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ing the amiable complexions of some English youths, before their conversion to Christianity. His stature (* as we find it measured by himself) did not exceed the middle size; neither too lean, nor corpulent: his limbs well proportioned, nervous, and active; serviceable in all respects to his exercising the sword, in which he much delighted; and wanted neither skill nor courage to resent an affront from men of the most athletic constitutions. In his diet he was abstemious; not delicate in the choice of his dishes; and strong liquors of all kinds were his aversion. Being too sadly convinced how much his health had suffered by night-studies in his younger years, he used to go early, seldom later than nine, to rest; and rose commonly before five in the morning. It is reported, (and there is a passage in one of his Latin Elegies to countenance the tradition,) that his fancy made the happiest flights in the spring: but one of his nephews used to deliver it as MILTON's own observation, that his invention was in its highest perfection from September to the Vernal Equinox however it was, the great inequalities to be found in his composures, are incontestable proofs, that in some seasons he was but one of

the people. When blindness restrained him

from other exercises, he had a machine to swing in, for the preservation of his health;

* Defensio secunda, p. 87. Fol.

and diverted himself in his chamber with playing on an organ. His deportment was erect, open, affable; his conversation easy, cheerful, instructive; his wit on all occasions at command, facetious, grave, or satirical, as the subject required. His judgment, when disengaged from religious and political speculations, was just and penetrating; his apprehension quick; his memory, tenacious of what he read; his reading only not so extensive as his genius, for that was universal. And having treasured up such immense stores of science, perhaps the faculties of his soul grew more vigorous after he was deprived of his sight: and his imagination, naturally sublime, and enlarged by reading Romances *, of which he was much enamoured in his youth, when it was wholly abstracted from material objects, was more at liberty to make such amazing excursions into the ideal world, when in composing his divine work he was tempted to range

Beyond the visible diurnal sphere.

With so many accomplishments, not to have had some faults and misfortunes, to be laid in the balance with the fame and felicity of writing PARADISE LOST, would have been too great a portion for humanity.

*His Apology for Smectymnuus, p. 177. Fol.

Of Milton's family it may be necessary to observe, that his sister first married Mr. Philips, and afterwards Mr. Agar, a friend of her first husband, who succeeded him in the CrownOffice. She had by her first husband Edward and John, the two nephews whom Milton educated; and by her second, two daughters.

His brother, Sir Christopher, had two daughters, Mary and Catherine, and a son Thomas, who succeeded Agar in the Crown-Office, and left a daughter living in 1749, in GrosvenorStreet.

Milton had children only by his first wife; Anne, Mary, and Deborah. Anne, though deformed, married a Master-builder, and died of her first child. Mary died single. Deborah married Abraham Clark, a weaver in Spital Fields, and lived seventy-six years, to August, 1727.

To this gentlewoman Addison made a present, and promised some establishment; but died soon after. Queen Caroline sent her fifty guineas. She had seven sons and three daughters; but none of them had any children, except her son Caleb and her daughter Elizabeth. Caleb went to Fort St. George, in the East Indies, and had two sons; of whom nothing is now known. Elizabeth married Thomas Foster, a weaver in Spital Fields, and had seven children; who all died. She kept a petty grocer's or chandler's

shop, first at Halloway, and afterwards in CockLane, near Shoreditch Church. On the 5th of April, 1750, the Mask of Comus was played for her benefit. She had so little acquaintance with diversion or gaiety, that she did not know what was intended when a benefit was offered her. The profits of the night were only one hundred and thirty pounds, though Dr. Newton brought a large contribution; and twenty pounds were given by Tonson: a man who is to be praised as often as he is named. Of this sum one hundred pounds were placed in the stocks, after some debate between her and her husband in whose name it should be entered; and the rest augmented their little stock, with which they removed to Islington. This was the greatest benefaction that Paradise Lost ever procured the Author's descendants. On this occasion Dr. Johnson contributed a Prologue.

DISSERTATION

ON THE

POETICAL WORKS OF MILTON,

WITH

OBSERVATIONS

ON

HIS LANGUAGE AND VERSIFICATION,

BY SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

N the examination of Milton's Poetical Works,

IN

I shall pay so much regard to time as to begin with his juvenile productions. For his early pieces he seems to have had a degree of fondness not very laudable: what he has once written he resolves to preserve, and gives to the public an unfinished poem, which he broke off because he was "nothing satisfied with what he had done;" supposing his readers less nice than himself. These preludes to his future labours are in Italian, Latin, and English. Of the Italian I cannot pretend to speak as a Critic;

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