garden in Alderfgate-ftreet *, which was not then fo much out of the world as it is now; and chofe his dwelling at the upper end of a paffage, that he might avoid the noise of the ftreet. Here he received more boys, to be boarded and instructed. Let not our veneration for Milton forbid us to look with fome degree of merriment on great promifes and fmall performance, on the man who haftens home, because his countrymen are contending for their liberty, and, when he reaches the fcene of action, vapours away his patriotism in a private boardingfchool. This is the period of his life from which all his biographers feem inclined to *This is inaccurately expreffed: Philips, and Dr. Newton after him, fay a garden house, i. e. a house fituate in a garden, and of which there were, especially in the north fuburbs of London, very many, if not few elfe. The term is technical, and frequently occurs in the Athen. and Faft. Oxon. Oxon. The meaning thereof may be collected from the article Thomas Farnabe, the famous schoolmaster, of whom the author fays, that he taught in Goldsmith's Rents, in Cripplegate parish, behind Redcross-street, where were large gardens and handfome houfes. Milton's house in Jewin-street was also a garden-houfe, as were indeed most of his dwellings after his fettlement in London. H. fhrink. fhrink. They are unwilling that Milton fhould be degraded to a school-master; but, fince it cannot be denied that he taught boys, one finds out that he taught for nothing, and another that his motive was only zeal for the propagation of learning and virtue; and all tell what they do not know to be true, only to excuse an act which no wife man will confider as in itself difgraceful. His father was alive; his allowance was not ample; and he fupplied its deficiencies by an honeft and useful employment. It is told, that in the art of education he performed wonders; and a formidable lift is given of the authors, Greek and Latin, that were read in Alderfgate-ftreet, by youth between ten and fifteen or fixteen years of age. Thofe who tell or receive thefe ftories should confider that nobody can be taught faster than he can learn. The speed of the horseman must be limited by the power of his horse. Every man, that has ever undertaken to inftruct others, can tell what flow advances he has been able to make, and how much patience it requires to recall vagrant inatten tion, to stimulate fluggish indifference, and to rectify abfurd misapprehenfion. The purpose of Milton, as it feems, was to teach fomething more folid than the common literature of Schools, by reading those authors that treat of phyfical fubjects; fuch as the Georgick, and aftronomical treatises of the ancients. This was a scheme of improvement which feems to have bufied many literary projectors of that age. Cowley, who had more means than Milton of knowing what was wanting to the embellishments of life, formed the fame plan of education in his imaginary College. But the truth is, that the knowledge of * external nature, and the fciences which that knowledge requires or includes, are not the great or the frequent bufinefs of the human mind. Whether we provide for action or converfation, whether we wish to be useful or pleafing, the first requifite is the religious and moral knowledge of right and wrong; the next is an acquaintance with the hiftory of mankind, and with thofe examples which may be faid to embody truth, and prove by events the reasonablenefs of opinions. Prudence and Justice are virtues and excellences of all times and of all places; we are perpetually moralifts, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourfe with intellectual nature is neceffary; our fpeculations upon matter are voluntary, and at leifure. Phyfiological learning is of fuch rare emergence, that one man may know another half his life without being able to estimate his skill in hydrostaticks or aftronomy; but his moral and prudential character immediately appears. Thofe authors, therefore, are to be read at fchools that fupply moft axioms of prudence, most principles of moral truth, and most materials for converfation; and these purposes are best served by poets, orators, and historians. Let me not be cenfured for this digreffion as pedantick or paradoxical; for, if I have Milton against me, I have Socrates on my fide. It was his labour to turn philofophy from the study of nature to fpeculations upon life; but the innovators whom I oppofe are turning turning off attention from life to nature. They feem to think, that we are placed here to watch the growth of plants, or the motions of the ftars. Socrates was rather of opinion, that what we had to learn was, how to do good, and avoid evil. Ὅτι τοι ἐν μεγάροισι κακόντ' ἀγαθόνε τέτυκται. Of inftitutions we may judge by their effects. From this wonder-working academy, I do not know that there ever proceeded any man very eminent for knowledge: its only genuine product, I believe, is a small Hiftory of Poetry, written in Latin by his nephew Philips, of which perhaps none of my readers has ever heard *. That in his fchool, as in every thing elfe which he undertook, he laboured with great diligence, there is no reafon for doubting. One part of his method deferves general *"We may be fure at leaft, that Dr. Johnson had "never seen the book he speaks of; for it is entirely compofed in English, though its title begins with two Latin "words, Theatrum Poetarum; or, A complete Collec"tion of the Poets,' &c. a circumftance that probably "mifled the biographer of Milton." European Magazine, June 1787, p. 388. R. VOL. I. L imi |