Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III) - Samuel Johnson (classic books to read txt) 📗

Because He Is

Unwilling to Think That He Has Been Diligent In vain; What Has Been

Produced without Toilsome Efforts, Is Considered with Delight, As A

Proof Of Vigorous Faculties And Fertile Invention; And The Last Work,

Whatever It Be, Has, Necessarily, Most Of The Grace Of Novelty. Milton,

However It Happened, Had This Prejudice, And Had It To Himself.

 

 

 

To That Multiplicity Of Attainments, And Extent Of Comprehension, That

Entitled this Great Author To Our Veneration, May Be Added a Kind

Of Humble Dignity, Which Did Not Disdain The Meanest Services To

Literature. The Epick Poet, The Controvertist, The Politician, Having

Already Descended to Accommodate Children With A Book Of Rudiments,

Now, In the Last Years Of His Life, Composed a Book Of Logick, For The

Initiation Of Students In philosophy; And Published, 1672, Artis Logicae

Plenior Institutio Ad Petri Rami Methodum Concinnata; That Is, A New

Scheme Of Logick, According to The Method Of Ramus. I Know Not Whether,

Even In this Book, He Did Not Intend An Act Of Hostility Against The

Universities; For Ramus Was One Of The First Oppugners Of The Old

Philosophy, Who Disturbed with Innovations The Quiet Of The Schools.

 

 

 

His Polemical Disposition Again Revived. He Had Now Been Safe So Long,

That He Forgot His Fears, And Published a Treatise Of True Religion,

Heresy, Schism, Toleration, And The Best Means To Prevent The Growth Of

Popery.

 

 

 

But This Little Tract Is Modestly Written, With Respectful Mention Of

The Church Of England, And An Appeal To The Thirty-Nine Articles.

His Principle Of Toleration Is, Agreement In the Sufficiency Of The

Scriptures; And He Extends It To All Who, Whatever Their Opinions Are,

Profess To Derive Them From The Sacred books. The Papists Appeal To

Other Testimonies, And Are, Therefore, In his Opinion, Not To Be

Permitted the Liberty Of Either Publick Or Private Worship; For, Though

They Plead Conscience, "We Have No Warrant," He Says, "To Regard

Conscience, Which Is Not Grounded in scripture."

 

 

 

Those Who Are Not Convinced by His Reasons, May Be, Perhaps, Delighted

With His Wit. The Term "Roman Catholick Is," He Says, "One Of The Pope'S

Bulls; It Is Particular Universal, Or Catholick Schismatick."

 

 

 

He Has, However, Something better. As The Best Preservative Against

Popery, He Recommends The Diligent Perusal Of The Scriptures, A Duty,

From Which He Warns The Busy Part Of Mankind Not To Think Themselves

Excused.

 

 

 

He Now Reprinted his Juvenile Poems, With Some Additions.

 

 

 

In The Last Year Of His Life He Sent To The Press, Seeming to Take

Delight In publication, A Collection Of Familiar Epistles In latin;

To Which, Being too Few To Make A Volume, He Added some Academical

Exercises, Which, Perhaps, He Perused with Pleasure, As They Recalled to

His Memory The Days Of Youth, But For Which Nothing but Veneration For

His Name Could Now Procure A Reader.

 

 

 

When He Had Attained his Sixty-Sixth Year, The Gout, With Which He Had

Been Long Tormented, Prevailed over The Enfeebled powers Of Nature. He

Died by A Quiet And Silent Expiration, About The Tenth Of November,

1674, At His House In bunhill Fields; And Was Buried next His Father In

The Chancel Of St. Giles At Cripplegate. His Funeral Was Very Splendidly

And Numerously Attended.

 

 

 

Upon His Grave There Is Supposed to Have Been No Memorial; But In our

Time A Monument Has Been Erected in westminster Abbey "To The Author Of

Paradise Lost," By Mr. Benson, Who Has, In the Inscription, Bestowed

More Words Upon Himself Than Upon Milton.

 

 

 

When The Inscription 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. "And Such Has Been The Change Of

Publick Opinion," Said Dr. Gregory, From Whom I Heard This Account,

"That I Have Seen Erected in the Church A Statue Of That Man, Whose Name

I Once Knew Considered as A Pollution Of Its Walls."

