resounded along the banks of the cool Ilissus; Demosthenes thundered from the Bema; Horace talked to him from his Sabine farm; and the summer moonlight glistened through the olives of the Academy."

SIR JOHN DENHAM.

BORN, 1615; DIED, 1668.

Nor, Denham, must we e'er forget thy strains,

While "Cooper's Hill" commands the neighbouring plains.—Addison.

THERE is little known of this poet, and not much that is interesting. He was a native of Ireland, and born in Dublin in the year 1615. His father was an English gentleman of rank, and a lawyer of high reputation. At the period of his son's birth, he was Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and soon after that event he was appointed to a similar office in England. The subject of this memoir having accompanied his parents to London in 1617, received his early education at a grammar school there, and was removed from thence to Trinity College, Oxford, where he entered as a gentleman commoner in 1631. His academical career was not distinguished either by diligence or by exemplary moral conduct. Dr. Johnson has recorded of him, that he was considered "as a charming young man, given more to dice and cards than to study." He remained three years at the University, and then became a student at Lincoln's Inn, London, where he indulged, without restraint, his passion for gambling. To appease the indignation of his father, whom he had grieved and offended by his irregularities, he acknowledged the misconduct of which he had been guilty, and wrote an "Essay on the Evils of Gambling," painting in the strongest colours the ruin and disgrace which are its inevitable results.

Denham's contrition may have been sincere when he wrote his penitential disquisition against a vice whose seductive influences he was unable to resist; but it is certain, that after his father's death, he returned to his favourite amusement, and squandered a large portion of

his fortune. He came before the world as a poet in 1641, when he published a tragedy, entitled the "Sophy," which was praised by Waller, Dryden, and Pope for the genius it displayed, and which had the effect of attracting attention to the literary merits of the writer. He was a person of sufficient importance to be appointed sheriff of the county of Surrey, and afterwards to hold the office of governor of Farnham Castle for King Charles I. Not being skilled in military affairs, he did not long retain his situation, but returned to Oxford, where he joined his Majesty. It was during his sojourn in that city, in 1643, that he published "Cooper's Hill," a production which raised him to acknowledged rank among the British poets. The few remaining incidents of his life have been related by Campbell, who appears to have taken his facts from the more lengthened memoir of Denham by Dr. Johnson:-"In the civil wars Denham served the royal family by conveying their correspondence; but was at length obliged to quit the kingdom, and was sent as Ambassador by Charles II., in his exile, to the king of Poland. At the Restoration he was made surveyor of the king's buildings, and knighted, with the order of the Bath; but his latter days were embittered by a second marriage, that led to a temporary derangement of mind. He died in March, 1668, and was buried in Westminster Abbey." Denham attempted a metrical version of the psalms of David, but it was not successful. He wrote some touching verses on the death of Cowley, which met with a more popular reception than any of his other performances, except his descriptive poem of "Cooper's Hill." He also published several translations. His general characteristics as a poet are accurately described in the subjoined extract, taken from a sketch of his life in Chambers's Cyclopedia of English Literature:"

Cooper's Hill,' the poem by which Denham is now best known, consists of between three and four hundred lines, written in the heroic couplet. The descriptions are interspersed with sentimental digressions, suggested by the objects around-the river Thames, a ruined abbey, Windsor forest, and the field of Runnymede.

G

it expanded in growth, and seemed about to take the shape of one of those wild and irregular dramas anciently called mysteries; and at last it towered in all its grandeur and magnificence, the mightiest production of creative genius that the human mind has ever elaborated. It is curious to reflect on the steadiness of its growth under a complication of adverse circumstances. It is deeply interesting to behold it, like a Norwegian pine, ascending to a majestic elevation beneath a dreary and inclement sky, deriving its nurture and its strength from the very rocks, into the crevices of which it has struck its roots, and braving at the same moment the tempest that rages above, and the wild commotion of the elements below."

