nions are, profess to derive them from the sacred books, and from these only; thus professing to unite all classes of religious reformers against their common foe-Popery. In 1674 he published, in Latin, his "Familiar Epistles to Eminent Men," which contain curiousand interesting opinions and characters of celebrated individuals, ancient and modern; and also some of his "Academical Exercises." A System of Divinity, which he had been long compiling, he did not live to publish. The MS. was discovered in 1823, in the old State Paper Office, Whitehall; and has been published by the present bishop of Winchester, to whose care it was entrusted by George IV. It appears this system has been drawn from the Bible solely; whereas another system, before mentioned, was drawn from able divines as well. His last literary work was a translation of the "Latin Declaration of the Poles in favour of John III.," their heroic sovereign. His "History of Muscovy" was not published till after his death. The gout, with which he had been long and violently afflicted, now took a determined hold of his system, which began to sink rapidly. Such, however, was his firmness and cheerfulness of mind, that, during the paroxysms of the disease, he would converse, play on the organ, or sing, with his wonted animation; till at last, his constitution being utterly exhausted, he expired (and so calm and insensible was his transition from life to death, that those in the room were not for some time aware of his dissolution) on Sunday, the 8th of November, 1674, within one month of his completing his sixty-sixth year. He was buried near his father, in the chancel of St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate; his funeral being attended by a large concourse of the nobility and literati then in London. Some years after his death, his tomb-stone was removed for the purpose of facilitating certain improvements in that part of the church, particularly the erection of steps to the communion table, and was not replaced. It is therefore impossible now, as the entire space is evenly flagged over, to ascertain the exact position of his tomb. The sexton has told me that it lies under the clerk's desk, which is at the angle of the aisle and chancel, on the right as you go up: but from an examination of the place, I am disposed to believe that it is nearer the communion table. Opposite the desk and pulpit, there is affixed to one of the pillars a marble bust of him, executed by Bacon, at the expense of the late Mr. Whitbread, in 1793. It represents him in his old age, much wasted, but calm and contemplative; and is considered an admirable likeness.

Dr. Wright, an old clergyman in Dorsetshire, who visited him some time before his death, says,-"I found him in a small house, which had, I think, but one room on a floor; in that, up one pair of stairs, which was hung with a rusty green, I saw John Milton, sitting in an elbow chair, with black clothes, and neat enough; pale, but not cadaverous; his hands and fingers gouty, and with chalk stones. Among other discourse, he expressed himself to this pur

pose, that were he free from the pain of the gout, his blindness would be tolerable." In his mode of living he was an example of sobriety and temperance, being very sparing in the use of wine, or strong liquors. In his diet, too, he was very abstemious, though choice in the quality; "eating and drinking," according to the distinction of the philosopher," that he might live, and not living that he might cat and drink." His gout, therefore, if not brought on by his studious and sedentary life, must have been hereditary. In his youth he generally sat up at his studies till midnight; but in after life, finding this custom injurious to his eyes and health, he changed his habits, and went to bed and rose early. In the Introduction of his "Apology for Smectymnuus," he gives the following account of himself:-"Those morning haunts are where they ought to be, at home; not sleeping, or concocting the surfeits of an irregular feast, but up and stirring; in winter, often ere the sound of any bell awake men to labour or to devotion; in summer, as oft with the bird that first rouses, or not much tardier, to read good authors, or cause them to be read, till the attention be weary, or memory have its full freight; then, with useful and generous labours, preserving the body's health and hardiness, to render lightsome, clear, and active obedience to the mind, to the cause of religion, and to our country's liberty." At his first rising, in after life, he usually had a portion of the Hebrew Bible read to him, and then spent an hour or two in contemplation, and breakfasted; then studied till twelve; after this, took some exercise, and then dined, (generally in his kitchen, like most of the Londoners of moderate circumstances in his time;) and after dinner played on the organ, and either sang himself, or desired his wife (who, he said, had a good voice, but no ear) or one of his daughters to sing; then he went up to study again till six, when his friends came to visit him, till eight; then he went down to supper, which was usually olives, or some light thing; and after supper he smoked his pipe; drank a glass of water; and went to bed. In summer he would sometimes sit at the door of his house, and there receive his visitors. His youngest daughter, who was his favourite, and for a long time his principal amanuensis, used to say that "he was delightful company; the life of the conversation, not only on account of his flow of subject, but of his unaffected cheerfulness and civility." Isaac Vossius, in a letter to N. Heinsius, 1651, on the authority of his uncle, Francis Tunius, the writer of "De Pictura Veterum," describes him as "courteous, affable, and endowed with many virtues ;" and Heinsius, in a letter to Gronovius, mentions this as his general character.

