cere friend to fuch kings as merited the benediction of their people *.

In

The attractive merit of Alfred, and the affectionate zeal, with which Milton appears to have delineated his character, form a double motive for inferting it in a note, as a specimen of the great author's style in historical compofition.

"After which troublesome time Alfred enjoying three years of peace, by him spent, as his manner was, not idly or voluptuously, but in all virtuous employments both of mind and body, becoming a prince of his renown, ended his days in the year nine hundred, the fifty-firft of his age, the thirtieth of his reign, and was buried regally at Winchefter: he was born at a place called Wanading, in Berkshire, his mother Ofburga, the daughter of Oflac the king's cup-bearer, a Goth by nation, and of noble defcent. He was of perfon comelier than all his brethren, of pleafing tongue, and graceful behaviour, ready wit and memory; yet, through the fondnefs of his parents towards him, had not been taught to read till the twelfth year of his age but the great defire of learning which was in him soon appeared, by his conning of Saxon poems day and night, which, with great attention, he heard by others repeated. He was befides excellent at hunting, and the new art then of hawking, but more exemplary in devotion, having collected into a book certain prayers and pfalms, which he carried ever with him in his bofom to use on all occafions. He thirfted after all liberal knowledge, and oft complained, that in his youth he had no teachers, in his middle age fo little vacancy from wars and the cares of his kingdom; yet leifure he found fometimes, not only to learn much himself, but to communicate thereof what he could to his people, by translating books out of Latin into Englith, Orofius, Boethius, Beda's hiftory, and others; permitted none unlearned to bear office, either in court or commonwealth. At twenty years of age, not yet reigning, he took to wife Egelfwitha, the daughter of Ethelred, a Mercian earl. The extremities which befel him in the fixth of his reign, Neothan Abbot told him were justly come upon him for neglecting, in

his

In 1671, the year after the first appearance of his history, he published the Paradise Regained, and Samfon Agonistes.

Many

his younger days, the complaint of fuch as, injured and oppreffed, repaired to him, as then fecond perfon in the kingdom, for redress; which neglect, were it such indeed, were yet excufable in a youth, through jollity of mind, unwilling perhaps to be detained long with fad and forrowful narrations; but from the time of his undertaking regal charge no man more patient in hearing caufes, more inquifitive in examining, more exact in doing juftice, and providing good laws, which are yet extant; more fevere in punishing unjust judges or obftinate offenders, thieves especially and robbers, to the terror of whom in crossways were hung upon a high poft certain chains of gold, as it were daring any one to take them thence; fo that juftice feemed in his days not to flourish only, but to triumph: no man can be more frugal of two precious things in man's life, his time and his revenue; no man wifer in the difpofal of both. His time, the day and night, he distributed by the burning of certain tapers into three equal portions; the one was for devotion, the other for public or private affairs, the third for bodily refreshment; how each hour past he was put in mind by one who had that office. His whole annual revenue, which his firft care was fhould be justly his own, he divided into two equal parts; the first he employed to fecular uses, and fubdivided thofe into three; the first to pay his foldiers, household fervants, and guards, of which, divided into three bands, one attended monthly by turn; the fecond was to pay his architects and workmen, whom he had got together of several nations, for he was also an elegant builder, above the custom and conceit of Englishmen in those days; the third he had in readiness to relieve or honour ftrangers, according to their worth, who came from all parts to. fee him, and to live under him. The other equal part of his yearly wealth he dedicated to religious ufes; those of four forts; the first to relieve the poor, the fecond to the building and main

