scrutiny among the records in the State-Paper office, in consequence of the newly-discovered treatise on "Christian Doctrine." We shall therefore make a few detached extracts from Mr. Mitford's "Life," with reference to some of those circumstances which have given rise to occasional debate. Of the alleged punishment of the Poet at college, he speaks thus:

A well-known passage in his first Elegy certainly betrays some displeasure which he felt, or alludes to some indignities which he suffered, from the severity of collegiate discipline: this was probably occasioned by the freedom of his censures on the established system of education, and his reluctance to conform to it...... Milton's natural genius, cultivated by the care of those excellent scholars who had conducted his education, and enriched by his own indefatigable study, had doubtless made great advances in those branches of knowledge at once congenial to his mind, and conducive to its improvement; and he might feel unwilling to be diverted from them, into the barren and unprofitable pursuits, which the old system of collegiate education too often required: that which he disliked or despised, his love of freedom on all subjects, and in every situation, forbade him to conceal. It is probable, that he underwent a temporary rustication. This, however, is certain,—that all misunderstanding was removed, and that he soon acquired the kindness and respect of the society with which he lived: he says, "It hath given me an apt occasion to acknowledge publicly, with all grateful mind, that more than ordinary favour and respect which I found above any of my equals at the hands of those courteous and learned men, the fellows of the college wherein I spent some years; who, at my parting, after I had taken two degrees as the manner is, signified many ways how much better it would content them, if I would stay, as by many letters, full of kindness and loving respect, both before that time and long after, I was assured of their singular good affection towards me."—And in another place he speaks of himself, as— 'Procul omni flagitio, bonis omnibus probatus.'-Pp. vi.—ix.

His early antipathy against the Church is thus stated upon his own authority:

Milton was designed by his parents for the profession of the Church; but during his residence at the University, he changed his intention. Dr. Newton considers that he had conceived early prejudices against the doctrine and discipline of the Church; but Johnson seems to think that his objections lay not so much against subscription to the Articles, but related to canonical obedience. His own account is as follows: “ 'By the intention of my parents and friends, I was destined of a child to the service of the Church, and in mine own resolutions; till coming to some maturity of years, and perceiving what tyranny had invaded the Church, that he who would take orders must subscribe slave, and take an oath withal, which, unless he took with a conscience that he would relish, he must either straight perjure, or split his faith; I thought better to prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office of speaking, bought and begun with servitude and forswearing."-P. x.

The following observations on the controversy with Bishop Hall and Archbishop Usher, on the subject of "Episcopacy," are worthy of attention, as illustrative of Milton's general motives, as well as of his inaptitude, for engaging in polemics.

The main purpose which Milton had in view in these different publications, was to alter the episcopal form of the Church, and to assimilate it to the simpler, and, as he deemed, the apostolical model of the reformed Churches in other

* See Reason of Church Government urged against Prelacy. Vol. I. p. 123.

He

countries; to join with them in exactness of discipline, as we do in purity of doctrine. But as, in these Churches, the presbyterian discipline was united to a republican form of government, he, therefore, attempts to prove that the existence of the hierarchy adds nothing to the security of the proper splendour of the throne; that the fall of Prelacy could not shake the least fringe that borders the royal canopy. He denies the apostolical institution of Bishops, and, as he argues for the greatest degree of honest liberty in religion, as in other institutions, he urges that Prelacy is the natural agent and minister of tyranny. advocates the sweetest and mildest manner of paternal discipline, the independent ministry of each congregation; and he wishes the angel of the gospel to ride on his way, doing his proper business, conquering the high thoughts and proud reasonings of the flesh. "As long as the Church (he says), in true imitation of Christ, can be content to ride upon an ass, carrying herself and her government along in a mean and simple guise, she may be, as she is, a lion of the tribe of Judah, and in her humility, all men will, with loud hosannas, confess her greatness." When his opponents urged the learning of the University and the Clergy, he said, "that God will not suffer true learning to be wanting, when the true grace and obedience to him abounds; for if he'give us to know him aright, and to practise this our knowledge in right established discipline, how much more will he replenish us with all abilities in tongues and arts, that may conduce to his glory and our good! He can stir up rich fathers to bestow exquisite education on their children, and to dedicate them to the service of the gospel. He can make the sons of nobles his ministers, and princes to be his Nazarites."

That Milton engaged in the heat and dust of these great controversial questions, from motives of conscience, and with intentions upright and pure, no one can reasonably doubt: but they were alien from his elegant and learned pursuits; they were scarcely congenial to his age; and himself, as well as his brethren whom he defended, were infinitely inferior to Bishop Hall in theological learning, and in controversial skill;-that learned Prelate's victory over Smectymnus was complete.-Pp. xxxiii. xxxiv.

