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university of Aberdeen. He was a zealous partisan of Queen Mary, and actively exerted himself in her behalf during her imprisonment in England. In consequence of being identified with various conspiracies against the life of Elizabeth, he was obliged to flee to the continent, where he was made, in 1593, bishop of Constance, and in that situation employed his wealth and influence in founding three colleges for the instruction of his countrymenone at Rome, one at Paris, and one at Douay. Being, however, far advanced in life, he soon after resigned the mitre, and retired to a monastery in the Netherlands, where he died on the thirty-first of May, 1596.

Lesley's principal works are a Treatise in Defence of Queen Mary, and Her Title to the English Crown; a Description of Scotland and the Scottish Isles; and a work on the Origin, Manners, and Exploits of the Scotch. All these are in Latin; the last two forming a volume which he published at Rome, in 1578. He wrote also, in the Scottish language, a History of Scotland from 1436, to 1561, of which a Latin translation was published by himself; the original, however, was published in Edinburgh in 1830. In 1842 a work appeared entitled Vestiarium Scoticum, the body of which consisted of a catalogue of the tartans peculiar to Scottish families, composed by Bishop Lesley in the Scottish language, and which had long been preserved in manuscript in the college of Douay.

JOHN SPOTISWOOD, the last of these writers whom we shall notice, and who was successively archbishop of Glasgow, and of St. Andrews, was born in 1565. A strenuous and active promoter of the schemes of James the First of England to establish Episcopacy in Scotland, he stood high in the favor of that king, as well as of Charles the First, by whom he was made chancellor of Scotland, in 1635. His death occurred in 1639, in London, whither the popular commotions had obliged him to retire.

Spotiswood wrote, at the command of James, a History of the Church of Scotland, from 203 to 1625. When the king, in expressing his desire for the composition of that work, was told that some passages might possibly bear too hard upon the memory of his mother, he desired Spotiswood to 'write and spare not.' The history was published in London, in 1655, and is considered to be, on the whole, a faithful and impartial narrative of the events of which it treats.

Lecture the Cwenty-First.

JOHN MILTON.

N the last lecture we closed our remarks upon the writers of the age of

in the present shall speaks the

great connecting link between the school of Elizabeth and that of Anneuniting, in himself, all the genius of the former, with the delicacy, the polish, and the elegance of the latter.

JOHN MILTON was born in the city of London on the ninth of December, 1608. He was descended from the ancient and honorable family of Milton, in Oxfordshire his grandfather being an underranger to the king. In his religious sentiments, Milton's grandfather was a decided Papist, but his father early embraced the Protestant faith, in consequence of which he was disinherited, and turned from his home. Having, however, received a good education, he went to London, where he thought the means of acquiring a livelihood would be more readily found than at any other place. Soon after his arrival in that city, he engaged in the business of a scrivener, which, at that period, was not only a respectable, but even an honorable calling; and he soon after married a lady of rank and fortune. This lady was also of the Protestant faith, and was devotedly pious, in consequence of which John, who was their eldest child, was trained up with the greatest care, even from his infancy, in piety and virtue. When yet a mere child, his parents placed him under the care of Mr. Young, who was at that time one of the most devoted and successful teachers in London, and by whom Milton was carefully instructed in those rudiments of classical learning which laid the foundation for his future eminence as a scholar; and the grateful expression of Milton's recollection of Mr. Young's careful attention to his studies, forms one of those delightful pictures which are so sweet a relief to the instructor's laborious avocation.

When sufficiently advanced in his studies, Milton was placed at St. Paul's School, with a view of immediate preparation for the university; and at twelve years of age, such was his devotion to learning, that, not considering the day of sufficient length to afford the time which study required, he de

voted half the night also to that purpose. His constitution was naturally weak, and at this early period, the vigor and energy of his mind, together with his unwearied attention to study, laid the foundation of those infirmities of body which attended him during the remainder of his life, and which eventuated, long before his death, in total blindness. Even at this early period of life, he gave evidence, in the production of some minor poems, of the possession of those extraordinary poetic and intellectual powers which afterward immortalized his name.

