Whole in each bosom makes his just abode, And child and father own the one though varied God. This must have been most acceptable; and yet, perhaps, more gratifying to the heart of a parent would be that effusion of filial affection, with which the poem concludes. At tibi, chare pater, postquam non æqua merenti But since, dear sire, my gratitude can find O take the love, that strives to be express'd! How one could merit, and how one could praise! * Some part of our author's early educa * The reader will find an entire translation of this poem at the end of the volume. tion was committed to the care of Mr. Thomas Young, a puritan minister, and a native, as Aubrey affirms, of Essex; but at what precise period this connexion began or ended is not now to be ascertained. It has been deemed probable, that Young continued in his office till the time when, in consequence of his religious opinions, he was compelled to retire to the continent, where he obtained the appointment of minister to the British merchants at Hamburgh. Young's departure from England is stated to have taken place in 1623, when his pupil is supposed to have been placed, in his fifteenth year, at St. Paul's school. But this statement seems to be inaccurate, as his pupil, in a letter dated from Cambridge in 1628, promises him a visit at his country house in Suffolk, and compliments him on the independency of mind, with which he maintained himself, like a Grecian sage, or an old Roman consul, on the profits of a small farm. "Rus tuum accersitus, simul ac ver adoleverit, libenter adveniam ad capessendas anni tuique non minus colloquii delicias: et ab urbano strepitu subducam me paulisper ad Stoam tuam Icenorum, tanquam ad 1 Mr. Warton imagines that Young returned in or before this. year (1628): but Laud's persecution of the puritans was now at celeberrimam illam Zenonis porticum, aut Ciceronis Tusculanum, ubi tu, in re modicâ regio sanè animo, veluti Serranus aliquis aut Curius in agello tuo placide regnas." 66 m Availing myself," (Milton writes to his late tutor,)" of your invitation to your coun its height, and if Young formerly fled from this persecution, he must at this time return by stealth, and could hardly reside openly upon his Suffolk living of Stow-Market. As the Iceni are supposed to have inhabited the counties of Norfolk and Cambridge, as well as that of Suffolk, the expression of "Stoam tuam Icenorum," can be confined to Suffolk only by a reference to Young's living of Stow-Market. When Milton used the word "Stoa," on his occasion, and forced it from its proper station next to "Zenonis" could he playfully intend any allusion to his tutor's Stow? I suspect that he did. It is probable that Young did not return from the continent till about the end of 1640 or the beginning of the following year, when the Long Parliament offered to him and to his brother-exiles protection from the tyranny of the High Commission and the Star-chamber courts. Soon after this period, we find him engaged in controversy, as one of the writers of the pamphlet called Smectymnuus, against bishop Hall and archbishop Usher. He was a preacher at Duke's Place, and was nominated one of the famous Assembly of Divines, whom the parliament appointed in 1643 for the management of religion. On the visitation of the University of Cambridge by the earl of Manchester, he was established, on the ejection of Dr. Richard Stern, in the Mastership of Jesus College, and retained it, with much credit to himself and advantage to the college, till his refusal of subscription to THE ENGAGEMENT OGcasioned his expulsion from the office. He died, and was buried, as Mr. Warton, in one of his notes in his edition of Milton's juvenile poems, informs me, at Stow-Market, where he had been Vicar for thirty years. Epis. Thomæ Junio Jul. 2. 1628. P. W. v. vi. p. 112. try house, I will with pleasure come to you as soon as the spring is further advanced, that I may at once enjoy the delightfulness of the season, and that of your conversation. I will then retire for a short time, as I would to the celebrated porch of Zeno, or to the Tusculan villa of Cicero, from the tumult of the town to your Suffolk Stoa, where you, like another Serranus or Curius, in moderate circumstances, but with a princely soul, reign tranquilly in the midst of your little farm :" &c.-In the same year, however, we find him on the continent, and followed by the affection and gratitude of his pupil, in a latin elegy of much beauty and poetic merit. But at whatever period Young retired to the continent, or resigned his charge in Mr. Milton's house, it is certain that, before his removal to the University, the youthful Milton passed some interval of study at St. Paul's school, under the direction, at that time, of Mr. Alexander Gill. Three of our author's familiar letters are addressed to Alexander Gill, his master's son and assistant in the school, with whom he seems to have contracted a warm and lasting friendship. Their correspondence principally respects the communication of some pieces of com position, and strongly attests the mutual respect of the parties, founded, as we cannot reasonably doubt, on their mutual conviction of great literary attainments." A powerful intellect, exerted with unwearied industry and undiverted attention, must necessarily possess itself of its object; and we know that our author, when he left this school, in his seventeenth year, for the University, was already an accomplished scholar. Ardent in his love of knowledge, he Was regardless, as we have observed, of pleasure, and even of health, when they came into competition with the prevailing passion of his soul; and we are consequently not much surprised by the extraordinary and brilliant result, which soon flashed upon the world. It was at this early period of his life, as we may confidently conjecture, that he imbibed that spirit of devotion, which actuated his bosom to his latest moment upon earth: and we need not extend our search beyond "Alexander Gill was usher to his father, and afterwards promoted to the place of upper master. He was so rigid a disciplinarian that he was removed for extreme severity from his office. He wrote both in verse and prose with considerable taste; and Mr. Warton mentions a latin epitaph from his pen, which bears testimony to the uncommon purity of his latin composition. C |