vices to the Publick, they were not the End he propos'd in Serving, for he was a Con→ temner of Filthy Lucre. For This, (faith he in his Apology for Smectymnuus) I cannot omit without Ingratitude to that Providence Above, who hath ever bred me up in Plenty, although my Life hath not been Unexpenfive in Learning and Voyaging About; fo long as it fhall Pleafe Him to lend me what he hath Hitherto thought good, which is enough to ferve me in all Honeft and Liberal Occafions, and Somthing Over befides, I were unthankful to that higheft Bounty, if I should make my felf fo Poor as to follicit Needily any fuch kind of Rich Hopes as this Fortune-teller dreams of. It is to be Noted he was Yet Unmarried.

His Early Application to Study, and Success in it, Himself gives Us an Account of in his Introductory Difcourfe to his Second Book of the Razlon of Church Government, after having Petition'd to the Gentler Sort that it might not be Envy to him, Venturing to Divulge Unusual things of Himfelf, he fays, After I had from my First Years, by the Ceafeless Diligence and Care of my Father (whom God Recompence) been Exercis'd to the Tongues, and Some Sciences, as my Age would fuffer, by Sundry Mafters and Teachers both at Home and at the Schools, it was found that whether Ought was Impos'd me by Them that had the Overlooking, or betaken to of my Own Choice in English, or other Tongue, Profing or Verfing, but Chiefly This Latter, the

Style

Style by certain Vital Signs it had, was likely to Live. Much to the fame Purpose he fays in his Apology for Smectymnuus, Sect. 6.— For This good hap I had from a Carefull Education, to be Inur'd and Seafon'd Betimes with the Beft and Eleganteft Authors of the Learned Tongues, and thereto brought an Ear that could measure a juft Cadence, and Scan without Articulating; rather Nice and Humorous in what was Tolerable than Patient to read every Drawling Verfifier.

He Acquir'd Betimes an Uncommon Stock of Learning, and all Thofe Languages in which the Variety and Sublimity of Humane Knowledge is Treafur'd up for Those who can Unlock the Cabinet, and know how to Judge, and make Ufe of what they find. He understood French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek and Hebrew; their Profe, and Poetick Dialects, for in all Languages These are Different. His Own Tongue, as Us'd by Him is Poetick English, 'tis Enrich'd and Strengthen'd with Attick and Roman Spoils, in Words, Phrases, and Idiom; nor has he Forgot to Restore Some Beauties which had been Long Neglected; So that His English is Worthy to be Learnt, and has been Endeavour'd to be Imitated, but His is Still his Own. Nor had he only Learnt thefe Languages So as to Conftrue them, and as a Scholar, but as a Master; and such a One as perceiv'd the Force, the Beauty, and Extent of a Word

or Phrase, so as to take from Thence Ideas which Lexicographers and Grammarians are often Strangers to; his Latin in Particular is on all hands Allow'd to be like That of the Auguftan Age: and So remarkable was he for his Knowledge in the Italian Tongue that the Crufca (an Academy Set up for the Reducing, and keeping the Florentine Language to its First Purity) made no Scruple to Confult Him, Whom they had receiv'd an Academician, on Difficult and Controverted Points. and indeed he had moft Diligently read All their Ancient as well as their Modern Claffick Poets, Hiftorians, and Orators. See Francini's fine Panegyrick Ode in Honour of Milton Prefix'd to the Juvenile Latin Poems, and Milton's Own Letter to Buonmatteo, the 8th of his Latin Epiftles. 'twas Written from Florence, in 1638. I will give a fmall Part of it.-for my Part I can Jay that my Lips are not only Moiften'd with thofe two Languages [Greek and Latin] but As much as my Age Allow'd, have drank as Large Cups of it as any One; Yet notwithstanding I come with Joy and Delight to your Dante and Petrarch: nor has even Attic Athens itself fo held me upon the Shear of her clear Ilyffus, nor That Dear Old Rome upon the Banks of Tyber, but that I often love to Vifit your Arno, and the Hills of Fefole.

See alfo his Latin Letter to his Father.

But

But no Quality of Mind is More Confpicuous in Him, not even Piety and the Love of Civil and Ecclefiaftical Liberty, than his Paffionate Fondness for the Mufes. I faid This was as Confpicuous; and indeed he does Now, and has Long Since Shone in the Eyes of the Generality of the World, rather as a Great Poet, than as a Good Man, though even Poetry was Long Sufpended whilft he was, as He thought, Combating in the Cause of God, and his Country's Liberty. but he was a Poet Early, and Always in his Soul. and Excell'd All Ancients and Moderns. (I take leave to Say fo upon Many Good Authorities; I Pretend not to be Any in This Cafe) he Excell'd in Lyrick, Paftoral, Dramatick, Epic, and a Kind Purely Original, Such is his Mafque. Comedy indeed he never attempted that we know of, nor Dogrel. Much Less any thing in the Least Profane, or Indecent.

He had Read and Studied all the Greatest Poets, and had made All his Own: Homer he could Almoft repeat without Book; and above All he found Divine Nourishment for his Muse Where 'tis Superlatively Rich, that is, in the Holy Scriptures. He, if Ever Man was, was Smit with the Love of Sacred Song. and he was Every way Qualify'd to Sustain the Celestial Impulfe; for, befides his general Great Reading, and Thorough Knowledge of Words, he had an Elevated Mind, and

an

an Imagination, and That Lively and Strong, Most Eminently fo. Imagination is Effential to Poetry; 'tis Manifeft He Conceiv'd Greatly, and Beautifully; and what he Thus Saw he Communicated as far as Words can. No Man ever Painted like Him in That way, though, (which I have Often wonder'd at) He does not appear to have Much Regarded what was done with the Pencil; no not even when in Italy, in Rome, in the Vatican. Neither does it feem Sculpture was Much Efteem'd by him.

He had a Gravity in his Temper, Not Melancholly, or not 'till the Latter Part of his Life, not Sour, Morofe, or Ill-Natur'd; but a Certain Severity of Mind, a Mind not Condefcending to Little things. his Juvenile Poems are So no Otherwife than as they were Wrote in his Younger Years, for their Dignity and Excellence they are fufficient to have fet him among the most Celebrated of the Poets, even of the Ancients themselves his Mask and Lycidas are perhaps Superior to all in their Several Kinds. of the First of Thefe, Sir Henry Wootton in his Letter to Milton, gives a great Encomium, and Toland fays, "that for the peculiar Difpofition of the "Story, the Sweetness of the Numbers, the

Juftness of the Expreffion, and the Moral "it teaches, there is Nothing like it extant "in any Language. As great an Encomium have I heard of Lycidas as a Paftoral,