retired with his family. He had not long before removed from Jewin Street to a house in Artillery Walk, leading to Bunhill-fields; but he is also said, by Richardson, on the authority of a person who was acquainted with Milton, and who had often met him with his host conducting him, to have lodged awhile before this last removal with Millington, the famous auctioneer of books; a man, whose occupation and whose talents would render his company very acceptable to Milton; for he has been described by a contemporary pen, as "a man of remarkable elocution, wit, sense, and modesty." m On his arrival at Chalfont, Milton found that Ellwood, in consequence of a persecution of the quakers, was confined in the gaol of Aylesbury. But, being soon released, this affectionate friend made a visit to him, to welcome him into the country. "After some common discourses," says Ellwood, "had passed between us, he called for a manuscript of his, which, being brought, he delivered to me, "Spreads the red rod of angry pestilence, "To sweep the wicked and their counsels hence; "Yea, all to break the pride of lustfull kings, "Who heaven's lore reject for brutish sense; "As erst he scourg'd Jessides' sin of yore, "For the fair Hittite, when, on seraph's wings, "He sent him war, or plague, or famine sore.' m Dunton's Life and Errors, &c. See also the Auctio Davisiana in the Musæ Anglicanæ : "Tu Millingtoni non dedignabere partes, "Nam lepidum caput es, dicto et mordente facetus." bidding me take it home with me, and read it at my leisure, and when I had so done, return it to him with my judgement thereupon. When I came home, and set myself to read it, I found it was that excellent poem, which he entitled Paradise Lost." From this account it appears that Paradise Lost was complete in 1665. And indeed Aubrey represents the poem as "finished about three yeares after the King's Restoration." The city being cleansed, and the danger of infection having ceased, Milton returned to Bunhill-fields, and designed the publication of his great poem; the first hint of which he is " said to have taken, more than twenty years before, from an Italian tragedy. Some biographers have supposed that he began to mould the Paradise Lost into an epick form, soon after he was disengaged from the controversy with Salmasius. Aubrey, I have before said, relates, that he began the work about two years before the Restoration. However, considering the difficulties, as bishop Newton well remarks, "under which the author lay, his uneasiness on account of the publick affairs and his own, his age and infirmities, his not being now in circumstances to maintain an amanuensis, but obliged to make use of any hand that came next to write his verses as he made them, it is really wonderful that he should have the spirit to "See the Inquiry into the Origin of Paradise Lost in the present volume. undertake such a work, and much more that he should ever bring it to perfection." Yet his tuneful voice was "unchang'd "To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, To Milton indeed the days might now seem evil. But to so pathetick a complaint cold must be the heart of him who can listen without compassion. It reminds us of the musical but melancholy strains, addressed by his favourite Tasso in a Sonnet to Stiglian, whom he salutes as advancing on the road to Helicon : "Ivi prende mia cetra ad un cipresso: "Salutala in mio nome, e dalle avviso, The last of Milton's familiar Letters in Latin, addressed to Peter Heimbach, an accomplished German, who is styled counsellor to the elector of Brandenburgh, (and who is supposed, by an expression in a former epistle from Milton to him, to have resided with the poet, when he visited England, in the character of a disciple,) relates his consideration on his present circumstances, and his reflection on the days that were gone, in a most interesting manner. With the translation of this letter by his affectionate and spirited biographer, Mr. Hayley, the reader will be countrymen, in a year so full of pestilence and sorrow, you were induced, as you say, by rumour to believe that I also was snatched away, it is not surprising; and if such a rumour prevailed among those of your nation, as it seems to have done, because they were solicitous for my health, it is not unpleasing, for I must esteem it as a proof of their benevolence towards me. But by the graciousness of God, who had prepared for me a safe retreat in the country, I am still alive and well; and I trust not utterly an unprofitable servant, whatever duty in life there yet remains for me to fulfil. That you remember me, after so long an interval in our correspondence, gratifies me exceedingly, though, by the politeness of your expression, you seem to afford me room to suspect, that you have rather forgotten me, since, as you say, you admire in me so many different virtues wedded together. From so many weddings I should assuredly dread a family too numerous, were it not certain that, in narrow circumstances and under severity of fortune, virtues are most excellently reared, and are most flourishing. Yet one of these said virtues has not very handsomely rewarded me for entertaining her; for that which you call my political • Even at Chalfont, whither he had retired from the danger of infection, infection had appeared. For in the Register of the parish, under the year 1665, two persons are recorded, as I was obligingly informed by letter from the resident clergyman, to have died of the sickness; [so the Plague was denominated ;] one of whom is called a stranger, and died at the Manor House. you virtue, and which I should rather wish you to call my devotion to my country, (enchanting me with her captivating name,) almost, if I may say so, expatriated me. Other virtues, however, join their voices to assure me, that wherever we prosper in rectitude there is our country. In ending my letter, let me obtain from you this favour, that if find any parts of it incorrectly written, and without stops, you will impute it to the boy who writes for me, who is utterly ignorant of Latin, and to whom I am forced (wretchedly enough) to repeat every single syllable that I dictate. I still rejoice that your merit as an accomplished man, whom I knew as a youth of the highest expectation, has advanced you so far in the honourable favour of your prince. For your prosperity in every other point you have both my wishes and my hopes. Farewell. London, August 15, 1666.” Paradise Lost, having been made ready for publication, is said to have been in danger of being suppressed by the licenser, who imagined that, in the noble simile of the sun in an eclipse, he had discovered treason. The licenser's hesitation is a striking example of Lord Lyttleton's acute remark, that "the politicks of Milton at that time brought his poetry into disgrace; for it is a rule with the English; they see no good in a man whose politicks they dislike." Licensed, however, the poem was; and Milton sold г P B. i. 594, &c. Dialogues of the Dead. Dial. xiv. Mr. Malone observes, that the poem was entered in the Sta |