1808.] 
LETTER OF MILTON. 
MR. EDITOR, 
HE following Letter from Mirton, 
to LEONARD PHILARAS, an Athenian, 
dated Westminster, September 28, 1654, 
containing some account of the nature and 
progress of his blindness, will, Ipresume, be 
not unacceptable to many of your readers. It 
is translated from a small collection of his 
*¢ Familiar Letters,” published by Brabazon 
Aylmer, during the last year of his life, 1674. 
The Greek quotation I have translated, as it 
stands in the Letter, Adi. OB. 
«“ As I have been, from a boy, a great 
admirer of every thing which bore the 
Grecian name, and more particularly of 
your own Athens, so likewise have L been 
ever fully persuaded, that that city would 
some time or other make me an excellent 
compensation for the attachment which 
I have always expressed towards it. This 
persuasion of mine, the ancient genius of 
your illustrious country has kindly ac- 
complished in giving me an Athenian 
friend, so strongly endeared to me; who, 
at a time when [ was known to him only 
by my writings, and at an immense dis- 
tance from him, sent me the most obli- 
ging letters, and afterwards coming un- 
expectedly to London, and visiting me, 
when I was deprived of my sight, even in 
that distressing situation, which could add 
nothing to my respect, and which might 
make me slighted by many, still treated 
me with the same affection. 
<< Since,t herefore, you have recommen- 
ded me not to relinquish all hopes of re- 
covering my sight, as you have a most 
intimate friend in Mr. Thevenot, a phy- 
sician of Paris, who is celebrated for his 
successful treatment of disorders in the 
eye, avd whom you offer to consult on 
my case, if you can hear from me the 
cause and symptoms of my blindness, 
which it will be necessary for him to 
know, I shall certainly comply with your 
wishes, that I may not appear to reject 
assistance from any quarter, which may 
perbaps be providentally sent for my 
relief. 
“ Tt is now, I[ believe, ten years, more 
or less, since I found my sight growing 
weak and dim. At the same time I ex- 
perienced a melancholy affection, aitend- 
ed with disordered bowels, and flatuleucy. 
If I began to read at all in the morning, 
as [ was accustomed to do, my eye-balls 
instantly pained me, and shrunk from 
their oilice; but recovered after a mode- 
sate exercise of the body, Wheneyer I 
Leiter of Milton. 
565 
looked at a candle, it appeared surround- 
ed with a kind of rainbow. Nota long 
time afterwards, a darkness, which began 
in the left part of my left eye (for that 
eye was dim some years before the other), 
concealed every object situated on that 
side. Whatever likewise was in front of 
me, if I happened to shut my right eye, 
appeared less. My other eye has gradu- 
ally failed me forthe last three years ; and 
a few months before it became quite 
dark, every thing which I looked at stead- 
fastly seemed to swim before me, some- 
times to the right hand, and sometimes 
to the left. Continued mists appear set- 
tled on the whole of.my forehead and 
temples, which usually press and weigh 
down my eyes, particularly after dinner 
until the evening, with a kind of sleeping 
heaviness; so that I often think of the 
fate of Phineus in Apollonius :-— 
In purple mist profound 
His eyes involy’d, seem’d on it’s centre deep 
To see old Earth turn round—while mute he 
lay 
In helpless drowsiness. 
But 1 should not omit to mention, that, 
while I had yet some sight remaining, as 
soon as I lay down in bed, and reclined 
on either side with my eyes shut, there 
used to shine forth an abundance of light; 
and afterwards, as my sight was daily on 
the decrease, colours of a darkish cast 
rushed before me with a certain inward 
and violent crush. Now, however, the 
light is extinguished, and nothing pre- 
sents itself but pure darkness or diversi- 
fied and as it were interwoven with a ci- 
neritious orash-colour. But the darkness, 
which continually clouds my sigh¢, ap-= 
proaches as well by might, as by day, ra- 
ther to a white, than to a black hue; 
and on turning my eye it admits a small 
portion of light as if through a little cre- 
vice. Although this may afford some 
hopes to the Physician, yet i resign and 
compose myself as in a case that defies a - 
remedy. I likewise often reflect on this, 
that since to every man are allotted many 
days of darkness (as we are told* by the 
Wise Man), mine, as yet, through the fa- 
vour of heaven, which has given me lei- 
sure and resources, with the calls and 
conversation of my friends, have been 
much more easy than those fatal days. 
But if, as it is written, ‘man does not 
live by bread alone but by every word 
that proccedeth out of the mouth of God,’ 
* Ecclesiastes, x1, and 8th verse. 
what 
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