among others, classical assemblies: the kingdom of England, instead of so many dioceses, was now divided into a certain number of provinces, made up of representatives from the several classes within their respective boundaries: every parish had a congregational or parochial presbytery for the affairs of its own circle; these parochial presbyteries were combined into classes, which chose representatives for the provincial assembly, as did the provincial for the national. Thus, the city of London being distributed into twelve classes, each class chose two ministers and four layelders to represent them in a provincial assembly, which received appeals from the parochial and classical presbyteries, &c. These ordinances, which ascertain the age of the piece before us, took place in 1646 and 1647. See Scobell, Col.' P. i. p. 99. 150.-T. WARTON.

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4 Ver. 8. Taught ye by mere A.S. The independents were now contending for toleration. In 1643 their principal leaders published a pamphlet with this title, 'An Apologeticall Narration of some Ministers formerly exiles in the Netherlands, now members of the Assembly of Divines. Humbly submitted to the honourable Houses of Parliament.' This piece was answered by one A. S. the person intended by Milton.-T. WARTON.

5 Ibid. Rotherford. Samuel Rutherford, or Rutherfoord, was one of the chief commissioners of the church of Scotland, who sat with the Assembly at Westminster, and who concurred in settling the grand points of presbyterian discipline. He was professor of divinity in the university of St. Andrew's, and has left a great variety of Calvinistic tracts. He was an avowed enemy to the independents, as appears from his 'Disputation on pretended Liberty of Conscience, 1649.' It is hence easy to see, why Rotherford was an obnoxious character to Milton.-T. WARTON.

6 Ver. 12. By shallow Edwards. It is not the Gangrena' of Thomas Edwards that is here the object of Milton's resentment, as Dr. Newton and Mr. Thyer have supposed. Edwards had attacked Milton's favourite plan of independency, in two pamphlets full of miserable invectives, immediately and professedly levelled against the 'Apologeticall Narration' above-mentioned, 'Antapologia, or a full Answer to the Apologeticall Narration, &c. wherein is handled many of the Controversies of these Times, by T. Edwards, minister of the gospel, Lond. 1644.' However, in the 'Gangrena,’ not less than in these two tracts, it had been his business to blacken the opponents of presbyterian uniformity, that the parliament might check their growth by penal statutes. --T. WARTON.

7 Ibid. And Scotch what d'ye call. Perhaps Henderson, or George Galaspie, another Scotch minister with a harder name, and one of the ecclesiastical commissioners at Westminster.-T. WARTON.

8 Ver. 14.

Your plots and packing, worse than those of Trent. The famous council of Trent.-T. WARTON.

9 Ver. 17. Clip your phylacteries, though bauk your ears. That is, although your ears cry out that they need clipping, yet the mild and gentle parliament will content itself with only clipping away your Jewish and persecuting principles. -WARBURTON.

The meaning of the present context is, "Check your insolence, without proceeding to cruel punishments." To "balk," is to spare.-T. WARTON.

10 Ver. 20. Writ large. That is, more domineering and tyrannical.-WARBURTON.

TRANSLATIONS.

THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, LIB. I.

WHAT slender youth, bedew'd with liquid odours, Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave, Pyrrha? For whom bind'st thou

In wreaths thy golden hair,

Plain in thy neatness? O, how oft shall he
On faith and changed gods complain, and seas
Rough with black winds, and storms
Unwonted shall admire!

Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,
Who always vacant, always amiable

Hopes thee, of flattering gales

Unmindful. Hapless they,

To whom thou untried seem'st fair!

vow'd

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10

Me, in my

Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung

My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern god of sea.

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FROM GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.

BRUTUS thus addresses DIANA in the country of Leogecia:

Goddess of shades, and huntress, who at will Walk'st on the rowling spheres, and through the deep;

On thy third reign, the earth, look now, and tell
What land, what seat of rest, thou bid'st me seek,
What certain seat, where I may worship thee
For aye, with temples vow'd and virgin quires.

To whom, sleeping before the altar, DIANA answers in a vision the same night:

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Brutus, far to the west, in the ocean wide,
Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,
Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old;
Now void, it fits thy people: thither bend
Thy course; there shalt thou find a lasting seat;
There to thy sons another Troy shall rise,
And kings be born of thee, whose dreadful might
Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold.

FROM DANTE.

Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy pope received of thee!

FROM DANTE.

Founded in chaste and humble poverty,

'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn,

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Impudent whore? where hast thou placed thy

hope?

In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth?
Another Constantine comes not in haste.

FROM ARIOSTO.

Then pass'd he to a flowery mountain green, Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously: This was the gift, if you the truth will have, That Constantine to good Sylvester gave.

FROM HORACE.

Whom do we count a good man? Whom but he
Who keeps the laws and statutes of the senate,
Who judges in great suits and controversies,
Whose witness and opinion wins the cause?
But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood,
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin. 6

FROM EURIPIDES.

This is true liberty, when freeborn men,
Having to advise the publick, may speak free;
Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise:
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his

What can be juster in a state than this?

FROM HORACE.

Laughing, to teach the truth,

peace:

What hinders? As some teachers give to boys Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace.

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