furely the business of a new narrative to correct their inaccuracies, and not invidiously to represent Milton as performing wonders, which it is not pretended by him, who knew the beft, that he did perform; and then to fhew the impracticability of the thing by remarks borrowed from his informer, and put upon the reader as the product of his own fagacity.

In another place the Doctor fays*, "From this wonder-working academy I "do not know that there ever proceeded

66

any man very eminent for knowledge;

"its only genuine product, I believe, is

a fmall history of poetry, written in

"Latin by his nephew, of which per

*

Johnfon, p. 31.

3

"haps

66

haps none of my readers has ever

"heard."

Every writer may prefume, conjccture, and believe, as much as he pleases in all cafes where he cannot be contradicted; and fo may we. Our anfwers to

this then are,

There

1. Bernardus non vidit omnia. may have been men and things of which Dr. Johnson hath no knowledge.. Wood fays, both Milton's nephews were writers; and there may be ftill more genuine products of Milton's fcholaftic inftitution than Dr. Johnfon ever heard of.

2. From this reflection it may be inferred, that Milton's pupils were not fo

Ath. Oxon, vol. I. Fafli, p. 263.

nume

numerous as the Doctor's hypothefis requires they fhould have been.

3. The ftudents in Milton's academy (being the fons of men of like spirit and principles with their mafter) would not, upon leaving his boarding-school, vapour away their patriotism in writing books; but proceed to fcenes of action not very favourable to the Mufes, or philofophical fpeculation.

Though fome of Milton's pupils might, in the days of their maturity, write like angels, their performances in favour of Liberty would be cxccrated into obfcurity and contempt, upon the turn of the times, by the able proficients in the noble science of licenfing.

The

The Doctor, fpeaking of Milton's Areopagitica, fays, "The danger of "fuch unbounded liberty [of unlicensed

printing, and the danger of bound

ing it, have produced a problem, in "the science of government, which bu"man understanding feems unable to ❝ folve *."

Let us then have recourse to a divine understanding for the solution of it. Let both the tares and the wheat grow together till the harveft, let while ye gather the tares, ye root up alfo the wheat with them.

up

Next follows a curious fee-faw of the

arguments pro and con.

* New Narrative, p. 45.

"If nothing may be published but "what civil authority have previously "approved, power muft always be the "ftandard of truth."

Would not one think that problem was thus folved at once? Is not this an alternative which even Dr. Johnfon's predilection for power would hardly admit ? Hold a little, till we have fhewn you the evils on the other fide..

"If every dreamer of innovations may 66 propagate his projects, there can be no "fettlement; if every murmurer at go"vernment may diffufe difcontent, there ❝can be no peace; if every fceptic in "theology may teach his follies, there "can be no religion."