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rage, acrimoniously reviling an illuftrious biogra pher but instead of being an injurious fiction of that evil fpirit, it is a reality univerfally felt, and fincerely lamented by thofe lovers of literature, who, being exempt from all party rage themselves, would willingly annihilate the influence of that infidious foe to truth and justice in the republic of letters. It should afford us an antidote against the poifon of party rage in all literary difcuffions, to obferve, that by indulging it, a very strong and a very devout mind was hurried into the want of clear moral perception, and of true Chriftian charity, in defcribing the conduct, and in fcrutinizing the motives, of Milton. It seems as if the good angel of this extraordinary poet had determined that his poetical renown fhould pass (like his virtue and his genius) through trials most wonderfully adapted to give it luftre; and hence (as imagination at least may please itself in fuppofing) hence might fuch enemies be combined against him, as the world, perhaps, never faw before in a fimilar confederacy, A bafe artificer of falfehood, and a magnanimous teacher of moral philofophy, united in a wild endeavour to diminish his reputation; but, like the rafh affailants of Jupiter, in the fables of paganifm, they only con firmed the pre-eminence they attacked with prepofterous temerity. The philofopher, indeed, made an honourable retreat; and no candid mind will feverely cenfure him for an ill-ftarred alliance, which, however clouded by prejudice, he might originally form in compaffion to indigence, and

which he certainly ended by rejection of impof

ture.

The miserable Lauder was punished by events fo calamitous, that even thofe admirers of Milton, who are most offended by the enormity of the fraud, must wish that penitence and amendment had fecured to this unhappy being, who feems to have poffeffed confiderable scholarship, a milder destiny. Finding himself unable to ftruggle with public odium in this country, he fought an afylum in the Weft Indies, and there died, an indigent outcast, and a memorable example, how dangerous it is to incur the indignation of mankind, by bafe devices to blast the reputation of departed genius.-May his wretched catastrophe preserve the literary world from being dishonoured again by artifice fo detestable!

I have faid, that the collection he published of Latin poets is entitled to fome regard as a literary curiofity and it may here be proper to enumerate the authors comprized in that collection. The first volume contains the Poemata Sacra of Andrew Ramfay, from a copy printed at Edinburgh, 1633; and the Adamus Exul of Grotius, from the edition of the Hague, 1601. In the fecond volume we have the Sarcotis of Mafenius, from the edition of Cologne, 1644, omitting the 4th and 5th books, which may be found in a copy of the Sarcotis printed at Paris, by Barbou, 1771: the first book of Dæmonomachia, a poem by Odoricus Valmarana, printed at Vienna, in 25 books, 1627: Paradifus Jacobi Catfii, a celebrated Dutch poet-the Paradife

of

of Catfius is a spirited and graceful epithalamium on the nuptials of Adam and Eve, originally written in the native language of the author; this Latin version of it was executed by the learned Barlæus, and first printed in 1643: Bellum Angelicum, Auctore Frederico Taubmanno; a poem, consisting of two books, and a fragment of a third, originally printed in 1604.

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Lauder, in publishing this collection of curious Latin verse, has occafionally feasoned it with remarks of his own, both in Latin and English-the tenor of them has a great tendency to confirm the apology, with which Johnson excused the implicit and hafty credit that he gave to the grofs forgeries of the impoftor: "He thought the man too frantic "to be fraudulent." The language ufed by Lauder, in the publication I am speaking of, fhews indeed that the contemptuous abhorrence, which this unhappy scholar had conceived of Milton, really bordered upon infanity. Without pointing to any particular inftances of plagiarism, he bestows on the poet the extraordinary title of the arch felon; and inferts a fingular epigram, written by a fervile foreigner, to prove Milton an atheist. Not contented with reviling the great author himself, he extends the virulent attack to his nephew Philips, whom he accufes of having favoured, by a fufpicious filence, the fecret practice of his uncle, in riffling the treafures of others. Philips (fays Lauder) every " where in his Theatrum Poetarum,' either wholly "paffes over in filence fuch authors as Milton was "most obliged to, or, if he chances to mention

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them,

them, does it in the most flight and fuperficial manner imaginable."

There is fome acutenefs, and more truth, in this obfervation concerning Philips, than Lauder was himself aware of. Though Milton was indeed no plagiary, and his nephew of courfe had no thefts to conceal, it is very remarkable that Philips, giving an account of poets in all languages, omits fuch of their works as were built on fubjects refembling those of his uncle. This omiffion is not only ftriking in the brief account he gives of the Latin poets collected by Lauder; it extends to fome Italian writers, of whom I fhall presently have occafion to fpeak more at large. Let me first observe, in apology for the omiffions of Philips, which are too frequent to be confidered as accidental, that he probably chose not to enumerate various poems relating to angels, to Adam, and to Paradise, lest ignorance and malice fhould abfurdly confider the mere existence of fuch poetry as a derogation from the glory of Milton. That Philips had himself no inconfiderable share of poetical tafte, and that he was laudably zealous for the honour of his uncle, appears, I think, from the following remarks, which I transcribe with pleasure, from his preface to the little book I am speaking of, as they feein to contain an oblique and graceful compliment to his renowned relation:" A poetical fancy is much feen in a choice of verfe proper to a chofen fubject.

"Wit, ingenuity, and learning in verfe, even elegance itself, though that comes nearest, are one

“ thing,

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thing, true native poetry is another, in which "there is a certain air and fpirit, which, perhaps, "the most learned and judicious in other arts do "not perfectly apprehend, much lefs is it attain"able by any study or industry."

This certain air and spirit are affuredly moft confpicuous in Milton: he was a poet of nature's creation, but one who added to all her endowments every advantage that study could acquire.

By the force and opulence of his own fancy he was exempted from the inclination and the neceffity of borrowing and retailing the ideas of other poets; but, rich as he was in his own proper fund, he chose to be perfectly acquainted, not only with the wealth, but even with the poverty of others. He feems to have read, in different languages, authors of every clafs; and I doubt not but he had perused every poem collected by Lauder, though fome of them hardly afforded ground enough for a conjecture, that he remembered any paffage they contain, in the courfe of his nobler compofition, Johnfon, in his preface to Lauder's pamphlet, reprefents the Adamus Exul of Grotius as "the first "draught, the prima ftamina of the Paradife Loft." The fame critic obferves, in touching on this fubject, in his life of Milton-" Whence he drew the "original defign has been variously conjectured by

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men, who cannot bear to think themselves igna

rant of that, which, at laft, neither diligence nor fagacity can difcover. Some find the hint in an "Italian tragedy. Voltaire tells a wild, unautho"rized ftory of a farce feen by Milton in Italy,

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