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MILTON'S AUTOGRAPH.

Since the fifth edition was published, I have seen, in the hands of the Hon. Charles Sumner, the Album Amicorum of a Neapolitan nobleman, Camillus Cordoyn, at Geneva, who was wont to get the autographs of distinguished men who passed through that city on their way to or from Italy. There are many names of great interest in it, but that which outweighs them all is Milton's, of which I have had a facsimile taken, through the kindness of Mr. Sumner, and now present it here, as a gem of the rarest value:

-if

if Vertue feeble, were Heaven it selfe would stoope to her. ron animu muto dù trans mare

Calun

Curro

Joannes Miltonis
Anglus.

Juny 10. i6z9.

It will be observed that Milton changes the quotation from Horace from the third to the first person, which gives an increased interest to the beautiful lines of Comus,--published just before he commenced his travels:-"The sky, not the mind, I change when I cross the sea;" thus showing, in the language of the late William Ellery Channing, D. D., "That to Milton the words from Comus were something more than poetry-that they were a principle of life."

Philadelphia, July 1st, 1865.

C. D. C.

A SKETCH

OF THE

LIFE OF MILTON.

JOHN MILTON, "the greatest of great men," was born at his father's house in Bread street, London, December 9th, 1608.* The poet's grandfather was a rigid Papist, and disinherited his son, whom he had educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, because he embraced the Protestant faith. Thus deprived of his patrimony, the poet's father had recourse, for his support, to the profession of scrivener or writer, in the practice of which he proved so successful that he was enabled to give his children the advantages of a good education, and at length to retire with comfort to the country.

It is to be regretted that we have so little information respecting the early life of our immortal poet. His first instructor was Thomas Young, a Puritan minister of Essex, to whose worth Milton has borne testimony in an elegy and two Latin epistles. On Mr. Young's going to the Continent, Milton was sent to St. Paul's school, then under the direction of Dr. Gill, where he distinguished himself by almost incredible progress, and gave numerous indications of that gigantic intellect, the energies of which afterwards more fully developed themselves. Thence he was removed to Christ's College, Cambridge, which he entered on the 12th of February, 1624. Already, or about this time, he had commenced his poetical career, by paraphrasing two of the Psalms, (the 114th and 136th,) in which may be discerned the dawning of real genius. The next year, 1625, he wrote his poem "On the Death of a Fair Infant dying of a Cough." Of this poem Warton remarks-"On the whole, from a boy of seventeen, it is an extraordinary effort of fancy, expression, and versification." While at Cambridge he wrote also many other poems, both Latin and English: among the latter is his "Address to his Native Language," at a "Vacation Exercise" in the college, written at the age of nineteen; and his grand and inimitable "Hymn on the Nativity," in his twenty-first year, and of which Sir Egerton Brydges remarks-"I cannot doubt that this Hymn was the congenial prelude of that holy and inspired imagination which produced the Paradise Lost' nearly forty years afterwards."

Milton was designed by his parents for the profession of divinity; but during his residence at the University he changed his intention. His own account is as follows:-"By the intention of my parents and friends I was destined, of a child, to the service of the church, and in mine own resolutions. Till, coming to some maturity of years, and perceiving what tyranny had invaded the church, that he who would take orders must cubscribe Slave, and take an oath withal, which, unless he took with a conscience that he would retch, he must either straight perjure or split

Bread street runs from Cheapside south, near St. Paul's Church. Old Anthony Wood tells us that the house and chamber in which the poet was born were often visited by foreigners, even in the poet's lifetime. The house, however, was destroyed in the great fire of 1666.

Milton's only sister, Anne, was married to a gentleman by the name of Phillips, and had by him, besides the infant daughter immortalized by this poem, two sons, John and Edward, who were educated by the poet.

his faith; I thought better to prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office of speaking, bought and begun with servitude and forswearing." This honest and ardent love of truth and freedom was his predominant characteristic through life.

Milton remained seven years in Cambridge, where he took the usual degrees, that of bachelor in 1628, and that of master of arts in 1632. He then left the University, and retired to his father's house in Horton, Buckinghamshire, where he wrote the most celebrated of what are called his "Juvenile Poems,"-his Arcades, Comus, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, and Lycidas. In 1637, having lost his mother, he felt himself at liberty to carry into effect a project which he had long meditated,-to visit foreign parts; and having obtained his father's permission, he set out for Italy. The account is, of course, best given in his own words. In his "Second Defence of the People of England," to refute the calumnies of his enemies, who had represented him as vicious in his youth, he thus gives a too brief autobiography: *

"I will now mention who and whence I am. I was born at London, of an honest family: my father was distinguished by the undeviating integrity of his life; my mother, by the esteem in which she was held, and the alms which she bestowed. My father destined me from a child to the pursuits of literature; and my appetite for knowledge was so voracious, that from twelve years of age I hardly ever left my studies, or went to bed before midnight. This primarily led to my loss of sight: my eyes were naturally weak, and I was subject to frequent headaches, which, however, could not chill the ardour of my curiosity, or retard the progress of my improvement. My father had me daily instructed in the grammar school, and by other masters at home. He then, after I had acquired a proficiency in various languages, and had made a considerable progress in philosophy, sent me to the university of Cambridge. Here I passed seven years in the usual course of instruction and study, with the approbation of the good, and without any stain upon my character, till I took the degree of Master of Arts.

