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great poet to as large a portion of affectionate esteem, as he has long possessed 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 same month. His christian name descended to him from his grandfather. The family, once opulent proprietors of Milton, in Oxfordshire, lost that estate in the civil wars of York and Lancaster, and was indebted, perhaps, to adversity for much higher distinction than opulence can bestow. John, the grandfather of the poet, became deputy ranger in the forest of Shotover, not far from Oxford: and intending to educate his son as a gentleman, he placed him at Christ-Church, in that university; but being himself a rigid Papist, he disinherited the young and devout scholar, for an attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation, and reduced him to the necessity of quitting the path of literature for a less honorable but more lucrative profession.

The discarded student applied himself

to the employment of a scrivener, which has varied with the variations of life and manners. A scrivener, 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 profession enabled the father of Milton to bestow most abundantly on his son, those advantages of education, which had been cruelly withdrawn from himself.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 testimony. The maiden name of his mother has been disputed; 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 Caston and her family derived from Wales. Milton in mentioning his own origin, with a decent pride, in reply to one of his revilers, asserts,

that his mother was a woman of exemplary character, and peculiarly distinguished by her extensive 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 tenderness, and poetical enthusiasm. It is probable, that the severe manner in which that indulgent father had been driven from the pursuits of learning induced him to exert uncommon liberality and ardour in the education of his son. Though immersed himself in a lucrative occupation, he seems to have retained great elegance of mind, and to have amused himself with literature and music; to the latter be applied so successfully, that, according to Dr. Burney, the accomplished historian of that captivating art, "he became a voluminous composer, equal in science, if not in genius, to the best musicians of his age." Nor did his talents pass without celebrity or reward. Philips relates

* Londini sum natus, genere honesto, patre viro integerrimo, matre probatissimâ, et eleemosynis per viciniam potissimum notâ Defensio secunda.

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that for one of his devotional compositions in forty parts, he was honored with a chain and medal by a Polish prince, to whom he presented it. This mark of distinction was conferred on men, who rose to great excellence in different arts and sciences: perhaps the ambition of young Milton was first awakened by these gifts of honor bestowed upon his father.*

* 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 observed, that the curious publication ascribed to Milton's father may be found in the Bodleian Library; that, "it appears to be a satire on characters pretending to wisdom or policy, and is not void of learning and wit, such as we often find affectedly and awkwardly blended in the essay-writers of that age."

By the favor of Mr. Isaac Reed, who was most liberal in the communication of the literary rarities he had collected, I have perused this singular performance, and perfectly agreed with its obliging possessor, and his accomplished friend, Dr. Farmer, that although in the -records of the Stationers Company it is ascribed to John Milton, we may rather assign it to John Melton, author of the Astrologaster, than to the father of our poet.

A parent who could enliven the drudgery of a dull profession by a variety of elegant pursuits, must have been happy to discern, and eager to cherish, the first 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 Jansen. Aubrey, the antiquarian, observing 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 expression may lead us to imagine, that the portrait was executed to encourage the infant author; and if so, 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 intense, or with a purer flame of literary ambition, than the mind of Milton, it may not be unpleasing to conjec

The latter will lose but little in being no longer regarded as its author, especially as we have different and more honorable proofs of his attachment to literature.

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