a refolution of returning some time to Cambridge.

He took both the ufual degrees; that of Batchelor in 1628, and that of Master in 1632; but he left the university with no kindnefs for its inftitution, alienated either by the injudicious severity of his governors, or his own captious perverfenefs. The cause cannot now be known, but the effect appears in his writings. His scheme of education, inscribed to Hartlib, fuperfedes all academical instruction, being intended to comprise the whole time which men ufually spend inliterature, from their entrance upon grammar, till they proceed, as it is called, mafters of arts. And in his Difcourfe on the likelieft Way to remove Hirelings out of the Church, he ingeniously proposes, that the profits of the lands forfeited by the act for fuperftitious ufes, fhould be applied to fuch academies all over the land, where languages and arts may be taught together; fo that youth may be at once brought up to a competency of learning and an honeft trade, by which means fuch of them as had the gift, being enabled to fupport themselves (without tithes) by the latter, may, by the help of the former, become worthy preachers.

One of his objections to academical education, as it was then conducted, is, that men defigned for orders in the Church were permitted to act plays, writhing and unboning their clergy limbs to all the antick and dishoneft geftures of Trincalos, buffoons and bawds, profituting the fhame of that miniftry which they had, or were near baving, to the eyes of courtiers and court-ladies, their grooms and mademoiselles.

This is fufficiently peevifh in a man, who, when he mentions his exile from the college, relates, with great luxuriance, the compenfation which the pleasures of the theatre afford him. Plays were therefore only criminal when they were acted by academicks.

He went to the univerfity with a defign of entering into the church, but in time altered his mind; for he declared, that whoever be came a clergyman muft" fubfcribe flave, "and take an oath withal, which, unlefs he "took with a confcience that could retch, he "muft ftraight perjure himself. He thought "it better to prefer a blameless filence before "the office of fpeaking, bought and begun "with fervitude and forfwearing."

Thefe expreffions are, I find, applied to the fubfcription of the Articles; but it feems more probable that they relate to canonical obedience. I know not any of the Articles which seem to thwart his opinions; but the thoughts of obedience, whether canonical or civil, raifed his indignation.

His unwillingness to engage in the miniftry, perhaps not yet advanced to a fettled refolution of declining it, appears in a letter to one of his friends, who had reproved his fufpended and dilatory life, which he feems to have imputed to an infatiable curiofity, and fantaftick luxury of various knowledge. To this he writes a cool and plaufible anfwer, in which he endeavours to perfuade him that the delay proceeds not from the delights of defultory tudy, but from the defire of obtaining more fitnefs for his task; and that he goes on, not

taking thought of being late, fo it give advantage to be more fit.

When he left the university, he returned to his father, then refiding at Horton in Buckinghamshire, with whom he lived five years; in which time he is faid to have read all the Greek and Latin writers. With what limitations this univerfality is to be understood, who fhall inform us?

It might be fuppofed that he who read fo much fhould have done nothing else; but Milton found time to write the Masque of Comus, which was prefented at Ludlow, then the refidence of the Lord Prefident of Wales, in 1634; and had the honour of being acted by the earl of Bridgewater's fons and daughter. The fiction is derived from Homer's Circe; but we never can refufe to any modern the liberty of borrowing from Homer;

-a quo ceu fonte perenni

Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis.

His next production was Lycidas, an elegy, written in 1637, on the death of Mr. King, the fon of Sir John King, fecretary for Ireland in the time of Elizabeth, James, and Charles. King was much a favourite at Cambridge, and many of the wits joined to do honour to his memory. Milton's acquaintance with the Italian writers may be discoverd by a mixture of longer and fhorter verses, according to the rules of Tufcan poetry, and his malignity to the Church by fome lines which are interpreted as threatening its extermination.

He is fuppofed about this time to have written his Arcades; for while he lived a Horton he used fometimes to fteal from his ftudies a

few

few days, which he fpent at Harefield, the houfe of the counters dowager of Derby, where the Arcades made part of a dramatick entertainment.

He began now to grow weary of the country; and had fome purpose of taking chambers in the Inns of Court, when the death of his mother fet him at liberty to travel, for which he obtained his father's confent, and Sir Henry Wotton's directions, with the celebrated precept of prudence, i penfieri ftretti, ed il vifo fciolto; "thoughts clofe, and looks

loofe."

In 1638 he left England, and went first to Paris; where, by the favour of lord Scudamore, he had the opportunity of visiting Grotius, then refiding at the French court as ambaffador from Chriftina of Sweden. From Paris he hafted into Italy, of which he had with particular diligence ftudied the language and literature; and, though he seems to have intended a very quick prerambulation of the country, ftaid two months at Florence; where he found his way into the academies, and produced his compofitions with fuch applaufe as appears to have exalted him in his own opinion, and confirmed him in the hope, that,

by labour and intenfe ftudy, which," fays he, "I take to be my portion in this life, joined with a strong propenfity of nature, "he might leave fomething fo written to af"ter-times, as they should not willingly let "it die,"

It appears, in all his writings, that he had the ufual concomitant of great abilities, a lofty and steady confidence in himself, perhaps not without fome contempt of others; for fcarcely

any

any man ever wrote fo much and praised fo few. Of his praise he was very frugal; as he fet its value high, and confidered his mention of a name as a fecurity against the waste of time, and a certain prefervative from oblivion.

At Florence he could not indeed complain that his merit wanted diftinction. Carlo Dati presented him with an encomiaftick infcription, in the tumid lapidary ftile; and Francini wrote him an ode, of which the firft ftanza is only empty noise; the reft are perhaps too diffufe on common topicks; but the last is natural and beautiful.

From Florence he went to Sienna, and from Sienna to Rome, where he was again received with kindness by the Learned and the Great Holftenius, the keeper of the Vatican library, who had refided three years at Oxford, introduced him to cardinal Barberini, and he, at a musical entertainment, waited for him at the door, and led him by the hand into the affembly. Here Selvaggi praised him in a diftich, and Salfilli in a tetrastick; neither of them of much value. The Italians were gainers by this literary commerce; for the encomiums with which Milton repaid Salfilli, though not secure against a stern grammarian, turn the ballance indifputably in Milton's fa

your.

Of these Italian teftimonies, poor as they are, he was proud enough to publish them before his poems; though he fays, he cannot be fufpected but to have known that they were faid non tam de fe, quam fupra fe.

At Rome, as at Florence, he ftaid only two months; a time indeed fufficient, if he defired