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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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a iift&tncb fp pecuhaT as might well caus ^ that singular designation to be riven to him . "—Between thirty and forty years ago , I well recollect observing a series of well-executed portraits of John Milton in the
successive periods of his-life , decorating and enriching the council - room of my Alma Mater , King ' s College , in the University of Aberdeen , I gazed upon them udth rapture ! So hallowed is the linage of the great poet , so
profoundly reverenced is Ins person , now upwards of a century decomposed and mingled with his native dust . John Mii / TON is at once the ornament and glory of the British nation . Particulars respecting his history must be acceptable—especially proceeding from his own pen , they mast prove
gratifying to the curiosity . His Mindness is well known , and it is thus singularly described by himself . In a letter from Milton to the " most illustrious Leonard Philaras , Embassador from the Duke of Parma to the Court of France , " dated Westminster , Sept . 28 , 1654 , his expressions
are these : "It is now about ten years I think since I first perceived my sight beginning * to grow weak and dim , and at the same time my spleen and other viscera heavy and flatulent . When 1 sate down to read as usual in the
morning my eyes gave me considerable pain and refused their office till fortified by moderate exercise of body . If I looked at a candle it appeared surrounded with an iris ! In a little time a darkness covering- the left side of the left eye , M ' hich was partially
clouded some years before the other , intercepted the view of all things in that direction . Objects also in front sfcemed to dwindle in size whenever I closed my right eye . This eye , too , tor three years gradually failing a few months ' previous to my total
blindness , while I was perfectly stationary ever y thing seemed to swim backward ami forward , and now thick vapoui ' s appear to settle on rny forehead and temples which wei ff h down tny lids with on oppressive sense of drowsi-*<*« > especially in the interval beween dinner and the evening , so rfs frequent ly to remind me of Phijnfcus ue kalmydessian m tfa Argottauti < & *~ -
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' In darkness swam his brain , and where he stood , The steadfast earth seem'd rolling as a flood ; Nerveless -his tongue and every power oppress'd He sank and languished into torpid rest f *
" I ought not to omit mentioning that before I wholly lost my sight , as soon as I lay down in bed and turned upon either side , brilliant flashes oC light issued from ray closed eyes , an < J often upon the gradual failure of my powers of vision colours proportion ably dim and faint seemed to rush out with a degree of vehemence and a kind of inward noise . These have now faded into uniform blackness , such as ensues on the extinction of a candle , or blackness varied only and
intermingled . with a dimmish grey . The constant darkness , however , ih which I live , day and nighty * rielines more to a whitish than a blaekis& tinge , and the eye in turning itself around admits as through a narrow chink a very small portjpn oi )} g \ it But this , though it may pierliaps t > ffer a similar glimpse of hope to -the ,
physician , does hot prevent Qie from making up my mind to my case as one beyond the reach of cure , and I often reflect that , as many clays <> f darkness , according to the wise > man ^ are allotted to us all , mine , which by the singular favour of the Deify are divided between leisure and study an #
are recreated by the conversation anji intercourse of my friends , are far more agreeable than those deadly shades of which Solomon is speaking But if as it is written , Man shall
not live by bread alone , but by ever \ word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God / why should not each of Us likewise acquiesce in the reflection , that he derives the benefits of sight
not from bis eyes alone , but from the guidance and providence of the $ iipr £ me Being . ?• Whilst he looks # ut and provides for me as he does , and leads me about as It were with Ms
-hand - through the paths of life , 1 willingly surrender my Own faculty of vision in conformity to his good pleasure ; and with a heart as strong : and aa steadfast as if I w £ re a Lyncseus , 1 bid you , my Philaras , farewell !** Now hear Mil ton ' s affectifcg strains in Paradise Lost-:
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The Person and Blindness af J ^ hn Mittim . 591 *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 591, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/19/
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