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his patrimony, to maintain the pride and luxury of his court and prelates; and now since, through the infinite mercy and favour of God, we have shaken off his Babylonish yoke, hath not ceased by his spies and agents, bulls and emissaries, once to destroy both king and parliament; perpetually to seduce, corrupt, and pervert as many as they can of the people. Whether therefore it be fit or reasonable to tolerate men, thus principled in religion toward the state, I submit it to the consideration of all magistrates, who are best able to provide for their own and the public safety. As for tolerating the exercise of their religion, supposing their state-activities not to be dangerous, I answer, that toleration is either public or private; and the exercise of their religion, as far as it is idolatrous, can be tolerated neither way: not publicly, without grievous and unsufferable scandal given to all conscientious beholders; not privately, without great offence to God, declared against all kind of idolatry, though secret."

But even towards Papists he would not exercise any personal severity. "Are we to punish them," he asks, " by corporal punishments, or fines in their estates on account of their religion? I suppose it stands not with

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the clemency of the Gospel, more than what

appertains to the security of the state."

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The author's chief purpose in this publi cation was to check the growth of popery, at this juncture particularly and alarmingly rapid in consequence of the avowed patronage of the Duke of York and the secret countenance of the king. The danger, which, at this instant, awakened the fears of Milton, became, not long afterwards, so palpable and striking as to excite the nation, united in one great effort for its safety, to depose the catholic bigot who occupied and abused the throne.

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In the same year our author published a second edition of his youthful poems, in one volume with his "Tractate on Education," and included in it some small pieces, not comprehended in the edition of 1645. On this occasion, however, the sonnets to Fairfax, to Vane, and to Cromwell, with the second to Cyriac Skinner, were for some unexplained reason omitted, and were first given to the world, as we have before mentioned, by Philips in his life of his uncle.

In 1674, in which year he was destined to complete his laborious and honourable course, Milton published his familiar letters and some of his university exercises; the

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former with the title of, "Epistolarum Familiarium Liber unus;" and the latter with that of "Prolusiones quædam oratoriæ in Collegio Christi habitæ." These letters, of which we have offered to our readers more than one specimen and which are addressed principally to foreigners of literary eminence, are possessed of peculiar interest, and contain, as Morhoff justly remarks, many characters of ancient and modern, of foreign and domestic authors which are worthy to be read and understood. His college exercises are valuable chiefly for their exhibition of early power and proficiency.

The next exercise of his pen, as it is affirmed, was to translate into English the declaration of the Poles, on their elevating the heroic, John Sobieski, to their elective throne; but I must profess myself to be doubtful of the fact.' It is more certain that in some part of the same year, he wrote “A Brief History of Muscovy,” which was published at a period of about eight years posterior to his death.

With this work terminated his literary

The latin document could arrive in England only a very short time before Milton's death, and the translation bears no resemblance to his character of composition. These circumstances induce me to express a doubt where none of Milton's preceding biographers, as far at least, as I know, have intimated any.

1

labours, for the gout, which had for many
years afflicted him, was now appointed to
terminate his exemplary life. He was sum-
moned to his final account, for which no one
of his species, perhaps, had ever been better
prepared, on the ' eighth of november (1674),
when he expired without pain, and so quietly
that they, who waited in his chamber, were
unconscious of the moment of his departure.
"The funeral was attended," as Toland in-
forms us, 66
by all the author's learned and
great friends in London, not without a friendly
concourse of the vulgar;" and his body was
deposited, by the side of his father's, in the
upper part of the chancel of St. Giles, Crip-
plegate.

In consequence of an alteration made in that part of the church, the stone, inscribed

* An answer to a libel on himself, and a system of Theology called, according to Wood, "Idea Theologiæ," are compositions of Milton's which have been lost. The last was at one time in the hands of Cyriac Skinner, but what became of it afterwards has not been traced. Another work of our author's is mentioned by Mr. Todd. It is entitled " An Argument or Debate in Law of the great Question concerning the Militia, as it is now settled by Ordinance of Parliament, by J. M. (London 1642.)" In the copy of this work, which Mr. Todd saw in the collection of the late Duke of Bridgwater, the second Earl of Bridgwater, who had acted the elder Brother in Comus, has written the name of Milton as the author.

1 Wood says, on the ninth or the tenth. The day of Milton's burial is ascertained, by the parish register, to have been the twelfth.

on this occasion with his name, was, removed in the course of not many years, and was never replaced. But this unintended injury has, in our days, been amply compensated by the erection, in the same church, of a marble bust of the great poet, by the hand of Bacon, and the liberality of the late Mr.

m

"In 1793. The late Mr. Whitbread was a man whose virtues reflected honour on his spécies. I have been informed by a gentleman, whose opportunities of knowing the fact and whose high integrity of character render his authority unquestionable, that the charities, which this excellent man distributed with silent and sagacious beneficence, amounted annually to no less a sum than 10,0001.!-happy with the means of such extended good, and still happier with the heart to employ them. His virtues seem to have descended, with undiminished force and lustre, to his son, the present representative in parliament of the town of Bedford.

"When the inscription," says Dr. Johnson, in his biographical libel on Milton, "for the monument of Philips, in which he was said to be soli Miltono secundus, was exhibited to Dr. Sprat then dean of Westminster, he refused to admit it; the name of Milton was in his opinion too detestable to be read on the wall of a building dedicated to devotion. Atterbury, who succeeded him, being author of the inscription, permitted its reception." I know of no other testimony for the fact, in question, but this of Dr. Johnson. If it be authentic, it is of a nature to cover the otherwise respectable name of Sprat with eternal dishonour. The reason is not less unhappy than the act which it is brought to justify, was brutal. From the repository of regal and of prelatical ashes, the name of the republican and the puritan Milton might consistently be excluded: but it is strange that the name of one of the most religious of men, whose bosom, from the opening to the close of his life, glowed with the most pure and ardent devotion, should be regarded as "too detestable to be read on the wall of a building dedicated to devotion."

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