pride and delight I add the name of Cowper. This gentleman, who is prepared to oblige the world with a complete translation of Milton's Latin and Italian poetry, has kindly favored me with the liberty of transcribing, from his admirable work, whatever I wish to infert in this narrative. Since I am indebted to Milton for a friendship, which I regard as honorable in the highest degree, may I be indulged in the hope of leaving a lafting memorial of it in these pages.

A book, devoted to the honor of Milton, may admit, I hope, without impropriety, the praises due to a living author, who is become his poetical interpreter; an office which the spirit of the divine bard may be gratified in his having affumed; for, affuredly, my friend bears no common resemblance to his moft illuftrious predeceffor, not only in the energy and hallowed ufe of poetical talents, but in that beneficent fervor and purity of heart, which entitle the great poet to as large a portion of affectionate esteem, as he has long poffeffed of admiration.

JOHN MILTON was born in London, on the 9th of December, 1608, at the house of his father, in Bread-street, and baptized on the 20th of the fame month. His chriftian name descended to him from his grandfather. The family; once òpulent proprietors of Milton, in Oxfordshire, loft that estate in the civil wars of York and Lancaster, and was indebted, perhaps, to adverfity for much higher distinction than opulence can bestow. John,

the grandfather of the poet, became deputy ranger in the foreft of Shotover, not far from Oxford; and intending to educate his fon as a gentleman, he placed him at Chrift-Church, in that univerfity; but being himself a rigid Papist, he difinherited the young and devout fcholar, for an attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation, and reduced him to the neceffity of quitting the path of litera ture for a less honorable but more lucrative profeffion.

The discarded ftudent applied himself to the employment of a fcrivener, which has varied with the variations, of life and manners. A fcrivener, in remoter ages, is supposed to have been a mere transcriber; but at the period we speak of, his occupation united the two profitable branches of drawing contracts and of lending money. The emoluments of this profeffion enabled the father of Milton to bestow most abundantly on his fon thofe advantages of education, which had been cruelly withdrawn from himself. The poet was happy in both his parents; and to the merits of both he has borne affectionate and honorable teftimony. The maiden name of his mother has been difputed; but it seems reasonable to credit the account of Philips, her grandson, the earliest biographer of Milton, who had the advantage of living with him as a relation and a disciple.

Her name, according to this author, who speaks highly of her virtue, was Cafton, and her family derived from Wales. Milton, in mentioning his

own origin, with a decent pride, in reply to one of his revilers, afferts, that his mother was a woman of exemplary character, and peculiarly diftinguished by her extenfive charity *. The parental kindness and the talents of his father he has celebrated in a Latin poem, which cannot be too warmly admired, as a monument of filial tendernefs, and poetical enthusiasm. It is probable, that the fevere manner in which that indulgent father had been driven from the purfuits of learning induced him to exert uncommon liberality and ardor in the education of his fon.

Though immerfed himself in a lucrative occupation, he feems to have retained great elegance of mind, and to have amufed himself with literature and mufic; to the latter he applied fo fuccefsfully, that, according to Dr. Burney, the accomplished hiftorian of that captivating art," he became a voluminous compofer, equal in fcience, if not in genius, to the best musicians of his age." Nor did his talents pafs without celebrity or reward. Philips relates, that for one of his devotional compofitions in forty parts, he was honored with a gold chain and medal by a Polish prince, to whom he presented it. This mark of diftinction was frequently conferred on men, who rofe to great excellence in different arts and fciences: perhaps

* Londini fum natus, genere honefto, patre viro integerrimo, matre probatiffimâ, &; eleemofynis per viciniam potiffimum nota. Defenfio fecunda.

the ambition of young Milton was first awakened by these gifts of honor beftowed upon, his fa

ther *.

A parent, who could enliven the drudgery of a dull profeffion by a variety of elegantpursuits, must have been happy to difcern, and eager to cherish, the firft dawning of genius in his child. In this point of view we may contemplate with peculiar delight the infantine portrait of Milton, by that elegant and faithful artist, Cornelius Janfen. Aubrey, the antiquarian, obferving in his manuscript memoirs of our author, that he was ten years old when this picture was drawn, affirms that "he was then a poet." This expreffion may lead us to

The father of Milton has been lately mentioned as an author: -He was thought to have published; in the year of the poet's birth, a little book, with the quaint title of "A Sixe Fold Politician." Mr. Warton obferved, that the curious publication af cribed to Milton's father may be found in the Bodleian library; that it appears to be a fatire on characters pretending to wisdom or policy, and is not void of learning and wit, fuch as we often find affectedly and awkwardly blended in the effay-writers of that age."

By the favor of Mr. Ifaac Reed, who is moft liberal in the communication of the literary rarities he has collected, I have perufed this fingular performance, and perfectly agree with its obliging poffeffor, and his accomplished friend, Dr. Farmer, that although in the records of the Stationers Company it is afcribed to John Milton, we may rather affign it to John Melton, author of the Aftrologafter, than to the father of our poet. -The latter will lofe but little in being no longer regarded as its author, efpecially as we have different and more honorable proofs of his attachment to literature.

imagine, that the portrait was executed to encourage the infant author; and if fo, it might operate as a powerful incentive to his future exertion. The permanent bias of an active spirit often originates in the petty incidents of childhood; and as no human mind ever glowed with a more intenfe, or with a purer flame of literary ambition, than the mind of Milton, it may not be unpleafing to conjecture how it first caught the sparks, that gradually mounted to a blaze of unrivalled vehemence and fplendor.

His education, as Dr. Newton has well observed, united the oppofite advantages of private and public inftruction. Of his early paffion for letters he has left the following record, in his fecond defence*: "My father destined me from my infancy to the ftudy of polite literature, which I embraced with fuch avidity, that from the age of twelve, I hardly ever retired from my books before midnight. This proved the first source of injury to my eyes, whose natural weakness was attended with frequent pains of the head; but as all these disadvantages could not repress my ardor for learning, my father took care to have me inftructed by various preceptors

* Pater me puerulum humaniarum literarum ftudiis deftinavit; quas ita avide arripui, ut ab anno ætatis duodecimo vix unquam ante mediam noctem a lucubrationibus cubitum difcederem; quæ prima oculorum pernicies fuit, quorum ad naturalem debilitatem accefferant & crebri capitis dolores; quæ omnia cum difcendi impetum non retardarent, & in ludo literario, & fub aliis domi magiftris erudiendum quotidie curavit.