tenance

"His

Many groundless remarks have been made on the fuppofed want of judgment in Milton to form a proper estimate of his own compofitions. laft poetical offspring (fays Johnson) was his favourite; he could not, as Ellwood relates, endure to have Paradife Loft preferred to Paradife Regain ed." In this brief paffage, there is more than one mifreprefentation. It is not Ellwood, but Philips, who speaks of Milton's esteem for his latter poem; and instead of faying that the author preferred it to his greater work, he merely intimates, that Milton was offended with the general cenfure, which condemned the Paradife Regained as infinitely inferior to the other. Inftead of fuppofing, therefore, that the great poet was under the influence of an abfurd predilection, we have only reafon to conclude, that he heard with lively fcorn fuch idle witticifm as we find recorded by Toland, “ That Milton might

tenance of two monafteries, the third of a school, where he had perfuaded many noblemen to ftudy facred knowledge and li beral arts, fome fay at Oxford; the fourth was for the relief of foreign churches, as far as India to the fhrine of St. Thomas, fending thither Sigelm bishop of Sherburn, who both returned. fafe and brought with him many rich gems and fpices; gifts alfo, and a letter, he received from the patriarch at Jerufalem; fent many to Rome, and from them received reliques. Thus far, and much more, might be faid of his noble mind, which rendered him the mirror of princes. His body was difeafed in his youth with a great forenefs in the feige, and that ceafing of itself, with another inward pain of unknown caufe, which held him by frequent fits to his dying day; yet not difenabled to sustain thofe many glorious labours of his life both in peace and war.Profe Works, Vol. II. p. 97.

be

be feen in Paradife Loft, but not in Paradise Regained." His own accomplished mind, in which fenfibility and judgment were proportioned to extraordinary imagination, moft probably affured him what is indifputably true, that uncommon energy of thought and felicity of composition are apparent in both performances, however different in defign, dimenfion, and effect. To cenfure the Paradife Regained, because it does not more resemble the preceding poem, is hardly lefs abfurd than it would be to condemn the moon for not being a fun, inftead of admiring the two different luminaries, and feeling that both the greater and the lefs are visibly the work of the fame divine and inimitable power.

Johnson has very liberally noticed one peculiarity in Milton, and calls it, with a benevolent happiness of expreffion, "a kind of humble dignity, which "did not difdain the meanest services to literature. "The epic poet, the controvertist, the politician, hav

ing already defcended to accommodate children " with a book of rudiments, now, in the last years " of his life, compofed a book of Logic, for the "initiation of ftudents in philofophy, and publifh

ed, 1672, Artis Logicæ plenior Inftitutio ad Pe"tri Rami Methodum concinnata, that is, a new "fcheme of Logic, according to the method of "Ramus."

It is fo pleafing to find one great author speaking of another in terms, which do honour to both, that I transcribe, with fingular fatisfaction, the preceding paffage of the eminent biographer, whofe frequent and injurious afperity to Milton I have fo

repeatedly

repeatedly noticed, and muft continue to notice, with reprehenfion and regret.

In the very moment of delivering the just encomium I have commended, the critic difcovers an intemperate eagernefs to revile the object of his praife; for he proceeds to fay of Milton, "I know

not whether, even in this book, he did not in"tend an act of hoftility against the universities, "for Ramus was one of the first oppugners of the

old philofophy, who disturbed with innovations "the quiet of the schools." Is there not a visible want of candour in fhewing fo wildly a wish to impute a very inoffenfive and meritorious work of fcience to a malevolent motive?

Ramus was a man, whofe writings and memory were justly regarded by Milton; for he resembled our great countryman in temperance, in fortitude, in paffion for study, and, above all, in a brave and inflexible oppofition to ignorance, tyranny, and fuperftition; his life was a continued ftruggle with these merciless enemies, and he perished at last with circumstances of peculiar barbarity, in the atrocious maffacre of St. Bartholomew.

A defire of rendering juftice to the talents and virtues of fuch a fufferer in the caufe of learning might furely be afcribed to Milton, as a more probable and becoming motive on this occafion, than dark intentions of hoftility against the univerfities. It is but a forry compliment to thofe universities to infinuate, that he engaged in warfare against them, who republished a fimple and seasonable treatise on the management of human reafon. Milton with great