know that he was blind. The tes timony of Aubrey, respecting the person of Milton, is happily expressed; His harmonicall and ingeniose soul did lodge in a beautiful and well proportioned body. Milton's voice was musically sweet, as his ear was musically correct. Wood describes his deportment to have been affable, and his gait erect and manly, bespeaking courage and undauntedness. Of his figure in his declining days, Richardson has left the following sketches. An ancient clergyman of Dorsetshire (Dr. Wright) found John Milton in a small chamber hung with rusty green, sitting in an elbow chair, and dressed neatly in black, pale but not cadaverous, his hands ⚫ and fingers gouty and with chalkstones. He used also to sit in a gray coarse cloth coat, at the door of his house near Bunhill Fields, in warm sunny weather, to enjoy the fresh air; and so, as well as in his room, received the visits of people of distinguished parts as well as quality.' "His domestic habits were those of a sober and temperate student. Of wine, or of any strong liquors, he drank little. In his diet he was rarely influenced by delicacy of choice. He once delighted in walking and using exercise, and appears to have amused himself in botanical pursuits; but, after he was confined by age and blindness, he had a machine to swing in for the preservation of his health. In summer he then rested in bed from nine till four, in winter to five. If at these hours he was not disposed to rise, he had a person by his bedside to read to him. When he first rose, he heard a chapter in the Hebrew Bible, and commonly studied till twelve; then used some exercise for an hour; then dined; afterwards played on the organ or bass-viol, and either sung himselfor made his wife sing, who, he said, had a good voice but no ear. It is related, that when educating his ne phews, he had made the songsters, and sing from the time they were with him.' No poet, it may be observed, has more frequently or more powerfully commended the charms of music than Milton. He wished perhaps to rival, and he has successfully rivalled, the sweetest de scriptions of a favourite bard, whom the melting voice appears to have often enchanted the tender Petrarch. After his regular indulgence in musical relaxation, he studied till six then entertained his visitors till eight; then enjoyed a light supper; and, after a pipe of tobacco and a glass of water, retired to bed. "His literature was immense. Of the Hebrew, with its two dialects, and of the Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish languages, he was a master. In Latin, Dr. Johnson observes, his skill was such as places him in the first rank of writers and critics. In the Ita lian he was also particularly skilled. His sonnets in that language have received the highest commendations from Italian critics, both of his own and of modern times. If he had written generally in Italian, it has been supposed, by the late lord Ocford, that he would have been the most perfect poet in modern languages; for his own strength of thought would have condensed and hardened that speech to a proper degree. The academy Della Cruse ca consulted him on the critical niceties of their language. In his early days indeed he had become deeply enamoured of The two fa'mous Renowners of Beatrice and • Laura.' It has been rightly remarked, that he read almost all au thors, thors, and improved by all: he relates himself, that his round of study and reading was cease⚫ less.' "The classical books in which he is represented to have most de lighted, were Homer, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Euripides. The first he could almost entirely repeat. Of the last he is said to have been a reader, not only with the taste of a poet, but with the minuteness of a Greek critic. His Euripides, in two volumes, Paul Stevens's quarto edition of 1602, with many marginal emendations in his own hand, is now the property of Mr. Cradock, of Gumley, in Leicestershire. Of these notes some have been adopt ed by Joshua Barnes, and some have been lately printed by Mr. Jodrell. In the first volume, page the first, is the name of John Milton, with the price of the book at 128. 6d. and the date of the year 1634. I have to notice the existence of another treasure, bearing also the same date, price 3s. and the name of John Milton, written by himself on the blank page opposite the title; his copy of Lycophron, with his own marginal observations. Of this remarkable curiosity, hitherto unknown to the public, I received my information from Mr. Walker, by whom it had been inspected in the library of lord Charlemont, the present fortunate possessor of it. From Milton himself we learn, that the divine volumes of Plato and his equall Xenophon' were principal objects of his regard; and that he preferred Sallust to all the Roman historians. Demosthenes has been supposed, by lord Monboddo and Mr. Hayley, to have been stu died by him minutely and successfully. On contemporary authors Milton has bestowed little praise. Dr. Newton notices that he has condescended, more than once, to applaud Selden; but that he seems disposed to censure, rather than commend the rest. He has extolled, however, in his Areopagitica, the merits of lord Brooke, who had lately fallen in the service of the parliament, and had written a treatise against the