<< 66 away his patriotism in a private board ing school." This fneer is derived from a reflection of Mr. Fenton, "to whom it seemed "wonderful that one, of fo warm and daring a spirit as Milton's certainly 66 66 46 was, fhould be reftrained from the camp in thofe unnatural commotions* ; and whence Dr. Johnfon takes the li berty to fubfume: But Milton was re"ftrained from the camp, therefore his "patriotifm was vapoured away." But was there no scene of patriotic action but in the camp? or will Dr. Johnfon allow that Milton could have done more for the liberty of his coun *Fenton's Life of Milton, p. x. trymen trymen with his fword than he did with his pen *? Philips informs us, that Milton arrived in England from his travels about "the time of the King's making his fe "cond expedition against the Scots +;" † ;” *Neque enim militiæ labores et pericula fic defugi, ut non alia ratione, et operam multo utiliorem, nec minore cum periculo, meis civibus navârim, et animum dubiis in rebus neque demiffum unquam, neque ullius invidiæ, vel etiam mortis plus æquo metuentem præftiterim. Nam cum ab adolefcentulo humanioribus effem ftudiis, ut qui maxime deditus, et ingenio femper quam corpore validior, pofthabita caftrenfi opera, qua me gregarius quilibet robuftior facile fuperâffet, ad ea me contuli quibus plus potui, ut parte mei meliore ac potiore, si saperem, non deteriore, ad rationes patriæ, caufamque hanc præftantiffimam, quantum maxime poffem momentum accederem. Miltoni Defenfio fecunda pro Populo Angli cano, p. 366. vol. II. cf Baron's edition of his profe-works. Philips, p. xvi. and and fo fay Toland, Newton, &c; and it was in the very fame year that Milton publifhed his Difcourfes of Reformation in two books, founded on the fame principles of liberty for which his countrymen were contending in the camp. The fame Mr. Philips fays, that within the first two years that Milton inhabited the houfe which the new narrative dignifies with the name of boardingfchool*, he fet out not only the tract above-mentioned, but likewife the feveral treatifes against Prelatical Epifcopacy, on the Reason of Church-Govern *The expreffion was familiar to this writer: "At Edial, near Litchfield, in Staffordshire, "young gentlemen are boarded, and taught the "Latin and Greek Languages, by SAMUEL "JOHNSON." Advertisement in Gent. Mag. 1736, p. 428. ment, ment, Defence of Smectymnus, and others. Dr. Johnson will hardly deny that thefe patriotic pieces vapoured beyond the environs of Milton's boarding-school, even perhaps to the warmeft fcene of action, the Commons' Houfe of Parliament: nor can we think he will (except in a fit of merriment) call them fmall performances, with refpect to their effects; as he himself must know by experience the fervice that political pamphlets do to the faction their authors adhere to, when feafonably published. The merit of the faction, or of the author, is out of the queftion. We believe it will not be difputed, that Milton was as valuable a writer to the party he efpoufed, efpoufed, as Dr. Johnson is to the prefent' administration, though not (at the time referred to) bought with a price. The Doctor fays, "This is a part of his life from which all his biographers "feem inclined to fhrink. They are un “ willing that Milton fhould be degrad❝ed to a school-master; but fince it can 66 not 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 all tell what they do not know to "be true, only to excufe an act which no "wife man will confider as in itself dif 66 graceful. His father was alive, his "allowance was not ample, and he fup66 plied E |