Never was a favage infult more completely avenged; for Milton, having discovered that More was unquestionably the publisher of the work, confidered him as its author, which, according to legal maxims, he had a right to do, and in return exposed, with fuch severity of reproof, the irregular and licentious life of his adverfary, that, lofing his popularity as a preacher, he seems to have been overwhelmed with public contempt. There is a circumftance hitherto unnoticed in this controversy, that may be confidered as a proof of Milton's independent and inflexible spirit. More having heard accidentally, from an acquaintance of the English author, that he was preparing to expose him as the editor of the fcurrilous work he had published, contrived to make great interest in England, first, to prevent the appearance, and again, to soften the personal severity of Milton's Second Defence. The Dutch ambassador endeavoured to prevail on Cromwell to suppress the work. When he found that this was impoffible, he conveyed to Milton the letters of More, containing a protestation that he was not the author of the invective, which had given fo much offence; the ambassador at the fame time made it his particular request to Milton, that, in answering the book, as far as it related to the English government, he would abstain from all hoftility against More.-Milton replied, "that no unbecoming words should proceed from his pen;" but his principles would not allow him to spare, at any private interceffion, a public enemy of his country. These particulars are collected from the last of our author's political treatises in Latin, the de fence fence of himself, and they form, I trust, a favourable introduction to a refutation, which it is time to begin, of the feverest and most plaufible charge, that the recent enemies of Milton have urged against him; I mean the charge of servility and adulation, as the sycophant of an ufurper. I will state the charge in the words of his moft bitter accufer, and without abridgment, that it may appear in its full force : "Cromwell (fays Johnson) had now difmiffed the par"liament, by the authority of which he had destroyed mo"narchy, and commenced monarch himself under the title "of protector, but with kingly, and more than kingly, power. That his authority was lawful never was pre"tended; he himself founded his right only in neceffity: "but Milton, having now tafted the honey of public employment, would not return to hunger and philosophy, "but, continuing to exercise his office under a manifest ufurpation, betrayed to his power that liberty which he "had defended. Nothing can be more juft than that "rebellion should end in flavery; that he who had justified "the murder of the king for fome acts, which to him "feemed unlawful, fhould now fell his fervices and his "flatteries to a tyrant, of whom it was evident that he could "do nothing lawful." Let us obferve, for the honour of Milton, that the paragraph, in which he is arraigned with fo much rancour, contains a political dogma, that, if it were really true, might blast the glory of all the illustrious characters who are particularly endeared to every English heart. If nothing can be more more just than that rebellion fhould end in flavery, why do we revere those ancestors, who contended against kings? why do we not refign the privileges that we owe to their repeated rebellion? but the dogma is utterly unworthy of an English moralist; for affuredly we have the fanction of truth, reafon, and experience, in saying, that rebellion is morally criminal or meritorious, according to the provocation by which it is excited, and the end it purfues. This doctrine was fupported even by a fervant of the imperious Elizabeth. "Sir Thomas Smith" (fays Milton in his Tenure of Kings and Magiftrates) (c a proteftant and a statesman, in his Commonwealth of England, putting the question, whether it be lawful to rise against a tyrant, answers, that the vulgar judge of "it according to the event, and the learned according to “the purpose of them that do it." Dr. Johnson, though one of the learned, here fhews not that candour which the liberal ftatefman had defcribed as the characteristic of their judgment. The biographer, uttering himfelf political tenets of the most fervile complexion, accufes Milton of fervility; and, in his mode of using the words honey and hunger, falls into a petulant meannefs of expreffion, that too clearly discovers how cordially he detefted him. perhaps this deteftation was the mere effect of political prejudice, the common but unchriftian abhorrence that a vehement royalist thinks it virtue to harbour and to manifest against a republican. We might indeed easily believe that Johnson's rancour against Milton was merely political, had he not appeared as the biographer of another illuftrious republican; but when we find him reprefenting as honour But able able in Blake the very principles and conduct which he endeavours to make infamous and contemptible in Milton, can we fail to observe, that he renders not the fame justice to the heart of the great republican author which he had nobly rendered to the gallant admiral of the republic. To Blake he generously affigns the praife of intrepidity, honefty, contempt of wealth, and love of his country. Affuredly these virtues were as eminent in Milton-and however different their lines in life may appear, the celebrated speech of Blake to his feamen, "It is our bufinefs to hinder foreigners from fooling us," by which he justified his continuance in his poft under Cromwell, is fingularly applicable to Milton, who, as a fervant engaged by the state to conduct in Latin its foreign correspondence, might think himself as strongly bound in duty and honour as the juftly applauded admiral, to hinder his country from being "fooled by foreigners." "But Milton," fays his uncandid biographer, "continuing to exercise his office under a mani"feft ufurpation, betrayed to his power that liberty which "he had defended." Was the ufurpation more manifeft to Milton than to Blake? Or is it a deeper crime against liberty to write the Latin dispatches, than to fight the naval battles of a nation under the controul of an ufurper? Affuredly not: nor had either Blake or Milton the least intention of betraying that liberty, which was equally the darling idol of their elevated and congenial fpirits; but in finding the learned and eloquent biographer of these two immortal worthies fo friendly to the admiral, and fo ini mical mical to the author, have we not reafon to lament and reprove such inconsistent hostility. That the Latin fecretary of the nation deserved not this bitterness of cenfure for remaining in his office may be thought fufficiently proved by the example of Blake.-If his conduct in this article required farther juftification, we might recollect with the candid bishop Newton, that the blameless Sir Matthew Hale, the favourite model of integrity, exercised under Cromwell the higher office of a judge; but the heaviest charge against Milton is yet unanswered, the charge of lavishing the most servile adulation on the ufurper. In replying to this most plaufible accufation, let me be indulged in a few remarks, that may vindicate the credit not only of a single poet but of all Parnaffus. The poetical fraternity have been often accused of being ever ready to flatter; but the general charge is in fome measure inconfiftent with a knowledge of human nature. As poets, generally speaking, have more fenfibility and lefs prudence than other men, we should naturally expect to find them rather distinguished by abundance than by a want of fincerity; when they are candidly judged, they will generally be found fo; a poet indeed is as apt to applaud a hero as a lover is to praise his mistress, and both, according to the forcible and true expreffion of Shakespear, "Are of imagination all compact." S Their i |