M I L 
in the Muf. Aihm. Oxen. that c< Milton’s father, though 
a fcrivener, was not apprenticed to that trade: having 
been bred a fcholar, and of Chrift-church, Oxford; and 
that he took to trade in confequence of being difmherited 
for quitting the catholic religion in which he had been 
brought up.” Mr. Warton therefore obferves, that Mil- 
ton, in his Latin Epiftle to his Father, addrefles him in a 
language which he underftood. In this poem, alluding 
to his father’s mufical fcience, he fays, that Apollo had 
divided his favours in the fifter-arts between them ; giv¬ 
ing mufic to the father, and poetry to the fon. His effu- 
fions of gratitude for the education he had received from 
his parent’s bounty, and his apology for cultivating poe¬ 
try, of which he gives a charming eulogium, feem to con¬ 
tain ideas as beautiful and fublime as any in his Paradife 
Loft. Aubrey tells us, “ that the elder Milton died very 
old, in 164.7, and was interred, from his houle in Bar¬ 
bican, in St. Giles’s church, Crippiegate ; where the great 
poet was afterwards buried, near his father.” 
MIL'TON (John), the molt illuftrious of Englilh poets, 
was defcended from an ancient family fettled at Milton 
in Oxfordlhire. His father, for the reafons alftgued in 
the preceding article, came to London, and followed the 
profeftion of a fcrivener; and, marrying a woman exem¬ 
plary for her numerous virtues and extenfive charities, 
had two fons and a daughter; viz. John, the fubjeft of 
this article, Chriftopher, and Anne. Of the two latter, 
Chriftopher, applying himfelf to the ftudy of the law, 
became a bencher of the Inner Temple, and at an ad¬ 
vanced period of his life was knighted, and raifed by 
James II. firft to be a baron of the Exchequer, and after¬ 
wards one of the judges of the court of Common Pleas. 
During the civil war he followed the royal, ftandard, and 
effe&ed his compofition with the vidlors by the prevail¬ 
ing intereft of his brother. In his old age he retired from 
the fatigues of bufinefs, and doled, in the country, a 
life of ftudy and devotion. His filter, Anne, married 
Mr. Edward Phillips, a native of Shrewfbury, who, coming 
to London, obtained the lucrative place of fecondary in 
the crown-office in chancery: by him Ihe had feveral 
children, of whom Edward and John only furvived to 
maturity; the former became the biographer, after hav¬ 
ing, with his brother, beeh the pupil, of his uncle, the 
great poet. By a fecond hulband, Mr. Agar, Ihe had two 
daughters; of whom Mary died young, and of the other, 
Anne, nothing more is knowm, than that ihe was living 
in the year 1694. 
John Milton, the fubjedf of the prefent article, was 
born at his father’s lioufe, in Bread-ftreet, London, on 
the 9th of December, 1608. His promife of future ex¬ 
cellence was made at a very early period. Every incite¬ 
ment to exertion, and every mode of inftrudlion adapted 
to the dilpofition and powers of the child, were em¬ 
ployed, and no means, probably, were omitted, to ex¬ 
pand the intellectual Hercules of the nurfery into the 
full dimenfions of that mental amplitude for which he 
was intended. A portrait of him was painted, when he 
was only ten years old, by the celebrated Cornelius Jan- 
fen ; hence we may infer that the fon, who was made the 
objedt of io flattering a diftinCtion by a father, in compe¬ 
tent but by no means in affluent circumftances, could 
not have been a common child. Of himfelf, at this pe¬ 
riod,' he gives the following account: “ My father def- 
tined me, when I was yet a little boy, to the ftudy of 
elegant literature; and lo eagerly did I feize on it, that, 
from my twelfth year, I feldom quitted my ftudies for 
my bed till the middle of the night. This proved the 
firft caule of the ruin of my eyes ; in addition to the na¬ 
tural weaknefs of which organs, I was afflidfed with fre¬ 
quent pains in my head. When thefe maladies could 
not reftrain my rage for learning, my father provided 
that I Ihould be daily inftrufted in forne fchool abroad, 
or by domeftic tutors at home.” “ How great,” fays Dr. 
