lips, his fifter's fons. Finding his rooms too little, he took a house and garden in Alderfgate-ftreet*, which was not then fo much out of the world as it is now; and chofe his dwelling at the upper end of a paffage, that he might avoid the noife of the street. Here he received more boys, to be boarded and inftructed.

Let not our veneration for Milton forbid us to look with fome degree of merriment on great promifes and mall performance, on the man who haftens home, because his countrymen are contending for their liberty, and, when he reaches the fcene of action, vapours away his patriotifm in a private boarding school. This is the period of his life from which all his biographers feem inclined to fhrink. They are unwilling that Milton fhould be degraded to a school-mafter; but, fince it cannot be denied that he taught boys, one finds out that he taught for nothing, and another that his motive was only zeal for the propagation of learning and virtue; and all tell what they do not know to be true, only to excufe an act which no wife man will confider as in itself disgraceful. His father was alive; his allow

*This is inaccurately expreffed: Philips, and Dr. Newton after him, fay a garden-house, i. e. a house fituate in a garden, and of which there were, efpecially in the north fuburbs of London, very many, if not few elfe. The term is technical, and frequently occurs in the Athen. and Faft. Oxon. The meaning thereof may be collected from the article Thomas Farnabe, the famous fchoolmafter, of whom the author fays, that he taught in Goldfmith's Rents, in Cripplegate parish, behind Recicross-ftreet, where were large gardens and handfome houfes. Milton's houfe in Jewin-street was alfo a garden-house, as were indeed most of his dwellings after his fettlement in London. H.

ance

ance was not ample; and he fupplied its deficiencies. by an honeft and useful employment.

It is told, that in the art of education he performed wonders; and a formidable lift is given of the authors, Greek and Latin, that were read in Alderfgatestreet by youth between ten and fifteen or fixteen years of age. Those who tell or receive thefe stories fhould confider, that nobody can be taught fafter than he can learn. The speed of the horfeman must be limited by the power of his horfe. Every man, that has ever undertaken to inftruct others, can tell what flow advances he has been able to make, and how much patience it requires to recall vagrant inattention, to ftimulate fluggish indifference, and to rectify abfurd misapprehenfion.

The purpose of Milton, as it feems, was to teach fomething more folid than the common literature of Schools, by reading those authors that treat of phyfical fubjects; fuch as the Georgick, and aftronomical treatises of the ancients. This was a fcheme of improvement which feems to have bufied many literary projectors of that age. Cowley, who had

means than Milton of knowing what was wanting to the embellishments of life, formed the fame plan of education in his imaginary College.

But the truth is, that the knowledge of external nature, and the sciences which that knowledge requires or includes, are not the great or the frequent bufinefs of the human mind. Whether we provide for action or converfation, whether we wish to be ufeful or pleafing, the first requifite is the religious and moral knowledge of right and wrong; the next is an acquaintance with the hiftory of mankind,. e. VOL. IX.

H

and

and with thofe examples which may be faid to embody truth, and prove by events the reasonableness of opinions. Prudence and Juftice are virtues and excellences of all times and of all places; we are perpetually moralifts, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is neceffary; our fpeculations upon matter are voluntary, and at leifure. Phyfiological learning is of fuch rare emergence, that one may know another half his life without being able to eftimate his skill in hydrostaticks or aftronomy; but his moral and prudential character immediately appears.

Those authors, therefore, are to be read at schools that fupply most axioms of prudence, most principles of moral truth, and moft materials for converfation; and these purposes are beft ferved by poets, orators, and hiftorians.

Let me not be cenfured for this digreffion as pedantick or paradoxical; for, if I have Milton against me, I have Socrates on my fide. It was his labour to turn philofophy from the study of nature to fpeculations upon life; but the innovators whom I oppose are turning off attention from life to nature. They feem to think, that we are placed here to watch the growth of plants, or the motions of the ftars. Socrates was rather of opinion, that what we had to learn was, how to do good, and avoid evil,

Ὅτι τοι ἐν μεγάροισι κακόντ' ἀγαθόνε τέτυκται.

Of inftitutions we may judge by their effects. From this wonder-working academy, I do not know that there ever proceeded any man very eminent. for knowledge: its only genuine product, I believe,

is a fmall History of Poetry, written in Latin by his nephew Philips, of which perhaps none of my readers has ever heard *.

That in his school, as in every thing else which he undertook, he laboured with great diligence, there is no reason for doubting. One part of his method deferves general imitation. He was careful to inftruct his scholars in religion. Every Sunday was spent upon theology; of which he dictated a short fyftem, gathered from the writers that were then fashionable in Dutch univerfities.

He fet his pupils an example of hard study and spare diet; only now and then he allowed himself to pass a day of festivity and indulgence with fome gay gentlemen of Gray's Inn.

He now began to engage in the controverfies of the times, and lent his breath to blow the flames of contention. In 1641 he published a treatise of Refor mation, in two books, against the Established Church; being willing to help the Puritans, who were, he fays, inferior to the Prelates in learning.

Hall, bishop of Norwich, had publifhed an Humble Remonftrance, in defence of Episcopacy; to which, in 1641, five minifters, of whofe names the first letters made the celebrated word Smedtymnuus, gave their Answer. Of this Answer a Confutation was

* « We may be sure at least, that Dr. Johnson had never seen the "book he speaks of; for it is entirely composed in English, though "its title begins with two Latin words, Theatrum Poetarum; "or, A compleat collection of the Poets, &c.' a circumstance "that probably misled the biographer of Milton." European Magazine, June 1787, p. 388. R.

+ Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, William Spinftow. R.

THE

attempted by the learned Ufher; and to the Confutation Milton published a Reply, intituled, Of Prelatical Epifcopacy, and whether it may be deduced from the Apoftolical Times, by virtue of thofe Teftimonies which are alledged to that Purpose in fome late Treatifes, one whereof goes under the Name of James Lord Bishop of Armagh.

I have transcribed this title to fhew, by his contemptuous mention of Ufher, that he had now adopted the puritanical favagenefs of manners. His next work was, The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelacy, by Mr. John Milton, 1642. In this book he difcovers, not with oftentatious exultation, but with calm confidence, his high opinion of his own powers; and promises to undertake something, he yet knows not what, that may be of use and honour to his country. "This," fays he, "is not to "be obtained but by devout prayer to that Eternal "Spirit that can enrich with all utterance and know"ledge, and fends out his Seraphim, with the hallow"ed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of "whom he pleafes. To this must be added, in"duftrious and felect reading, fteady obfervation, "and infight into all feemly and generous arts and

affairs; till which in fome measure be compast, [ "refufe not to fuftain this expectation." From a promife like this, at once fervid, pious, and rational, might be expected the Paradife Loft.

He published the fame year two more pamphlets, upon the fame queftion. To one of his antagonists, who affirms that he was vomited out of the University, he answers, in general terms; "The Fellows of the College wherein I spent fome years, at my parting,.

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