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For example: "But the reputation "and price of the copy ftill advanced, "till the Revolution put an end to the fecrefy of love, and Paradife Loft broke "into open view with fufficient fecurity of kind reception *."

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Many more inftances might be given from this new narrative, where the quaintnefs of the antithefis, as here, borders upon the burlesque; and we are too often put in mind, by Dr. Johnson's ftyle, of what we remember a worthy Oxford tutor faid to his pupils of the ftyle of Seed's Sermons: "Boys will imi

"tate it; and boys will be fpoiled by imitating it."

*Life, p. 119.

Let

7

Let Dr. Johnson however enjoy his reputation of fine writing, and the praises of his admirers even to adulation, but let him and them remember and remark, that no fublimity of ftyle, no accuracy. of expreffion, can ennoble the meanness, or atone for the virulent malignity of his political refentment against Milton, exhibited in this NEW NARRATIVE.

POSTSCRIPT.

- A certain foreign antiquary, having occafion to defcribe a medal of Milton thofe of other learned men, gives

among

the following character of the man and

his writings:

K 2

Jo

JOANNES MILTON Anglus Londinenfis, ejus nominis patre catholico natus, anno 1608. ab cujus pietate, ac fide quam longiffime receffit, fectas omnes æternæ confequendæ falutis aptas putans, excepta Catholica Romana, ut aperte afferuit in impio fuo de vera religione libro; optimis litteris doctrinaque imbutus, iis abufus eft plerumque deteftabilia feditiofaque fcribendo, violenterque, atque inurbane prorfus, quæ femel confcripferat adverfus meliora fentientes defensando; abfolutam, nullifque divinis, vel humanis legibus circumfcriptam libertatem in votis habuiffe paffim deprehenditur ; malus chriftianus, malus civis, bonus tamen poeta fuit, carminibus Anglicis, Latinis et Italicis feliciter ufus; ejus

Poema,

Poema, cui titulum fecit Il Paradiso per→ duto, quodque Thufco noftro foluto verfu tranftulit Rollius, ingenti Eruditorum plaufu exceptum eft, proque eo elegans numifma cum effigie Miltoni cufit Joannes Daffierius, habens ab oppofito proto parentum feductionem, ac expulfionem, cum epigraphe :

DIRA DVLCE CANIT ALTER HOMERVS.

Nemo pejus unquam adverfus regiam poteftatem majeftatemque calamum acuit *.

Dr. Johnfon's motives for characterif ing Milton in his new narrative feem to have been much of a fort with thofe of

* Mufeum Mozzuchellianum feu Numifmata virorum doctrina præftantium-a Petro Antonio de comitibus gaetanis Brixiano Prefbytero illuftrata. 1763.

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this Peter Anthony, with this difference, that the abufe beftowed upon the bard by the latter feems to have been more a matter of neceffity.

A prieft of the church of Rome would certainly confider, that an elogium upon Milton's poetical merit, delivered without a fevere cenfure of his uncatholic opinions, might expofe him to fome untoward fufpicions of his own heterodoxy among his fuperiors.

One would indeed imagine that a Proteftant writer of the Life of Milton the Poet, could have no fuch temptation to deal out invectives against his fpeculative opinions. And yet we have inftances where an inbred zeal for a particular opinion, would operate with an equal viru

lence

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