Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

if the conceptions of his mind may be taken from his poetry, he will not be thought to have been by nature unamiable. Of Milton, however he might be mistaken in the means, the conftant aim and end was liberty. Yet with the love of liberty who will affert his attachment to Cromwell to have been confiftent? But he is fuppofed to have been deceived by the matchlefs hypocrify of that ufurper; and, in the uprightness of his mind, not to have fufpected the falfe diffembler as adverfe to his own fpirit of freedom. Still it may be wondered that he, who fo well knew the nature of true liberty, which

it

"always with right reafon dwells

[ocr errors]

"Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being;" may be wondered that he, I fay, fhould not have. timely perceived the defigns of the tyrant whom he ferved. Influenced by his uprightness, however, he had before offered to Cromwell, with undaunted zeal, a folemn and energetick leffon of conduct. Nor was Milton exactly that friend to the majesty of the people, which the modern illuminators of the world have imagined. For, to that pretended fovereignty, what greater infult can be offered than the appellations, with which he has diftinguished the people, of a "herd confus'd, a miscellaneous rabble!" The well-known expreffion of Burke muft yield to thefe kindred phrases.

r

See the Note on Par. Loft, B. iii. 683.

P Def. Sec. Profe-Works, vol. iii. p. 109, ed. 1698.

9 Par. Regained, B. iii. 49.

See the Notes on Par. Reg. B. iii. 49.

ferve, was an ardent admirer of Milton.

Burke, I may ob

I learn, from Mr.

Walker, that this great orator was a diftinguished member of a Literary Club, inftituted in Dublin in 1747, in which he fome

The theological fentiments of Milton are faid to have been often changed; from Puritanifm to Calvinism; from Calvinifm to an esteem for Arminius; and finally, from an accordance with Independents and

t

times held the fecretary's pen, and fometimes filled the prefident's chair; and that, in the original minutes of this fociety, his early Miltonick tafte is thus recorded. "Friday, June 5th, 1747. Mr. Burke, being ordered to speak the fpeech of Moloch, receives applaufe for the delivery; it being in character: Then the fpeech was read, and criticised upon; its many beauties illuftrated; the chief judged to be its conformity with the character of Moloch; No; let us rather choose,

Arm'd with Hell-flames and fury, all at once
'O'er Heaven's high towers to force refiftless way.'

The words all at once' (the metre not confidered) feemed, to the whole affembly, to hurt the fentence by stopping the rapidity, and checking the fierceness, of it; making it too long and tedious. Then was Belial's fpeech read, to the great delight of the hearers; whofe opinion was, that Homer only can be compared to Milton, not only for the beauties that shine in every verfe, but likewise for the just and lively colours in which each character was drawn; for that none but Homer, like him, ever fupported fuch spirit and exactnefs in the fpeeches of fuch a contrast and variety of perfons." Thefe notices will not feem tedious; for they fuggeft an opinion, that the finest oratory of modern times might owe its origin, and perfection, to the poetry of Milton.

66

See before, p. 64. Petit, in his Vifion of Purgatory, pub lifhed in 1685, introduces Milton in converfation with a Provincial of the Jefuits, to whom "the fanatical rebels of England" are defcribed as imps;" and, "because Milton was a man of fingular eloquence," the author reprefents him, as fpiritedly expoftulating with the Provincial for being " denied the honour which is fo eafily granted to men vaftly beneath my merits and deferts; for what can any a an doe for the promotion of your interests that I have not done?" pp. 98, 99, &c.

