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years afflicted him, was now appointed to terminate his exemplary life. He was summoned to his final account, for which no one of his species perhaps had ever been better prepared, on the " eighth of November,(1674), when he expired without pain, and so quietly that they who waited in his chamber were unconscious of the moment of his departure. "The funeral was attended," as Toland in"by all the author's learned and great friends in London, not without a friendly concourse of the vulgar;" and his body was deposited, by the side of his father's, in the upper part of the chancel of St. Giles', Cripplegate.

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In consequence of an alteration made in that part of the church, the stone, inscribed on this occasion with his name, was removed in the course of not many years, and was never replaced. But this unintended injury

the hands of Cyriac Skinner, but what became of it afterwards has not been traced. Another work of our author's is men. tioned by Mr. Todd. It is entitled "An Argument or Debate in Law of the great Question concerning the Militia, as it is now settled by Ordinance of Parliament, by J. M. (London 1642.)" In the copy of this work, which Mr. Todd saw in the collection of the late Duke of Bridgewater, the second Earl of Bridgewater, who had acted the elder Brother in Comus, has written the name of Milton as the author.

" Wood says, on the ninth or the tenth. The day of Milton's burial is ascertained, by the parish register, to have been the twelfth.

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has in our days been amply compensated by the erection, in the same church, of a marble bust of the great poet, by the hand of Bacon and the liberality of the late Mr. Whitbread. The honourable example had been given by Mr. Benson, one of the Auditors of the Imprest, who in 1737 introduced

* In 1793. The late Mr. Whitbread was a man whose virtues reflected honour on his species. I have been informed by a gentleman, whose opportunities of knowing the fact and whose high integrity of character render his authority unquestionable, that the charities, which this excellent man distributed with silent and sagacious beneficence, amounted annually to no less a sum than 10,0301. !-happy with the means of such extended good, and still happier with the heart to employ them. His virtues seem to have descended, with undiminished force and lustre, to his son, the present representative in parliament of the town of Bedford.

"When the inscription," says Dr. Johnson, in his biogra phical libel on Milton, "for the monument of Philips, in which he was said to be soli Miltono secundus, was exhibited to Dr. Sprat then dean of Westminster, he refused to admit it; the name of Milton was in his opinion too detestable to be read on the wall of a building dedicated to devotion. Atterbury, who succeeded him, being author of the inscription, permitted its reception." I know of no other testimony for the fact in question but this of Dr. Johnson. If it be authentic, it is of a nature to cover the name of Sprat with eternal dishonour. The reason is not less unhappy than the act, which it is brought to justify, was brutal. From the repository of regal and of prelațical ashes, the name of the republican and the puritan Milton might consistently be excluded: but it is strange that the name of one of the most religious of men, whose bosom from the opening to the close of his life glowed with the most pure and ardent devotian, should be regarded as " too detestable to be read on the wall of a building dedicated to devotion,"

a similar memorial of Milton into Westminster Abbey, to the walls of which venerable building his very name had been considered, only a few years before, as a species of pollution. The lines,' which Dr. George, the provost of King's college, Cambridge, wrote for the inscription on this monument, are elegant and nervous: but the apology, which they intimate, could derive its propriety only from that illiberal and impotent malice which had previously been exerted against the name and memory of MILTON."

y Some of these verses I have inserted in my title-page, but I will here give them entire. They are by no means faultless, and they have certainly received their full share of praise.

Augusti regum cineres, sanctæque favillæ

Heroum! vosque O venerandi nominis umbræ!
Parcite quod vestris infensum regibus olim
Sedibus infertur nomen; liceatque supremis
Funeribus finire odia, et mors obruat iras.
Nunc sub fœderibus coëant felicibus unà
Libertas et jus sacri inviolabile sceptri.
Rege sub Augusto fas sit laudare Catonem.

Ashes of regal and of holy fame,
Forgive the intrusion of a hostile name!
Cease human enmities with human life!

And Death, the great composer, calm your strife!
Lo! now the king's and people's rights agree:
In freedom's hand the hallow'd sceptre see!

No jealous fears alarm these happier days:

And our AUGUSTUS smiles at CATO's praise.

In the August of 1790, the grave, as it was imagined, of the great poet was opened; and his remains exposed for some time to the public view. The popular respect for Milton was on

In the July preceding his decease, Milton had requested the attendance of his brother, Christopher, and in his presence had made a disposition of his property by a formal declaration of his will. This mode of testament, which is called nuncupative and under certain precise regulations is admitted by the ecclesiastical courts, was in the present instance ineffectual. After a full hearing of the cause, on a suit instituted against it by the daughters, the nuncupative will of Milton was found destitute of some of the essential requisites for the establishment of its validity; and was accordingly set aside by a decree of Sir Leoline Jenkins, the judge at that time of the Prerogative Court. This will gave the whole of the testator's actual possessions to his widow, assigning nothing to his daughters but their mother's marriage portion, which had not yet been paid, and this occasion discovered to be approaching to religious veneration. The people pressed from all quarters for a sight of the bones; and happy was the man who, availing himself of the mercenary spirit of the parish-officers, could become the possessor of any portion of the sacred reliques. This profanation of the ashes of the illustrious dead was warmly resented by some of the writers of the day: but, much curiosity having been excited on the subject, the skeleton was subjected to a very accurate inspection, and proved to be that of a female. This fact, showing that the coffin of Milton was yet unviolated, relieved the uneasiness of his admirers, whose fondness for the man extended itself to the smallest piece of dead matter, which had once contributed to form his mortal residence.

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the sums which he had expended on their education." The property, exclusive of the goods, which was thus bequeathed to the widow, is said to have been about fifteen hundred pounds.

Disinterestedness and a contempt of money had uniformly distinguished the elevated mind of Milton. It is at least doubtful whether he received any pecuniary compensation from his pupils; and of his small patrimony he is stated to have lost two thousand pounds by an injudicious confidence. Of an equal sum, which he had saved from the emoluments of his office and had placed on government security, he was deprived by the change of things at the Restoration; and his paternal house in Bread Street was consumed by the great fire of London in 1666. But, with his few wants, it was difficult to sink him into indigence; and after all his losses he was enabled, as we have seen, to leave nearly three thousand pounds, (including the 10001. still remaining in the hands of the Powells,) for the subsistence of his family.

In some of the depositions attached to his will, it is stated that he had frequently declared, "that he had made provision for his children in his life-time, and had spent the greatest part of his estate in providing for them." The depositions were made before Doctor (afterwards Sir William) Trumbull, who was Secretary of State and the friend of Pope.

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