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rians; in his middle age he was best pleased with the Independents and Anabaptists, as allowing greater liberty of confcience than others, and coming nearest in his opinion to the primitive practice; and in the latter part of his life he was not a profeffed member of any particular fect of Chriftians, he frequented no public worship, nor used any religious rite in his family. Whether fo Whether fo many different forms of worship as he had seen, had made him indifferent to all forms; or whether he thought that all Christians had in some things corrupted the purity and fimplicity of the Gospel; or whether he difliked their endlefs and uncharitable difputes, and that love of dominion and inclination to perfecution, which he said was a piece of Popery infeperable from all Churches; or whether he believed, that a man might be a good Chriftian without joining in any communion; or whether he did not look upon himself as infpired, as wrapt up in God, and above all forms and ceremonies, it is not easy to determin: to his own mafter he flandeth or falleth: but if he was of any denomination, he was a sort of a Quietist, and was full of the interior of religion though he fo little regarded the exterior; and it is certain was to the last an enthusiast rather than an infidel. As enthusiasm made Norris a poet, so poetry might make Milton an enthusiast.

His circumstances were never very mean, nor very great; for he lived above want, and was not intent upon accumulating wealth; his ambition was more to enrich and adorn his mind. His father fupported him in his travels, and for fome time after. Then his pupils must have been of some advantage to him, and brought him either a certain ftipend or confiderable presents at least; and he had scarcely any other method of improving his fortune, as he was of no profeffion. When his father died, he inherited an elder fon's fhare of his estate, the principal part of which I believe was his houfe in Breadftreet: And not long after, he was appointed Latin Se

cretary

cretary with a salary of 2001. a year; so that he was now in opulent circumstances for a man, who had always led a frugal and temperate life, and was at little unneceffary expense besides buying of books. Tho' he was of the victorious party, yet he was far from sharing in the spoils of his country. On the contrary (as we learn from his fecond Defense) he sustained great loffes during the civil war, and was not at all favored in the impofition of taxes, but fometimes paid beyond his due proportion. And upon a turn of affairs he was not only deprived of his place, but also loft 2000l. which he had for security and improvement put into the Excife Office. He loft likewise another confiderable fum for want of proper care and management, as perfons of Milton's genius are seldom expert in money matters. And in the fire of London his house in Bread-street was burnt, before which accident, foreigners have gone out of devotion (fays Wood) to see the house and chamber where he was born. gains were inconfiderable in proportion to his lofses; for excepting the thousand pounds, which were given him by the government for writing his Defense of the people against Salmafius, we may conclude that he got very little by the copies of his works, when it doth not appear that he received any more than ten pounds for Paradise Loft. Some time before he died he fold the greateft part of his library, as his heirs were not qualified to make a proper use of it, and as he thought that he could difpofe of it to greater advantage than they could after his decease. And finally by one means or other he died worth one thousand five hundred pounds befides his houfhold goods, which was no incompetent fubfiftence for him, who was as great a philofopher as a poet.

His

To this account of Milton it may be proper to add something concerning his family. We faid before, that he had a younger brother and a fifter. His brother Christopher Milton was a man of totally oppofit princii

ples;

ples; was a strong royalist, and after the civil war made his compofition thro' his brother's intereft; had been entered young a student in the Inner Temple, of which house he lived to be an ancient bencher; and being a profeffed papift, was in the reign of James II. made a judge and knighted; but foon obtained his quietus by reafon of his age and infirmities, and retired to Ipswich, where he lived all the latter part of his life. His fifter Anne Milton had a confiderable fortune given her by her father in marriage with Mr.Edward Philips (fon of Mr. Edw. Philips of Shrewsbury) who coming young to London was bred up in the Crown Office in Chancery, and at length became fecondary of the office under Mr. Bembo. By him fhe had, befides other children who died infants, two fons Edward and John, whom we have had frequent occafion to mention before. Among our author's juvenile poems there is a copy of verses on the death of a fair infant, a nephew, or rather niece of his, dying of a cough; and this being written in his 17th year, as it is faid in the title, it may naturally be inferred that Mrs. Philips was elder than either of her brothers. She had likewise two daughters, Mary who died very young, and Anne who was living in 1694, by a fecond hufband Mr. Thomas Agar, who fucceeded his intimate friend Mr. Philips in his place in the Crown Office, which he enjoyed many years, and left to Mr. Thomas Milton, fon of Sir Chriftopher before mentioned. As for Milton himself, he appears to have been no enemy to the fair fex by having had three wives. What fortune he had with any of them is no where faid, but they were gentlemen's daughters; and it is remarkable that he married them all maidens, for (as he fays in his Apology for Smectymnuus, which was written before he married at all) he "thought "with them, who both in prudence and elegance of fpi"rit would choose a virgin of mean fortunes honestly "bred before the wealthieft widow." But yet he feemeth