It would have afforded us great pleasure to have given Mr. Mitford's concise, yet spirited abstract of the Salmasian dispute; and to have extracted his far more interesting details respecting the composition and publication of Paradise Lost; but our limits will not admit of it. Since, however, the topics themselves are familiar to every admirer of the great Poet, and their citation would merely serve to illustrate the writer's mode of treating them, it will suffice to refer to the volume itself for the reader's gratification. We cannnot withhold, however, the following spirited sketch of his character and disposition.

Milton, in his youth, is said to have been eminently handsome. He was called the lady of his college. His complexion was fresh and fair. His hair, which was of a light brown, was parted in front, and hung down upon his shoulders. He was of a moderate stature, or rather below the middle size. His eyes were of a greyish colour; and when he was totally deprived of sight, he says that they did not betray the loss. His voice and ear were musical. He was vigorous and active, delighting in the exercise of the sword. Of his figure in his declining days, the following sketch has been left by Richardson.-An ancient clergyman of Dorsetshire, Dr. Wright, found John Milton in a small chamber, hung with rusty green, sitting in an elbow chair, and dressed neatly in black; pale, but not cadaverous; his hands and fingers gouty, and with chalk-stones. He used also to sit in a grey coarse cloth coat, at the door of his house, near Bunhill Fields, in warm sunny weather, to enjoy the fresh air. And so, as well as in his room, he received the visits of people of distinguished parts, as well as quality.

His domestic habits were those of a severe and temperate student. He drank

little wine, and fed without any luxurious delicacy of choice. In his youth, he studied till midnight; but warned by the early decay of sight, and his disordered health, he afterwards changed his hours, and rested in bed from nine till four in summer, and five in the winter months. If, at these hours, he was not disposed to rise, he had a person by his bedside to read to him. When he had risen, he had a chapter in the Hebrew Bible read to him, and then he studied till twelve. He then took some exercise for an hour in his garden, dined, played on the organ, and either sang himself, or made his wife sing, who had a good voice, though not a musical ear. He then again studied till six; entertained his visitors till eight; and supped upon olives, or some light thing; and, after a pipe of tobacco and a glass of water, went to bed. That Milton and his wife used to dine in the kitchen, as appears in the affidavit of their maid-servant, Mary Fisher, I suppose might be owing to the homely and simple custom of the times among plain people, and cannot be adduced as a mark of poverty or meanness.

He composed much in the night and morning, and dictated in the day, sitting obliquely in an elbow chair, with his leg thrown over the arm. Fortune, as Johnson observes, appears not to have had much of his care. He lost, by different casualties, about four thousand pounds: yet, his wants were so few, and his habits of life so unexpensive, that he was never reduced to indigence. He sold his library before his death, and left his widow about fifteen hundred pounds. Fenton says, "Though he abode in the heritage of oppressors, and the spoils of the country lay at his feet, neither his conscience, nor his honour, could stoop to gather them."

It has been agreed by all, that he was of an equal and cheerful temper, and pleasing and instructive in conversation. His daughter said, her father was delightful company-the life of the conversation; and that, on account of a flow of subject, and an unaffected cheerfulness and civility. Richardson says, that "Milton had a gravity in his temper, nor melancholy, or not till the latter part of his life; not sour, not morose, or ill natured, but a certain serenity of mind, a mind not condescending to little things:" and Aubrey adds, that "he was satirical."

His literature was unquestionably immense; his adversaries admitted that he was the most able and acute scholar living. With the Hebrew, and its two dialects, he was well acquainted; in the Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish languages, he was eminently skilled.-Pp. xc.-xciii.

The political opinions of Milton were those of a thorough republican, &c. &c. But of these we have already spoken. With respect to the edition of his poetical works, to which Mr. Mitford's Life is prefixed, it would be difficult to rate its merits too highly. In point of typographical execution, nothing superior to it has ever perhaps issued from the press. The accompanying notes are precisely those which the reader of Milton requires, and nothing more. There is no "holding a farthing rushlight to the sun;" no verbose commentary, involving what was plain in itself in palpable obscurity, for the sake of displaying the critic's research, rather than eliciting the writer's meaning. The author, in fact, is not buried beneath his editor; but the opposite fault, if there is any fault at all, is rather chargeable upon Mr. Mitford. Sometimes, perhaps, his annotations will be thought scant and meagre; but they are always apposite. They are selected for the most part from the cumbrous weight of materiel in the elaborate edition of Todd; with occasional remarks from the editor himself, and a few scattered hints of that classical and accomplished scholar, Mr. Dyce.

