Forfitan has laudes, decantatumque parentis But thou, my father, fince to render thanks To hope longevity, and to survive Your master's funeral, not foon absorb'd In the oblivious Lethean gulph, Shall to futurity perhaps convey This theme, and by these praises of my fire "He began now," fays Johnfon," to grow weary of the country, and had fome purpose of taking chambers in the "inns of court. This weariness appears to have exifted only in the fancy of his biographer. During the five years that Milton refided with his parents, in Buckinghamshire, he had occafional lodgings in London, which he vifited, as lie informs us himself, for the purpofe of buying books, and improving himself in mathematics and in mufic, at that time his favourite amufements. The letter, which, intimates his intention of taking chambers in the inns of court, was not written from the country, as his biographer feems to have fuppofed; it is dated from London, and only expreffes, that his quarters there appeared to him awkward and inconvenient *. On the death of his mother, who died in April, 1637, and is buried in the chancel of Horton church, he obtained his father's permiffion to gratify his cager defire of vifiting the continent, a permiffion the more readily granted, perhaps, as one of his motives for visiting Italy was to form a collection of Italian mufic. Having received fome directions for his travels from the celebrated Sir Henry Wotton, he went, with a single fervant, to Paris, in 1638; he was there honoured by the notice of Lord Scudamore, the English ambaffador, who, at his earnest defire, gave him an introduction to Grotius, then refiding at Paris as the minister of Sweden. Curiofity is naturally excited by the idea of a conference between two perfons fo eminent and accomplished. It has been conjectured, that Milton might conceive his firft defign of writing a tragedy on the banishment of Adam from this interview with Grotius; but if the Adamus Exful of the Swedish ambaffador were a fubject of their difcourfe, it is probable its author must have spoken of it but slightly, as a juvenile compofition, fince he does fo in a letter to his friend Voffius, in 1616, concerning a new edition of his . Dicam jam nunc ferio quid cogitem, in hofpitium juridicorum aliquod immigrare, ficubi amoena et umbrofa ambulatio eft, quod et inter aliquot fodales, commodior illic habi tatio, fi domi manere, et ogunτngioV EUTRETTESEZOV· quocunque libitum erit excurrere: ubi nunc fum, ut nofti, obfcurè et anguftè fum. poetry, poetry, from which he particularly excluded this facred drama, as too puerile, in his own judgment, to be re-publifhed *. The letters of Grotius, voluminous and circumstantial as they are, afford no traces of this interesting vifit; but they lead me to imagine, that the point, which the learned ambassador most warmly recommended to Milton, on his departure for Italy, was, to pay the kindest attention in his power to the sufferings of Galileo, then perfecuted as a prifoner by the inquifition in Florence. In a letter to Voffius, dated in the very month when Milton was probably introduced to Grotius, that liberal friend to science and humanity speaks thus of Galileo: “This old man, to whom the universe is so deeply indebted, worn out with maladies, and still more with anguish of mind, give us little reason to hope, that his life can be long; common prudence, therefore, fuggests to us to make the utmost of the time, while we can yet avail ourselves of such an instructor†.” Milton was, of all travellers, the most likely to feize a hint of this kind with avidity, and expreffions in Paradife Loft have led an Italian biographer of the poet to suppose, that while he refided at Florence he caught from Galileo, or his disciples, fome ideas approaching towards the Newtonian philosophy. He has informed us himself, that he really faw the illuftrious scientific prifoner of the inqui * Chriftum patientem recudendum judico, ideoque velim aliquod ejus exemplum ad me mitti, ut errata typographica corrigam, quando ipfe nullum habeo. Adami Exulis. poema juvenilius eft quam ut aufim addere. Grotii Epift. 77. + Senex is, optime de univerfo meritus, morbo fractus, infuper et animi ægritudine, haud multum nobis vitæ fuæ promittit; quare prudentiæ erit arripere tempus, dum tanto doctore uti licet. Grotii Epift. 964. fition, fition, and it feems not unreasonable to conclude, that he was in fome degree indebted to his conference with Grotius. for that mournful gratification. From Paris our author proceeded to Italy, embarking at Nice for Genoa. After a curfory view of Leghorn and Pifa, he fettled for two months at Florence; a city, which he particularly regarded for the elegance of its language, and the men of genius it had produced; here, as he informs us, he became familiar with many perfons diftinguished by their rank and learning; and here, probably, he began to form thofe great, but unfettled, projects of future compofition, which were to prove the fources of his glory, and of which he thus fpeaks himself: "In the private academies of Italy, whither I was fa“voured to resort, perceiving that some trifles I had in "memory, compofed at under twenty, or thereabout (for "the manner is, that every one muft give fome proof of his "wit and reading there) met with acceptance above what was looked for, and other things, which I had shifted, " in fcarcity of books and conveniency, to patch up amongst "them, were received with written encomiums, which the "Italian is not forward to beftow on men of this fide the Alps, I began thus far to affent both to them, and divers of my friends here at home, and not lefs to an in"ward prompting, which now grew daily upon me, that by labour and intent study, (which I take to be my por"tion in this life) joined with the ftrong propenfity of na"ture, I might, perhaps, leave fomething fo written to "after-times as they should not willingly let it die. These thoughts "thoughts at once poffeffed me, and thefe other, that if I were certain to write as men buy leafes, for three lives and "downward, there ought no regard to be fooner had than to "God's glory, by the honour and instruction of my coun try; for which cause, and not only for that I knew it "would be hard to arrive at the fecond rank among the Latins, I applied myself to that refolution, which Ariofto "followed against the persuasions of Bembo, to fix all the industry and art I could unite to the adorning of my na"tive tongue; not to make verbal curiofities the end, (that were a toilsome vanity) but to be an interpreter and re"later of the beft and fageft things among mine own citi zens throughout this island in the mother dialect; that "what the greatest and choiceft wits of Athens, Rome, or "modern Italy, and thofe Hebrews of old, did for their country, I in my proportion, with this over and above "of being a Christian, might do for mine, not caring to "be once named abroad, though, perhaps, I could attain "to that, but content with these British islands as my "world.' Profe Works, vol. 1. p. 62. It is delightful to contemplate fuch a character as Milton, thus cherishing, in his own mind, the feeds of future greatness, and animating his youthful fpirit with vifions of renown, that time has realized and extended beyond his most fanguine wishes. He appears, on every occafion, a fincere and fervent lover of his country, and expreffes, in one of his Latin Poems, the fame |