In 1794, an edition of his poems was published by subscription, with an account of his life by Mr. Ireland. A more full and correct collection of his poems appeared in 1807, with a life by the rev. John Sim, who was his intimate friend when at Oxford, and has done ample justice to his memory; and his principal poems were added to the late continuation of Johnson's collection.

Although there is no species of poetry of which he had not afforded favourable specimens, and many striking images and animated descriptions are discoverable in his original pieces, and while we allow that his imagination is considerably fertile, his language copious, and his versification rich and various, yet it cannot be denied that there are too many marks of imitation in all his lesser poems, and that his fame must rest principally, where it is more than probable he intended it should, on his translation of the Lusiad. This work, which is now rising in reputation, is inferior only to Pope's Iliad, according to the general opinion, which perhaps may be controverted. Pope has given an English poem of unquestionable beauty, but, we may say with Bentley, it is not Homer. Mickle has not only transfused the spirit, but has raised the character of his original. By preserving the energy, elegance, and fire of Camoens, he has given an "English Lusiad," a work which, although confessedly borrowed from the Portuguese, has all the appearance of having been invented in the language in which we find it. executing this, indeed, it must be confessed that Mickle has taken more liberties with his original than the laws of translation will allow; but they are of a kind not usually taken by translators, for he has often introduced beauties of his own equal to any that come from the pen of Ca moens. In acknowledging that he has taken such freedoms, however, he has not specified the individual passages; a neglect for which some have praised his humility, and others have blamed his injustice. But with this exception, he has successfully executed what he purposed, not only to make Camoens be understood and relished, but "to give a poem that might live in the English language." Nor ought it to be omitted in this general character of the Lusiad, that in his preliminary dissertations, he has distinguished himself as a scholar, a critic, and a historian.

1 Johnson and Chalmers's Poets, 1810.

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MICRELIUS (JOHN), professor of divinity at Stetin, and a very learned man, was born at Cuslin in Pomerania, in 1597. He began his studies in the college of his own country; and, in 1614, removed to Stetin, where he studied theology under professor Cramer. In 1616, he maintained a dispute "de Deo uno & trino," which gained him great reputation; and went the year after to the university of Koningsberg, where he disputed again "de veritate transcendentali." He received, in 1621, the degree of master of philosophy at the university of Gripswald, after having maintained a thesis "de meteoris;" and, some time after, went to Leipsic to finish his studies. He was made professor of rhetoric in the royal college at Stetin in 1624, rector of the senate school in 1627, and rector of the royal college, and professor of theology, in 1649. The same year he received his doctor of divinity's degree, in the university of Gripswald, and which he was, we are told, led to ask; because, in a dispute he had with John Bergius, first preacher at the court of the elector of Brandenburg, upon the differences between the Lutherans and Calvinists, the latter arrogantly boasted of his being an old doctor in divinity; to which Micrelius could only an"that he had received the degree of master in philosophy before Bergius." He had obtained by his solicitations in 1642, when he was made professor of rhetoric, that there might be also professors of law, physic, and mathematics, in the royal college; and that a certain number of students might be maintained there at the public charge. He made a journey to Sweden in 1653, and had the honour to pay his respects to queen Christina, who gave him very obliging marks of her liberality, and who had before defrayed the charges of his doctor's degree. He died Dec. 3, 1658.

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This professor wrote several learned works, which were well received, and went through several editions: among which were, 1." Ethnophronius contra Gentiles de principiis religionis Christianæ ;" to which he afterwards added a continuation, "Contra Judaicas depravationes." 2. "Lexicon philosophicum." 3. "Syntagma historiarum ecclesiæ." 4. "Syntagma historiarum politicarum, &c. &c."1

MIDDLETON (CONYERS), a celebrated English divine, was the son of William Middleton, rector of Hinderwell near Whitby in Yorkshire, and born at York Dec. 27, or, as Mr. Cole says, Aug. 2, 1683. His father, who possessed, 1 Gen, Dict.Moreri.-Saxii Onomasticon.

an easy fortune, gave him a liberal education; and at seventeen he was admitted a pensioner of Trinity college, Cambridge, and two years after was chosen a scholar upon the foundation. After taking his degree of A. B. in 1702, he took orders, and officiated as curate of Trumpington, near Cambridge. In 1706 he' was elected a fellow of his college, and next year commenced master of arts. Two years after he joined with other fellows of his college in a petition to Dr. John More, then bishop of Ely, as their visitor, against Dr. Bentley their master. But he had no sooner done this, than he withdrew himself from Bentley's jurisdiction, by marrying Mrs. Drake, daughter of Mr. Morris, of Oak-Morris in Kent, and widow of counsellor Drake of Cambridge, a lady of ample fortune. After his marriage, he took a small rectory in the Isle of Ely, which was in the gift of his wife; but resigned it in little more than a year, , on account of its unhealthy situation. 3 In Oct. 1717, when George the First visited the univer sity of Cambridge, Middleton was created, with several others, a doctor of divinity by mandate; and was the person who gave the first cause of that famous proceeding against Dr. Bentley, which so much occupied the attention of the nation. Although we have given an ample account of this in the life of Bentley, some repetition seems here necessary to explain the part Dr. Middleton was pleased to take in the prosecution of that celebrated scholar. Bentley, whose office it was to perform the ceremony called Creation, made a new and extraordinary demand of four guineas from each of the doctors, on pretence of a fee due to him as divinity-professor, over and above a broad piece, "which had by custom been allowed as a present on this occasion. After a warm dispute, many of the doctors, and Middleton among the rest, consented to pay the fee in question, upon condition that the money should be restored if it were not afterwards determined to be his right. But although the decision was against Bentley, he kept the money, and Middleton commenced an action against him for the recovery of his share of it. Bentley behaving with contumacy, and with contempt to the authority of the university, was at first suspended from his degrees, and then degraded. He then petitioned the king for relief from that sentence: 'which induced Middleton, by the advice of friends, to publish, in the course of the year 1719, the four following pieces: 1. "A full and

