"his writings nor his way of teaching favoured in "the leaft of pedantry." Thus laboriously does his nephew extenuate what cannot be denied, and what might be confeffed without difgrace. Milton was not a man who could become mean by a mean employment. This, however, his warmest friends seem not to have found; they therefore shift and palliate. He did not fell literature to all comers at an open fhop; he was a chamber-milliner, and meafured his commodities to his friends. Philips, evidently impatient of viewing him in this state of degradation, tells us that it was not long continued; and, to raise his character again, has a mind to inveft him with military fplendour: "He "is much mistaken," he says, "if there was not "about this time a defign of making him an ad jutant-general in Sir William Waller's army. But "the new-modelling of the army proved an ob"struction to the defign." An event cannot be fet at a much greater diftance than by having been only defigned, about fome time, if a man be not much miftaken. Milton fhall be a pedagogue no longer; for, if Philips be not much mistaken, fomebody at fome time defigned him for a foldier. About the time that the army was new-modelled (1645), he removed to a smaller house in Holbourn, which opened backward into Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. He is not known to have publifhed any thing afterwards till the King's death, when, finding his murderers condemned by the Prefbyterians, he wrote a treatise to juftfy it, and to compofe the minds of the people. He made fome Remarks on the Articles of Peace between Ormond and the Irish Rebels. While he contented himself to write, he perhaps did only what his confcience dictated; and if he did not very vigilantly watch the influence of his own paffions, and the gradual prevalence of opinions, firft willingly admitted, and then habitually indulged; if objections, by being overlooked, were forgotten, and defire fuperinduced conviction; he yet fhared only the common weakness of mankind, and might be no less fincere than his opponents. But as faction feldom leaves a man honeft, however it might find him, Milton is fufpected of having interpolated the book called Icon Bafilike, which the Council of State, to whom he was now made Latin fecretary, employed him to cenfure, by inserting a prayer taken from Sidney's Arcadia, and imputing it to the King; whom he charges, in his Iconoclaffes, with the ufe of this prayer, as with a heavy crime, in the indecent language with which profperity had emboldened the advocates for rebellion to infult all that is venerable or great : "Who would have imagined fo little fear in "him of the true all-feeing Deity-as, immedi"ately before his death, to pop into the hands of the grave bishop that attended him, as a special re66 lique of his faintly exercises, a prayer ftolen word "for word from the mouth of a Heathen woman praying to a Heathen God?" The papers which the King gave to Dr. Juxon on the scaffold, the regicides took away, fo that they were at least the publishers of this prayer; and Dr. Birch, Birch, who had examined the question with great care, was inclined to think them the forgers. The ufe of it by adaptation was innocent; and they who could fo noifily cenfure it, with a little extenfion of their malice could contrive what they wanted to accuse. King Charles the Second, being now sheltered in Holland, employed Salmafius, profeffor of polite Learning at Leyden, to write a defence of his father and of monarchy; and, to excite his industry, gave him, as was reported, a hundred Jacobuses. Salmafius was a man of skill in languages, knowledge of antiquity, and fagacity of emendatory criticism, almoft exceeding all hope of human attainment; and having, by exceffive praifes, been confirmed in great confidence of himself, though he probably had not much confidered the principles of fociety or the rights of government, undertook the employment without diftruft of his own qualifications; and, as his expedition in writing was wonderful, in 1649 published Defenfio Regis. To this Milton was required to write a fufficient anfwer; which he performed (1651) in fuch a manner, that Hobbes declared himself unable to decide whofe language was beft, or whofe arguments were worst. In my opinion, Milton's periods are fmoother, neater, and more pointed; but he delights himself with teazing his adversary as much as with confuting him. He makes a foolish allufion of Salmafius, whofe doctrine he confiders as fervile and unmanly, to the ftream of Salmafius, which whoever entered left half his virility behind him. Salmafius was a French ceus. Frenchman, and was unhappily married to a fcold. Tu es Gallus, fays Milton, &, ut aiunt, nimium gallinaBut his fupreme pleasure is to tax his adverfary, so renowned for criticism, with vitious Latin. He opens his book with telling that he has used Perfona, which, according to Milton, fignifies only a Mask, in a sense not known to the Romans, by ap· plying it as we apply Perfon. But as Nemefis is always on the watch, it is memorable that he has enforced the charge of a folecifm by an expreffion in itfelf grofsly foleciftical, when for one of thofe fuppofed blunders, he fays, as Ker, and I think fome one before him, has remarked propino te grammatistis tuis vapulandum. From vapulo, which has a paffive fenfe, vapulandus can never be derived. No man forgets his original trade: the rights of nations, and of kings, fink into questions of grammar, if grammariansdifcufs them.. Milton, when he undertook this anfwer, was weak of body and dim of fight; but his will was forwarded, and what was wanting of health was fupplied by zeal. He was rewarded with a thousand pounds, and his book was much read; for paradox, recommended by spirit and elegance, eafily gains attention; and he, who told every man that he was equal to his King, could hardly want an audience. That the performance of Salmafius was not difperfed with equal rapidity, or read with equal eager pess, is very credible. He taught only the ftale doctrine of authority, and the unpleafing duty of fubmiffion; and he had been fo long not only the moparch but the tyrant of literature, that almoft all man mankind were delighted to find him defied and infulted by a new name, not yet confidered as any one's rival. If Christina, as is faid, commended the Defence of the People, her purpose must be to torment Salmafius, who was then at court; for neither her civil station, nor her natural character, could difpofe them to favour the doctrine, who was by birth a queen, and by temper despotick. That Salmafius was, from the appearance of Milton's book, treated with neglect, there is not much proof; but to a man fo long accuftomed to admiration, a little praife of his antagonist would be fuffi. ciently offenfive, and might incline him to leave Sweden, from which however he was difmiffed, not with any mark of contempt, but with a train of attendance scarcely lefs than regal. He prepared a reply, which, left as it was imperfect, was published by his fon in the year of the Restoration. In the beginning, being probably most in pain for his Latinity, he endeavours to defend his ufe of the word perfona; but, if I remember right, he miffes a better authority than any that he has found, that of Juvenal in his fourth fatire : -Quid agis cum dira & fœdior omni As Salmafius reproached Milton with lofing his eyes in the quarrel, Milton delighted himself with the belief that he had shortened Salmafius's life, and both perhaps with more malignity than reafon. Salmafius died at the Spa, Sept. 3, 1653; and, as controvertifts are commonly faid to be killed by their laft difpute, |