Metrodorus, his account of life, iii. 236.
Midsummer, an Ode, i. 136.
Midsummer Night's Dream, observations on Shakspeare's comedy,
ii. 145.
Milbourne, Rev. Mr. specimen of his criticism on Dryden's trans-
lation of Virgil, 426.
Milton, John, preface to an Essay on his use and imitation of mo-
derns in his Paradise Lost, viii. 1. From whence he took the
first hints of Paradise Lost, 2. MSS. called Adam Unparadised,
supposed to be the embryo of Paradise Lost, 3. Subscriptions
solicited for Mrs. Eliz. Foster his grand-daughter, 6. Inferior
both to May and Cowley in Latin Poetry, ix. 13. Life of, 84.
Descended from the proprietors of Milton, near Thame in Ox-
fordshire, 84. His grandfather keeper of the forest of Shotover,
84. His father a scrivener, and eminent for his skill in musick,
84. His mother's name Caston, a Welsh family, 85.
His bro-
ther Christopher, knighted by king James, and made a judge,
85. His sister Anne married Edward Philips, secondary in the
Crown Office, who left two sons John and Edward, who were
educated by the poet, 85. Born at his father's, the Spread Eagle
in Bread-street, London, Dec. 9, 1608, 85. Received private
tuition under Mr. Young, then went to St. Paul's school, and
entered sizar at Christ's College, Cambridge, Feb. 12, 1624, 86.
At fifteen years of age, he versified psalm cxiv. and cxxxiv. 86.
Wrote many elegies in his eighteenth year, 86. Wrote Latin
verses with classick elegance, 87. Received corporal punishment
at Cambridge, 87. Took his Bachelor's degree 1628, and Master's
1632, 88. Observations on his " Scheme of Education,” 89.
One of his objections to academical education, 89. His objec-
tions to entering into the ministry, 89. After leaving the univer-
sity, he spent five years with his father in the country, where he
read the Greek and Latin authours, 90. His Mask of Comus,
first acted in 1634, 91. His Lycidas, written in 1637, and his
Arcades about the same time, 91. Travels in 1638, 92. Scarce
any ever wrote so much, or praised so few, 93. Particularly no-
ticed at Florence, 93. Receives various Italian testimonies in
his favour, 94. Returns to London, 95. Instructs his nephews
J. and E. Philips, and some other boys, 95. His biographers in-
clined to shrink from this part of his life, 96. A schoolmaster an
honest and useful employment, 97. In education he is said to
have performed wonders, 97. On Sundays he instructed his scho-
lars in theology, 99. His treatise on reformation, published in
1641, 99. Answers a book of bishop Usher's in defence of epis-
copacy, 99.
Publishes his reasons of church government urged
against prelacy, and two other pamphlets on the same subject, 100.
Marries Mary Powel, who leaves him after one month, 102.
Publishes several books on divorce, for which he is called before
the Lords, but soon dismissed, 103. Becomes an enemy to the
Presbyterians, 103. Pays his addresses to a daughter of Dr.
Davis, 104. His wife asks forgiveness, and returns to him, 104.
Publishes his Areopagitica, 104. Publishes a collection of Latin
and English poems 1645, 105. Takes a larger house in Barbican
for his scholars, 105. Grants a refuge to the relations of his
wife, 105. As a schoolmaster compared to a chamber milliner, 105.
Is supposed to have had a design of entering into Sir W. Waller's
army as adjutant-general, 106. Removes to a small house in
Holborn, 106. Writes in justification of the king's murder, 106.
Writes remarks on the articles of peace between Ormond and the
Irish rebels, 107. Suspected of having interpolated the Icon Ba-
silike, 107. Answers Salmasius's Defensio Regis, 108. His blind-
ness laid to the charge of Salmasius's book, 110. Loses his wife
in childbed, 111. Marries a daughter of Capt. Woodcock, who
also dies in child-bed in the first year, 111. Various answers to the
"Defensio Populi," 109. Writes his "Defensio Secunda," 112.
Instance of his flattery to Cromwell, 112. Supposed to have
written the declaration of the reasons for a war with Spain, 114.
Attempts to collect a Latin Dictionary, which is afterwards made
use of in a new edition of Littleton, 115. Compiles a History
of England to the Conquest, designs his Paradise Lost, 116.
Sketch of the original plan, 116. Continues to write in favour
of a Commonwealth, even to within a few weeks of the Restora-
tion, 121. At the Restoration concealed himself in Bartholomew
Close, 122. His Defence burned by the common hangman, 123.
