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 REV. FRANCIS WRANGHAM, 
 
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 gravioribus studiis deditum — nunc veluti repuerascentem, non modb veteres 
 Mas nugas tanto intervallo rcpetere, veriim etiam veluti novo stultitice 
 auctario cumulare. (Bez^e Poem. Praef.) 
 
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 PRINTED BY C. BALDWIN, NEW BRIDGE-STREET. 
 
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Drawn & Ungmved by MJIauofi&ri. from tile Original JSviile. fy J-A'ol^kais.JtA: 
 
 CAROLINA . SYMMONS . ANNVM . AG-ENS XV 
 
 FACTE . EXTMIA. JNGENIO . ADMIRABIEI S . 11ECVS . ET J>ELICIAE . SVOKVM 
 
 JTKTATIS . ET . SVAYITATIS . SVAE . FARENTIBVS . PROPINQVIS . AMITIS . 
 
 tBISTE .DESID-KIUVM . KELIQYIT. 
 
FEAHCIS WUANGEAM 9 Mjio EM,S* 
 
MILTON'S 
 
 ' SECOND DEFENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND;* 
 
 IN ANSWER TO 
 
 AN INFAMOUS ANONYMOUS WORK, 
 
 ENTITLED 
 
 4 €t)e Crp of tfje llopal 2$looti to ^eatoert 
 against tf)e tfiujltef) $amcit>e&' 
 
 Nunc sub foederibus coeant felicibus una 
 Libertas, et jus sacri inviolabile sceptri. 
 Jtege sub Augustofas sit laudare Catonem. (George.) 
 
 Here, Diadems, with Freedom blend your rays j 
 Augustus throned endures a Cato's praise. 
 
 [Only 50 copies printed separately.^ 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 XT would not have been difficult to prefix to 
 the present Translation a Memoir of M. Sau- 
 maise, which should have contained several par- 
 ticulars bearing upon this controversy, extracted 
 from volumes apparently never consulted by his 
 biographers, and some which those biographers 
 with the authorities in their hands seem stu- 
 diously to have suppressed. A professed pane- 
 gyrist like Vorstius, in his funeral Eloge, might 
 perhaps be permitted (to borrow the language 
 of his French Translator) passer ces choses-la 
 peu agreables sous silence, et faire voiles d cote 
 de ces ecueils ; but it can hardly be supposed, 
 that a regular historian should have been guilty 
 of the same omission. Yet Antoine Clement, 
 in the Life prefixed to his 6 Claudii Salmasii, 
 Viri Maximi, Epistolarum Liber Primus* (4to. 
 Lugd. Bat. 1656), although he adverts at some 
 length to the part which his hero was invited 
 
 * The admirable portrait accompanying this Volume is 
 followed by a not very admirable copy of verses from the pen 
 
 B 2 
 
IV ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 to take in the questions relative to Episcopacy, 
 Presbytery, and Independency in the English 
 Church,* cautiously avoids even naming his im- 
 par congressus with the author of Paradise Lost : 
 and Bayle is still more disingenuous. His only 
 knowledge of Milton's marriage he appears to 
 
 of C. Barlaeus. For the subjoined version of it I am, in a 
 great degree,, indebted to the Rev. Dr. Symmons. 
 
 In Effigiem Claudii Salmasii, Principis Eruditorum. 
 
 Gallia quo nuper, jam sidere Leyda superbit ; 
 
 Prcslucet magnis ortibus ista Pharos. 
 Hcec sunt per specti, Lector, compendia mundi: 
 
 Fronte sub hac Pallas prodigiosa latet. 
 Partimur doctrinam alii ; hicsetota recondit; 
 
 Immensosque habitat mens spatiosa lares. 
 Scribiie, scriptores : cui pagina scripta Solini est, 
 
 Judice me, scripti cir cuius orbis erit. 
 
 Of Gallia once, of Leyden now the star, 
 Art's glorious torch, this Pharos beams afar. 
 Crowded within this brow, a world is seen; 
 A giant Pallas sits enthroned within, 
 learning is ours by scraps, his vast and whole ; 
 Nor cramps the spacious dome his mighty soul. 
 Solinus now — toil on, ye writing hosts ! 
 The universe of learning singly boasts. 
 
 * Melius tamen, says his Biographer, illud regimen 
 
 (sc. Episcopale) et haud dubie cum summd uiilitaie processurum 
 in Anglicanis Ecclesiis existimabat ; cum videret contra, subla- 
 tis Episcopis omne genus Hceresium ei Schismatum pedetentim 
 gliscere, et repentinam illam mutationem ac nimis violentam, neG 
 institutam eo ordine utfas erat, aliquando causam fore misc- 
 tandce per universam Britanniam calamitatis. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. V 
 
 have derived from Salmasius* fabulous account 
 of it, though he had actually procured Latin 
 extracts from Toland's Life of the English Poet 
 for the use of his Dictionary ! What, it may 
 well be asked, would he himself have said, if he 
 had detected any other person in a similar 
 offence? He proceeds to characterise him as 
 one of those satirical wits who delight in stimu- 
 lating, accumulating, and propagating calum- 
 nious reports,* unsuccessfully indeed (he as- 
 serts), in his c Iconoclastes ;' as c every body 
 abroad remained convinced, that Charles L him- 
 self wrote the book which bore his name ! ! ' 
 With the view of supplying, to the best of 
 
 * Bishop Newton's Apology for his method of writing con- 
 troversy is somewhat more liberal. " With more candid and 
 ingenuous disputants, he would have preferred civility and fair 
 argument to wit and satire : ' to do so was my choice, and to 
 have done thus was my choice/ is his own language. Besides, 
 contests of every kind were then waged in a rougher and more 
 barbarous manner." (Life, p. lxx.) Of Saumaise in particular, 
 we are told by Sorbiere, it was impossible to dispute the opi- 
 nions, in the smallest degree, without being called c a blockhead,' 
 ' an idiot,' and perhaps ' a rascal/ " He has constructed no 
 work (he adds) with lime and sand, by which posterity will be 
 benefited. He cannot live without illustrious enemies, and 
 without some quarrel upon his hands, and it does not suffice him 
 to have disarmed his man, and obtained from him the usual 
 satisfaction : he must trample him in the dirt, and disfigure him. 
 His Latinity runs away with him. He is unwilling, that all the 
 foul language he has learnt should be lost ; and he finds it more 
 easy to produce from the stores of his memory the vituperative 
 terms, which he has collected from ancient authors, than deli- 
 cate raillery and sound argument from any other source." 
 
VI ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 my power, such misrepresentations or defects, 
 I had made copious abstracts from Burman's 
 valuable Sylloge, the Letters of Gudius and 
 Sarravius, Vossius' Correspondence edited by 
 Colomesius, &c. &c. &c, to say nothing of a 
 host of minor writers. I had even submitted, 
 in hours of greater leisure than I now possess, 
 to the task of analysing the arguments employed 
 upon the occasion; and hoped to have presented 
 to the public a memoir not wholly unworthy 
 of it's acceptance. But the combining and 
 revising due to such a subject and such comba- 
 tants, which would always have been arduous to 
 me, I now, alas ! find to be impracticable ; and I 
 must console myself with the idea, that enough 
 is probably known, both of Salmasius* and his 
 royal patroness, the extravagant Christina (whom 
 Milton must be admitted, in his sublime apos- 
 trophe, to have raised far above her desertf) to 
 
 * See Dr. Symmons' Life of Milton, 2d Edit. pp. 350, 351, 
 &c. &c. My obligations indeed to this work, and to it's author, 
 are innumerable. The first will be copiously traced in the 
 following pages : the latter I am happy to seize this, and every 
 opportunity of acknowledging, however inadequately. To the 
 Rev. Dr. Disney also, of the Hyde, I gladly return my thanks 
 for many kind attentions connected with this little work. 
 
 f Yet the great Conde, as well at. Milton, panegyrised her 
 magnanimity. The feelings of these two encomiasts however, on 
 the subject of the royalty which she renounced, may be pre- 
 sumed to have been not quite in unison. But sometimes, we 
 are told, Idem fit ex diversis : this seems to prove, that adversis 
 may be substituted in the Thesis. Her conduct, after her abdi- 
 cation and abjuration of Protestantism, must surely be regarded 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. Vli 
 
 render any thing in the way of elucidation be- 
 yond what is subjoined in the following notes, 
 unnecessary. Even the notes are, generally, so 
 little essential to the mere understanding of the 
 text, that I have usually left the quotations, 
 which they contain, untranslated. 
 
 The Version itself, made on the suggestion 
 of an eminent Bookseller many years ago, as 
 circumstances intercepted it's appearance at the 
 time, was thrown aside with numerous other 
 still more imperfect undertakings, to perish. 
 -A valued friend, by his intercession, drew it 
 from the devoted heap. It communicates re- 
 spectability of size at least to the volume, to 
 which it is prefixed : and if by contributing 
 to revive, or to extend, a conviction of the 
 integrity, magnanimity, consistency, and erudi- 
 tion of Milton — for of the erroneousness of 
 several of his opinions is, here, no question — it 
 should polish or replace one leaf of his laurel 
 crown, which Malignity has breathed upon or 
 Time has broken off, I shall be abundantly 
 satisfied. 
 
 Such as it is, I inscribe it, with the most un- 
 feigned respect, to 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. EARL SPENCER. 
 
 as indefensible. Her strange caprices of dress and association 
 might be forgiven ; but the murther of Monaldeschi must close 
 the mouth of her defenders. Dr. Symmons correctly confines 
 his vindication to the period when she praised Milton, and Mil- 
 ton praised her ! 
 
1 
 
MILTON'S 
 
 SECOND DEFENCE, &c 
 
 A HAT first and greatest of human duties, 
 constant gratitude to God, with a faithful 
 remembrance, and (whenever we have been 
 blessed beyond our hopes and expectations) an 
 express and devout acknowledgement of his 
 favours, I feel now strongly incumbent upon 
 me, in the very outset of my work, on three 
 several accounts. First, because I am fallen 
 upon those days, in which the eminent virtues 
 and unprecedented magnanimity and persever- 
 ance of my fellow-citizens , after due invocation 
 of the Deity and under his most obvious gui- 
 dance, by a series of unparallelled actions and 
 exertions have rescued the state from grievous 
 tyranny and religion from a most ignominious 
 slavery : Next, because when many suddenly 
 sprung up with low-born malice to criminate 
 their great achievements, and one more particu- 
 larly (elated with a pedant's pride, and puffed 
 up by the adulations of his followers) in an 
 
10 milton's second defence. 
 
 infamous book levelled against me had nefa- 
 riously undertaken the vindication of all tyrants, 
 I was specially and unanimously selected by 
 the redeemers of my country, as not unequal 
 to an adversary of such renown or a subject of 
 such importance, to defend in public the cause 
 of the people of England, and if ever it might 
 so be asserted, of Liberty herself: and Lastly, 
 because in a matter of so much difficulty and 
 such anxious expectation, I neither disappointed 
 the hope, shall I call it ? or the opinion of my 
 countrymen, nor failed to convince great num- 
 bers of foreign statesmen and scholars ; having 
 at the same time so shattered my presumptuous 
 adversary in the conflict, by humbling his 
 pride and ruining his character, as to prevent 
 him for the three years during which he survived 
 his defeat, notwithstanding all his indignant 
 menaces, from again molesting me otherwise 
 than by purchasing the feeble assistance of 
 some contemptible allies, and suborning (as will 
 shortly appear) a few poor fulsome panegyrists 
 to repair, if possible, his recent and unforeseen 
 disgrace. These important circumstances then, 
 considered as proofs of the divine goodness, 
 advancing a powerful claim to my gratitude, 
 and supplying also a most favourable auspice 
 for the commencement of my present under- 
 taking, I now commemorate with the profound- 
 est veneration. 
 
 Who indeed is there, that does not look upon 
 
MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE, 
 
 21 
 
 his country's glories as his own ? And what can 
 be more glorious to any country, than the resto- 
 ration of freedom in both it's civil and it's 
 religious concerns ? In both these respects, 
 what people or what state has evinced more 
 fortitude, or experienced better fortune, than 
 this ? For fortitude does not wholly exert itself 
 in battle, but equally exhibits it's energy and 
 it's intrepidity in opposition to every species of 
 fear. The Greeks, those primary objects of our 
 respect, and the Romans, when they were about 
 to expel a tyrant, displayed no other virtue than 
 a zeal for liberty, with a weapon to wield and 
 an arm to strike. All that was farther necessary 
 they easily accomplished, with happy omens, 
 amidst the praises and gratulations of mankind. 
 Neither did they seem so much to rush into the 
 danger of doubtful contest, as to hurry forward 
 to the fair and honourable struggle of virtue, 
 to rewards and crowns and the assured hope 
 of immortality. Tyranny was not, then, a hal- 
 lowed thing: tyrants had not, as the sudden 
 self-created viceroys and vicars of Christ, from 
 hopelessness of the affection, entrenched them- 
 selves behind the blind superstition, of the 
 populace : the lower orders had not, under 
 the stupefying influence of the priesthood, sunk 
 into a state of barbarism darker even than that, 
 in 'which the idiots of India now grovel. For 
 these only worship as deities a crew of perni- 
 cious demons, whom they cannot get rid of; 
 
12 milton's second defence* 
 
 those on the contrary, to incapacitate themselves 
 for the expulsion of tyrants, converted them 
 into arrogant divinities against themselves, and 
 consecrated the pests of mankind to their own 
 destruction. 
 
 With all those legions of inveterate opinions, 
 superstitions, abuses, and terrors — objects of 
 deeper dismay to others, than an actual enemy 
 — the people of England had to contend : and 
 all those through their better instruction, aided 
 doubtless by suggestions from above, they 
 subdued ; with such a confidence in their cause, 
 and so high a degree of valour and of virtue, 
 that though a numerous population, they can 
 no longer be considered from their towering and 
 elevated qualities as c a lower order;' and Bri- 
 tain herself, which has long been accounted a 
 land prolific of tyrants, has henceforth a title 
 to be proclaimed by posterity more prolific of 
 patriots — patriots, not goaded by a contempt or 
 an infraction of the laws to ungoverned licen- 
 tiousness, not inflamed by mock images of virtue 
 and of glory, or allured through a ridiculous 
 imitation of the ancients by the empty name of 
 liberty ; but guided along the right and only 
 path to true freedom by innocence of life and 
 purity of morals, and armed in the just and 
 necessary defence of religion and the laws. 
 
 Relying then uniformly on the assistance of 
 God, they repelled servitude with the most 
 justifiable war : but though I claim no share of 
 
milton's second defence. 13 
 
 their peculiar praise, I can easily defend myself 
 from the charge (should any such be brought 
 against me) of indolence, or of timidity. For 
 I did not so decline the toils and dangers of 
 war, as not in another way, with much more 
 efficacy and with not less danger to myself, to 
 assist my countrymen, and exhibit a mind 
 neither shrinking from adverse fortune, nor 
 actuated by any improper fear of calumny or of 
 death. Eminently devoted as I had been from 
 my childhood to the more liberal studies, and 
 always stronger in my intellect than in my body, 
 I avoided the labours of the camp, in which any 
 robust private might easily have surpassed me, 
 and betook myself to those weapons which I 
 could wield with superior effect : that so I might 
 bring my better and more valuable faculties, if 
 indeed they were of any value, and not my 
 worse, as my greatest possible contribution to 
 the assistance of my country and this her most 
 honourable cause. 
 
 Concluding therefore within myself that, if 
 God selected them to achieve exploits so glo- 
 rious, he had doubtless selected others as 
 writers properly to record and embellish those 
 achievements, and to protect by argument (the 
 bulwark, properly and peculiarly belonging to 
 man) that truth, which had already been pro- 
 tected by arms ; though I profoundly admire 
 those heroes of the field, I am so far from com- 
 plaining of my own province, that I felicitate 
 
 
14 MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 myself upon it, and again fervently thank the 
 heavenly Giver of all good gifts, that it is such 
 as much rather to be an object of envy to others, 
 than of regret to myself. In regard to myself, 
 however, I would not willingly institute any 
 comparison with the humblest of my species, 
 nor utter a single syllable, that should wear the 
 appearance of presumption : but whenever I 
 look to my most noble and illustrious cause, 
 and to the exalted function of defending the 
 defenders of my country imposed upon me by 
 their own free suffrages and judgements, I 
 confess I can hardly restrain myself from adven- 
 turously soaring beyond the natural simplicity 
 of an exordium, and seeking a more dignified 
 commencement ; since I as far exceed in gran- 
 deur and strength of subject all the celebrated 
 orators of antiquity, as I yield to them in 
 my power of doing justice to it, with respect 
 both to my feelings and to my expressions — 
 confined too, as I necessarily am, to a foreign 
 language, in which I often fall beneath my own 
 conceptions. 
 
 This subject has indeed excited such expec- 
 tation, and is become a matter of so much pub- 
 licity, that I imagine myself not as in the Forum 
 or on the Rostra, surrounded by the single 
 "people of Rome or of Athens ; but as if I had 
 already in my former Defence addressed, and 
 were now again addressing, almost the whole of 
 Europe met together to listen and to decide ; 
 
milton's second defence.. 15 
 
 the collective assemblies of every thing respect- 
 able among men, and cities, and nations. I 
 now seem, in setting out upon my journey, to 
 look down from my elevation over the wide- 
 spread regions of the Continent upon innumer- 
 able crowds, their faces totally unknown to me, 
 their feelings in perfect unison with mine. Here 
 the manly and high-minded German, there the 
 Frank with his animated and liberal impetuosity 
 worthy of his name, here the meditative wis- 
 dom of the Spaniard, there the steady self- 
 possessing magnanimity of the Italian meets my 
 eyes. Every free bosom, every ingenuous and 
 noble principle, whether prudentially concealed 
 or openly avowed, gives me it's silent or it's 
 public suffrage ; some attending and applauding 
 my enterprise, and some reluctantly surrender- 
 ing themselves to the power of truth. So 
 accompanied, I appear as if I were bringing 
 back Liberty, after her long long expulsion and 
 exile, to every realm between the pillars of Her- 
 cules and the extremities of Bacchus' eastern 
 conquests ; and, like Triptolemus of old, com- 
 municating universally from my own state to 
 others of all denominations a produce, much 
 more valuable however than that of Ceres, the 
 restoration of civil freedom and independence. 
 
 Nor do I come forward this second time 
 either wholly unknown, or I hope wholly unac- 
 ceptable : as I am He who before, upon the first 
 application of the English leaders, encountered 
 1 
 
16 milton's second defence. 
 
 in single combat the hardy champion of tyrants, 
 the contumelious assailant of our patriotic hosts 
 — till then, in the general opinion as well as in 
 his- own, accounted invincible ; and with my 
 feathered arrow * striking his scurrilous throat, 
 defeated him even at his own weapons ; and, if 
 I may be permitted without depreciation to 
 trust the sentiments and decisions of numbers 
 of intelligent and impartial readers, bore off a 
 complete victory.t As a proof that this is no 
 false or exaggerated account, I may state what 
 appears perfectly providential, that when on the 
 honourable invitation of Christina, t that emi- 
 
 * Adacto convitiantis injugulum hoc stilo. The stilus, by it's 
 ibnn, was adapted to do execution in more ways than one : and 
 to this P. Sarpi alluded, when he said, after having narrowly 
 escaped assassination, "Ben riconosco lo stilo delta Romana 
 ewria" He had, previously, been attacked with much violence 
 by the writers of that church. From it's more bloody, though 
 in many instances less malignant, application is derived the 
 modern word, stiletto. 
 
 An English translator, however, in order to preserve the 
 pun, is obliged to make a slight change in the figure. 
 
 + Opima spolia, as it appears from Livy (iv. 20.) are those, 
 quce dux duci detrahit* If we were obliged to interpret 
 the phrase rigidly in this acceptation, we might perhaps 
 justify Milton by referring to Saumaise's common title of 
 * Princeps Erudiiionis^ to which likewise he probably thought 
 he had himself as just a claim. But Varro will save his modesty, 
 by his Si manipularis miles detraxerit, dummodo duci hostium. 
 (Fest.) 
 
 % Upon this most extraordinary woman, Warton in his 
 edition of Milton's Minor Poems (Ed. 2d. 1791.) has two long 
 potes, pp. 483 — 488. It does not appear, however, that she 
 
milton's second defence* i? 
 
 irent patroness of every valuable art and every 
 learned man, this Monsieur or Madame Saumaise 
 (for by whether name he ought to be called, the 
 notorious despotism of the lady* has rendered 
 
 dismissed Saumaise from her court with contempt ; if we may 
 trust her own declarations, in her letter to his widow, that she 
 had for him " des sentimens de iendresse aussi veritables qa'elle 
 les awreit pu avoir pour un pere" that he was " celni de tous 
 les hommes qui meritoit le mieux d'etre immortel," and that 
 with regard to his son " elle voidoit contribuer, aidant qu'il dc- 
 pendroit d'elle, a le rendre dignejils dhin si grand pere:" un- 
 less we allow, with Warton, that from her levity, or hypocrisy, 
 or caprice " she might have acted inconsistently in some parts of 
 this "business." She herself says, in the same letter, that she 
 had incurred " des soupgons d'etre mediocrement inter essee a 
 la gloire de ce grand homme." That she did something more 
 at least than merely " commend the wit and stile" of Milton's 
 performance, of which Vossius has informed us, is probable from 
 her being introduced twice more in this Defensio Secun&a, 
 and in one of those passages made the subject of an animated 
 apostrophe. It was no part of our authors character to recom- 
 pense an empty compliment by the sacrifice of substantial truth. 
 * Madame Saumaise, it appears from several letters in the 
 Sarravian collection, was far from being a lamb in disposition. 
 In Epist. ci, cxxiii, she is denominated c Xanthippe ; ' in cxxxi, 
 £t<TKoivu; in clvi, she is represented as suis consiliis par ere solita ; 
 in others she is baptized c Tanaquil,' Sic. and seems particu- 
 larly to have been so formidable a scold among her maids, that 
 Sarrau could not induce any to venture upon her service, unless 
 Saumaise would on his part engage to pay their expenses 
 back again, if dismissed, from Leyden to Paris. By his bro- 
 ther-critics, Mr. Warton informs us, p. 487, she was called 
 c Juno.' She had some cause, however, for her ill temper ; as 
 the climate of Leyden, where Saumaise was strenuously urged 
 by his friends to remain, had carried off three of her little girls 
 
 C 
 
18 milton's second defence* 
 
 universally a matter of doubt) had visited the 
 court of Sweden, and had been entertained 
 as a stranger with the most flattering attention, 
 there was he suddenly surprised by the arrival 
 of my Defence. Which being eagerly read, and 
 by the queen herself one of the very first, her 
 majesty, out of regard to the dignity of her own 
 character, remitted nothing, indeed, of her ac~ 
 customed kindness and generosity to her guest : 
 but in every other respect, if I may repeat the 
 current story, such a sudden revolution of opi- 
 nion took place, that he who a few days before 
 stood in the highest favour, sunk instantly into 
 the most entire neglect ; and his subsequent 
 departure, for which he easily obtained permis- 
 sion shortly afterward, left it problematical in 
 the minds of numbers, whether he was received 
 with greater honour or dismissed with greater 
 
 in rapid succession, and considerably affected the health both of 
 her husband and herself. Ib. Epist. clxi. 
 
 With regard to Christina, too, she could not be perhaps 
 wholly without jealousy ; as that singular personage, in the 
 first stages of her regard for Saumaise, e ' when he was indisposed 
 or confined to his room by the cold of the climate, would visit 
 him in his chamber, and locking the door light his fire, make 
 his breakfast, and stay with him for some hours ! " (See Dr. 
 Symmons' < Life of Milton,' Ed. 2d. 390, note 6.) But Need- 
 ham (a great crony, indeed, of Milton's) in his c Mercurius 
 Politicus 9 informs us, u she subsequently cashiered him her 
 favour, as a pernicious parasite and a promoter of tyranny :" 
 this might conciliate the offended majesty of Madame Sau- 
 maise. (Ib.) 
 
MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 19 
 
 contempt. Neither did his reputation, in other 
 places, suffer less severely. 
 
 All this however, I adduce, not to set myself 
 off— there is no need for it : but simply to show 
 more clearly, as I proposed in the beginning, 
 upon what strong grounds I commenced my 
 work with thanks to the Almighty ; and, as my 
 best and most creditable exordium, to demon- 
 strate by an accumulation of proofs that, though 
 not exempt from human affliction, I and mine 
 are still under the care of the Deity, by whom I 
 have been aided and encouraged in discussing, 
 as it were, before the congregated world affairs 
 of the deepest moment, connected intimately 
 with the concerns of my country and most 
 influential upon every civil and religious interest; 
 and defending not one people only, not one 
 poor solitary client, but rather the entire human 
 race, against the enemies of human liberty. 
 This is a privilege, beyond which it is neither 
 in my power, nor indeed in my wishes, to aspire. 
 Him then I humbly entreat that, relying solely 
 upon his wonted bounty and assistance, I may 
 evince at least the same integrity, diligence, 
 fidelity, and good fortune, with which I lately 
 defended deeds of heroism and justice, in de- 
 fending those by whom they were done, and 
 myself at the same time (classed as I have been 
 with them, not for my honour, but my disgrace) 
 from unmerited calumny and invective. 
 
 If there be any, who think that this might 
 c 2 
 
20 mtlton's second defence. 
 
 have been more properly passed over with 
 disdain, I should be of their opinion, were it's 
 circulation confined to such as are well ac- 
 quainted with our characters : but how shall 
 others be prevented from admitting the lies of 
 our adversaries as facts ? When however we 
 shall have taken all due pains to despatch truth 
 in our vindication wherever falsehood has gone 
 before, they will undoubtedly be undeceived in 
 their conclusions, and he will be ashamed of his 
 calumnies — or, if not ashamed, contemned with 
 greater propriety. He would indeed have 
 sooner received the castigation he deserves, had 
 he not hitherto screened himself by false reports; 
 industriously giving out that 'Saumaise was again 
 at w r ork, fabricating new volumes against me, 
 which w r ere on the point of making their appear- 
 ance.' Of this artifice the only result has been, 
 that he has procured a temporary respite of the 
 execution of his sentence as a calumniator; as 
 I thought it right to wait awhile, and reserve 
 myself fresh and vigorous for a stouter foe. But 
 with Saumaise, I conceive, my warfare is con- 
 cluded, since he is now dead — how dead, I will 
 not say : for I will not make his loss of life 
 matter of reproach to him, as he did my loss of 
 sight to me. Though there are some, who lay 
 his death at my door : * and assert that while by 
 
 * " Salmasius died at the Spa, September 3, 1653 ; and, as 
 controvertists are commonly said to "be killed by their last 
 dispute, Milton was flattered with the credit of destroying him." 
 
milton's second defence. 21 
 
 struggling with my keen shafts he infixed them 
 still more deeply, and saw his difficulties thick- 
 ening round him — the season for reply elapsed, 
 the popularity of the work annihilated, his repu- 
 tation and character ruined, and his credit with 
 sovereigns (on account of his wretched defence 
 of royalty) upon the decline — he lingered 
 through three years of mortification, and died 
 at last rather of chagrin, than of bodily ailment. 
 Be that as it may, if I am again to engage an 
 enemy so thoroughly known, and to wage with 
 him a posthumous war, I can feel no appre- 
 hension, after having so easily sustained his 
 fiercer and more vehement attacks, of sinking 
 under the efforts of his debility and his death- 
 bed. 
 
 And now, to come at last to this thing, that 
 cries to us ; for I hear the cry — not indeed of 
 the royal blood, as the title of the book pre- 
 tends — but of some lurking blockhead : the 
 crier himself I no where descry.* Ho there! 
 
 (Johnson's ' Life of Milton.' ) The title of the Book, to which 
 Milton was now replying, it must he remembered was Jlegii 
 Sanguinis Clamor adversus Parricidas Anglicanos^ or, ' The 
 Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven against the English Parri- 
 cides.' 
 
 * In almost every long work (however grave and methodical) 
 passages occur, which a translator will find, from incongruity of 
 idiom &c, nearly if not wholly untranslateable. These are 
 usually multiplied, when any thing of vivacity or scurrility 
 mingles in the composition. In that case puns, equivoques, 
 and allusions frequently abound; more particularly, if th® 
 
22 milton's second defence, 
 
 Who are you ? Any body, or no body ? Even 
 the meanest of mankind, the very slaves, have 
 their names. Am I doomed always to contend 
 with anonymous foes ?* And yet these are your 
 great king's men : I should be surprised, if 
 kings could be persuaded to think them so. 
 
 writer have a mind stored with classical images and expressions. 
 This,, Milton had in an eminent degree : and not this only, but 
 a turn for what his Italian friends would have denominated 
 concetti — improved certainly, if not formed, in their society. 
 To compensate for the loss of those which I have been con- 
 strained to omit, though many I have sought, perhaps unsuc- 
 cessfully, to retain (and that rather to present the reader with 
 a tolerable fac simile of Milton's Latin composition, then out 
 of regard to the trifles themselves) I have occasionally intro- 
 duced a jeu de mot, where there is no precise warrant for it in 
 the original : e. g. the jingle of cry and descry > &c. In the 
 note, p. 23, an instance occurs of the kind alluded to. 
 
 * Saumaise, it appears both from this passage, and from 
 one immediately following — Citm vester ille Claudius de Jure 
 Regio, materia save gratiosissimd, sine nomine tamen orsus 
 esset scribere — as well as from the title of Milton's reply, ' Pro 
 Populo Anglicano Defensio contra Claudii Anonymi, alias 
 Salmasii, &c.,' and from some parts of his preface to it, issued 
 his first publication without a name. This double-named Ano- 
 nymous, as solecistical, is treated by Saumaise in his ■ Re- 
 sjponsio' with great severity : where however he inconsistently 
 exonerates our author of part of the Defence, insinuating that 
 it was written d, ludimagistro quodam Gallo de trivio (Could 
 he here blunderingly mean Gill, who died in 1642 ?) and clum- 
 sily retaliates the alias by a Johahnis Asini, alias Multonis 
 (nam * multo 9 vervex est etiam Anglis) which he immediately 
 changes into Tygridis alias Leopardi, and Lupi alias Molossi ; 
 as the first, he says, are too meek a pair of animals for the 
 parallel. 
 
milton's second defence. 23 
 
 The followers and friends of kings are not 
 ashamed of their principals. How then can 
 these be such ? They bestow no presents, but 
 rather receive them : they contribute nothing, 
 not even their names, to the royal cause. What 
 then ! They give words ; * and yet even these 
 they have not the generosity to give for nothing, 
 or the spirit to sanction by the addition of their 
 signatures. Whereas I, Messieurs Les Anonymes 
 (for I must address you by a foreign name, as 
 you do not allow me to do it in plain English) 
 though your great Saumaise first published upon 
 his most courtly subject, the Royal Prerogative, 
 without his name, and left me at full liberty to 
 follow his example ; I was so far from being 
 ashamed of myself or of my cause, that I 
 should have deemed it infamous to undertake a 
 work of such importance without an open ac- 
 knowledgement of myself. What I then openly 
 acknowledge, writing in a republic against 
 kings, why do you, writing in the dominions or 
 under the patronage of kings against a republic, 
 studiously conceal ? Why do you tremble, in a 
 place of safety ? Why shrink, as in the night, 
 amidst full day-light; and by your invidious 
 and suspicious cowardice throw a slur upon the 
 high power and favour, by which you are pro- 
 
 •r 
 
 * Dant verba, every school-boy knows, is an equivoque, 
 which admits of no parallel version into English, so as to 
 imply f deception* in terms compatible with the gratis dare? 
 which follows. 
 
14 miltgn's second defence. 
 
 tected ? Do you doubt, whether or not they are 
 able to protect you ? So masked and disguised, 
 truly, you resemble rather a band of thieves 
 collected to " roD the exchequer," than a cohort 
 of warriors marshalled to defend the rights of 
 kings. I publicly state, what I am ; # and the 
 power, which I now withhold from kings, I 
 would still in any legitimate kingdom continue 
 rigorously to withhold from them : neither 
 could any monarch condemn me as a criminal, 
 without first condemning himself as a tyrant. 
 In inveighing indeed against tyrants, how 
 do i injure kings, whom i place at the far- 
 THEST distance from tyrants ? Good men and 
 bad do not, in fact, more widely differ. Whence 
 it follows, that a tyrant is not only not a king, 
 but a character universally most hostile to a 
 king ; and, if we refer to the annals of anti- 
 quity, we shall find that more kings have been 
 dethroned and destroyed by tyrants, than by 
 the people. To affirm, then, that tyrants ought 
 to be cut off is to affirm, not that kings, but 
 that their worst and deadliest enemies ought to 
 be cut off. What you, on the other hand, con- 
 
 * " I am a plain man, and on my lirst appearance in this 
 way I told my name, and who I belonged to." (Preface to the 
 « Defence of the Divine Legation.') Such was Warburton's 
 principle. The practice of his followers appears, occasionally, 
 to have been somewhat less honest. See, in Parr's Dedication 
 of i Two Tracts of a Warburtonian* to Bishop Hurd, his com- 
 ment upon these " deeds without a name/' p. 158. 
 
MTLTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 25 
 
 tend for as the prerogative of kings, that their 
 will should be law, is not a prerogative, but a 
 mischievous and criminal and ruinous privilege. 
 By this envenomed, not salutary present, pro- 
 claiming them to be above all violence and 
 peril, you are yourselves the authors of their 
 destruction ; and establish their identity with 
 tyrants, by giving to both an identity of what 
 you call ' rights/ For, if a king does not avail 
 himself of this his prerogative (which he will 
 never do, so long as he is a king, and not a 
 tyrant) that is to be set down to him not as a 
 king, but as a man. And what more absurd 
 than a right, which a king cannot exercise but 
 by renouncing his humanity ; and which con- 
 strains him to prove himself a man, only by 
 ceasing to be a king ! What can be urged, more 
 contumelious to royalty than this ? The advo- 
 cate of such a doctrine must himself be the 
 vilest and most unjust of mortals : and how can 
 he be more vile, than by becoming the very 
 creature, which he would make others? If there- 
 fore, as one of the ancient sects arrogantly pro- 
 nounced, " every good man be a king;"* it 
 
 * Nay more, if we may trust Horace, rex denique reguml 
 (Ep. I. i. 107,) or ' Cesar's Caesar.' Horace's Sapiens, in this 
 passage, is the bonus vir et fortis of Cicero, qui miser esse non 
 potest. (Paradox, ii.) To this ' wise man of the porch/ the 
 * budge doctors of the Stoic fur* in the fifth and sixth Para* 
 doxes appropriate all genuine freedom and real opulence 1 
 
26 milton's second defence, 
 
 equally follows that every bad man, to the ex- 
 tent of his capacity, is a tyrant. For, not to 
 puff him up by the denomination, a tyrant is a 
 mean, not a lofty thing ; mean in proportion to 
 his magnitude, and servile in proportion to his 
 power. Others are voluntary slaves to their 
 own vices alone : whereas a tyrant is a slave not 
 only to his own, but even (often against his 
 •will) to those of an importunate host of minis- 
 ters and satellites; compelled to devolve his 
 despotism on his infamous minions, and to live, 
 the lowest of slaves, in a state of servitude to 
 his own dependents. Rightly, then, may this 
 name be bestowed upon the humblest retainer 
 of tyrants, for instance, upon this crier now 
 in question ; whose deep-mouthed bawling in 
 their behalf will be sufficiently accounted for by 
 what I have already stated, and am farther 
 about to state, as also why he sculks without a 
 name. For he has either, like Saumaise, basely 
 sold this cry of his to the royal blood for a paltry 
 sum of money, or feels himself completely 
 ashamed of his infamous doctrines, or is con- 
 scious of an abandoned and profligate life ; in 
 any of which cases we cannot be surprised, that 
 he should be anxious to remain undetected : or 
 perhaps he wishes to reserve to himself the privi- 
 lege of deserting kings, if he scent greater profit 
 in any other quarter, and of offering his services 
 to some future republic — even so, not without the 
 
MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 27 
 
 precedent of his vaunted Saumaise, who dazzled 
 by the glitter of gold # went over in his old age 
 from the right discipline of the church to that 
 of bishops, from the popular party to that of 
 kings. You are not hidden, therefore, you 
 yelping cottage-cur : your lurking-corner will 
 not avail you : you shall be dragged out, trust 
 me, and all your petty artifices exposed :t you 
 shall be constrained, in fine, to allow for the 
 rest of your life, either that I am not blind, or 
 at least that I have eyes for you. 
 
 Who then, and what sort of a creature is this 
 fellow ; and by what hopes, bribes, and tempta- 
 tions he has been induced to come forward in 
 the royal cause — it is a loose watering-place 
 kind of story ^ — I will now state to you. 
 
 * Affulgente lucro. This idea had previously occurred in the 
 Si dolosi spes refulserit nummi borrowed from Persius' Pro- 
 logue, v. 12, in our author's epigram, * In Salmasii Hun- 
 dredam' (Pro Pop: Anglic. Def. viii.) of which some account^ 
 with a translation, is given in a subsequent note. 
 
 f The Plutonis galea of the original was fabricated by the 
 Cyclops, during the war of the Gods and the Titans, for the 
 Monarch of the shades, and like Gyges ' ring had the faculty of 
 rendering it's wearer invisible. (Apollod. I. ii. 1.) It was 
 lent to Perseus, to aid him in his attack upon the Gorgon s. 
 (Id. ib. II. iv. 2.) Dr. Symmons, in the Preface to the second 
 Edition of his ( Life of Milton,' p. xiii. traces it, with classical 
 felicity of allusion, into the possession of modern Reviewers. 
 
 % Milesia aut Baiana fabula. The Milesiacs or Milesian 
 Fables had their origin in Miletus, a luxurious town of Ionia. 
 Aristides was the most celebrated author of these licentious 
 fictions. Plutarch, in his Life of Crassus, calls them <exoA#s-« 
 
28 
 
 There is one More,* half Frenchman and 
 
 &&X101. They are spoken of by Julius Capitolinus in Clod. Alb., 
 Apuleius &c. and Baiae may be regarded as the Miletus of 
 Italy. 
 
 * This frail and popular preacher, the ' Dodd (as he has been 
 ealled) of his day,' was a Scottish presbyterian clergyman, whom 
 Milton suspected to have written the ' Regit Sanguinis Clamor 
 &c.' in 1652. But that work was really composed by Peter Du 
 Moulin the younger, afterward Prebendary of Canterbury, and 
 by him transmitted to More's friend Saumaise for publication. 
 With good critical talents, witty and learned and eloquent, 
 More was at the same time light, caustic, ambitious, and 
 fantastical, hardly approving any thing but his own works 
 and their admirers, and very little versed in the history of 
 his species. How must it have galled him to have been 
 thus pursued through his opprobrious privacies, linked by a 
 sort of Me^entian artifice to Saumaise's dead body, and dragged 
 in triumph at the victor's chariot- wheels ! It may be added, 
 that he was a correspondent of Archbishop Usher, who ap- 
 pears to have thought well of him. This we learn from the 
 Dedication of his i Panegyric on Calvin* to that Prelate, 
 whom he characterises in the terms applied by Gregory of 
 Nazianzum to Athanasius ; mips rots iwcwaTt^, v^rtorspos 
 
 U/BCiy reiq o& feurtocfyvtri [AxyvyT^—vfyfihos yjtv toic, tpyot$ f tcctthvos 
 
 is TU tpp.OVil[AO!.Ti' XCU TW (J!jiV etfiTr,V aZfoTlTOV, T>}V tVTVfclM £l 3C0H 
 
 Xiu* ivxpowrov, ac denique — zyyifaxov to tto\$ 9 ctyy iXixwripot m» 
 &XV6HCV. In this panegyric, he attacks Grotius for having 
 called Calvin, p. 83, Serveti Exustor, and for disgracefully 
 lending himself to the views of the Romish court. The Letter 
 to Farellus, in which (according to Grotius) Calvin boasted 
 effecturum sese, si quid sua valeret auctoritas, ne Servetus vivus 
 abiret, More contends was never produced ; and the invidious 
 insinuation, about the Genevese Reformer's cook, he repels by 
 referring to the pallidulum os of his portrait ; hoc satis faciei , 
 ut studiosissimum sed non cupediarum, nee nisi librorum hel* 
 luonem intelligat : non pinguem, non adipejartum, quad mo* 
 
milton's second defence. 29 
 
 half Scot (that the whole infamy of the man 
 may not press too heavily upon a single race, or 
 nation) a worthless scoundrel, on the accumu- 
 lated testimony not only of indifferent persons, 
 but what is much more conclusive, of his own 
 friends, whom he has entirely alienated by his 
 villainies, a faithless lying ungrateful scurrilous 
 wretch, the constant calumniator both of men 
 and women, to whose chastity as well as cha- 
 racter he is a decided enemy. This fellow first 
 became known — for I will pass over the ob- 
 scurity of his early life — as a teacher of Greek 
 at Geneva : yet, though he had often explained 
 his own name* in that language to his pupils, 
 
 nachis attribui solet ut in adagium abierit, non rubricato hi 
 pustulas vultu, non gemmanti et quasi fruticanti naso, sed 
 qualem Calvinum oportuit inveniet. It is admitted however, 
 elsewhere, that he might casually have so expressed himself; and 
 I believe it is not doubted, that he was the cause of his former 
 friend's being thrown into a dungeon, and wished for his con- 
 demnation, though he might not subsequently have objected to 
 a mitigation of his punishment. After the censure, which 
 More passes upon Grotius' * Annotations on the Scriptures,' 
 it is not a little curious that twenty years afterward he should 
 pilfer from them so copiously. He closes his work of flattery 
 with the wretched and imperfect anagram of Respublica Gene- 
 vensis, " Gens sub ccelis vere pia." There is a good note upon 
 him in Warton, ib. 486. 
 
 Another Du Moulin was the author of a rare Calvinistic 
 Tract, entitled ' Moral Reflexions upon the Number of the 
 Elect, proving plainly from Scripture-Evidence, &c. that not 
 One in a Hundred Thousand (nay, probably, not One in a 
 Million) from Adam down to our time, shall be saved V 1 680. 
 
 * M^pe^ fatuus. On the word {tfopa&n, Matt. v. 13. B. P, 
 
SO milton's second defence. 
 
 he could not unlearn the vicious folly which it 
 implies ; but, in spite of his consciousness of so 
 many crimes hitherto perhaps undiscovered, he 
 had the frantic ambition to offer himself a can- 
 didate for ordination, and to pollute with his 
 infamous morals the Christian church. He was 
 quickly, however, exposed to the censure of 
 the presbytery as an amorous coxcomb, branded 
 with many vicious practices and many hete- 
 rodox opinions, which though he meanly dis- 
 
 Tingstadius observes, correcting Rosenmiiller's remark upon the 
 passage, that " anciently savour was a metaphor of wisdom 
 and virtue, and insipidity of folly aud vice;" for which he 
 refers to Job vi. 6. and Prov. xi. 22., the usage of the Arabian 
 poets, and the etymology of the Romans, who cc derived sapi- 
 entia from sapor, and by insipidus and insulsus described a 
 foolish and vicious man/' Schleusner himself does not escape 
 his censure (See his f Mise. Philol. Remarks on the Swedish Ver- 
 sion of St. Matthew,' Upsal.) So the Schol. on Eurip. Androm. 
 675. explains ywaiKu ^/&'p«iv»c-«y by 5repsys<r«f : and Demosthenes 
 uses a.voy>Toi of women disposed jc©<s<v i n uv fiuXaivrcu — quasi 
 scilicet idem esset vitio adjungi, ac sanje menti valedicere. 
 (Wakef. in loc. Silv. Crit. iv. 14.) See also the Proverbs, 
 passim, 
 
 Shenstone is said to have returned thanks to heaven, that * his 
 name was not obnoxious to a pun.' What Milton, an artist 
 of singular eminence in that way, might have made of it, we 
 cannot conjecture ; but the name of More was too inviting to 
 be resisted. The Mulberry-tree (Morns) particularly that of 
 Pyramus and Thisbe, and the motley harlequin (Mono), not 
 to mention the bene morata and morigera of the celebrated 
 epigram, with Momus &c, as we shall observe in the sequel, 
 are in their turns pressed into the service. Of these, however, 
 some (it will appear) are wholly untranslateable, 
 4 
 
MILTON 5 S SECOND DEFENCE, 
 
 31 
 
 avowed, he impiously continued to retain. At 
 last, he was detected in adultery. He had been 
 strongly attached to a servant-girl* of one of 
 his hosts ; and continued to follow her, even 
 after she was married to another. The neigh- 
 bours had often seen them enter together, solum 
 cum sold, into a small garden-house. " All 
 this," you say, " is no proof of adultery : they 
 might go thither for any other purpose." True, 
 he might be conversing with her perhaps on 
 horticulture, and giving the curious damsel, 
 anxious for information, a lecture upon gar- 
 dens — those, for instance, of Alcinoiis, or Ado- 
 
 * More in his reply, as it may be inferred from Milton's re- 
 joinder, claimed at a subsequent period to be denominated c &z- 
 crarum Historiarum Professor ; * a designation, justified by a 
 request in one of the letters in the Sarravian collection, dated 
 1648 : que la qualite de Prqfesseur en Philosophie fut un peu 
 relevee de now, honorable, comme de Philosophie Sacree on de 
 Metaphysique Extraordinaire ; en un mot, tel quit sera juge 
 a propos, d Jin qu'on ne lui imputat pas d' etre dechu entiere~ 
 ment. This gives rise to some severe remarks of Milton, in the 
 Pro se Defensio, upon both parts of his new title, as bestowed 
 on a man of profligate morals and notorious falsehood. He 
 takes the opportunity, likewise, of vindicating himself from the 
 imputation of having depreciated the Greek language, for which 
 he professes the greatest regard. In the same tract, also, he 
 calls More mulierosum et notce incontinentia hominem ; and 
 details in several passages the story of this c servant-girl,' 
 Claudia Pelletta, both which names furnish him with materials 
 for his favourite classical and paronomastic allusions. The 
 charge, too, of suspicious solus cum sold interviews with her, 
 in ' the garden-house,' is there repeated. 
 
32 milton's second defence. 
 
 nis :* he might now point out the beauties of a 
 particular bed, now covet the shade, now enter 
 into a practical disquisition upon engrafting, 
 &c. Assuredly, I admit it. Of this, however, 
 he could not convince the presbytery, so as to 
 elude their censure and suspension ; and the 
 heads of the charge, as well as of others of a 
 similar kind, are to this day preserved in the 
 public library of that city. In the mean time, 
 before the affair became public, being invited 
 into Holland (through the management of Sau- 
 maise) by the Gallic church at Middleburg, to 
 the great disgust of Spanheim, a pastor of ap- 
 proved learning and integrity who had known 
 him thoroughly at Geneva,! he at length with 
 
 * The garden (pot. ' orchard/ or as Milton spells the word, 
 orchat, from the Gr. ep^asros : See Pegge's i A?w?iymiana,' vi. 95.) 
 of Alcinoiis is beautifully described by Homer, Od. vii. 112— 
 132, with it's y.e<r{x>r,Tcci vrpwwt, or c beds of all various herbs for 
 ever green/ like the c nuptial bed of espoused Eve' (P. L. iv» 
 710.) 
 
