( 45 ) 
he became blind, neverthelefs, he continued 
in his office till the reftoration of Charles II. 
who, notwithstanding Milton's virulent 
writings in oppofition to that reftoration, 
included him in the general amnefty. He 
now retired to a fmall houie in the Artil- 
lery-walk, leading to Bunhill-fields, where 
he fmifhed his Paradife Loft. He died in 
1674, aged 66. 
Paradife Loft, the opus majus of this our 
only heroic poet except Glover, whofe 
Leonidas pofTeffes conliderable merit you 
will read with great delight -, particularly as 
it will frequently bring to your memory 
many fublime pafTages in Homer and Vir- 
gil. Doublefs it has fome blemifhes, which 
a reader of chafte difcernment and claffical 
tafte, will eafily perceive; but thefe ble- 
mifhes are abundantly counterpoized by a 
fublimity of imagination and harmony of 
numbers, equal, if not fuperior, to the moft 
admired poems of antiquity. If you fhould 
ever wifti to read Italian poetry this idea 
obtrudes itfelf rather abruptly no mat- 
ter: if I had now fuffered it to efcape, it 
might pofiibly never have recurred If, I 
fay, you ftiould ever wifh to be acquainted 
with the Italian poets and forae of them 
* deferve 
