatyr. "To do fo was my choice, and to have "done thus was my chance," as he fays himself. All who have written any accounts of his life agree, that he was affable and inftructive in converfation, of an equal and cheerful temper; and yet I can easily 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 immenfe learning and erudition; not only an incomparable poet, but a great mathematician, logician, hiftorian, and divine. He was a master 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 Spanifh. He was particularly fkilled in the Italian, which be 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 themselves. 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) "those books, which to many others have been the "fewel of wantonnefs and loofe living, proved to him "fo many incitements to the love and obfervation of "virtue." His favourite author after the holy Scriptures was Homer. Homer he could repeat almost 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 himself) " he never "could delight in long citations, much fefs in whole "traductions." Accordingly there are few things, and thofe of no great length, which he has ever tranf

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lated. He was poffeffed too much of an original genius to be a mere copier. "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." It is fomewhat remarkable, that there is fcarce any author, who has written fo much, and upon fuch various fùbjects, 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. He was a master of mufic, as was his father, and he could perform both vocally and inftrumentally; and 'tis faid that he compofed very well, though nothing of this kind is handed down to us. It is alfo faid that he had fome skill in painting, and that fomewhere or other there is a head of Milton drawn by himself. But he was bleffed with fo many real excellencies, that there is no want of fictitious ones to raise and adorn his character. He had a quick apprehenfion, a fublime imagination, a ftrong memory, a piercing judgment, a wit always ready, and facetious or grave as the occafion required. I know not whether the lofs of his fight did not add vigour to the faculties of his mind. He at leaft thought fo, and often comforted himself with that reflection.

But his great parts and learning have scarcely 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 constant 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 person in the civil war: But though he was not in arms, he was not inactive, 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. One day Sir Robert Howard, who was a friend to Milton,

Milton, as well as to the liberties of his country, and was one of his conftant visitors to the last, inquired of him how he came to fide with the republicans? Mila ton anfwered among other reasons, because theirs was the most 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. I know no other way of accounting for his conduct, but by prefuming (as I think we may reasonably prefume) that he was far from entirely approving of Cromwell's proceedings, but confidered him as the only perfon who could rescue 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 fpiritual flavery, and therefore clofed with Cromwell and the Independents, as he expected under them greater liberty of confcience. And though he ferved Cromwell, yet it must be faid for him, that he served a great master, and ferved him ably, and was not wanting from time to time in giving him excellent good advice, efpecially in his Second Defence. And fo little being faid of him in all Secre tary Thurloe's ftate-papers, it appears that he had no great fhare in the fecrets and intrigues of government; what he dispatched, was little more than matters of neceffary form, letters and anfwers to foreign ftates. And he may be justified for acting in fuch a station, upon the fame principle as Sir Matthew Hale for holding a judge's commiffion under the Ufurper. In the latter part of his life he frequently expreffed to his friends his entire fatisfaction of mind, that he had conftantly employed his strength and faculties in the defence of liberty, and in oppofition to flavery.

In matters of religion too he has given as great offence, 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 expressed the profoundest reverence of the Deity in his words and actions, was both a Chriftian

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Christian and a Protestant, and studied and admired the holy Scriptures above all other books whatsoever. In all his writings he plainly fhoweth 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 doctrine and difcipline of divorce, he appears to have been a Calvinist; but afterwards he entertained a more favourable opinion of Arminius. Some have inclined to believe, that he was an Arian; but there are more exprefs paffages in his works to overthrow this opinion, than any there are to confirm it. For in the conclufion of his treatise of reformation he thus folemnly invokes the Trinity: "Thou therefore that fitteft in light and glory un

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approachable, Parent of angels and men! next "thee I implore, Omnipotent King, Redeemer of that "loft remnant whose nature thou didst affume, ineff"able and everlasting Love! and thou the third fub"stance of divine infinitude, illumining_Spirit, the

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joy and folace of created things! one Tri-perfonal "Godhead! look upon this thy poor, and almost spent "and expiring church, &c." And, in his tract of PreJatical Epifcopacy, he endeavours to prove the fpurioufnefs of fome epiftles attributed to Ignatius, because they contained in them herefies, one of which herefies is, that he condemns them for minifters of Satan, "who fay that Chrift is God above all." And a little after, in the fame tract, he objects to the authority of Tertullian, becaufe he went about to " prove an

imparity between God the Father and God the "Son." And in Paradise Loft we fhall find nothing upon this head, that is not perfectly agreeable to Scrip ture. Dr. Trapp, who was as likely to cry out upon herefy as any man, alerts that the poem is orthodox in every part of it; or otherwife he would not have been at the pains of tranflating it. Milton was indeed a diflenter from the Church of England, in which he had been educated, and was by his parents defigned for holy orders: But he was led away by early prejudices again't the doctrine and difcipline of the church. In his younger years he was a favourer of the Prefby

terians;

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