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hastily decided on the intellectual impulses of Milton, he has also contradicted himself.

Lastly, it may be remarked that Milton's favourite doctrine of the superiority of man to woman, which indeed he strenuously asserts in his theological treatise as well as in his poetry, and in other parts of his works, contributed perhaps to the circumstance of his first wife's temporary abandonment of him, and to the desire of his daughters, in his later days, to quit the attention which they had been used to pay him. But his last wife" appears to have treated him with all the kindness which his blindness and infirmities required. Yet his favourite doctrine had not been acted upon without publick notice: for thus an antagonist addresses him. The wife is subject to her husband, one to one; yet no vassal, unless Mr. Milton's doctrine of divorce may be admitted, that he may turn her off as soon, or as oft, as his wayward spirit can find no delight in her. The children are subject to their parents, yet no slaves."

66 n

To the concluding note of Mr. Warton in the SEVENTH SECTION, in which Caleb Clarke the grand

"He [Johnson] here admits an opinion of the human mind being influenced by seasons, which he ridicules in his writings." Boswell's Life of Johnson, 3d. edit. vol. ii.

m See what is before said of this wife, and of his daughters. "The Duty of Kingship, in answer to Mr. Milton, &c. By G. S. 1660, p. 71.

B b

son of Milton (who migrated to the East Indies) is mentioned, I am enabled to add from the kind communication of Sir James Mackintosh, that he was Parish-Clerk of Madras. His children were the last descendants of the poet; but of them nothing further is known.

In the EIGHTH SECTION I have so fully considered the Theological Treatise of Milton, as to render unnecessary any other observation than that the spirit, in which it has been framed, presents him to our view, and to our respect, becoming gradually more tolerant of the supposed errors of others, as the period drew near when he must answer for his own before an unerring tribunal."

66

• Dr. Sumner's Introduct. p. xxvi.

APPENDIX

CONTAINING

AN INQUIRY

INTO THE

ORIGIN OF PARADISE LOST.

APPENDIX.

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An Inquiry into the Origin of Paradise Lost.

a

THE earliest observation respecting the Origin of Paradise Lost appears to have been made by Voltaire, in the year 1727. He was then studying in

"The petty circumstances, by which great minds are led to the first conception of great designs, are so various and volatile, that nothing can be more difficult to discover: Fancy in particular is of a nature so airy, that the traces of her step are hardly to be discerned; ideas are so fugitive, that if poets, in their life time, were questioned concerning the manner in which the seeds. of considerable productions first arose in their mind, they might not always be able to answer the inquiry; can it then be possible to succeed in such an inquiry concerning a mighty genius, who has been consigned more than a century to the tomb, especially when, in the records of his life, we can find no positive evidence on the point in question? However trifling the chances it may afford of success, the investigation is assuredly worthy our pursuit; for, as an accomplished critick has said, in speaking of another poet, with his usual felicity of discernment and expression, the inquiry cannot be void of entertainment whilst MILTON is our constant theme: whatever may be the fortune of the chace, we are sure it will lead us through pleasant prospects and a fine country." See Hayley's Conjectures on the Origin of Paradise Lost.

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