 The A^avi^ Kyzti, consecrated to Venus on account of her 
 handsome paramour, are explained by Erasmus, in his ' Adages,' 
 as referring to res levicidcs parumque frugiferce, et ad brevem 
 prcBseniemque modb fructiim idonecs. Of the passage which 
 follows, Jicui morum inserere^ complures inde sycomoros quam 
 citissime enasci, &c. we cannot regret the impossibility of pre- 
 senting an adequate version to the English reader. Our term 
 e bed,' however, is proportionally more expressive than the 
 original areolce. 
 
 i In this stoiy, Milton seems to have made some slight mis- 
 take, More, whose learning procured him the offer of several 
 
milton's second defence. S3 
 
 the utmost difficulty procured some cold formal 
 * Letters Testimonial/ as they are called, from 
 that place — on condition of his immediate de- 
 parture 5 several indeed thinking it very wrong, 
 that the church should bear testimony in favour 
 of such a profligate, but the majority deeming 
 any thing rather to be borne than the profligate 
 himself. On his arrival in Holland, he waited 
 upon Saumaise, and there cast a lustful eye 
 upon Pontia, his wife's maid ; for the gentleman 
 is always partial to servant-girls. Thencefor- 
 ward, he began assiduously to cultivate Sau- 
 maise, and as often as occasion served, Pontia 
 too. Whether indeed Saumaise, won by the 
 convenience and fulsomeness of the fellow, or 
 More thinking that he should have better and 
 more frequent opportunities of seeing Pontia, 
 first introduced mention of Milton's * Reply,' 
 
 literary appointments, had obtained Letters Testimonial with 
 some other view, six or seven years previously to his final 
 departure from Geneva ; and upon that occasion being obliged 
 to apply for Letters Recommendatory, by going round to indi- 
 viduals and importuning them for their signatures, he got (not, 
 as in the former case, Jrigidulas but) frigidissimas litems, 
 granted chiefly for the credit of his profession and the removal 
 of himself. These however, under the pretext of not having 
 been able to procure a copy, he suppressed. See the ( Pro Se 
 Defensio,' where Milton takes an opportunity, in his copious 
 and animated account of this affair, of estimating the weight of 
 Testimonials in general, and of paying a fine compliment to the 
 small republic of Geneva. He there, likewise, renews the alle- 
 gation, which immediately follows : Ancillis, ut videtur, quo~ 
 canque vadis, nullum abs te refugium est. 
 
 D 
 
54 milton's second defence. 
 
 I am not competent to decide. However that 
 be, More undertakes Saumaise's defence, and 
 Saumaise promises More a divinity-chair in that 
 city,* by his interest, in return : More likewise 
 promising himself the indulgence of carrying oa 
 a sly intrigue with Pontia into the bargain. 
 Under the pretence of consulting his principal 
 upon this subject, he frequents his house day 
 and night. And now, as Pyramus was for- 
 merly transformed into a mulberry-tree, behold 
 our mulberry-tree t suddenly transformed into 
 a Pyramus, transplanted from Geneva to Baby- 
 
 * Leyden. 
 
 f Lat. Morus. This, as it might be expected, is not anew 
 pun. At Losely, the seat of the Mores (near Godalmin, in 
 Surrey) we learn from Manning's f History and Antiquities 
 of that County,' p. 98, were sundry notable devices: and 
 among the rest, " in the corner of the great withdrawing- 
 room, is inserted a Mulberry-tree, on the side of which is this 
 inscription, Morus tarde moriens ; on the other, Morum cito 
 moriturum" meaning respectively, f The tree perennial,' 
 * Perishing the fruit.' From the Moria Encomium of Eras- 
 mus, indeed, to the Honor es Mutant Mores of Jo Miller, the 
 word is fertile in witticisms. In Vossius* Letters to Hein- 
 sius, this unlucky name appears under the alias of iEthiops 
 (Maurus.) 
 
 In the Genevensis in Babylonium t which follows, we find 
 an antithesis between the churches of Geneva and Rome, 
 which latter city has been deemed by most commentators the 
 anti-type of the Babylon in the Apocalypse; a fortunate cir- 
 cumstance, as Milton would esteem it, with reference to the 
 scene of Pyramus' story. We may be permitted indeed to 
 wonder, that no allusion is made to the fornication and har- 
 lotry of that city, Rev. xvii. 2, 5, &c. 
 
milton's second defence. 35 
 
 Ion ; but luckier, though less deserving than 
 that youth, he can converse with his Pontia as 
 he pleases under the same roof: no need to* 
 seek a cranny in the wall. He promises her 
 marriage, under that engagement he debauches 
 her, and thus at once (I shudder to state it, but 
 it must be stated) he violates the purity of his 
 profession, and the rites of hospitality. From 
 this intercourse sprung a monstrous and unna- 
 tural compound birth. Both the male and the 
 female conceived ; Pontia a little Morell, des- 
 tined long afterward to exercise the patience of 
 Saumaise, the Plinian exercise-writer ; r* and 
 More an empty wind-egg, whence issued this 
 flatulent • Cry of the Royal Blood? at first 
 indeed holding out the prospect of an agree- 
 able treat to our hungry royalists in Belgium, 
 but proving to their regret, upon breaking the 
 shell, addle and rotten. For More swelling 
 with his conception, and fancying that he had 
 curried favour with all the Orange-faction, 
 greedily swallowed in anticipation whole pro- 
 
 * Saumaise's celebrated Work, entitled c Exercitatiortes Pli- 
 niance in Cai, Jul. Solin. Poly hist.' was first published at 
 Paris in 1629. The subject of this commentary, a miserable 
 compilation of historical and geographical remarks on different 
 countries, abounds with extracts from Pliny the Naturalist to 
 «uch a degree, as to have procured for it's author the name- of 
 ' Plinii Simla' 
 
 The term f conception,' occurring below, Milton would pro- 
 bably have used, if he had written in English, instead- of th« 
 less equivocal word fcetu. 
 
 © 2 
 
56 milton's second defence. 
 
 fessorships; and had wickedly abandoned his 
 Pontia, now pregnant, as a servant and a beggar. 
 Upon this she applied to the synod and the 
 magistracy, with complaints of his neglect and 
 breach of faith. Thus the story got abroad, 
 and was long a subject of joke and ridicule at 
 almost every table and in every party. Whence 
 some one, no bungler in epigram, threw off the 
 following distich : 
 
 < Pontia's with child by More — but why this fuss? 
 She is well wzoral'd, and morigerous.' * 
 
 * The whole affair of this English Abigail, Pontia, or (as 
 More himself, in his Reply, taught Milton more correctly to call 
 her) Bontia — see his f Pro Se Defensio * — after every deduc* 
 tion for the virulence of our author's invective, appears to have 
 been a most disgraceful piece of business. It is not perhaps 
 worth the more ample investigation, which Milton in his sub- 
 sequent Rejoinder has bestowed upon it, orWarton's very prolix 
 note, pp. 485 — 487. It's best result was the present Audoenie 
 epigram, which M. Colomies emphatically calls un sanglant 
 distique, but of which the poignancy (depending on a verbal 
 conceit) is with difficulty transferable to our language. My 
 attempt in the text, aiming to be literal, is I fear obscure ; to 
 Dr. Symmons the reader will be indebted for a superior 
 version : 
 
 f Though Pontia's big, cease, dames, to call her w— e : 
 You bear a spotless name, buteshe bears — More/ 
 
 (p. 411, Note*.) 
 
 Madame Saumaise has not wholly escaped the suspicion of 
 having, like Juno, been actuated by a sense of the spreta 
 injuria Jbrmce in the prosecution, which she instituted against 
 More upon the occasion. See Thurloe's f State- Papers,' ii 
 §94., where mention is made also of Ulack the printer, in- 
 
MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE, 3? 
 
 Poor Pontia alone found it no joke : but all her 
 complaints proved ineffectual. The Cry of the 
 
 troduced below. — " De JEthiope (More) et Angld" says Is, 
 Vossius to Nic. Heinsius,in a letter dated ' Amst. 1652/ lepida 
 sunt et f estiva, quce reponis ; sed nunc negant ea vera esse, et 
 sparsa esse ab malevolis quibusdam. Sane constat mihi Anglam 
 istam omnes JEihiopi reddidisse amatorias suas. Liter ipsum 
 et Salmasium lis Jbrsan orietur (qucenam, enim, inter tales 
 j)ossit esse diuturna concordia ?) propter librum quendam hie 
 excusam, cui titulus * Clamor Sanguinis Regii in Ccelum.* 
 Scriptus ille videtur a quodam anonymo Anglo, transmissus 
 verb Salmasio, divulgatus verb ad JEthiope. Propter sexaginta 
 exemplaria, quce promisit typographus, inter ipsos est con- 
 tentio. JEthiops ea sibi vult vindicare, decrevitque sex exem- 
 plaria inscribere Regince nostrce, totidem verb Regi Anglice ; 
 alia item sex Gallice Regi, &c. &c. 
 
 Vossius seems to have known the secret History of this cele- 
 brated Tract very correctly ; as the * anonymous Author/ Du 
 Moulin, in his ? Reply to a Person of Honour,' &c. 4to. 
 Lond. 1675, actually owns the work; as well as in the 
 Prefatory Epistle, intended to accompany his furious Iambics 
 against Milton in their second edition with the ( Regii San- 
 guinis Clamor.* His illiberal sneers at Milton's blindness, and 
 his mean exultation at beholding another smarting in his stead, 
 display at once as Dr. Symmons has observed, the most selfish 
 cowardice, and the most egregious want of principle. And yet 
 his loyalty raised him, in those times, to a high station in our 
 church ! Compared with him, More was, indeed, a liberal and 
 honourable antagonist. From the 'Pro Se Defensio 9 how- 
 ever of Milton it appears, that the latter wrote the Prefatory 
 Epistle to Charles II., and even subscribed his name to it in 
 many of the copies instead of that of A. Ulack. 
 
 More afterward prosecuted the young woman, and her master 
 Salmasius with his whole family. His resentment, fully pro- 
 portionate to his preceding intimacy, Jed him meanly to disclose 
 
 
$$ milton's second defence. 
 
 Royal Blood easily drowned those of a weak 
 ruined girl, complaining of her seduction. Sau- 
 maise too, shocked at the injury and disgrace 
 inflicted upon himself and his whole family, 
 finding himself duped by his dear friend and 
 encomiast and a second time laid at the mercy 
 of his enemy, and perhaps likewise considering 
 the event as a misfortune super-added to what 
 he had already incurred in the royal cause, sunk 
 shortly afterward into the grave. But I antici- 
 
 numerous little incidents relative to his old patron and his 
 Xanthippe during an occasional dinner (perhaps given for the 
 purpose) to Saumaise's bitter enemy , Isaac Vossius. A dis- 
 gusting recital of one of them is contained in a subsequent Letter 
 from Heinsius dated f Venice, 1653;' where the whipping 
 referred to by Warton in his Note, the crime, and the confede- 
 rate {Hebe Caledonia) are introduced in minute detail. See 
 also a Letter from Vossius to Heinsius, stating Saumaise's 
 wish that ' More would marry his wife's light-charactered 
 attendant/ with More's sturdy refusal, and a consequent squab- 
 ble between him and his Dulcinea, Burm. Syll. iii. 651. More 
 had not scrupled to represent the lady as unfaithful to her hus- 
 band's bed ; and as Saumaise had triumphantly disarmed of all 
 it's virulence the name e Alastor * bestowed upon him, by dis- 
 covering that it had somewhere been given to Jupiter, they 
 quaintly agree to bestow upon him the latter title, with itV 
 Lybian adjunct of ' Amnion.' In the legal investigation of 
 the quarrel, it seems to have been the great object of Madame 
 Saumaise and her advocates, to establish by testimony the 
 incontinence of More; and their good fortune to find, as they 
 supposed, proof unius alteriusve ancillce quibus vim inferre 
 voluerit. It is amusing to read these elassical scurrilities of the 
 animce calestes of literature. 
 
milton's second defence. 39 
 
 pate. Previously to his death, like Salmacis of 
 old (for their stones, as well as their names,* 
 have a strong resemblance) unconscious that he 
 had clasped in his arms an hermaphrodite com- 
 petent to the functions of both sexes, and not 
 knowing what More had begotten in his house, 
 Saumaise fondles what he brought forth by the 
 press — I mean the volume, in which he finds 
 himself so often denominated c the Great,' and 
 peruses with so much complacency t compli- 
 
 * Here the pun upon the names is more obvious in the 
 original, Salmasius and Salmacis. 
 
 t This instance of vanity was too gross, to be lightly dis- 
 missed : it is again brought forward in a subsequent page. And 
 yet Saumaise, in a letter to J, F. Gronovius (dated, it is true, 
 fifteen years before, in 1637) says, u Suffercti sufflatique quan- 
 tum volent emendicatis laudibus ambulent, dum ego vix Jerre 
 queo — non dico, meritas, quid enim mereor? sed ne modicas 
 quidem et h benevolentibus ultro tributas ;" and goes on to 
 request his friend to abstain from compliments, that they may 
 deal with one another after the old Roman fashion, " et hujus- 
 modi ineptias ex animo nostro primum, deinde ex scriptis dele- 
 amus!" (Salm. Epist. lxxvii.) 
 
 But Colomesius, in his ( Recueil de Particularity , 9 has 
 preserved an anecdote (quoted, with too many others of a 
 similar kind by the amusing Menckenius, in his f De Charla- 
 tanerid Eruditorum,' p. 52, n.) which deposes strongly against 
 the sincerity of this deprecatory language : ( Messieurs Gaul- 
 min 9 Saumaise , et Maussac se rencontrans un jour a la Bib- 
 lioiheque Royale, le premier dit aux deux autres ; " Je pense 
 que nous pourrions bien tous trots tenir tite a tous les Savans 
 de V Europe? A quoi M. de Saumaise repondit ; " Joignez 
 a tout ce quHl y a de Savans au monde, et vous et M. de Maus- 
 sac, je vous tiendrai tite tout seul" (Opuscul., Ultraj. 1669, 
 P- 98.) 
 
40 milton's second defence. 
 
 merits, by the world pronounced ridiculous and 
 absurd. He, therefore, instantly sets out to the 
 printer's ; and, in his fruitless effort to preserve 
 the fame that has long been slipping through 
 his ringers, descends to play the humble mid- 
 wife's part in obstetricating to those praises, or 
 rather those fulsome adulations, for which he 
 miserably cringes to such sycophants as this. 
 For this labour, one Ulack seemed a most com- 
 modious accomplice. Him he easily persuades, 
 not only to undertake the printing of the book 
 in question, for which he would have incurred 
 no censure ; but also to subscribe his name, as 
 the author, to an Epistle addressed indeed to 
 Charles (II. ), but crammed with abuse and 
 scurrilities against me, who had never set my 
 eyes upon the fellow. To prevent any surprise 
 at his pliability in thus consenting most impu- 
 dently to assault me without provocation, and 
 taking another's extravagances so readily upon 
 his own shoulders, I will here give some ac- 
 count of his treatment of others, so far as I 
 have been able to make it out. 
 
 Ulack — whence he sprung, heaven knows — 
 is a sort of itinerant pamphlet-vender, a noto- 
 rious scoundrel and spendthrift. For some time 
 he sold books clandestinely in London, whence 
 after innumerable shifts he was obliged pre- 
 cipitately to decamp, over head and ears in 
 debt. At Paris, he quickly revived his old cha- 
 racter for dishonesty and profligacy, in the Rue 
 
MILTON^S SECOND DEFENCE. 41 
 
 St. Jacques ; of which likewise he was presently 
 constrained to take a French leave, without 
 daring ever to come near it again : and now, if 
 any one wants an unprincipled and venal black- 
 guard, he is to be found white- washed as a 
 printer at the Hague. To prove how little 
 stress is to be laid upon any thing he says or 
 does, how promptly for the least pittance of 
 money he will profane things the most sacred, 
 and how little connexion public feeling (as 
 might have been supposed) had with his tirade 
 against myself, I will produce evidence out of 
 his own mouth. Having observed that my 
 c Reply to Saumaise' had been a profitable con- 
 cern to the booksellers engaged in it, he writes 
 to some of my friends* to request that c they 
 would prevail upon me, if I had any thing ready 
 for the press, to entrust it to his management ; 
 and he would take care, it should be executed 
 with much greater correctness than my former 
 tract.' I answered, through the same channel, 
 that ' I had nothing at that time in hand, which 
 required the exercise of his art.' When lo! 
 within a short period he makes his appearance 
 as not only the printer, but the author too by 
 
 * Hartlib, to whom Milton's ' Tractate on Education' is ad- 
 dressed ; as appears from his relation of the same story, in his 
 subsequent ' Pro Se Defensio : ' in which, by the bye, occurs a 
 host of puns, founded upon Ulack's f Tables of Sines, Tan- 
 gents, and Secants/ setting all translation and even paraphrase 
 at defiance. 
 
4$ MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 adoption, of a most scurrilous composition 
 against the very man, to whom he had so re- 
 cently and so officiously tendered his services. 
 My friends indignantly expostulate with him. 
 The impudent fellow writes back, that 6 he is 
 astonished at their simplicity and inexperience, 
 in expecting or demanding any regard to honour 
 or honesty from one reduced like himself to 
 such shifts for a livelihood ! * that i he received 
 the Letter in question with a book from Sau- 
 maise, who entreated him as a favour to do 
 what he had done!' and that, ' if either Mil- 
 ton or any other person chose to make use of 
 his press in reply, he should not in the least 
 scruple* to assist them in the publication!' — 
 that is, either against Saumaise or against 
 Charles, for against them alone could he sup- 
 pose that such a reply would be directed. In 
 short, you see what he is. 
 
 I now proceed to the rest ; for more than one 
 have lent their assistance in patching up this 
 mock-tragedy of c The Royal Cry* against me. 
 
 First then, as usual, the Dramatis Persona ■ 
 
 Cry, who opens the business. 
 Ulack, the blackguard ; or rather 
 Saumaise, disguised in the mask and cloak of Ulack, 
 the blackguard. 
 
 * From the often-quoted ' Pro Se Defensio* it appears, that 
 mack's words were, " Quid ad typographos tarn magnce con- 
 trover site, nisi ut operant suam ?" * Why then, Ulack,' as Mil- 
 ton immediately asks, " Jamosissimo libello tuiim subscriber e 
 prqfessum nomen, quasi auctor esses, debuisti?" 
 
mixton's second defence, 43 
 
 Two Verse-mongers^ muddled with stale beer.* 
 More, an adulterer and a seducer. 
 
 A charming party, upon my word! A most 
 respectable set of competitors for me ! Such as 
 they are however, since our cause can hardly 
 be opposed by any of a more respectable cha- 
 racter, I will attack them in succession : only 
 beforehand requesting those, who may deem 
 my refutation occasionally deficient in gravity, 
 to consider that I have to do, not with a grave 
 adversary, but with a gang of strollers ; in re- 
 ference to whom I have sometimes thought it 
 right to lower the tone of my reply, beneath 
 it's proper dignity, t to the level of my antago- 
 nists. 
 
 * This dramatising of the matter recurs, as a favourite figure, 
 in the ' Pro Se Defensio : * as do also the Verse-mongers, under 
 the name of Versijicatores, who had affixed two copies of verses 
 to the * Regii Sanguinis Clamor ; ' the first an Alcaic Ode of 
 Thanks to Saumaise, and the latter ' In Impurissimum Nebu- 
 lonem Johannem Milionum Parricidarum et Parricidii Advo* 
 catum, 9 both very indifferent productions. 
 
 f A better principle is laid down in the Si ego dignus contu- 
 tnelid hac maxime, at tu indignus quijaceres tamen, of Terenee ; 
 in a passage of Demosthenes, * n*p* "Lt^m*/ 0*»» ^ xip <r* ree, 
 
 trpop-wwrec, XtyvVy oivtoc, a 7Cyca-m.cvTU.c, su,xvtm $c\u z-fovjpji<r&xi teyty, 
 (^«.); and even in what is above stated with regard to Christina's 
 treatment of Saumaise, during the latter part of his stay at 
 her court. This, however, is again adduced by Milton, for his 
 own justification, in the ' Pro Se Defensio f and the several 
 gross ambiguities founded on the name of More &c. are, un- 
 doubtedly, so " inconsistent with our author's usual delicacy," 
 as to demand some sort of apology. (Warton, ib. p. 487-) 
 
44 MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 c The Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven 
 
 AGAINST THE ENGLISH PARRICIDES.' Could VOU 
 
 have proved this blood, More, to have been un- 
 justly shed,* the thing might be credible : but 
 now, as in the early days of the Reformation 
 the monks from a dearth of argument had re- 
 course to spectres and other prodigies, so you 
 for lack of better sounds recur to c cries ' that 
 never " met the ear," and all the obsolete arts 
 of the monastery. That we any of us hear 
 voices from above, you are far from believing ; 
 but I can easily believe that you may, as you 
 state, have heard c cries * from below. But tell 
 us now, prithee, who heard this c Cry of the 
 Royal Blood?' You did. Ridiculous! For, 
 first, you never hear any thing good.t Whereas 
 the ' Cry * that rises c to heaven,' if heard by 
 any but the Deity, is heard only by the just and 
 the pure ; as alone capable, through their own 
 exemption from divine wrath, of denouncing it 
 against the wicked. Why, then, should you be 
 so privileged ? — To enable you to 
 
 •censure crimes, yourself a criminal ? 
 
 For this pretended c Cry to heaven * you mus£ 
 have heard, about the very time of your intrigue 
 with Pontia. There are many obstacles, More, 
 
 • Alluding to Gen. iv. 10. " The voice of thy brother's 
 blood crieth unto me from the ground." 
 
 t The double meaning of maU audis eludes the English 
 translator. 
 
MILTON*S SECOND DEFENCE. 45 
 
 many noises both within and around you, which 
 prevent your hearing ( cries ' of this kind on 
 their way ' to heaven ; ' and, among others, 
 the collective s cry,' which is lifted up to hea- 
 ven against yourself-— the 6 cry,' if you are not 
 aware of it, of your garden-adultress, com- 
 plaining that she was led astray chiefly by thi 
 example of you her pastor ; the ' cry ' of her 
 husband, whose bed you polluted ; the c cry * 
 of Pontia, with whom you broke your plighted 
 faith ; the c cry ' of the bantling, if there be 
 one, whom you begot to shame, and cast off to 
 misery. If you can be deaf to all these c cries,' 
 it is impossible you should hear that of * the 
 royal blood. 5 The work then, instead of * The 
 Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven/ may 
 with greater propriety be entitled, ' The 
 Neighing of lascivious More to Pontia.' 
 
 The Epistle which immediately follows the 
 title-page, a tiresome piece of affectation, is 
 taken up partly with compliments to Charles, 
 and partly with invectives against Milton. From 
 the very first sentence you may discover the 
 author. The realms of Charles have passed 
 into the sacrilegious hands of parricides, and (to 
 mis-use one of Tertullian s terms,* for lack of a 
 
 * The vox Tertidliancea might, in the minds of many, prove 
 that c the fustian proceeded from the pen of Saumaise ;' as his 
 • Notce in Tertullianum de Pallio* (Par. 1622, and Lugd. 
 Bat. 1656.) and his projected ' Annotationes in Tertulliani 
 Apologeticum,' &c. evince, that he must have been well versed, 
 
46 MILTON 'S SECOND DEFENCE* 
 
 better) Dei-cides. Whether this fustian pro- 
 ceeds from the pen of Saumaise, of More, or of 
 Ulack, it little matters: but shortly afterward 
 follows what Charles himself ought to resent, 
 while by others it can only be derided. 
 
 The man does not breathe, who is more 
 anxiow for the happiness of Charles. What! 
 you, who offered your pen and your press to his 
 enemies, you * most anxious for his happiness !'' 
 Wretched indeed must that prince be, who is so 
 completely abandoned by his friends, that a 
 shabby printer shall dare to compare himself to 
 his few intimates who remain ! Most wretched 
 he, whose steadiest adherents are equalled in 
 fidelity by Ulack the faithless ! Could any thing 
 have been uttered more arrogantly of himself, 
 pr more contemptuously of the king and his 
 friends ? Neither is it less absurd, to introduce 
 a low mechanic philosophising upon royal vir- 
 tues and other subjects of importance in a 
 manner, such as it is, not to be exceeded by 
 Saumaise, or even by More himself. In this, 
 as well as in many other places indeed, Sau- 
 maise obviously shows himself, however deeply 
 versed in books, a very child in judgement and 
 experience: for though he might have read, 
 that the chief magistrates in the admirable 
 government of Sparta used to take away any 
 
 in the phraseology of that writer. It's meaning involves the 
 profane parallel, more copiously illustrated in a following note. 
 
milton's second defence. 
 
