Milton had an open, pure, and beautiful face. His complexion was exceedingly fair, and even in old age his cheeks retained a ruddy tinge. His hair was light brown, parted in front, and hung down over his shoulders. His eyes were a dark gray, and even when he was totally deprived of sight they retained their luster.

A clergyman, who was a contemporary, has left a record of how he "found John Milton in a small chamber, hung with rusty green, sitting in an elbowchair, and dressed neatly in black; pale, but not cadaverous. He used, also, to sit in a gray, coarse cloth coat at the door of his house in Bunhill Fields, in warm, sunny weather, to enjoy the fresh air, and so, as well as in his room, received the visits of people of distinguished parts, as well as quality." On the whole, a pleasant picture.

In his manner of living he was exceedingly temperate. In summer he rose at four, in winter at five, in the morning. A chapter of the Hebrew Bible was read to him, after which he studied, with the intervention of breakfast, till noon. He then took gardenexercise for an hour, dined, played on the organ, either sang himself, or made some friend sing, and continued. his studies till six in the evening. From six to eight he entertained visitors. After a light supper, followed by a pipe of tobacco and a glass of water, he retired to rest.

By nature he was serenely serious; an heroic trust in Heaven made him superior to the accidents of life: and so, when we think of his old age, wrapped in

darkness, and assailed with evil tongues, the vision that rises before us is not that of a soured and disappointed politician, but of a seraphic bard who finds a holy joy in the perennial inspirations of his own genius.

Let us close this sketch with the noble lines in which Wordsworth pays tribute to this lofty soul:-

Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea,

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free.

So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

1.-L'ALLEGRO.

[L'Allegro (pron. lal-la'gro: Ital.) signifies literally the cheerful or merry man; and the poem celebrates the charms of a social, amiable, light-hearted view of life. The advocate of this mood calls on "hearteasing Mirth (mirth to be understood as a placid, philosophical sentiment) to come to him with a retinue of kindred spirits. He would fain hear the lark singing, and enjoy all other cheery sights and sounds of the bright morning time; he would be present at the merry-makings of the village, and listen to the marvelous tales there told; he rejoices in the life of the town, in all its gay gatherings; he goes to see great comedies acted; above all things, he would be surrounded by the sweet singing of exquisite verses."]

HENCE, loathéd Melancholy,1

3

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born,

1 Melancholy. What is the fig-|nal regions; usually represented as ure of speech? (See Def. 4.)

2 Cerberus, the monster that guarded the entrance to the infer

a dog with three heads, but sometimes with a hundred.

8 Midnight. Figure?

In Stygian1 cave forlorn,

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights2 unholy! Find out some uncouth cell,

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,
And the night raven sings;

There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks,
As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian 6. desert ever dwell.
But come, thou goddess fair and free,
In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne,8
And by men, heart-easing Mirth,
Whom lovely Venus at a birth,
With two sister Graces more,
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore.

Haste thee,10 nymph, and bring with thee
Jest and youthful Jollity,

Quips, and cranks," and wanton 12 wiles,

1 Stygian, from Styx (meaning | "the Hateful"), a river of Hades over which Charon ferried the ghosts of the dead.

ycleped, named. 8 Euphrosyne

...

two sister

Graces more. Euphrosyne (the
Mirthful), one of the three Graces

2 shapes, shrieks, sights. Note who attended on Venus, the god

the alliteration.

8 uncouth, wild, strange.

'ebon. Meaning?

dess of love. The "two sister Graces more" were Aglaia (Brightness) and Thalia (Bloom).

9 Bacchus, the god of wine. 10 Haste thee, etc. Point out all the examples of personification in these lines.

11 Quips and cranks. A "quip" is a smart, satirical saying; a "crank," a lively, humorous, and puzzling turn of speech.

12 wanton, free and easy.

Nods, and becks, and wreathéd smiles
Such as hang on Hebe's1 cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek ;
Sport, that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it as ye go

On the light fantastic toe;

2

And in thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.3
And, if I give thee honor due,

4

Mirth, admit me of thy crew
To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreprovéd 5 pleasures free;
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing startle the dull Night
From his watch-tower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise;
Then to come in spite of sorrow,7
And at my window bid good-morrow,
Through the sweet-brier, or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine,8

6

While the cock, with lively din,1
Scatters the rear of darkness thin,2
And to the stack or the barn door
Stoutly struts his dames before;

Oft listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn,

3

From the side of some hoar hill,4

Through the high wood echoing shrill;
Sometime walking, not unseen,

By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green,
Right against the eastern gate,6
Where the great sun begins his state,7
Robed in flames and amber light,
The clouds in thousand liveries dight,
While the plowman near at hand
Whistles o'er the furrowed land,
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
And the mower whets his scythe,
And every shepherd tells his tale 10
Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures
While the landscape 12 round it measures,

1 lively din. Explain.

9 dight (Anglo-Saxon dihtan, to

2 Scatters... thin. Express in arrange, to deck), arrayed.

plain terms.

3 cheerly cheerily.

10 tells his tale. The tale is here not a tale of love, but the tale (tally,

hoar hill, a hill covered with number) of sheep counted by the

hoar-frost, rime-white.

5 against, towards.

6 the eastern gate. Explain.

state, stately progress.

8 liveries, colors.

shepherd. So the "tale" of bricks in Exod. v. 8.

11 Straight=straightway, immediately.

12 landscape. See Glossary.