"After this I did not, as this miscreant feigns, run away into Italy, but of my own accord retired to my father's house, whither I was accompanied by the regrets of most of the fellows of the college, who showed me no common marks of friendship and esteem. On my father's estate, where he had determined to pass the remainder of his days, I enjoyed an interval of uninterrupted leisure, which I devoted entirely to the perusal of the Greek and Latin classics,-though I occasionally visited the metropolis, either for the sake of purchasing books or of learning something new in mathematics or in music, in which I, at that time, found a source of pleasure and amusement. In this manner I spent five years, till my mother's death. I then became anxious to visit foreign parts, and particularly Italy. My father gave me his permission, and I left home with one servant. On my departure, the celebrated Henry Wotton, who had long been King James's ambassador at Venice, gave me a signal proof of his regard, in an elegant letter which he wrote, breathing not only the warmest friendship, but containing some maxims of conduct which I found very useful in my travels. The noble Thomas Scudamore, King Charles's ambassador, to whom I carried letters of recommendation, received me most courteously at Paris. His lordship gave me a card of introduction to the learned Hugo Grotius, at that time ambassador from the queen of Sweden to the French court. A few days after, when I set out for Italy, he gave me letters to the English merchants on my route, that they might show me any civilities in their power.

"Taking ship at Nice, I arrived at Genoa, and afterwards visited Leg horn, Pisa, and Florence. In the latter city, which I have always more particularly esteemed for the elegance of its dialect, its genius, and its taste, I stopped about two months; when I contracted an intimacy with many persons of rank and learning, and was a constart attendant at

their literary parties,--a practice which prevails there, and tends so much to the diffusion of knowledge and the preservation of friendship.

"From Florence I went to Sienna, thence to Rome, where, after I had spent about two months in viewing the antiquities of that renowned city, -where I experienced the most friendly attentions from Lucas Holstein and other learned and ingenious men,-I continued my route to Naples. When I was preparing to pass over into Sicily and Greece, the melancholy intelligence which I received of the civil commotions in England made me alter my purpose; for I thought it base to be travelling for amusement abroad, while my fellow-citizens were fighting for liberty at home. "While I was on my way back to Rome, some merchants informed me that the English Jesuits had formed a plot against me if I returned to Rome, because I had spoken too freely of religion: for it was a rule which I laid down to myself, in those places never to be the first to begin any conversation on religion, but, if any questions were put to me concerning my faith, to declare it without any reserve or fear. I nevertheless returned to Rome. I took no steps to conceal either my person or my character, and for about the space of two months I again openly defended, as I had done before, the reformed religion in the very metropolis of Popery.

"By the favour of God I got back to Florence, where I was received with as much affection as if I had returned to my native country. There I stopped as many months as I had done before; then, crossing the Apennines, I passed through Bologna and Ferrara to Venice. After I had spent a month in surveying the curiosities of this city, and had put on board a ship the books which I had collected in Italy, I proceeded through Verona and Milan, and along the Leman Lake to Geneva. The mention of this city brings to my recollection the slandering More,† and makes me again call the Deity to witness, that in all those places, in which vice meets with so little discouragement and is practised with so little shame, I never once deviated from the paths of integrity and virtue; and perpetually reflected that, though my conduct might escape the notice of men, it would not elude the inspection of God.

"Then, pursuing my former route through France, I returned to my native country, after an absence of one year and about three months. As soon as I was able, I hired a spacious house in the city for myself and my books, where I again with rapture renewed my literary pursuits, and where I calmly awaited the issue of the contest, which I trusted to the wise conduct of Providence and to the courage of the people.

"The vigour of the parliament had begun to humble the pride of the bishops. As long as the liberty of speech was no longer subject to control, all mouths began to be opened against the bishops; some complained of the vices of the individuals, others of those of the order. They said that it was unjust that they alone should differ from the model of other reformed churches, and particularly the word of God.

"This awakened all my attention and my zeal: I saw that a way was opening for the establishment of real liberty; that the foundation was laying for the deliverance of man from the yoke of slavery and superstition; that the principles of religion, which were the first objects of our care, would exert a salutary influence on the manners and constitution of the republic; and as I had from my youth studied the distinctions between religious and civil rights, I perceived that, if I ever wished to be of use, I ought at least not to be wanting to my country, to the church, and to so many of my fellow Christians, in a crisis of so much danger. I therefore determined to relinquish the other pursuits in which I was engaged, and to transfer the whole force of my talents and my industry to this one

* At Florence he also visited the great and injured Galileo, to whom he refers in Paradise Lost, book i. line 288.

† Alexander More.

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