poem would extend our digression beyond its just length, and would not be consistent with our plan.-We have observed that the Comus came into the world unacknowledged by its author, and it is remarkable that the writer of the Lycidas was intimated only by the initials J. M. This great man seems to have felt an awe of the public, by which the herd of small writers are seldom depressed For fools rush in, where Angels fear to tread. But if he published with diffidence, he wrote with boldness, and with the persuasion, resulting from the consciousness of power, of literary immortality. "After I had (he tells usv) from my first years, by the ceaseless diligence of my father, (whom God recompense!) been exercised in the tongues, and some sciences as my age would suffer, by sundry masters and teachers, both at home and at the schools, it was found that whether ought was imposed on me by them, that had the overlooking, or betaken to of my own choice, in English or other tongue, prosing or versing, but chiefly this latter, the style by certain vital symptoms it had, was likely to live." In a letter, which from its date was Reasons of C. Govern. B. 2d. P. W. vol. i. 118. written about two months before his Lycidas, etiam quid cogitem. Audi, Theodote, ve- Do * For the amusement of my readers I insert the whole letter from which, I have made this extract, with a translation by my friend Mr. Wrangham. We find in it that Milton had just accomplished a very rugged journey through some of the most We shall again have occasion to remark barren and unsightly tracts of history. Of all the productions of the pen, familiar letters give us the most insight into the sanctuary of the writer's bosom. CAROLO DIODATO. } "Quod cæteri in literis suis plerunque faciunt amici, ut unicam tantum salutem dicere sat habeant, tu illud jam video quid sit quod toties impertias; ad ca enim quæ tute prius, et alii adbuc sola afferre possunt vota, jam nunc artem insuper tuam, vimque omnem medicam quasi cumulum accedere vis me scilicet intelligere. Jubes enim salvere sexcenties, quantum volo, quantum possum, vel etiam amplius. Næ ipsum te nuper salutis condum promum esse factum oportet, ita totum salubritatis penum dilapidas, aut ipsa proculdubio sanitas jam tua parasita esse debet, sic pro rege te geris atque imperas ut dicto sit audiens; itaque gratulor tibi, et duplici proinde nomine gratias. tibi agam necesse est, cum amicitiæ tum artis eximia. Literas quidem tuas, quoniam ita convenerat, diu expectabam; verum acceptis neque dum ullis, si quid mihi credis, non idcirco veterem meam ergo te benevolentiam tantillum refrigescere sum passus; immo vero qua tarditatis excusatione usus literarum initio es, ipsam illam te allaturum esse jam animo præsenseram, idque recte, nostræque necessitudini convenienter. Non enim in epistolarum ac salutationum momentis veram verti amicitiam volo, quæ omnia ficta esse possunt; sed altis animi radicibus niti utrinque et sustinere se; cœptamque sinceris, et sanctis rationibus, etiamsi mutua cessarent officia, per omnem tamen vitam suspicione et culpa vacare: ad quam fovendam non tam scripto sit opus, quam viva invicem virtutum recordatione. Nec continuò, ut tu non scripseris, non erit quo illud suppleri officium possit, scribit vicem tuam apud me tua probitas, verasqué literas intimis sensibus meis exarat, scribit morum simplicitas, et recti amor; scribit ingenium etiam tuum, haudquaquam quotidianum, et majorem in modum te mihi commendat. Quare noli mihi, arcem illam medicinæ tyrannicam nactus, these aspirings of his mind to the high pro terrores istos ostentare, ac si salutes tuas sexcentas velles, subducta minutim ratiuncula, ad unum omnes a me reposcere, si forte ego, quod ne siverit unquam Deus, amicitiæ desertor fierem ; atque amove terribile illud iwiraxioua quod cervicibus nostris videris imposuisse, ut sine tua bona venia ne liceat ægrotare. Ego enim ne nimis minitere, tui similes impossibile est quin amem, nam de cætero quidem quid de me statuerit Deus nescio, illud certe; δεινόν μοι ἔρωτα, εἰπέρ τω αλλω, το nakě évéσraže. Nec tanto Ceres labore, ut in fabulis est, Liberam fertur quæsivisse filiam, quanto ego hanc re nake ideav, veluti pulcherrimam quandam imaginem, per omnes rerumformas et facies: (πολλαί γὰρ μορφαὶ τών Δαιμονίων) dies noctesque indagare soleo, et quasi certis quibusdam vestigiis ducentem sector. Unde fit, ut qui, spretis quæ vulgus prava rerum æstimatione opinatur, id sentire et loqui et esse audet; quod summa per omne ævum sapientia optimum esse docuit, illi me protinus, sicubi reperiam, necessitate quadam adjungam. Quod si ego sive natura, sive meo fato ita sum comparatus, ut nulla contentione, et laboribus meis ad tale decus et fastigium laudis ipse valeam emergere; tamen quo minus qui eam gloriam assecuti sunt, aut eo feliciter aspirant, illos semper colam, et suspiciam, nec dii puto, nec homines prohibuerint. Cæterum jam curiositati tuæ vis esse satisfactum scio. Multa solicite quæris, etiam quid cogitem. Audi, Theodote, verum in aurem ut ne rubeam, et sinito paulisper apud te grandia loquar; quid cogitem quæris? ita me bonus Deus, immortalitatem. Quid agam vero? lepopu, et volare meditor: sed tenellis admodum adhuc pennis evehit se noster Pegasus, humile sapiamus. Dicam jam nunc serio quid cogitem, in hospitium juridicorum aliquod immigrare, sicubi amœna et umbrosa. ambulatio est, quod et inter aliquot sodales, commodior illic habitatio, si domi manere, et ὁρμητήριον ευπρεπέστερον quocunque libitum erit excurrere; ubi nunc sum, ut nosti, obscure, et anguste sum; de studiis etiam nostris fies certior. Græcorum res continuata lectione deduximus usquequo illi Græci esse sunt desiti: Italorum in obscura re diu versati sumus sub Longobar spect of poetic immortality, till the baleful dis, et Francis, et Germanis, ad illud tempus quo illis ab Rodolpho Germaniæ rege concessa libertas est; exinde quid quæque civitas suo marte gesserit, separatim legere præstabit. Tu vero quid? quousque rebus domesticis filius familias imminebis urbanarum sodalitatum oblitus? quod, nisi bellum hoc novercale, vel Dacico, vel Sarmatico infestius sit, debebis profecto maturare, ut ad nos saltem in hyberna concedas. Interim, quod sine tua molestia fiat, Justinianum mihi Venetorum historicum rogo mittas; ego mea fide aut in adventum tuum probe asservatum curabo; aut, si mavis, haud ita multo post ad te remissum. Vale." Londino, September 23, 1637. TO CHARLES DEODATI. "Other friends in their letters generally reckon it sufficient to wish only a single health to their correspondents; I can assign a reason, however, why you so often repeat the salutation. For in addition to your old wishes, which are all that others are still able to offer, you would have me now consider our whole art and energy of medicine as engaged: since you bid me hail indefinitely, to the height of my desires, of my powers-nay, beyond. You must surely have become of late the very housesteward of health, you so lavishly dispense her whole stores; or health herself is without doubt your obsequious attendant, you so imperiously like a king enjoiu her obedience. Accept therefore my congratulations, and allow me to return you my double thanks, on account both of your friendship and your profound skill. I had long indeed, in consequence of your arrangement, been expecting a letter from you, but, trust me, so far was I from feeling the slightest diminution of kindness towards you on account of its non-arrival, that I had even anticipated the very excuse for its delay, which you yourself allege in the beginning of it. And this too justly, and without any derogation from our intimacy. For true friendship should not depend upon the |