g which, however, he professes to have united a becom→ ing modesty. But from this self-esteem and honest haughtiness he certainly did descend to & lavish commendation on her, who, Mr. Warton observes, was "contemptible both as a queen and a woman," Christina of Sweden. Aubrey says, that he was satyrical. A remark," already cited, pronounces him harsh and cholerick. And an adversary joins to these unpleasing epithets, his 'waspish spirit. To the bitterness, which perhaps exhibited him in this repulsive view, he had, however, no slight provocation. Yet he could forgive the provocation, and with forgiveness unite a very extensive generosity. There seems also in his letter to his friend Oldenburg, just before the restoration of monarchy, a kind of compunctious feeling for the severe and unmerciful attacks which he had made upon those, who had opposed his theology or his politicks: "I am not willing,” he says, "to compile a history of our troubles, as you wish ; for they appear to require oblivion rather than commemoration; and our follies and crimes have long since inflicted a deeper wound upon our religion than could have been made by our enemies." The scorn which he had sometimes exercised, and 1 k In his Defensio Sec. and his Latin verses addressed to her. As before, p. 93. * In the reception into his house of his pardoned wife's father and mother, and other relations. 'Epistolæ Familiares, Ep. xxix. Henrico Oldenburgo. Dat. Westmon. Dec. 20, 1659. the pride which was his principal fault, could thus yield, as at some other times they also yielded, to the influence of charitable and pious reflection. By controversy, and by the indulgence of early prejudices, Milton was undoubtedly soured.. Hence he so often exhibits indignant as well as lofty animation. But if the conceptions of his mind may be taken from his poetry, he cannot be thought to have been by nature unamiable. Of Milton too, however he might be mistaken in the means, the constant aim and end was liberty.. Yet with the love of liberty who will assert his attachment to Cromwell to have been consistent? But he is supposed to have been deceived by the matchless hypocrisy of that usurper; and, in the uprightness of his mind, not to have suspected the false dissembler as adverse to his own spirit of freedom. Still it may be wondered that he, who so well knew the nature of true liberty, which it 66 66 always with right reason dwells Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being;" may be wondered that he, I say, should not have perceived the designs of the tyrant whom he served. Influenced by his uprightness, however, he offered to Cromwell, with undaunted zeal, a solemn and energetick" lesson of conduct. Yet with this man power he appears to have possessed neither inti of m Def. Sec. Prose-Works, vol. iii. p. 109, ed. 1698. 4 n macy nor interest; and with others, the bold compeers of Cromwell, he asserts an acquaintance too slight to address them for any favour; while we must not forget, however, that he had, upon a former óccasion, applied to Bradshawe in behalf of Marvell. The theological opinions of Milton fall under our notice, more properly, in the remarks upon the treatise of Christian Doctrine, which form the greater part of a subsequent section, describing compositions left by him in manuscript. His literature was immense. Even his adversaries admitted, that he was the "P most able and acute scholar living." With the Hebrew, and its two dialects, he was well acquainted; and of the Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish languages, he was a master. In Latin, Dr. Johnson observes, his skill was such as places him in the first rank of writers and criticks. In the Italian he was also particularly skilled. His Sonnets in that language have received the highest commendations from Italian cri "In his letter to Peter Heimbach, who had solicited his recom mendation to those in power for the office of secretary to our ambassador in Holland: Milton answers, that he is sorry he cannot serve him " propter paucissimas familiaritates meas cum gratiosis," &c. Epist. Fam. 27, Dat. Dec. 18, 1657. See his letter, from the State-Paper Office, p. 163. P The Dignity of Kingship, in Answer to Milton, &c. by G. S. 1660, p. 5. ticks, both of his own and of a modern times. If he had written generally in Italian, it has been supposed, by the late lord Orford, that he would have been the most perfect poet in modern languages; for his own strength of thought would have condensed and hardened that speech to a proper degree. The Academy Della Crusca consulted him on the critical niceties of their language. In his early days indeed the two he had become deeply enamoured of famous renowners of Beatrice and Laura." It has been rightly remarked, that he read almost all authors, and improved by all: He himself relates, that his “round of study and reading was ceaseless.” There is a delightful minuteness too in Milton, when his studies are the theme. He tells us, that "s life had not been unexpensive in learning and voyaging about." He tells us of "the grave orators and historians, whose matter he loved; and of the smooth elegiack poets, whom both for the pleasing sound of their numerous writing, (which in imitation he found most easy and most agreeable to nature's part in him,) and for their matter, he was so allured to read, that no recreation came to him better welcome." He tells us, with a fine reflection also upon the fruits of study, that " " although he was not his See also Algarotti's ingenious criticism on his works. Opere del Conte Algarotti, Ven. 1794, tom. x. p. 39, &c. Prose-Works, vol. i. p. 177, ed. 1698. untrained in those rules which best rhetoricians have given, nor unacquainted with those examples which the prime authors of eloquence have written in any learned tongue; yet true eloquence he found to be none, but the serious and hearty love of truth." X His favourite book was the Book of God. To Milton, when a child, Revelation opened not her richest stores in vain. To devotional subjects his infant strains were dedicated; and never did "his harp forget" to acknowledge the aids which he derived from the Muse of sacred inspiration. The remark of Gibbon that the sublime genius of Milton was cramped by the system of our religion, and never appeared to so great an advantage as when he shook it a little off, falls before the just and admirable observation of Mr. Hayley; that," if some passionate admirers of antiquity seem to lament the fall of paganism, as fatal to poetry, to painting, and to sculpture, a more liberal and enlightened spirit of criticism may rather believe, what is very possible, I apprehend, to demonstrate, that Christianity can hardly be more favourable to the purity of morals, than it might be rendered to the perfection of these delightful arts. Milton himself may be regarded as an obvious and complete proof, that the position is true as far as poetry is concerned." The sanctity of manners too which his pages breathe, and the Christian lessons which they inculcate, x Essay on the Study of Literature, 1764, p. 24. |