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Upon his grave there is fuppofed to have been no memorial; but in our time a monument has been erected in Westminster-Abbey To the Author of Paradife Loft, by Mr. Benfon, who has in the infcription bestowed more words upon himself than upon Milton.

When the infcription for the monument of Philips, in which he was faid to be foli Miltono fecundus, was exhibited to Dr. Sprat, then dean of Westminster, he refused to admit it; the name of Milton was, in his opinion, too deteftable to be read on the wall of a building dedicated to devotion. Atterbury, who fucceeded him, being author of the inscription, permitted its reception. "And "fuch has been the change of publick opi"nion," said Dr. Gregory, from whom I heard this account, "that I have feen erected

in the church a ftatue of that man, whofe "name I once knew confidered as a pollution "of its walls."

Milton has the reputation of having been in his youth eminently beautiful, fo as to have been called the Lady of his college.

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His hair, which was of a light brown, parted at the fore-top, and hung down upon his fhoulders, according to the picture which he has given of Adam. He was, however, not of the heroick ftature, but rather below the middle fize, according to Mr. Richardfon, who mentions him as having narrowly escaped from being short and thick. He was vigorous and active, and delighted in the exercife of the fword, in which he is related to have been eminently skilful. His weapon was, I believe, not the rapier, but the back-fword, of which he recommends the ufe in his book on Education.

His

eyes are faid never to have been bright; but, if he was a dexterous fencer, they muft have been once quick.

His domeftick habits, fo far as they are known, were those of a fevere ftudent. He drank little ftrong drink of any kind, and fed without excess in quantity, and in his earlier years without delicacy of choice. In his youth he ftudied late at night; but afterwards changed his hours, and rested in bed from nine to four in the fummer, and five in

the

the winter. The courfe of his day was best known after he was blind. When he first rofe, he heard a chapter in the Hebrew Bible, and then ftudied till twelve; then took fome exercise for an hour; then dined, then played on the organ, and fung, or heard another fing; then ftudied to fix; then entertained his vifitors till eight; then fupped, and, after a pipe of tobacco and a glass of water, went to bed.

So is his life defcribed; but this even te nour appears attainable only in Colleges. He that lives in the world will fometimes have the fucceffion of his practice broken and confufed. Vifitors, of whom Milton is reprefented to have had great numbers, will come and ftay unfeafonably; bufinefs, of which every man has fome, must be done when others will do it.

When he did not care to rife early, he had fomething read to him by his bedside; perhaps at this time his daughters were employed. He compofed much in the morning, and dictated in the day, fitting obliquely in

an elbow-chair, with his leg thrown over the

arm.

Fortune appears not to have had much of his care. In the civil wars he lent his perfonal estate to the parliament; but when, after the conteft was decided, he folicited repayment, he met not only with neglect, but Sharp rebuke; and, having tired both himself and his friends, was given up to poverty and hopeless indignation, till he shewed how able he was to do greater fervice. He was then made Latin fecretary, with two hundred pounds a year; and had a thousand pounds for his Defence of the People. His widow, who, after his death, retired to Namptwich in Cheshire, and died about 1729, is faid to have reported that he loft two thousand pounds by entrusting it to a fcrivener; and that, in the general depredation upon the Church, he had grafped an eftate of about fixty pounds a year belonging to WestminsterAbbey, which, like other sharers of the plunder of rebellion, he was afterwards obliged to return. Two thousand pounds, which he had placed in the Excise-office, were also lost. There is yet no reason to believe that he was

ever reduced to indigence. His wants, being few, were competently fupplied. He fold his library before his death, and left his family fifteen hundred pounds, on which his widow laid hold, and only gave one hundred to each of his daughters.

His literature was unquestionably great. He read all the languages which are confidered either as learned or polite; Hebrew, with its two dialects, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish. In Latin his skill was fuch as places him in the first rank of writers and criticks; and he appears to have cultivated Italian with uncommon diligence. The books in which his daughter, who used to read to him, represented him as most delighting, after Homer, which he could almoft repeat, were Ovid's Metamorphofes and Euripides. His Euripides is, by Mr. Cradock's kindness, now in my hands: the margin is fometimes noted; but I have found nothing

remarkable.

Of the English poets he fet moft value upon Spenfer, Shakspeare, and Cowley. Spenfer was apparently his favourite: Shakspeare

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