proper degree. The Academy Della Crufca confulted him on the critical niceties of their language. In nis early days indeed he had become deeply enamoured of "the two famous renowners of Beatrice and Laura ." It has been rightly remarked, that he read almost all authors, and improved by all: He relates himself, that his "round of study and reading was ceafelefs."

His favourite book was the Book of God. To Milton, when a child, Revelation opened not her richest ftores in vain. To devotional fubjects his infant ftrains were dedicated; and never did "his harp forget" to acknowledge the aids which he derived from the Muse of facred inspiration. The remark of Gibbon that the fublime genius of Milton was cramped by the fyftem of our religion, and never appeared to fo great. an advantage as when he fhook it a little off, will be admitted by few. It is a juft and admirable obfervation of Mr. Hayley, that," if some paffionate admirers of antiquity feem to lament the fall of paganifin, as fatal to poetry, to painting, and to fculpture, a more liberal and enlightened fpirit of criticifm may rather believe, what is very poffible, I apprehend, to demonstrate, that Chriftianity can hardly be more favourable to the purity of morals, than it might be rendered to the perfection of thefe delightful arts. Milton himself may be regarded as an obvious and complete proof, that the pofition is true as far as poetry is concerned." The Meffiah of Klopftock, and particularly the Calvary of Cumberland, may be added as fine examples of the connection between

• Profe-Works, vol. i. p. 177, ed. 1698.

Effay on the Study of Literature, 1764, p. 24.

true religion and poetry. When modern Republicanifm pretends to confider Milton as her auxiliary, let her remember, with shame, the fanctity of manners which his pages breathe, and the Chriftian leffons which they inculcate. To him "fight more detestable," than the object of her hopes could not poffibly be presented. The defigns of the crafty fenfualift, and of the befotted ungrateful atheift, it was his constant endeavour, not to promote, but to overthrow. "It must gratify every Chriftian to reflect," fays Mr. Hayley," that the man of our country most eminent for energy of mind, for intenseness of application, and for franknefs and intrepidity in afferting whatever he believed to be the caufe of truth, was fo confirmedly devoted to Christianity, that he seems to have made the Bible, not only the rule of his conduct, but the prime director of his genius.-Nor fhould I omit his own manly anticipation of applaufe: "Hoping that his name might deferve to appear, not among the mercenary crew of falfe pretenders to learning, but the free and ingenuous fort of fuch as evidently were born for study, and love learning for itself, not for lucre, or any other end but the fervice of God and truth, and perhaps that lafting fame and perpetuity of praise which God and good men have confented fhall be the reward of those whose published labours advance the good of mankind."

The claffical books, in which he is reprefented to have moft delighted, were Homer, Ovid's Metamorphofes, and Euripides. The first he could almost entirely repeat. Of the laft he is faid to have been

i In his Areopagitica.

k

a reader, not only with the tafte of a poet, but with the minutenefs of a Greek critick. His Euripides, in two volumes, Paul Stephens's quarto edition of 1602, with many marginal emendations in his own hand, is now the property of Mr. Cradock of Gumly in Leicestershire. Of thefe notes fome have been adopted by Joshua Barnes, and fome have been lately printed by Mr. Jodrell. In the firft volume, page the firft, is the name of John Milton, with the price of the book at 12s. 6d., and the date of the year 1634. I have to notice the existence of another treafure, bearing alfo the fame date, the price 3s., and the name, of John Milton, written by himself on the blank page oppofite the title; his copy of Lycophron, with his own marginal obfervations. Of this remarkable curiofity I received my information from Mr. Walker, by whom it had been ' inspected in the library of Lord Charlemont. From Milton himself we learn, that " the divine volumes of Plato and his equall Xenophon" were principal objects of his regard; and that he preferred Salluft to all the Roman hiftorians. Demofthenes has been fuppofed, by Lord Monboddo and Mr. Hayley, to have been studied by him minutely and fuccessfully. On contemporary authors Milton has bestowed little praise. Dr. Newton notices that he has condefcended, more than once, to applaud Selden; but that he feems difpofed to cenfure, rather than commend, the reft. He has

* See Warton's 2d edit. of the Smaller Poems, p. 568. And Jodieil's Illuftrations of Euripides, 1781, pp. 34, 336.

