and a spurner of all juft authority, seems to have contracted a tender attachment to more than one disciplinarian concerned in his education. He is faid to have been the favorite fcholar of the younger Gill; and he has left traces of their friendship in three Latin epiftles, that exprefs the highest esteem for the literary character and poetical talents of his inftructor. On the 12th of February, 1624, he was entered, not as a fizer, which fome of his biographers have erroneously afferted, but as a penfioner of Chrift's College, in Cambridge. "At this time," 66 fays Doctor Johnson, "he was eminently skil"led in the Latin tongue, and he himself, by "annexing the dates to his firft compofitions, a "boaft of which the learned Politian had given 66 4 him an example, feems to commend the earli"nefs of his own proficiency to the notice of pof"terity; but the products of his vernal fertility "have been furpaffed by many, and particularly "by his contemporary, Cowley. Of the powers "of the mind it is difficult to form an eftimate; many have excelled Milton in their first effays, "who never rose to works like. Paradise Loft." This is the first of many remarks, replete with detraction, in which an illuftrious author has indulged his fpleen against Milton, in a life of the poet, where an ill-fubdued propenfity to cenfure is ever combating with a neceffity to commend. The partifans of the powerful critic, from a natural partiality to their departed master, affect to confider his malignity as exifting only in the prejudices of those who endeavour to counteract his injuftice. A biographer of Milton ought therefore to regard it as his indifpenfible duty to fhow how far this malignity is diffused through a long feries of obfervations, which affect the reputation both of the poet and the man; a duty that muft be painful in proportion to the fincerity of our esteem for literary genius; fince, different as they were in their principles, their manners, and their writings, both the poet and his critical biographer are affuredly entitled to the praife of exalted genius. Perhaps in the republic of letters there never existed two writers more deservedly diftine guifhed, not only for the energy of their mental faculties, but for a generous and devout defire to benefit mankind by their exertion. Yet it must be lamented, and by the lovers of Milton in particular, that a moralift, who has gi ven us, in the Rambler, fuch fublime leffons for the difcipline of the heart and mind, fhould be unable to preserve his own from that acrimonious fpirit of detraction, which led him to depreciate, to the utmost of his power, the rare abilities, and perhaps the still rarer integrity, of Milton. It may be said, that the truly eloquent and fplendid encomium, which he has bestowed on the great work of the poet, ought to exempt him from fuch a charge. The fingular beauties and effect of this eulogy shall be mentioned in the proper place, and with all the applause they merit ; 1 buthere it is juft to recollect, that the praise of the encomiaft is nearly confined to the fentence he paffes as a critic; his more diffufive detraction may be traced in almost every page of the biogra pher: not to encounter it on its first appearance, and wherever it is vifible and important, would be to fail in that justice and regard towards the character of Milton, which he, perhaps, of all men, has most eminently deserved. In the preceding citation it is evidently the purpofe of Dr. Johnson to degrade Milton below Cowley, and many other poets, diftinguished by juvenile compofitions; but Mr. Warton has, with great tafte and judgment, expofed the error of Dr. Johnson, in preferring the Latin poetry of Cowley to that of Milton. An eminent foreign critic has bestowed that high praise on the juve nile productions of our author, which his prejudiced countryman is inclined to deny. Morhoff has affirmed, with equal truth and liberality, that the verses, which Milton produced in his childhood, discover both the fire and judgment of maturer life: a commendation that no impartial reader will be inclined to extenuate, who peruses the spirited epiftle to his exiled preceptor, compofed in his eighteenth year. Some of his English verfes bear an earlier date. The firft of his juvenile productions; in the language which he was destined to ennoble, is a paraphrase of the hundred and fourteenth pfalm; it was executed at the age of fifteen, and discovers a power that Dryden, and other more prefumptous critics, have minily denied to Militia, the power of moring with fiality in the fectars of thyme: this power is fill more conficmous in the poem bewrote at the age of levesS teen, on the death of his fiter's child; a compañ tion peculiarly entitled to the notice of thale, who kore to contemplate the early dawn of poencal genton la is performance, puerile as it is in every fezde of the word, the intelligent reader may yer clicers, as in the bad, all the friking charac terifics of Milton; his afectomate fenfibility, his Experior imagination, and all that native tendency to devotional enim, Which fear the heart on ice, Telpum the fordié world, and unto Hear'a afire. Admirably trained as the youth of the poet was to acquire academical honor by the union of induftry and talents. He feems to have experienced at Cambridge a chequered fortune, very fimilar to his definy in the world. Itappears from fome remarkable palaces in the Latin exerciles, which he recited in his College, that he was at fran obiect of partial feverity, and afterwards of neral admination. He bad differed in opinion concerning a plan of academical Audies with Some perions of authority in his college, and thus EJcited their dibefore. He peaks of them as b ly incened again him; but expredes, with the mcâ liberal fenfibility, his fuprile, delig ge and gratitude, in finding that his enemies forgot their animofity to honor him with unexpected applaufe. An idle ftory has been circulated concerning his treatment in College. "I am afhamed," fays Dr. Johnfon, "to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was the laft ftudent in either University that fuffered the publio indignity of corporal punifh ment." In confirmation of this incident, which appears improbable, though supported by Mr. Warton, the biographical critic alledges the falJowing paffage from the firft Elegy: Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revifere Camum, Nor zeal nor duty now my fteps impel To reedy Cam and my forbidden cell; And fly from wrongs my foul will ne'er fustain. Dr. Johnfon confiders thefe expreffions as an abfalute proof, that Milton was obliged to undergo this indignity; but they may suggest a very different idea. From all the light we can obtain concerning this anecdote, it seems most probable, that Milton was threatened, indeed, with what he confidered as a punishment, not only difhonorable but unmerited; that his manly fpirit difdained to submit to it; and that he was therefore |