gate-freet. Here he received more boys to be boarded and inftructed.' He then breaks off his narrative to exclaim, Let not our veneration for Milton forbid us to look with fome degree of merriment on great promifes and fmall performance, on the man who haftens home, becaufe his countrymen are contending for their liberty, and, when he reaches the fcene of action, vapours away his patriotifm in a private boarding fchool.' What the Doctor finds to excite merriment we own ourselves ignorant of. Whatever might be Milton's patriotifm, it was neceffary he fhould live. To do this with competence and convenience, he undertook the education of youth. The neceffity of this is acknowledged. His allowance was not ample, and he fupplied its deficiencies by an honeft and useful employment.' That he promifed more than other men in the like fituations may be doubted; that he performed lefs is what no man can have the hardiness to affirm. He had not been above a year in England before he fignalized himfelf, and affifted the caufe which he efpoufed, by his treatife of Reformation, in two books. This work was foon followed by another, and that, in the year following, by a third. With what propriety, therefore, are we to look with merriment at his vapouring away his patriotifm in a private boarding-fchool? In what follows we fully agree with our Author:

This is the period of his life from which all his biographers feem inclined to fhrink. They are unwilling that Milton fhould be degraded to a school-matter; but fince it cannot be denied that he taught boys, one finds out that he taught for nothing, and another that his motive was only zeal for the propagation of learning and virtue; and all tell what they do not know to be true, only to excufe an act which no wife man will confider as in itfelf difgraceful. His father was alive; his allowance was not ample, and he fupplied its deficiencies by an honeft and ufeful employment.

It is told, continues this Writer, that in the art of education he performed wonders; and a formidable lift is given of the authors, Greek and Latin, that were read in Alderfgate-ftreet, by youth between ten and fifteen or fixteen years of age. Thofe who tell or receive these ftories, fhould confider that nobody can be taught fafter than he can learn. The speed of the best horfeman must be limited by the power of his horfe. Every man, that has ever undertaken to inftruct others, can tell what flow advances he has been able to make, and how much patience it requires to recal vagrant inattention, to ftimulate fluggish indifference, and to rectify abfurd mifapprehenfion'

Notwithstanding we give full credit to the juftness of thefe remarks, we cannot think it impoffible but Milton might make many improvements upon the modes of education which at that time might prevail; he certainly was capable of striking out new roads to learning that might poffibly be fhorter and eafier than those that were ufually travelled. For, though it be true

that the speed of the beft horfeman must be limited by the power of his horfe,' yet, were Dr. Johnson to ride a fox-chace, he would find that his fpeed would depend not only upon the power of his horse, but also upon the choice of his ground.

The purpofe of Milton, as it feems, was to teach fomething more folid than the common literature of fchools, by reading those authors that treat of phyfical fubjects; fuch as the Georgic, and altronomical treatifes of the ancients. This was a fcheme of improvement which feems to have bufied many literary projectors of that age. Cowley, who had more means than Milton of knowing what was wanting to the embellishments of life, formed the fame plan of education in his imaginary college.

But the truth is, that the knowledge of external nature, and of the sciences which that knowledge requires or includes, is not the great or the frequent bufinefs of the human mind. Whether we provide for action or converfation, whether we wish to be useful or pleafing, the first requifite is the religious and moral knowledge of right and wrong; the next is an acquaintance with the history of mankind, and with thofe examples which may be faid to embody truth, and prove by events the reasonableness of opinions. Prudence and justice are virtues, and excellencies, of all times, and of all places; we are perpetually moralifts, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourfe with intellectual nature is neceffary; our fpeculations upon matter are voluntary, and at leisure. Phyfical knowledge is of fuch rare emergence, that one man may know another half his life without being able to estimate his fkill in hydroftatics or aftronomy; but his moral and prudential character immediately appears.

Thofe authors, therefore, are to be read at fchools that fupply moft axioms of prudence, moft principles of moral truth, and moit materials for converfation; and these purposes are best served by poets, orators, and hiftorians.

Let me not be cenfured for this digreffion as pedantic or paradoxical; for if I have Milton against me, I have Socrates on my fide. It was his labour to turn philofophy from the study of nature to fpeculations upon life, but the innovators whom I oppofe are turning off attention from life to nature. They feem to think, that we are placed here to watch the growth of plants, or the motions of the ftars. Socrates was rather of opinion, that what we had to learn was, how to do good, and avoid evil.

Ὅτι τοι ἐν μεγαροισι κακόν' ἀγαθύνε τέτυκται.

That thofe authors are to be read at fchools which fupply moft axioms of prudence, moft principles of moral truth, and moft materials of converfation, is too evident to be denied: that these purposes are beft ferved by poets, orators, and hiftorians, fuch as are commonly read at fchools, may be doubted. It may be doubted alfo how far the prefent queftion can be any way influenced by the example of Socrates. His methods of inftruction feem to differ as much from the modes of education which Dr. Johnfon means to defend, as it is poffible for Milton's

to

to do. We should apprehend the innovators who are here opposed, never intended to turn off attention from life to nature :' they feem to have been actuated by the more rational idea of uniting the ftudy of nature with the knowledge of life. Does not our Author, with refpect to Milton, in fome degree acknowledge as much? One part of his method, fays he, deferves general imitation. He was careful to inftruct his fcholars in religion. Every Sunday was spent upon theology.

Of inftitutions we may judge by their effects. From this wonder-working academy, I do not know that there ever proceeded any man very eminent for knowledge: its only genuine product, I believe, is a small Hiftory of Poetry, written in Latin by his nephew, of which perhaps none of my readers has ever heard.'