 4? 
 
 chance-apophthegm from the worthless, and 
 confer it by lot upon a more deserving citizen,* 
 he is so ignorant of all decorum as to permit* 
 on the reversed plan, sentiments in his own 
 opinion honourable and just to be ascribed to a 
 thorough rascal. Cheerly, Charles : Ulack the 
 knave, such is his trust in God, bids you cheer 
 up ! Lose not the advantage of so many misfor- 
 tunes ; Ulack the pennyless prodigal, who has 
 lost all bis advantages of fortune, if he ever had 
 any, encourages you not to lose the advantage 
 of your misfortunes ! Profit by the rigour of 
 your estate : Can you do otherwise with such an 
 adviser, who has for so many years, by hook or 
 by crook, profited by the estates of others ? 
 You are deeply engulfed in wisdom, gulp it down : 
 So exhorts, so directs you this accomplished 
 tutor of kings, Ulack " the abyss of drink ;" 
 who with inky hands seizing his leathern flaggon 
 among his guzzling comrades, swills down 6 a 
 health to your improvement in wisdom!* So, 
 I say, exhorts you your Ulack, subscribing 
 moreover his name to his exhortation, which 
 Saumaise and More and your other champions 
 are either from their cowardice afraid, or from 
 their pride ashamed, to do; wise and brave 
 always, whenever you stand in need of their 
 
 * EvtyxctvTcs met ctpirw yvuftw paybox, return pit unehfyfTo, 
 (SC. tH AttKWte,} TTtpttXofA/tm & TVTiS, ' nipuS-iiKX* htf>» x.a*#$ fit- 
 
 Q^kcti. (Plutarch. Apophthegm. Lacon, $\*Q. »«. I. 93& 8m 
 Ed. Wyttenb. Oxon, 1795.) 
 
4& milton's second defence, 
 
 counsel or their protection, under the signature 
 and at the hazard of others, not their own. Let 
 then this empty babbler, whoever he is, cease 
 to brag of his vigour and spirit in coming for- 
 ward : while his man of unparallelled genius , 
 forsooth ! forbears to give his illustrious signa- 
 ture — not daring even to dedicate unto Charles 
 a book, which professes to * avenge the royal 
 blood/ except through the medium of Ulack his 
 representative ; and poorly satisfied with en- 
 treating a king, in the words of a printer, to 
 permit a nameless book to be inscribed to his 
 name I 
 
 Having now done with Charles, he makes 
 ready for his threatened attack upon me. After 
 this introduction, the famous Saumaise will 
 himself blow his terrible trumpet. You are the 
 harbinger of health, and announce a new species 
 of musical concert in preparation : for what 
 symphony more suitable to this terrible trumpet, 
 
 whenever it begins to roar, than a roaring \ 
 
 I would not, however, have Saumaise puff up his 
 cheeks too much ; for they will only, believe 
 me, more temptingly invite slaps, which will 
 harmoniously re-echo the delightful jingle of 
 vour c famous Saumaise y * on both sides. But 
 you go on to chatter : — Who has neither equal r , 
 nor second, in the whole world of science and of 
 
 * 'Famous' fortunately jingles with Saumaise, nearly as 
 well as ScivfAjua-ioc, with Salmasius in the original, and that 
 without the introduction of a foreign language. 
 
milton's second defence. 49 
 
 letters ; — gracious heaven ! And ye, insulted 
 names of scholars! that you should thus be 
 rated beneath a mere book-louse, with his hopes 
 and concerns confined within the limits of an 
 index; who would be completely distanced, 
 if compared with any men of real learning ! 
 This could surely never have been so stupidly 
 advanced, except by some miserable driveller 
 beneath the level of even Ulack himself. — And 
 who has already exerted his stupendous and infi- 
 nite erudition, in combination with a genius 
 perfectly divine, in the defence of your majesty. 
 If it be remembered (as I stated above) that 
 Saumaise himself carried this letter, written 
 either by his own or some other unacknow- 
 ledged hand, and begged the obsequious printer 
 to set his name to it, as the author himself did 
 not choose to do so ; the mean and abject 
 nature of the man thus giving currency to his 
 own praises, and courting the exaggerated 
 panegyric* of such a dull encomiast, will clearly 
 appear. — For, while many vainly abuse his 
 immortal work, it is a subject of amazement to 
 lawyers, that a Frenchman should have so readily 
 comprehended and explained the concerns, laws, 
 statutes, and other public instruments of England, 
 &c. On the other hand, from the evidence of 
 our own lawyers I have abundantly demon- 
 strated, what an ass and a parrott he is in these 
 
 * Emendicatis laudibus I See a former note, 
 t Pica, as he stiles him, in his Epigram upon Saumaise's 
 
 E 
 
SO milton's second defence. 
 
 respects. But he is now projecting a new im- 
 pression against the rebels, which will at once 
 stop the mouths of all carping grammarians, and 
 give Milton in particular the thrashing he so 
 richly deserves. You therefore, like the little 
 herald-fish,* precede the shark Saumaise, in his 
 
 awkward attempts to latinise some of our forensic terms, viz. 
 i Countie-.court,' ' Hundred/ &c. This occurs, with much of 
 the abundant demonstration here referred to, in his Pro Po- 
 pzdo Anglicano Def., viii., and is happily translated by Dr. 
 Symmons in his Life of Milton, p. 366. It implies some 
 "clippings of the Corinthian metal" to try to mend it; but his 
 candor will forgive me, though with his gold I combine Wash- 
 ington's brass in the experiment. 
 
 e Who to our English tuned Saumaise's throat, 
 And taught the pie Hundreda's foreign note ? 
 A hundred golden Jameses did the feat, 
 An outlaw'd king's last stock : he wish'd to eat^ 
 Let the false glare of gold allure his hope ; 
 And he whose stormy voice late shook the Pope, 
 And threaten'd Anti-Christ with speedy death, 
 Will sooth the Conclave with his tuneful breath.' 
 
 The imputation, however, of bribery is indignantly repelled 
 by Johnson, as what " might be expected from the savage- 
 ness of Milton" (Life of Addison); and, with a suspicious 
 degree of soreness it is true, denied by Saumaise himself in 
 his posthumous Reply, in which he affirms, that c Dr. William 
 Morley brought him nothing from the exiled Prince but a 
 letter of thanks for his exertions.' Wood too, in his e Athence 
 OxonienseSy ii. 770 (most probably, upon this authority) asserts 
 the same thing, and pronounces Milton ( an impudent liar ' for 
 having reported the contrary. 
 
 * This little pilot-fish (the Gasterosteus Ductor) is most 
 frequently found in the Mediterranean, and in the tropical 
 
milton's second defence. 51 
 
 menaced c impression ' on our shores : and we are 
 sharpening our harpoons, to drain from him 
 whatever oil or blubber he can be made to yield 
 upon the occasion ; not a little delighted, by the 
 bye, with the more-than -Pythagorean benevo- 
 lence of that great character, who in pity to the 
 brute and fish-kind (upon which even Lent 
 itself has no compassion) has provided so many 
 tomes to wrap them in, and bequeathed to so 
 many thousand of poor tunnies and pilchards a 
 paper coat a-piece. 
 
 ( Ye pilchards, and ye fish who glide 
 In winter through our northern tide, 
 Rejoice ! Saumaise, a noble knight ! 
 Pitying your cold and naked plight, 
 Prepares his stores of paper goods, 
 Kindly to make you coats and hoods— 
 Stamp'd with his name, his arms, his all ; 
 That you, his clients, on each stall 
 
 parts of the Atlantic Ocean. Catesby calls it Perca Marina 
 Secteria, or the Rudder-fish. The latter name it probably 
 obtained among sailors, from being often seen toward the stern 
 of ships. Osbec indeed, who describes it as Scomber cceruleo- 
 albus cingulis transversis nigris sex, deduces it from it's follow- 
 ing the dog-fish, to which it is supposed to point out some 
 victim. By Daubenton it is rather referred to it's attending 
 the shark, which it precedes (or rather super-cedes) by about a 
 foot and a half, closely imitating all it's movements, and dex- 
 terously seising the floating remains of it's prey. It has so 
 little confidence, however, in it's principal, that when the shark 
 turns to catch any fish, it invariably starts away. The Dutch 
 assign another motive for it's following vessels, and call it ' The 
 Dung-fish/ It may be considered as a parallel to the Wry- 
 neck among birds, and the Jackall among quadrupeds. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 milton's second defence* 
 
 May shine above your brother-fish, 
 
 Array'd in sheets, the pride or wish 
 
 Of fishmongers and dirty thieves, 
 
 Who wipe their noses on their sleeves.* * C. S. 
 
 So much then for the long-expected edition of 
 this noble volume ; of which while Saumaise 
 (as you inform us) was c projecting an impres- 
 sion,' you, More, were polluting his house by a 
 villainous compression of his maid. And Sau- 
 maise does, indeed, appear to have anxiously 
 laid himself out in the completion of this prodi- 
 gious work : for, being questioned a few days 
 before his death through some one sent on pur- 
 pose by a learned man, who himself told me 
 the story, c When he intended to give the 
 world the second part of his c Remarks on the 
 
 * Cubito mungentium was a cant appellation among the 
 Romans for fishmongers, and on that account was sarcastically 
 applied to Horace's father. (Suet. c Vit. Horat. 9 ) W. 
 
 This destination of the sheets of Saumaise's new book seems 
 a favourite figure with Milton. It recurs in the e Pro Se 
 Defensio,' and also in the ' Apology for Smectymnuus/ § 8., 
 where he speaks of " folios predestined to no better purpose, 
 than to make winding-sheets in Lent for pilchards." This may 
 help us to the intended meaning of Scombri, though not accu- 
 rately with reference to the Linnean System. See Warton's 
 note, p. 483. 
 
 The ( noble volume,' mentioned below, has an obvious 
 reference to the Salmasius eques, and the Claudii insignia, &c. 
 of the preceding epigram. Saumaise's family, however, was 
 really ancient and noble, as appears from his correspondence 
 and his biographers. 
 
 The term ' impression/ which follows, is one of the infelici- 
 ties of translation. 
 
milton's second defence. 63 
 
 Pope's Supremacy ? ' he replied, that c he 
 should not resume that publication, until he had 
 finished the c Answer to Milton,' in which he 
 was then engaged.' So that I am to be refuted, 
 even before the Pope ! and that primacy,* which 
 Saumaise refuses to him in the church, he wil- 
 lingly allows to me in his hostility ! Thus have 
 I proved the protector of His Holiness' totter- 
 ing Supremacy ; and turned aside this modern 
 Catiline, not like Tully of old in my robes, nor 
 indeed at all dreaming of the matter, but quite 
 differently occupied, from the walls of Rome. 
 Surely I have a claim upon more than one red 
 hat in return, and perhaps may have cause to 
 apprehend that the Pope will transfer to me 
 the title of our late kings, as f Defender of the 
 Faith ! ' You see then, in what an invidious 
 situation he has placed me : but be the respon- 
 sibility on him, who shamefully deserting his 
 honourable post, and intruding himself into 
 disputes with which he had no concern, has 
 passed over from the cause of the church to that 
 of a foreign state (to him totally foreign), en- 
 tered into a truce with the Pope, and disgrace- 
 fully patched up a peace with the prelacy,! 
 
 * De Primatu Payee, it will be recollected, was one of 
 Saumaise's celebrated works. 
 
 t This inconsistency was objected to him, even by his friend 
 Sarrau. Miratus sum, et proculdubib mecum erunt multi in 
 eddem sententia, ubi legi in Prcefatione * Necessarios tibi videri 
 Episcopos in regimine ecclesice Anglicance : ' tibi, inquam, qui 
 
54 
 
 with which he had previously waged a most 
 determined warfare. 
 
 in Wallone Messalino adeb acriter eos insectatus es, utforsan 
 inde arrepta sit, si non nata occasio eos penitus amovendi. (See 
 Clement's Life of Saumaise, p. xlix.; who, however, attempts 
 to repel the charge of inconsistency here alleged against his 
 hero.) Hoe sane dicent esse ra kxi^co £*tevuv potius, quam tjj 
 tcX&uu n&teSett. — — Dicetur, as he adds in a subsequent letter, 
 calidum te etfrigidum eodem ex ore efflare. This honest adviser 
 had previously pointed out to him the delicacy of the undertak- 
 ing, as coupled with his obligations to the Republic of the 
 United States : Pericidosce plenum opus alece aggrederis, De- 
 fensionem dico nuper occisi Britanniarum Regis ; maxime cum 
 Vestri ordines mediam via?n secent. Laudo tamen animi tui 
 generosum proposition, quo nefandum scelus aperte damnare 
 sustines. Hac tamen te cautione uti opus est, ne ita Majestatem 
 Regidm extollas, id erga subditos amorem videantur Mi gratis 
 largiri, Debent enim illi suis populis prcesertbn prodesse, quo- 
 rum causa constituti sunt.-r-A large concession for a Parisian 
 Senator in the midst of the seventeenth century ! — Satis sciunt 
 hoc nostro cevo Reges, quce et quanta sit sua potestas ; omnibus 
 qui illos accedunt aulicis certatim eorum auribus insusurrantibus, 
 eos uno Deo minores posse quodcunque libuerit, nee idli mortalium 
 debere administrations sues redder e rationem. Sed istius potes- 
 tatis verum, legitimum, et moderatum usum pauci eos docent, 
 duabus de causis : Prior est } quia Reges non amant cogi in ordi- 
 nem, nee volunt ullas quamvis liberas pati habenas ; altera est, 
 quia eorum qui iUos accedunt unum studium est illis placere et 
 assentariy unde jit ut in immensum eos extoliere tantum laborent. 
 Hos si effugeris scopulos, ad quos plurimi impegerunt, magnum 
 feceris operce pretium. * * 
 
 But it was not the character of Saumaise to be guided — 
 except by his wife: and he is, in consequence, frequently 
 reproached by his respectable correspondent for his fatal un- 
 tractableness. De tuo pro infelice Rege Apologetico solens 
 fads, qui fads quod libet, et amicorum consilia spernis. Quod 
 
milton's second defence. 55 
 
 "Let us now come to the charge, which he 
 brings against me. Is there any thing in my 
 
 tamen tibi proposueram, omni culpa et periculo vacabat. Con* 
 suluisses, si Mud sequutusjidsses, et famce Regies et propria 
 securitati. Videris velle irritare crabrones, et tuis inimicis occa- 
 siones prcebere in te non sine occasione insaniendi, &c. &c. 
 The offended critic remonstrated with acrimony upon such 
 plainness of speech ; and Sarrau was obliged to soften his obser- 
 vations. Scilicet non placet tibi libertas, quti soleo tecum de 
 rebus scriptisve tuis agere. Monitus cautius agam imposterum — 
 nihil est, propter quod ' durus, dirus, et non amplius amicus' 
 credar. 
 
 From the same series of Letters (Gudii et Sarravii Epistotce) 
 we learn, that in the distribution of presentation-copies of the 
 ' Defensio Regia/ the Dowager Queen complained of having 
 been neglected by Saumaise ( f Quamvis eiiim, inquiebat, ' sit 
 in re minime lauta, tamen potuisse solvere pretium tabellarii, 
 qui illud attidisset ') / and also, by implication at least, that his 
 sickness at Stockholm in 1650 was generally referred to the 
 issue of his Miltonian conflict: Mitius et cautius Jbrsan aget 
 deinceps cum suis adversariis. Ejus vehementior impetus bonis 
 €t gravibus dudiim improbatus est : sed non solet facilem se 
 prcebere amicorum monitis ; uti nee alii plurimi prcestantissimi 
 viri, qui se suaque amant, et privatis affectibus indulgent. 
 
 In Burman's Preface to the Collection, the character of this 
 Coryphaeus of literature is strongly sketched : Erat Salmasio 
 ingeniwm sublime ae pene divinum^ doctrina immensa, et memo* 
 ria, qua cuncta ab omni cevo scripta complectebatur, ultra huma- 
 nam sortem tenacissima ; sed cum paucos sibi pares duceret, ne* 
 minem verb superior em ferret, contumeliose ac acerbe de omni' 
 bus ejus cevi viris sentiret et loqueretur, et similis Pan Theocri* 
 teoj cut 
 
 Alt fyi[//US& froXol 7TQTI pV* KCt3-*)TCtt t 
 
 omnium Jamam laceraret, cum omnibus fire contentiones et lites 
 sxercebat. Hence his terrors, as he was of a suspicious and 
 
56 milton's second defence. 
 
 life or morals, upon which his censure can 
 fasten ? Certainly not. What, then, is his con- 
 duct ? That, of which no one but a barbarian 
 could have been guilty : he reproaches me 
 with my form, and my blindness. In his page, 
 I am 
 
 " Monstrum horrendum, hiforme, ingens, cui lumen ademptum" 
 A monster — horrid, hideous, huge, and blind.* 
 
 I certainly never imagined that, with respect 
 to person, there would be instituted any compe- 
 tition between me and a Cyclops. But he im- 
 mediately corrects himself: So far however is he 
 from being c huge,' that a more puny, bloodless, 
 shrivelled animal was never seen. Although it 
 be idle for a man to speak of his own form, yet 
 since even in this particular instance I have 
 cause of thankfulness to God, and the power of 
 
 credulous nature, of personal retribution ; particularly of being 
 cudgelled, or even smothered in a ditch, by his adversary Daniel 
 Heinsius. Grotius was another distinguished object of his 
 safe hostility — after his death, it seems ; as the widow of that 
 great man threatened to publish twenty four of his letters 
 addressed to her deceased husband, < ut videat orbis quantum 
 ei vivo detulerit, qui jam defunctum crudelissime lacerat. At 
 e puxupiTw conjux meus eum semper coluit ; quinetiam scepis- 
 sime in libris suis honorifice compellavit, &c. 
 
 The English reader, it is hoped, will forgive this long note ; 
 
 and not exclaim, if acquainted with French (what is observed by 
 
 Vorstius' Translator upon his hero's trop d'impetuosite) les per- 
 
 sonnages moderes n'approuvent pas ce trop. 
 
 * Virg. Mn. iii. 658., where the line is applied to Poly* 
 
 phemus. 
 
milto'n's second defence. SI 
 
 confuting the falsehoods of my adversaries, I 
 will not be silent on the subject ; lest any person 
 should deem me, as the credulous populace of 
 Spain are induced by their priests to believe 
 those whom they call heretics, to be a kind of 
 rhinoceros, or a monster with a dog's head. 
 By any one indeed, who has seen me, I have 
 never to the best of my knowledge been consi- 
 dered as deformed : whether as handsome, or 
 not, is less an object of my concern.* My sta- 
 
 * And yet, if we might trust the representations of his adver- 
 sary, in his posthumous Reply, this was to his feeling" no indiffer- 
 ent matter. Next to the barbarous sneers upon Milton's blind- 
 ness, which abound in almost every page (such as, Bellua quce 
 nihil hominis sibi reliqui fecit, prceter lippientes oculos ; — Malo 
 isto magnam partem tuce pulcritudinis deperiisse, pro eo ac 
 debeo doleo ; — talpd ccecior, &c.) stand those ironical observations 
 on his size and beauty — Staturd pumilionem, malitid gigan- 
 tem ;—formosus pasio ;—formce decore, quam semper plurimum 
 venditdsti, fyc. particularly as estimated by his Italian friends: 
 Quid Itali nunc dicerent, si te viderent cum istdjwdd lippi- 
 tudine ? — quern olim pro Jcemind habuerunt ; — culcita ; — mol- 
 iicellus et bellulus catamitus, &c. In the next paragraph, 
 upon his stature, Milton perhaps remembered Aristotle's cl 
 fjjMyot d'as-uoi m/a (rt/^t/^sTpoj, Kcttot £■' a. HS-. iv. 7« In this 
 discreditable contest of scurrility, in which it must be owned 
 the invectives of both parties are equally reprehensible for 
 their coarseness, it could hardly be expected that Manso's 
 punning distich (comparing Milton in c form, face, mien, 
 mind, and manners' to an angel), or Milton's own tetras- 
 tic on the <Pocv\is JW/t^/z/jj/aec £aypx<px — the comptula imago, 
 as Saumaise calls it — prefixed to an edition of his Poems, 
 should escape notice. Accordingly the Itali poetastri, and 
 the "retorted name of Salmacis upon one, qui quod est Jemi- 
 narum sibi arrogat, et de solo Jbrmce bono gloriatur ; qui 
 
58 milton's second defence. 
 
 ture, I own, is not tall, but it approaches nearer 
 to the middle size, than to the low. Were it 
 however even low, I should in this respect only 
 resemble many, who have eminently distin- 
 guished themselves both in peace and in war.* 
 Why indeed should that be called low, which is 
 sufficiently lofty for all the purposes of human 
 exertion ? Neither am I to be pronounced very 
 c puny ; ' having so much spirit and strength, 
 that when my age and the habits of my life 
 permitted, I daily accustomed myself to the 
 exercise of the sword t in fencing ; and ac- 
 
 etiam sculptori suo versibus editis in mdgus maledixit, quod se 
 minus Jbrmosum quam revera se esse putaret pinxerit, are intro- 
 duced in the e Responsio ' of Saumaise. In the University, 
 Johnson tells us, he was called " The Lady of his College." 
 See a fine portrait of him by the pen of Dr. Symmons, p. 
 573, &c. 
 
 * " Alexander the Great, there is reason to believe, was 
 scarcely larger than Buonaparte. Attila was very little ; and 
 this was the more remarkable, since his followers were in gene- 
 ral a tall and athletic race, and people were only esteemed 
 
 according to their bodily powers/' " Julius Caesar, Mark 
 
 Antony, Henry IV. of France, Louis XIV., Marechal Tu- 
 renne, with many more who might be named, are all recorded 
 as being below what is esteemed the middle stature for a man ; 
 and the same has been the case with almost all the French 
 Generals, who have been celebrated since the commencement 
 of the Revolution." (Plumptre's * Residence in France/ I. 112.) 
 
 f This Dr. Johnson supposes, was " not the rapier, but the 
 back-sword, of which he recommends the use in his book on 
 Education :" but, as it was e the weapon with which he was 
 generally armed,' Dr. Symmons much more probably thinks it 
 was the small sword. (Life, p. 574«.) 
 
milton's second defence. 5 9 
 
 counted myself, armed with that weapon (as I 
 generally was) secure in the assault of any man, 
 hand to hand, how superior soever he might be 
 in muscular power. The spirit and the strength 
 remain, still unimpaired; my eyes alone have 
 failed: and yet they are as unblemished in 
 appearance, as lucid and as free from spot, as 
 those which possess the sharpest vision.* In 
 this instance alone am I, most reluctantly, a 
 deceiver. My c bloodless ' form, as he calls it, 
 
 •Clear, 
 
 To outward view, of blemish or of spot. (Sonn. xxii.) 
 
 This is the characteristic of the Amaurosis, or Gutta Serena, 
 which Milton pathetically deplores, P. L.iii. 25, &c. 
 
 * So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs. 
 Or dim suffusion veil'd ' &c. 
 
 where he subjoins, as here, in self-consolation, 
 
 * Blind Tamyris, and blind Masonides, 
 
 And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old,' &c. 
 
 Of which last line it may be observed, that the passage below, 
 introducing Tiresias along with other celebrated * bards of re- 
 mote antiquity/ proves the authenticity (notwithstanding Dr, 
 Bentley's objection) still better, perhaps, than the Dircceus augur 
 Pe Id. Plat. 26. referred to by Warton, in his note on Eleg, 
 vi. 67. It would sound more harmoniously however, to a 
 modern ear, if the two names were to change places. 
 