His prosecution stopped by the intercession of Davenant, whose
life Milton had saved, 123. Removes to Jewin-street, and mar-
ries Elizabeth Minshul, 125. Is said to have had an offer of con-
tinuing in his place, 125. Employs Elwood the quaker to read
Latin to him, 126. Takes a house in Artillery-lane, 127. Wrote
his Paradise Lost only between the autumnal and vernal equinoxes,
129. Was of opinion that the world was in its decay, 130.
Imagined the climate too cold for flights of imagination, 131.
His daughters were not taught to write, 133. Lives unmolested
after the Restoration, 134. Retires to Chafont during the plague,
134. The next year returns to Bunhill-fields, 135. A complete
copy of Paradise Lost first seen 1665, 135. Obtains a licence,
and sells the copy for 5l. and 5l. at the sale of 1300 copies of each
of the first three editions, 135. Causes of the supposed neglect
of the Paradise Lost, 136. Books of various languages read to
him by his daughters and friends, 138. Publishes his History of
England three years after Paradise Lost, 139. Publishes Paradise
Regained, and Samson Agonistes, in the same year, 140. Pub-
lishes his Artis Logicæ plenior Institutio 1672, 141. Publishes a
Treatise on true Religion, &c. 141. Reprints his juvenile Poems
with some additions, 142. His last publication was familiar
Epistles in Latin, some academical exercises, 142. Died, Nov.
10, 1674, and buried at St. Giles's Cripplegate, 142. A monu-
ment erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey by Mr. Benson,
143. His person described, 143. His domestick habits de-
scribed, 144. His salary, as Latin Secretary, 2007. a year, 145.
Received 1000l. for his Defence of the People, lost very con-
siderable sums of money, 145. Left 1500l. to his widow, 145.
Account of his great learning, 145. His theological opinions,
146. His political notions, 147. He thought woman made only
for obedience, and man for rebellion, 148. Account of his family,
149. Comus acted April 5, 1750, for the benefit of a grand-
daughter of Milton, Dr. Johnson wrote a prologue, 150. Account
of his poetical works, 152. Character of his Lycidas, 153. Cha-
racter of L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, 155. Many of their images
borrowed from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 157. Mask of
Comus characterized, 158. His Sonnets characterized, 160. His
Paradise Lost characterized, 160. His Paradise Regained cha-
racterized, 178. His Samson Agonistes characterized, 178.
Philips's Parody on him, characterized, 300. His Paradise Lost
becomes popular through Addison's remarks, x. 138. Remarks
on his versification, v. 91. 105. The peculiarity of it, wherein it
consists, 106. He formed his scheme of it upon the models of
Greece and Rome, 115. Critical remarks on his Samson Ago-
nistes, a tragedy, v. 431. 437.
Mince pies and plum porridge, animosities excited by the use of,
Mind, the productions of, proceed step by step, iii. 9. The freest
part of man, 32. The tranquillity of it, from what sources gene-
rally derived, iv. 33. Its extensive powers displayed, 266. The
rise and progress of its dispositions and faculties, v. 65. Shown
in the gradations from pleasure to ambition and avarice, 68.
The medicines most suitable to its distempers, often unpleasing to
the taste, 117.
Mines, alone, not the source of wealth, ii. 394.
culture, must be exhausted for the purchase of bread, 394.
Minim, Dick, his history, vii. 239. Used the company of the lower
players, 239. His opinion of many of the poets, 240. Becomes
a critick, 242. Forms a plan for an academy of criticism, 244.
Presides in a critical society, 245. His advice to a student, 247.
Ministers, account of the disputes between the Independents and
Presbyterians on the authority of, iv. 510.
Misanthrope, of Moliere, a complete character, iii. 21.
Misella, her affecting narrative of her being betrayed by the trea-
chery of her uncle, and the fatal influence of it on her virtue and
happiness, v. 175. 181.
Misellus, his account of his commencing an authour, iv. 103.
Misery, how increased by comparison with happiness, iii. 246.
Miseries of the world, the knowledge of, necessary to happiness, iii.
Misæapelus, the events which discouraged him from engaging in
trade, v. 288. His appearing in the character of a wit, 336.
Misocolax, his censure of the practice of giving unmerited praise, v.
Misothea, her fondness for disputation, v. 268.
Misty, Dick, his history, vii. 315.
Mitissa, her conduct in a married life described, iv. 230.
Modena, Duke of, translation of a distich on his running away from
a comet, i. 104.
Moderation, man of, his character, vi. 26.
Molesworth, his account of Denmark answered by Dr. King, x. 32.
Monastick life, considerations on, iii. 433.
Monboddo, Lord, visited by Dr. Johnson, viii. 220.
Money, no man can be born a lover of it, xi. 151. Inquiry into the
value of, in the time of Henry VIII. 626. Inquiry into the value
of, in Scotland, about 200 years ago, viii. 224.
Money lenders, their vile practices exposed, iii. 145.