not

not to have been very happy in any of his marriages; for his first wife had justly offended him by her long abfence and feparation from him; the second, whose love, sweetness, and goodness he commends, lived not a twelvemonth with him; and his third wife is faid to have been a woman of a most violent spirit, and a hard mother in law to his children. She died very old, about twenty years ago, at Nantwich in Cheshire: and from the accounts of those who had seen her, I have learned, that fhe confirmed several things which have been related before; and particularly that her husband used to compose his poetry chiefly in winter, and on his waking in a morning would make her write down fometimes twenty or thirty verses: and being asked whether he did not often read Homer and Virgil, fhe understood it as an imputation upon him for ftealing from those authors, and answered with eagerness, that he stole from no body but the Muse who inspired him; and being afked by a lady present who the Mufe was, replied, it was God's grace, and the Holy Spirit that vifited him nightly. She was likewise asked whom he approved most of our English poets, and answered, Spenser, Shakespear, and Cowley: and being asked what he thought of Dryden, she said Dryden used sometimes to visit him, but he thought him no poet, but a good rimift: but this was before Dryden had composed his best poems, which made his name fo famous afterwards. She was wont moreover to say, that her husband was applied to by meffage from the King, and invited to write for the Court, but his answer was, that such a behavior would be very inconfiftent with his former.conduct, for he had never yet employed his pen against his confcience. By his firft wife he had four children, a fon who died an infant, and three daughters who furvived him; by his fecond wife he had only one daughter, who died foon after her mother, who died in childbed; and by his last wife he had no children at all.

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His daughters were not sent to school, but were instructed by a mistress kept at home for that purpose: and he himself, excufing the eldest on account of an impediment in her speech, taught the two others to read and pronounce Greek and Latin and feveral other languages, without understanding any but English, for he used to fay that one tongue was enough for a woman: but this employment was very irksome to them, and this together with the sharpness and severity of their mother in law made them very uneafy at home; and therefore they were all fent abroad to learn things more proper for them, and particularly imbroidery in gold and filver. As Milton at his death left his affairs very much in the power of his widow, tho' fhe acknowledged that he died worth one thousand five hundred pounds, yet fhe allowed but one hundred pounds to each of his three daughters. Anne the eldest was decrepit and deformed, but had a very handsome face; fhe married a master-builder, and died in childbed of her firft child, who died with her. Mary the fecond lived and died fingle. Deborah the youngest in her father's life time went over to Ireland with a lady, and afterwards was married to Mr. Abraham Clarke, a weaver in Spittle Fields, and died in August 1727 in the 76th year of her age. She is faid to have been a woman of good understanding and genteel behavior, though in low circumftances. As fhe had been often called upon to read Homer and Ovid's Metamorphofis to her father, she could have repeated a confiderable number of verses from the beginning of both those poets, as Mr. Ward Profeffor of Rhetoric in Grefham College, relates upon his own knowledge: and another Gentleman has informed me, that he has heard her repeat several verfes likewise out of Euripides. Mr. Addison and the other gentlemen, who had opportunities of feeing her, knew her immediately to be Milton's daughter by the fimilitude of her countenance to her father's picture: and

Mr.

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