lye, that he may be encouraged in the trade another time, I thank him; for it hath given me an apt occafion to acknowledge publickly, with all gratefull 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 fome years; who at my parting, after I had taken two degrees, as the manner is, fignified many ways, how much better it would content them that I would ftay; as by many letters, full of kindness and loving refpect, both before that time, and long after, I was affured of their fingular good affection towards me." And still more pointedly in another place: "Pater me--Cantabrigiam mifit: Illic difciplinis atque artibus tradi folitis feptennium ftudui; procul omni flagitio, bonis omnibus probatus, ufquedum magiftri, quem vocant, gradum, &c."

To oblige one of the fellows, his friends fo affectionately noticed, he wrote, in 1628, the comitial verfes, entitled Naturam non pati fenium. I mention this in order to obviate a remark made by Dr. Johnson, that the poet countenanced an opinion, prevalent in his time, "that the world was in its decay, and that we had the misfortune to be produced in the decrepitude of nature." In the preceding year the following very learned work had been published, "An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World, by George Hakewill, D. D. and Archdeacon of Surrey, 1627." The young poet, I

Defenf. fec. Profe-Works, vol. iii. p. 95. edit. 1698.

conceive, had been much pleased with this excellent work, which refutes, with particular felicity of argument, the abfurdity of fuppofing nature impaired. This forgotten folio has found an able advocate in modern days. They," fays Dr. Warton, "whom envy, malevolence, difcontent, or disappointment, have induced to think, that the world is totally degcnerated, and that it is daily growing worfe and worse, would do well to read a fenfible, but too much neglected, treatise of an old Divine, written in ' 1630, Hakewill's Apology &c." This work was commended by Archbishop Ufher. A truly amiable and learned author, it may here be added, to whom the literature of this country is peculiarly indebted, has closed his Philological Inquiries with a chapter, well calculated, like the animated lines of Milton, to banish the timid and unbenevolent idea of nature's decrepitude.

Milton was defigned by his parents, and once in his own refolutions, for the Church. But his fubfequent unwillingness to engage in the office of a minifter was communicated to a friend in a letter; (of which two draughts exift in manufcript;) with which he fent his impreffive Sonnet, On his being arrived at the age of twenty three. The truth is,

Pope's Works, edit. 1797. vol. iv. p. 319.

f This is the Second edition of the work, which Dr. Warton feems not to have known.

See a Letter from Dr. Hakewill to Archbishop Ufher, in the Life and Letters of Ufher by R. Parr, D.D. fol. 1686. Letters, p. 398.

h See Birch's Life of Milton, Dr. Newton's edit. of Milton, Sonnet vii. General Dictionary, 1738, vol. vii. And Biograph. Brit. 1760, vol. v. Art. Milton, where they are printed,

says Dr. Newton, he had conceived early prejudices against the doctrine and difcipline of the Church. This, no doubt, was a difappointment to his friends, who though in comfortable were yet by no means in great circumftances. Nor does he feem to have been difpofed to any profeffion. It is certain that he alfo declined the Law. He had probably read, with no flight attention, the conduct of Taffo, as described by the noble biographer to whom he has addreffed his admired eclogue:

"Il qual poema [il Rinaldo] mandò egli fuori per voler del Cardinal Luigi da Efte; e con poco piacer di fuo padre; il quale non haurebbe ciò per due ragioni defiderato. Primieramente percioche Bernardo non rimaneua appagato, che l'animo del giouanetto s'appigliaffe alla piaceuolezza della poefia, perche non deuiafle (come aduienne) dallo ftudio delle leggi dal qual' egli fperaua maggiori comodi con l'effempio in contrario di fe medefimo, che per molto, e per bene c' haueffe, & in verfi, & in profa faputo fcriuere, non potette giammai però auanzare la mezzanità della fua fortuna ne difenderfi dalla rea: nella qual cofa malageuolmente Torquato l'obediua, tirato altroue dal proprio genio, come ne' verfi che feguono dietro a que' che detti habbiamo, fi legge :

Ad altri ftudi, onde poi speme hauea

Di ristorar d'auuerfa forte i danni,

His contempt of the Law, as well as of the Church, is pretty ftrongly marked. See the Note Ad Patrem, ver. 71. To the ecclefiaftical lawyers he has shown no mercy; but alludes to "chancellours and fuffragans, delegates and officials, with all the hell-pefering rabble of fumners and apparitors," in the very fpirit of Quevedo. See his Animadverfions, &c. Profe-Works, vol. i. p. 159. edit. 1698.

* Vita di Torq. Taffo, fcritta da G. B. Manfo, 12mo Venet. 1621, p. 32, 33.

Ingrati ftudi, dal cui pondo oppreffo,

Giaccio ignoto ad altrui graue à me stesso."

Rinaldo, Canto 12. ft. 90.

Dr. Newton thinks that he had too free a spirit to be limited and confined; that he was for compreHis conhending all sciences, but profeffing none.

duct, however, on thefe occafions is a proof of the fincerity with which he had refolved to deliver his fentiments. "For me, I have determined to lay up as the best treasure and folace of a good old age, if God vouchfafe it me, the honeft liberty of free fpeech from my youth."

Having taken the degree of "M. A. in 1632, he left the university, and retired to his father's house in the country; who had now quitted bufinefs, and lived at an estate which he had purchafed at Horton near Colnebrooke, in Buckinghamthire. Here he refided five years; in which time he not only, as he himfelf informs us, read over the Greek and Latin authors, particularly the hiftorians, but is alfo believed to have written his Arcades, Comus, L'Allegro, Il Penferofo, and Lycidas. The pleafant retreat in the country excited his moft poetick feelings; and he has proved himfelf able, in his pictures of rural life, to rival the works of Nature which he contemplated with delight. In the neighbourhood of Horton the Countefs Dowager of Derby refided; and the Arcades was performed by her grand-children at this feat, called Harefield-place. It feems to me, that

Profe-Works, vol. i. p. 220. edit. 1698.

He was admitted to the fame degree at Oxford in 1635. See Wood, Fafti, vol. i. p. 262.

Milton intended a compliment to his fair neighbour, (for "fair fhe was,) in his L'Allegro :

"Towers and battlements it fees
"Bofom'd high in tufted trees,

"Where perhaps fome Beauty lies,

"The Cynofure of neighbouring eyes."

The woody scenery of Harefield, and the perfonal accomplishments of the Countess, are not unfavourable to this fuppofition; which, if admitted, tends to confirm the opinion, that L'Allegro and Il Penferofo were compofed at Horton.

The Matk of Comus, and Lycidas, were certainly produced under the roof of his father. It may be obferved that, after his retirement to private ftudy, he paid great attention, like his mafter Spenfer, to the Italian fchool of poetry. Dr. Johnfon obferves, that his acquaintance with the Italian writers may be difcovered by the mixture of longer and fhorter verfes in Lycidas, according to the rules of Tufcan poetry." In Comus alfo the sweet rhythm and cadence of the Italian language are no less obfervable. I must here obferve that the house, in which Milton drew fuch enchanting fcenes, was about ten years fince pulled down; and that, during his refidence at Horton, he had occafionally taken lodgings in London, in order to cultivate mufick and mathematicks, to meet his friends from Cambridge, and to indulge his paffion for books.

See the preliminary Notes to Arcades, and alfo the poem, ver. 14, &c.

• See Lyfons's Middlefex, 1800. Harefield, p. 108.

As I have been obligingly informed by letter from the prefent Rector of Horton.