'434 Tim LIFE of MILTON. the Tufcan language. He had read almoff all authors, and improv- ed by all, even by romances, of which he had been fond in his younger years ; and as the bee can extract honey out of weeds, fo (to rife his own words in his Apology for Sme6tymnuus) thofe books, " which to many others have been the fuel of wantonnefs and loofa " living, proved to him fo many incitements to the love and obfer- f vation of virtue." His favorite author after the Holy Scriptures was Homer. Homer he could repeat almoft all without book ; and he was advifed to undertake a tranflation of his works, which no doubt he would have executed to admiration. But (as he Pays of himfelf in his potifcript to the Judgment of Martin Bncer) " he never could delight in long citations, much leis in whole traduaions." And accordingly there are few things, and thofe of no great length, which he has ever translated. He was poffeffed too much of an original genius to be a mere copyer. f Whether it be natural difpoiltion, lays he, or " education in me, or that my mother bore me a fpeaker of what God " made my own, and not a tranflator." And it is fomewhat remark. able that there is fcarce any author, who has written fo much, and upon fuch various fubjeds, and yet quotes fo little from his contem- porary authors, or fo feldom mentions any of them. He praifes Selden indeed in more places than one, but for the tell he appears difpofed to cenfure rather than commend. After his feverer ftudies, and after dinner as we obferved before, he ufed to divert and unbend his mind with playing upon the organ or bafs- ari,,g1, which was a great relief to him after he had loft his fight ; for he was a mafter of mufic as was his father, and he could performboth vocally and inftrumentally, and it is Paid that he compofed very well, tho' nothing of this kind is handed down to us. It is alfo faid that he had fome &ill in painting as well as in mufic, and that fomewhere or other there is a head of Milton, drawn by hiinfelf : but he was bleffed with fo many real excellences, that there is no want of fiditious ones to raife and adorn his charader. He had a quick apprehenfion, a fublime imagination, a ftrong memory, a piercing judgment a wit always ready, and facetious or grave as the ppcafion required : and I know not whether the lois of his fight did not
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=