“He generally sat up half the night as well in voluntary improvements of his own choice as the exact perfecting of his school exercises; so that at the age of fifteen he was full ripe for academical training.” During these years the boy probably learned French and Italian, as well as made a beginning in Hebrew.
It was in his last year at school that he paraphrased the ninety-fourth Psalm, beginning:
“When the blest seed of Terah’s faithful son
After long toil their liberty had won,
And passed from Pharian fields to Canaan’s land
Led by the strength of the Almighty’s hand,
Jehovah’s wonders were in Israel shown,
His praise and glory were in Israel known.”
Likewise Psalm one hundred and thirty-six, beginning:
“Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for he is kind:
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.”
The present St. Paul’s School is now splendidly housed in a great establishment in Hammersmith. But Milton’s school and the one which arose on its ashes after the Great Fire are remembered by the following inscription: “On this site, A. D. 1512 to A. D. 1884, stood St. Paul’s School, founded by Dr. John Colet, Dean of St. Paul’s.” From the studio of Mr. Hamo Thornycroft at Kensington, whence came the heroic figures of Cromwell at Westminster and King Alfred at Winchester, St. Paul’s School is to receive a noble statue of the great scholar.