 

 

 

Milton Has The Reputation Of Having been, In his Youth, Eminently

Beautiful, So As To Have Been Called the Lady Of His College. His Hair,

Which Was Of A Light Brown, Parted at The Foretop, And Hung Down Upon

His Shoulders, According to The Picture Which He Has Given Of Adam. He

Was, However, Not Of The Heroick Stature, But Rather Below The Middle

Size[52], According to Mr. Richardson, Who Mentions Him As Having

Narrowly Escaped from Being "Short And Thick." He Was Vigorous And

Active, And Delighted in the Exercise Of The Sword, In which He Is

Related to Have Been Eminently Skilful. His Weapon Was, I Believe, Not

The Rapier, But The Backsword, Of Which He Recommends The Use In his

Book On Education.

 

 

 

His Eyes Are Said Never To Have Been Bright; But, If He Was A Dexterous

Fencer, They Must Have Been Once Quick.

 

 

 

His Domestick Habits, So Far As They Are Known, Were Those Of A Severe

Student. He Drank Little Strong Drink Of Any Kind, And Fed without

Excess In quantity, And, In his Earlier Years, Without Delicacy Of

Choice. In his Youth He Studied late At Night; But Afterwards Changed

His Hours, And Rested in bed from Nine To Four In the Summer, And Five

In The Winter. The Course Of His Day Was Best Known After He Was Blind.

When He First Rose, He Heard A Chapter In the Hebrew Bible, And Then

Studied till Twelve; Then Took Some Exercise For An Hour; Then Dined,

Then Played on The Organ, And Sang, Or Heard Another Sing; Then Studied

To Six; Then Entertained his Visiters Till Eight; Then Supped, And,

After A Pipe Of Tobacco And A Glass Of Water, Went To Bed.

 

 

 

So Is His Life Described: But This Even Tenour Appears Attainable Only

In Colleges. He That Lives In the World Will, Sometimes, Have The

Succession Of His Practice Broken And Confused. Visiters, Of Whom

Milton Is Represented to Have Had Great Numbers, Will Come And Stay

Unseasonably; Business, Of Which Every Man Has Some, Must Be Done When

Others Will Do It.

 

 

 

When He Did Not Care To Rise Early, He Had Something read To Him By His

Bedside; Perhaps, At This Time, His Daughters Were Employed. He Composed

Much In the Morning, And Dictated in the Day, Sitting obliquely In an

Elbowchair, With His Leg Thrown Over The Arm.

 

 

 

Fortune Appears Not To Have Had Much Of His Care. In the Civil Wars He

Lent His Personal Estate To The Parliament; But When, After The Contest

Was Decided, He Solicited repayment, He Met Not Only With Neglect, But

"Sharp Rebuke;" And, Having tired both Himself And His Friends, Was

Given Up To Poverty And Hopeless Indignation, Till He Showed how Able He

Was To Do Greater Service. He Was Then Made Latin Secretary, With Two

Hundred pounds A Year; And Had A Thousand Pounds For His Defence Of

The People. His Widow, Who, After His Death, Retired to Namptwich, In

Cheshire, And Died about 1729, Is Said To Have Reported, That He Lost

Two Thousand Pounds By Intrusting it To A Scrivener; And That, In the

General Depredation Upon The Church, He Had Grasped an Estate Of About

Sixty Pounds A Year Belonging to Westminster Abbey, Which, Like Other

Sharers Of The Plunder Of Rebellion, He Was Afterwards Obliged to

Return. Two Thousand Pounds, Which He Had Placed in the Excise-Office,

Were Also Lost. There Is Yet No Reason To Believe That He Was Ever

Reduced to Indigence. His Wants, Being few, Were Competently Supplied.

He Sold His Library Before His Death, And Left His Family Fifteen

Hundred pounds, On Which His Widow Laid Hold, And Only Gave One Hundred

To Each Of His Daughters.

 

 

 

His Literature Was Unquestionably Great. He Read All The Languages

Which Are Considered either As Learned or Polite: Hebrew, With Its Two

Dialects, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, And Spanish. In latin His Skill

Was Such As Places Him In the First Rank Of Writers And Criticks; And He

Appears To Have Cultivated italian With Uncommon Diligence. The Books

In Which His Daughter, Who Used to Read To Him, Represented him As Most

Delighting, After Homer, Which He Could Almost Repeat, Were Ovid'S

Metamorphoses And Euripides. His Euripides Is, By Mr. Cradock'S

Kindness, Now In my Hands: The Margin Is Sometimes Noted; But I Have

Found Nothing remarkable.