It is not, however, so much as a separate work, that the value of this edition of Milton is to be estimated, as in connexion with the Aldine Series of British Poets, of which it forms a part. In point of correctness and beauty of execution, this collection is absolutely unique; and the literary talent, which has been employed in bringing it forward, has left nothing wanting to entitle it to a place in every library in the kingdom. We sincerely trust that the enterprising publisher will meet with that encouragement which is due to his exertions and good taste; and that he will thus be enabled to comprise in this truly national work, (with the exception of copyright,) the entire poetical literature of Britain.

ART. III. The Christian Ministry, with an Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency, and with an especial Reference to the Ministry of the Establishment. By the Rev. CHARLES BRIDGES, B. A. Vicar of Old Newton, Suffolk. Second Edition, corrected and enlarged. 12mo. Pp. xii. 626. London: Seeley & Burnside.

An imposing title indeed, and exciting mighty expectations; like Lady Morgan's "France!" or "Italy!" but (with much pleasure we say it) with very different results. The rapid multiplication of bookssome good in their several departments, others inviting notice from their influence on the theological and religious world-must plead our apology with Mr. Bridges for not giving an earlier judgment on his very valuable work. Valuable indeed it is, as concentrating, in a small space, with much felicity of combination, and great vigour and originality of character, the separate pencils of divine rays which stream through numberless distinct treatises on the most important and responsible of professions. In "The Clergyman's Instructor," several excellent essays on this subject are presented to the reader in a compact and uniform shape; but, as they are kept distinct, the volume necessarily contains some repetitions. "The Christian Ministry" has drawn largely from these and numerous other sources, Tapis Matinæ

More modoque

Grata carpentis thyma, per laborem
Plurimum;

and has wrought the whole into a rich and polished texture, in which the various materials are skilfully and harmoniously blended without repetition or omission.

The work is divided into six parts: 1. A general View of the Subject; 2. Causes of the Want of Ministerial Success; 3. Causes

of Inefficiency connected with Personal Character; 4. Public Work of the Ministry; 5. Pastoral Work of the Ministry; 6. Recollections of the Ministry. Each of these subjects is subdivided. The extent and minuteness of the work will preclude us from noticing all these subdivisions as much as we could wish; we must therefore content ourselves with giving our readers a succinct account of them.

Mr. Bridges has the courage to follow the apostle's example in "magnifying his office" in the face of modern liberalism; though he very distinctly discriminates between this and magnifying the persons of Christian ministers.

The Divine original of the Christian Ministry has already opened a view of its dignity far above any earthly honour or elevation. The institution that was introduced into the world, and confirmed to the Church, with such solemn preparation-that is conversant with the interests, and intrusted with the charge, of immortal souls-that is ordained as the main instrument for the renovation of the world, and the building up of the Church-cannot be of inferior eminence. The office of "fellow-worker with God" would have been no mean honour to have conferred upon the archangel nearest the everlasting throne. It formed the calling, the work, and the delight of the Lord of glory, during the last years of his abode upon earth, and was established by himself as the standing ordinance in his own Church, and the medium of the revelation of his will to the end of time. Not that he "called his ministers," as the judicious Calvin has observed, "into the function of teaching, that, after they have brought the Church under, they may usurp to themselves the government, but that he may use their faithful diligence to associate the same to himself. This is a great and excellent thing for men to be set over the Church, that they may present the person of the Son of God." The dignity, however, of the sacred office belongs to a "kingdom that cometh not with observation"-" a kingdom not of this world." It is distinguished therefore not by the glitter of outward show, but by results connected with eternity, and productive in their present influence of happiness, far more solid and permanent than lies within the grasp of men to attain, or to communicate. It has been well remarked to be "the highest dignity, if not the greatest happiness, that human nature is capable of here in this vale below, to have the soul so far enlightened as to become the mirror, or conduit, or conveyer of God's truth to others." The right consideration, however, of this high elevation, so far from fostering a vain-glorious spirit, has a direct tendency to deepen selfabasement and reverence. Can we help recoiling from so exalted an officefrom handling such high and holy things? What! We to convey life who ourselves are dead! We, so defiled, to administer a service so pure, so purifying! "Woe is me," said one of old, in contrasting this honour with his personal meanness, "for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips!" We cannot therefore think of this vast commission-this momentous trust, but as an act of bounty and most undeserved favour:-"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given." "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry."-Pp.

8-10.

Hence our author enters on the general qualifications for the ministerial office: habits of general study are recommended,-special study of the Scriptures enforced,-ministerial or professional prayer enlarged on. "Employment in the cure of souls" is by Mr. Bridges considered (most rightly, as we think,) not only the occupation, but also part of the education and training of a Clergyman. Every