CHAPTER VI.

His Will-Family-Literary partialities-his Character of Cromwell.

From his noncupative will (a will not taken down in writing and signed by the testator, but orally delivered before witnesses), lately discovered, some circumstances connected with his domestic affairs, not generally known, have been brought to light. A copy of it was lodged in the Prerogative Court, soon after his death, by his brother, the chief witness, and ran thus: "The portion due to me from Mr. Powell, my former wife's father, I leave to the unkind children I had by her, having received no part of it. But my meaning is, that they shall have no other benefit of my estate than the said portion, and what I have besides done for them; they having been very undutiful to me. All the residue of my estate I leave to the disposal of Elizabeth, my loving wife." The portion, it seems, was 1000l. From his brother's testimony, the above declaration was made on or about the 20th of July, 1674. The evidence of his female servant, (Fisher,) in corroboration, went to prove, that on several occasions he declared at dinner, a few months before his death, to his wife, in her hearing, that as she made so much of him when alive, by getting nice things for him, and showing him various other attentions, he would leave her all after his death, as he had already provided for his children, who showed him but little gratitude. The evidence of a former servant (for it seems he kept only one servant—a female) went to show, that his daughter, Mary, expressed to her a wish to hear of his death, and advised her to cheat him in marketing; and that he often complained that his daughters, who did not live with him for five or six years before his death, stole and sold his best books. It appears also, from the evidence in the case, that Powell, though in his life-time extravagant, left at his death a competent fortune, and ordered by his will the 1000l. to be paid to Milton's children. Milton's will was contested by his daughters, and was pronounced invalid by the judge, Sir Lionel Jenkins, on three grounds-1st, there was no rogatio testium, or asking of the witness to note the words spoken at the time by the testator; 2d, they were not the same words sworn to by the several witnesses, and uttered by him at the same time; 3d, they were not spoken in his last illness.

His sister married Mr. Phillips, who rose to the office of Secondary in the Crown Office in Chancery: after his death, she married Mr. Agar, who succeeded him; her son was Milton's pupil, and for a long time secretary. His brother was made a judge in the time of James II. (having, it is said, become a papist,) but retired, and died at Ipswich, leaving two daughters, and a son who succeeded to the

offices filled by his aunt's husbands. Milton's daughters, who were taught the trade of embroidery in gold and silver, by which they earned their bread, could read many ancient languages, though they did not understand them. This is not surprising; for it was in accordance with the domestic strictness of those times. His youngest daughter, Deborah, his amanuensis "for Paradise Lost," was subsequently married to a master weaver, Mr. Clarke, in Spitalfields, and is represented as an intellectual woman. Her youngest daughter, who was married to a man named Foster, a weaver, in Spitalfields, kept a little chandler's shop in Cock Lane, near Shoreditch Church. Her condition attracted public sympathy; the Queen, Addison, and others. presented her with purses of gold; and, in 1750, the Mask of Comus was acted for her by way of benefit, which brought her 1301. ; yet so simple and secluded was her mode of life, that she did not know the meaning of a benefit. She used to speak of her grandfather with a kind of reverential awe. They all thought him inspired. Though his descendants were numerous, the race is supposed to be now extinct.