Having made thorough preparation for the university, Milton, at the age of seventeen, entered Christ's College, Cambridge; and, during his whole collegiate course, though poetry was his passion, he devoted himself unremittingly to the various other studies of the institution. In 1628, in the twentieth year of his age, he took his Bachelor's degree; and as, from his infancy, he had been designed by his parents for the church, his mind was now turned to such subjects, and to such inquiries as were immediately connected with the Christian ministry. The result, however, of his inquiries, was unfavorable to his parents' most ardent wishes; for he soon perceived that the condition of the clergy of that period was such as to prevent any man of a thoughtful and independent spirit from officially entering upon the service of the church; and he, therefore, remained at the university till 1632, when he took his Master's degree, immediately after which he retired to his father's country-seat at Horton, in Buckinghamshire. Here, the circumstances of the family being easy and independent, he passed five successive years in that delightful ease and retirement which is so grateful to the studious mind; and stored his memory, meantime, with all that is interesting and valuable in classical learning. It was during Milton's residence at Horton that he composed those minor poems-Comus, Il Penseroso, L'Allegro, and Lycidas, which alone would have been sufficient to immortalize any other name than his own. Comus' was written at the request of the Earl of Bridgewater, and was first privately performed at the residence of that nobleman; and Lycidas' was elicited by the death of Edward King, one of Milton's classmates at the university, and who was accidentally drowned while crossing the Irish Sea, to visit his parents in Dublin.

In 1638, when Milton was in the thirty-first year of his age, he had the misfortune to lose his mother, and though his father was a kind and affectionate parent, yet by this irreparable loss, his home, hitherto endeared by so many interesting considerations, lost, comparatively, all its attractions for him; and he accordingly desired his father to permit him to visit the continent. This desire was readily gratified, and he therefore, with this view, attended by a single servant, left his native country, and soon after arrived in Paris. Hugo Grotius, whose fame was at that time greater than that of any other scholar on the continent, was then in that city, and the effect of the introduction of these two men to each other, can better be conceived than expressed. After having spent about two months in Paris, Milton passed through Nice, Genoa, Leghorn, and Pisa, to Florence, where he also re

mained two months; and there he so remarkably distinguished himself in Italian poetry, as to be admired by all ranks and conditions of men, in that city of taste and refinement. It was during his residence in Florence that that extraordinary compliment was paid him by Salvaggi, an eminent Italian poet, which is little more than translated in the following lines of Dryden :—

Three poets in three different ages born;
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The first in majesty of thought surpassed,
The next in gracefulness; in both, the last.
The force of nature could no farther go,

To make a third, she joined the other two.

From Florence, Milton passed through Sierra, to Rome, and remained two months also in the imperial city. Here, in a short space of time, he formed a close intimacy with all the great men of Rome, and every facility was, accordingly, afforded him for acquiring all the information that he desired there to obtain. From Rome, he passed down to Naples with the intention of visiting Sicily and Greece; but while at Naples, he received intelligence of the disastrous conflict into which his own country, about that time, became involved; and his patriotism and love of home triumphing over his curiosity and desire for knowledge, he determined to return at once to England; and, therefore, passing through Florence and Lucca, he crossed the Apeninnes, hastily visited Bologna, Ferrara, Venice, Verona and Milan, and thence he passed over Lake Leman to Geneva, in Switzerland, whence, through France, he eventually reached England, after an absence of fifteen months.

When Milton arrived in England, he found his father had left his residence at Horton, and had gone to reside with a younger brother; and as his sense of propriety and duty would no longer permit him to depend upon his father's bounty and kindness, he resolved to adopt such means for his future subsistence as might most readily offer. He, therefore, took, at the solicitation of his sister, Mrs. Phillips, a small house in London, for the purpose of conducting the education of her two sons, Edward and John. The success which attended the instruction of these two lads soon attracted the attention of other friends, and he was, therefore, induced, at their solicitation, to take a larger house, and open a regular academy. In this arduous, but delightful profession, Milton passed nearly eight years of his life. Meanwhile, however, he was very actively engaged in defending the principles of liberty, for which the Parliamentary party to which he had now attached himself, was then contending.

In 1641, he published his minor poems, which at once contributed to place him in the first rank of English poets; and from that period till he wrote Paradise Lost, his mind was constantly brooding over the production of some great work, which according to his own remark, his countrymen would not willingly let die.'

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In 1643, Milton married the daughter of Richard Powell, a gentleman

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