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native characteristics were mildnefs and magnanimity, In controverfy his mind was undoubtedly overheated, and paffages may be quoted from his profe works, that are certainly neither mild nor magnanimous; but if his controverfial afperity is compared with the outrageous infolence of his opponents, even that afperity will appear moderation; in focial intercourfe he is represented as peculiarly courteous and engaging. When the celebrity of his Latin work made him esteemed abroad, many inquiries were made concerning his private character among his familiar acquaintance, and the refult of fuch inquiry was, that mildness and affability were his diftinguishing qualities. Virum effe miti comique ingenio aiunt, fays the celebrate Heinfius, in a letter that he wrote concerning Milton, in the year 1651, to Gronovius. Another eminent foreigner reprefents him in the fame pleafing light, and from the best information. Voffius, who was at that time in Sweden, and who mentions the praise, which his royal patronefs Chriftina beftowed on Milton's recent defence of the English people, informs his friend Heinfius, that he had obtained a very I particular account of the author from a relation of his own, the learned Junius, who wrote the elaborate and interesting history of ancient painting, refided in England, and particularly cultivated the intimacy of Milton.

Indeed, when we reflect on the poet's uncommon tenderness towards his parents, and all

the advantages of his early life, both at home and abroad, we have every reason to believe, that his manners were fingularly pleafing. He was fond of refined female fociety, and appears to have been very fortunate in two female friends of diftinction, the Lady Margaret Ley, whose fociety confoled him when he was mortified by the desertion of his first wife, and the no less accomplished Lady Ranelagh, who had placed her fon under his care, and who probably affifted him, when he was a widower and blind, with friendly directions for the management of his female infants. A paffage in one of his letters to her fon fuggefts this idea; for he condoles with his young correfpondent, then at the University, on the lofs they would both fuftain by the long abfence of his moft excellent mother, paffing at that time into Ireland; "her departure must grieve us both," fays Milton, "for to me alfo the supplied the place of every friend*;" an expreffion full of tenderness and regret, highly honorable to the lady, and a pleasing memorial of that fenfibility and gratitude, which I am perfuaded we should have seen moft eminent in the character of Milton, if his English letters had been fortunately preserved, particularly his letters to this interesting lady, whofe merits are commemorated in an eloquent fermon, preached by bishop Burnet, on the death of her brother, that mild and accomplished model of virtue and learning,

* Nam & mihi omnium neceffitudinum loco fuit.

1

Robert Boyle. Lady Ranelagh muft have been one of the most exemplary and engaging characters that ever exifted, fince we find the was the darling fifter of this illuftrious philofopher, and the favorite friend of a poet ftill more illuftriFour of Milton's Latin letters are addressed to her son, and they blend with moral precepts to the young ftudent refpectful and affectionate praise of his mother *.

ous.

In the Latin correfpondence of Milton we have some veftiges of his fentiments concerning the authors of antiquity; and it is remarkable, that in a deliberate opinion on the merits of Salluft†, he prefers him to all the Roman hiftorians. Milton, however, did not form himself

* In the quarto edition of Boyle there are a few letters from his favorite fifter, Lady Ranelagh; one very interefting, in which she speaks of the poet Waller; but she does not menHer fon tion the name of Milton in the whole collection. (the first and laft Earl of Ranelagh) who was in his childhood a difciple of the great poet, proved a man of talents, bufinefs, and pleasure.

† De Salluftio quod fcribis, dicam libere; quoniam ita vis plane ut dicam quod fentio, Salluftium cuivis Latino hiftorico me quidem anteferre; quæ etiam conftans fere antiquorum fententia fuit. Habet fuas laudes tuus Tacitus, fed eas meo quidem judicio maximas, quod Salluftium nervis omnibus fit imi"tatus. Cum hæc tecum coram differerem perfeciffe videor quantum ex eo quod fcribis conjicio, ut de illo cordatiffimo fcriptore ipfe jam idem prope fentias: adeoque ex me quæris, cum is in exordio belli Catilinarii perdifficile effe dixerit historiam fcribere, propterea quod facta dictis exæquanda funt qua potif fimum ratione id affequi hiftoriarum fcriptorem poffe exiftimem.

as a writer on any Roman model : being very early most anxious to excel in literature, he wifely attached himself to thofe prime examples of literary perfection, the Greeks; among the poets he particularly delighted in Euripides and Homer; his favorites in profe feem to have been Plato and Demofthenes; the firft peculiarly fit to give richness, purity, and luftre to the fancy; the fecond, to invigorate the understanding, and inspire the fervid energy of public virtue. It is a very just remark of Lord Monboddo, that even the poetical speeches in Paradife Loft derive their confummate propriety and eloquence from the fond and enlightened attention with which the

Ego vero fic exiftimo; qui geftas res dignas digne fcripferit, eum animo non minus magno rerumque ufu præditum fcribere oportere quam is qui eas gefferit: ut vel maximas pari animo comprehendere atque metiri poffit, & comprehenfas fermone puro atque cafto diftincte graviterque narrare: nam ut ornate non admodum laboro; hiftoricum enim, non oratorem requiro. Crebras etiam fententias, & judicia de rebus geftis interjecta prolixe nollem, ne, interrupta rerum ferie, quod politici fcriptoris munus eft hiftoricus invadat; qui fi in confiliis explicandis, factifque ennarrandis, non fuum ingenium aut conjecturam, fed veritatem potiffimum fequitur, fuarum profecto partium satagit. Addiderim & illud Salluftianum, qua in re ipfe Catotonem maxime laudavit, poffe multa paucis abfolvere; id quod fine acerrimo judicio, atque etiam temperantia quadam neminem poffe arbitror. Sunt multi in quibus vel fermonis elegantiam vel congeftarum rerum copiam non defideres, qui brevitatem cum copia conjunxerit, id eft qui, multa paucis abfolverit, princeps meo judicio eft Salluftius.-Profe Works, vol. 2. p. 582.

poet had studied the most perfect orator of Athens: the ftudies of Milton, however, were very extenfive; he appears to have been familiar not only with all the best authors of antiquity, but with those of every refined language in Europe; Italian, French, Spanish, and Portugueze. Great erudition has been often fuppofed to operate as an incumbrance on the finer faculties of the mind; but let us obferve to its credit, the sublimeft of poets was also the most learned: of Italian literature he was particularly fond, as we may collect from one of his letters to a professor of that language, and from the ease and fpirit of his Italian verses. To the honor of modern Italy it may he said, that she had a confiderable fhare in forming the genius of Milton. In Taffo, her brightest ornament, he found a character highly worthy of his affectionate emulation, both as a poet and as a man; this accomplished perfonage had, indeed, ended his illuftrious and troubled life feveral years before Milton vifited his country; but he was yet living in the memory of his ardent friend Manfo, and through the medium of Manfo's converfation his various excellencies made, I am perfuafed, a forcible and permanent impreffion on the heart and fancy of our youthful countryman. It was hardly the example of Triffino, as Johnson supposes, that tempted Milton to his bold experiment of blank verfe; for Triffino's epic poem is a very heavy performance, and had funk into fuch oblivion