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ON

PARADISE LOST.

WHEN I beheld THE POET blind, yet bold,

In flender book his vast design unfold,

MESSIAH crown'd, GOD's reconcil'd decree,
Rebelling Angels, the forbidden Tree,

Heav'n, Hell, Earth, Chaos, All; the Argument
Held me a while mifdoubting his intent,
That he would ruin (for I faw him strong)
The facred Truths to fable and old fong:
(So SAMPSON grop'd the temple's pofts in fpight)
The world o'erwhelming to revenge his fight.
YET as I read, foon growing lefs fevere,

I lik❜d his project, the fuccefs did fear,

Through that wild field how he his way fhould find,
O'er which lame faith leads understanding blind;
;
Left he perplex'd the things he would explain,
And what was eafy, he should render vain.
OR if a work fo infinite he fpann'd
Jealous I was that fome lefs skilful hand
Such as difquiet always what is well,
And by ill imitating would excel)

Might hence prefume, the whole creation's day
To change in fcenes, and fhew it in a play.

PARDON me, MIGHTY POET, nor despise
My caufelefs, yet not impious, furmise.
But I am now convinc'd, and none will dare
Within thy labors to pretend a fhare.

Thou haft not mist one thought that could be fit,
And all that was improper doft omit;
So that no room is here for writers left,
But to detect their ignorance, or theft.

THAT majesty which through thy work doth reign,
Draws the devout, deterring the profane.
And Things divine, thou treat'ft of in fuch state
As them preferves, and thee, inviolate.
At once delight and horror on us seise,
Thou fing'ft with fo much gravity and ease;
And above human flight doft foar aloft
With plume fo ftrong, fo equal, and so soft.
'The bird nam'd from that paradife you fing,
So never flags, but always keeps on wing.
WHERE Couldst thou words of fuch a compass find?
Whence furnish such a vast expanse of mind?
Just Heav'n thee like TIRESIAS to requite,
Rewards with prophecy thy lofs of fight.

WELL might'st thou scorn thy readers to allure With tinkling rhime, of thy own sense secure: While the TOWN-BAYS writes all the while and fpells, And like a pack-horfe, tires without his bells: Their fancies like our bushy points appear, The poets tag them, we for fashion wear. I too tranfported by the mode offend,

And while I meant to praise thee, must commend. Thy verse created like thy theme fublime,

In number, weight, and measure, needs not rhime.

ANDREW MARVEL.

[i]. THE

L I FE

JOHN

FR

O F

MILTON,

ROM a family, and town of his name in Oxfordfhire, our author derived his defcent; but he was born at London in the year 1608. The publisher of his works in profe, on whofe veracity fome part of this narrative must entirely depend, dates his birth two years earlier than this: but contradicting himfelf afterwards in his own computation, I reduce it to the time that monfieur Bayle hath affign'd; and for the fame reafon which prevailed with him to affign it. His father John Milton, by profeffion a scriviner, lived in a reputable manner on a competent estate, 'entirely his own acquifition; having been early difinherited by his parents for renouncing the communion of the church of Rome, to which they were zealously devoted. By his wife Sarah Cafton he had likewife one daughter, named Anna; and another fon, Christopher, whom he trained to the practice of the common law; who in the great rebellion adhered to the royal caufe: and in the reign of king James II. by too eafy a compliance with the doctrines of the court, both religious and civil, he attained to the dignity of being made a judge of the common pleas; of which he died divefted not long after the revolution.

Mr. TOLAND.

1

BUT JOHN, the fubject of the prefent effay, was the favourite of his father's hopes, who, to cultivate the great genius which early difplayed itself, was at the expence of a domeftic tutor: whofe care and capacity his pupil gratefully celebrated in an excellent Latin elegy; the fourth in the present colAn. Etat. 12. lection. At his initiation he is faid to have applied himself to letters with fuch indefatigable industry, that he rarely was prevailed with to quit his ftudies before midnight; which not only made him frequently fubject to fevere pains in his head; but likewife occafioned that weakness in his eyes, which terminated in a total privation of fight. From a domeftic education he was removed to St. Paul's fchool, to complete his acquaintance with the claffics, under the care of Dr. Gill: and after a fhort ftay there, was tranfplanted to Chrift's college in CamAn. Etat. 15. bridge, where he diftinguished himself in all kinds of academical exercifes. Of this fociety he continued a member till he commenced master of arts; and then leaving the univerfity, he returned to his father; who had quitted the town, An. Etat. 23. and lived at Horton in Buckinghamfhire; where he purfued his ftudies with unparalleled affiduity and fuccefs.

AFTER fome years spent in this ftudious retirement, his mother died: and then he prevailed with his father to gratify an inclination he had long entertained, of feeing foreign countries. Sir Henry Wotton, at that time provost of Eaton college, gave An. Etat. 30. him a letter of advice for the direction of his travels but by not obferving an excellent maxim in it, he incurred great danger by difputing against the superstition of Rome, within the verge of

+ I penfiere firetti, ed il vifo fciolto.

the vatican. Having employed his curiosity about two years in France and Italy, on the news of a civil war breaking out in England, he returned; without taking a survey of Greece and Sicily, as, at his fetting out, the scheme was projected. At Paris the lord viscount Scudamore, ambaffador from king Charles I. at the court of France, introduced him to the acquaintance of Grotius; who at that time, was honoured with the fame character there by Chriftina queen of Sweden. In Rome, Genoa, Florence, and other cities of Italy, he contracted a familiarity with those who were of highest reputation for wit and learning: feveral of whom gave him very obliging teftimonies of their friendship, and esteem, which are printed before his Latin poems. The first of them was written by Manfo, marquis of Villa, a great patron of Taffo, by whom he is celebrated in his I poem on the conquest of Jerufalem. It is highly probable that to his converfation with this noble Neapolitan we owe the first design which MILTON conceived, of writing an epic poem ; and it appears, by fome Latin verfes addreffed to the marquis with the title of Manfus, that he intended to fix on king Arthur for his hero: but Arthur was referved to another destiny!

RETURNING from his travels he found England on the point of being involved in blood and An. Etat. 33. confufion. It feems wonderful that one

* Et jam bis viridi furgebat culmus arifta,
Et totidem flavas numerabant horrea messes,~
Nec dum aderat Thyrfis: paftorem fcilicet illum
Dulcis amor mufe Thufca retinebat in urbe.

† Defenfio fecunda. Pag. 96. Fol.
Fra Cavalier magnanimi, e cortefi,
Refplende il Manso. --
Lib. 20.

Epitaph, Dam.

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