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Then after all, when with the paft content,

A life I finish, not in filence spent,

Should he, kind mourner, o'er my death bed bend,
I shall but need to fay, "be still my friend !"
He, faithful to my duft, with kind concern,
Shall place it gently in a modest urn;
He too, perhaps, fhall bid the marble breathe
To honour me, and with the graceful wreath,
Or of Parnaffus, or the Paphian Isle,
Shall bind my brows-but I fhall reft the while,
Then alfo, if the fruits of faith endure,
And virtue's promis'd recompence be fure,
Borne to those feats, to which the bleft afpire,
By purity of foul and virtuous fire,

These rites, as fate permits, I fhall furvey
With eyes illumin'd by celestial-day,

And, every cloud from my pure fpirit driven,
Joy in the bright beatitude of heav'n.

The preceding verfes have various claims to attention; they exhibit a lively picture of the literary project that occupied the mind of Milton at this period; they forcibly prove with what vehemence of defire he panted for poetical immortality, and for the fuperior rewards of a laborious life, devoted to piety-and virtue.

His acquaintance with Manfo may be regarded as the most fortunate incident of his foreign excurfion. Nothing could have a greater tendency to preferve and strengthen the feeds of poetic enterprize in the mind of the young traveller, than his familiarity with this eminent and engaging perfonage, the bofomfriend of Taffo; the friend who had cherifhed that great and afflicted poet under his roof in a feafon of

his mental calamity, had reftored his health, re-animated his fancy, and given a religious turn to the lateft efforts of his majeftic mufe. The very life of Taffo, which this noble biographer had written with the copious and minute fidelity of perfonal knowledge, and with the ardour of affectionate enthufiasm, might be fufficient to give new energy to Milton's early paffion for poetical renown: his converfation had, probably, a ftill greater tendency to produce this effect. Circumftances remote, and apparently of little moment, have often a marvellous influence on the works of imagination; nor is it too wild a conjecture to fuppofe, that the zeal of Manfo, in fpeaking to Milton of his departed friend, might give force and permanence to that literary ambition, which ultimately rendered his afpiring gueft the great rival of Taffo, and, in the estimation of Englishmen, his fuperior.

From Naples it was the defign of Milton to pafs into Sicily and Greece; but receiving intelligence of the civil war in England, he felt it inconfiftent with his principles to wander abroad, even for the improvement of his mind, while his countrymen were contending for liberty at home.

In preparing for his return to Rome, he was cautioned against it by fome mercantile friends, whose letters intimated, that he had much to apprehend from the machinations of English jefuits, if he appeared again in that city; they were incenfed against him by the freedom of his difcourfe on topics of religion: "I had made it a rule (fays Milton) never to start a religious fubject in this country;

but

but if I were questioned on my faith, never to diffemble, whatever I might fuffer. I returned, nevertheless, to Rome," continues the undaunted traveller," and, whenever I was interrogated, I attempted no disguife: if any one attacked my principles, I defended the true religion in the very city of the pope, and, during almoft two months, with as much freedom as I had used before. By the protection of God I returned fafe again to Florence, re-visiting friends, who received me as gladly as if I had been restored to my native home*.”

After a fecond refidence of almost two months in Florence, whence he made an excurfion to Lucca, a place endeared to him by having produced the ancestors of his favourite friend Diodati, he extended his travels through Bologna and Ferrara to Venice. Here, he remained a month, and having fent hence a collection of books, and particularly of mufic, by fea, he proceeded himself through Verona and

* In Siciliam quoque et Græciam trajicere volentem me, triftis ex Anglia belli civilis nuntius revocavit; turpe enim exiftimabam, dum mei cives domi de libertate dimicarent, ne animi caufà otiofe peregrinari. Romam autem reverfurum, monebant mercatores fe didiciffe per literas parari mihi ab jefuitis Anglis infidias, fi Romam reverterem, eò quod de religione nimis liberè loquatus effem. Sic enim mecum ftatueram, de religione quidem iis in locis fermones ultro non inferre ; interrogatus de fide, quicquid effem paffurus, nihil diffimulare. Romam itaque nihilominus redii: quid effem, fi quis interrogabat, nemine celavi; fi quis adoriebatur, in ipsa urbe pontificis, alteros prope duos menfes, orthodoxam religionem, ut antea, liberrimè tuebar: deoque fic volente, incolumis Florentiam rurfus perveni; haud minus mei cupientes revifens, ac fi in patriam revertiffem.-Defenfio fecunda.

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Milan to Geneva. In this city he was particularly gratified by the fociety and kindnefs of John Diodati, uncle of his young friend, whofe untimely death he lamented in a Latin poem, of which we fhall foon have occafion to fpeak. Returning by his former road through France, he reached England at a period that feems to have made a ftrong impreffion on his mind, when the king was waging, in favour of epifcopacy, his unprofperous war with the Scots. The time of Milton's abfence from his native country exceeded not, by his own account, a year and three months.

In the relation that he gives himself of his return, the name of Geneva recalling to his mind one of the most flanderous of his political adverfaries, he animates his narrative by a folemn appeal to heaven on his unfpotted integrity; he protefts that, during his refidence in foreign fcenes, where licentiousness was univerfal, his own conduct was perfectly irreproachable*. I dwell the more zealously on whatever may elucidate the moral character of Milton, because, even among thofe who love and revere him, the splendor of the poet has in fome meafure eclipf ed the merit of the man; but in proportion as the particulars of his life are ftudied with intelligence and candour, his virtue will become, as it ought to be, the friendly rival of his genius, and receive its

* Quæ urbs, cum in mentem mihi hinc veniat Mori calumniatoris, facit ut deum hic rurfus teftem invocem, me his omnibus in locis, ubi tam multa licent, ab omni flagitio ac probro integrum atque inta&tum vixiffe, illud perpetuo cogitantem, fi hominum latere oculos poffem, dei certe non poffe.

due

due fhare of admiration and efteem. Men, indeed, of narrow minds, and of fervile principles, will for ever attempt to depreciate a character fo abfolutely the reverse of their own; but liberal fpirits, who allow to others that freedom of fentiment, which they vindicate for themselves, however they disapprove or oppose the opinions of the fectary and the republican, will render honourable and affectionate justice to the patriotic benevolence, the induftry, and the courage, with which Milton endeavoured to promote what he fincerely and fervently regarded as the true intereft of his country.

We have now attended him to the middle stage of his life, at which it may not be improper to pause, and make a few remarks on the years that are paffed, and those that are yet in profpect. We behold him, at the age of thirty-two, recalled to England, from a foreign excurfion of improvement and delight, by a manly fenfe of what he owed to his country in a feafon of difficulty and danger. His thoughts and conduct on this occafion are the more noble and becoming, as all his preceding years had been. employed in forming, for the most important purposes, a firm and lofty mind, and in furnishing it abundantly with whatever might be ufeful and honourable to himself and others, in the various exigences and viciffitudes both of private and public life.

We have traced him through a long course of infantine, academical, domeftic, and foreign study; we have feen him diftinguifhed by application, docility, and genius; uncommonly attached to his inftructors, and most amiably grateful to his pa

rents;

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