“ Vernal; and that whatever he attempted "at other times was never to his fatisfaction, "though he courted his fancy never fo "much; fo that, in all the years he was "about this poem, he may be faid to have spent half his time therein."

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Upon this relation Toland remarks, that in his opinion Philips has mistaken the time of the year; for Milton, in his Elegies, declares that with the advance of the Spring he feels the increase of his poetical force, rede unt in carmina vires. To this it is answered, that Philips could hardly mistake time so well marked; and it may be added, that Milton might find different times of the year favour. able to different parts of life. Mr. Richardfon conceives it impoffible that fuch a work fhould be fufpended for fix months, or for one, It may go on fafter or flower, but it must go on. By what neceffity it must continually go on, or why it might not be laid afide and resumed, it is not eafy to discover.

This dependance of the foul upon the feafons, thofe temporary and periodical ebbs and flows of intellect, may, I fuppofe, justly be

derided

derided, as the fumes of vain imagination. Sapiens dominabitur aftris. The author that. thinks himself weather-bound will find, with a little help from hellebore, that he is only idle or exhaufted. But while this notion has poffeffion of the head, it produces the inability which it fuppofes. Our powers owe much of their energy to our hopes; poffunt quia poffe videntur. When fuccefs seems attainable, diligence is enforced; but when it is admitted that the faculties are fuppreffed by a cross wind, or a cloudy fky, the day is given up without refistance; for who can con tend with the courfe of Nature?

From fuch prepoffeffions Milton feems not to have been free, There prevailed in his time an opinion that the world was in its decay, and that we have had the misfortune to be produced in the decrepitude of Nature. It was fufpected that the whole creation languished, that neither trees nor animals had the height or bulk of their predeceffors, and that every thing was daily finking by gradual diminution. Milton appears to fufpect that fouls partake of the general degeneracy, and is not without fome fear that his book is to

be

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Another opinion wanders about the world, and fometimes finds reception among wife men; an opinion that restrains the operations, of the mind to particular regions, and fup, pofes that a luckless mortal may be born in a degree of latitude too high or too low for wisdom or for wit. From this fancy, wild as it is, he had not wholly cleared his head, when he feared left the climate of his coun try might be too cold for flights of imagi, nation.

Into a mind already occupied by fuch fans cies, another not more reasonable might easily find its way. He that could fear left his ge nius had fallen upon too old a world, or too chill a climate, might confiftently magnify to himself the influence of the feafons, and believe his faculties to be vigorous only half

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His fubmiffion to the feasons was at least more reasonable than his dread of decaying Nature, or a frigid zone; for general caufes

muft

muft operate uniformly in a general abatement of mental power; if less could be performed by the writer, lefs likewife would content the judges of his work. Among this lagging race of frofty grovellers he might still have rifen into eminence by producing fomething which they should not willingly let die. However inferior to the heroes who were born in better ages, he might still be great among his contemporaries, with the hope of ing every day greater in the dwindle of pofterity. He might ftill be the giant of the pygmies, the one-eyed monarch of the blind.

grow

Of his artifices of ftudy, or particular hours of compofition, we have little account, and there was perhaps little to be told. Richardfon, who feems to have been very diligent in his enquiries, but difcovers always a wish to find Milton difcriminated from other men, relates, that " he would fometimes lie "awake whole nights, but not a verse could

he make; and on a fudden his poetical "faculty would rush upon him with an im"petus or aftrum, and his daughter was im"mediately called to fecure what came. At "other times he would dictate perhaps forty

"lines in a breath, and then reduce them te "half the number."

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These bursts of lights, and involutions of darkness; thefe tranfient and involuntary excurfions and retroceffions of invention, having fome appearance of deviation from the common train of Nature, are eagerly caught by the lovers of a wonder. Yet fomething of this inequality happens to every man in every mode of exertion, manual or mental. mechanick cannot handle his hammer and his file at all times with equal dexterity; there are hours, he knows not why, when bis band is out. By Mr. Richardfon's rela tion, cafually conveyed, much regard cannot be claimed. That, in his intellectual hour, Milton called for his daughter to fecure what came, may be queftioned; for unluckily it happens to be known that his daughters were never taught to write; nor would he have been obliged, as is univerfally confeffed, to have employed any cafual vifiter in difburthening his memory, if his daughter could have performed the office.

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