Anabaptifts, to a dereliction of every denomination of Proteftants. From any heretical peculiarity of opinion he was free. Dr. Newton confiders him as a Quietist, full of the interiour of religion, though he fo little regarded the exteriour. Dr. Johnfon obferves, that "he grew old without any visible worfhip; but, that he lived without prayer, can hardly be affirmed; his ftudies and meditations were an habitual prayer." From a remark of Toland, that, "in the latter part of his life, Milton frequented none of the affemblies of any particular fect of Christians, nor made use of their particular rites in his family," have arifen affertions without proofs, by other biographers, that " he did not ufe any religious rite," and that " he never used prayer in his family." I am inclined to believe that he, who, in his divine poem, fo carefully defcribes the morning and evening worship of our firft parents, the first and laft hours of the day employed in devotion, could hardly be negligent of reverence to God in his own houfhold. I must not, however, withhold from notice a strange affertion of Milton, refpecting "I believe that God is no more moved with a prayer claborately penned, than men truly charitable are moved with the penned fpeech of a beggar!" To his determination of affociating with no Church we owe the masterly and judicious obfervation of Johnfon: "To be of no Church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are diftant, and which is animated only by Faith and Hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind, unless it be in

prayer:

Eiconoclaftes, Profe-Works, vol. ii. p. 511. ed. 1698.

vigorated and reimpreffed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the falutary influence of example." Of our liturgy, as of epifcopacy, Milton has often expreffed his contempt. He is * faid to have been a principal founder of the CalvesHead Club; a festival, which began to be held, during the ufurpation, on the thirtieth of January; in oppofition to Dr. Hammond, and other divines of the Church of England, who met privately to lament that day, in a form of prayer, little different from what we now find in the liturgy.

Milton's circumftances were never very affluent. The eftate left him by his father was but fmall. In the civil war he fuftained the lofs of a confiderable perfonal property, which he had lent to the Parliament. As Latin Secretary he enjoyed an annual falary of two hundred pounds, together with an estate of about fixty pounds a year which belonged to the plundered abbey of Westminster. Of these revenues, as well as of two thousand pounds which he had placed in the Excife-Office, he was deprived at the Restoration.

[ocr errors]

* See the Secret History of the Calves-Head Club, 1709, p. 17. y See Kennett's Regifter, p. 38. See alfo "Private Forms of Prayer, fitted for the late fad times. Particularly, a Form of Prayer for the thirtieth of January, morning and evening. With Additions, &c. Lond. 1660." 12mo. Dr. Hammond is fuppofed to be the author.

z In 1791 died Jonathan Hartop, of the village of Aldborough near Borough-bridge in Yorkshire, at the great age of 138. He is faid to have "lent Milton fifty pounds, foon after the Restoration, which the bard returned him with honour, though not without much difficulty, as his circumftances were very low. Mr. Hartop would have declined receiving it; but

He had before loft two thousand pounds by entrusting it to a fcrivener; and, in the fire of London, his houfe in Bread-street was burnt. To Milton, however, the deficiency of wealth was little difappointment. He had thirfted more after intellectual riches. The paucity of his wants, and the frugal management of what he retained, enabled him to live without diftrefs. Of the property which he left, the publication of his Nuncupative Will has rectified the mistaken accounts of all his biographers before Mr. Hayley. If he fold his library before his death, as fome have afferted, he was perhaps compelled to it by the pillage it had already fuftained, and by the fear of its total plunder.

All

Of his family I fhall fubjoin a brief account. his biographers notice his younger brother, Chriftopher, and his fifter, Anne. Of two other fifters the existence has never been related. I have found, however, in the regifter of All-hallows Breadstreet, the births of Sarah and Tabitha Milton, and

a

the pride of the poet was equal to his genius, and he fent the money with an angry letter, which was found among the curious poffeffions of that venerable old man." Eafton's Human Longevity, 8vo. Salisbury, 1799, pp. 241, 242. This curious anecdote of Milton had appeared in the Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser of March 31, 1790, Mr. Hartop being then living, and the letter defcribed as extant.

The xyth daye of July 1612 was baptized SARA, the dawghter of John Mylton, fcrivener. She was buried the vith of Auguft following in the church.

"The xxxth of January, 1613, [that is 1613-14,] was baptized TABITHA, the dawghter of Mr. John Mylton.

"The third daye of December 1615 was baptized CHRISTOPHER, the foune of John Mylton of this pile, fcrivenor." Extracts from the Register.

« AnteriorContinua »