When it is confidered how fmall must have been the number of Milton's scholars, it is matter of wonder rather than of reproach, that even one fhould ever rife to literary distinction. Were the hiftory of all the schools through the kingdom to be enquired into, we fhould not find above one fcholar in five hundred that ever attains to a like degree of eminence.

Milton, as may naturally be fuppofed, was an advocate for the liberty of the prefs. He published a book on that subject, intituled, Areopagitica, a speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing.

The danger, fays his Biographer, of fuch unbounded liberty, and the danger of bounding it, have produced a problem in the fcience of government, which human understanding feems hitherto unable to folve. If nothing may be published but what civil authority fhall have previously approved, power must always be the ftandard of truth; if every dreamer of innovations may propagate his projects, there can be no fettlement; if every murmurer at government may diffufe difcontent, there can be no peace; and if every fceptic in theology may teach his follies, there can be no religion. The remedy against thefe evils is to punish the authors; for it is yet allowed that every fociety may punish, though not prevent, the publication of opinions, which that fociety fhall think pernicious this punishment, though it may crufh the author, promotes the bock; and it feems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be afterwards cenfured, then it would be to fleep with doors unbolted, becaufe by our laws we can hang a thief.'

but

To those who with not to favour the defigns of arbitrary power, no fuch problem is to be found in the whole fcience of government. The arguments by which it is attempted to make this grand question problematical might be allowed to have fome weight, provided they were altogether true. That every dreamer of innovations propagates his projects is acknowledged; is it therefore true that there is no fettlement? That every mur

murer at government diffufes his difcontent is acknowledged likewife; but have we, therefore, no peace? That every sceptic in theology teaches his follies is not to be denied; yet Dr. Johnfon will furely not be fo hardy as to affirm that we have no religion. In thofe countries where the prefs is restrained have they more religion? Or, indeed, have they fo much? So far from fufpecting that religion is injured by the liberty which every one enjoys of diffufing his own opinions, we are rather difpofed to believe fhe is benefited by it. Were doubt and objection never to be started, it is probable that truth would be but feldom inquired into: were not error to be confuted, truth could never be established were the attack of the fceptic and infidel to be fufpended, the champions of religion would forget the ufe of their weapons; the centinel would fometimes fleep upon guard. It is by a fcrutiny into the principles of religion. that the duties of religious obligation are more forcibly impressed upon the mind; and were it not for the fceptic in theology, fuch a fcrutiny would be but rarely thought of or attended to. The illuftration of his argument is by no means analogous: an author's motives for publication may be many and laudable; a thief can enter your houfe from no motive but to fteal: if an author offend against the laws of fociety, he may be detected and punished; or if he efcape, his bondfmen, as we may call them, the printer and publifher, are refponfible for his crime. A thief may break into your houfe, and it is true that you may hang him, provided he be caught. But what fecurity is there that he will be caught, or if not, who is there to make compenfation for the injury he may have done you? All this is to be fuppofed before the analogy between the thief and the author can hold good. Were it, indeed, to be the cafe, there would be as little to apprehend from the one as the other. If the moment we were robbed the thief were certain to be detected and hanged, a bolt to our doors would be an unneceffary precaution.

Milton's character is drawn in no amiable colours. According to Dr. Johnson, he labours under a fufpicion of fuch atrocious villany as ought not, but upon the strongest grounds, to be admitted of any man.

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 pafiions, and the gradual prevalence of opinions, firit willingly admitted and then habitually indulged, if objections, by being overlooked, were forgotten, and defire fuperinduced conviction, he yet fhared only the common weaknefs of mankind, and might be no lefs 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 inferting a prayer taken from Sidney's Arcadia, and imputing it to the King; whom he charges, in his Iconoclaftes, with the use 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. immediately before his death, to pop into the hands of the grave Bishop that attended him, as a fpecial relique 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 fcaffold the regicides took away, fo that they were at leaft the publishers of this prayer; and Dr. Birch, who 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 extension of their malice could contrive what they wanted to accuse.'

That the regicides were not the forgers of the prayer in queftion, if we may judge from fuch evidence as appears, is more likely than that they were. That the use of it by adaptation was innocent, nobody will deny. To charge the author of Icon Bafilike with the ufe of this prayer as with a heavy crime, was illiberal and indecent. But what circumftance in the life of Milton can warrant the fufpicion that he either inferted it himfelf, or was privy to the infertion of it by others? Whatever might be his political errors, his moral character has been ever unimpeached; his regard for truth feems to have been inviolable; his religion appears to be free from every taint of hypocrify; he lived in a confirmed belief of the immediate and occafional agency of Providence;' how can we imagine then that he had fo little fear in him of the true all-feeing Deity, as to be the perpetrator of fuch deliberate iniquity? But fetting every argument that may be drawn from thefe confiderations afide, there was a meanness in it too despicable for the pride of Milton ever to have fubmitted to.

The moft culpable part of Milton's conduct feems to be his adulation of Cromwell.

Whoever has read Milton's life will recollect the circumstance which is related by his nephew Philips, that his vein never happily flowed but from the autumnal equinox to the vernal. This dependence of the foul upon the feafons is very juftly ridiculed by his prefent hiftorian; and yet we think it not impoffible but the fact might have been true; though we are far from fuppofing it originated from any immediate influence of the feafons. It is well known that the activity of the mind will, in many cafes, be restrained by the indifpofition of the body. In the latter part of life Milton was much afflicted with the gout. The languor and oppreffion of fpirits, that in a greater or lefs degree

G 4

attend