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poet still more illustrious. Four of Milton's Latin letters are addressed to her son, and they blend with moral precepts to the young student respectful and affectionate praise of his mother*.

In the Latin correspondence of Milton we have some vestiges of his sentiments concerning the authors of antiquity; and it is remarkable, that in a deliberate opinion on the merits of Sallust t, he prefers

In the quarto edition of Boyle, there are a few letters from his favorite sister, Lady Ranelagh; one very interesting, in which she speaks of the poet Waller; but she does not mention the name of Milton in the whole collection. Her son (the first and last Earl of Ranelagh) who was in his childhood a disciple of the great poet, proved a man of talents business and pleasure.

De Sallustio quod scribis, dicam libere; quoniam ita vis plane ut dicam quod sentio, Sallustium cuivis Latino historico me quidem anteferre; quæ etiam constans fere antiquorum sententia fuit. IIabet suas laudes tuus Tacitus, sed eas meo quidem judicio maximas, quod Sallustium nervis omnibus sit imitatus. Cum hæc tecum coram dissererem perfecisse videor, quantum ex eo quod scribis conjicio, ut de illo cordatissimo scriptore ipse jam idem prope sentias: adeoque ex me quæris, cum is in

him to all the Roman historians. Milton, did not form himself as a writer on any Roman model: being very early most anxious to excel in literature, he wisely attached himself to those prime examples of exordio belli Catilinarii perdifficile esse dixerit historiam scribere, propter a quod facta dictis exæquanda sunt, qua potissimum ratione id assequi historiarum scriptorem posse existimem. Ego vero sic existimo; qui gestas res dignas digne scripserit, eum animo non minus magno rerumque usu præditum scribere oportere, quam is qui eas gesserit ut vel maximas pari animo comprehendere atque metiri possit et comprehensas sermone puro atque casto distincte gravitérque narrare: nam ut ornate non admodum laboro; historicum enim, non oratorem requiro.r Cebras etiam sententias, et judicia de rebus gestis interjecta prolixe nollem, ne, interrupta verum serie quod politici scriptoris munus est historicus invadat; qui si in consiliis explicandis, factis que enarrandis, non suum ingenium aut conjecturam, sed veritatem potissimum sequitur, suarum profecto partium satagit. Addiderim et illud Sallustianum, qua in re ipse Catonem maxime. laudavit, posse multa paucis absolvere; id quod sine acerrimo judicio, atque etiam temperantia quadam nem inem posse arbitror. Sunt multi in quibus vel sermonis elegantiam vel conjestarum rerum copiam non desideres, qui brevitatem cum copia conjunxerit, id est, qui multa paucis absolverit, princeps meo judicio est Sallutius. Prose Works, vol. 2. p. 582,

literary perfection, the Greeks; among the poets he particularly delighted in Euripides and Homer; his favorites in prose seem to have been Plato and Demosthenes; the first peculiarly fit to give richness, purity, and lustre to the fancy; the second, to invigorate the understanding, and inspire the fervid energy of public virtue. It is a very just remark of Lord Monboddo, that even the poetical speeches in Paradise Lost derive their consummate propriety and eloquence from the fond and enlightened attention with which the poet had studied the most perfect orator of Athens; the studies of Milton, however, were very extensive; he appears to have been familiar not only with all the best authors of antiquity, but with those of every refined language in Europe; Italian, French, Spanish, and Portugueze. Great erudition has been often supposed to operate as an incumbrance on the finer faculties of the mind; but let us observe to its credit, the sublimest of poets was the most learned: of Italian literature he was particularly fond, as we may collect from one of his letters to

a professor of that language, and from the ease and spirit of his Italian verses. To the honor of modern Italy, it may be said, that she had a considerable share in forming the genius of Milton. In Tasso, her brightest ornament, he found a character highly worthy of his affectionate emulation, both as a poet, and as a man; this accomplished personage had, indeed, ended, his illustrious and troubled life several years before Milton visited his country; but he was yet living in the memory of his ardent friend Manso, and through the medium of Manso's conversation his various excellencies made, I am persuaded, a forcible and permanent impression on the heart and fancy of our youthful countryman. It was hardly the example of Trissino, as Johnson supposes, that tempted Milton to his bold experiment of blank verse; for Trissino's epic poem is a very heavy performance, and had sunk into such oblivion in Italy, that the literary friend and biographer of Tasso considers that greater poet as the first person who enriched the Italian language, with valuable blank

verse: "our early works of that kind,” says Manso, "are translations from the Latin, and those not successful." The The poem in blank verse, for which this amiable biographer applauds his friend, is an extensive work, in seven books, on the Seven Days of the Creation, a subject that has engaged the poets of many countries. The performance of Tasso was begun at the house of his friend Manso, and at the suggestion of a lady, the accomplished mother of the Marquis. As this poem is formed from the Bible, and full of religious enthusiasm, it probably influenced the English visiter of Manso in his choice of blank verse. Tasso was a voluminous author, and we have reason to believe that Milton was familiar with all his compositions, as the exquisite eulogy on connubial affection, in the Paradise Lost, is founded on a prose composition in favor of marriage, addressed by the Italian poet to one of his relations *; but Milton, who

Tasso begins this interesting discourse, by informing his kinsman Ercole, that he first heard the news of his

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