tions to a Reader's easy progress which have grown up in a series of years and overspread many places once sufficiently obvious. To remove, for so much, these discouragements is the Editor's hope in the present Republication. Occasional explanation of uncommon words and phrases, and of allusions to particular circumstances which through the intermediate distance of time are become obscure, and will seldom be understood without a key; as well as notices on personal touches, which have lost their point from age, must be always convenient. Perhaps there is no English Authour of the same standing who demands glossarial and explanatory comment more frequently than MILTON. He was of " He was of "amplitude of “mind to greatest deeds:" while with him Genius and Industry, by a rare felicity, walked hand in hand. Blessed with this character of mind he was never remiss when he believed, that it might be conducive to the general welfare to exercise his thoughts and his pen on temporary topics; and if, as in this defence of an unlicensed Press, the theme were of permanent and vital importance, he was a spec tator of the striking and extraordinary scenes continually passing before him, of a complexion much too ardent for his thoughts to escape all tinge from them, which now darkening his sense renders elucidation acceptable. Exclusive, moreover, of phraseology which the mutations of language have made obsolete, he delighted in recondite meanings and in far-sought illustration. Sometimes, it may be, in ostentation of the intellectual wealth he possessed; "His was the treasure of two thousand years:" sometimes possibly forgetting how few have arisen so intimately conversant with Letters, sacred and profane, as himself, or to whom the whole range of human Science was equally familiar. "He knew each lane, and every alley green, "His daily walks, and ancient neighbourhood." To CURSORY OBSERVATIONS, BY THE PRESENT EDITOR, ON THE INVENTION OF THE ART OF PRINTING. In the meagre Life of Thomson prefixed by Murdoch to his Edition of this Poet's Works, it is unnoticed that Thomson was an Editor of the AREOPAGITICA. A fact we may conclude from their silence to have been equally unknown to the Earl of Buchan, and to his other Biographers; who appear to have been also ignorant, that the Translation into English of "the Commentaries of the Emperor "Marcus Antoninus, by James Thomson, "Gent." 8vo. 1747, was by the hand of the Poet; as my Informant was told by Mr Floyer Sydenham. In 1738, a translation of Cromwell's Manifesto against the Spaniards, which was drawn up in Latin by MILTON, and first printed in 1655, was published by Millar, who was Thomson's Publisher. To this Pamphlet, his Britannia was appended. As I conjecture, he rendered this State-Paper into English, and republished this poetical invective with a hope to assist, like Glover, in exciting a national clamour for a Spanish War: then a leading object of the Parliamentary Party in opposition with whom he had associated himself. Thomson's reprint of this Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing came out not long after the Act had passed requiring all dramatic Writings to be licensed by the Chamberlain of the King's Household, prior to their representation in a Theatre: without any doubt it was this Statute which suggested the propriety of this republication at that juncture. The importance of the subject will always stamp a value on this spirited Preface, while, as an original composition in prose by the Poet of the Seasons it is matter for literary curiosity. Is it not singular that Thomson should no where have touched on the Art of Printing in the expanded poem which he entitled Liberty? This fell within the scope of that work much more aptly than the episode on Pythagoras and his Philosophy, or than the geographical outline of the Roman Empire. The natural, the necessary, the close alliance between Knowlege and Freedom would have fully justified its introduction. A fair occasion offered, which it is surprising an Editor of MILTON'S Vindication of an open Press should overlook, when after deploring the prostration of the human mind in the dark ages, he sings in animated strains the return of the presiding Goddess of his Poem bringing Science and the Arts in her train. This groupe has in some sort relieved the general languor of that piece; to which a wellfancied transition descriptive of the manifold benefits accruing to Mankind from the unobstructed enjoyment of this invention might have still further conduced. The expression of Thought by the Voice is in its nature a very limited faculty, and of transient effect; while oral Narration is sq vague that Facts disfigured by colloquial Tradition soon grow obscure, as well as more doubtful in authority at every repeti |