English epis copacy, and against the Danger of Sects and Schisms, in terms of superabundant eulogy. "His political principles were those of a thorough republican; which have been ascribed, by Dr. Johnson, to a native violence of temper, and to a hatred of all whom he was required to obey. The frequent asperity of this eminent biographer towards Milton has been repeatedly noticed by Mr. Hayley with reprehension and regret; and, in the following instance, with all the eloquence and dignity of sublime instruction. There can hardly be any contemplation more painful, than to dwell on the virulent excesses of eminent and good men; yet the utility of such contemplation may be equal to its pain. What mildness and candour should it not instil into or dinary mortals to observe, that even genius and virtue weaken their title to respect, in proportion as they recede from that evangelical charity, which should influence every man in his judg 'ment of another." ACCOUNT ACCOUNT of the late DUKE GORDON, M. A. Including ANECDOTES of the UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. [Communicated by Professor DALZEL.] UKE GORDON, M.A. the late well-known sub-librarian of the University of Edinburgh, was a man of a singular character. The obscurity of his parentage, as that of many others who have distinguished themselves in life, far from casting any reproach on him, served, on the contrary, to enhance the merit of his own exertions. He was the son of William Gordon, weaver in Potterrow of Edinburgh, and born there on the 20th of May, 1739. There is a tradition that William gave his son the Christian name of Duke, in commemoration of some attention which his own father, while in the king's service, and at a period when clanship was still in high repute, had once met with from the Duke of Gordon; a whimsical and ill-judged distinction, for which his son, when he grew up, never seemed to be grateful; and accordingly in writing this part of his name, he usually set down no more of it than the initial. "An ambition of a different sort, with which the father was actuated, deserves greater praise. He felt a desire to bestow upon his son a learned education; and by great industry and economy, he was enabled to accomplish this object. Having got him instructed in the reading of English and in writing, he was advised to remove him to a private Latin school, kept in the Cowgate by Mr. Andrew Waddel, then a teacher of considerable reputation, but now known only as the translator of Buchanan's paraphrase of the Psalms. Here our young scholar applied with such diligence and success, that he was generally found at the head of his class; and at the annual examination of the school, he had the good fortune to be approved of by the celebrated Mr. Thomas Ruddiman, who honoured Waddel with his countenance and presence on those occasions. At this school young Gordon profited so much, that in a few years he was deemed qualified for entering the university, where we find him matriculated as a student of Greek, under professor Robert Hunter, the 13th of March, 1753. "In the Scottish universities, all that is deemed necessary as a preparation for academical instruction, is a previous course of Latin for four, five, or at most six, years, either at a grammar school, or under a sufficient private teacher; during which time, if a young man has either in reality made remarkable proficiency, or is supposed to have done so, he is sometimes advised, on entering to the university, to pass over the Latin, or, as it is commonly called, the Humanity Class, and to proceed immediately to the Greek. But this is chiefly the case with those whose circumstances are so narrow as to render it an object for them to save as much time and expense as possible. Unless from a necessity of this kind, the advan tages to be derived from attending a professor of humanity ought ne ver to be neglected; as it is to be supposed that the instructions of such a teacher will not only greatly promote any previous knowledge of of the Latin tongue, which a young man may have received at a grammar school or elsewhere, but will give him a more profound and accurate knowledge of grammar, Roman antiquities, and Roman learn ing; and initiate him, at an early period, into the principles of taste, and of polite literature in general. Even the reading of the Latin pocts with emphasis, propriety and grace fulness, from an academical chair, and commenting upon them with feeling and with taste, never fail to captivate the ingenuous youth, and to make such an impression upon their minds, as at no period of their future life is ever in any of them completely effaced; but which to many proves ever after a source of exquisite enjoyment. "Besides the public Humanity Class, which used to meet several hours in the day, the professor had another, which was called his Private Class; and, which assembling only one hour daily, was calculated for those who might wish still to prosecute the Latin along with their other studies; it was particularly calculated for the students of Greek, who had attended the public Humanity Class the preceding year, or for those whose circumstances had obliged them to commence their academical course in the public Greek class. Of this last description was young Gordon; and while he learned the elements of Greek un der