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impartial Account of all, the late Proceedings in the University of Cambridge, against Dr. Bentley. 2. A Se cond Part of the full and impartial, Account, &c. Some Remarks upon a Pamphlet, entitled The Case of Dr. Bentley farther stated and vindicated, &c." The au thor of the piece here remarked, was the well-known Dr. Sykes, whom Dr, Middleton treats here with great contempt, but afterwards changed his opinion of him, and in his 66 Vindication of the Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers," published after his death, he appeals to Dr. Sykes's authority, and calls him "a very learned and jus dicious writer. The last tract is, entitled, 4, "A true Account of the present State of Trinity-college in Cambridge, under the oppressive Government of their Master Richard Bentley, late D. D." This, which relates only to the quarrel betwixt him and his college, is employed in exposing his misdemeanors in the administration of college affairs, in order to take off a suspicion which many then had, that the proceedings of the university against Dr. Bentley did not flow so much from any real demerit in the man, as from a certain spirit of resentment and opposition to the court, the great promoter and manager of whose interest he was thought to be there; for, it must be remembered that, in that part of his life, Dr. Middleton; was a strong tory, though like other of his contemporaries in the university, he afterwards became a very zealous whig. Middleton's animosity to Bentley did not end here. The ter having in 1720 published “Proposals for a new edition of the Greek Testament, and Latin Version,?? Middleton, the following year, published, 5, Remarks, Pa¬ ragraph by Paragraph, upon the Proposals, &c." and at setting out, only desires, his readers to believe, that they were not drawn from him by personal spleen or envy to the author of them, but by a serious conviction, that he had neither talents nor materials proper for the work he had undertaken." Middleton might believe himself sincere in all this, but no, such conclusion can be drawn from the pamphlet, which carries every proof of malignant arrogance. The very motto which he borrowed from one of Burman's orations, "Doctus criticus & adsuetus urere, secare, inclementer omnis generis libros tractare, apices, syllabas," &c. implies the utmost personal animosity, and could have been thought "happily chosen, only at a time when Bentley's temper was better known than his learning.

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Bentley defended his "Proposals" against these "Remarks," which, however, he did not ascribe to Middleton, but to Dr. Colbatch, a learned fellow of his college, and casuistical professor of divinity in the university. It has been said that he very well knew the true author, but was resolved to dissemble it, for the double pleasure it would give him, of abusing Colbatch, and shewing his contempt of Middleton. His treatment of Colbatch, however, being as unjustifiable as that which he had received from Dr. Middleton, provoked the vice-chancellor and heads of the university, at a meeting in Feb. 1721, to pronounce his book a most scandalous and malicious libel, and they resolved to inflict a proper censure upon the author, as soon as he should be discovered: for no names had yet appeared in the controversy. Middleton then published, with his name, an answer to Bentley's Defence, entitled, 6. "Some farther Remarks, Paragraph by Paragraph, upon Proposals lately published for a new edition of a Greek and Latin Testament, by Richard Bentley," 1721. His motto was again chosen in the same contemptuous spirit, "Occupatus ille eruditione secularium literarum, scripturas omnino sanctas ignoraverit," &c. Hieron. These two pieces against Bentley were thought to be written with great acuteness and learning; but if, as asserted, they prevented the intended publication, whoever can appreciate Bentley's talents will agree that acuteness and learning were never worse employed.

Upon the great enlargement of the public library at Cambridge, by the addition of bishop Moore's books, which had been purchased by the king at 6000l. and presented to the university, the erection of a new office there, that of principal librarian, was first voted, and then conferred upon Dr. Middleton: who, to shew himself worthy of it, published, in 1723, a little piece with this title, 7. "Bibliothecæ Cantabrigiensis ordinandæ methodus quædam, quam domino- procancellario senatuique academico considerandam & perficiendam, officii & pietatis ergo proponit." The plan is allowed to be judicious, and the whole performance expressed in elegant Latin. In his dedication, however, to the vice-chancellor, in which he alluded to the contest between the university and Dr. Bentley, he made use of some incautious words against the jurisdiction of the court of King's-bench, for which he was prosecuted, but dismissed with an easy fine.