ties, at least
if he had any, they are lost to posterity in the lustre of his
brother's.
There is now alive a grand-daughter of this Christopher Milton, who is
married to one Mr. John Lookup, advocate at Edinburgh, remarkable for
his knowledge of the Hebrew tongue. The lady, whom I have often seen,
is extremely corpulent, has in her youth been very handsome, and is
not destitute of a poetical genius. She has writ several copies of
verses, published in the Edinburgh Magazines; and her face bears some
resemblance to the picture of Milton.
Mr. Wood, and after him Mr. Fenton, has given us the following
description of Milton's person.
"He was of a moderate size, well-proportioned, and of a ruddy
complexion, light brown hair, and had handsome features, yet his eyes
were none of the quickest. When he was a student in Cambridge, he was
so fair and clear, that many called him the Lady of Christ's-College.
His deportment was affable, and his gait erect and manly, bespeaking
courage and undauntedness; while he had his sight he wore a sword, and
was well skilled in using it. He had a delicate tuneable voice, an
excellent ear, could p[l]ay on the organ, and bear a part in vocal and
instrumental music."[6]
The great learning and genius of Milton, have scarcely raised him more
admirers, than the part he acted upon the political stage, has
procured him enemies. He was in his inclination a thorough Republican,
and in this he thought like a Greek or Roman, as he was very
conversant with their writings. And one day Sir Robert Howard, who was
a friend of Milton's, and a well wisher to the liberty of his country,
asked him, how he came to side with the Republicans? Milton answered,
among other things, 'Because theirs was the most frugal government;
for the trappings of a Monarchy might set up an ordinary
Commonwealth.' But then his attachment to Cromwell must be condemned,
as being neither consistent with his republican principles, nor with
his love of liberty. It may be reasonably presumed, that he was far
from entirely approving of Cromwell's proceeding; but considered him
as the only person who could rescue the nation from the tyranny of the
Presbyterians, who he saw, were about to erect a worse dominion of
their own upon the ruins of prelatical episcopacy; for if experience
may be allowed to teach us, the Presbyterian government carries in it
more of ecclesiastical authority, and approaches more to the thunder
of the Vatican,
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