 

 

 

Of The English Poets, He Set Most Value Upon Spenser, Shakespeare, And

Cowley. Spenser Was Apparently His Favourite; Shakespeare He May Easily

Be Supposed to Like, With Every Other Skilful Reader; But I Should Not

Have Expected that Cowley, Whose Ideas Of Excellence Were So Different

From His Own, Would Have Had Much Of His Approbation. His Character Of

Dryden, Who Sometimes Visited him, Was, That He Was A Good Rhymist,

But No Poet. His Theological Opinions Are Said To Have Been First

Calvinistical; And Afterwards, Perhaps, When He Began To Hate The

Presbyterians, To Have Tended towards Arminianism. In the Mixed

Questions Of Theology And Government, He Never Thinks That He Can Recede

Far Enough From Popery, Or Prelacy; But What Bandius Says Of Erasmus

Seems Applicable To Him, "Magis Habuit Quod Fugeret, Quam Quod

Sequeretur." He Had Determined rather What To Condemn, Than What

To Approve. He Has Not Associated himself With Any Denomination Of

Protestants; We Know Rather What He Was Not, Than What He Was. He Was

Not Of The Church Of Rome; He Was Not Of The Church Of England.

 

 

 

To Be Of No Church Is Dangerous. Religion, Of Which The Rewards Are

Distant, And Which Is Animated only By Faith And Hope, Will Glide By

Degrees Out Of The Mind, Unless It Be Invigorated and Reimpressed by

External Ordinances, By Stated calls To Worship, And The Salutary

Influence Of Example. Milton, Who Appears To Have Had Full Conviction Of

The Truth Of Christianity, And To Have Regarded the Holy Scriptures With

The Profoundest Veneration, To Have Been Untainted by Any Heretical

Peculiarity Of Opinion, And To Have Lived in a Confirmed belief Of The

Immediate And Occasional Agency Of Providence, Yet Grew Old Without Any

Visible Worship. In the Distribution Of His Hours, There Was No Hour Of

Prayer, Either Solitary Or With His Household; Omitting publick Prayers,

He Omitted all.

 

 

 

Of This Omission The Reason Has Been Sought Upon A Supposition, Which

Ought Never To Be Made, That Men Live With Their Own Approbation, And

Justify Their Conduct To Themselves. Prayer Certainly Was Not Thought

Superfluous By Him, Who Represents Our First Parents As Praying

Acceptably In the State Of Innocence, And Efficaciously After Their

Fall. That He Lived without Prayer Can Hardly Be Affirmed; His Studies

And Meditations Were An Habitual Prayer. The Neglect Of It In his Family

Was, Probably, A Fault For Which He Condemned himself, And Which He

Intended to Correct, But That Death, As Too Often Happens, Intercepted

His Reformation. His Political Notions Were Those Of An Acrimonious And

Surly Republican, For Which It Is Not Known That He Gave Any Better

Reason Than That "A Popular Government Was The Most Frugal; For The

Trappings Of A Monarchy Would Set Up An Ordinary Commonwealth." It Is

Surely Very Shallow Policy That Supposes Money To Be The Chief Good; And

Even This, Without Considering that The Support And Expense Of A Court

Is, For The Most Part, Only A Particular Kind Of Traffick, By Which

Money Is Circulated, Without Any National Impoverishment.

 

 

 

Milton'S Republicanism Was, I Am Afraid, Founded in an Envious Hatred of

Greatness, And A Sullen Desire Of Independence; In petulance Impatient

Of Control, And Pride Disdainful Of Superiority. He Hated monarchs In

The State, And Prelates In the Church; For He Hated all Whom He Was

Required to Obey. It Is To Be Suspected, That His Predominant Desire Was

To Destroy, Rather Than Establish, And That He Felt Not So Much The Love

Of Liberty, As Repugnance To Authority.

 

 

 

It Has Been Observed, That They Who Most Loudly Clamour For Liberty Do

Not Most Liberally Grant It. What We Know Of Milton'S Character, In

Domestick Relations, Is, That He Was Severe And Arbitrary. His Family

Consisted of Women; And There Appears In his Books Something like A

Turkish Contempt Of Females, As Subordinate And Inferiour Beings. That

His Own Daughters Might Not Break The Ranks, He Suffered them To Be

Depressed by A Mean And Penurious Education. He Thought Women Made Only

For Obedience, And Man Only For Rebellion.

 

 

 

Of His Family Some Account May Be Expected. His Sister, First Married to

Mr. Philips, Afterwards Married mr. Agar, A Friend Of Her First Husband,

Who Succeeded him In the Crown-Office. She Had, By Her First Husband,

Edward And John, The Two Nephews Whom Milton Educated; And, By Her

Second, Two Daughters.

 

 

 

His Brother, Sir Christopher, Had Two Daughters, Mary And Catharine[53];

And A Son, Thomas, Who Succeeded agar In the Crown-Office, And Left A

Daughter Living, In 1749, In grosvenor