reprinting them should meet with little or no fuc"cefs."

The affertion of this learned and amiable writer, that Milton had not imitated these poets, is not to be understood in a strict and literal fenfe; for affuredly there are paffages in some of them that Milton may be fairly supposed to have copied, though his obligations to these Latin poets are very far from being confiderable; and had they been infinitely greater, the inference drawn by the malevolent reviler of Milton would ftill have been preposterously severe.

The detected flanderer was foon overwhelmed with the utter contempt he deserved; but, contemptible as he was, the memory of his offences and of his punishment ought to be preserved, not fo much for the honour of Milton, as for the general interest of literature, that if the world can produce a fecond Lauder, he may not hope for impunity.

Part of his fubfequent history is related in the following words by Dr. Douglas :

"Grown defperate by his disappointment, this very "man, whom but a little before we have seen as abject " in the confeffion of his forgeries, as he had been bold "in the contrivance of them, with an inconfiftence,

equalled only by his impudence, renewed his attack "upon the author of the Paradife Loft; and in a pamphlet, published for that purpose, acquainted the "world, that the true reafon which had excited him to " contrive

"contrive his forgery was, becaufe Milton had attacked "the character of Charles, the First, by interpolating "Pamela's prayer from the Arcadia, in an edition of the "Eicon Bafilike, hoping, no doubt, by this curious

key to his conduct, to be received into favour, if not by "the friends of truth, at least by the idolaters of the royal

martyr—the zeal of this wild party-man against Milton "having at the fame time extended itself against his "biographer, the very learned Dr. Birch, for no other ❝reafon but because he was fo candid as to express his "difbelief of a tradition unfupported by evidence. HeWere it requifite to give new force, to the many proofs of that malignant prejudice against Milton in a late writer, which I have had too frequent occafion to examine and regret, fuch force might be drawn from the words juft cited from Dr. Douglas. That gentleman here informsbrus, that: Lauder, directed his intemperate zeal against Dr. Birch, for rejecting the ill-fupported ftory that represented Milton as an impoftor, concerned in forging the remarkable prayer of the king. Yet Johnfon ungenerously laboured to fix this fufpicion of dishonefty on the great character whofe life, he delineated, by infinuating that Dr. Birch believed the very story, which Lauder reviled him for having candidly rejected.' Is it not too evident from this circumftance, that Lauder's intemperate hatred of Milton had in fome degree infected his noble coadjutor? though he very jufly discarded

that impoftor, when convicted of forgery, after writing for him a fupplicatory confeffion of his fraud, for which he was afterwards cenfured by the half-frantic offender, who, finding that it procured him no favour from the public, declared it infinitely too general and too abject for the occafion.

The malevolence of Johnfon towards the great poet has been reprefented as a mere fiction of party rage, acrimoniously reviling an illuftrious biographer: but inftead of being an injurious fiction of that evil spirit, it is a reality univerfally felt, and fincerely lamented by those 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 fhould afford us an antidote against the poison of party rage in all literary difcuffions, to obferve, that by indulging it, a very ftrong and a very devout mind was hurried into the want of clear moral perception, and of true Chriftian charity, in describing 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 pafs (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 saw before in a fimilar confederacy. A base artificer of falfehood, and a magnanimous teacher of

moral

moral philofophy, united in a wild endeavour to diminish his reputation; but, like the rafh affailants of Jupiter, in the fables of paganism, they only confirmed the preeminence they attacked with prepofterous temerity. The philofopher, indeed, made an honourable retreat ; and no candid mind will feverely censure him for an illftarred alliance, which, however clouded by prejudice, he might originally form in compaffion to indigence, and which he certainly ended by rejection of imposture.

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

I have said, that the collection he published of Latin poets is entitled to fome regard as a literary curiosity: and it may here be proper to enumerate the authors comprized in that collection. The firft 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 Catfius: is à fpirited and graceful epithalamium on the nuptials of Adam and Eve, originally written in the native language of the author; this Latin verfion of it was executed by the learned Barlæus, and first printed in 1643: Bellum Angelicum, Auctore Frederico Taubmanno; a poem, confifting of two books, and a fragment of a third, originally printed in 1604.

Lauder, in publishing this collection of curious Latin verse, has occafionally seasoned 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 instances of plagiarism, he bestows on the poet the extraordinary title of the arch felon; and inferts a fingu

lar