complete tranflation of Milton's Latin and Italian. poetry, has kindly favoured me with the liberty of tranfcribing, from his admirable work, whatever I wish to insert in this narrative. Since I am indebted to Milton for a friendship, which I regard as honourable in the highest degree, may I be indulged in the hope of leaving a lafting memorial of it in thefe pages.. A book, devoted to the honour of Milton, may admit, I hope, without impropriety, the praises due to a living author, who is become his poetical interpreter; an office which the spirit of the divine bard may be gratified in his having affumed; for, affuredly, my friend bears no common resemblance to his most illuftrious predeceffor, not only in the energy and hallowed ufe of poetical talents, but in that beneficent fervour and purity of heart, which entitle the great poet to as large a portion of af fectionate esteem, as he has long poffeffed of admiration. JOHN MILTON was born in London, on the 9th of December, 1608, at the houfe of his father, in Bread-street, and baptized on the 20th of the fame month. His chriftian name defcended to him from his grandfather. The family, once opulent proprietors of Milton, in Oxfordshire, loft that eftate in the civil wars of York and Lancaster, and was indebted, perhaps, to adverfity for much higher diftinction than opulence can beftow. John, the grandfather of the poet, became deputy ranger in the foreft of Shotover, not far from Oxford; and intending intending to educate his fon as a gentleman, he placed him at Chrift-Church, in that university; but being himself a rigid Papift, he difinherited the young and devout fcholar, for an attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation, and reduced him to the neceffity of quitting the path of literature for a lefs honourable but more lucrative profeffion. The difcarded ftudent applied himself to the employment of a scrivener, which has varied with the variations of life and manners. A fcrivener, in remoter ages, is fuppofed to have been a mere tranfcriber; but at the period we fpeak of, his occupation united the two profitable branches of drawing contracts and of lending money. The emoluments of this profeffion enabled the father of Milton to bestow most abundantly on his fon those advantages of education, which had been cruelly withdrawn from himfeli. The poet was happy in both his parents; and to the merits of both he has borne. affectionate and honourable teftimony. The maiden name of his mother has been difputed; but it feems reasonable to credit the account of Philips, her grandfon, the earliest biographer of Milton, who had the advantage of living with him as a relation and a difciple. Her name, according to this author, who speaks highly of her virtue, was Cafton, and her family derived from Wales. Milton, in mentioning his own origin, with a decent pride, in reply to one of his revilers, afferts, that his mother was a woman of exemplary character, and peculiarly distinguished by her her extenfive charity*. The parental kindness and the talents of his father he has celebrated in a Latin poem, which cannot be too warmly admired, as a monument of filial tenderness, and poetical enthufiafm. It is probable, that the fevere manner in which that indulgent father had been driven from the pursuits of learning induced him to exert uncommon liberality and ardour in the education of his fon. Though immerfed himself in a lucrative occupation, he seems to have retained great elegance of mind, and to have amufed himself with literature and mufic; to the latter he applied fo fuccessfully, that, according to Dr. Burney, the accomplished hiftorian of that captivating art," he became a voluminous compofer, equal in fcience, if not in genius, to the best musicians of his age." Nor did his talents pafs without celebrity or reward. Philips relates, that for one of his devotional compofitions in forty parts, he was honoured with a gold chain and medal by a Polish prince, to whom he presented it. This mark of diftinction was frequently conferred on men, who rofe to great excellence in different arts and sciences: perhaps the ambition of young Milton was first awakened by thefe gifts of honour bestowed upon his father†. A parent, * Londini fum natus, genere honefto, patre viro integerrimo, matre probatiffimâ, et eleemofynis per viciniam potiffimum nota. Defenfio fecunda. The father of Milton has been lately mentioned as an author. He was thought to have published, in the year of the poet's A parent, who could enliven the drudgery of a dull profeffion by a variety of elegant pursuits, must have been happy to discern, and eager to cherish, the first dawning of genius in his child. In this point of view we may contemplate with peculiar delight the infantine portrait of Milton, by that elegant and faithful artist, Cornelius Jansen. Aubrey, the antiquarian, obferving in his manufcript memoirs of our author, that he was ten years old when this picture was drawn, affirms that he was then a poet." This expreffion may lead us to imagine, that the portrait was executed to encourage the infant author; and if fo, it might operate as a powerful incentive to his future exertion. The permanent bias of an active spirit often originates in the petty incidents of childhood; and as no human mind. poet's birth, a little book, with the quaint title of " A Sixe Fold Politician."-Mr. Warton obferved, that the curious publication afcribed to Milton's father may be found in the Bodleian library; that "it appears to be a fatire on characters pretending to wifdom or policy, and is not void of learning and wit, such as we often find affectedly and awkwardly blended in the effay-writers of that age." By the favour of Mr. Ifaac Reed, who is moft liberal in the communication of the literary rarities he has collected, I have perused this fingular performance, and perfectly agree with its obliging poffeffor, and his accomplished friend, Dr. Farmer, that although in the records of the Stationers Company it is afcribed to John Milton, we may rather affign it to John Melton, author of the Aftrologafter, than to the father of our poet.—The latter will lofe but little in being no longer regarded as its au`thor, especially as we have different and more honourable proofs of his attachment to literature. ever glowed with a more intenfe, or with a purer flame of literary ambition, than the mind of Milton, it may not be unpleafing to conjecture how it first caught the sparks, and gradually mounted to a blaze of unrivalled vehemence and fplendor. His education, as Dr. Newton has well obferved, united the oppofite advantages of private and public inftruction. Of his early paffion for letters he has left the following record, in his fecond defence*: "My father destined me from my infancy to the ftudy of polite literature, which I embraced with fuch avidity, that from the age of twelve, I hardly ever retired from my books before midnight. This proved the first fource of injury to my eyes, whose natural weaknefs was attended with frequent pains of the head; but as all thefe difadvantages could not reprefs my ardour for learning, my father took care to have me inftructed by various preceptors both at home and at school." His domestic tutor was Thomas Young, of Effex, who, being obliged to quit his country on account of religious opinions, became minister to the English merchants at Hamburgh. It was probably from this learned and confcientious man, that Milton caught not only his pasfion for literature, but that fteadiness and uncon * Pater me puerulum humaniarum literarum ftudiis deftinavit; quas ita avide arripui, ut ab anno ætatis duodecimo vix unquam ante mediam noctem a lucubrationibus cubitum difcederem ; quæ prima oculorum pernicies fuit, quorum ad naturalem debilitatem accefferant et crebri capitis dolores; quæ omnia cum difcendi impetum non retardarent, et in ludo literario, et sub aliis domi magiftris erudiendum quotidie curavit. querable |