Milton's favourite books were Homer, Ovid, and Euripides. The
latter book was also the favourite of Charles James Fox, who
regarded the study of it as especially useful to a public speaker.
On the other hand, Pitt took especial delight in Milton--whom Fox
did not appreciate--taking pleasure in reciting, from 'Paradise
Lost,' the grand speech of Belial before the assembled powers of
Pandemonium. Another of Pitt's ,favourite books was Newton's
'Principia.' Again, the Earl of Chatham's favourite book was
'Barrow's Sermons,' which he read so often as to be able to repeat
them from memory; while Burke's companions were Demosthenes,
Milton, Bolingbroke, and Young's 'Night Thoughts.'
Curran's favourite was Homer, which he read through once a year.
Virgil was another of his favourites; his biographer, Phillips,
saying that he once saw him reading the 'Aeneid' in the cabin
of a Holyhead packet, while every one about him was prostrate
by seasickness.
Of the poets, Dante's favourite was Virgil; Corneille's was Lucan;
Schiller's was Shakspeare; Gray's was Spenser; whilst Coleridge
admired Collins and Bowles. Dante himself was a favourite with
most great poets, from Chaucer to Byron and Tennyson. Lord
Brougham, Macaulay, and Carlyle have alike admired and eulogized
the great Italian. The former advised the students at Glasgow
that, next to Demosthenes, the study of Dante was the best
preparative for the eloquence of the pulpit or the bar.
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