who, in a short revolution of time, pass through our public schools to obscurity, we shall cease to be surprised that not one of Milton's small knot of pupils has asserted any very eminent place among the scholars or the writers of his country. We shall rather, indeed, wonder that two of them, the two Philips's, were authors, and of no despicable rank; one of them publishing a latin answer to an anonymous attack on his uncle and his cause; and the other, besides that life, to which all the biographers of Milton are so greatly indebted, a respectable Eng lish work with the latin title of Theatrum Poëtarum, containing a list and character of the ancient and the modern poets. In honour of Milton's earnest and intelligent discharge of his duties as a teacher, it is recorded, that these two young men, who came under his care at the early ages of ten and nine, were so rapidly forwarded in their studies, as, in the course of one year, to be "able to understand a latin author at sight." Aubrey, who relates the circum-. stance, ought to have been more specific in his account. If he means by "a latin an restra Ascribed, but without sufficient grounds, to the pen of Dr. Bramhall, bishop of Derry; and afterwards archbishop of Armagh. 1 author" any latin author, the fact is certainly extraordinary, and reputable, in nearly an equal degree, to the master, and the scholars. But Milton's scheme extended, beyond the Roman and the Greek, to the Hebrew, with its dialects of Chaldee and Syriac, and to some of the modern languages. It comprehended, also, a certain acquaintance with the mathematics, and with their sublime application to the purposes of astronomy. While this various reading fully occupied six days of the week, the seventh had its appropriate and characteristic employment. On this day, the pupils, after reading to their master a chapter in the Greek testament, and hearing his explanation of it, wrote, as he dictated, on some subject of theology. As his plan of education could not be properly executed in his confined lodgings in St. Bride's church-yard, he soon removed to a house in Aldersgate-street, of which the size admitted his scholars into his family, and the situation, secluded by a court from the street, and opening into a garden, supplied the retirement and quiet * It was one of those houses, which were called Garden M 1 Massica fæcundam despumant pocula venam, Et lare de Orpheci S: dapis Dulich Corda; favent uni Bacchus, Apollo, Ceres. Et nunc sancta canit superum consulta deorum; Exper m Et vad tera: tua Dicitu Dis eten | Spirat Wien Et lare devoto profugum Calchanta, senemq; Perq; tuas, rex ime, domos, ubi sanguine nigro Then why of wine's enfeebling cup complain? Beloved of verse, young Bacchus loves the strain. Placed in fond preference o'er his laurel bough, Oft has the ivy clasp'd Apollo's brow; And oft Aönia's hills have heard the Nine With frantic shouts the madd'ning orgies join. Weak was the lay from Tomi's vineless coast, When Naso wept his feasts and friendships lost. The flowing bowl with many a rose o'erhung, In fancy's sprightliest lay Anacreon sung. The Theban god inspires his Pindar's line; And each bright hymn is redolent of wine. age. u Milton and Virgil disagree on the subject of Orpheus's ...... Spreto Ciconum quo munere matres Georg. lib. iv. 522. But each poet had a view, perhaps, in this instance, to his own particular purpose. Milton wished to insinuate that his diet had a tendency to promote longevity; and Virgil was aware that he could not, with any probability, make the women of Thrace so outrageous with an old man, for his neglect of them, as to tear him to pieces. Whether o'erwhelm'd the groaning axle lie, Drain the full bowl, and join the jocund throng. But he, whose verse records the battle's roar, And heroes feats, and demigods of yore; And His be Pure as The pri Twas t And Li Sach th On foo Whose Safely safely Safely Wher Fors |