Grammar," intended to facilitate the first weak step of the juvenile student; and remarkable only for its exhibition of a mighty mind stooping in dignified condescension to utility, and regarding nothing as high or nothing as low otherwise than as it referred to the discharge of duty and the good of his species. In the same year also he gave to the public another manuscript of the great Ralegh's, with the title of "Aphorisms of State."

By the publication of these inconsiderable works, and by his known losses from the change of government, it is probable that his enemies were encouraged at this juncture to insult over his poverty; and to speak of him as writing for his bread. Of these topics of their malignity the following lines, preserved by Richardson and eminent only for their malice, may be cited as an in

stance:

Upon JOHN MILTON's not suffering for his traiterous Book when the Tryers were executed, 1660.

"That thou escaped'st that vengeance, which o'ertook, Milton, thy regicides, and thy own book,

* When Milton complains of evil tongues, Dr. Johnson says "the charge itself seems to be false, for it would be hard to recollect any reproach cast upon him, either serious or ludicrous, through the whole remaining part of his life."-Besides the

Was clemency in Charles beyond compare:
And yet thy doom doth prove more grievous far.
Old, sickly, poor, stark blind, thou writest for bread :
So for to live thou'dst call Salmasius from the dead."

Ilnes, which I have here cited, it would be easy to produce many more effusions of malevolence, of which Milton was the object during his life time; and which fully justify his complaints, and our execration of the malignity of party.

As a story, which I have seen in print, (but by whom told or on what authority I know not,) is in perfect harmony with the point and spirit of these verses, it shall be inserted for the amusement of my readers. It bears some internal marks of authenticity, and exhibits very justly the gay and the gloomy malignity of the two royal brothers, Charles and James.

"The Duke of York, as it is reported, expressed one day to the king his brother a great desire to see old Milton of whom he had heard so much. The king replied that he felt no objection to the Duke's satisfying his curiosity and accordingly, soon afterwards James went privately to Milton's house; where, after an introduction which explained to the old republican the rank of his guest, a free conversation ensued between these very dissimilar and discordant characters. In the course however of the conversation, the Duke asked Milton whether he did not regard the loss of his eye-sight as a judgment inflicted on him for what he had written against the late king. Milton's reply was to this effect; "If your Highness thinks that the calamities which befall us here are indications of the wrath of Heaven, in what manner are we to account for the fate of the king your father? The displeasure of Heaven must upon this supposition have been much greater against him than against me-for I have lost only my eyes, but he lost his head."

Much discomposed by this answer, the Duke soon took his leave and went away. On his return to Court, the first words which he spoke to the king were," Brother, you are greatly to blame that you don't have that old rogue Milton hanged." Why-what is the matter, James," said the King, "you seem

But the moderation of his wants still kept him at a distance from poverty; and they, who could suppose him to be unhappy, must have been ill acquainted with the consolations of conscious rectitude, or with the exquisite gratification to be enjoyed by a mind affluent in knowledge, and by an imagination which could range without controll through the spacious walks of the universe.

Soon after Milton's establishment in Jewin street, Ellwood the quaker was introduced to his acquaintance by Doctor Paget. Ellwood, who is one of the most considerable of the writers of his sect, has left behind him a history of his life; and, from his accidental intercourse with the author of Paradise Lost, he is raised into an object of our particular regard. He was the son of an Oxfordshire magistrate; and falling at an early period of life into the opinions of quakerism he incurred the displeasure of his family, and ex

in a heat. What? have you seen Milton?" " Yes," answered the Duke, "I have seen him." "Well," said the King, "in what condition did you find him?" "Condition? why he is old and very poor." "Old and poor! Well, and he is blind toois he not?"-" Yes, blind as a beetle." " Why then," observed the King, "you are a fool, James, to have him hanged as a punishment: to hang him will be doing him a service; it will be taking him out of his miseries-No-if he be old, poor, and blind, he is miserable enough:-in all conscience, let him live!"

posed himself to a variety of distressful incidents. To an ardent zeal for the tenets of his peculiar sect he united a strong passion for literature; which, having been removed prematurely from school by the œconomy of his father, he had hitherto been indulged with few opportunities of gratifying. With the hope of advancing himself in classical knowledge, he now solicited an introduction, in the character of a reader, to Milton; and in this great man, conciliated by the ingenuousness of his manners and by the goodness of his heart, Ellwood soon found a friend as well as an instructor. If the beneficial commerce indeed had not experienced frequent interruptions in consequence of those misfortunes, to which he was subjected as the member of a sect at that juncture the object of particular and violent persecution, the defects of the young quaker's education would probably have been soon and affluently supplied. For the purpose of being near to his new friend, Ellwood settled himself in a lodging in the vicinity of Jewin street; and attended on every afternoon, that of sunday excepted, to read such Roman authors as his patron was desirous of hearing.

In the commencement of this intercourse, Milton was studious to form his reader's

tongue to the foreign pronunciation of the latin, assigning, as a reason for his conduct, the impossibility of conversing with foreigners without this condescension to the habit of Whether the object were really

their ears. of the magnitude attributed to it by Milton, I should be much inclined to question: but it was not, of course, disputed by Ellwood; whose perseverance, though with considerable difficulty, finally achieved it and succeeded in accommodating his accents to his master's taste. As he proceeded in reading the classics his tones would frequently betray his ignorance of what he read, and Milton would then stop him to explain the passage which seemed not to be understood. This reciprocality of service and reward was soon however suspended by a severe fit of illness, which obliged Ellwood to retire to the house. of a friend in the country. On his recovery he returned to town, and resumed his situation as reader in our author's study, where he uniformly experienced the kindness of a friend and the instructions of a master. After a short interval, he was again separated from this beneficial connexion by the circumstance of his being seised in a quaker meeting by a party of soldiers, and detained for a considerable time with his associates in a succes