depress the vigour of his mind, or divert it from exe. cuting a design he had long conceived of writing an heroic poem *. The Fall of Man was a fubject which he had fome years before fixed on for a tragedy, which he intended to form by the models of Antiquity; and fome, not without probability, say the play opened with that fpeech in the Fourth Book of Paradife Loft, ver. 32. which is addreffed by Satan to the Sun. Were it material, I believe I could produce other pasfages which more plainly appear to have been origi nally intended for the fcene. But whatever truth there may be in this report, 'tis certain that he did not begin to mold his fubject in the form which it bears now before he had concluded his controversy with Salmafius and More; when he had wholly loft the use of his eyes, and was forced to employ in the office of an amanuenfis any friend who accidentally paid him a vifit. Yet, under all these discouragements and vaAn. Æt. ối. rious interruptions, in the year 1669 he published his Paradise Loft t; the noblest Poem, next to those of Homer and Virgil, that ever the wit of man produced in any age or nation. Need I mention any other evidence of its ineftimable worth, than that the finest geniuses who have fucceeded him have ever esteemed it a merit to relish and illuftrate its beau ties whilft the critic who gazed, with fo much

*Paradife Loft, B. IX, v. 26.

+ Milton's contract with his bookfeller, S. Simmons, for the copy, bears date April 27, 1667.

wanton malice, on the nakedness of Shakespeare when he slept, after having * formally declared war against it, wanted courage to make his attack, flushed though he was with his conquests over Julius Cæfar and the Moor; which infolence his Muse, like the other affaffins of Cæfart, feverely revenged on herself; and not long after her triumph became her own executioner. Nor is it unworthy our observation, that though, perhaps, no one of our English poets hath excited fo many admirers to imitate his manner, yet I think never any was known to aspire to emulation: even the late ingenious Mr. Philips, who, in the colours of style, came the nearest of all the copiers to resemble the great original, made his distant advances with a filial reverence, and restrained his ambition within the fame bounds which Lucretius prefcribed to his own imitation :

Non ita certandi cupidus, quam propter amorem

Quod TE imitari aveo: quid enim contendat hirundo

Cycnis?......

And now, perhaps, it may pafs for fiction what with great veracity I affirm to be fact, that Milton, after having, with much difficulty, prevailed to have this divine Poem licensed for the prefs, could fell the copy for no more than fifteen pounds; the payment of which valuable confideration depended on the fale of three numerous impreffions. So unreasonably may

The Tragedies of the laft age confidered, p. 143. ↑ Vide Edgar.

18

perfonal prejudice affect the most excellent perform>

ances!

About two years after, together with Samfon Ago An. Æt. 63. nistes, (a tragedy not unworthy the Grecian stage when Athens was in her glory) he published Paradife Regain'd*. But, Oh! what a falling off was there!-Of which I shall say no more, than that there is fcarcely a more remarkable inftance of the frailty of human reason than our Author gave in preferring this Poem to Paradife Loft; nor a more instructive caution to the best writers, to be very dif fident in deciding the merit of their own productions.

And thus, having attended him to the fixty-fixth year of his age, as closely as fuch imperfect lights as men of letters and retirement ufually leave to guide our inquiry would allow, it now only remains to be An. Ætat. 66-67. recorded, that, in the year 1674, the gout put a period to his life at Bunhill near London; from whence his body was conveyed to St. Giles's church by Cripplegate, where it lies interred in the chancel; but neither has nor wants a monument to perpetuate his memory.

In his youth he is faid to have been extremely handfome: the colour of his hair was a light-brown; the symmetry of his features exact, enlivened with an agreeable air, and a beautiful mixture of fair and

*They were licerfed July 2, 1670, but not printed before the year enfuing.

ruddy; which occafioned the Marquis of Villa to give his Epigram the fame turn of thought which Gregory, Arch-deacon of Rome, had employed above a thousand years before, in praising the amiable com❤ plexions of fome English youths before their converfion to Christianity *. His stature (as we find it meafured by himfelft) did not exceed the middle fize; neither too lean, nor corpulent; his limbs well proportioned, nervous, and active; ferviceable in all respects to his exercising the sword, in which he much delighted, and wanted neither skill nor courage to refent an affront from men of the most athletic conftitutions. In his diet he was abftemious; not delicate in the choice of his dishes; and strong liquors of all kinds were his averfion. Being too fadly convinced how much his health had suffered by night-studies in his younger years, he used to go early (feldom later than nine) to reft, and rofe commonly before five in the morning. It is reported, (and there is a passage in one of his Latin Elegies to countenance the tradition) that his fancy made the happiest flights in the Spring: but one of his nephews used to deliver it as Milton's own observation, that his invention was in its higheft perfection from September to the Vernal Equinox: however it was, the great inequalities to be found in his composures are inconteftible proofs that, Ut mens, forma, decor, facies, mos, fi pietas fic Non Anglus, verum herche Angelus ipfe fores. + Defenfio Secunda, p. 87. Fol.

in fome seasons, he was but one of the people. When blindness restrained him from other exercises, he had a machine to fwing in for the preservation of his health; and diverted himself in his chamber with playing on an organ. His deportment was erect, open, affable; his converfation eafy, cheerful, instructive; his wit on all occafions at command, facetious, grave, or fatirical, as the subject required. His judgment, when disengaged from religious and political speculations, was just and penetrating; his apprehension quick; his memory tenacious of what he read; his reading only not fo extenfive as his genius, for that was univerfal. And having treasured up such immense stores of science, perhaps the faculties of his foul grew more vigorous after he was deprived of his fight; and his imagination (naturally fublime, and enlarged by reading romances, of which he was much inamoured in his youth) when it was wholly abstracted from material objects, was more at liberty to make such amazing excurfions into the ideal world, when, in compofing his Divine Work, he was tempted to range

Beyond the vifible diurnal fphere.

With fo many accomplishments, not to have had fome faults and misfortunes, to be laid in the balance with the fame and felicity of writing Paradise Loft, would have been too great a portion for humanity.

ELIJAH FENTON,

His Apology for Smectymnuus, p. 177. Fol.