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tion of true poetical genius, and never did it add greater purity of heart to that divine yet perilous talent, to guide and fanctify its exertion. Those who are beft acquainted with the writings and the virtues of my ineftimable friend, must be most fervent in their hopes, that in the course and the close of his poetical career he may resemble his great and favourite predeceffors, Homer and Milton; their fpirits were cheered and illuminated in the decline of life by a fresh portion of poetical power; and if in their latter productions they rofe not to the full force and fplendor of their meridian glory, they yet enchanted mankind with the sweetness and serenity of their defcending light.

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Literature, which Cicero has fo eloquently defcribed as the friend of every period and con-' dition of human exiftence, is peculiarly the friend of age; a truth of which you, my dear Warton, are a very lively illuftration—you, who at a season of life when unlettered mortals generally murmur against the world, are miniftering to its inftruction and its pleasure by continuing to write with temper, vivacity, and grace.

That

That you may long retain and display this happy affemblage of endowments, fo rare in a critical veteran, is the cordial with of many, and particularly the wish of your very fincere and affectionate friend,

Eartham, October 29, 1795.

W. H.

THE

L IF E

O F

MILTON.

PART I

L'ETA PRECORSE, E LA SPERANZA; E PRESTI
PAREANO I FIOR, QUANDO N' USCIRO I FRUTTI.

THE

TASSO.

HE character of MILTON has been fcrutinized with all the minuteness of inveftigation, which oppofite paffions could fuggeft. The virulent antagonist and the enraptured idolater have purfued his fteps with equal pertinacity; nor have we wanted men of learning and virtue, who, devoid of prejudice and enthusiasm, both in politics and in poetry, have endeavoured to weigh his merits exactly in the balance of truth and reason.

What new light then can be thrown upon a life, whofe incidents have been fo eagerly collected, and fo frequently retailed? What novelty of remark can be expected in a review of poems, whose beau

ties and blemishes have been elaborately examined in critical differtations, that almost rival in excellence the poetry they difcufs? Affuredly but little; yet there remains, perhaps, one method of giving a degree of intereft and illustration to the life of Milton, which it has not hitherto received; a method which his accomplished friend of Italy, the Marquis of Villa, in fome measure adopted in his interesting life of Taffo; and which two engaging biographers of later date, the Abbé de Sade and Mr. Mafon, have carried to greater perfection in their respective memoirs of Petrarch and of Gray. By weaving into their narrative felections of verse and profe from the various writings of those they wifhed to commemorate, each of these affectionate memorialists may be faid to have taught the poet he loved" to become his own biographer;" an experiment that may, perhaps, be tried on Milton with the happieft effect! as in his works, and particularly in those that are at present the least known, he has spoken frequently of himself.-Not from vanity, a failing too cold and low for his ardent and elevated mind; but, in advanced life, from motives of justice and honour, to defend himself against the poifoned arrows of flander; and, in his younger days, from that tenderness and simplicity of heart, which lead a youthful poet to make his own affections and amufements the chief fubjects of his fong.

The great aim of the fubfequent account is to render full and perfect juftice to the general character of Milton. His manners and cast of mind, in various

various periods of life, may appear in a new and agreeable light, from the following collection and arrangement of the many little sketches, which his own hand has occafionally given us, of his paffions and pursuits. Several of thefe, indeed, have been fondly affembled by Toland or Richardfon; men, who, different as they were in their general fentiments and principles, yet fympathized completely in their zeal for the renown of Milton; delighting to dwell on his character with "that fhadow of friendship, that complacency and ardour of attach

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ment, which, as Pope has observed in speaking "of Homer, we naturally feel for the great ge"niufes of former time."-But thofe who have endeavoured to illuftrate the personal history of the great English Author, by exhibiting paffages from fome of his neglected works, have almost confined themselves to selections from his profe.

There is an ampler field for the ftudy of his early temper and turn of his mind in his Latin and Italian Poetry: here the heart and spirit of Milton are displayed with all the frankness of youth. I felect what has a peculiar tendency to fhew, in the clearest light, his native difpofition, because his character as a man appears to have been greatly mistaken. I am under no fear that the frequency or length of fuch citations may be expofed to cenfure, having the pleafure and advantage of prefenting them to the English reader in the elegant and spirited version of a poet and a friend-with pride and delight I add the name of Cowper. This gentleman, who is prepared to oblige the world with a complete

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