aggrederis, Defenfionem dico nuper occifi Britanniarum Regis; maximè cùm veftri Ordines mediam viam fecent. Laudo tamen animi tui generofum propofitum, quo nefandum fcelus apertè damnare fuftines. Hac tamen te cautione uti opus eft, ne ita Majeftatem Regiam extollas, ut erga fubditos amorem videantur illis gratis largiri." From the correspondence of this learned Frenchman with Salmafius we learn fome curious particulars refpecting the work, which occafioned Milton's elaborate answer. Sarravius advised him to read the king's book, as fubfervient to his purpose; a book, he says, which he had read with the highest admiration:" adeò in ea [icone] plena omnia bonitatis erga fubditos eximiæ, et in Deum pietatis. Ex eo Fibro potueris non pauca depromere Apologetico tuo firmando." After the Defenfo Regia had been publifhed, he informs him of the blame attached to him for not having fent a copy to the widowed queen of Charles; who, though poor, would yet have paid the bearer. Sarravius informs him alfo of reported antagonists, long before Milton appeared against him. Milton indeed commenced hoftile operation immediately on the publication of Salmafius's defence. But the various interruptions, which he mentions in the eloquent Preface to his Defenfio Populi, prevented his publick difplay of oppofition till the beginning of the year 1651.

k

i Ibid. Ep. ccv. p. 210.

Ibid. Ep. ccxxiii. p. 223. "Vidi nobilem Anglum expoftulantem, quòd omiferis unum exemplum mittere ad defuncti Caroli viduam, quæ hîc [Paris.] degit; Quamvis enim, inquiebat, fit in re minimè lautâ, tamen potuiffe folvere pretium tabellarii, qui illud attuliffet."

Ibid. Ep. ccxxxvii, p. 235.

m

Hobbes is faid to have declared himself unable to decide whofe language was beft, or whofe arguments were worst. In Dr. Johnfon's opinion, Milton's periods were fmoother, neater, and more pointed; but he delights himself with teazing his adversary, as much as with confuting him. Milton's book was burnt at Paris, and at Toulouse. But this procured it more readers. From a letter of Nicholas Heinfius to Ifaac Voffius it appears to have been tranflated into Dutch, and to have been expected alfo in a French drefs. Into our own language it was tranflated, at the clofe of the feventeenth century, by Mr. Washington of the Temple. Salmafius's book attracted much lefs notice. It has appeared indeed in

Uterque, fi Hobbio fides, Latino infignis, at rationibus vacuus." Comm. de Rebell. Angl. ab an. 1640, &c. à R. Manlio, Eq. Aur. 8vo. 1686. lib. ii. p. 226.

It seems that they accufed each other of grammatical blunders. I have heard of a copy of Salmafius's book, the margins of which are faid to be decorated with barbarifms and folecifms detected by Milton, Without weighing the demerits of this kind, I will only obferve, that Milton's criticisms appear to have occafioned the following farcasm of the witty Butler. See Butler's Remains, edit. Thyer, vol. i. p. 220.

fome polemics ufe to draw their swords
Against the language only and the words;
As he who fought at barriers with Salmafius,
Engag'd with nothing but his ftyle and phrafes,
Wav'd to affert the murder of a prince,
The author of falfe Latin to convince ;
But laid the merits of the cause afide,
By thofe that understood them to be try'd;
And counted breaking Prifcian's head a thing
More capital than to behead a king;

For which he has been admir'd by all the learn'd
Of knaves concern'd, and pedants unconcern'd!

different forms, both Latin and French; and, as it should seem from the correfpondence of Sarravius, " in fome editions with flight variations. Salmafius afterwards endeavoured to defend his caufe, according to the testimony of Ifaac Voffius, by a moft unjuftifiable attack upon the moral character of Milton while he refided in Italy: Both combatants indeed had betrayed too much perfonal malevolence: But it is to the difgrace of Salmafius that he should fo far have forgotten himself as to confound the champion with the affaffin. Milton, for his performance, was complimented at home by the vifits or invitations of all the foreign minifters at London, as well as by the more folid approbation of his employers in the prefent of a thoufand pounds; and by encomiaftick letters from the moft celebrated scholars abroad. Chriftina, queen of Sweden, is said to have treated the defender of monarchy with coldness, after having read the Defence of the People: And Dr. Newton adds that Salmafius was difmiffed, from her Court, with contempt. He was difiniffed, or rather retired, not with degradation, but, as Dr. Johnson obferves, with a train of attendance scarcely lefs than regal. Probably for the mean pleasure of tormenting Salmafius, this capricious monarch had commended Milton. After Salmafius's death, fhe

Ibid. Ep. ccxxxvi. p. 234.

