Some little time before I went to Aylesbury prison [_on 3rd July, 1665_], I was desired by my quondam Master, MILTON, to take a house for him in the neighbourhood where I dwelt; that he might get out of the City, for the safety of himself and his family: the Pestilence then growing hot in London. I took a pretty box for him [_i.e., in June, 1665_] in Giles-Chalfont [_Chalfont St. Giles_], a mile from me [_ELLWOOD was then living in ISAAC PENINGTON's house, called The Grange, at Chalfont St. Peter; or Peter's Chalfont, as he calls it_], of which, I gave him notice: and intended to have waited on him, and seen him well settled in it; but was prevented by that imprisonment. [_Therefore MILTON did not come into Buckinghamshire at this time, till after the 3rd July, 1665_.] But, now [_i.e., not later than the middle of August, 1665_], being released, and returned home; I soon made a visit to him, to welcome him into the country [_county_]. After some common discourses had passed between us [_evidently at ELLWOOD's first visit_], called for a manuscript of his: which being brought, he delivered to me; bidding me, "Take it home with me, and read it at my leisure; and, when I had so done, return it to him, with my judgement thereupon!" When I came home [_i.e., The Grange; from which ISAAC PBNINGTON, with his family (including THOMAS ELLWOOD) was,_ by military force, _expelled about a month after their first return from Aylesbury gaol (i.e., about the middle of September); and he again sent to the same prison_], and had set myself to read it; I found it was that excellent poem, which he entitled, _Paradise Lost_. After I had, with the best attention, read it through: I made him another visit, and returned him his book; with due acknowledgment of the favour he had done me, in communicating it to me. He asked me, "How I liked it? And what I thought of it?" Which I, modestly but freely, told him. And, after some further discourse about it, I pleasantly said to him, "Thou hast said much, here, of _Paradise lost_: but what hast thou to say of _Paradise found_?" He made me no answer; but sate some time in a muse: then brake off that discourse, and fell upon another subject. After the sickness [_Plague_] was over; and the City well cleansed, and become safely habitable again: he returned thither. And when, afterwards [_probably in 1668 or 1669_], I went to wait on him there (which I seldom failed of doing, whenever my occasions drew me to London), he showed me his second poem, called _Paradise Regained_: and, in a pleasant tone, said to me, "This is owing to you! For you put it into my head, by the question you put to me at Chalfont! which, before, I had not thought of." [_Paradise Regained_ was licensed for publication on 2nd July, 1670.] ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER, WITH A SPECIMEN OF THE ART. 1807. ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER, &c.