The vales redoubled to the hills, and they

To Heaven. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow
O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundred fold, who, having learn'd thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian woe."

XIX.

ON HIS BLINDNESS.

WHEN I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He, returning, chide;
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"▾
I fondly ask but Patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies;- -"God doth not need
Either man's work, or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

XX.

TO MR. LAWRENCE.

LAWRENCE, of virtuous father virtuous son,"

Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire,

dead mother which were cold and stiffe, insomuch that those who found them had much ado to get the young childe out." P. 363.-T. WARTON.

Antichrist.-WARBURTON.

w Babylonian woe.

And that one talent which is death to hide.

He speaks here with allusion to the parable of the talents, Matt. xxv., and he speaks with great modesty of himself, as if he had not five, or two, but only one talent.NEWTON.

y Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?

Here is a pun on the doctrine in the gospel, that we are to work only while it is light, and in the night no man can work. There is an ambiguity between the natural light of the day, and the author's blindness.-T. WARTON.

z Man's work, or his own gifts.

Free-will or grace.-T. WARTON.

a Stand and wait.

My own opinion is that this is the noblest of Milton's Sonnets.

b Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son, &c.

Of the "virtuous son," nothing has transpired: the "virtuous father," Henry Lawrence, was member for Hertfordshire in the little parliament which began in 1653, and was active in settling the protectorate of Cromwell. In consequence of his services, he was made president of Cromwell's council; where he appears to have signed many severe and arbitrary decrees, not only against the royalists, but the Brownists, fifthmonarchy men, and other sectarists. He continued high in favour with Richard Cromwell. As innovation is progressive, perhaps the son, Milton's friend, was an independent and a still warmer republican. The family appears to have been seated not

Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire
Help waste a sullen day, what may be won
From the hard season gaining? Time will run
On smoother, till Favonius reinspire

The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire

The lily and rose, that neither sow'd nor spun.

far from Milton's neighbourhood in Buckinghamshire: for Henry Lawrence's near relation, William Lawrence, a writer, and appointed a judge in Scotland by Cromwell, and who was in 1631 a gentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, died at Bedfont near Staines in Middlesex, in 1682. Hence, says Milton, v. 2:—

Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire,
Where shall we sometimes meet, &c.

Milton, in his first "Reply to More," written 1654, recites among the most respectable of his friends, who contributed to form the commonwealth,- Montacutium, Laurentium, summo ingenio ambos, optimisque artibus expositas," &c. See Milton's "Prose Works." Where by "Montacutium" we are to understand Edward Montague, Earl of Manchester; who, while Lord Kimbolton, was one of the members of the house of commons impeached by the king, and afterwards a leader in the rebellion. I believe they both deserved this panegyric.-T. WARTON.

Mr. Warton is mistaken in saying that "of the virtuous son' nothing has transpired.” This Henry Lawrence, the "virtuous son," is the author of a work, of which I am in possession, suited to Milton's taste; on the subject of which, I make no doubt, he and the author "by the fire helped to waste many a sullen day." It is entitled, "Of our | Communion and Warre with Angels, &c." Printed Anno Dom. 1646, 4to. 189 pages. The dedication is "To my Most deare and Most honoured Mother, the Lady Lawrence." I suppose him also to be the same Henry Lawrence, who printed “A Vindication of the Scriptures and Christian Ordinances," 1649, Lond. 4to.-Topd.