 Upon the Gutta Serena occur some very interesting remarks, 
 in Ware's late republication of his f Observations on the Eye.' 
 ** To call Thevenot the c Ware of the seventeenth century and of 
 France,' would be to pay the former a high compliment (C. S. 
 Life, 375.) ; for, of twelve cases, recorded in his third volume, 
 four were cured by electricity, four chiefly by a mercurial snuff, 
 and four relieved by other remedies ! 
 
60 milton's second defencEc 
 
 retains at the age of more than forty a colour 
 the very reverse of bloodless and pale, induc- 
 ing almost every one to consider me as ten 
 years younger than I really am : neither is my 
 skin c shrivelled,' nor my body in any way con- 
 tracted. If in any of these circumstances I 
 speak not the truth, I should justly incur the 
 ridicule of thousands of my own countrymen, 
 as well as a number of foreigners, who are 
 acquainted with my person. It may fairly then 
 be concluded, what little credit in other 
 respects is due to one, who has thus unnecessa- 
 rily in this particular been guilty of a gross and 
 wanton falsehood. So much have I been com- 
 pelled to state about my own person : of yours, 
 though I have been informed that it is the most 
 contemptible, and the most strongly expressive 
 of the dishonesty and malevolence by which it is 
 actuated, I am as little disposed to speak as 
 others would be to hear. 
 
 Would it were in my power with the same 
 facility to refute the charge, which my unfeel- 
 ing adversary brings against me, of blindness ! 
 Alas ! it is not, and I must therefore submit to 
 it. It is not, however, miserable to be blind. 
 He only is miserable, who cannot bear his 
 Blindness with fortitude : and why should I not 
 bear a calamity, which every man's mind should 
 be disciplined, on the contingency of it's hap- 
 pening, to bear with patience ; a calamity, to 
 the contingency of which every man, by the 
 
milton's second defence. 61 
 
 condition of his nature, is exposed ; and which 
 I know to have been the lot of some of the 
 greatest and the best of my species ? Among 
 those I might reckon many of the wisest of the 
 bards of remote antiquity, whose loss of sight 
 the Gods are said to have compensated with far 
 more valuable endowments ; and whose virtues 
 mankind held in such veneration, as rather to 
 choose to arraign heaven itself of injustice, 
 than to deem their blindness as proof of their 
 having deserved it. What is handed down to 
 us respecting the augur Tiresias, is generally 
 known. Of Phineus, Apollonius in his Argo- 
 nautics thus sung : 
 
 V^ 9 OCTCOV 07Ti£lTO XOU AfOg CtVTiS 
 
 Xpstwv urpixsuc, Upov voov a,v^pu7ro:(n' 
 
 To) KXi Ot yj$p#S [A£V t7Ti ^i}VX(eV IxXXtV^ 
 
 Ex J* iter* c<p$aXiAav yhvKipov tfoioq.'* 
 
 Careless of Jove, in conscious virtue bold, 
 
 His daring lips heaven's sacred mind unfold. 
 
 The God hence gave him years without decay, 
 
 But robb'd his eye-balls of the pleasing day. C. S. 
 
 Now God himself is truth: the more con- 
 scientiously, then, any one " unfolds the sacred 
 mind of heaven," the Jiker and the more accept- 
 able must he be to God. To suppose the Deity 
 averse from the communication of truth to his 
 creatures, or to suppose him unwilling that it 
 should be communicated in the most extensive 
 
 • II. 181. 
 
62 MILTON *S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 degree, is perfectly impious. It implied there- 
 fore no guilt in this excellent character, who 
 anxiously sought like many other philosophers 
 to impart instruction to mankind, to havQ lost 
 his sight. I might farther mention other names,* 
 
 * Of this illustrious list, Timoleon (says Plutarch, in his 
 Life) y&i 7rtwrQvTipo$ m UTmpZ'AwSvi tjjv e^, tirec nteu$ mypa&i) 
 
 [Aitf ofayOV. Hrt &VTO$ iCCVTtf TTpoCPctCrtV 7rxpCt,(T%UV 7 UTi 5T#pOt!>S}9-«<5 V7T0 
 
 tyjc, ruffle, U.XX& «rfyy£f<x»5 nvo$ (&>$ soix.ii>} patiols xcci ku.to'Jqo\y& kfi/ec 
 T»xpovu o-wttiB spurn. Appius Claudius, qui propter invalitu- 
 dinem oculorum jamdiu consiliis publicis se abstinuerat, venit in 
 curiam, et sententid sua tenuit, ut id Pyrrho negaretur — sc. in 
 urbem recipi (Liv. Suppl. Epit. xiii.) Metellus is, also, men* 
 tioned ib. xix. 
 
 To these ancient instances might have been added from 
 Cicero, Tusc. Disp. v. 38., where the privations of blindness 
 are discussed, the names of Antipater of Cyrene, and C. Drusus. 
 
 Of the modern part of the catalogue, Zisca (so called from 
 the loss of an eye) was chosen leader to the Hussites, and in the 
 prosecution of their quarrel with the emperor Sigismimd lost the 
 other at Rabi. He died A. D. 14)04 ; and his skin, such was 
 the terror of his name, was converted into a drum. Zanchius, 
 or Zanchy, a voluminous writer of great piety and learning 
 among the Reformers, died at Heidelberg (where he had been 
 appointed Professor of Divinity) A. D. 1590. But I may be 
 told, by some modern Johnson, that " I am chasing a school- 
 boy to his common-places." 
 
 I will add however to the number, upon their own respective 
 authorities, Ossian and Dr. Lucas, author of the excellent 
 Essay on c Happiness/ The former, in the midst of his sublime 
 apostrophe to the Sun (at the end of his « Carthon ') says ; 
 ts But to Ossian thou lookest in vain, for he beholds thy beams 
 no more; whether thy yellow hair flows on the eastern clouds, 
 or thou tremblest at the gates of the west." See P. L. iii. 41. 
 " But not to me returns " &c. quoted in a following note. 
 And the latter : " Should I struggle to rescue myself from that 
 
63 
 
 illustrious for their civil wisdom and heroic 
 exploits ; Timoleon of Corinth, the rescuer of 
 Ms own state and of all Sicily from oppression, 
 one of the best, and — in every thing relative to 
 the republic — the purest of men : Appius Clau- 
 dius, whose patriotic speech in the senate, 
 though it could not restore his own sight, 
 relieved Italy from her great enemy, Pyrrhus ; 
 Caecilius Metellus the High Priest, who lost his 
 eyes in preserving not only Rome, but the 
 Palladium also to which her fate was attached 
 
 contempt, to which this condition (wherein I may seem lost 
 to the world, and myself) exposes me ; should I ambitiously 
 affect to have my name march in the train of those all (though 
 not all equally) great ones — Homer, Appius, Cn. Aufidius, 
 Didymus, Walkup, P. Jean l'Aveugle, &c. all of them eminent 
 for their service and usefulness, as for their affliction of the 
 same kind as mine ; even this might seem almost a commenda- 
 ble infirmity," &c. (Pre£) He afterward, in the very spirit of 
 Milton, affirms; " The soul can gaze on those charms and 
 glories, winch are not subject to the bodily eye, the vultus. 
 nimium lubricos aspici $ " pronounces her " happy in her own,- 
 strength and wealth, ipsa suis pollens opihus ; " and represents 
 her as " going out, like Dinah, to see the daughters of the 
 land." (Gen. xxxiv. 1.) 
 
 To the above list may, also, be subjoined the celebrated Irish 
 bard Carolan, whose elegant little Composition on the influ- 
 ence of beauty is preserved in Miss Brookes' ' Reliques of 
 English Poetry.' It concludes thus : 
 
 — f E'en he, whose hapless eyes no ray 
 Admit from Beauty's cheering day, 
 Yet though he cannot see the light, 
 He feels it warm and knows it bright/ 
 
.64 milton's second defence. 
 
 and her most sacred vessels from the flames; 
 since the Deity has upon so many occasions 
 evinced his regard for bright examples even t>f 
 heathen piety, that what happened to such a 
 man so employed can hardly be accounted an 
 evil. Why need I adduce the modern instances 
 of Dandolo, the celebrated Doge of V T enice or 
 the brave Bohemian General Zisca, the great 
 defender of Christianity, of Jerome Zanchius, 
 and other eminent divines; when it appears 
 that even the patriarch Isaac,* than whom 
 no one was ever more beloved by his Maker, 
 lived for some years blind, as did also his son 
 Jacob,! an equal favourite with heaven; and 
 when our Saviour himself explicitly affirmed, 
 with regard to the man whom he healed, t that 
 neither on account of his own sin, nor that of 
 his parents, had he been Cf blind from his birth ?." 
 In respect to myself — I call thee, O God, to 
 witness, who " triest the very heart and the 
 reins," that after a frequent and most serious ex- 
 amination and scrutiny of every corner of my 
 life, I am not conscious of any recent or remote 
 crime, which by it's atrocity can have drawn 
 down this calamity exclusively upon my head. 
 As to what I have at any time written (for, in re- 
 ference to this, the royalists triumphantly deem 
 my blindness a sort of judgement) I declare, 
 with the same solemn appeal to the Almighty, 
 
 * Gen, xxvii. 1. + Gen. xlviii. 10. X Jolmix, 3. 
 
65 
 
 that I never wrote any thing of the kind alluded 
 to, which I did not at the time, and do not now, 
 firmly believe to have been right and true and 
 acceptable to God : and that, impelled not by 
 ambition, or the thirst of gain or of glory, but 
 simply by duty and honour and patriotism ;* 
 nor with a view singly to the emancipation of 
 the State, but still more particularly to that of 
 the Church. So that when the office of replying 
 to c The Royal Defence ' was publicly assigned 
 to me, though I had to struggle with ill health, 
 and having already lost nearly one of my eyes 
 was expressly fore-warned by my physicians that, 
 if I undertook the laborious work in question, 
 I should soon be deprived of both ; undeterred 
 by the warning, I seemed to hear the voice — 
 not of a physician, or from the shrine of ^Escu- 
 lapius at Epidaurus,t but of an internal and 
 more divine monitor : and conceiving that by 
 some decree of the fates the alternative of two 
 lots was proposed to me, either to lose my 
 
 * The honesty of this avowal is strongly attested by the 
 story, which the elder Richardson relates (and Johnson, for the 
 pleasure of rejecting it, repeats) of his having refused the offer 
 of his old department, of Latin Secretary, from Charles II. 
 after the Restoration. 
 
 Why Milton, in 1673, should be unwilling to own his con- 
 nexion in 1634 with the Bridgewater family, conspicuous as 
 it was for it's unshaken loyalty, and at that time in high 
 fevour at court, Warton ought to have explained (ib. 117. not. §). 
 
 t Epidaurus was a town of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, where 
 the heathen God of Medicine was chiefly worshipped. 
 
 E 
 
06 milton's second defence. 
 
 sight or to desert a high duty, I remembered 
 the twin destinies, which the son of Thetis 
 informs us his mother brought back to him from 
 the oracle of Delphi : 
 
 A<^9-«JWs Y~r,px$ tpzpf/Aiv B-etvccloio TiXo^f 
 E» (&£» ic r ccvB-l fjtjivuv Tpaav ttoXiv ccp^ipcc^uihai^ 
 
 Ei h xiv 6ncct£ r UoifAi <piXi)t s$ x-ccrpi^x ycttxvy 
 £LXiTo f&oi xXios t(r^^ov t itti eypov oi pot caav 
 E|r«rsT«t.* 
 
 f As the Goddess spake, who gave me birth, 
 Two fates attend me whilst I live on earth. 
 If fix' gL I combat by the Trojan wall, 
 Deathless my fame, but certain is my fall : 
 If I return, beneath my native sky 
 My days shall nourish long, my glory die/ C. S, 
 
 Reflecting therefore with myself that many 
 had purchased less good with greater evil, and 
 had even paid life as the price of glory, while 
 to me the greater good was offered at the 
 expense of the less evil, and an opportunity 
 furnished, simply by incurring blindness, of 
 satisfying the demand of the most honourable 
 duty — a result more substantial, and therefore 
 what ought to be by every one considered as 
 more satisfactory and more eligible, than glory 
 itself — I determined to dedicate the brief en- 
 joyment of my eye-sight,t so long as it might 
 
 * Horn. II. ix. 411, &c. 
 
 f If poets, like painters, were not a privileged class — to the* 
 extent of quidlibet audendi — this passage would justify some 
 rigorous criticism upon the beautiful stanza relative to Milton t 
 
milton's second defence. 67 
 
 be spared me, with as much effect as I could 
 to the public service. You see then what I 
 
 in Gray's ' Ode on the Progress of Poesy,' as to the cause of 
 his loss of sight. Some, indeed, it has already incurred : See 
 a note on the passage, in Mason's Edition, 12mo. I. pp. 114 — 
 117- Count Algarotti might truly say, Non puo essere piu 
 poetica la ragione, ch'egli (sc. Gray) fabrica delta cecita del 
 MUtono; il quale, ' oltrepassati ijiammante confine dello spazio 
 e del tempo, ebbe ardire dijissare lo sguardo cola dove gli A?igioli 
 stessi paventano di rimirare, e gli occhi suoi qffuocati in quel 
 pelago di luce si chiusero tosto in una notte sempiterna : ' for 
 poetry delights in fiction. But it is generally known, that 
 he suffered the loss of his eyes in a less brilliant, though in 
 his own apprehension most dignified, pursuit. He himself 
 informs us, 
 
 He lost them, overplied 
 
 In liberty's defence, his noble task, 
 
 Of which all Europe talks from side to side. (Sonn. xxii.) 
 
 And this early i» 1652, as Dr. S. accurately concludes, most 
 probably soon after the publication of his^answer to Saumaise 
 (p. 400). That Johnson, in his Life of Milton, should not 
 have noticed this prominent fact, is extraordinary ; and, with his 
 peculiar hostility, almost proves that he envied him the glory of 
 so painful a surrender to public duty. In his biography of 
 Gray, written also with a most unfriendly hand, he states it 
 as ' { a supposition surely allowable, that Milton's blindness was 
 caused by study in the formation of his poem ! " and even 
 permits himself to pay the lyrist a compliment on the stanza 
 above alluded to, as ' c poetically true, and happily imagined ! " 
 But it was " to the employment of writing elaborate though 
 perishable dissertations, Warton informs us (Pref. to Min. 
 Poem. p. xiii.) in defence of innovation and anarchy, that he 
 sacrificed his eyes, his health, his repose, his native propensities, 
 his elegant studies. Smit with the deplorable polemics of puri- 
 tanism, he suddenly ceased to gaze on such sights as youthful 
 
 F 2 
 
68 milton's second defence. 
 
 preferred, what I sacrificed, and what were my 
 motives. Let these slanderers of the divine 
 judgements, therefore, desist from their calum- 
 nies, nor any longer make me the subject of their 
 visionary fantasies : let them learn, in fine, that 
 I neither regret my lot, nor repent my choice ; 
 that my opinions continue inflexibly the same, 
 and that I neither feel nor fear for them the 
 anger of God, but on the contrary experience 
 and acknowledge in the most momentous events 
 of my life his mercy and paternal kindness — in 
 nothing more particularly, however, than in his 
 having soothed and strengthened me into an 
 acquiescence in his divine will ; led me to 
 reflect rather upon what he has bestowed, than 
 what he has withheld ; and determined me to 
 prefer the consciousness of my own achievements 
 to the best deeds of my adversaries, and con- 
 
 poets dream : M not, however, as he subjoins, " without some- 
 times heaving a sigh for the peaceable enjoyments of lettered 
 solitude, for his congenial pursuits, and the more mild and 
 ingenuous exercises of the Muse" (xiv.) ; though he, still, 
 obstinately persisted in what he thought his duty, (xv.) Well 
 might the annotator, under this latter conviction, transcribe 
 with abhorrence (p. S5S) his quotation from the * Decretum 
 Oxoniense* (Mus. Anglic, ii. 180. Ed. 1714) consigning 
 Milton, as 
 
 ccelo terrisque ihamabile nomen, 
 
 to the flames, in which part of his writings were consumed, 
 July 21, 1683 ! Why does he not always treat his author with 
 the tenderness, which such a conviction should have inspired? 
 
milton's second defence. 69 
 
 stantly to cherish the cheering and silent 
 remembrance of them in my breast : finally, in 
 respect of blindness, to think my own (if it must 
 be borne) more tolerable than either theirs, 
 More, or yours. Yours, affecting the inmost 
 optics of the mind, prevents the perception of 
 any thing sound or solid : mine, which you so 
 much abuse, only * deprives me of the hue and 
 
 * And yet how beautifully does he deplore this privation, in 
 the sequel of the passage above-quoted ! 
 
 f Thus, with the year, 
 
 Seasons return ; but not to me returns 
 Day, or the sweet approach of eve or morn, 
 Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose, 
 Or flocks or herds or human face divine ; 
 But cloud instead and ever-during dark 
 Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men 
 Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair 
 Presented with a universal blank 
 Of nature's works — tome expunged and rased, 
 And wisdom at one entranee quite shut out ! ' 
 
 He then pursues a train of thought, similar to what follows 
 in the text : 
 
 f So much the rather thou, Celestial Light, 
 Shine inward/ &c. (P. L. iii. 40, &c.) 
 
 In the former part, he almost seems to address himself in the 
 Sophoclean line, 
 
 His necessities toward the close of his life, it is to be feared, 
 gave him an opportunity of proving the inefficacy of the ChaU 
 dean e|"^p>«*s <px^ecKov t barley-bread. (Lucian. M«kp«£.) 
 
70 MILTON 5 S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 surface of things, and leaves to my intellectual 
 view whatever they contain of substance and 
 real value. How many things, in fact, are there, 
 which I should not wish to see ; * how many, 
 that I should wish to see in vain ; and how few, 
 consequently, would remain for my actual 
 enjoyment ! Wretched therefore as you may 
 think it, I feel it no source of anguish to be 
 associated with the blind, the afflicted, the 
 infirm, and the mourners; since I may thus hope, 
 that I am more immediately under the favour 
 and protection of my dread Father. The way 
 to the greatest strength, an Apostle has assured 
 us, lies through weakness :t let me then be of all 
 men the weakest, provided that immortal and 
 better vigour exert itself with an efficacy 
 proportioned to my infirmity, provided the 
 light of God's countenance shine with intense 
 brilliance upon my darkness. Then shall I at 
 once be most feeble and most mighty, com- 
 pletely blind and thoroughly sharp-sighted. 
 O may this weakness insure my consummation, 
 my perfection ; and my illumination arise out 
 of this obscurity ! In truth, we blind men are 
 not the lowest objects of the care of Provi- 
 dence, who deigns to look upon us with the 
 
 * Some lines of his friend Ell wood are preserved., in which he 
 prays; 
 
 c O that mine eyes might closed be. 
 To what becomes me not to see ! * 
 
 f 2 Cor. xii. 9. 
 
milton's second defence. 71 
 
 greater affection and benignity, as we are inca- 
 pable of looking upon any thing but himself. 
 Woe to those that mock or hurt us, protected 
 as we are, and almost consecrated from human 
 injuries, by the ordinances and favour of the 
 Deity ; and involved in darkness, not so much 
 from the imperfection of our optic powers, as 
 from the shadow of the Creator's wings — a 
 darkness, which he frequently irradiates with 
 an inner and far superior light ! To this I refer 
 the increased kindness, attentions, and visits 
 of my friends ; * and that there are some, with 
 whom I can exchange those accents of real 
 friendship : 
 
 Orest. c Lead on, my foot's sure helm ! ' 
 
 Pyl. ' To me dear trust V 
 
 And again : — — A Jj* ^s<p" C^ try <piXa> j 
 
 * Reach out your hand to friendship's fond fast grasp/ 
 
 And, Aihfyye-w yjaf % o$yyn<ra b'iyv.% 
 
 { Cling close to me, and I will be your guide.' 
 
 Thus was I not regarded as annihilated by 
 
 * He does not here include his daughters, who (as Dr. Sym- 
 mons, on the authority of Christopher Milton's Respons. ad 
 Interrogatoricty Warton's Append, to Pref. p. xxxiii., assures 
 us) " with peculiar inhumanity neglected him in his blindness, 
 and were capable even of defrauding and robbing him ! ! " But, 
 though his reading would forcibly suggest to him a painful 
 contrast in CEdipus' Antigone, he t( complained of them with- 
 out passion, and never treated them with harshness." (P. 582.) 
 
 f Eurip. Orest. 785. Ed. Pors. ~ % Id. Here. Fur. 
 
72 milton's second defence. 
 
 this calamity, or considered as having all my 
 worth and excellence confined to my eyes. 
 Nay, our principal public characters, knowing 
 that my sight had forsaken me, not in a state 
 of torpid inactivity, but while I was strenuously 
 encountering every peril among the foremost in 
 behalf of liberty, do not themselves forsake me: 
 on the contrary, from a view of the uncertainty 
 of all human things, they are kind to me on 
 account of my past services, and obligingly 
 indulge me with an exemption from farther 
 labours; not stripping me of my honours, not 
 taking away my appointment, not curtailing it's 
 emoluments ; but humanely continuing them 
 to me, in my state of reduced utility, with 
 precisely the same compliment as the Athenians 
 formerly paid to those, to whom they assigned 
 a subsistence in the Prytaneum.* Thus con- 
 soled for my calamity both by God and man, I 
 entreat that no one would lament my loss of 
 sight, incurred in a cause so honourable. Far 
 too be it from me to lament it myself, or to 
 want the spirit readily to despise those who 
 revile me for it, or rather the indulgence still 
 more readily to forgive them. 
 
 But I now turn to you, whoever you are, that 
 with so much inconsistency represent me at one 
 
 * This SiT)jo-*5 s» TIfVTeiviiu was an entertainment allowed, in 
 the common hall called Prytaneum, to such as '. had deserved 
 well of the commonwealth;' qui honos, says Cic. de Orat.i. 
 54, apud Grcecos maximus habetur. 
 
milton's second defence. 73 
 
 time as a dwarf, at another as a giant ; and 
 wish, as you say in conclusion, no higher advan- 
 tage to the United Provinces of Belgium, than 
 that they may with as much ease and success 
 despatch the war in which they are at present 
 engaged, as Saumaise will despatch Milton. To 
 this wish I most readily yield my assent, and 
 think it neither a bad omen, nor a bad prayer 
 for England's welfare. 
 
 But hark ! another < cry,' foreign and stridu- 
 lus i It must be a flight of geese from some 
 side or other. O now I see, what it is. This, 
 I remember, is the tragedy of Cry. " Enter 
 Chorus, consisting of two Verse-mongers;'* 
 two, or one of double form and hue ! Shall I call 
 it a sphinx, or the poetical monster of Horace, 
 with a woman's head, an ass' neck, and a 
 motley collection of limbs and plumage from all 
 quarters? The very thing. Some itinerant 
 ballad-singer, hung round with rags and 
 patches ; but whether single or a pair is doubt- 
 ful, for this thing too is anonymous. Poets, 
 properly so called, have my love and reverence, 
 and their compositions are my constant delight : 
 Most of them indeed, I know, from the very 
 earliest down to our own Buchanan, are deci- 
 dedly hostile to tyrants. But mere hucksters 
 in rhyme who does not justly abhor, as a tribe 
 of fools and coxcombs and knaves and liars! 
 They deal out praise and censure without 
 selection, discrimination, judgement, or limit j 
 
74 milton's second defence. 
 
 to princes and peasants, learned and unlearned, 
 good and bad exactly alike : ' rapt and inspired' 
 by a pot of beer, the chink of a few guineas, or 
 a stupid phrensy of composition — with such an 
 incongruous and putid combination of words 
 and things, that the subjects of their panegyric 
 would far better be passed over in silence and 
 obscurity ; and those, whom they abuse, deem 
 it no inconsiderable honour, to be out of favour 
 with such a dull and heavy set of blockheads. 
 
