Pronounc'd and in his volumes taught our laws, Which others at their bar fo often wrench; To day deep thoughts refolve with me to drench In mirth, that after no repenting draws; Let Euclid reft and Archimedes paufe, And what the Swede intends, and what the French. To measure life learn thou betimes, and know Toward folid good what leads the nearest way; For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains, And difapproves that care, though wife in fhow, That with fuperfluous burden loads the day, And, when God fends a chearful hour, refrains. XXII. To the SAME. Cyriac, this three years day these eyes, though clear, To outward view, of blemish or of spot, 9 affection, was alone fufficient to have prevented any remonstrance from that quarter. Aubrey fays, that Milton's IDEA THEOLOGIE in manufcript is "in the hands of Mr. Skinner a Merchant's fon in Mark-Lane. Mem. There was one Mr. Skinner of the Jer"ker's office up two pair of stayres at the Custom-house." MS. ASHMOL. ut infr. Milton's pamphlet was also answered in the "DIGNITY of KINGSHIP afferted in answer to Mr. Milton's "Ready and Eafie way &c. by G. S. a lover of Loyalty. London, "Pr. by E. C. for H. Saile, &c. 1660." 12mo. It is a weak performance. In the Dedication to Charles the Second, the author fays, "the King's murther, and all its concomitant iniquities, were extenuated, extolled, and juftified, by one Mr. John Milton." I have alfo a pamphlet before me, "A Letter to Mr. Evelyn on the Conftitution of the House of Commons." G. S. is written into the title as the author's name, who is called an ejected member of the House of Commons. I think he is not the fame. 6. `In mirth, that after no repenting draws.] This is the decent mirth of Martial, Nox non ebria, fed foluta curis. Bereft Bereft of light their feeing have forgot, 6 Against Heav'n's hand or will, nor bate a jot Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer Right onward. What fupports me, dost thou ask? The conscience, Friend, t' have loft them overply'd In liberty's defense, my noble task, II 8. One of Milton's characteristics was a fingular fortitude of mind, arifing from a consciousness of fuperiour abilities, and a conviction that his caufe was juft. The heart which he prefents to Leonora is thus described, SoNN. vi. 4. Io certo a prove tante L'hebbi fedele, intrepido, coftante, De penfieri leggiadro, accorto, e buono ; Tanto del forfe, e d'invidia ficuro, Di timori, &c. He concludes, with great elegance, writing to a lady, that it was not proof against love. 9. Right onward.-] Mr. Harris, in his notes on the TREATISE ON HAPPINESS, obferves on this expreffion of Right onward, p. 306. "One would imagine that our great countryman "Milton had the reasoning of Marcus Antoninus in view. L. 5. §. 5. Where in this Sonnet, speaking of his own Blindness, he "fas with a becoming magnanimity, yet I argue not, &c. The "whole Sonnet is not unworthy of perufal, being both SIMPLE and SUBLIME." Dr. J. WARTON. 10. When he was employed to answer Salmafius, one of his eyes was almoft gone; and the physicians predicted the lofs of both if he proceeded. But he fays, in answer to Du Moulin, “ I * did not long balance whether my Duty should be preferred to my Eyes." Ibid. See Note on Coм. v. 309. 11. In liberty's defenfe, &c.] This Sonnet was not hazarded in the edition of 1673, where the last appears. For the DEFENSIO PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, of which he here speaks with fo much fatisfaction, and self-applause, at the restoration was ordered to Of which all Europe talks from fide to fide. This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask Content though blind, had I no better guide. to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman, together with his ICONOCLASTES, at which time his perfon was fpared; and, by a fingular act of royal clemency, he furvived to write PARADISE LOST. It is more remarkable, that John Goodwin, a famous Independent preacher, fhould have been indemnified, whofe books were also burnt, in which he justified the king's murther. But Milton's profe was to fuffer another difgrace. Twenty feven Propofitions gathered from the writings of our author, Buchanan, Hobbes, Baxter, John Goodwin, Knox, Owen, and others were profcribed by the University of Oxford, Jul. 21, 1683, as deftructive both to Church and State; and ordered to be burnt in the court of the Schools. See the DECREE of the University, in Somers's TRACTS, iii. 223. In this general conflagration of religious and civil hetorodoxy, were blended the books of many quakers and Fifth-monarchy-men; the latter had affirmed, PROP. xix. "The powers of this world are ufurpations upon the preroga"tive of Jefus Chrift; and it is the duty of God's people to destroy "them, in order to the fetting up Chrift on his throne." p. 225. This tranfaction is celebrated in a poem of the MuSE ANGLICANÆ, called " DECRETUM OXONIENSE, 1683. vol. ii. p. 186, 181. edit. 1714. I transcribe fome of the lines with abhorrence, Hæ tibi fint laudes immortalefque triumphi, O dea, Bellofiti facras que protegis arces!