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, Additur huic fcelerifque vacans, et casta juventus, Simply let thefe, like him of Samos, live; 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, I mount, and, undepreffed by eumbrous clay, 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, Such, where the deep tranfported mind may foar 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. 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 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, Aft Aft ego progredior tacite querebundus, et excors, A fever, new to me, of fierce defire 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; Remove, no, grant me ftill this raging woe; 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 :" How foon hath time, the fubtle thief of youth, 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' |