 The first of these in question, if there be 
 indeed a pair, I don't know whether to call a 
 poet or a plasterer ; he so bedaubs Saumaise, 
 nay, whitens and stuccoes him over exactly like 
 a wall. He introduces him in a triumphal car, 
 a perfect Jack the Giant-Killer, with his darts 
 and mufflers and other gossamery arms, and a 
 whole host of scholars in his train — but at an 
 aweful distance, to be sure, from the great 
 man, 
 
 by Providence ordain d 
 
 To snatch from ruin's gripe a trembling tvorld ; 
 Father qflavo and empire, and of kings 
 The long-sought shield ! * 
 
 Saumaise must have been an absolute madman 
 and dotard, to have found so much gratification 
 in these praises, and so anxiously to have 
 forwarded their publication : and mean and 
 inattentive to decorum must that poet be, who 
 
 * I have given a metrical version to these Alcaic disjecti 
 membra poetastri 9 to mark the character of the passage quoted. 
 
milton's second defence. 75 
 
 could lavish such immoderate panegyric upon a 
 mere grammarian,* one of a description of 
 men always considered as ministerial and sub- 
 ordinate to his own. 
 
 The second does not rhyme, but actually 
 rave, and that more furiously than the veriest 
 ranter among the enthusiasts, against whom he 
 so madly inveighs; calls for the beadle and 
 hangman, though himself a low-born upstart, 
 -as if he were Saumaise's Jack Ketch ;t and 
 
 * The term grammaticus, which occurs in the * Pro Populo 
 Afiglicano Defensio, 9 and is repeated more than once in the 
 subsequent pages of this composition, pressed sorely on the in- 
 solent Saumaise, if we may judge from the pains with which 
 he repelled it's application, in the pages of his posthumous 
 Reply : Cerit meritb negat, &c. 
 
 T Milton, in passages of this description, has been accused of 
 excessive — not to say, scurrilous severity, and perhaps it is not 
 quite a satisfactory defence to allege, that it was only par pari. 
 But even Milton could not read with calm and philosophical in- 
 difference the doubt expressed about him by his foul-mouthed 
 adversary — homone, an vermis heri e sterquilinio editus ; the 
 ignobile tutim ; the Tartareus Jurcifer, teterrimus carnifex, 
 &c. &c. ; imputations, which those who alleged them knew 
 presumptively at the time to be untrue. Isaac Vossius, who 
 was nephew to Junius of Anglo-Saxon memory, and honoured 
 a stall in the Cathedral which Du Moulin disgraced, could 
 have told them (as he told Heinsius, on his uncle's authority, 
 vin a Letter dated 1651) that Milton was wow quidem nobili, sed 
 iamen generosd at ipsi loquuntur ortus stirpe — comis, affabilis, 
 muliisque aliis prceditus virtutibus. I cannot prevail upon 
 myself to withhold the observations of the same writer upon 
 the event, which gave Saumaise a momentary glow of tri- 
 
76 milton's second defence. 
 
 then reeling with hellebore vomits a whole ca- 
 taract of scurrility, derived from the mouths of 
 slaves and pimps (out of the Index to Plautus) 
 in wretched dog-latin, and with a tone like the 
 croaking of one of the frogs of his own Stygian 
 pool. As a proof of his skill in Iambics, take 
 a single word with two errors in it, one syllable 
 being lengthened and one shortened impro- 
 perly : 
 
 Hi trucidato rege per horrendum nejas ! 
 € They their liege sovereign, dreadful crime ! slaughter'd/ 
 
 Away, ass, with your panniers of vac'wities ; 
 and give us, if you can, three words of sound 
 and sober composition — if, indeed, that pump- 
 kin and dolt-head of yours has ever a lucid 
 interval of a single moment : till then I resign 
 you, as another Orbilius, to be well thrashed at 
 your own boys' whipping-harvest. Do you, in 
 
 umph amidst all his mortifications, the burning of his anta- 
 gonist's book by the public executioner at Paris. " Hoc scio 
 Jatum esse bonorum fere librorum, ut hoc modo vel pereant \>el 
 periclitentur. Homines, plerumque, propter scelera et pravita- 
 ievt manus carnificum subeunt ; libri verb, virtutis et prcestanticz 
 ergo. Soli fatuorum labores tales non metuunt casus. Sed sane 
 Jrustra sunt, qui se hoc modo extirpare posse existimant Miltoni 
 et aliorum scripta, cum potius Jlammis istis mirum quantum 
 clarescant et illustrentur. (Burm. Syll. iii. 621.) 
 
 Scilicet illo igne &c. remarks Tacitus with virtuous indigna- 
 tion, in the Introduction to his Life of Agricola, of the times 
 of Domitian. 
 
milton's second defence. 77 
 
 the mean while, still continue your invectives 
 against me ! Still affirm, that I am worse even 
 than Cromxvell ; the greatest compliment, in 
 fact, which you can pay me ! Shall I in return 
 pronounce you a friend, a fool, or an insidious 
 foe ? c A friend' you certainly are not, for your 
 language indicates hostility. Why, then, are you 
 such 6 a fool' in your censures, as to think of 
 setting me above so illustrious a personage as 
 Cromwell ? Don't you know, or do you think I 
 don't know, that the more virulently you ex- 
 press your hatred to me, the higher in reality 
 you raise my merits toward the commonwealth 
 of England ; and that every sarcasm you utter 
 against me, is a recommendation of me to my 
 own party ? Your hating me above all others 
 only proves that I, above all others, have tor- 
 tured and annoyed and harassed you, and there- 
 fore deserved proportionately well of my fellow- 
 citizens : for the evidence and judgement of an 
 adversary, however little to be depended upon 
 in other respects, is one of the best we can have 
 with regard to his own suffering. Can you, a 
 poet too! have forgotten that Nestor recom- 
 mended Ajax and Ulysses, when they disputed 
 the arms of Achilles after his death, to refer the 
 decision not to their Grecian friends, but to 
 their Trojan foes ? 
 
 Tttvix.ct Tfwtnv i<p*>iAiv t'Ofyoirt rip>^t bxatrctt. 
 4 Let theii some Trojans sage the strife decide :* 
 
78 milton's second defence. 
 
 and, a few lines below : 
 
 'Of get JtxjjK iB-ttxv tni <rQi<ri ttoiwovtou' 
 
 Ou TIH VifU. $jp0VT£5, «T£* /JUC&A& 7TCiVTetq Aftf/AftS 
 
 I<rw MTrsftS-ettpiiri, Kctx.v& [ASfAvti [*tvoi ecrta.* 
 ***** 
 * Impartial these the doubtful cause will try ; 
 For, deeply mindful of their Ilium's fate, 
 With equal spleen each Grecian chief they hate/ 
 
 Thus sings the bard of Smyrna, or Calabria* 
 You must, therefore, be an insidious foe ; and 
 seek to involve me in odium, by thus maliciously 
 perverting and vitiating even the honest and 
 correct judgement of an adversary, for the sake 
 of inflicting upon me a deeper injury : so that 
 both as a man, and as an enemy, you are most 
 depraved. But I shall easily disappoint you, 
 my good sir: for though I should anxiously 
 wish to be an Ulysses, that is, to have deserved 
 eminently well of my country, yet I have no 
 ambition for the arms of Achilles ; no wish to 
 
 * And by their decision the arms were adjudged, according to 
 Horn. Odyss. xi. 546. 
 
 upon which passage the Scholiast remarks, <bv\<x.TTopv>o(, 6 Ayu- 
 Utiwui to h\ott San^u fcctpio-cto-S-cti rat vrtpi rat A%iAteai$ tnrXcn 
 Mfjtt<purQnTWreiiv t xixyaotXuTiSq ra>v T^wuv »ya.ym 3 vpwTii<rtv vrre crtrtpx 
 uvtm oi Teasg [accaaov iAvnvfrn<roi.v ; E»;re>vT«yv o\. ' l rov Ofba-et*' rut 
 ui%U/et?iUT6>v 9 cJajAet^ij tKttvo* tivxi rov upi<?ov ttfu>otvTti r toi srtetfw 
 AVTFnirxvTec rv$ *%$?%$> ^<>"* v wd-vq Tat OJWtr« Tit ottaoi. This wa& 
 a much less invidious mode of determining the dispute, than 
 that assigned by Ovid, in his Consedere duces, &c. 
 
milton's second defence. 79 
 
 bear the ideal heaven portrayed on the shield, 
 for others not myself to view in the combat, to 
 take the real not ideal burthen on my shoulders, 
 for myself not others to feel it's weight. 
 Having no resentment or private quarrel with 
 any man, and (as far as I know) no one having 
 any quarrel with me, I am the less disposed to 
 repine at the scurrilities and invectives, which I 
 incur exclusively on the public account : and, 
 without complaining that I have had a much 
 greater share of the calumnies than the advan- 
 tages connected with our late revolution, I sit 
 down contented with the consciousness of 
 having pursued, and of still pursuing, honour- 
 able ends for themselves alone. Let the world 
 know this; and learn you that of the weal 
 and wealthiness, with which you upbraid me, I 
 never partook ; and on that particular account, 
 which forms the principal subject of your accu- 
 sation, I never fingered a single doit.* 
 
 * Saumaise, in his posthumous Reply, says, quatuor millia 
 librorum te inde jam in reditu habere ferunt, qui mentiri nes- 
 ciunt. Ut aliquid degustares, tibi dederunt aliqua rpayxtox, prop- 
 ter quae istam (sc. tyrannidem) eorum defendendam suscepisti. 
 These rp«yy«tA»a however, upon Toland's testimony, consisted in 
 a donation of 1000/. : neither is it probable that he received 
 more, if we consider his subsequent employment and mode of 
 life ; and that at the highest computation, after deducting two 
 losses of 2000/. each, he left less than 3000/. behind him for the 
 subsistence of his family. 
 
 Let us hear what he himself says, in his f Animadversions on 
 the Remonstrant's Defence : • "Do they think that all these 
 
80 B1ILT0N*S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 Enters More again, and in a second letter 
 states the reasons of his writing — to whom? 
 To the Christian Reader forsooth, More the 
 adulterer and the seducer, Health ! A pious 
 letter this promises to be ! " Now, for your 
 reasons." The minds of all the nations of Europe, 
 and more particularly of our French Hugonots, 
 are roused to take cognisance of the parricide, 
 fyc. $c. The Hugonots themselves have waged 
 war with kings. What more they would have 
 done, had they been more successful, cannot be 
 positively stated ; but their kings, it is certain 
 (if we may trust your national records) enter- 
 tained no less apprehensions of them, than ours 
 did of us : and they had sufficient grounds for 
 their fears, in the numerous books and frequent 
 manifestoes at that time circulated against them. 
 Let them not then, whatever you may pretend, 
 hold out gorgeous accounts of themselves, and 
 unjust censures against us. 
 
 But to the reasons : — / heme, lived in habits of 
 
 meaner and superfluous things come from God, and the divine 
 gift of learning from the den of Plutus or the cave of Mammon? 
 Certainly never any clear spirit, nursed upon brighter influ- 
 ences, with a soul enlarged to the dimensions of spacious art 
 and high knowledge, ever entered there but with scorn, and 
 thought it ever foul disdain to make pelf or ambition the reward 
 of his studies ; it being the greatest honour, the greatest fruit 
 and proficiency of learned studies, to despise these things.' ' 
 
 The assertion which follows, relative to the French Hugo- 
 nots, was repeated by More in his Reply, and repelled by 
 Milton in his < Pro Se Defensio/ in nearly the same words. 
 
milton's second defence. 81 
 
 so much Intimacy with Englishmen of superior 
 character (these c superior characters/ in the es- 
 timation of men of integrity, are c superior ' only 
 in infamy) that I can safely affirm, I know 
 these monsters thoroughly and to the bone. I 
 thought you had c known } only your adulteresses 
 and harlots ; do you ' know also monsters, tho- 
 roughly and to the bone h* 
 
 My English friends easily prevailed upon me 
 to suppress my name : and a most discreet mea- 
 sure of theirs it was ; that so they might profit 
 more extensively by your impudence, and their 
 cause might sustain less detriment from your 
 character, which was even then bad enough. 
 For they knew you well, what an excellent God 
 of the Gardens* you were : they knew too that, 
 though now a shorn and polished priest, you 
 had not kept your hands from Pontia, who had 
 undergone neither of those operations ;f and 
 that (as the hangman, from his concern with 
 carnage, is stiled Carnifex) it was not for nothing 
 you, from your concern with Pontia, of a simple 
 
 * Alluding to his garden-adventure. See a former Note. 
 The Priapus of the ancients, who was chiefly worshipped at 
 Lampsacus, forbade the birds, &c. novis considere in hortis. 
 With reference to the same story, Milton subsequently calls him 
 Episcopum Lampsacenum, ex horto Priapum, &c. 
 
 t This passage, fortunately, precludes translation. The epi- 
 thet Pilata in the original, combined with Pontia, obviously 
 alludes to the Roman Governor of Judaea. 
 
%2 milton's second defence, 
 
 priest appeared to yourself a Pontifex.* Though 
 both yourself and others, however, could not 
 but know all this, with incredible and abo- 
 minable impiety you dare openly to profess, 
 that you only study and vindicate the divine 
 glory ; and, at the very time that you are en- 
 gaged in the most criminal pursuits, charge 
 others with disguising their crimes under the 
 mask of godliness — the identical conduct, of 
 which you yourself are most flagrantly and most 
 dreadfully guilty. 
 
 In drawing up the seines of events (you say) 
 you have projited much by several writers, but 
 particularly by the 6 Elenchus Motuum Nu- 
 perorum in Anglia.'t Absurd indeed! After 
 
 * A f Pope/ We cannot doubt that Milton, if he had lived 
 in these times, would upon this occasion have quaintly profited 
 by the name of our late respectable primate, Dr. Moore. 
 
 t The Author of this work (Angl. * Exposure of the late 
 Disturbances in England') of which the First Part originally 
 appeared I believe in 1()51, was a Dr. George Bates, Principal 
 Physician to Charles II. and according to the writer of 
 the £ Flagellwn/ " a worthy and learned hand ; " and from 
 him (Elench. II. 331. Ed. 1676.) Noble, in his ' Memoirs 
 of the Protectoral-House of Cromwell ' relates a filthy story 
 of the Protector, by which he forfeited in early life the good 
 opinion of his uncle, Sir Oliver. (See I. 98. Note.) A 
 Third Part (now rare) under the Title of f Motus Compo- 
 siti/ containing an account of Monk's return from Scotland, 
 and the Restoration of Charles II., was published by a Dr. 
 Skinner. The Second Part, having been attached to a second 
 edition of the First Part, drew from the pen of a Mr. Pugh ia 
 
milton's second defence. 83 
 
 such a c cry ' to adduce nothing of your own, but 
 a parcel of royalist writings, on that very ac- 
 count undoubtedly to be suspected, and whose 
 credit once overthrown puts an entire stop to 
 your farther progress. I myself then will over- 
 throw it, if necessary, by opposing one Eleii- 
 chas to another ; and refute in due time, not 
 your authorities by you, but you by your au- 
 thorities. In the mean while, let us see how 
 you support your own allegations, which are of 
 a nature, when considered as proceeding from 
 a debauchee and an atheist, to inspire every 
 pious mind with horror. The love of God com- 
 
 1664 a Reply, entitled c EJenckus Elenchi' (likewise scarce) 
 to which Milton here, probably, alludes. When we read the 
 terms, in which Milton is characterised by the first of these 
 Royalist Doctors, we are not a little surprised at the lenity with 
 which he treats his calumniator: Conductitio calamo scribes 
 cujusdam Jilii, e vappd Pcedagogo in novitium Secretarium re-* 
 cocti, utuntur ; qui natus ad satiras et scommata, coeno spur* 
 cissimo oblita lingua, Eikovox.Xc&?ioiv adornaret, et gliscente livido 
 ingenio, Jallaciis et qffuciis Regicidium approbaret contra Sal-* 
 masium. (lb. p. 120.) 
 
 The gall of his second antagonist, in 1676, does not appear to 
 have been diluted by the lapse of years : Pudendis hisce prodito- 
 rum exequiis deficit uuicl audax Me Orator dicam, an Siticen ; ut 
 qui (Latinus Regum cojivitiator) parricidarum partes et scelera 
 scriptis sustinuisset : nunc torvi oris Ludimagister defunctos lau- 
 daret pro rostris, aid patibidarium saltern latronum elegidia 
 caneret ; tot scelerum monstris dignus orator, poeta haud in- 
 dignus. (P. 90.) 
 
 Such was. the language of party, in characterising the Author 
 of the. « Paradise Lest ! ' 
 
 G 2 
 
84 milton's second defence. 
 
 mands, and a deep sense of the injury offered to 
 his holy name compels^ me to lift up my suppliant 
 hands to heaven.* Down, clown with those 
 
 * In the annual commemoration of this evenc, ordained by 
 ©ur church, it is to be regretted that the second lesson appointed 
 for the Morning Service is Matt, xxvii. ; as it involves a 
 parallel, of which, we shall presently observe, the royalists 
 were but too much disposed to make a very profane use. More, 
 elsewhere, mentions the sacrum Regis caput : and both he and 
 Saumaise seem to have thought, beyond Shakspeare (and with- 
 out the plea of poetry for the hyperbole) that " divinity 
 doth not only hedge," but form, a king. Mr. Ofspriag Black- 
 hall, Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty, even ventured in a 
 Sermon preached on the thirtieth of January, 1698-9, before the 
 Honourable House of Commons, to call him " the best of 
 Kings, and the best of Men ! " to the manifest disparagement, 
 as Toland observes, of such men as St. Paul, and Socrates, and 
 William III. (Amyntor, p. 166.) : a Mr. Long of Exeter was 
 for having some portions of his pretended book, the E<*w> 
 B*ff-a<j«j, read in the church for the farther enlightening of our 
 understanding ! ! and Dr. Perinchief tells us, in his l Life,' how 
 some purchased chips of the block on which he was beheaded, 
 and parcels of the sand discoloured with his blood, as also some 
 of his hair ; " hoping (continues he) they would be a means of 
 cure for that disease, which our English Kings, through the 
 indulgence of kind Heaven, by their touch did usually heal : 
 and it was reported that these reliques, experienced, failed not 
 of the effect ! ! !" (lb. p. 170.) Nay, a Sermon was delivered 
 February 4, 1 64^-9, on Luke xviii. SI — 33 (a passage pro- 
 phetically, as it is said by the preacher, appointed by our 
 Church to be read on that day) and published under the title of 
 c The Devilish Conspiracy, Hellish Treason, Heathenish Con« 
 demnation and Damnable Murther Committed and Executed 
 by the Jews against the Anointed of the Lord, Christ their- 
 King ;' &c. with an obviously implied reference, at which evea 
 i piou* Tory must shudder. 
 
milton's second defence. 85 
 
 filthy c hands,' which you thus audaciously 
 raise, defiled with lust and ambition ; and pro- 
 fane not heaven with paws, whose touch has so 
 often polluted the hallowed mysteries of re- 
 ligion : or you will hereafter find that you have 
 called down the divine vengeance, which you 
 so rashly and madly invoke against others, upon 
 your own most guilty head. 
 
 So far we have only had the preludes to 
 * Cby.' Cry now, who plays the principal and 
 indeed almost the only part in this drama, opens 
 his mouth from ear to ear ; being on the point 
 of mounting c to heaven,' where if he ever 
 arrives, he will c cry' against nobody with so 
 much vehemence, as against the Crier More 
 himself. 
 
 Since in all ages the majesty of kings has 
 been held sacred, &c. # Much of your vulgar, 
 and much of your malicious declamation, More, 
 is wholly irrelevant. The murther of a king, 
 and the execution of a tyrant, are very different 
 
 * This is in complete sympathy with Mr. Burke : and indeed 
 ■" many of those doctrines, which disgust us with their naked 
 deformity in the pages of the Leyden professor, have been with- 
 drawn from our detestation under an embroidered and sparkling 
 veil by the hand of the British politician." — <e His expatiating 
 mind might range even the moors of Saumaise, to batten on 
 their coarse produce ; and, finding them replenished with bitter 
 springs, might be induced to draw from them, to feed the, lux- 
 uriancy of his invective." (Symmons, pp. 358, 359:) 
 
86 milton's second defence. 
 
 things ; perfectly so, indeed : they stand most 
 widely asunder, and will so continue to stand as 
 long as sense and reason, and law and justice, 
 and the power of distinguishing between right 
 and wrong are continued to mankind. But I 
 have already said enough upon this subject, for 
 every purpose of defence, again and again ; 
 and will not permit him, whose many empty 
 execrations have proved utterly ineffectual, to 
 kill me with mere repetition. 
 
 You, then, proceed to a fine disquisition upon 
 patience and piety : but 
 
 de virtute loquutus 
 
 Clunem agitas : ego te ceventem, More, vereborf* 
 ****** 
 
 —Whip me those, who virtue's name abuse ; 
 
 And soil'd with all the vices of the times, 
 
 Thunder damnation on their neighbour's crimes. 
 
 Why should I shrink at More ? (Giffbrd.) 
 
 All those of the Reformed Churches (you aver) 
 particularly in Belgium and France, shuddered 
 at our proceedings : and yet shortly afterward 
 you add, the good were not every where at liberty 
 to feel and to utter the same sentiment I But 
 this self-contradiction is a trifle : what follows is 
 much more horrible and atrocious. Compared 
 with our guilt (you say) that of the Jews in 
 crucifying Christ, zvhether we consider the in- 
 tention or the issue, was a mere nothing ! ! ! t 
 
 * Juv. Sat. ii. 21. 
 
 t In a similar strain, General Digby (in a letter to the Duke 
 
milton's second defence. 87 
 
 Madman! Do you, a Christian Minister, so 
 lightly estimate the guilt of the crucifixion of 
 Christ, whatever were it's c intention' or it's 
 * issue,' as to dare to compare with it in hei- 
 nousness the murther of any king ? The Jews, 
 by the clearest evidences, might have known 
 him to be the Son of God : we had no means of 
 knowing Charles not to be a tyrant. And to 
 refer to the ' issue,' as diminishing the guilt of 
 an action, is most completely absurd. But I 
 invariably perceive that the royalists, in propor- 
 tion to their political zeal, bear more tolerantly 
 an offence against their Saviour, than against 
 their Sovereign : whence it appears, as they in- 
 join subordination to governors chiefly for 
 
 of Ormond) says, tc From the Creation of the world, to the 
 accursed day of this damnable murther, nothing parallel to it 
 was ever heard of; even the crucifying our Blessed Saviour, if 
 we consider him only in human nature, did nothing equal 
 it ! ! ! !" This vehemence of expression, not to say blasphemy, 
 was far exceeded by a Bishop (Down), who declared " his 
 privilege of inviolability far more elear than was Christ's;" 
 and " the proceedings against him more illegal, and in many 
 things more cruel :" and Rheese, or (as he chose to call him- 
 self) Arise Evans, a Welch prophet, went still farther in 
 affirming, that " Charles partook of Christ's divinity !!!!!" 
 To the passages quoted in the text from the ? Cry of the 
 Royal Blood, is added much curious reasoning upon the sub- 
 ject, p. 5 of the edition of 1652. Hag. Com.; and a farther 
 and more detailed comparison occurs, pp. 69, 70. Charles was 
 himself too conscious of some of his frailties, to have been 
 otherwise than offended with such profaneness as this, (See 
 Noble, I. 121, Note.) 
 
88 milton's second defence. 
 
 Christ's sake, that they have no real regard for 
 either Christ or the King ; but, with some dif- 
 ferent object in view, affect this incredible and 
 idolatrous reverence of royalty, as a cloak for 
 their ambitious or other clandestine and selfish 
 pursuits. 
 