professor Hunter, he was improving himself in Latin, and in the knowledge of Roman antiquities, in the private class of professor George Stuart. "The Greek professor too used to spend about six weeks at the commencement of his public course in reading Latin with his students, previous to their entering upon the elements of the Greek. The books which professor Hunter generally chose for this purpose were Livy's Roman History, and Lucan's Pharsalia: and thus Mr. Gordon had the benefit of observing this learned instructor's method of teaching Latin as well as Greek. "In the public Greek class, the plan of education in Scotland obliges the professor to teach the mere elements of the language; as very few have any knowledge of Greek previous to their entering the university. But Mr. Hunter also had a private class for those who wished to prosecute that knowledge during the time of their philosophical studies; and which enabled them, in addition to what they had learned of the Testament, of Esop's Fables; of Lucian's Dialogues, and of Ho mer's Iliad, in the public course, to obtain some acquaintance also with the Odyssey, with one or two of the Greek tragedies, and with some passages from Xenophon or Herodian. Of these two contem porary professors, it was remarked, that the Latinist had a more bold, vigorous, and striking way of com munication; but that the Greek professor, with a familiar and less dignified manner, discovered a much more accurate and profound skill, even of Latin grammar, and of alí the niceties of that language. The former might have been characte rised in the words which Scaliger applied to Juvenal, Ardet, instat, jugulat; the manner of the latter rather resembled that of Nestor, του και απο γλώσσης μελιτος γλυκίων μετ avon. "But though the gentle and familiar manner of the latter rendered him a great favourite with the students, it must be owned that the bold and commanding tone of the former made a more lasting impression pression on his hearers. Many of these who survive will still remember with what congenial enthusiasm they have heard him pronounce the verses of Horace, of Virgil, and of Juvenal; and with what powerful effect he conveyed to them a knowledge of Roman antiquities, in commenting upon Livy or Suetonius. "Such were the professors under whom Duke Gordon studied the Latin and Greek languages. At the Greek class he particularly distinguished himself; for as he was possessed of great industry, and of a tenacious memory, he acquired and retained the principles of the Greek more successfully than most of his fellow students; and as he had been well grounded in the Latin prosody, and the knowledge of the quantity of syllables, by Mr. Waddel, he was a great admirer of professor Hunter's attention to those particulars, and indeed of his great accuracy as a teacher in eyery respect. "Men of letters in Scotland have of latebeen reproached with want of attention to the proper quantity in Latin and Greek words; and it must be owned not without reason; although the reproach is often expressed too indiscriminately; and by none more than by some of their own countrymen, who being themselves void of this absolute necessary ingredient in the composition of an accomplished classical scholar, would wish to have it believed that others are as ignorant as themselves. It is well known that there was a time when Latin poetry flourished, and was understood in Scotland to as great an extent as in any other European nation. What scholar has not heard of George Buchanan, Andrew Melvin, Robert Boyd, Andrew Ramsay, and of the Delitize 1801. Poetarum Scotorum? of which Dr. Johnson has been liberal enough to confess, that the Latin poetry there. contained would have done honour to any nation; and Dr. Parr, with still greater liberality, and what many may think partiality to the Scots, at least in as far as the Greek is concerned, ascribes to them, at one period, superior excellence in classic learning in general. It is certain, that from the time of Buchanan, who died in 1582, till the latter period of the reign of Charles I. both Latin prose and poetry were cultivated in Scotland with the greatest success. Almost all the professors in the universities, and many other scholars, not only spoke Latin fluently, but wrote, verses in Latin, and sometimes in Greek: nor do those contained in The Muse's Welcome to King James, in 1617, and those in EIZOAIA Musarum Edinensium in Caroli regis ingressu in Scotiam, in 1633, yield in any respect to similar productions in any other country. From that time polite literature in Scotland, and particularly the making of Latin verses, very rapidly declined. This was owing entirely to the agitated state of the nation; and not to any aversion which either party had to the cultivation of learning; for both after the restoration and after the revolution, while the nation enjoyed any repose, the former elegant studies were resumed; even Latin verses were written, though not in so great numbers. The union, and after that the rebellion in 1715, produced new subjects of discussion, which engaged the attention of men. After the second rebellion in 1745, while a taste for philosophy and English composition began to prevail, classical learning was not neg lected; and many scholars, though they did not practise the writing of D Latin |