who was perhaps of all authors the least addicted to imitation, rarely intimates even Taffo in compofition in life, indeed, he copied him more closely, and to his great poetical compeer of Italy he dif covers a very striking refemblance in application to ftudy, in temperance of diet, in purity of morals, and in fervency of devotion. The Marquis of Villa, in clofing his life of Taffo, has enumerated all the particular virtues by which he was diftinguished; these were all equally confpicuous in Milton; and we may truly fay of him, what Manfo fays of the great Italian poet, that the preference of virtue to every other confideration was the predominant paffion of his life. Enthufiafm was the characteristic of his mind ; in politics, it made him fometimes too generouf ly credulous, and fometimes too rigorously deci five; but in poetry it exalted him to fuch a degree of excellence as no man has hitherto furpafled; nor is it probable that in this province he will ever be excelled; for although in all the arts there are undoubtedly points of perfection much higher than any mortal has yet attained, ftill it requires fuch a coincidence of fo many advantages depending on the influence both of nature and of destiny to raise a great artist of any kind, that the world has but little reason to expect productions of poetical genius fuperior to the Paradife Loft. There was a bold yet refined originality of conception, which characterised the mental powers of Milton, and give him the higheft claim to distinction: we are not only indebted to him for having extended and ennobled the province of epic poetry, but he has ano P 2 ther ther title to our regard, as the founder of that recent and enchanting English art, which has embellifhed our country, and, to fpeak the glowing lan guage of a living bard very eloquent in its praise, Made Albion fmile, One ample theatre of fylvan grace. The elegant hiftorian of modern gardening, Lord Orford, and the two accomplished poets, who have celebrated its charms both in France and England, De Lille and Mafon, have, with great juftice and felicity of expreffion, paid their homage to Milton, as the beneficent genius, who bestowed upon the world this youngest and most lovely of the arts. As a contrast to the Miltonic garden, I may point. out to the notice of the reader, what has escaped, I think, all the learned writers on this engaging fubject, the garden of the imperious Duke of Alva, defcribed in a poem of the celebrated Lope de Vega. The fublime vifion of Eden, as Lord Orford truly calls it, proves indeed, as the fame writer obferves, how little the poet fuffered from the loss of fight. The native difpofition of Milton, and his perfonal infirmity, confpired to make contemplation his chief business and chief enjoyment: few poets have devoted fo large a portion of their time to intenfe and regular ftudy; yet he often made a pause of fome months in the progrefs of his great work, if we may confide in the circumftantial narrative of his nephew. "I had the perufal of it from the very beginning," fays Philips," for fome years, as I went from time to time to vifit him, in parcels of ten, twenty, or thirty verses at a time (which, being written by whatever hand came next, might posfibly want correction as to the orthography and pointing). Having, as the fummer came on, not been fhewed any for a confiderable while, and defiring the reason thereof, was answered that his vein never happily flowed but from the autumnal equinox to the vernal.” Johnfon takes occafion, from this anecdote, to treat the fenfations of Milton with sensations severity, and to deride him for fubmitting to the influence of the feafons; he lavishes ridicule, not lefs acrimonious, on the great poet, for having yielded to a fashionable dread of evils ftill more fantastic. "There prevailed in his time (fays the critic) an opinion that the world was in its decay, and that we have had the misfortune to be born in the decrepitude of nature." Johnfon exposes, with great felicity of expreffion, this abfurd idea, of which his own frame of body and mind was a complete refutation; but instead of deriding the great poet for harbouring fo weak a conceit, he might have recollected that Milton himself has fpurned this chimera of timid imagination in very spirited Latin verfes, written in his twentieth year, and exprefsly against the folly of fuppofing nature impaired. Ergone marcefcet, fulcantibus obfita rugis, Omniparum contracta uterum, fterilefcet ab ævo How! . How! fhall the face of nature then be plough'd CowPER. The spirit of the poet was, in truth, little formed for yielding to any weakneffes of fancy that could impede mental exertion; and we may confider it as one of the striking peculiarities of his character, that with an imagination fo excurfive he poffeffed a mind fo industrious. His ftudious habits are thus defcribed by his acquaintance Aubrey and others, who collected their account from his widow :-He rofe at four in the fummer, at five in the winter, and regularly began the day by hearing a chapter in the Hebrew Bible; it was read to him by a man, who, after this duty, left him to meditation of fome hours, and, returning at seven, either read or wrote for him till twelve; he then allowed himself an hour for exercife, which was ufually walking, and when he grew blind, the occafional refource of a swing: after an early and temperate dinner he commonly allotted fome time to music, his favourite amufement; and his own mufical talents happily furnished him with a pleafing relaxation from his fevere pursuits; he was able to vary his inftrument, as he played both on the bafs viol and the organ, with the advantage of an agreeable vioce, which his father had probably taught him to cultivate in his youth. This regular cuftom custom of the great poet, to indulge himself in mufical relaxation after food, has been recently praised as favourable to mental exertion, in producing all, the good effects of fleep, with none of its disadvantages, by an illuftrious fcholar, who, like Milton, unites the paffion and the talent of poetry to habits of intense and diverfified application. Sir William Jones, in the third volume of Afiatic Refearches, has recommended, from his own experience, this practice of Milton, who from mufic returned to study; at eight he took a light fupper, and at nine retired to bed. If fuch extreme regularity could be preferved at any period, it must have been in the closing years of his life. While he was in office his time was undoubtedly much engaged, not only by official at-' tendance, but by his intercourfe with learned foreigners, as the parliament allowed him a weekly table for their reception. The Latin compofitions of Milton had rendered him, on the continent, an object of idolatry; "and ftrangers (fays Wood, who was far from being partial to his illuftrious contemporary) visited the house where he was born." Even in his latter days, when he is supposed to have been neglected by his countrymen, intelligent fo reigners were folicitous to converfe with him as anobject of their curiofity and veneration; they regarded him, and very justly, as the prime wonder of England; for he was, in truth, a person so extraordinary, that it may be questioned if any age or nation has produced his parallel. Is there, in the records of literature, an author to be found, who, after |