With respect to the identity of the person; anyone must be a skeptic against violent presumptions to entertain a doubt of its being that of _Milton_. The parish traditions of the spot; the age of the coffin--none other found in the ground which can at all contest with it, or render it suspicious--_Poole’s_ tradition that those who had conversed with his father about _Milton’s_ person always described him to have been thin, with long hair; the entry in the register-book that _Milton_ died of consumption, are all strong confirmations, with the size of the coffin, of the identity of the person. If it be objected that, against the pillar where the pulpit formerly stood, and immediately over the common-councilmen’s pew, is a monument to the family of _Smith_, which shows that ‘near that place’ were buried, in 1653, _Richard Smith_, aged 17; in 1655, _John Smith_, aged 32; and in 1664, _Elizabeth Smith_, the mother, aged 64; and in 1675, _Richard Smith_, the father, aged 85; it may be answered that, if the coffin in question be one of these, the others should be there also. The corpse is certainly not that of a man of 85; and, if it be supposed one of the first named males of the _Smith_ family, certainly the two later coffins should appear; but none such were found, nor could that monument have been erected until many years after the death of the last person mentioned in the inscription; and it was then placed there, as it expresses, not by any of the family, but at the expense of friends. The flatness of the pillar, after the pulpit had been removed, offered an advantageous situation for it; and ‘_near this place_,’ upon a mural monument, will always admit of a liberal construction. _Holmes_, who is much respected in that parish, and very ingenious and intelligent in his business, says that a leaden coffin, when the inner wooden-case is perished, must, from pressure and its own weight, shrink in breadth, and that, therefore, more than the present admeasurement of this coffin across the shoulders must have been its original breadth. There is evidence, also, that it was incurvated, both on the top and at the sides, at the time when it was discovered. But the strongest of all confirmations is the hair, both in its length and colour. Behold _Faithorne’s_ quarto-print of _Milton_ taken _ad vivum_ in 1760, five years before _Milton’s_ death. Observe the short locks growing towards the forehead, and the long ones flowing from the same place down the sides of the face. The whole quantity of hair which Mr. _Taylor_ took was from the forehead, and all taken at one grasp. I measured on Monday morning, the 9th, that lock of it which he had given to Mr. _Laming_, six inches and a half by a rule; and the lock of it which he gave to me, taken at the same time, and from the same place, measures only two inches and a half. In the reign of _Charles_ II. how few, besides _Milton_, wore their own hair! _Wood_ says _Milton_ had light-brown