Montague, Lady Mary Wortley, Savage's flattery of her in the de-
dication to his miscellany of poems, x. 303.
Montrose, account of, viii. 219.
Morad, his history, vi. 287. His dying charge to his son Abouzaid,
289.
Morality, inquiries relating to it vastly preferable to physical con-
templations, iv. 157. This truth illustrated in the character of
Gelidus, 157. The ancient poets very exceptionable teachers of
it, 188.
Morin, Lewis, his life translated from the Eloge by Fontenelle, xii.
160. Born at Mens 1635, 160. Applies to the study of botany,
160. Studied philosophy at Paris, 161. Studies physick, and
confines himself to a regimen of bread, water, and fruit, 161.
Admitted Doctor of Physick 1662, 161. Physician to the Hotel
Dieu, 162. Physician to the Mad. de Guise, who, at her death,
leaves him a pension of 2000 livres, 163. Retires to St. Victor,
163. Associate botanist of the Royal Academy 1699, 163. Pen-
sionary of the Royal Academy, 164. Died 1714, 165. He kept
a journal of the weather for forty years, 166.
Morrow, Demetrius's speech on the expectation of, i. 72.
Mortality, the due consideration of it a proper means of preventing
our misery and promoting our happiness, iv. 110.
Mothers, their greater cruelty in distressing their offspring than in
murdering it, x. 313.
Mountains, on the measurement of the height of, viii. 252. Advan-
tages of travelling through mountainous and barren countries, 254.
Mountainous countries generally contain the oldest inhabitants,
258. Contain inhabitants more barbarous than maritime parts,
259. Mountaineers are warlike and thievish, 261.
Muach, account of the clan of, viii. 293.
Muck Island, account of, viii. 294.
Mull, Isle, account of, viii. 380.
Murray, Lady Sophia, celebrated by Waller under the name of Amo-
ret, ix. 233.
Myrtilla, her account of the character and behaviour of Flavia,
v. 78.
Muses, Memory the mother of, vii. 296.
Musick, the pleasure of ladies in attending musical performances,
vii. 68.
Mysargyrus, his history, iii. 137. 144. History of his companions
in the Fleet prison, 162. 166.
NAIRN, account of, viii. 235.
Narration, historical, the difficulty of this kind of writing illus-
trated, v. 328.
Nature, the contemplation of its works, fitted to afford pleasure and
instruction, iv. 30. It furnishes a source of proper materials for
reflection from the objects about us, and discovers new reasons
for adoring the sovereign Authour of the universe, 30. By
enlarging our curiosity after the works of nature we multiply the
inlets of happiness, 32.
Nation, its state to be discovered by the manners of the common
people, viii. 232.
Natural History, difficulties in writing on that subject, vii. 220.
Nature, no danger of her being exhausted, vii. 10.
Naval dominion, its origin, ii. 208.
Navigation, no tradition of, before Noah's Ark, ii. 208.
progress of, for two centuries after the discovery of the compass,
209. Don Henry, son of John I. king of Portugal, the first
who formed the design of making new discoveries about 1410,
209. Short account of discoveries made under the direction of
Don Henry, 210. Short account of the progress of other dis-
coveries, 221.
Neale, Edmund, known by the name of Smith. See Smith.
Necessaries, and superfluities of life considered, vii. 147.
Needle-work, the folly of confining girls wholly to it, vii. 50.
Negligence, the power of it strengthened by small indulgencies, vi.
354.
Nekayah joins her brother Rasselas in flying from the happy valley,
in pursuit of happiness, iii. 342. Her inquiries in private life,
366. During a visit to the Pyramids, her companion Pekuah
carried away by the Arabs, 390. Her sorrow for the loss of Pe-
kuah, 394. Pekuah is recovered, 399. Pekuah's adventures,
401. See Rasselas.
Nelson, James, anecdote of him, iii. 283.
Neutrality, a prisoner may promise to observe it, ix. 11.
News, on the fond appetite for, iv. 387.
Newspapers, account of the Mercurius Aulicus, Mercurius Rusti-
cus, and Mercurius Civicus, x. 86. Account of L'Estrange's Ob-
servator, and Lesley's Rehearsal, 86. The advantage of, to idlers,
vii. 25. Contribute to the knowledge of the common people, 26.
Directions for spinning out news, 27. The amazing increase of,
119. Description of a news-writer, by Sir Henry Wotton, 119.
Qualifications of a news-writer, 119. On the increase of adver-
tisements, 159.
New Scotland, the first plan of establishing a colony there, ii. 288.
Newton, Sir Isaac, Pope's Epitaph intended for him, with the
Visitor's criticisms, xi. 214. Observations on his character, ii.
273. An Epitaph recommended for him, 273. Review of his
|