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"vein never happily flowed but from the "Autumnal Equinox to the Vernal; and "that whatever he attempted at other times "was never to his fatisfaction, though he courted his fancy never fo much; fo that, "in all the years he was about this poem, he may be faid to have spent half his time "therein."

Upon this relation Toland remarks, that in his opinion Philips has mistaken the time of the year; for Milton, in his Elegies, declares that with the advance of the Spring he feels the increase of his poetical force, redeunt in carmina vires. To this it is answered, that Philips could hardly mistake time fo well marked; and it may be added, that Milton might find different times of the year favourable to different parts of life. Mr. Richardfon conceives it impoffible that fuch a work should be fufpended for fix months, or for one. It may go on fafter or flower, but it must go on. By what neceffity it must continually go on, or why it might not be laid aside and refumed, it is not eafy to discover.

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This dependance of the foul upon the fea fons, thofe temporary and periodical ebbs and flows of intellect, may, I fuppofe, juftly be derided as the fumes of vain imagination. Sapiens dominabitur aftris. The author that thinks himfelf weather-bound will find, with a little help from hellebore, that he is only idle or exhaufted. But while this notion has poffeffion of the head, it produces the inability which it fuppofes. Our powers owe much of their energy to our hopes; poffunt quia poffe videntur. When fuccefs feems attainable, diligence is enforced; but when it is admitted that the faculties are fuppreffed by a cross wind, or a cloudy fky, the day is given up without refiftance; for who can contend with the courfe of Nature?

From fuch prepoffeffions Milton feems not to have been free. There prevailed in his time an opinion that the world was in its decay, and that we have had the misfortune to be produced in the decrepitude of Nature. It was fufpected that the whole creation languifhed, that neither trees nor animals had the height or bulk of their predeceffors, and that

every thing was daily finking by gradual diminution *. Milton appears to fufpect that fouls partake of the general degeneracy, and is not without fome fear that his book is to be written in an age too late for heroick poefy.

Another opinion wanders about the world, and fometimes finds reception among wife men; an opinion that reftrains the operations. of the mind to particular regions, and suppofes that a lucklefs mortal may be born in a degree of latitude too high or too low for wisdom or for wit. From this fancy, wild as it is, he had not wholly cleared his head, when he feared left the climate of his country might be too cold for flights of imagination.

*This opinion is, with great learning and ingenuity, refuted in a book now very little known, "An Apology or "Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the "Government of the World," by Dr. George Hakewill, London, folio, 1635. The firft who ventured to propagate it in this country was Dr. Gabriel Goodman, bishop of Gloucester, a man of a verfatile temper, and the author of a book entituled, "The Fall of Man, or the Corruption "of Nature proved by natural Reafon." Lond. 1616 and 1624, quarto. He was plundered in the Ufurpation, turned Roman Catholic, and died in obfcurity. Vide Athen. Oxon. vol. I. 727. H.

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Into a mind already occupied by fuch fancies, another not more reasonable might eafily find its way. He that could fear left his genius had fallen upon too old a world, or too chill a climate, might confiftently magnify to himself the influence of the seasons, and believe his faculties to be vigorous only half the year.

His fubmiffion to the feafons was at leaft more reasonable than his dread of decaying nature, or a frigid zone; for general caufes muft operate uniformly in a general abatement of mental power; if lefs could be performed by the writer, lefs likewife would content the judges of his work. Among this lagging race of frofty grovellers he might ftill have rifen into eminence by producing fomething which they should not willingly let die. However inferior to the heroes who were born in better ages, he might ftill be great among his contemporaries, with the hope of growing every day greater in the dwindle of pofterity. He might ftill be a giant among the pygmies, the one-eyed monarch of the blind.

Of his artifices of ftudy, or particular hours of compofition, we have little account, and there was perhaps little to be told. Richardfon, who feems to have been very diligent in his enquiries, but difcovers always a with to find Milton difcriminated from other men, relates, that he would fome. "times lie awake whole nights, but not a verse "could he make; and on a fudden his poeti"cal faculty would ruth upon him with an impetus or aftrum, and his daughter was immediately called to fecure what came. "At other times he would dictate perhaps forty lines in a breath, and then reduce. "them to half the number."

Thefe burfts of light, and involutions of darkness, these tranfient and involuntary excurfions and retroceffions of invention, having fome appearance of deviation from the common train of Nature, are eagerly caught by the lovers of a wonder. Yet fomething of this inequality happens to every man in every mode of exertion, manual or mental. The mechanick cannot handle his hammer and his file at all times with equal dexterity; there

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