1 fale increas'd double the number every year. The Work is now generally known and esteem'd; and I having the honor to hear Your LORDSHIP say, that a fmaller edition of it would be grateful to the world, immediately refolv'd upon printing it in this volume, of which I moft humbly beg Your acceptance, from, THE LIFE OF Mr. JOHN MILTON. FROM a family, and town of his name in Oxfordshire, our Author deriv'd his def cent; but He was born at London in the Year 608. 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 himself afterwards in his own computation, I reduce it to the time that Monfieur Bayle hath affign'd; and for the fame Reason which prevail'd with him to affign it. His father John Milton, by profeffion a fcrivener, liv'd 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 hehad likewife one daughter, nam'd Anna; and another fon, Chriftopher, whom he train'd to the practice of the Common Law; who in the Great Rebellion adher'd to the roval caufe: and in the reign of King James II. by too easy a compliance with the doctrines of the Court, both religious and civil, he attain'd to the dignity of being made a Judge of the Common Pleas; of which he dy'd devested not long after the Revolution. But JOHN, the fubject of the prefent effay, was the favorite of his father's hopes; who, to cultivate the great genius which early display'd' itself, was at the expense of a domeftic Tutor: whofe care and capacity his Pupil hath gratefully celebrated in an excellent Latin Elegy; the fourth in the prefent collection.. At his initiaAn. Etat. 12. tion He is faid to have apply'd himfelf to Letters with fuch indefatigable industry, that he rarely was prevail'd with to quit his ftudies before midnight: which not only made him frequently fubject to fevere pains in his head; but likewife occafion'd that weakness in his eyes, which terminated in a total privation |