"long an interval, to revive and flourish. As 66 your city has produced many most eloquent 66 men, I am perfectly willing to confefs, that "whatever proficiency I have made in literature "is chiefly owing to my long and inceffant 66 study of their works. Had I acquired from "them fuch powers of language as might enable 66 me to ftimulate our fleets and armies to deliver "Greece, the native feat of eloquence, from the tyranny of the Turks (a fplendid enterprise "for which you almoft feem to implore our "affiftance) I would affuredly do what would "then be among the firft objects of my defire; "for what did the bravest or most eloquent men "of antiquity confider as more glorious or more "worthy of themselves, than by perfuafive lan 66 66 guage or bold exploits to render the Greeks "free, and their own legiflators. "He clofes his letter by observing very juftly, that "it is "firft neceffary to kindle in the minds of the "modern Greeks the spirit and virtue of their " ancestors," (politely adding) that "if this "could be accomplished by any man, it might "be most reasonably expected from the patriotic "enthusiasm, and the experience, civil and mi 66 litary, of his accomplished correfpondent. This letter is dated June, 1652. Milton had foon afterwards the gratification of a vifit from this liberal Athenian, who took so tender an intereft in the blindness of his friend, that, on his return to Paris, he wrote to him on the subject. The following anfwer of Milton relates the particulars of his diforder, and fhows at the fame. time with what cheerful magnanimity he fupported it. "To Leonard Philaras. "As I have cherished from childhood (if ever mortal did) a reverential fondness for the Greciau * Leonardo Philare Athenienfi. Cum fim a pueritia totius Græci nominis, tuarumque in primis Athenarum cultor, fi quis alius, tum una hoc femper mihi perfuafiffimum habebam, fore ut illa urbs præclaram aliquando redditura vicem effet benevolentiæ erga fe meæ. Neque defuit fane tuæ patriæ nobiliffimæ antiquus ille genius augurio meo; deditque te nobis & germanum Atticum & noftri amantiffimum; qui me, fcriptis duntaxat notum, & locis ipfe disjunctus, humaniffime per literas compellens & Londinum poftea inopinatus adveniens; visenfque non videntem, etiam in ea calamitate, propter quam confpectior nemini, defpectior multis fortaffis fim, eadem benevolentia profequaris. Cum itaque author mihi fis, ut vifus recuperandi fpem omnem ne abjiciam, habere te amicum ac neceffarium tuum Parifiis Tevenotum medicum, in curandis præfertim oculis præftantiffimum, quem fis de meis luminibus confulturus, fi modo acceperis a me unde is caufas morbi & fymptomata poffit intelligere, faciam equidem quod hortaris, ne oblatam undecunque divinitus fortaffis opem repudiare videar. Decennium, opinor, plus minus eft, ex quo debilitari atque hebefcere vifum fenfi, eodemque tempore lumen, vifceraque omnia gravari, flatibufque vexari; & mane quidem, fi quid pro more legere cœpiffem, oculi ftatim penitus dolere; lectionemque refugere, poft mediocrem deinde corporis exerci tationem recreari; quam afpexiffem lucernam, iris quædam vifa concerning my eyes, after receiving from me fuch an account as may enable him to understand the fource and symptoms of my disorder, I will certainly' follow your kind fuggeftion, that I may not appear to reject affiftance thus offered me, perhaps providentially. "It is about ten years, I think, fince I perceived my fight to grow weak and dim, finding at the fame time my inteftines afflicted with flatulence and oppreffion. "Even in the morning, if I began as ufual to read, my eyes immediately fuffered pain, and seemed to fhrink from reading; but, after some moderate bodily exercise, were refreshed; whenever I looked at a candle I faw a fort of iris if I around it. Not long afterwards, on the left fide of my left eye (which began to fail fome years before the other) a darkness arose, that hid from me all things on that fide; chanced to clofe my right eye, whatever was before me feemed diminished. In the last three years, as my remaining eye failed by degrees fome months before my fight was utterly gone, all things that I could difcern, though I moved not myself, appeared to fluctuate, now to the right, now to the left. Obftinate vapors seem to have settled all over my forehead and my temples, overwhelming my eyes with a fort of fleepy heavinefs, especially after food, till the evening; fo that I frequently recollect the condition of the prophet Phineus in the Argonautics: Him Envelop'd, and the earth appeared to roll But fhould not omit to fay, that while I had fome little fight remaining, as foon as I went to bed, and reclined on either fide, a copious light used to dart from my closed eyes; then, as my fight grew daily lefs, darker colors feemed to burft forth with vehemence, and a kind of internal noise; but now, as if every thing lucid were extinguished, blackness either abfolute or chequered, and interwoven, as it were with afh-color, is accuftomed to pour itself on my eyes; yet the darkness perpetually before them as well during the night as in the day, feems always approaching rather to white than to black, admitting, as the eye rolls, a minute portion of light as through a crevice. "Though from your physician fuch a portion of hope alfo may arife, yet, as under an evil that admits no cure, I regulate and tranquillize my mind, often reflecting, that fince the days of darkness allotted to each, as the wife man re- minds us, are many, hitherto my darkness, by the fingular mercy of God, with the aid of ftudy, leifure, and the kind converfation of my friends, is much lefs oppreffive than the deadly darkness to which he alludes. For if, as it is written, man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, why fhould not a man acquiefce even in this? not thinking that he can derive light from his eyes alone, but esteeming himself sufficiently enlightened by the conduct or providence of God. "As long, therefore, as he looks forward, and provides for me as he does, and leads me backward and forward by the hand, as it were through my whole life, fhall I not cheerfully bid my eyes keep holiday, fince such appears to be his pleasure? But whatever may be the event of your kindness, my dear Philaras, with a mind not lefs refolute and firm than if I were Lynceus himself, I bid you farewel. "Westminster, Sept. 28, 1654." We have no reason to imagine that Milton received any kind of medical benefit from the friendly intention of this amiable foreigner. Strange as the idea may at firft appear, perhaps it was better for him, as a man and as a poet, to remain without a cure; for his devout tenderness and energy of mind had fo far converted his calamity into a bleffing, that it seems rather to have promoted than obftructed both the happiness of his life and the perfection of his genius. We have seen, in the admirable fonnet on his blindness, how his reflections on the conscientious labor by which he loft his eyes gave a dignified fatisfaction to his fpirit. In one of his profe works he expreffes a fentiment on the fame subject, that shows, in the most striking point of |