cism attached to it, have excited so much discussion, and have been met by such variety of judgments, that I shall content myself with observing, that the character and the opinion of the Poet and the Biographer were in many important points, extremely dissimilar. That a violent tory and high churchman undertook to write the life of a republican and a puritan; that a man, remarkable for his practical wisdom, his strong sense, and his rational philosophy, delivered his judgments on the writings of one, distinguished for his high imagination, his poetical feeling, his speculative politics, and his visionary theology. Johnson came, it must be owned, with strong prejudice and much dislike to his subject; and nothing perhaps saved Milton from deeper censure but his biographer's conviction of his sincerity, his admiration of his learning, and his reverence for his piety. Had Johnson lived in the Poet's days, he would have stood by the side of Salmasius in the field of controversy, and opposed Milton on every question connected with the interests of society, the existence of the monarchy, and the preservation of the church. John

Cowper, in his Letters (second series, vol. i. p. 316319), says, His criticisms on Milton and Prior are the two capital instances in which he has offended me.'-I have seen the copy of Johnson's Life of Milton which Cowper used, and have read his marginal observations, in which he has strongly expressed his opinion of the incorrectness of Johnson's reasoning, and the injustice of his criticism. If I rightly recollect, he left off, disgusted with the work, before he had read the half of it.

son would have acknowledged no government that was not dependent on the throne, and he would have reverenced no ecclesiastical institution that was not united to a hierarchy. It would be curious to guess what his expression would have been, had he lived to read the defence of Polygamy, the denial of the eternal generation of the Son, the inferiority of the Holy Spirit, and the open avowal of Arianism. Bolt Court would have grown darker at his frown, as he directed the thunder of his wrath against an impracticable philosophy he would have despised, and an erratic theology he would have detested.

To disarm the severity of this criticism, and to represent in fairer lights and with softer colours those circumstances which had excited the indignation of the critic, seems to have been the chief purpose 5 for which Mr. Hayley's Life was written. I cannot say much that is favourable to its execution; but we are indebted to him for first calling the attention of the learned to that singular Italian drama,6 the Adamo of Andreini, and other

5 Hayley is called by Mr. Todd, the affectionate biographer; but temperance and impartiality are the qualities required when the subject of the biography has become a matter of history.

6 I much question whether Milton ever read the numerous obscure Italian poems, whose names, Mr. Hayley, Dr. J. Warton, and others subsequently have mentioned, but many of which they themselves have never seen. Whether, as Hayley supposes, Milton was familiar with the Angelcida of Erasmo de Valvasone, Venet. 1590, or not, it certainly is

productions of the same class, which are the supposed prototypes of Milton's poem.

Mr. Todd's exemplary diligence, his various information, and his extensive acquaintance with rare and curious books, has enabled him to throw light on some particulars of Milton's history that were previously obscure: the second edition of his work is also enriched with valuable documents lately brought to light. His narrative is for the most part copied from that of Dr. Johnson; and when he ventures to stray from his illustrious model, and alter his language, it is seldom with advantage.

The latest biography which I have perused is that written by Dr. Symmons. This biographer was a violent Whig, a most warm and zealous partizan, and, I must add, an intemperate and incautious writer. The language which he uses towards those opposed to him in opinion, as to Johnson, and T. Warton, is far too violent and vituperative; and Hayley's name is seldom mentioned but to be coupled with contempt. His work is too much expanded with conjectures that cannot satisfy the mind, nor lead to the discovery of truth; and it has added but little to our knowledge of facts. Yet his metrical criticisms on the

worthy of remark, that the Italian poet assigns to the infernal powers the invention of artillery; but on this subject consult a note by Todd in vol. ii. 465, on the Adamo. See Walker, on Italian Tragedy, p. 172, App. xxxii. on passages in the Paradise Lost, taken from the Setti giorni of Tasso. See Black's Life of Tasso, vol. ii. p. 469.

Latin poems of Milton, though they have not quite exhausted the subject, are more accurate and learned than ever before appeared and some translations are given which are spirited and elegant.

The notes which Bentley7 published on Paradise Lost appear to have been selected from that copy of Tonson's Milton, once belonging to him, which I now possess; and much as his violence and rashness of conjecture has been blamed, the public has yet to learn, that his alterations, numerous as they were, form only a selection from a much larger mass that still remains upon the margin of the edition which he used. But if the wild attempt to unite his own lifeless and prosaic passages with the living spirit of Milton's poetry, were an act of presumption in the aged critic; yet, I must confess, there is something less of arrogance in the manner in which they are proposed, than might have been expected, when the boldness of his system was so openly avowed. He had the humanity to leave the established text untouched and to confine the troubled spirit of his emendations within the lower circle of his notes. His changes (he says) are only sug

7 Dr. Newton's observations on Bentley's Milton are temperate and judicious. See his Pref. p. 32. It appears that Dr. Heylin gave the notes which he had made on Milton, with the intention of publishing an edition, to Bentley, who has printed them as his own, without any acknowledgement, p. 34.

gested to the reader, and not obtruded on him; and if any person will substitute better, he will deserve every reader's thanks; though it is to be hoped even these will not be found absurd, or disagreeing from the Miltonian character.

'Sunt et mihi Carmina, me quoque dicunt

Vatem Pastores, sed non ego credulus illis.'

The few notes which are now for the first time published, are partly designed to prove, that Bentley did not generally attempt to substitute the actual and genuine words of Milton in the place of the fictitious and adulterated text (v. Book viii. 653); but only to restore what he conceived to be the sense and meaning of the passage. The conjectures which, in his own printed edition, I find waiting in the margin, and eager for admittance into the verse; in his MS. copy are attended with a numerous train, as little plausible or satisfactory as themselves. He had a large store of arrows in his quiver, besides that which he had shot: nor can a reason be readily assigned for his preference of the one selected. The hypothesis which he formed, is, I presume, generally known, and known only to be repudiated. celebrated author, being obnoxious to the gout, poor, friendless, and, what is worst of all, blind with a gutta serena, could only dictate his verses to be writ by another: when it necessarily follows that any errors in pointing, spelling, nay, even in whole words, of a like or near sound, are not to be charged upon the poet, but the amanu

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