He perhaps loft the friendship of others on this occafion. Certain it seems that the amiable and learned Earl of Bridgewater, who had performed the part of the First Brother in his Comus, now difdained his acquaintance. On the title-page of the Defenfio, now in the Marquis of Stafford's poffeffion, that Nobleman has written, "Liber igne, Author furcá, digniffimi."

affured his widow, by letter, that she had eftecmed him as a father, and would never cease to honour his memory. Salmafius died in 1653 at Spa; having prepared a reply to Milton, without books, and by the fole help of memory ; which, left as it was unfinished, was published by his fon, with a dedication to the King, at the Restoration: It is more diftinguished for abuse than argument.

It muft not be omitted that Salmafius, in his Defenfio Regia, had preffed hard upon his adversary in a particular point; and that Milton, to maintain the point, was tempted to put on the fragile armour of untruth. A learned prelate, in modern times, has detected this diminished brightness of Milton.

"When Salmafius upbraided Cromwell's faction with the tenets of the Brownifts, the chofen advocate of that execrable faction [Milton] replied, that, if they were Brownifts, Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Zuinglius, and all the moft celebrated theologians of the Orthodox, must be included in the fame reproach. A groffer falfhood, as far as Luther, Calvin, and many others are concerned, never fell from the unprincipled pen of a party-writer. However fedition might be a part of the puritanick Creed, the general faith of the Reformers rejects the infamous alliance."

Dr. Symmons, who to the late edition of Milton's Profe Works has prefixed a life of the author, is

P Vita et Epift. Cl. Salmafii, ab. Ant. Clementio, 1656. Vit. P. liii.

It appears to have been tranflated into English, and published at London in 1660. See bifhop Kennet's Regifter, p. 270. "Salmafius's Diffection and Confutation of Milton."

Appendix to Bishop Watfon's Sermon before the House of Lords, Jan. 30, 1793, p. 38.

s Published in 1806.

indignant at this accufation; conceding indeed to the "liberal and worthy prelate very unfeigned refpect," " Нотвам Чом but at the fame time "protefting againft the rafh- Wa nefs which incited him to this violent paragraph; and with fingular humanity deploring the ""unhappy infertion" of it, preceded by my " harfh imputation," into this account of the great poet. No lefs defirous than Dr. Symmons to avoid mifreprefentation in fpeaking of Milton, I will copy what he has advanced in maintenance of his pity and indignation, and with a brief reply leave the charge of rafhness to be appropriated as impartiality may direct.

"To refute this incautious charge," fays Dr. Symmons, "nothing more can be necessary than the production of the paffage in Milton's work, to which the reference is made. It concludes the fifth chapter of the Defenfio pro Populo Anglicano, and it ftands independently of any thing which precedes it. Quereris enim poftremis hifce feculis difciplinæ vigorem laxatum, regulam corruptam,' quod uni fcilicet tyranno, cunctis legibus foluto, difciplinam omnem laxare, mores omnium corrumpere, impunè non liceat. Hanc doctrinam Bruniftas inter reformatos' introduxiffe ais: Ita Lutherus, Calvinus, Zuinglius, Bucerus, et Orthodoxorum quotquot celeberrimi theologi fuere, tuo judicio Bruniflæ funt. Quo aquiore animo tua maledicla perferunt Angli, cum in ecclefiæ doctores præftantissimos, totamque adeò ecclefiam reformatam, iifdem propè contumeliis debacchari te audiant.

You complain,' addreffing himself to Salmafius, fays Milton, 'that in this laft age the vigour of difcipline is impaired and its right rule corrupted, because truly it is not in the power of one defpot, released himself from the controll of all law, to relax with impunity the general discipline and to corrupt the morals of all. This doctrine, as you fay, was first introduced among the reformed by the Brownifts; fo that, by your decifion, Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, Bucer, and all the

Life, note, p. 321.

" Ibid. p. 320. * Ibid. 321.