wanting of health was supplied by zeal. He was rewarded with a thousand pounds, and his book was much read; for paradox, recommended by spirit and elegance, easily gains attention; and he, who told every man that he was equal to 5 his king, could hardly want an audience. That the performance of Salmasius was not dispersed with equal rapidity, or read with equal eagerness, is very credible. He taught only the stale doctrine of authority, and the unpleasing duty of submission; and he had been so Io long not only the monarch, but the tyrant of literature, that almost all mankind were delighted to find him defied and insulted by a new name, not yet considered as any one's rival. If Christina, as is said, commended the defence of the people, her purpose must be to torment Salmasius, who was 15 then at court; for neither her civil station, nor her natural character, could dispose her to favour the doctrine, who was . by birth a queen, and by temper despotic. That Salmasius was, from the appearance of Milton's book, treated with neglect, there is not much proof; but to a 20 man, so long accustomed to admiration, a little praise of his antagonist would be sufficiently offensive, and might incline. him to leave Sweden, from which however he was dismissed, not with any mark of contempt, but with a train of attendance scarce less than regal. 25 He prepared a reply, which, left as it was imperfect, was published by his son in the year of the Restoration. In the beginning, being probably most in pain for his Latinity, he endeavours to defend his use of the word persona; but, if I remember right, he misses a better authority than any that he 30 has found, that of Juvenal in his fourth satire: - Quid agis cum dira et foedior omni Crimine persona est? As Salmasius reproached Milton with losing his eyes in the quarrel, Milton delighted himself with the belief that he had shortened Salmasius's life, and both perhaps with more malignity than reason. Salmasius died at the Spa, Sept. 3, 1653; and, as controvertists are commonly said to be killed by their last dispute, Milton was flattered with the credit of 5 destroying him. Cromwell had now dismissed the parliament by the authority of which he had destroyed monarchy, and commenced monarch himself, under the title of Protector, but with kingly and more than kingly power. That his authority 10 was lawful, never was pretended; he himself founded his right only in necessity; but Milton, having now tasted the honey of public employment, would not return to hunger and philosophy, but, continuing to exercise his office under a manifest usurpation, betrayed to his power that liberty 15 which he had defended. Nothing can be more just than that rebellion should end in slavery; that he who had justified the murder of his king, for some acts which seemed to him unlawful, should now sell his services, and his flatteries, to a tyrant, of whom it was evident that he could do nothing lawful. 20 He had now been blind for some years; but his vigour of intellect was such, that he was not disabled to discharge his office of Latin secretary, or continue his controversies. His mind was too eager to be diverted, and too strong to be subdued. 25 About this time his first wife died in childbed, having left him three daughters. As he probably did not much love her, he did not long continue the appearance of lamenting her; but after a short time married Catharine, the daughter of one Captain Woodcock, of Hackney, a woman doubtless edu- 30 cated in opinions like his own. She died, within a year, of childbirth, or some distemper that followed it; and her husband honoured her memory with a poor sonnet. The first reply to Milton's 'Defensio Populi' was published in 1651, called 'Apologia pro Rege et Populo Anglicano, contra Johannis Polypragmatici (alias Miltoni) defensionem destructivam Regis et Populi.' Of this the author was not 5 known; but Milton and his nephew Phillips, under whose name he published an answer, so much corrected by him that it might be called his own, imputed it to Bramhal; and, knowing him no friend to regicides, thought themselves at liberty to treat him as if they had known what they only Io suspected. Next year appeared 'Regii Sanguinis clamor ad Coelum.' Of this the author was Peter du Moulin, who was afterwards prebendary of Canterbury; but Morus, or More, a French minister, having the care of its publication, was treated as 15 the writer by Milton, in his 'Defensio Secunda,' and overwhelmed by such violence of invective, that he began to shrink under the tempest, and gave his persecutors the means of knowing the true author. Du Moulin was now in great danger; but Milton's pride operated against his 20 malignity; and both he and his friends were more willing that Du Moulin should escape, than that he should be convicted of mistake. In this second Defence he shows that his eloquence is not merely satirical; the rudeness of his invective is equalled 25 by the grossness of his flattery. Deserimur, Cromuelle, tu solus superes, ad te summa nostrarum rerum rediit, in te solo consistit, insuperabili tuae virtuti cedimus cuncti, nemine vel obloquente, nisi qui aequales inaequalis ipse honores sibi quaerit, aut digniori concessos invidet, aut non intelligit nihil esse in 30 societate hominum magis vel Deo gratum, vel rationi consentaneum, esse in civitate nihil aequius, nihil utilius, quam potiri rerum dignissimum. Eum te agnoscunt omnes, Cromuelle, ea tu civis maximus, et gloriosissimus, dux publici consilii, exercituum fortissimorum imperator, pater patriae gessisti. Sic tu spontanea bonorum omnium et animitus missa voce salutaris. Caesar, when he assumed the perpetual dictatorship, had not more servile or more elegant flattery. A translation may show its servility; but its elegance is less attainable. 5 Having exposed the unskilfulness or selfishness of the former government, We were left,' says Milton, 'to ourselves the whole national interest fell into your hands, and subsists only in your abilities. To your virtue, overpowering and resistless, every man gives way, except some 10 who, without equal qualifications, aspire to equal honours, who envy the distinctions of merit greater than their own, or who have yet to learn, that in the coalition of human society nothing is more pleasing to God, or more agreeable to reason, than that the highest mind should have the 15 sovereign power. Such, sir, are you by general confession; such are the things achieved by you, the greatest and most glorious of our countrymen, the director of our public councils, the leader of unconquered armies, the father of your country; for by that title does every good man hail 20 you with sincere and voluntary praise.' Next year, having defended all that wanted defence, he found leisure to defend himself. He undertook his own vindication against More, whom he declares in his title to be justly called the author of the 'Regii Sanguinis Clamor.' 25 In this there is no want of vehemence nor eloquence, nor does he forget his wonted wit. Morus es? an Momus? an uterque idem est ? He then remembers that Morus is Latin for a mulberry-tree, and hints at the known transformation: -Poma alba ferebat With this piece ended his controversies; and he from 30 this time gave himself up to his private studies and his civil employment. As secretary to the Protector he is supposed to have written the Declaration of the reasons for a war with 5 Spain. His agency was considered as of great importance; for, when a treaty with Sweden was artfully suspended, the delay was publicly imputed to Mr. Milton's indisposition; and the Swedish agent was provoked to express his wonder that only one man in England could write Latin, 10 and that man blind. Being now forty-seven years old, and seeing himself disencumbered from external interruptions, he seems to have recollected his former purposes, and to have resumed three great works which he had planned for his future employ15 ment-an epic poem, the history of his country, and a dictionary of the Latin tongue. To collect a dictionary seems a work of all others least practicable in a state of blindness, because it depends upon perpetual and minute inspection and collation. Nor would 20 Milton probably have begun it, after he had lost his eyes; but, having had it always before him, he continued it, says Phillips, even very near to his dying day; but the papers were so discomposed and deficient, that it could not be made fit for the press.' The compilers of the Latin dictionary, 25 printed at Cambridge, had the use of those collections in three folios; but what was their fate afterwards is not known. To compile a history from various authors, when they can only be consulted by other eyes, is not easy, nor possible, but with more skilful and attentive help than can be 30 commonly obtained; and it was probably the difficulty of consulting and comparing that stopped Milton's narrative at the Conquest-a period at which affairs were not very intricate, nor authors very numerous, |