 Sauniaise therefore, the great prince of letters y 
 stepped forth. Prithee, have done with this 
 repeated c great;' which, a thousand times 
 re-echoed, will only convince the intelligent, 
 not that Saumaise is 'great,' but that More 
 is very little and very despicable, for apply- 
 ing this appellation with such gross impro- 
 priety and so total a neglect of decorum. In- 
 dustry, and the knowledge of letters, and the 
 praise and profit of no contemptible stock of 
 learning we willingly allow to grammarians 
 and critics, whose chief credit consists in pub- 
 lishing the lucubrations of commentators, or 
 correcting the errors of copyists : but we never 
 lavish upon them the surname of ' great.' 
 He only is to be denominated c great,' who 
 either achieves or inculcates great actions, or 
 writes upon them greatly : * and those actions 
 
 * This passage, as we learn from Milton's 'Pro Se Defensio,' 
 attracted his adversary's sarcastic observation : Qui res magnas 
 docet, ut Miltonus de Divortiis ! aut digne scribit, ut Miltonus 
 idem pro Popido ! Bis magnus ! ! Pity ! that he could supply 
 no instance, from his bookish life, of the first clause of the 
 definition, qui res magnas gerit ; in order to have complimented 
 him, ironically, with the higher allusion of Trismegistus ! 
 
milton's second DEFENCE. 89 
 
 only are great, which either make this life 
 happy, or at least honourably comfortable and 
 agreeable, or lead to another and a better state 
 of existence. Of these, what has Saumaise 
 achieved ? Nothing. What then has he incul- 
 cated great, or written greatly ? Except indeed 
 what he wrote against Bishops, and the Pope's 
 Supremacy ; and that he subsequently recanted 
 — practically by his conduct, and actually by 
 what he published against me in favour of Epis- 
 copacy. Little, therefore, is the name of c great' 
 deserved by him, who so shamefully retracted 
 the best work he ever composed. 
 
 He may however be c the prince of letters/ 
 the very captain of the Christ-Cross-row, with 
 all my heart. But this does not satisfy you : 
 He must be not only \ the prince of letters,' 
 but the patron of kings, and a patron worthy 
 of such illustrious clients. A noble addition 
 this, to be subjoined by kings to their other high 
 titles, c Clients of Claude Saumaise!' For 
 this then, ye kings, you are emancipated from 
 
 With regard to the apostasy imputed below to Saumaise on 
 the subject of Episcopacy, he had attacked Bishops, in a work 
 entitled < Be Presbyteris et Episcopis 9 (Lugd. Bat. 1641, 8vo.) 
 under the fictitious name of Wallo Messalinus, with the utmost 
 acrimony. This drew upon him the deserved rebuke of hi* 
 friend Claude Sarrau, a councillor in the parliament of Paris: 
 Hoc seme dicent esse ra nctipcp $xtevuv y potius quam rjj etAyS-tux, 
 Tn&irSui — Par. 1650. Feb. 18. See also his Letters, dated 
 March 5, and 12. (Symmons, p. 352, not. Jc.) 
 
90 MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE, 
 
 all other laws, to pass under the protection of 
 the grammarian Saumaise, and vail your sceptres 
 to his ferula. So long as the world shall last, 
 kings will owe to him the support of their dig- 
 nity and their safety. Hear, princes, hear ! 
 Your miserable defender, in fact no defender at 
 all — for no one attacked you — ascribes to him- 
 self c the support of your dignity and your 
 safety V Such is the sole fruit accruing to those, 
 who summoned this arrogant grammarian from 
 his realm of moths and of bookworms, to main- 
 tain the rights of kings ! Neither will the Church 
 he less indebted to him, than royalty itself: that 
 is, both will equally owe him, not thanks or 
 praise, but the merited stigma of having alike 
 deserted them both. 
 
 And now, for your prodigal panegyric upon 
 ' The Royal Defence/ Here you are lost in 
 astonishment at the genius, the learning, the 
 immense experience, the profound stores of laxv 
 sacred and profane, and the vigorous vehemence 
 and eloquent fluency of that golden work ! Of 
 all which I except to every syllable (for what 
 has Saumaise to do with eloquence ?) except 
 the term * golden,' an epithet which the com- 
 position richly deserves an hundred times over — 
 from the hundred pieces of gold that Charles 
 paid for it, not to mention what the Prince of 
 Orange farther lavished on the same account. 
 
 The great man never appeared greater, never 
 more a Saumaise — so much c greater' indeed. 
 
milton's second defence. 91 
 
 that he burst ! How c great* he was in that 
 work, we have already seen ; and if, as it is re- 
 ported, he has left any thing posthumous upon 
 the same subject, we shall probably see it too in 
 due season. I admit that, upon it's publication, 
 Saumaise was the theme of every tongue, par- 
 ticularly among the royalists ; and that he was 
 invited by her Szvedish Majesty, with the pro- 
 mise of abundant rewards. In fact, throughout 
 the whole controversy, every thing was in his 
 favour, and almost every thing against me. In 
 the first place, his erudition stood very high in 
 the general opinion, raised during a series of 
 many years by his compilation of many books— 
 f great* enough indeed in point of size, but not 
 particularly useful from the abstruseness of 
 their subjects, and their copious citations of 
 the deepest writers ; circumstances these, how- 
 ever, peculiarly calculated to generate vulgar 
 admiration : whereas scarcely any one abroad 
 knew, who I was. He by his unusual attention 
 to the work, which in truth it well deserved, 
 had excited f great* expectations of his labours ; 
 whilst I had not been able to stir up any expec- 
 tation of mine. Nay, many went so far as to 
 dissuade me from them, representing me as a 
 novice about to cope with a veteran in letters ; 
 partly perhaps as envying me the glory even of 
 having entered the lists with such an antago- 
 nist, and partly as alarmed at once for me and 
 
92 milton's second defence. 
 
 for my cause, lest my defeat should inflict in* 
 curable disgrace upon both. Finally, a spe- 
 cious and plausible subject, the inveterate pre* 
 judice or rather superstition of the vulgar, and 
 their general bias in favour of royalty, gave 
 strength and confidence to Saumaise, but were 
 all hostile to myself. And this renders it the 
 more surprising, as soon as my c Reply 5 came 
 out — not, indeed, that it was greedily seized by 
 numbers, who were anxious to see what adven- 
 turous spirit durst cope with Saumaise; but 
 that it gave such general satisfaction (with 
 reference to it's accuracy, not it's author) as to 
 strip my adversary in his high and palmy state 
 of all his honours, tear from him the mask 
 under which he had previously lurked, and sink 
 at once both his character and his courage, so 
 that with all his efforts he never during the re- 
 mainder of his life was able to emerge. Upon 
 you,* most Serene Queen of Sweden, and your 
 acute discernment, he was not long able to im- 
 
 * Here commences what Warton (ib. p. 4p2) calls Mil- 
 ton's " prolix and most splendid" panegyric on Christina, dic- 
 tated by the supposition that she had dismissed Saumaise from 
 her court on account of his ' Defence of the King : ' a suppo- 
 sition, which he elsewhere however affirms (Note, p. 483) to 
 have been as much without foundation, as the praises engrafted 
 upon it. Gallantry and ostentation, particularly in what re- 
 garded letters, seem to have been the leading traits of her cha* 
 racter ; and an intrigue with a scholar answered both ends. 
 
milton's second defence. 93 
 
 pose : You were the first, I might almost say, 
 the heavenly example of preferring truth to the 
 spirit of party. For though you had sent for 
 the man, on account of his extraordinary emi- 
 nence as a scholar and his defence of royalty, 
 and received him with the utmost respect ; yet 
 upon the publication and your very impartial 
 perusal of my * Reply/ when you found that 
 he stood convicted of the grossest corruption 
 and vanity, of having advanced many frivolous 
 and many extravagant positions (beside many 
 palpable self-contradictions, which on your per- 
 sonal application to him, it is said, he was 
 unable either to explain or to justify) you dis- 
 continued from that time your particular atten- 
 tions to him, lowered your estimate of his 
 talents and his learning, and against the general 
 expectation obviously showed yourself most 
 favourably disposed toward his adversary. For 
 what was urged by him against tyrants, you 
 maintained, had no reference to you : whence 
 you enjoyed both the feeling, and the credit, of 
 having always acted from the best of motives. 
 Your conduct, indeed, satisfactorily proves, 
 that you are not a tyrant; and this explicit 
 declaration of your opinion still more clearly 
 evinces, that you do not feel yourself to be 
 one. O happiness beyond my hopes! — for I 
 affect no eloquence, except that which is con- 
 nected with the persuasive power of truth — 
 that, when I had fallen upon such a period of 
 
94 milton's second defence. 
 
 my country as rendered it necessary for me, in 
 the defence of an arduous and invidious cause, 
 to seem to impugn the rights of all kings, I 
 should have met with so illustrious, so truly- 
 princely an interpreter of my integrity, to bear 
 witness that I had assailed with my censures 
 not kings, but tyrants, their bitterest and most 
 pestilential foes ! O magnanimous Queen 1 
 guarded and fortified on every side by a degree 
 of virtue and wisdom more than human ! Not 
 only thus to peruse a work, which might seem 
 at the first glance directed against your royal 
 right and dignity, with an impartial and un- 
 ruffled mind, an incredible candor of feeling, 
 and an undisturbed serenity of countenance ; 
 but also to pronounce such a verdict against 
 your advocate, as to be generally supposed to 
 have adjudged the victory to his opponent ! 
 With what respect, what veneration ought I not 
 always to treat you, whose high virtue and 
 magnanimity (to yourself so honourable) have 
 to me proved so fortunate, as to have exempted 
 me from all discreditable suspicion with other 
 sovereigns, and by this important and infinite 
 kindness bound me to your service for ever! 
 How much ought the subjects of other princes 
 to value, and your own both to value and to 
 hope from your justice and equity, when in an 
 affair appearing directly to involve your royal 
 dignity, you were thus observed deciding with 
 as little agitation and as much composure about 
 
milton's second defence* 9B 
 
 your own rights, as you do about those of your 
 people ! You have, likewise, judiciously formed 
 a prodigious collection of books, and other 
 literary monuments; not as if you yourself 
 could thence derive any information, but that 
 your subjects might by them be enabled to ap- 
 preciate your virtue and wisdom ; wisdom, 
 which if she had not taken entire possession of 
 your mind, and presented herself as it were to 
 your actual view, could never by any intensity 
 of study have generated in you such an un~ 
 parallelled attachment. Hence it is, that we dis- 
 cover with so much astonishment your celestial 
 vigour of understanding, your perfect quin- 
 tessence of intellect, in those high northern 
 latitudes ; unshrunk and unquenched by the 
 frosts of a cheerless and tempestuous climate, 
 and wholly insensible to the influences of a 
 rough and intractable soiL That land of mines 
 on the contrary, with all a stepmother's harsh- 
 ness to others, to you a genial parent, appears 
 to have produced you by one mighty effort, a 
 mass of virgin gold. I should call you the 
 daughter and heiress of the great Adolphus,* 
 
 * Christina succeeded her father, Gustavus Adolphus, on the 
 throne of Sweden in 1633. After a reign of twenty one years, 
 however, she resigned it to her cousin Charles Gustavus, re- 
 serving only to herself an annuity of 20,000 crowns ; and, 
 upon his death in 1660, wished in vain to re-ascend it. In 
 1689, she died at Rome, the religion of which through the in- 
 fluence of the Jesuits she had embraced before her resignation ; 
 
9& milton's second defence. 
 
 were you not to be placed above him in pro- 
 portion as wisdom surpasses strength, and the 
 arts of peace* the pursuits of war. Henceforth, 
 exclusive commendations shall no longer be 
 lavished upbn the Queen of the South.* The 
 
 having previously, in compliment to the reigning Pontiff, 
 (Alexander VII.) assumed the additional name of { Alexandra.' 
 * 1 Kings. In reference to this Sovereign, Bochart (one of 
 the Swedish school) wrote the following distich : 
 
 Ilia docenda suis Solomonem invisit ab oris :_ 
 Undique ad Hanc docti, quo doceantur, eunt. 
 
 The reader may not be displeased to see half a dozen others, 
 written by M. Sarrau on receiving either from Vossius, or 
 from Christina herself, a gold medallion bearing on it's obverse 
 her head as Pallas Galeata, with an olive-branch before her, 
 and on the reverse a Sun. 
 
 Attica falsa Juit, sed vera hcec Arctica Pallas 
 Dicere vie venim, Sol mihi testis adest. 
 
 Si coluisse voles Phcebum et coluisse Minervam, 
 Tu cole Christinam ; numen utrumque coles. 
 
 in. 
 Objectam Pallas Galeata aspectat olivam : 
 Elige seu pacem, seu magis arma velis. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Imperio digna hcec fades armata Minervje, 
 Solis ab Eoo cardine ad Hesperium. 
 
 v. 
 
 Sol, radios expande tuos ; ecce cemula terns 
 Christina qffiilget lumine inocciduo* 
 
milton's second defence. 97 
 
 North, likewise, has now it's queen ; worthy 
 not only to visit the sage king of Israel, or any 
 one that may hereafter resemble him, but to be 
 herself visited by others as a model of every 
 royal virtue, and a heroine deserving of uni- 
 versal regard : to whose high deserts no earthly 
 eminence is equal, since her lowest praise is 
 that she is a queen, the sovereign of so many 
 nations. But it is not her lowest praise, that 
 she herself feels it to be so, and meditates, some- 
 thing much loftier than empire — a circum- 
 stance, which alone raises her above most kings. 
 She may then, if such be the sad destiny of 
 Sweden, renounce the crown ; but she can 
 never lay aside the queen, having proved herself 
 worthy to sway the sceptre not of Sweden alone, 
 but of the universe. 
 
 For my digression into the well-earned pane- 
 gyric of this excellent princess,* I trust I 
 
 VI. 
 
 Attica quae quondam fuer at , nunc Atactica, Pallas 
 Dat sua, dat PhcEBi plenissima munera terris. 
 
 (Sarrav. Epist. ccxxx.) 
 « That this panegyric was not ' well-earned/ will perhaps 
 be concluded by many of those,, who may read Warton's Not. 
 ib. p. 488, and the affecting story of her treatment of the 
 Marquis Monaldeschi. Milton's partiality to her, however, 
 we may farther collect from the verses written under a por-» 
 trait of the Protector, which was sent to her as an official 
 compliment. Those lines, Bellipotens virgo, &c. (Wart, ib.) 
 ascribed to Milton positively by Newton and Birch, and inde- 
 
 H 
 
98 milton's second defence. 
 
 shall be both pardoned, and commended : as I 
 could not have passed her over, even amidst the 
 silence of others, without the deepest ingra- 
 titude ; having by some most fortunate fatality, 
 some hidden consent and concurrence of stars 
 or feelings or circumstances, found in her (whom 
 most I wished, but least expected) an arbitress 
 so impartial, and so favourable, at the utmost 
 
 eisively by Toland, are claimed for Marvell by Warton ; but 
 re-asserted, in a conclusive Note, by Dr. Symmons, whose ver- 
 sion of them I subjoin : 
 
 ' Imperial Maid, great arbitress of war ! 
 Queen of the Pole ! yourself it's brightest star I 
 Cliristina, view this helmet-furrow'd brow, 
 This age, that arms have worn but cannot bow ; 
 As through the pathless wilds of fate I press, 
 And bear the people's purpose to success. 
 Yet see ! to you this front submits it's pride : 
 Thrones are not always by it's frown defied.' (C. S.) 
 
 The original, Warton pronounces " simple and sinewy" — 
 but " too great a compliment to Christina, who was contemp- 
 tible both as a queen and a woman." " An ample and lively 
 picture (he adds) of her court, politics, religion, intrigues, 
 rambles, and masquerades is to be gathered from Thurloe's 
 " State- Papers !" See also a pithy Note upon her in Dr. S.'s 
 Life, p. 428 (a). A Life of this extraordinary woman (now 
 rare) appeared in 1658, entitled e The Histojy of the Sacred 
 and Royal Majesty of Christina Alessandra, Queen of Swed- 
 land, &c. ; ' written by Count Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato, and 
 translated by John Burbery. The comparative pittance of 
 20,000 crowns per ann. y it is almost painful to add, was but 
 irregularly paid. 
 
milton's second defence. 99 
 
 extremity of the world. I must now resume 
 the very different labour, which I left behind. 
 
 Our party (you say) were dismayed by the 
 character of ' The Royal Defence,' and looked 
 out for some half starved petty schoolmaster, to 
 lend his venal pen to the vindication of parri- 
 cide. This most malignant fiction you devised, 
 remembering that the royalists, when they were 
 * looking out ' for a mouth-piece of their lies and 
 invectives, applied to Saumaise — a grammarian, 
 if not hungry for bread, certainly too thirsty 
 for gold ; who not only most readily sold them 
 his secret services, but threw his soundness of 
 intellect (if, indeed, he ever had any) into the 
 bargain : remembering that Saumaise in his lost 
 and ruined condition, when he was ' looking out* 
 for some one to assist in patching up his torn 
 and tattered character, was induced by the re- 
 tributive impulse of the Almighty to apply to 
 you — not a pastor of Geneva, for thence you 
 had been ejected, but a Bishop of Lampsacus, 
 a genuine God of the Gardens, and finally the 
 polluter of his house ; which led him on his 
 death-bed, nauseating the flummery he had so 
 disgracefully purchased of you, and exchanging 
 his friendship for violent enmity, to imprecate 
 bitter curses on the head of his panegyrist. 
 
 At last they found one, and a formidable hero 
 he was, to oppose to Saumaise, John Milton I 
 I did not know that I was a c a hero,' though 
 you may very probably be a hero's son, for you 
 
 h 2 
 
100 milton's second defence* 
 
 are a complete pest* But that I alone was 
 found to defend the cause of the people of 
 England, as far as their interest was at stake, 
 gave me true concern, though I am proud to 
 stand single in their approbation. 
 
 It is doubtful (you subjoin) who, and ivhat I 
 am ;— So it was, of old, with regard to Homer 
 and Demosthenes. I had learned, in fact, to 
 keep in check my tongue and my pen, which 
 Saumaise never could ; and I concealed within 
 my breast many things which, had I then pro- 
 duced them, would long since have earned me 
 the distinction I now possess. But I did not 
 greedily woo coy renown, and should not ever 
 have brought forward even my late labours, 
 had not imperious occasion called them forth ; 
 little solicitous that others should be apprised 
 of the extent of my acquirements, and seeking 
 not fame, but opportunity, in my publications :f 
 whence I became known to great numbers, 
 long before Saumaise became known to him- 
 
 * For the illustration of the proverb, Heroum jilii noxce, 
 see Erasm. Adag. 
 
 t Upon this subject is preserved a MS. letter in the library 
 of Trinity College, Cambridge, written to a friend in his 
 " three and twentieth yeere;" wherein he represents himself 
 as " kept off with a sacred reverence and religious advisement 
 how best to undergoe ; not taking thought of being late, so it 
 give advantage to be more fit," &c. Erras, More (subjoins 
 our Epic Marcellus, in his ( Pro Se Defensio') et me non 
 nosti ; mihi lente crescere, et velut occulta csvo, satius semper 
 fuit. 
 
milton's second defence. 101 
 
 self, though now he is better known than Tom 
 Fool.* 
 
 — A man, or a worm. I had rather in truth 
 be, what even the Psalmist pronounces himself, a 
 worm,i than bear in my bosom that worm of 
 yours, which will never die. 
 
 It is reported (you continue) that he was 
 vomited forth for his profligacy from the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, and sought shelter from 
 his disgrace abroad in Italy. From this single 
 statement you may infer the degree of credit 
 due to those persons, upon whose authority you 
 adduce your hear-say evidence against me : for 
 that both you and they are here guilty of a 
 most impudent lie, is known to all who know 
 me, and I will still more satisfactorily prove in 
 the sequel. And why, if I had been expelled 
 from Cambridge, should I < seek shelter' in 
 c Italy,' rather than in France or Holland ; 
 where you with all your infamy are tolerated as 
 a minister of the gospel, and live in impunity, 
 and are allowed to mount the pulpit, and to the 
 deep disgrace of that church defile with your 
 polluted hands it's hallowed mysteries ? Why, I 
 say, in ' Italy?' Like a modern Saturn, for- 
 sooth, I must fly to Latium,:f as a lurking- 
 place. No, More : I had before known, and 
 
 * Andremone notior est caballo. 
 t Psalm xxii. 6. 
 
 X Ut alicubi laterem. To this last word, etymologists refer 
 the derivation of Latium. 
 
102 
 
 then found, c Italy' to be, not (as you insi- 
 nuate) the receptacle and asylum of reprobates, 
 but the seat of polite literature and all civil 
 learning. 
 
 Upon his return, he wrote a Tract on Di« 
 vorces.* I only wrote what had previously 
 been written at great length by Bucer in his 
 * De Regno ChristiJ Fagius on Deuteronomy, 
 Erasmus! (with particular reference to English- 
 
 * His four successive Treatises upon this subject were respect- 
 ively entitled, e The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' 
 ' The Judgement of Martin Bucer concerning Divorce,' { Te- 
 trachordon/ and ' Colasterion.' Upon the third of these, 
 which " contained an Exposition of the Four Passages ( Gen. 
 i. 27, 28., Deut. xxiv. 1, 2., Matt. v. 31, 32., and 1 Cor. vii. 
 IS, 16.) in the Sacred Writings, supposed more immediately to 
 respect the permanency of the marriage-obligation," Warton 
 has a note worth consulting, ib. p. 338. Johnson, it is some- 
 what surprising, does not mention the fourth ; nor, indeed, the 
 '■ Tractate upon Education/ in it's regular place. 
 
 t These, with the addition of Martyr, are again enumerated 
 in the f Pro Se Defensio/ as having previously maintained his 
 opinions on the question of Divorce. Martin Bucer, an Alsa- 
 tian and a Dominican friar, was converted to Protestantism by 
 the writings of Erasmus and Luther, and by Cardinal Contarini 
 represented as the most formidable foe of the Church of Rome. 
 Paul Fagius, a German (whose real name was Buchlein) by 
 his Notes on the Pentateuch, printed in folio, 1546, and after- 
 ward published among the Critici Sacri, contributed greatly to 
 diffuse the knowledge of the Hebrew tongue. They both, on 
 the request of Archbishop Cranmer, came over to England in 
 154-9 > an( l by him were sent to Cambridge, where Bucer was 
 made Divinity Professor, and employed in a new translation of 
 the Scriptures. They died within a year of each other, Fagius 
 in 1550, and Bucer in 1551 ; and both their bodies were taken 
 
Milton's second defence. 103 
 
 men) on 1 Corinthians, and many other emi- 
 nent men for the general good. Why I exclu- 
 sively should be condemned for that, which 
 drew no censure down upon my predecessors, I 
 do not understand : I am only sorry that I wrote 
 it in the vernacular tongue,* as it exposed me to 
 
 up and burnt in Mary's reign : so that, like Saul and Jonathan, 
 they might be pronounced " lovely and pleasant in their lives, 
 and in their deaths scarcely divided." About the same time 
 Peter Martyr, a Florentine, whose family-name was Vermilius, 
 laid down his habit as an Augustine, accepted the invitation of 
 Edward VI., and was appointed to the divinity-chair, along 
 with a canonry of Christ Church, in the Sister-University. 
 Luckily for his bones, he died at Zurich ; but his wife (a nun 
 who, like Bucer's, had quitted her vows) was exposed to Mary's 
 pious fury, and to Elizabeth's gentler compensations, with 
 equal insensibility : 
 
 Id cinerem, ant Manes credis curare sepultos ? 
 
 Of Erasmus, who in the course of his migratory life became 
 Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, and also Greek Pro- 
 fessor at Cambridge, Dr. Jortin with his usual learning and 
 candor has written an ample account. He published the first 
 edition of the Greek Testament, in folio, in 1516. But he was 
 universally reproached as being a trimmer in religion, partly 
 from a fear of the power, and partly from a regard for the 
 friendship, of his schoolfellow Adrian VI. then Pope. He 
 himself, in a letter upon the subject, says; Non omnes ad 
 martyrium satis habent roboris. Vcreor ne, si quid incident 
 tumultus, Petrum sim imitaturus. (DLXXXIII.) 
 
