power to judge of past times but by their own, fhould always doubt their conclufions. The fale of books was not in Milton's age what it is in the prefent. To read was not then a general amufement; neither traders, nor often gentlemen, thought themfelves difgraced by ignorance. The women had not then afpired to literature, nor was every house fupplied with a closet of books. Thofe indeed, who profeffed learning, were not less learned than at any other time; but of that middle race of ftudents who read for pleasure or accomplishment, and who buy the numerous products of modern typography, the number was then comparatively fmall. To prove the paucity of readers, it may be fuffi

cient to remark, that the nation had been fatisfied, from 1623 to 1664, that is, forty-one years, with only two editions of the works of Shakespeare, which probably did not together make one thousand copies.

The fale of thirteen hundred copies. in two years, in oppofition to fo much. recent enmity, and to a ftyle of verfification new to all and difgufting to many, was an uncommon example of the prevalence of genius. The demand did not immediately encreafe; for many more readers than were fupplied at first the nation did not afford. Only three thousand were fold in eleven years; for: it forced its way without affiftance its admirers did not dare to publish their

opinion; and the opportunities now. given of attracting notice by advertisements were then very few; for the means of proclaiming the publication of new books have been produced by that general literature which now pervades the nation through all its ranks. T

But the reputation and price of the copy still advanced, till the Revolution put an end to the fecrecy of love, and Paradife Loft broke into open view with fufficient fecurity of kind reception.

Fancy can hardly forbear to conjec ture with what temper Milton furveyed the filent progrefs of his work, and marked his reputation ftealing its way in a kind of fubterraneous current through fear and filence. I can

not but conceive him calm and confident, little disappointed, not at all dejected, relying on his own inerit with fteady consciousness, and waiting, without impatience, the viciffitudes of opinion, and the impartiality of a future generation.

In the mean time he continued his ftudies, and fupplied the want of fight by a very odd expedient, of which Philips gives the following account:

Mr. Philips tells us, "that though "our author had daily about him one

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or other to read, fome perfons of man's "eftate, who, of their own accord, "greedily catched at the opportunity " of being his readers, that they might as well reap the benefit of what they "read

"read to him, as oblige him by the be "nefit of their reading; and others of

younger years were fent by their pa "rents to the fame end: yet excufing "only the eldest daughter, by reafon "of her bodily infirmity, and difficult"utterance of fpeech, (which, to fay "truth, I doubt was the principal caufe "of excufing her) the other two were "condemned to the performance of "reading, and exactly pronouncing of "all the languages of whatever book "he fhould, at one time or other, think "fit to perufe, viz. the Hebrew (and I "think the Syriac), the Greek, the "Latin, the Italian, Spanish, and French. "All which forts of books to be con

fined to read, without underftanding