into Italy, of which he had with particular diligence ftudied the language and literature; and, though he feems to have intended a very quick perambulation of the country, ftaid two months at Florence; where he found his way into the academies, and produced his compofitions with fuch applaufe as appears to have exalted him in his own opinion, and confirmed him in the hope, that,

by labour and intense study, which," fays he, "I take to be my portion in this life, joined with a strong propenfity of nature, he might leave fomething fo written to after-times, as they "fhould not willingly let it die."

It appears, in all his writings, that he had the ufual concomitant of great

abilities, a lofty and fteady confidence in himself, perhaps not without fome contempt of others; for fcarcely any man ever wrote fo much and praised fo few. Of his praise he was very frugal; as he fet its value high, and confidered his mention of a name as a fecurity against the waste of time, and a certain prefervative from oblivion.

At Florence he could not indeed complain that his merit wanted diftinction. Carlo Dati prefented him with an encomiaftick infcription, in the tumid lapidary stile; and Francini wrote him an ode, of which the first stanza is only empty noife; the reft are perhaps too diffuse on common topicks; but the laft is natural and beautiful.

7

From Florence he went to Sienna, and from Sienna to Rome, where he was again received with kindness by the .Learned and the Great. Holftenius, the keeper of the Vatican library, who had refided three years at Oxford, in.troduced him to cardinal Barberini, and he, at a mufical entertainment, waited for him at the door, and led him by the hand into the affembly. Here Selvaggi praised him in a diftich, and Salfilli in a tetraftick; neither of them of much value. The Italians were gainers by this literary commerce; for the encomiums with which Milton repaid Salfilli, though not fecure against a ftern grammarian, turn the balance indifputably in Milton's favour.

Of

Of thefe Italian teftimonies, poor as they are, he was proud enough to publith them before his poems; though he fays, he cannot be fufpected but to have known that they were faid non tam de fe, quam fupra fc.

At Rome, as at Florence, he ftaid only two months; a time indeed facient, if he defired only to ramble with an explainer of its antiquities, or to view palaces and count pictures; but certainly too fhort for the contemplation of learning, policy, or manners.

From Rome he paffed on to Naples, in company of a hermit; a companion from whom little could be expected, yet to him Milton owed his introduction to Manfo marquis of Villa, who