se he thought proper to espouse, he maintained with
unshaken firmness; he struggled to the last for what he was persuaded
were the rights of humanity; he had a passion for civil liberty, and
he embarked in the support of it, heedless of every consideration of
danger; he exposed his fortune to the vicissitudes of party
contention, and he exerted his genius in writing for the cause he
favoured.

There is no life, to which it is more difficult to do justice, and at
the same time avoid giving offence, than Milton's, there are some who
have considered him as a regicide, others have extolled him as a
patriot, and a friend to mankind: Party-rage seldom knows any bounds,
and differing factions have praised or blamed him, according to their
principles of religion, and political opinions.

In the course of this life, a dispassionate regard to truth, and an
inviolable candour shall be observed. Milton was not without a share
of those failings which are inseparable from human nature; those
errors sometimes exposed him to censure, and they ought not to pass
unnoticed; on the other hand, the apparent sincerity of his
intentions, and the amazing force of his genius, naturally produce an
extream tenderness for the faults with which his life is chequered:
and as in any man's conduct fewer errors are seldom found, so no man's
parts ever gave him a greater right to indulgence.

The author of Paradise Lost was descended of an ancient family of that
name at Milton, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. He was the son of John
Milton a money-scrivener, and born the 9th of December, 1608. The
family from which he descended had been long seated there, as appears
by the monuments still to be seen in the church of Milton, 'till one
of them, having taken the unfortunate side in the contests between the
houses of York and Lancaster, was deprived of all his estate, except
what he held by his wife[1]. Our author's grandfather, whose name was
John Milton, was under-ranger, or reaper of the forest of Shotover,
near Halton in Oxfordshire: but a man of Milton's genius needs not
have the circumstance of birth called in to render him illustrious; he
reflects the highest honour upon his family, which receives from him
more glory, than the longest descent of years can give. Milton was
both educated under a domestic tutor, and likewise at St. Paul's
school under Mr. Alexander Gill, where he made, by his indefatigable
application, an extraordinary progress in learn