without a friendly concourse of the vulgar, accompanied his body to the church of St. Giles, near Cripplegate, where he lies buried in the chancel." This biographer, who though he had the misfortune to think very differently from Milton, on the great article of religion, yet never fails to speak of him with affectionate respect, indulged a pleasing expectation, when he wrote his life in the close of the last century, that national munificence would speedily raise a monument worthy of the poet, to protect and to honor his remains. To the discredit of our country, she has failed to pay this decent tribute to the memory of a man, from whose genius she had derived so much glory; but an individual, Mr. Benson, in the year 1737, placed a bust of the great author in Westminster Abbey; an act of liberality that does him credit, though Johnson and Pope have both satyrized the monumental inscription with a degree of cynical asperity: such asperity appears unseasonable, because all the ostentation so severely censured in Mr,

Benson, amounts merely to his having said in the plainest manner, that he raised the monument; and to his having added to his name a common enumeration of the offices he possessed; a circumstance in which candour might have discovered rather more. modesty than pride.-Affluence appears particularly amiable when paying a voluntary tribute to neglected genius, even in the grave; nor is Benson the only individual of ample fortune, who has endeared himself to the lovers of literature by generous endeavours to promote the celebrity of Milton. Affectionate admirers of the poet will honor the memory of the late Mr. Hollis, in recollecting that he dovoted much time and money to a similar pursuit; and they will regret that he was unable to discover the Italian verses, and the marble bust, which he diligently sought for in Italy, on a suggestion that such memorials of our poetic traveller had been carefully preserved in that country. But from this brief digression on the recent admirers of Milton, let us return to his family at the time of his decease.

His will was contested by the daughters, whose undutiful conduct it condemned; being deficient in form, it was set aside, and letters of administration were granted to the widow, who is said to have allotted an hundred pounds to each daughter, a sum which being probably too little in their opinion, and too much in her's, would naturally produce reciprocal animosity and censure between the contending parties.

It has been already observed, that the recent discovery of this forgotten will, and the allegations annexed to it, throw considerable light on the domestic life of Milton; and the more insight we can gain into his social and sequestered hours, the more we shall discover, that he was not less entitled to private affection, than to public esteem; but let us contemplate his person before we proceed to a minuter examination of his mind and manners.

So infatuated with rancour were the enemies of this illustrious man, that they delineated his form, as they represented his character, with the utmost extravagance of

malevolent falshood: he was not only compared to that monster of deformity, the eyeless Polypheme, but described as a diminutive, bloodless, and shrivelled creature. Expressions of this kind, in which absurdity and malice are equally apparent, induced him to expose the contemptible virulence of his revilers by a brief description of his own figure. He represents himself as a man of

* Veniamus nunc ad mea crimina; estne quod in vita aut moribus reprehendat? Certe nihil. Quid ergo? Quod nemo nisi immanis ac barbarus fecisset, formam mihi ac cæcitatem objectat.

Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ad

emptum.

Nunquam existimabam quidem fore, ut de forma, cum Cyclope certamen mihi esset; versum statim se revocat. "Quanquam nec ingens, quo nihil est exilius exsanguius contractius." Tametsi virum nihil attinet de forma dicere, tandem quando hic quoque est unde gratias Deo agam et mendaces redarguam ne quis (quod Hispanorum vulgus de hereticis, quos vocant, plus nimio facerdotibus suis credulum opinatur) me forte cynocephalum quempiam aut rhinocerota esse putet, dicam. Deformis quidem a nemine quod sciam, qui modo me vidit sum unquam habitus; formosus necne minus laboro; statura fateor non sum procera; sed quæ mediocri tamen quam

moderate stature, not particularly slender, and so far endued with strength and spirit, that as he always wore a sword, he wanted not, in his healthy season of life, either skill or courage to use it; having practised fencing with great assiduity, he considered him

parvæ proprior sit; sed quid si parva, qua et summi sæpe tum pace tum bello viri fuere, quanquam parva cur dicitur, quæ ad virtutem satis magna est? Sed neque exilis admodum eo sane animo iisque viribus ut cum ætas vitæque ratio sic ferebat, nec ferrum tractare, nec stringere quotidiano usu exercitatus nescirem; eo accinctus, ut plerumque eram, cuivis vel multo robustiori exæquatum me putabam, securus quid mihi quis injuriæ vir viro inferre posset. Idem hodem hodie animus, cædem vires, oeuli non iidem; ita tamen extrinsecus illæsi isa sine nube clari ac lucidi, ut eorum qui acutissimum cernunt; in hac solum parte, memet invito, simulator sum. In vulto quo nihil exsanguius" esse dixit, is manet etiamnum color exsangui et pallenti planè contrarius, ut quadragenario major vix sit cui non denis prope annis videar natu minor; neque corpore contracto neque cute. In his ego si ulla ex parte mentior multis millibus popularium meorum qui de facie me norunt, exteris etiam non paucis, ridiculus meritò sim; sin iste in re minimè necessaria tam impudentur gratuito mendax comperietur poteritis de reliquo candem conjecturam facerc. Atque hæc de forma mea vel coactus.