happened, had this prejudice, and had it to himfelf.

To that multiplicity of attainments, and extent of comprehenfion, that entitle this great author to our veneration, may be added a kind of humble dignity, which did not difdain the meaneft fervices to literature. The epic poet, the controvertit, the po litician, having already defcended to accommodate. children with a book of rudiments, now, in the last years of his life, compofed a book of Logick, for the initiation of students in philofophy; and published (1672) Artis Logica plenior Inftitutio ad Petri Rami Methodum concinnata; that is, "A new Scheme of "Logick, according to the Method of Ramus." I know not whether, even in this book, he did not intend an act of hoftility against the Univerfities; for Ramus was one of the firft oppugners of the old philofophy, who difturbed with innovations the quiet of the schools.

His polemical difpofition again revived. He had now been fafe fo long, that he forgot his fears, and published a Treatife of true Religion, Herefy, Schifm, Toleration, and the best Means to prevent the Growth of Popery.

But this little tract is modeftly written, with refpectful mention of the Church of England, and an appeal to the thirty-nine articles. His principle of toleration is, agreement in the fufficiency of the Scriptures; and he extends it to all who, whatever their opinions are, profefs to derive them from the facred books. The Papists appeal to other teftimonies, and are therefore, in his opinion, not to be permitted the liberty of either publick or private wor

fhip; for though they plead confcience, we have no warrant, he says, to regard confcience, which is not grounded in Scripture.

Those who are not convinced by his reasons, may be perhaps delighted with his wit. The term Roman Catholick is, he fays, one of the Pope's bulls; it is par ticular univerfal, or catholick fchifmatick.

He has, however, fomething better. As the best preservative against Popery, he recommends the diligent perufal of the Scriptures, a duty, from which he warns the bufy part of mankind not to think themfelves excufed.

He now reprinted his juvenile poems, with fome additions.

In the last year of his life he fent to the prefs, feeming to take delight in publication, a collection of Familiar Epiftles in Latin; to which, being too few to make a volume, he added fome academical exercises, which perhaps he perused with pleasure, as they recalled to his memory the days of youth; but for which nothing but veneration for his name could now procure a reader.

When he had attained his fixty-fixth year, the gout, with which he had been long tormented, prevailed over the enfeebled powers of nature. He died by a quiet and filent expiration, about the tenth of November, 1674, at his houfe in Bunhill-fields; and was buried next his father in the chancel of St. Giles at Cripplegate. His funeral was very splendidly and numerously attended.

Upon his grave there is fuppofed to have been no memorial; but in our time a monument has been erected in Westminster-Abbey To the Author of Para

dife Loft, by Mr. Benfon, who has in the infcription bestowed more words upon himfelf than upon Milton.

When the infcription for the monument of Philips, in which he was faid to be foli Miltono fecundus, was exhibited to Dr. Sprat, then dean of Weftminfter, he refused to admit it; the name of Milton was, in his opinion, too deteftable to be read on the wall of a building dedicated to devotion. Atterbury,

who succeeded him, being author of the inscription, permitted its reception. "And fuch has been the "change of publick opinion," faid Dr. Gregory, from whom I heard this account, "that I have seen "erected in the church a ftatue of that man, whose name I once knew confidered as a pollution of its "walls."

Milton has the reputation of having been in his youth eminently beautiful, fo as to have been called the Lady of his college. His hair, which was of a light brown, parted at the fore-top, and hung down upon his fhoulders, according to the picture which he has given of Adam. He was, however, not of the heroick ftature, but rather below the middle fize, according to Mr. Richardfon, who mentions him as having narrowly escaped from being fhort and thick. He was vigorous and active, and delighted in the exercise of the fword, in which he is related to have been eminently fkilful. His weapon was, I believe, not the rapier, but the back-fword, of which he recommends the ufe in his book on education.

His eyes are faid never to have been bright; but, if he was a dexterous fencer, they must have been once quick.

His domeftick habits, fo far as they are known, were thofe of a fevere ftudent. He drank little ftrong drink of any kind, and fed without excess in quantity, and in his earlier years without delicacy of choice. In his youth he ftudied late at night; but afterwards changed his hours, and rested in bed from nine to four in the fummer, and five in the winter. The course of his day was best known after he was blind. When he firft rofe, he heard a chapter in the Hebrew Bible, and then ftudied till twelve; then took fome exercife for an hour; then dined, then played on the organ, and fung, or heard another fing, then ftudied to fix; then entertained his vifitors till eight; then fupped, and, after a pipe of tobacco and a glass of water, went to bed.

So is his life defcribed; but this even tenour appears attainable only in colleges. He that lives in the world will fometimes have the fucceffion of his practice broken and confufed. Vifitors, of whom Milton is reprefented to have had great numbers, will come and stay unfeasonably; bufinefs, of which every man has fome, muft be done when others will do it.

When he did not care to rife early, he had something read to him by his bedfide; perhaps at this time his daughters were employed. He compofed much in the morning, and dictated in the day, fitting obliquely in an elbow-chair, with his leg thrown over the arm.

Fortune appears not to have had much of his care. In the civil wars he lent his perfonal eftate to the Parliament; but when, after the conteft was decided, he folicited repayment, he met not only with neglect,

but

but harp rebuke; and, having tired both himself and his friends, was given up to poverty and hopeless indignation, till he fhewed how able he was to do greater fervice. He was then made Latin fecretary, with two hundred pounds a year; and had a thousand pounds for his Defence of the People. His widow, who, after his death, retired to Namptwich in Cheshire, and died about 1729, is faid to have reported that he loft two thousand pounds by entrusting it to a scrivener; and that, in the general depredation upon the Church, he had grafped an estate of about fixty pounds a year belonging to WestminsterAbbey, which, like other sharers of the plunder of rebellion, he was afterwards obliged to return. Two thousand pounds, which he had placed in the Excifeoffice, were also loft. There is yet no reason to believe that he was ever reduced to indigence. His wants, being few, were competently fupplied. He fold his library before his death, and left his family fifteen hundred pounds, on which his widow laid hold, and only gave one hundred to each of his daugh

ters.

His literature was unquestionably great. He read all the languages which are confidered either as learned or polite; Hebrew, with its two dialects, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish. In Latin his skill was fuch as places him in the first rank of writers and criticks; and he appears to have cultivated Italian with uncommon diligence. The books in which his daughter, who used to read to him, represented him as moft delighting, after Homer, which he could almost repeat, were Ovid's MetaVOL. IX. morphofes

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