My friend, the Rev. Mr. Meen, has fince been favoured with the ufe of this volume. And it is to be hoped, that his excellent verfion of Lycophron, accompanied with his own acute remarks, as well as Milton's marginal obfervations, on this author, will foon be prefented to the publick.

extolled however, in his Areopagitica, the merits of Lord Brooke, who had lately fallen in the fervice of the Parliament, and had written a treatise against the English epifcopacy, and against the danger of Sects and Schifms, in terms of fuperabundant eulogy. He has alfo fpoken of John Cameron, a learned divine and commentator, in terms of high refpect; calling him "m late writer, much applauded," as alfo "" an ingenious writer and in high esteem."

n

His political principles were those of a thorough republican; which have been ascribed, by Dr. Johnson, to a native violence of temper, and to a hatred of all whom he was required to obey. The frequent afperity of this eminent biographer towards Milton, has been repeatedly noticed, by Mr. Hayley, with reprehenfion and regret; and in the following inftance, with all the eloquence and dignity of fublime instruction,

"There can hardly be any contemplation more painful, than to dwell on the virulent exceffes of eminent and good men; yet the utility of fuch contemplation may be equal to its pain. What mildness and candour fhould it not instil into ordinary mortals to obferve, that even genius and virtue weaken their title to respect, in proportion as they recede from that evangelical charity, which should influence every man in his judgement of another.

"The ftrength and the acuteness of sensation, which partly conftitute genius, have a great tendency to produce virulence, if the mind is not perpetually on its guard against that subtle, infinuating, and corrofive paffion, hatred against all whose opinions are oppofite to our own. Johnfon profeffed, in one of his letters, to love a good hater; and, in the Latin correspondence of Milton, there are words that imply a fimilarity of fentiment; they both thought there might be a fanctified bitterness, to use an expreffion of Milton, towards n Ibid.

In his Tetrachordon.

political and religious opponents; yet furely thefe two devout men were both wrong, and both in fome degree unchriftian in this principle. To what fingular iniquities of judgement fuch a principle may lead, we might, perhaps, have had a moft ftriking, and a double proof, had it been poffible for thefe two energetick writers to exhibit alternately a portrait of each other. Milton, adorned with every graceful endowment, highly and holily accomplished as he was, appears, in the dark colouring of Johnson, a most unamiable being; but could he revifit earth in his mortal character, with a wish to retaliate, what a picture might be drawn, by that fublime and offended genius, of the great moralift, who has treated him with fuch excefs of afperity. The paffions are powerful colourists, and marvellous adepts in the art of exaggeration; but the portraits executed by love (famous as he is for avercharging them) are infinitely more faithful to nature, than gloomy sketches from the heavy hand of hatred; a paffion not to be trufted or indulged even in minds of the highest purity or power; fince hatred, though it may enter the field of conteft under the banner of justice, yet generally becomes fo blind and outrageous, from the heat of contention, as to execute, in the name of virtue, the worft purposes of vice. Hence arifes that fpecies of calumny the most to be regretted, the calumny lavished by men of talents and worth on their equals or fuperiours, whom they have rafhly and blindly hated for a difference of opinion. To fuch hatred the fervid and oppofite characters, who gave rife to this obfervation, were both more inclined, perhaps, by nature and by habit, than Christianity can allow. The freedom of these remarks on two very great, and equally devout, though different writers, may poflibly offend the partizans of both: in that cafe my confolation will be, that I have endeavoured to fpeak of them with that temperate though undaunted fincerity, which may fatisfy the fpirit of each in a purer ftate of exiftence."

By controverfy, and by the indulgence of early prejudices, Milton was undoubtedly foured. But,