In 1670 Milton published six books of the "History of England," which had been commenced some time previous; and this was followed in the next year by "Samson Agonistes" and "Paradise Regained." The latter work was composed at the suggestion of Ellwood, a Quaker, who considered a poem on the subject of the redemption of man an appropriate completion, in a religious point of view, to its predecessor, "Paradise Lost." "Paradise Regained" was printed in four books, and is considered much inferior to the other; though Milton would never admit, that it displayed less poetical ability. In 1672 he brought out a treatise on logic, which Dr. Johnson has praised as a work tending to lessen the difficulties of infant learning. He also published a Latin Accidence for the use of children. In the year following appeared his treatise on "True Religion, Heresy, Schism, and Toleration." In this publication, the Roman Catholic religion is assailed in a spirit of acrimony which appears totally inconsistent with his convincing advocacy of religious liberty in some of his other works. In the same year he published a second edition of his youthful poems, with his "Tractate on Education," including some additional pieces. It has been stated by some of his biographers, that he translated into English the-declaration of the Poles on elevating John Sobieski to the throne, and

wrote, in the same year, a brief "History of Muscovy," which was not published until eight years after his death. This, however, is doubtful. In a few months. afterwards, he closed his literary labours by the publication of his "Familiar Letters," and some "Academical Exercises." He had been

Milton's health now began to decline.

for many years subject to gout, and he bore the attacks of that painful disease with the greatest firmness and resignation; at length it assumed a fatal character, and on Sunday, the 8th of November, 1674, he expired at his house in Bunhill Fields, in the 66th year of his age. He was interred near his father in the chancel of St. Giles, Cripplegate; and his remains were followed to the grave by a large concourse of people, amongst whom were many of the most distinguished and learned men in London. A simple stone was placed over his tomb, and remained undisturbed for some years, until Mr. Whitbread erected, in the middle aisle of the church, a marble bust, with a tablet recording the dates of the poet's birth and decease. In 1737 a tomb was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey, at the expense of Benson. Milton was remarkable for his personal beauty. His disposition and temper were cheerful; and those who knew him most întimately esteemed him for his virtues as much as they admired him for his genius and his learning. It is stated by one of his biographers, that he "left three daughters, whom, it is said, he taught to read and pronounce several languages, though they only understood their native tongue. He complained that the children were 'undutiful and unkind' to him; and they were all living apart from their illustrious parent for some years before his death. His widow inherited a fortune of about £1,500, of which she gave £100 to each of his daughters."

Milton left three daughters, all by his first wife, of whom we give no account as their history is wholly devoid of interest. Milton's personal character was amiable. Ease and affability were the distinguishing characteristics of his manners. He possessed remarkable firmness of purpose, and could go through almost

any amount of intellectual labour. His attachments were strong, and his resentments keen; but, though powerfully excited by the calumnies of his enemies, and frequently goaded by their attacks to indulge in bitter recriminations, he cherished no hatred or malice. After the circumstances had passed away out of which his polemical and political controversies arose, his nobleness of soul rose above every feeling of a vindictive nature. In the midst of family disquietudes, and suffering from the unkindness and neglect of his daughters, he never forgot the sacred duties of a father and a husband. He has given an interesting account of his own habits, which cannot be read without inspiring profound respect for the moral purity of his character. "His morning haunts," he declared, "were at home; not sleeping, or concocting the surfeits of an irregular feast, but up and stirring; in winter, often before the sound of any bell awakens men to labour or devotion; in summer, as oft as the bird that first rouses, or not much later, to read good authors, or cause them to be read, till the attention be weary, or the memory have its full fraught. Then with inspired and generous labours, preserving the body's health and hardiness, to render a lightsome, clean, and not a lumpish obedience for the cause of religion and our country's liberties."

In concluding our enumeration of the poet's works, it becomes necessary to speak of a remarkable treatise on theology by Milton, which was discovered in 1823 by Lemon, in the State Paper office at Whitehail, where it is supposed to have been deposited by the Secretary of State, Sir Joseph Williamson, on receiving it from the hands of Daniel Skinner. This work has given rise to much discussion among theologians; it advocates views regarding the atonement in accordance with those held by the Arians. Whatever difference of opinion may exist on the theological tenets maintained in this singular work, no one can doubt that Milton has supported them with humility and fervour, and that they were the result of mature and sincere conviction. The foregoing outline of the life of this extraordinary writer is much longer than many of the other