See "Gentleman's Magazine," about 1825, for the Lawrence pedigree, furnished by Sir James Lawrence, then resident at Paris. This lineal descendant of the subject of Milton's panegyric has also communicated to the publisher the following important and interesting information on the same subject:

"Henry Lawrence, of whose family and descent a long account is inserted in the 'Gent. Mag.' for July 1815, was the eldest son of Sir John Lawrence, of St. Ives in Huntingdonshire, by Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Ralph Waller, Esq., of Clerkenwell, of the Beaconsfield family, who took to her second husband Robert Bathurst of Lecklade, and was the mother of Sir Edward Bathurst, created a baronet 1643. He was educated at Emmanuel-college, and represented Westmoreland in the Long Parliament: having retired into Holland, he published at Amsterdam, in 1646, a book, Of our Communion and Warre with Angels,' and another book Of Baptism.' Ho afterwards represented Hertfordshire; was a lord of the other house; and after the abdication of Richard Cromwell, continued president of the council of state. He married Ame, daughter of that inveterate antagonist of the house of Stuart, Sir Edward Peyton, of Iselham, in Cambridgeshire, Bart., by whom he had seven sons and six daughters. He died in 1664, and was buried at St. Margaret's Hertfordshire.

"Henry, the eldest, was the 'virtuous son:' for in a political squib, printed 1660, called The Receipts and Disbursements of the Committee of Safety,' we find,-'Item, reimbursed to the said Lord Lawrence several sums of money, which his eldest son had squandered away on poets and dedications to his ingenuity, to the value of five hundred pounds more. Item, paid for three great saddles for the Lord Lawrence's son, and for provender for his lofty steeds, ever since the Protector's political death, five hundred pounds. Item, paid for a pound of May butter made of a cow's milk that fed on Hermon Hill, given to the said Lady Lawrence for pious uses, 877. 168.' Henry died 1679. His son, Sir Edward Lawrence of St. Ives, was created a baronet in January, 1749, and died in May following. Martha, one of the president's daughters, married Richard, Earl of Barrymore, and was married to his successor, Lawrence, Earl of Barrymore; John Lawrence, a younger son, left England with James Bradshaw, a nephew of the judge, and settled in Jamaica, where James Bradshaw, after having been president of the Assembly, died in 1699; and John Lawrence, who died 1690, was great-grandfather to the present Sir James Lawrence, Knight of Malta."

c That neither sow'd nor spun.

Alluding, as Dr. Newton observes, to Mat. vi. 26, 28: "They sow not, neither do they spin." And compare ver. 30, with the preceding hemistich. -TODD.

What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,
Of Attick taste, with wine, whence we may rise
To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice
Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air?

He who of those delights can judge, and spare
To interpose them oft, is not unwise.

XXI.

TO CYRIACK SKINNER.

CYRIACK, whose grandsire, on the royal bench
Of British Themis, with no mean applause
Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws,
Which others at their bar so often wrench;
To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench
In mirth, that, after, no repenting draws!
Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause,

And what the Swede intends, and what the French.
To measure life learn thou betimes, and know
Toward solid good what leads the nearest way;
For other things mild Heaven a time ordains,
And disapproves that care, though wise in show,
That with superfluous burden loads the day,
And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.

XXII.

TO THE SAME.

CYRIACK, this three years day these eyes, though clear,
To outward view, of blemish or of spot,
Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot;
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear
Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year,
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer

He who of those delights can judge, &c.

The close of this sonnet is perfectly in the style of Horace and the Grecian lyrics; as is that of the following to Cyriack Skinner.-T. WARTON.

e Cyriack Skinner was one of the principal members of Harrington's political club. Wood says, that he was "an ingenious young gentleman, and scholar to John Milton; which Skinner sometimes held the chair."-"Ath. Oxon." ii. 591.

In mirth, that, after, no repenting draws.

This is the decent mirth of Martial :

Nox non ebria, sed soluta curis.-T. WARTON.

And what the Swede intends, &c.

Charles Gustavus, king of Sweden, was at this time waging war with Poland, and the French with the Spaniards in the Netherlands: and what Milton says is somewhat in the manner and spirit of Horace, "Od." II. xi. 1:—

Quid bellicosus Cantaber, et Scythes,

Hirpine Quincti, cogitet, Adria
Divisus objecto, remittas
Quærere, &c.-NEWTON,

h Of heart or hope, &c.

One of Milton's characteristics was a singular fortitude of mind, arising from a con. sciousness of superior abilities, and a conviction that his cause was just.-T. WARTON.