that of the other in 1654. But I am inclined to fuppofe, that he experienced the misfortune of total darkness before the latter date. For, in Thurloe's State-Papers, there is the following paffage in a letter from the Hague, dated 20. Junii, 1653. "Vous aves en Angleterre un aveugle nommé Milton, qui a le renom d' avoir bien efcrit." His enemies meanly triumphed in his blindness; and imputed it as a judgement from heaven upon him for writing against the King. But his eyes had been gradually failing long before, owing to the midnight studies of his youth. He had been cautioned by his phyficians, while he was writing his Defence of the People, to defift from the talk, if he valued the prefervation of his fight; but he was undismayed by their opinion, and did not hesitate to prefer what he thought his duty to his eyes; and, after their orbs were quenched, he nobly tells us, that, while he defpifed the refentment of thofe who rebuked his darkness, he did not want the charity to forgive them. At the defire of his friend Leonard Philaras, a celebrated Athenian, and ambassadour from the Duke of Parma at Paris, (who had written an encomium of his Defence,) he sent him a particular account of his calamity; not without an expectation, which alas! was never gratified, of deriving benefit from the opinion of Thevenot, a physician particularly dif tinguished as an oculift. Milton's curious and admirable letter, which is the fifteenth of his Latin epiftles, has been tranflated by Mr. Richardfon and Mr. Hayley. In the more attractive language of the latter, I fubmit it to the reader. f Vol. i. p. 281. "As I have cherished from my childhood (if ever mortal did) a reverential fondness for the Grecian name, and for your native Athens in particular, fo have I continually perfuaded myself, that at some period I fhould receive from that city a very fignal return for my benevolent regard: nor has the ancient genius of your most noble country failed to realize my prefage; he has given me in you an Attick brother, and one most tenderly attached to me. Though I was known to you only by my writings, and though your refidence was far diftant from mine, you first addreffed me in the most engaging terms by letter; and afterwards coming unexpectedly to London, and visiting the stranger, who had no eyes to see you, continued your kindness to me under that calamity, which can render me a more eligible friend to no one, and to many, perhaps, may make me an object of difregard. "Since, therefore, you request me not to reject all hope of recovering my fight, as you have an intimate friend at Paris, in Thevenot the phyfician, who excels particularly in relieving ocular complaints, and whom you wish to confult concerning my eyes, after receiving from me fuch an account as may enable him to understand the fource and symptoms of my diforder, I will certainly follow your kind fuggestion, that I may not appear to reject affiftance thus offered me, perhaps providentially. "It is about ten years, I think, fince I perceived my fight to grow weak and dim, finding at the fame time my intestines. afflicted with flatulence and oppreflion. "Even in the morning, if I began as ufual to read, my eyes immediately fuffered pain, and feemed to fhrink from reading, but, after fome moderate bodily exercise, were refreshed; whenever I looked at a candle I faw a fort of iris around it. Not long afterwards, on the left fide of my left eye (which began to fail fome years before the other) a darknefs arofe, that hid from me all things on that fide;-if I chanced to close my right eye, whatever was before me feemed diminished. In the last three years, as my remaining failed by degrees fome months before my fight was utterly eye gone, all things that I could difcern, though I moved not myself, appeared to fluctuate, now to the right, now to the left. Obftinate vapours feem to have fettled all over my forehead and my temples, overwhelming my eyes with a fort of fleepy heaviness, especially after food, till the evening; fo that I frequently recollect the condition of the prophet Phineus in the Argonauticks: Him vapours dark Envelop'd, and the earth appeared to roll Beneath him, finking in a lifeless trance." But I should not omit to fay, that while I had fome little fight remaining, as foon as I went to bed, and reclined on either fide, a copious light ufed to dart from my closed eyes; then, as my fight grew daily lefs, darker colours feemed to burst forth with vehemence, and a kind of internal noise; but now, as if every thing lucid were extinguished, blackness, either abfolute or chequered, and interwoven as it were with afh-colour, is accustomed to pour itfelf on my eyes; yet the darkness perpetually before them, as well during the night as in the day, feems always approaching rather to white than to black, admitting, as the eye rolls, a minute portion of light as through a crevice. "Though from your physician fuch a portion of hope alfo may arise, yet, as under an evil that admits no cure, I regulate and tranquillize my mind, often reflecting, that fince the days of darkne's allotted to each, as the wife man reminds us, are many, hitherto my darkness, by the fingular mercy of God, with the aid of study, leifure, and the kind conversation of my friends, is much lefs oppreffive than the deadly darknefs to which he alludes. For if, as it is written, man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, why fhould not a man acquiefce even in this? not thinking that he can derive light from his eyes alone, but esteeming himself fufficiently enlightened by the conduct or providence of God. "As long therefore, as he looks forward, and provides for me as he does, and leads me backward and forward by the hand, as it were, through my whole life, fhall I not cheerfully bid my eyes keep holiday, fince fuch appears to be his pleafure? But whatever may be the event of your kindness, my dear Philaras, with a mind not lefs refolute and firm than if I were Lynceus himself, I bid you farewell. Weftminster, Sept. 28, 1654." Po Thus "content, though blind," he continued to exercise his abilities with his accustomed animation. For, as Dr. Johnson remarks, his mind was too eager to be diverted, and too ftrong to be fubdued. An affiftant, however, was allowed him in his office of Latin Secretary; and his falary was continued. In 1654, he published his "Defenfio Secunda pro pulo Anglicano, contra infamem libellum anonymum, cui titulus, Regii fanguinis clamor ad coelum adverfus parricidas Anglicanos." Of the book, which excited this reply, the author was Peter du Moulin the younger, afterwards prebendary of Canterbury. He had tranfmitted his papers to Salmafius, by whom they were entrusted, for publication, to Alexander Morus. Du Moulin had been already in too much. danger not to know the neceffity of concealment. In the late King's fervice he had written his "Apologie de la Religion Reformée, et de la Monarchie, et de l'Eglife d'Angleterre, &c." which, he has himfelf recorded, "was begun at York, during the fiege, in a roome whofe chimney was beaten downe by the cannon while I was at my work; and, after the fiege and my expulfion from the rectory at Whel From the copy of his book in the Library of Canterbury Cathedral, numbered L. iv. 50.; the first five leaves of which contain a manufcript relation, written with his own hand, of his fervices in the caufe of royalty. h drake, it was finifht in an underground cellar, where I lay hid to auoyd warrants that were out against me from Committees to apprehend me and carry me prifoner to Hull.-Much about the fame time I set out my Latin poeme Ecclefiæ Gemitus with a long epiftle to all Chriftians in defence of the King and the Church of England; and two years after Clamor regi fanguinis ad coelum." Here is a confirmation then, if confirmation were wanting, that Milton had mistaken the publisher for the author. Milton, in his Second Defence, has treated Morus with equal feverity and ridicule. Morus replied in his Fides Publica, into which were interwoven, with the vain hope of blunting the keennefs of Milton's fatire, teftimonies of character, and a difavowal of the book. Du Moulin was now again in great danger. His difmayed publisher gave his enemies the means of discovering him; but they fuffered him to escape, rather than they would publickly convict Milton of his errour. Milton, on being informed that Du Moulin, and not Morus, was the author of the Clamor, is faid to have replied, "Well! that was all one, he having writt it [his Second Defence], it fhould goe into the world; one of them was as bad as the other." Morus, however, is still the object of his attack in his Authoris pro fe Defenfio, published in 1655, as a reply to the Fides Publica. Morus ventured to rejoin in a Supplementum, which was foon filenced by a brief Refponfio from Milton; and the controverfy closed. See the Note on the Epigram In Morum. |