Our conjecture seems to be warranted by his own testimony. In an Apology against a pamphlet, supposed to have been written by the son of Bishop Hall, he takes 'occasion to acknowledge publicly with all grateful mind, that more than ordinary favour and respect, which I found above any of my equals, at the hands of those courteous and learned men, the fellows of that college wherein I spent some years: who at my parting, after I had taken two degrees, as the manner is, signified many ways, how much better it would content them that I would stay; as by many letters full of kindness and loving respect, both before that time, and long after, I was assured of their singular good affections towards

me.'

It appears, upon the whole, then, that Milton went to the university with a design to enter the church; that, though he left it, without a fellowship, he was strongly solicited to stay; and that, notwithstanding his opposition to the oath and articles, he still entertained a resolution at some time to return. We can see no means of reconciling these circumstances, but upon the supposition, that, at the time of writing the lines to Diodati, he was residing at home, as a sort of probationer; and that, if, upon investigating the subject, he could satisfy himself of the propriety of the required qualifications, he should still execute his original determination of taking orders. It is upon no other supposition, that we can account for the anomaly, remarked by his biographers, of remaining at his father's house, for more than five years after he had left the university. We learn from himself, that, excepting an occasional visit to London to relieve himself with its amusements, procure books, and see his schoolfellows, the whole of this time was given to intense study;* and his eulogists have not omitted to add,

* Et totum rapiunt me mea vita libri.-Ad Diod.

that, besides other reading, he completed, in the same period, the perusal of all the Latin and Greek classics.

However this may be, we think it likely, that the study and reflection of these five years confirmed the author in those independent views of religion and politics, which a part of his early education had contributed to form; and for which his subsequent life was so eminently distinguished. He commenced the investigation of episcopacy, with a violent prejudice against its doctrines and discipline: every thing in his progress was doubtless turned in the most unfavourable light; and he ended, not merely with a negative unbelief of its orthodoxy, -but with a determination to spend his life in hunting down its absurdities.* By the perusal of the Greek and Roman authors, he became, at the same time, familiar with the glories of republicanism;† and he seems, at last, to have been convinced, not only, that mankind would do better without a king or a church, but that his own services would be indispensable, in deposing monarchs, and overturning religious establishments.

It was probably the enthusiastic veneration, which he had now conceived for the ancient republics, that induced him to undertake a political pilgrimage to Rome and Greece. The time of his setting out is thought, by Mr. Godwin, to be involved in some confusion. Milton himself says, that, after quitting the university, he remained at home five years; was absent on his travels but fifteen months; and returned 'eodem ferme tempore quo Carolus cum Scotis, rupta pace, bellum alterum, quod vocant episcopale, redintegrabat; in quo fusis primo congressu regiis copiis, -malo coactus, non sponte, parlamentum haud ita multo post convocavit.' Milton took his master's degree in 1632: five years at Horton will bring us to 1637, when his mother died; and the first route of king Charles, in the second Scotish war, was at Newburn, in August, 1640. The result is,' as Mr. Godwin thinks,* 'that a period of two years, from the spring of 1637 to

or fabricated, a story has been put in circulation, we know not by whom, that it was wholly an adventure of knight-errantry. In the famous lines to Diodati, he says,

Sæpius hic blandas sperantia sidera flammas
Virgineos videas praeteriisse choros:

And, in the next year after writing this elegy, 'he describes his falling in love (says Toland, p. 9), with a lady whom he accidentally met, and never afterwards saw. It was upon these materials we suppose, that somebody has founded the tale of an Italian lady, who, happening one day to encounter Milton sleeping under a tree at Cambridge, wrote, and put into his hand, four lines of Gaurini; of which the purport was, Eyes, human stars! if you kill me, while closed, what would you do, if open!" It is added, that, 'eager from this moment to discover the fair incognita, Milton travelled through every part of Italy, seeking her in all directions, but in vain. His poetic fervour became incessantly more and more heated by the idea which he had formed of his unknown admirer; and it is, therefore, in some degree to her, that his own times, and the latest posterity, are indebted for the most passionate effusions of Paradise Lost. The original teller of this tale has not even the praise of invention; for the history of Surrey had gone before; and the same story is told of Louis de Puytendre, a Frenchman. It may be found in Todd's Edition of Milton, vol. i. p. 26, and in the Poems of Miss Seward, p. 76. Mr. Godwin (p. 295, note) disbelieves the anecdote, because Milton is the 'author of Paradise Lost.' We should deny the fact, because there is no proof of it. Milton himself says, that, though there were reeds in abundance, there were no trees at all to sleep under in Cambridge :

Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum:
Nuda nec arva placent, umbrasque negantia molles.

the spring of 1639, is passed over in his narrative unnoticed.'

Mr. Godwin commits two mistakes, with several oversights; and then charges upon Milton, and all his biographers, the confusion, which is imputable only to himself. Milton does not say, that he returned about the time when the royal forces were defeated; but about the time when the war broke out; in which war, he proceeds to relate, the king was beaten at the first onset, and obliged to call a parliament. He must have returned, therefore, previously to the rout of August, 1640. In the second place, the account of Edward Phillips, upon which Mr. Godwin is annotating, gives us a decisive contradiction of the statement, that Milton started on his travels in 1637. His nephew tells us, it was after the term of five years, and the death of his mother, in 1637, that Milton formed the resolution to travel; and it is some time under the marginal date of 1639, that he is said to have set out for Paris.*

Neither can we think, with Mr. Godwin, that this part of two years 'was spent, like the former years, at Horton.' Phillips speaks of Milton's 'putting himself into an equipage for such a design;' and equipage in this case must mean something besides trunks, clothes, and servants. He was to pass through France; and intended to visit both Greece and Italy. It was indispensable, therefore, that he should make himself familiar with French and Italian; be able to understand modern Greek; and have some know. ledge of the manners, habits, and modes of the dif

*Godwin, App. II. Life of John Milton. By Edward Phillips. 1694. p. 357. After the said term of five years, his mother dying, (marginal date, 1637,) he was willing to add to his acquired learning the observation of foreign customs, manners, and institutions; and thereupon took a resolution to travel, more especially designing for Italy; and, accordingly, (marginal date, 1639,) with his father's consent and assistance, he put himself into an equipage suitable to such a design; and so, intending to go by the way of France, he set out for Paris."

ferent people, with whom he designed to converse. All this could not be achieved in a day; nor achieved in Horton at all. It is probable, therefore, that, after the death of his mother, Milton took lodgings in London, and spent a great part of the disputed time in preparation for his journey.

There are other circumstances, which might have convinced his biographers, that Milton did not leave England till some time in 1639. The compliments and attentions, which he every where received abroad, could only have been given to a man, who had already made himself known by his works. We cannot suppose, that Milton's Latin poems alone had rendered him so famous on the continent. Comus, though written in 1634, was not published till 1637 : Lysidas appears at the end of the Cambridge Collections for the following year; and, according to the opinion of Dr. Johnson, the Arcades were written about the same time. The very date of the two latter is, perhaps, sufficient to prove that he must have been in England in 1638;† and, if we allow the

* Godw Phh. pp. 5, 6,

† In the Gent. Mag. Jul. 1792, there is an account of a Bible, which is supposed to have been the companion of Milton's travels; and in which he occasionally wrote a prediction, after the manner of the almanack makers. One is dated at Canterbury city, 1639. This year of very dreadful commotion, and I weene will ensue murderous times of conflicting fight. There is another, in verse, upon the 1 Maccab. xiv. 16. Now when it was heard at Rome, and as far as Sparta, that Jonathan was dead, they were very sorry."

When that day of death shall come,
Then shall nightly shades prevaile;
Soon shall love and music faile;
Soone the fresh turfe's tender blade
Shall flourish on my sleeping shade.

These vague prophecies prove nothing with certainty. Milton may have returned at the close of 1639, and have made these predictions for the next year. The authenticity of the Bible, and of the remarks, has been disputed. We can only say, that 'music' was one of the first things, of which Milton would lament the loss. For the rest, see Gent. Mag. Oct. 1792, Feb. 1793, March, 1800.