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through our public schools to obscurity, we shall cease to be surprised that not one of Milton's small knot of pupils has asserted any very eminent place among the scholars or the writers of his country. We shall rather, indeed, wonder that two of them, the two Philips's, were authors, and of no despicable rank; one of them publishing a latin answer to an anonymous attack' on his uncle and his cause; and the other, besides that life, to which all the biographers of Milton are so greatly indebted, a respectable English work with the latin title of Theatrum Poëtarum, containing a list and character of the ancient and the modern poets. In honour of Milton's earnest and intelligent discharge of his duties as a teacher, it is recorded, that these two young men, who came under his care at the early ages of ten and nine, were so rapidly forwarded in their studies, as, in the course of one year, to be "able to understand a latin author at sight." Aubrey, who relates the circum-. stance, ought to have been more specific in his account. If he means by “a latin

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Ascribed, but without sufficient grounds, to the pen Dr. Bramhall, bishop of Derry; and afterwards archbishop of Armagh.

author" any latin author, the fact is certainly extraordinary, and reputable, in nearly an equal degree, to the master, and the scholars.

But Milton's scheme extended, beyond the Roman and the Greek, to the Hebrew, with its dialects of Chaldee and Syriac, and to some of the modern languages. It comprehended, also, a certain acquaintance with the mathématics, and with their sublime application to the purposes of astronomy. While this various reading fully occupied six days of the week, the seventh had its appropriate and characteristic employment. On this day, the pupils, after reading to their master a chapter in the Greek testament, and hearing his explanation of it, wrote, as he dictated, on some subject of theology.

As his plan of education could not be properly executed in his confined lodgings in St. Bride's church-yard, he soon removed to a house in Aldersgate-street, of which the size admitted his scholars into his family, and the situation, secluded by a court from the street, and opening into a garden, supplied the retirement and quiet

It was one of those houses, which were called Garden

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Massica fæcundam despumant pocula venam,

Fundis et ex ipso condita metra cado.
Addimus his artes, fusumq; per intima Phœbum
Corda; favent uni Bacchus, Apollo, Ceres.
Scilicet haud mirum, tam dulcia carmina per te,
Numine composito, tres peperisse Deos.
Nunc

quoq; Thressa tibi cælato barbitos auro
Insonat argutâ molliter icta manu:
Auditurq; chelys suspensa tapetia circum
Virgineos tremulâ quæ regat arte pedes.
Illa tuas saltem teneant spectacula Musas,
Et revocent, quantum crapula pellit iners.
Crede mihi dum psallit ebur, comitataq; plectrum
Implet odoratos festa chorea tholos,

Percipies tacitum per pectora serpere Phœbum,
Quale repentinus permeat ossa calor;
Perq; puellares oculos, digitumq; sonantem,
Irruet in totos lapsa Thalia sinùs.
Namq; elegia levis multorum cura Deorum est;
Et vocat ad numeros quemlibet illa suos;
Liber adest elegis, Eratoq; Ceresq; Venusq;
Et cum purpureâ matre tenellus Amor.
Talibus inde licent convivia larga poëtis,

Sæpius et veteri commaduisse mero.
At qui bella refert, et adulto sub Jove cœlum,
Heroasq; pios, semideosq; duces;

Et nunc sancta canit superum consulta deorum;
Nunc latrata fero regna profunda cane;
Ille quidem parcè, Samii pro more magistri,
Vivat, et innocuos præbeat herba cibos:
Stet prope fagineo pellucida lympha catillo,
Sobriaq; è puro pocula fonte bibat.
Additur huie scelerisq; vacans, et casta juventus,
Et rigidi mores, et sine labe manus.
Qualis veste nitens sacrâ et lustralibus undis,
Surgis, ad infensos augur iture Deos.
Hoc ritu vixisse ferunt post rapta sagacem

Lumina Tiresian, Ogygiumq; Linon;

age.

Et lare devoto profugum Calchanta, senemq;
Orpheon," edomitis sola per antra feris.
Sic dapis exiguus, sic rivi potor Homerus
Dulichium vexit per freta longa virum ;
Et per monstrificam Perseiæ Phœbados aulam;
Et vada fœmineis insidiosa sonis;

Perq; tuas, rex ime, domos, ubi sanguine nigro
Dicitur umbrarum detinuisse greges.

Diis etenim sacer est vates, divûmque sacerdos,
Spirat et occultum pectus et ora Jovem.

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Then why of wine's enfeebling cup complain?
Beloved of verse, young Bacchus loves the strain.
Placed in fond preference o'er his laurel bough,
Oft has the ivy clasp'd Apollo's brow;

And oft Aönia's hills have heard the Nine
With frantic shouts the madd'ning orgies join.
Weak was the lay from Tomi's vineless coast,
When Naso wept his feasts and friendships lost.
The flowing bowl with many a rose o'erhung,
In fancy's sprightliest lay Anacreon sung.
The Theban god inspires his Pindar's line;
And each bright hymn is redolent of wine.

" Milton and Virgil disagree on the subject of Orpheus's

......

Spreto Ciconum quo munere matres
Inter sacra Deûm, nocturniq; orgia Bacchi
Decerptum latos juvenem sparsere per agros.

Georg. lib. iv. 522.

But each poet had a view, perhaps, in this instance, to his own particular purpose. Milton wished to insinuate that his diet had a tendency to promote longevity; and Virgil was aware that he could not, with any probability, make the women of Thrace so outrageous with an old man, for his neglect of them, as to tear him to pieces.

Whether o'erwhelm'd the groaning axle lie,

Or dark with Eliac dust the impetuous courser fly.
"Hot with the Tuscan grape," his bright-hair'd maid,
The Roman lyrist sang beneath the shade.

Nay thou, whose thankless strain the boon disowns,
Owest to the vine that strain's harmonious tones:
Bright as from casks, where Massic juices glow,
And strong and pure thy sparkling stanzas flow.
Thine are the arts, in thee with Delphi's God
Bacchus and Ceres fix their loved abode :
Hence triply fed, thy dulcet accents roll,
Which melt and swell by turns the ravish'd soul.
And now, light sweeping o'er the golden wire,
The thrilling touch awakes the Orphëan lyre; ̧
Now round the dome the tabret's echoes play,
That teach the virgin's foot its mazy way.
These gorgeous shows the Muse may well detain,
When wine's strong fumes would chase her from the brain.
Trust me, when Music strikes her festive string,
And Dance, accordant, weaves the frolic ring;
Healthy and soft, as warmth's pervading glow,
Through all thy veins the inspiring God will flow;
And from the finger snapt and beaming eye,
Thalia's self infuse the tuneful sigh:

For many a God o'er elegy presides,

Its spirit kindles, and its numbers guides:
There Bacchus, Ceres, Erato are seen,

And, with her beauteous boy, the Idalian queen:
And thence the chiefs of elegiac song,

Drain the full bowl, and join the jocund throng.
But he, whose verse records the battle's roar,
And heroes feats, and demigods of yore;
The Olympic senate with their bearded king;
Or howls, that loud through Pluto's dungeons ring;
With simpler stores must spread his Samian board;
And browse, well-pleased, the vegetable hoard:
Close at his side the beechen cup be placed;

His thirst by Nature's limpid beverage chased;

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