The more
fully to enjoy quiet necessary to his mental condition, he
removed to a house in Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields. His life
was one of simplicity. He rose as early as four o'clock in
summer and five in winter, and being "smit with the love of
sacred song," had a chapter of the Bible read to him; studied
until twelve, dined frugally at one, and afterwards held
discourse with such friends as came to visit him.
One of these was Thomas Elwood, a quaker much esteemed amongst
good men, who, in order that he might enjoy the advantages of the
poet's conversation, read Latin to him every afternoon save
Sunday. The whilst his voice rose and fell in regular monotony,
the blind man drank his words with thirsty ears; and so acute
were the senses remaining to him, that when Elwood read what he
did not understand, Milton perceived it by the inflection of his
voice, and stopped him to explain the passage. In fair weather
the poet wandered abroad, enjoying the fragrance of sweet pasture
land, and the warmth of glad sunlight he might not behold. And
anon, seated in a high-backed chair without his door, his
straight pale face full of repose and dignity, his light brown
hair falling in curls upon his shoulders, his large grey eyes,
"clear to outward view of blemish or of spot," fixed on vacancy,
his figure clad in coarse cloth--he received those who sought his
society.
In their absence the poet spent solitary hours conning over as
many lines of the great poem as his memory could store, until one
of his friends arrived, and relieved him by taking the staazas
down.
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