PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY HENRY FISHER, Published at 38, Newgate Street; and Sold by all Booksellers. THE LIFE OF MILTON. COMPILED BY THE REV. DAVID M'NICOLL. WITH the name of MILTON must associate, in a British mind, the highest sentiments of veneration. He who makes the least pretensions to liberal knowledge and taste, and who, notwithstanding, feels no wish to learn the circumstances of the life of such a writer, may justly be suspected of some dislike, not only to the muse, but to goodness itself, and to that greatness of mind which procures distinguished ho nours. Paradise Lost, however, has established an imperishable fame. Human nature must suffer an awful wreck before that work can cease to interest the numerous thousands of its readers. No wonder, then, that memoirs of the life of its author have long followed one another, with increasing success, till the subject, through all its authorities, is now nearly exhausted. The substance of the whole we shall endeavour faithfully and briefly to comprise in the following sketch. The family was originally of a town called Milton, in Oxfordshire. The father of the poet was a scrivener; that is, one who draws contracts. He was skilled in music, as appears from several compositions which bear his name, and he is presumed to have been a person of some literature, as he was addressed by his son in a very elaborate Latin poem. He mar ried a lady of Welsh extraction, who bore a most excellent character, especially for benevolence. JOHN MILTON, their eldest and favourite son, was born in Bread-street, London, on the 9th of December, 1608. His father took the utmost care of his education, which he resolved should be liberal, and therefore had him instructed, partly at home, and partly at St. Paul's school. By the combined advantages of this plan, he was fitted for the university at the age of fifteen when he went to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he continued seven years. Intense and late studies soon injured his health, and perhaps laid the foundation of that bodily weakness which produced at last a total blindness. A serious lesson this to students, whose excesses often cause repentance like that of the famous Dr. Owen, who said, "He would freely renounce all the learning he had attained in late hours, to recover the health he had lost by them." Milton seems to have loved the muse from his infancy, and actually addressed a Latin poem to the Rev. Thomas Young, his first domestic tutor, at the age of twelve years. This bent of mind was warmly encouraged by his father, who, it is evident from the following beautiful lines addressed to him, as already mentioned, clearly discerned the genius of his son. The translation is by Cowper. MY FATHER! for thou never bad'st me tread On his entrance into the university, he formed a design of devoting himself to the church, but ultimately scrupled to subscribe, as required of him previous to his admittance into orders. His words on the occasion are, "Whoever becomes a clergyman, must subscribe slave, and take an oath withal, which, |