Of these there were no less than five. In two years the sale gave the poet a right to his second payment, for which the receipt was signed April 26, 1669. The second edition was not given till 1674; it was printed in small octayo; and, by a judicious division of the seventh and tenth, contained twelve books. He lived not to receive the payment stipulated for this impression. The third edition was published in 1678; and his widow, to whom the copy was then to devolve, agreed with Simmons, the printer, to receive eight pounds for her right, according to her receipt dated December 21, .1680. Simmons had already covenanted to transfer the right, for twenty-five pounds, to Brabazon Aylmer, the bookseller; and Aylmer sold to Jacob Tonson half, August 17, 1683, and the other half, March 24, 1690, at a price considerably advanced.

many more readers than were supplied at first, the nation did not afford.' Only three thousand were sold in eleven years; for it forced its way without assistance; its admirers did not dare to publish their opinion; and the opportunities now given of attracting notice by advertisements were then very few. But the reputation and price of the copy still advanced, till the revolution put an end to the secrecy of love, and Paradise Lost broke into open view with sufficient security of kind reception.

Milton, in his youth, is said to have been extremely handsome. He was called the lady of his college; an appellation which Mr. Hayley says he could not relish; and I may add that he might be less inclined to be pleased with his title, as, at that period, the appearance of effeminacy was attacked from the pulpit: We live in an age,' says Bishop Lake, wherein it is hard to say, whether in clothes inen grow more woman

"Of the first edition it has been observed by Dr. Johnson, that the call for books was not in Milton's age what it is at present;nish, or women more mannish! the nation had been satisfied from Milton had a very fine skin and 1623 to 1664, that is, forty-one fresh complexion. His hair was years, with only two editions of of a light brown; and, parted on the works of Shakspeare, which the foretop, hung down in curls probably did not together make upon his shoulders. His features one thousand copies. The sale were regular; and when turned of ⚫ of thirteen hundred copies in two forty, he has himself told us, he was years, in opposition to so much re- generally allowed to have had the cent enmity, and to a style of ver- appearance of being ten years young⚫sification new to all and disgusting er. He has also represented himto many, was an uncommon ex- self as a man of moderate stature, ample of the prevalence of ge- neither too lean nor too corpulent; nius.' This remark will always and so far endued with strength be read with peculiar gratification, and spirit, that, as he always wore as it exonerates our forefathers a sword, he wanted not, while light from the charge of being inattentive revisited his eyes, the skill or the to the glorious blaze of a luminary, courage to use it. His eyes were before which so many staredim of a greyish colour; which, when ⚫ their ineffectual light.' The de- deprived of sight, did not betray mand, as Dr. Johnson notices, did their loss; at first view, and at a not immediately increase; because small distance, it was difficult to

know

and Mr. Hayley, to have been stuś 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 episcopacy, and against the Danger of Sects and Schisms, in terms of su perabundant eulogy.

"The classical books in which he is represented to have most delighted, 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 "His political principles were these notes some have been adopt those of a thorough republican; ed by Joshua Barnes, and some which have been ascribed, by Dr. have been lately printed by Mr. Johnson, to a native violence of Jodrell. In the first volume, page temper, and to a hatred of all whom the first, is the name of John Milton, he was required to obey. The frewith the price of the book at 12s. quent asperity of this eminent bio 6d. and the date of the year 1634. grapher towards Milton has been I have to notice the existence of repeatedly noticed by Mr. Hayley another treasure, bearing also the with reprehension and regret; and, same date, price 3s. and the name in the following instance, with all of John Milton, written by himself the eloquence and dignity of sub on the blank page opposite the title; lime instruction. There can his copy of Lycophron, with his hardly be any contemplation own marginal observations. Of more painful, than to dwell on this remarkable curiosity, hitherto the virulent excesses of eminent unknown to the public, I received and good men; yet the utility of my information from Mr. Walker, by such contemplation may be equal whom it had been inspected in the to its pain. What mildness and library of lord Charlemont, the ・ candour should it not instil into orpresent fortunate possessor of it. dinary mortals to observe, that From Milton himself we learn, that even genius and virtue weaken the divine volumes of Plato and their title to respect, in propor his equall Xenophon' were prin- tion as they recede from that cipal objects of his regard; and that ⚫ evangelical charity, which should he preferred Sallust to all the Ro-influence every man in his judg man historians. Demosthenes has ⚫ment of another." been supposed, by lord Monboddo

ACCOUNT

ACCOUNT of the late DUKE GORDON, M. A.
Including ANECDOTES of the UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

[Communicated by Professor DALZEL.]

"DUKE Ararian UKE GORDON, M.A. the 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 learn ed education; and by great industry and œconomy, 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

success, that he was generally found applied with such diligence and 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 honourert 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 elther 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 advantages 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 learning; and initiate him, at an early period, into the principles of taste, and of polite literature in general. Even the reading of the Latin poets 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 under 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 Homer'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 contemporary professors, it was remarked, that the Latinist had a more bold, vigorous, and striking way of communication; 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 all the niceties of that language. The former might have been characte rised in the words which Scaliger applied to Juvenal, Ardet, iustat, jugulat; the manner of the latter rather resembled that of Nestor, του και απο γλωσσης μέλιτος γλυκίων ήταν audn.

"But though the gentle and fami liar 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 im

pression