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that not only in one book) weekly issuing forth helps to doine, as well as knowing our duty. But the worth of the warehouse will be best known by the wares, which are books, of which see further in my Euaif of Booh" which he entitles The Beit Furniture.
"They are for company, the best friends; in doubts, counsellours; in damps, comforters; time's prospective ; the home traveller's ship or horse ; the busic man's best recreation ; the opi- ate of idle wearinesse ; the mindes best ordinary, nature's garden, and seed plot of immortality.
Time spent (needlessly) from them is consumed, but with them twice gained. Time captivated and snatched from thee by incursions of business, thefts of visitants, or oy thy own carelesnesse lost, is by these redeemed in life, they are the soules viaticum ; and against death its cordiall."
" Bookes are not only titles on their author's monuments, but epitaphs preserving their memo- ries, be they good, or bad, beyond short lived pyramids, or mausolaean piles of stone."
1674, Nov. 8. Died, John Milton, author of Paradiu Lott,* Regained, &c. " The charac- ter of Milton," says the historian of the Com- monwealth, "is one of those which appears to gain by time. To future ages it is probable he will stand forth as the most advantageous speci- men that can be produced of the English nation. He is our poet. There is nothing else of so capacious dimensions in the compass of our literature (if, indeed, there is in the literary pro- ductions of our species), that can compare with the Paradite Lott. He is our patriot. No man of just discernment can read nis political writ- ings without being penetrated with the holy flame
- An Emai m Sfilton'g tue md imitation of the Uademt
<a iU> Paruiiu Lott.
TblDgs uaattempted yet In prose or rhlme.
London : printed for J.Payne&Boninet. Paternoster-row, M Dccu TUs work was written by William Lander, who had mncfa more audacity tlian ingenalty, and is one of the greatest literacy impositions upon record. His alleged quotations from Groans and others passed as genuine for some time, but at length they were detected, and proved forgeries of Lauder, by Dr. Douglas, bishop of Salisbury. Lander, on being dlacovered, subaaribed a confession of his office, dictated by Dr. Johnson.
William Lauder wai a native of Scotland; and Irst taught latin at the university of Edinburgh, where he published in 1739, an edition of Johnston's Ptalnu. From thence he went to London, and wrote the work aj^ainst Milton. After his detection he went to Barbadoes, where he kept asdiooL He died in 1771, contemned by all the world.
SONNBT,
On the Jint Impre$$ion of Lauder' t Forgerie» ; to NicholoM BaHinge, 6g William Half, Ktg.
Hardinge ) firm advocate of Mllton*s fame I
Avenge the honour of his injnr'd muse !
The iMld Salmantu dar*d not jo accuse. And brand him, living, with a felon's name ! More hellish fslaehood could not Satan frame.
Arch forger, cursed poison to infuse
In Eve's chaste ear, her freedom to abuse : That lurking fiend,— Ithuriel's arm and flame, ^therial gifts, detected : up arose
In his own form the toad : But this new plot Thou hast an arm, and spear, that can expose ;
With laahes keen, drive, to that trait'rous spot. Hie nurse of base impostors, to his snows,
And barren mountains, the blaspheming Scot !
that animated him ; and if the world shall ever attain that stature of mind as for courts to find no place in it, he will be the patriot of the world. As an original genius, as a writer of lofty and expansive soul, and as a man, he rises above his countrymen ; and, like Saul, in the convention of the Jews, from his shoulders and upward he is higher than any of the people."
"Fancy," says Johnson, speaking of this divine character, "can hardly forbear to conjec- ture with what temper he surveyed the silent progress of his work, and marked*its reputation stealing its way in a kind of subterraneous cur- rent, through fear and silence. I cannot but conceive him calm and confident, little disap- pointed, not at all dejected, relying on his own merit with steady consciousness, and waiting, without impatience, the vicissitudes of opinion, and the impartiality of a future generation."
Milton has left several passages, both in his prose and poetical works, in which he refers to his affliction of blindness ; but instead of com- plaining or reflecting upon the wisdom and good- ness of Providence, uey indicate the most exalted rational piety, and resignation to God.
Hall, holy light, oOkprlng of heaven's first-bora I Or af th' Eteraal, coeternal beam. May I express thee unblam'd ) since God is light. And never but in nnapproached light Dwelt firom eternity ; dwelt then In thee. Bright eflluence d bright essence increate. Or hear*Bt thou rather pure ethereal stream. Whose fountain who shall tell i Before the son, Before the heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice Of God, as with a mantle didst invest The rising world of waters dark and deep. Won from the void and formless infinite.
Thee I revisit safe,
And feel thy sov'relgn vital lamp : but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn ; So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs. Or dim suffbsion veil'd. Yet not the more Cease 1 to wander where the Muses haunt. Clear sprins, or shady grave, or sunny hUl, Smit with the love of sacred song : but chief Thee, Sion. and the flowery brooks beneath. That wash thy haUow*d feet, and warbling flow, Nightly I visit : nor sometimes forget Those other two, eqnall'd with me in fate. So were I eqnall'd with them In renown. Blind 'nuunyris, and blind Mieoikides ; And TlresiBs, and Phlneus, prophets old : Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move Harmonious numbers ; as the wakeful bird Sings darkliufr, and in shadiest cover hid Tunes her nocturaal note. Thus with the year Seasons return ; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or mom. Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose. Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud Instead, and ever-during dark Surround me, firom the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank Of nature's works, to me expung'd and rais'd. And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial light. Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and disperse, that 1 may see and tell Of things invisible to mortal sight.
Paradite Lott, b. ill.
The literary late of Milton was remarkable : his genius was castrated alike by the monarchi- cal and the republican government. The royal licenser expunged several passages from Mil- ton's history, in which Milton had painted the
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