were induced, as you fay, by rumour to believe that I alfo was fnatched away, it is not surprising; and if fuch a rumour prevailed among thofe of your nation, as it seems to have done, because they were folicitous for my health, it is not unpleafing, for I muft efteem it as a proof of their benevolence towards me. But by the graciousness of God, who had prepared for me a fafe retreat in the country, I am still alive and well; and I trust not utterly an unprofitable fervant, whatever duty in life there yet remains for me to fulfil. That you remember me, after fo long an interval in our correfpondence, gratifies me exceedingly, though, by the politenefs of your expreffion, you feem to afford me room to fufpect, that you have rather forgotten me, fince, as you fay, you admire in me so many different virtues wedded together. From fo many weddings I fhould affuredly dread a family too numerous, were it not certain that, in narrow circumstances conftaret in re arcta, rebufque duris, virtutes ali maxime et vigere: tametfi earum una non ita belle charitatem hofpitii mihi reddidit: quam enim politicam tu vocas, ego pietatem in patriam dictam abs te mallem, ea me pulchro nomine delinitum prope, ut ita dicam, expatriavit. Reliquarum tamen chorus clare concinit. Patria eft, ubicunque eft bene. Finem faciam, fi hoc prius abs te impetravero, ut, fi quid mendofe defcriptum aut non interpunctum repereris, id puero, qui hæc excepit, Latine prorfus nefcienti velis imputare; cui fingulas plane literulas annumerare non fine miferia dictans cogebar. Tua interim viri merita, quem ego adolefcentem fpei eximiæ cognovi, ad tam honeftum in principis gratia provexiffe te locum, gaudeo, ce teraque faufta omnia et cupio tibi, et fpero vale. Londini, Aug. 15, 1666. and and under feverity of fortune, virtues are moft excellently reared, and are most flourishing. Yet one of these faid virtues has not very handfomely rewarded me for entertaining her; for that which you call my political virtue, and which I should rather wish you to call my devotion to my country (en-chanting me with her captivating name) almost, if I may say so, expatriated me. Other virtues, however, join their voices to affure me, that wherever we profper in rectitude there is our country. In ending my letter, let me obtain from you this fayour, that if you find any parts of it incorrectly written, and without ftops, you will impute it to the boy who writes for me, who is utterly ignorant of Latin, and to whom I am forced (wretchedly: enough) to repeat every fingle fyllable that I dictate. I ftill rejoice that your merit as an accomplished man, whom I knew as a youth of the highest expectation, has advanced you fo far in the honourable favour of your prince. For your profperity in every other point you have both my wishes and my hopes. Farewell. "London, August 15, 1666.” How interefting is this complaint, when we recollect that the great writer, reduced to fuch irkfome difficulties in regard to his fecretary, was probably engaged at this period in polishing the fublimeft of poems. From Ellwood's account it appeals, that Paradise Loft was complete in 1665. Philips and Toland affert, that it was actually publifhed the following year; but I believe no copy has been found of a date fo early. The first edition on the lift of the very accurate Mr. Loft was printed by Peter Parker in 1667, and, probably, at the expence of the au thor, who fold the work to Samuel Simmons, by a contract dated the 27th of April, in the fame year. The terms of this contract are fuch as a lover of genius can hardly hear without a figh of pity and indignation. The author of Paradife Loft received only an immediate payment of five pounds for a work, which is the very mafter-piece of fublime and refined imagination; a faculty not only naturally rare, but requiring an extraordinary coincidence of circumstances to cherish and ftrengthen it for the long and regular exercise effential to the production of fuch a poem. The bookfeller's agreement, however, entitled the author to a conditional payment of fifteen pounds more; five to be paid after the fale of thirteen hundred copies of the first edition, and five, in the fame manner, both on a fecond and a third. The number of each edition was limited to fifteen hundred copies. The original fize of the publication was a fmall quarto, and the poem was at firft divided into ten books; but in the fecond edition the author very judiciously increased the number to twelve, by introducing a paufe in the long narration of the feventh and of the tenth, fo that each of these books became two. Simmons was a printer, and his brief advertisement to the work he had purchased is curious enough to merit infertion: "Courteous "Courteous Reader, there was no argument at first intended to the book; but for the fatisfaction of many that have defired it, I have procured it, and withal a reafon of that, which ftumbled many others why the poem rhymes not." Here we may plainly fee that the novelty of blank verfe was confidered as an unpalatable innovation. The book, however, advanced fo far in its fale, that thirteen hundred were difperfed in two years. In April, 1669, the author received his fecond payment of five pounds. The fecond edition came forth in the year of his death, and the third in four years after that event his widow, who inherited a right to the copy, fold all her claims to Simmons, for eight pounds, in December 1680; fo that twenty-eight pounds, paid at different times in the courfe of thirteen years, is the whole pecuniary reward which this great performance produced to the poet and his widow. But although the emolument, which the author derived from his nobleft production, was most deplorably inadequate to its merit, he was abundantly gratified with immediate and fervent applaufe from feveral accomplished judges of poetical genius. It has been generally fuppofed, that Paradife Loft was neglected to a mortifying degree on its first appearance; and that the exalted poet confoled his fpirit under fuch mortification by a magnanimous confidence in the juftice of future ages, and a fanguine anticipation of his poetical immortality. The ftrength and dignity of his mind would indeed have armed him against any poffible difappointment of his literary ambition; but fuch was the reception of his work, that he could not be disappointed. Johnson has vindicated the public on this point with judgment and fuccefs: "The fale of books f 66 (he obferyes) was not in Milton's age what it is "in the prefent; the nation had been fatisfied, "from 1623 to 1664, that is forty-one years, with only two editions of the works of Shakespeare, "which probably did not together make one thou"fand copies. The fale of thirteen hundred copies "in two years, in oppofition to fo much recent enmity, and to a ftyle of verfification new to all, "and difgufting to many, was an uncommon ex"ample of the prevalence of genius." Thefe remarks are perfectly juft; but when their author proceeds to fay, "the admirers of Paradife Loft "did not dare to publish their opinion," he seems to forget the very fpirited eulogies that were, during the life of the poet, beftowed on that performance. Panegyric can hardly affume a bolder tone than in the English and Latin verfes addreffed to Milton by Marvel and Barrow. He received other compliments not inferior to these. The muse of Dryden affured him, that he poffeffed the united excellencies of Homer and of Virgil; and, if we may rely on an anecdote related by Richardfon, the Paradise Loft was announced to the world in a very fingular manner that may be thought not ill-fuited to the pre-eminence of the work. Sir John Denham, a man diftinguished as a foldier, a fenator, and a poet, came into the Houfe of Commons with a proof-sheet of Milton's new compofition wet from the |