Milton's reading embraced, -for his industry was as indefatigable as his genius was boundless,-the whole range of ancient and modern learning; but, in the maturity of his age and intellect, he became fastidious in the subjects of his study. He then began to confine himself, as appears from many passages in his prose works, to an intense meditation of the standard writers, when he contemplated that work which he triumphantly anticipated his "country would not willingly let die." Of all these, ancient and modern, he was a complete master. Those who had best opportunities of knowing him tell us, that there were certain authors among them who were his peculiar favourites. The Hebrew Bible was the subject of his daily study. Homer, Euripides, Plato, Xenophon, and Demosthenes, were his favourites among the Greeks. Among the Latins, Ovid and Sallust. Among the English, Spenser, (whom he used to call his master,) Shakspeare, and Cowley. Among the Italians, Tasso and Dante. It appears he set but little value on the French writers. Some of these partialities may appear to many men strange; but they should, I think, consider the cast and structure of Milton's mind. There runs through Euripides a high and continued tone of moral sentiment, which was congenial to Milton's taste, and which was more than a counterbalance to the daring sublimities of Eschylus. The one was a steady guide; the other may present dangerous allurements: and he did not want the example of sublimity; for he possessed within him, in the most eminent degree, the elements of the highest sublimity. The fancy and versatility of Ovid, together with the vast variety of subjects he descants on, could furnish the mind of Milton with more intellectual food, than the judicious imitations, or the methodical evenness of Virgil. And Sallust, (whom Tacitus copies, both imitating Thucydides,) from his concentration

of thought, his purity and vigour of style, was more to his purpose, than the poetic imagery and declamatory diffuseness of Livy. Of Cicero's works, (except the philosophical,) he seems to have been no high admirer. Cicero, like most of the Latin authors, borrowed much from the Greeks; and Milton, who knew the originals thoroughly, preferred to follow him whenever he drew from the primitive source. Hence his speeches, often cast in the mould of Demosthenes, have little of the verbose swell of Cicero. Dryden was a constant visitor of his; yet he spoke of Dryden as a mere rhymer. But it must be recollected that Dryden had not then reached the meridian of his fame, or intellectual vigour.

It has been often remarked, that his occasional vituperations in his prose essays, are not very consonant with his general character of a sedate, tolerant, and composed reasoner. The following passage will be enough to show, that he sometimes thought it necessary, in the fiery warfare he was engaged in, to hurl fiery bolts against his adversaries: for thus he speaks in his "Apology for Smectymnuus:

"Some also were endued with a staid moderation, and soundness of argument, to teach and convince the rational and sober-minded; yet not therefore is that to be thought the only expedient course of teaching, for in times of opposition, when either against new heresies arising, or old corruptions to be reformed, this cool impassioned mildness of positive wisdom is not enough to damp and astonish the proud resistance of false and carnal doctors; then (that I may have leave to soar, as the poets use) Zeal, whose substance is ethereal, arming in complete diamond, ascends his fiery chariot drawn by two blazing meteors, figured like beasts, but of a higher breed than any the zodiac yields, resembling two of those four, whom Ezekiel and St. John saw; the one visaged like a lion, to express power, high authority and indignation; the other of countenance like a man, to cast derision and scorn upon perverse and fraudulent seducers; with these the invincible warrior Zeal, shaking loosely the slack reins, drives over the heads of scarlet prelates, and such as are insolent to maintain traditions, bruising their stiff necks under his flaming wheels."

It is vulgarly imagined, that his republicanism tended to inculcate a system of general equality. Nothing can be more erroneous. He has left living records in his writings, that he contemplated no such absurdity. No; he only wished for constitutional freedom, such as we now enjoy; and had he lived in these times, he would have been a bold defender of our modern and limited monarchy, if not of our now more tolerant Church. He opposed the hierarchy and monarchy of his time, because he conceived both hostile to civil and religious liberty. It was against their abuse of power he contended; and it cannot be denied that there were abuses. If he advocated the abolition of those institutions, it was because he did not imagine they could be brought under popular control through