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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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jrtiy thing which he asserted . Thus much I ha ^ e bee n compelled to speak of my own person : of yours , though I have been informed that it is the most contemptible and most strongly expressive of the dishonesty and malice which actuate it , I am as little disposed to speak as others would be to
hear , I wish that it were in my po \ ver , with the same facility with which I have repelled his other attacks , to refute the charge which my unfeeling adversary brings against me of blindness ; hut alas I it is not iu my power , and I must consequentl y submit to it . It H not , however ,
miserable to be blind—he only is miserable who cannot acquiesce in his blindness with fortitude . And why should I repine at a calamity which every man ' s mind ought to be so
prepared and disciplined as to be able on the contingency of its happening " to undergo with patience , a calamity to which man by the condition of his nature is liable , and which I know to
have been the lot of some of the greatest and the best of my species £ Among those on whora it has fallen , I might reckon some of the wisest of the bards of remote antiquity , whose want of sight the gods are said to have compensated with extraordinary and far more valuable endowments , and whose virtues were so venerated
that men would rather arraign the gods themselves of injustice than draw from the blindness of these admirable mortals an argument of their guilt . What is handed down to us respecting the Augur Tiresias is very commonly known . Of Phineus , Apollonius in his Argonautics thus
sings—Careless in love , in conscious virtue bold , His daring lips heavVs sacred mind unfold , Ihe Gods hence gave him years without decay , But robb ' d his eye-balls of the piercing day !"'
m far Milton—now attend to his " ^ graphcr . " The concurring voices of all , " says Dr . Syrnmons , " who were personall
y acquainted with him , will not f m -i to douht that the harmony ° t Milton ' s features and form seemed | ° make his body a suitable residence ° his superior soul . I borrow the - * pression and the thought from Aik
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brey , who says , * His harmonical and ingenuous soul dwelt in a beautiful and Well-proportioned body I * At Cambridge the fineness of his complexion occasioned him to be called ' . the . Lady of Christ ' s College / and the ruddiness which lingered on his
cheek till the middle of life , gave to him at that period an appearance of remarkable juvenility . His eyes were dark grey , and their lustre , which was peculiarly vivid , did not fade even when their vision was extinguished 1 His hair , which was light brown , he
wore parted at the top , and clustering ' as he describes that of Adam , upon his shoulders ! His person was of the middle height , not fa | or corpulent , but muscular and compact . His deportment ( I use the words of Wood , from whom nothing but a respect for
truth could have extorted any favourable account of his great contemporary ) was affable , and his gait manly and erect , bespeaking courage and undauntedness . " To this paragraph the biographer subjoins this note : i (
The personal beauty of Milton has given occasion to a little romantic story which is pleasing to the imagination . As the youthful bard was asleep under a tree £ n Italian lady accidentally passing near the place was struck with his charms and
alighted from her carriage to contemplate them . After gratifying her curiosity and feeding her Jove with the spectacle , she dropped a paper intimating the occurrence and professing her passion , and then withdrawing without awaking him , she proceeded
on her journey . This event , as the story further relates , determined him to cross the Alps for the purpose of discovering the fugitive fair one among the beauties of Italy ! It is unnecessary to say that his search was unsuccessful , but in the voice and the charms of Leonora Baroni he found
an ample compensation fox the loss of his imaginary mistress . " Referring to Milton ' s own account of his blindness , it is delightful to perceive with how much feeling he describes his calamity , whilst he portrays the attributes of his person with admirable correctness and
modesty . Most edifying ' , indeed , is his submission to the will of-heaven , and the brutality of his adversary is chastised with a becoming U \ dignation .
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The Person and Blindness of J&hn Milton . W 3
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 593, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/21/
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