severe student. He drank little strong drink of any kind, and fed
without excess in quantity, and in his earlier years without
delicacy of choice. In his youth he studied late at night; but
afterwards changed his hours, and rested in bed from nine to four in
the summer and five in the winter. The course of his day was best
known after he was blind. When he first rose, he heard a chapter in
the Hebrew Bible, and then studied till twelve; then took some
exercise for an hour; then dined, then played on the organ, and
sang, or heard another sing, then studied till six; then entertained
his visitors till eight; then supped, and, after a pipe of tobacco
and a glass of water, went to bed.

So is his life described; but this even tenour appears attainable
only in colleges. He that lives in the world will sometimes have
the succession of his practice broken and confused. Visitors, of
whom Milton is represented to have had great numbers, will come and
stay unseasonably; business, of which every man has some, must be
done when others will do it.

When he did not care to rise early, he had something read to him by
his bedside; perhaps at this time his daughters were employed. He
composed much in the morning, and dictated in the day, sitting
obliquely in an elbow-chair, with his leg thrown over the arm.
Fortune appears not to have had much of his care. In the civil
wars, he lent his personal estate to the Parliament; but when, after
the contest was decided, he solicited repayment, he met not only
with neglect, but "sharp rebuke;" and, having tired both himself and
his friends, was given up to poverty and hopeless indignation, till
he showed how able he was to do greater service. He was then made
Latin Secretary, with two hundred pounds a year; and had a thousand