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many of his opinions, which must have had confiderable influence on his moral character.

His fixth Elegy, addreffed to his bofom friend, Charles Diodati, seems to be founded on the idea, which he may be faid to have verified in his own conduct, that strict habits of temperance and virtue are highly conducive to the perfection of great poetical powers. To poets of a lighter clafs he recommends, with graceful pleafantry, much convivial enjoyment; but for those who afpire to Epic renown, he prescribes even the fimple regimen of Pythagoras.

Ille quidem parce, Samii pro more magiftri,
Vivat, et innocuos præbeat herba cibos;
Stet prope fagineo pellucida lympha catillo,
Sobriaque e puro pocula fonte bibat.

Additur huic fcelerifque vacans, et casta juventus,
Et rigidi mores, et fine labe manus.
Qualis vefte nitens facra, et luftralibus undis,
Surgis ad infenfos, augur, iture Deos.

Simply let thefe, like him of Samos, live;
Let herbs to them a bloodlefs banquet give;
In beechen goblets let their beverage shine;
Cool from the cryftal fpring their fober wine ;
Their youth fhould pafs in innocence, fecure
From ftain licentious, and in manners pure;
Pure as Heaven's minifter, arrayed in white,
Propitiating the gods with luftral rite.

In his Elegy on the fpring, our poet expreffes the fervent emotions of his fancy in terms, that may be almoft regarded as a prophetic defcription of his fublimeft work:

Jam

Jam mihi mens liquidi raptatur in ardua cæli,
Perque vagas nubes corpore liber eo;
Intuiturque animus toto quid agatur Olympo,
Nec fugiunt oculos Tartara cæca meos.

I mount, and, undepreffed by eumbrous clay,
Thro' cloudy regions win my easy way;
My spirit searches all the realms of light,
And no Tartarean depths elude my fight.

With these verses it may be pleafing to compare a fimilar paffage in his English vacation exercise, where, addreffing his native language, as applied to an inconfiderable purpose, he adds,

Yet I had rather, if I were to chufe,

Thy fervice in some graver subject use;

Such as may make thee fearch thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit found;

Such, where the deep tranfported mind may foar
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heay'n's door
Look in, and fee each blissful deity,

How he before the thunderous throne doth lie.

"It is worth the curious reader's attention to obferve how much the Paradise Loft corresponds with this prophetic wifh," fays Mr. Thyer, one of the moft intelligent and liberal of English commenta

tors.

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The young poet, who thus expreffed his ambition, was then in his nineteenth year. At the At the age of twenty-one (the period of his life when that pleafing portrait of him was executed, which the Speaker Onflow obtained from the executors of his widow)

he

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he compofed his Ode on the Nativity; a poem that furpaffes in fancy and devotional fire a compofition on the fame fubject by that celebrated and devout poet of Spain, Lopez de Vega.

The moft trifling performances of Milton are so fingular, that we may regret even the lofs of the verfes alluded to by Aubrey, as the offspring of his childhood. Perhaps no juvenile author ever difplayed, with fuch early force,

"The spirit of a youth

Who means to be of note."

His mind, even in his boyifh days, feems to have glowed, like the fancy and furnace of an alchymist, with inceffant hope and preparation for aftonifhing productions.

Such aufterity and moroseness have been falfely attributed to Milton, that a reader, acquainted with him only as he appears in the page of Johnson, must suppose him little formed for love; but his poetry in general, and especially the compofitions we are now fpeaking of, may convince us, that he felt, with the most exquifite fenfibility, the magic of beauty, and all the force of female attraction. His feventh Elegy exhibits a lively picture of his first paffion; he represents himself as captivated by an unknown fair, who, though he faw her but for a moment, made a deep impreffion on his heart.

Protinus infoliti fubierunt corda furores,
Uror amans intus, flammaque totus eram.
Interea mifero quæ jam mihi fola placebat.
Ablata eft oculis non reditura meis.

Aft

Aft ego progredior tacite querebundus, et excors,
Et dubius volui fæpe referre pedem.
Findor et hæc remanet : fequitur pars altera votum,
Raptaque tam fubito gaudia flere juvat.

A fever, new to me, of fierce defire
Now feiz'd my foul, and I was all on fire;
But fhe the while, whom only. I adore,
Was gone, and vanish'd to appear no more:
In filent forrow I purfue my way;
I pause, I turn, proceed, yet wish to stay;
And while 1 follow her in thought, bemoan
With tears my foul's delight so quickly flown.

The juvenile poet then addresses himself to love, with a request that beautifully expreffes all the inquietude, and all the irrefolution, of hopeless attachment.

Deme meos tandem, verum nec deme, furores;
Nefcio cur, mifer eft fuaviter omnis amans,

Remove, no, grant me ftill this raging woe;
Sweet is the wretchednefs that lovers know.

After having contemplated the youthful fancy of Milton under the influence of a fudden and vehement affection, let us furvey him in a different point of view, and admire the purity and vigour of mind, which he exerted at the age of twenty-three, in meditation on his past and his future days.

To a friend, who had remonftrated with him on his delay to enter upon active life, he afcribes that delay to an intense defire of rendering himself more "Yet (he fays) that you may see that I "am fomething fufpicious of myfelfe, and doe take

fit for it.

"notice

"notice of a certain belatedneffe in me,

I am

"the bolder to fend you fome of my night-ward "thoughts, fome while fince, because they come in not altogether unfitly, made up in a Petrarchian "ftanza, which I told you of :"

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How foon hath time, the fubtle thief of youth,
Stol'n on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hafting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring
late fpring no bud or bloffom fhew'th.
Perhaps my femblance might deceive the truth,
'That I to manhood am arriv'd fo near,
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That fome more timely happy spirits indu'th.
Yet be it lefs or more, or foon or flow,
It fhall be ftill in ftricteft measure even
To that fame lot, however mean or high,
Towards which time leads me, and the will of heav'n;
All is, if I have grace to use it so,

As ever in my great task master's eye.

This fonnet may be regarded, perhaps, as a refutation of that injurious criticism, which has afferted," the best fonnets of Milton are entitled only to this negative commendation, that they are not bad;" but it has a fuperior value, which induced me to introduce it here, as it feems to reveal the ruling principle, which gave bias and energy to the mind and conduct of Milton; I mean the habit, which he fo early adopted, of confidering himself

"As ever in his great task master's eye."

It was, perhaps, the force and permanency with which this perfuafion was impreffed on his heart, that'

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