- In medio videas flamma crepitante cremari, But by what follows, the writer does not feem to have been infenfible to the beauties of Milion's poetry. Milton is faid to have been a chief founder of the Calves Head Club, a feftival which began to be held on the thirtieth of January during the ufurpation, in oppofition to Bishop Juxon, Dr. Hammond, and other divines of the Church of England, who met privately to celebrate that day with fafting and a form of prayer. See SECRET HISTORY OF THE CALVES HEAD CLUB, by one who feems to be well acquainted with anecdotes of those days. Lond. 1703. HARL. Misc. vi. 554. For fuch provocations alone, it was natural for the restored powers to retaliate. He however escaped, yet not without difficulty: I was told by Mr. Tyers, from good authority, that when he was under perfecution XXIII. On his DECEASED WIFE. Methought I saw my late espoused saint, with John Goodwin, his friends, to gain time, made a mock-funeral for him; and that when matters were fettled in his favour, and the affair was known, the king laughed heartily at the trick. Dr. Johnson fays, that Milton's life was fpared at the request of fir William Davenant. This anecdote he traces up to Betterton, who told it to Pope, who told it to Richardfon But it is related in the firft edition of Wood's ATH. OXON. printed 1692. vol. ii. P. 293. John Aubrey, however, does not mention this anecdote in his manufcript LIFE of DAVENANT, which Wood copies. See Aubrey, MS. LIVES, P. i. p. 27. Mus. ASHMOL. Oxon. Ibid. My noble task.] In a Letter to Oldenburgh he says, "Ad alia ut me parem, nefcio fane an nobiliora et utiliora. Quid "" enim in rebus humanis afferenda LIBERTATE NOBILIUS aut "utilius effe poteft?" But he adds, with less triumph than in this Sonnet, about his blindness, " fiquidem per valetudinem, et hanc LUMINEM ORBITATEM licuerit." PR. W. ii. 574. This Sonnet was not written before 1651, when the DEFENSIO appeared. 12. --Talks.-] So the manufcript. Perhaps rings, in the printed copies, is better. 1. Methought I faw my late efponfed faint, &c.] Raleigh's elegant Sonnet, called a VISION upon the conceipt of the FAERIE QUEENE, begins thus, Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay. And hence perhaps the idea of a Sonnet in the form of a vision was fuggefted to Milton. This Sonnet was written about the year 1656, on the death of his fecond wife, Catharine, the daughter of captain Woodcock of Hackney, a rigid fectarist. She died in child-bed of a daughter, within a year after their marriage. Milton had now been long totally blind: fo that this might have been one of his day-dreams. Captain Woodcock had a brother Francis, as I collect, a covenanter, and of the affembly of divines, who was prefented by the ufurping powers to the benefice of S. Olave in Southwark, 1646. One of his furname, perhaps the fame with this Francis, was appointed by parliament in 1659, to approve of minifters; was a great frequenter of conventicles, and has fome puritanical fermons extant in The morning exercise methodized, 1676. Brought Brought to me, like Alceftis, from the grave, Whom Jove's great fon to her glad husband gave, Rescued from death by force, though pale and faint. Mine, as whom wash'd from spot of child-bed taint Purification in the old Law did fave, And fuch, as yet once more I trust to have Full fight of her in Heav'n without restraint, Came, vested all in white pure as her mind : Her face was veil'd, yet to my fancied fight Love, sweetness, goodness, in her perfon fhin'd So clear, as in no face with more delight. But O, as to embrace me the inclin'd, I wak'd, fhe fled, and day brought back my night.* 5 2. Brought to me, like Alceftis, from the grave.] Dr. Johnson calls this a poor Sonnet. Perhaps he was not struck with this fine allufion to Euripides. Ibid. Brought to me, like Alceftis.-] The laft fcene of the ALCESTIS of Euripides, our author's favourite writer, to which he alludes in this paffage, is remarkably pathetic; particularly at V. 1155. Ω φιλτάτης γυναικὸς ὄμμα, &c. And all that follows on Admetus's discovering that it was his wife whom Hercules had brought to him covered with a veil. And equally tender and pathetic is the paffage in the first Act, which defcribes Alceftis taking leave of her family and house, when she had refolved to die to fave her husband: particularly from v. 175. to v. 196. Thompfon clofely copied this paffage in his EDWARD and ELEONORA. I have wondered, that Addison, who has made so many observations on the allegory of SIN and DEATH, in the PARADISE LOST, did not recollect, that the perfon of DEATH, was clearly and obviously taken from the ANATOE of Euripides in this Tragedy of ALCESTIS. Dr. J. WARTON. 13. I wak'd, she fled, &c.] So in Adam's dream, PAR. LOST, viii. 478. She disappear'd, and left me dark, I wak'd, &c. This Sonnet therefore proves the improbability of Bentley's correction, who would fubftitute STRAIGHT inftead of DARK. But per haps |