OF MILTON'S LIFE AND WRITINGS. THE celebrated subject of this Memoir was born Dec. 9, 1008. His father, who was a scrivener, soon after obtained a sufficient fortune to retire from his profession, but resided, at the birth of the poet, in Breadstreet, London. After having received considerable advantage from the instructions of private tutors, Milton was sent to St. Paul's school, where he made a remarkable progress in classical literature; and from whence he was sent to Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1628 he took his B.A., and in 1632 his M.A. degree; after receiving which, and declining to take holy orders, he retired to his father's house at Horton, near Colebrooke, in Buckinghamshire. Dur ing the five years he resided here, he pursued his studies with an ardour and diligence which have seldom been equalled; and besides making many ac quisitions in learning, he produced his exquisite poems of Comus, Lycidas, and some other minor pieces. About the year 1638, his mother died, and he obtained the consent of his father to make a tour on the continent; he accordingly set forth, and very few travellers could be found possessing the qualifi cations for profiting by their journey which Milton had acquired in his retirement. In the different parts of the continent, therefore, which he visited, he was received with the greatest attention by the most celebrated men of the age, and he returned to England, after an absence of fifteen months, with the acquisition of many honourable friendships, and an important addition to his stock of knowledge and accomplishments. It had been his intention to prolong his tour by a visit to Greece, but the civil commotions which preceded the establishment of the A Commonwealth were commencing, and he conceived it his duty to lift up his voice in a struggle to which his love of liberty gave the highest interest. Almost immediately after Cromwell had obtained an established ascendancy, Milton was appointed Latin secretary to the government, and in this situ ation, besides performing the proper duties of his office, he distinguished himself by several works written in defence of republican principles, and of the conduct of the men who had rendered themselves most conspicuous in the late contest. Before, however, he acquired this situation, he passed through some troubles of a domestic nature, which it is probable, materially influenced many of his subsequent feelings and opinions. In the year 1643, he had married the daughter of a gentleman of the name of Powell, a magistrate in Oxfordshire. Unfortunately for the parties, they each belonged to factions, over which political rancour exercised entire control, and Milton had scarcely been united a month, when his wife requested permission to visit her relatives. She obtained her desire, but soon after intimated that she never intended returning. This circumstance gave birth to our author's celebrated writings on the subject of divorce; and he was on the point of mar. rying again, when his repentant wife sought a re conciliation, and she was restored to favour. At this time also he took pupils, and by the income he thus obtained, he was enabled to support not only his family, but the father and mother of his wife, who subsequently suffered in common with the rest of the royalist party. About the year 1639, after having been for some time labouring under an affection of the eyes, he was afflicted with the total loss of his sight, which he never recovered. But this caused no diminution to his zeal for learning, and as soon as he found him self free from the burden of public controversy, he commenced a History of England, which, however, he carried no farther than the Norman Conquest. He also prepared some portion of a Latin Thesaurus, which was published in the Cambridge Dictionary of 1693. But events were about to happen, which |