Symmons, “ are the obligations of Britain and the world 
to fuch a father, engaged in the affiduous and well-di- 
T O N. 403 
reded cultivation of the mind of fuch a fon !” Same part 
of his early education was committed to the care of Mr. 
Thomas Young, a puritan minifter, afterwards chaplain 
to the Englilh merchants at Hamburgh, a man whofc 
merits are gratefully commemorated by his pupil in a 
Latin elegy. About the age of fifteen he was fent to 
St. Paul’s fchool, of which Mr. Alexander Gill was then 
rnafter ; and there he began to diftinguilh himfelf by his 
intenfe application to ftudy, and his poetical talents. On 
the 1 ath of February, 1614-5, he was entered a penfioner 
of Chrift’s College, Cambridge, under the tuition of Mr. 
W. Chappel. Of his courfe of ftudies in the univeriity 
little is known; but he gave proof of the extraordinary 
fkiil he had acquired in writing Latin verfe, by feveral 
exercifes preferved among his works, and which are of a. 
purer claffical tafte than any preceding compofitions of 
the kind by Englilh fchoiars. It appears that fome part 
of his conduft brought upon him academical punifn- 
ment; but, whatever were the caufe, he felt no ftiame 
on account of it. However, the enemies of Milton have 
inferred that he was iubje&ed to corporal punilhment, 
and that lie was difmifled from his college for irregularity 
of conduct. Dr. Symmons has vindicated the character 
of Milton from thefe vile afperfions; urging, that “ he- 
who, with weak eyes and an aching head, could confe- 
crate one-half of the night to ftudy, cannot be fufpedted 
of Healing the other half from repole, for the purpole 
of confounding it with excefs, or"of polluting it with 
debauch.” Milton probably became obnoxious to the 
governors of his college by the bold avowal of his puri¬ 
tan opinions, which he had imbibed from his tutor Young, 
or by his dillike to the difeipline of the eftablilhed reli¬ 
gion, or to the plan of education puriued in the univer- 
lity; lienee he might lofe the favour of his fuperiors in 
the college, and be expofed to their cenfures, without 
incurring- the flighted lofs of c ha rafter, or fuftainino- the 
moft trifling diminution of general efteem. 
He took the degrees of bachelor and mailer of arts, 
the latter in 1632, when he left the univerfity. In the 
feven years of his academical life, his vigorous and ardent 
genius broke out in frequent Rallies, and evidently dif- 
clofed the future author of Comus and Paradife Loft. 
He was a poet when he was only ten years old ; and his 
tranflation of the 136th PfaJm evinces liis progrefs in 
poetic expreffion at the early age of fifteen. He re¬ 
nounced his original purpofe of entering the church ; 
and returned to his father, who had retired from bufi¬ 
nefs, to a refidence at Horton in Buckinghamlhire ; and 
there paffed five years in a courfe of claffical ftudy, and 
in the compofition of fome of his fineft mifcellaneous 
poems. This was the period of his Allegro and Penferofo, 
Comus, and Lycidas. 
In 1638, having obtained bis father’s confent to im¬ 
prove himfelf by foreign travel, Milton let out for the 
continent. At Paris he was received with diftinftion by 
lord Scudamore, the ambaflador from England, by whom 
he was introduced to the notice of the illuftrious Grotius 
who then refided in the French capital, as the minifter 
of Chriftina queen of Sweden. After the delay of a few 
days at Paris, he renewed his progrefs, and purfued the 
direft road to Nice, where a veffel received and landed 
him at Genoa. From this city he paffed immediately 
through Leghorn and Pifa to Florence; and on the banks 
of the Arno he made what may be regarded as his firft 
paufe. Here he refided two months 5 and, by the bril¬ 
liancy of his eonverfation, and mildnefs of bis manners 
made himfelf the object of very general admiration. Here 
he obtained admiffion into thofe private academies, which 
had been inftituted by the Medici for the advancement 
of literature, and for the cementing of friendfhips amono- 
its votaries; and here he faw and converted with the 
great Galileo, that memorable victim of prieftly ignorance 
and luperftition: “There it was,” fays Milton, “that 
I found and viiited the famous Galileo, grown old, a 
prifoner to the Ir.quifition, for thinking in aftronomy 
otherwiie 