 * A similar abhorrence of ' vernacular' composition appears 
 to have influenced Doctor William King, and the Editor of 
 Bellendenus. The former says, Spero me impetrare posse ah 
 eruditorum omnium consensu, ut ne quis, me invito, hanc Ora- 
 tionem (sc f Oxon. hab. Id. Apr. 1749, Die Dedications Bib- 
 
104 milton's second defence. 
 
 the perusal of vulgar readers, who are usually 
 blind to their own blessings, and scurrilous 
 upon the misfortunes of others. But that you, 
 you worthless fellow, should make a blustering 
 about £ divorces,' who after debauching Pontia 
 under a promise of marriage, most inhumanly 
 broke with her by the worst of ' divorces ! ■ — 
 And yet this poor English* girl in Saumaise's 
 service was, it is said, a strong royalist : so that 
 you loved her as a kingly, and abandoned her 
 as a commont concern : an apostasy this (from 
 the king to the commons) which, however you 
 profess to hate, you yourself caused; trans- 
 ferring her, by a total subversion of Saumaise's 
 authority, to the service of the public. And of 
 this kind, with all your royalism, you are said to 
 have founded, or on the foundation of others to 
 have administered, in one city many public 
 concerns. These are your c divorces,' or rather 
 
 liothecse Radcliviange') in sermonem patrium vertat : and the 
 latter/ in allusion to the version of his celebrated ' Preface,' 
 observes ; Quod ea quae Latine scripseram, Anglice jam, me 
 neque hortante neque sciente, conversa sint vehementer doleo. 
 Aures quippe mece solent respuere c Luge' illudet ' Sophos,' quod 
 ab infima plebeculd captant ii, qui de rebus Politicis raptim et 
 
 turbulente scriptitant : qui famam, Sfc. Hoc igitur me asse- 
 
 qui turn, cum Latine scriberem, posse existimavi, ut Prcefatio 
 mea in multitudinis manus non veniret ; qua quidem in re, cum 
 versio ejm ex improviso facta sit, frustra fui. (Prooem. p. 5.) 
 * By Heinsius called Hebe Caledonia (Burm. Syllog. iii. 
 670) but by Vossius, ib. pp. 64<3, 650, 651, Anglkana puella. 
 See also ib. pp. 647, 658, 662, 663, and ii. 748. 
 : f Res publica. 
 
MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 105 
 
 your diving-places,* whence you emerge a per- 
 fect Curius against me. Now for another lie. 
 
 While the conspirators were deliberating about 
 the King's fate, he wrote them a letter, zvhich 
 determined their wavering minds to his de- 
 struction. I did not c write them a letter/ 
 neither was any such extrinsic impulse wanting 
 to those, who had already resolved upon that 
 measure without my interference. What I did 
 write upon that subject, as well as against the 
 Icon (Basilike),i shall be stated in the sequel. 
 
 And now, since this — man, shall I call him, or 
 scum of men ?— has laboured to render my name 
 infamous among foreign nations by a long string 
 of falsehoods, I entreat that no one would mis- 
 interpret, or criminate, or nauseate me for 
 having spoken, or continuing to speak, about 
 myself so much more than I should naturally 
 have chosen to do :t that if I cannot rescue my 
 
 * Diverticula. The Curius of the passage refers to the 
 
 Qui Curios simulant, et Bacchanalia vivunt. 
 
 (Juv. ii. 3.) 
 
 •j- See the subject of this composition discussed by Dr. 
 Symmons, pp. 321 — 34>5. Milton's Reply was entitled, ' Ico* 
 noclastes;' and received two answers, Emm AkXu^oc, in 1651, 
 and ' Vindicice Carolince* in 1692. A pamphlet likewise, 
 which made it's appearance in 1649 with the title of E^y 
 AtoStvri, advancing the charge of spuriousness against the Icon, 
 was answered the same year by a very inferior writer in a pam- 
 phlet entitled Eacm it U try. 
 
 f For this necessary egotism he again apologises in the be* 
 
106 milton's second defence. 
 
 eyes from blindness, and my name from oblivion 
 or calumny, I may at least rescue my moral 
 character from that obscurity which is coupled 
 with ignominy. And this, on more accounts 
 than one. First, to prevent those excellent and 
 learned men upon the neighbouring parts of 
 the Continent, who now read and approve my 
 works, from being affected by this fellow's scur- 
 rilities : and to convince them that I have never 
 polluted honourable writings by a dishonourable 
 life, the language of a freeman by the conduct 
 of a slave, but have always under God's good 
 guidance kept myself aloof from every thing 
 mean and profligate : next, that the illustrious 
 and praiseworthy objects of my panegyric may 
 be assured, I should think nothing more shame- 
 ful than to utter their praises, if I were con- 
 scious of myself deserving censure or repro- 
 bation ; and, finally, to satisfy the people of 
 England (whom I have been impelled either by 
 my destiny, or my sense of duty, as well as by 
 their virtue, to defend) that having always led 
 a life of purity and honour, if I have not done 
 them credit, I have certainly not disgraced 
 
 ginning of his ' Pro Se Defensio ; ' and Bentley will complete 
 his justification : " Mr. Boyle is pleased somewhere to send me 
 to Hermogenes' chapter^ rifpt m uvi^a.y^rwc, tavrov incctvuv, ' How 
 a man may commend himself without envy or fulsomeness : * 
 and I find there that, one may safely do it, ' when detraction 
 and calumny make it necessary/ " (Pref. to Diss, on Phalaris, 
 Ed. 1777, p. xxv.) 
 
milton's second defence. 10? 
 
 them, by my Defence. ' Who then, and what I 
 am,' I will now state. 
 
 I was born in London, of a respectable family. 
 My father was a man of approved integrity ; 
 and my mother an excellent woman, particu- 
 larly distinguished in the neighbourhood by her 
 numerous charities. My father destined me, # 
 while I was yet a child, to the study of elegant 
 literature ; and so eagerly did I seize upon it, 
 that from my twelfth year I seldom quitted my 
 studies for my bed till midnight. This proved 
 the first cause of the ruin of my eyes, in 
 addition to the natural weakness of which 
 organs, I was afflicted with frequent pains in 
 my head. When all these maladies were unable 
 to restrain my rage for learning, my father pro- 
 vided that I should be daily instructed in some 
 school abroad, and by other tutors at home. 
 Thus initiated in various languages, and with no 
 light relish for the sweets of philosophy^ I 
 
 * See his < Ad Patrem,; vv. 73, &c. 
 
 t In the same spirit, the Second Brother in Comus (476--* 
 480) exclaims, 
 
 ' How charming is divine philosophy ! 
 Not harsh, and crabbed (as dull fools suppose) 
 But musical as is Apollo's lute, 
 And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, 
 Where no crude surfeit reigns/ 
 
 The honour of Milton's early institution belongs to St. Paul's 
 school, at that time under the care of Alexander Gill, author of 
 an ingenious but subtile scheme to reform and fix the English 
 
108 milton's second defence. 
 
 was sent to Cambridge, one of the two national 
 universities ; where I spent seven years in the 
 ordinary studies and pursuits of the place, pure 
 from every blemish and possessed of the uni- 
 versal esteem of the good, till I took with 
 credit my degree (as it is called) of Master of 
 Aits. I then went, not as this miscreant falsely 
 states, into c Italy,' but home;* and left be- 
 hind me a memory cherished with affection by 
 the greater part of the fellows of my college, 
 who had always assiduously cultivated my re- 
 gard. At my father's country-residence, whither 
 he had retired to spend his age in quiet, I de- 
 voted my whole leisure to the perusal of the 
 
 language, published under the title of c Logonomia ' in 162 1 . The 
 son/ of the same name, Milton's great friend, and an admira- 
 ble Latin poet, after an ushership of sixteen years (1619 — 1635) 
 succeeded his father as head-master of that seminary. Milton 
 had, previously, been under the tuition of Thomas Young (sub- 
 sequently Pastor of the Church of English Merchants at Ham- 
 burgh) a puritan in Essex, says Aubrey, who cut his hair 
 short ; and to him, to whom he probably owed his religious pecu- 
 liarities, he addressed his Fourth * Elegy/ and the First and 
 Fourth of his c Familiar Epistles.' This gentleman afterward, 
 returning to England, became a member of the Assembly of 
 Divines, was one of the authors of the book entitled ' Smec- 
 tymnuus' defended by Milton, and received from Parliament 
 the appointment to the headship of Jesus College, Cambridge, 
 whence he was finally ejected for refusing the engagement. 
 Milton's academical residence was Christ's College. 
 
 * Horton, near Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire, where he spent 
 five years (1632 — 1637), justly to be regarded as the hap- 
 piest of his life. 
 
milton's second defence. 109 
 
 Greek and Latin classics ; not however so un- 
 interruptedly, but that I occasionally paid a visit 
 to town, either to purchase books, or to make 
 some fresh acquisition in mathematics or in 
 music,* which were at that time my chief 
 sources of delight. After ^ve years thus em- 
 ployed, on my mother's death having a strong 
 desire to visit foreign countries, particularly 
 Italy, I obtained my father's consent, and at- 
 tended only by a single servant set off on my 
 travels. Upon my departure, I was favoured 
 with a very friendly and elegant letter,t con- 
 taining good wishes and directions of the utmost 
 value to any one going abroad, by the cele- 
 
 * Milton's father had himself been educated at Christ Church.. 
 Oxford, and (as we learn from Aubrey) was very fond of 
 music, in which he instructed his son. He even composed 
 several pieces, we are told by his grandson Philips, and others ; 
 and appears, also, to have been an author. For his care of the 
 poet's education, he was nobly repaid by the above-quoted ' Ad 
 Patrem' (Warton, ib. p. 519) ; and yet one cannot help re- 
 gretting that, with his taste, he did not live to witness the pro- 
 duction, if not the popularity, of the * Paradise Lost.' 
 
 f This letter, dated f Eton, April 13, 1638,' after some high 
 compliments on the ' Comus,' is chiefly remarkable for repeating 
 the advice, which the writer had himself received from Alberto 
 Scipioni (" an old Roman courtier in dangerous times") with 
 regard to the mode of " carrying himself securely at Rome, 
 without offence of others or of his own conscience." I pen- 
 sieri stretti ed il viso sciolto, ' Thoughts close and looks loose, 
 is a maxim however not exclusively adapted to the modern 
 Babylon, but e< will go safely (as he added) over the whole 
 world." The entire epistle is inserted in his Life by Dr. 
 Symmons. 
 
110 milton's second defence. 
 
 brated Henry Wotton, who had long resided at 
 Venice as Envoy from King James. With this 
 and other recommendations, I was most kindly 
 received at Paris by the Rt. Hon. Thomas 
 Scudamore, Viscount Sligo, Embassador from 
 King Charles, and in his name introduced by 
 some of his suite to the learned Hugo Gro- 
 tius* (at that time, Embassador from the Queen 
 of Sweden to the French court) to whom I was 
 
 * Author of the able and argumentative Tract, e De Ve- 
 ritate Religionis Christiance," of a Treatise ' De Satisfactions 
 Christi, adv. F. Socinum Senensem, 9 and Poemata (including 
 two Tragedies, e Christus Pattens 9 and f Sophompaneas ,-') 
 beside the larger work, f Annotationes in V. et N. Teste* 
 mentuniy and his profound disquisition e De Jure Belli ac 
 Pads, &c. &c.' His character is splendidly drawn by Mackin- 
 tosh : " He combined the discharge of the most important 
 duties of active and public life with the attainment of that 
 exact and various learning, which is generally the portion only 
 of the recluse student. He was distinguished as an advocate, 
 and as a magistrate, and he composed the most valuable works 
 on the law of his own country : he was almost equally celebrated 
 as an historian, a scholar, a poet, and a divine ; a disinterested 
 statesman, a philosophical lawyer, a patriot who united modera- 
 tion with firmness, and a theologian who was taught candor 
 by his learning. Unmerited exile did not damp his patriotism : 
 the bitterness of controversy did not extinguish his charity. 
 The sagacity of his numerous and fierce adversaries could riot 
 discover a blot on his character; and, in the midst of all the 
 hard trials and galling provocations of a turbulent political life, 
 he never once deserted his friends when they were unfortunate, 
 nor insulted his enemies when they were weak. In times of 
 the. most furious civil and religious faction, he preserved his 
 name unspotted ; and he knew how to reconcile fidelity to hi* 
 own party with moderation toward his opponents." ( Discourse 
 on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations, pp. 16, 17-) 
 
miltgn's second defence, lit 
 
 extremely solicitous to pay my respects. He 
 likewise farther, on my setting off a few days 
 afterward for Italy, gave me letters to the 
 English merchants on my way, directing them 
 to render me every service in their power, 
 From Nice I went by sea to Genoa, and thence 
 through Leghorn and Pisa to Florence. At 
 Florence, which was always my chief favourite, 
 on account both of the purity of it's dialect 
 and the talents of it's inhabitants, I spent about 
 two months ; and there I presently became ac- 
 quainted with many noble and literary charac- 
 ters, and constantly attended the private Aca- 
 demies,* judiciously instituted in that city for 
 the advancement of learning and the cementing 
 of friendships among it's votaries. Nor shall 
 any lapse of time efface the ever-pleasing, ever- 
 delightful remembrance of Giacomo Gaddi, 
 Carlo Dati, Frescobaldo, Cultellino, Buonmat- 
 tei, Clementillo, Francini,t and many others 
 
 * Of these, Venerorii enumerates 4 at Rome, 5 at Florence, 
 5 at Bologna, 3 at Venice, 4 at Padua, 3 at Naples, 1 at 
 Genoa, 3 at Sienna, 2 at Lucca, and 1 at Milan, Mantua, 
 Macerata, Alessandria, Ancona, Brescia, Cesena, Faibriano, 
 Faenza, Fermo, Ferrara, Parma, Pavia, Perugia, Treviso, Ve- 
 rona, Vicenza, Viterbo, and Urbino respectively — in all, 4$. 
 To many. of them Lassels, likewise, alludes in his c Voyage of 
 Italy/ 
 
 t By Francini Milton was addressed in an Italian ode, of 
 which after much noisy and trite panegyric Dr. Johnson thinks 
 the last stanza, implying f Come then, expressive Silence, muse 
 
112 milton's second defence. 
 
 from my breast. From Florence I proceeded 
 to Sienna, and thence to Rome. At the latter 
 place I was detained nearly two months by it's 
 antiquities, and the recollection of it's old re- 
 nown ; and there received the most flattering 
 attentions from Lucas Holstenius, and other 
 learned and ingenious men. Thence I con- 
 tinued my route to Naples ; and was there in- 
 troduced by a certain hermit, with whom I had 
 travelled from Rome, to Giovanni Battista 
 Manso, Marchese di Villa,* a person of the 
 highest birth and character, to whom Torquato 
 Tasso the illustrious Italian poet addressed his 
 c Dialogue on Friendship.' This nobleman re- 
 ceived and treated me during my stay with the 
 utmost friendship, conducted me himself through 
 the city and over the viceroy's palace, and 
 came more than once to visit me at my hotel : 
 making me a serious apology on my departure, 
 
 Ms praise/ natural and beautiful ; and by Carlo Dati lie was 
 presented with an encomiastic inscription, in the tumid lapidary 
 stile. In return, he couples those two illustrious Florentines 
 together in his ' Damon/ iv. 136 — 138, where see Warton's 
 note upon the latter, ib. p. 554. 
 
 * This nobleman, likewise, addressed to Milton " a sorry 
 distich" (Warton, ib. 411) commending him for every thing 
 but his religion ; and was remunerated by a Latin poem, the 
 ' Mansus/ which must have raised a high opinion of English 
 elegance and learning. 
 
 Both this and the < Epitapkium Damonis,' as well as the 
 c Ad Patrem,' are translated by Dr. Symmons (Life, pp. 153, 
 185,602.) 
 
milton's second defence. lis 
 
 for not having been able to pay me all the 
 attentions at Naples which he was most anxious 
 to have done, upon account of my not choosing 
 to be a little more upon my guard # on subjects 
 of religion. 
 
 As I was now preparing to pass over into 
 Sicily and Greece, the melancholy intelligence 
 from England of the civil war recalled me: for 
 I esteemed it dishonourable to be idly lingering 
 in foreign countries, even for the improvement 
 of my mind, when my fellow-citizens were 
 struggling for their liberty at home. 
 
 Intending to return to Rome, I was apprised 
 by some merchants (on the authority of their 
 correspondents) that the English Jesuits had 
 laid a plot against me, if I revisited that city in 
 my way home, for having expressed myself too 
 
 * He had neglected the injunction, I pensieri stretti. Milton 
 had, perhaps, given some offence by visiting Galileo (as he 
 himself informs us, in his ' Areopagitica') then " a prisoner 
 to the Inquisition for philosophical heresy." (Johnson.) This 
 would render his principles, at once, notorious and obnoxious. 
 His feelings with regard to the remaining part of his plan of 
 travel, which from a sense of public duty he thought himself 
 obliged to leave incomplete, are thus congenially imagined by 
 his biographer : " His fancy was, no doubt, strongly excited by 
 the approach of that time, when he was to tread the vales of 
 Enna and of Tempe ,* the plains, on which Gelon and Miltiades 
 had triumphed for the liberty of Greece over Carthage and 
 Persia ; the favoured spots, where Theocritus had charmed the 
 ear with his Doric melodies, and Euripides had drawn tears 
 with his pathetic scene." (Symmcns, p. 162.) 
 
 I 
 
114 BftLTCtt'S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 freely upon religious topics. I had in fact made 
 up my mind, not to introduce theological con- 
 versation while abroad ; but, if questioned by 
 others upon those subjects, at all hazards to 
 avow my opinions. Notwithstanding this friendly 
 caution, therefore, I returned to Rome ; made 
 no mystery of myself to any one who inquired 
 after me, and for almost two months more, in 
 the very capital of the Pope, whenever 1 was 
 attacked, vigorously defended the true Pro- 
 testant faith. By God's good providence, how- 
 ever, I again reached Florence in safety; and 
 found in it a reception as cordial, as if it had 
 been my native country. After passing there* 
 highly to my satisfaction, a period equal to that 
 of my first visit (with the exception of a few 
 days, spent in an excursion to Lucca) I crossed 
 the Apennines, and through Bologna and Fer- 
 rara came to Venice. Having given a month 
 to this city, and embarked the books which I 
 had collected in Italy on board a vessel for 
 England, I proceeded through Verona and 
 Milan, over the Pennine Alps and by the Leman 
 lake, to Geneva. 
 
 The name of Geneva, associated in my mind 
 with that of More my calumniator, induces me 
 here again to call heaven to witness that in all 
 those places, where so much licence is admitted, 
 I preserved myself wholly pure from all stain 
 and disgrace ; under a constant conviction that, 
 though I might escape the observation of man, 
 
 4 
 
Milton's second defence. 115 
 
 I was certainly exposed to the eye of God. 
 While I remained in that city, I was daily in 
 company with the very learned Professor of 
 Divinity, Giovanni Deodati.^ Thence, re- 
 tracing my former road through France, after 
 an absence of nearly fifteen months I reached 
 England, about the time when Charles was 
 beginning the second or c Bishops' War* against 
 Scotland ;t in the very first engagement of 
 which seeing his forces defeated, and perceiving 
 all his subjects deservedly and most deeply dis- 
 affected to him, under the compulsion of hard 
 necessity and much against his inclination he 
 shortly afterward called a parliament. 
 
 Upon my arrival, looking around for some 
 place to settle in, if that indeed in the then-dis- 
 turbed and fluctuating state of things were pos- 
 sible, I hired a house of considerable size for 
 myself and my books in the capital, t and re- 
 
 * This name will recall to the reader's recollection one of 
 Milton's most cherished youthful friends, Charles Deodati, 
 nephew of the learned theologian mentioned in the text, to 
 whom he addressed two beautiful Latin Elegies. Of these 
 the Second, in particular, of which my version has already 
 been inserted in Dr. Symmons' often-quoted biography, may 
 be referred to as a sample of elegant and highly classical Latin 
 composition. 
 
 t From the Scottish rebellion, of 1637, Milton dates the 
 commencement of the civil war of England ; which however, 
 more correctly speaking, should be assigned to 1642. 
 
 % In St. Bride's Church- Yard. Of his successive abodes 
 Johnson observes ; <f I cannot but remark a kind of respect, 
 
 I 2 
 
116 milton's second defence. 
 
 sumed with transport my long-suspended stu- 
 dies ; cheerfully leaving the management of 
 public affairs to God, and under him to those, 
 whom the people had delegated for that pur- 
 pose. The Parliament in the meanwhile acting 
 with vigour, the pride of the Bishops fell. Every 
 mouth opened upon them, as soon as liberty of 
 Speech was first granted, some attacking the 
 
 perhaps unconsciously, paid to this great man by his biographers. 
 3Every house, in which he resided, is historically mentioned, as 
 if it were an injury to neglect naming any place that he 
 honoured by his presence." They were in Aldersgate Street, 
 Barbican, High Holborn (the back part opening into Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields) in 1647., Charing Cross and Scotland Yard upon 
 his official appointment in 1649, Petty France (opening into 
 St. James's Park) from 1652 to the Restoration; a friend's in 
 Bartholomew's Close near West Smithfield for four months, 
 Holborn near Red Lion Square, Jewin Street near Aldersgate 
 Street in 1662, Millington's the auctioneer, and soon after- 
 ward Artillery Walk adjoining Bunhill Fields till his death in 
 1674. They were, most of them, ' garden-houses.' 
 
 A similar compliment has been paid to Johnson by Boswell ; 
 and the author of the above observation has himself been 
 traced to 1. Exeter Street, off Catherine Street, Strand; 2. 
 Greenwich; 3. Woodstock Street, near Hanover Square; 4. 
 Castle Street, Cavendish Square ; 5. The Strand ; 6. Boswell 
 Court; 7. Strand; 8. Bow Street; 9- Holborn; 10. Fetter 
 Lane; 11. Holborn; 12. Gough Square; 13. Staple Inn; 
 14. Gray's Inn; 15. Inner Temple Lane, 1; 16. Johnson's 
 Court, 7; 17. Bolt Court, 8. 
 
 The Rev. Perceval Stockdale has justly incurred some critical 
 sneers for having thought it necessary, in his autobiography, to 
 trace with precision the places, where his various pieces were 
 respectively composed. 
 
milton's second defence. 11*7 
 
 faults of individuals, and some the faulty con* 
 stitution of the order itself; and pronouncing it 
 highly unjust, that they alone should differ from 
 the whole of the Reformed Churches abroad, 
 and be governed upon any other principles than 
 those of brethren, or rather those laid down in 
 the Word of God. Roused by these remon* 
 strants, and observing them treading the right 
 way to liberty, as the general emancipation of 
 mankind is best ushered in by a due correction 
 of religious abuses, extending thence to such as 
 are of a moral and political nature ; having 
 likewise from my youth upward laboured above 
 all things to acquire a knowledge of law divine 
 and human, and reflecting that if I now deserted 
 my country, her church, and her ministers in 
 their distresses incurred for the sake of the 
 gospel, I might never hereafter have it in my 
 power to render her any service ; I determined, 
 though I was then projecting some other works, 
 to exert all my faculties and industry in their 
 behalf. 
 
 My first publication consisted of two books, 
 addressed to a friend, c Of Reformation touch- 
 ing Church-Government in England.' After 
 this, when two Bishops* of high reputation 
 
 * Bishop Hall, whose treatise bore the title of f An humble 
 Remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament : ' and Arch- 
 bishop Usher, who denominated his work c The Apostolical 
 Institution of Episcopacy.' 
 
 The Ministers mentioned in this passage were Stephen Mar* 
 
118 
 
 stood forward to assert the rights of their order 
 against some ministers of considerable distinc- 
 tion, thinking that I could surely write upon 
 subjects which I had studied from the pure love 
 of truth and Christian duty, at least as well as 
 those who were defending their own gainful and 
 unjust hierarchy, I replied to one of them 
 [Usher] in two pieces (entitled respectively, 
 * Of Prelatical Episcopacy/ and ' The Reason 
 of Church-Government urged against Prelacy') 
 and to the other [Hall] by c Animadversions 
 on the Remonstrant's Defence,' and soon after- 
 ward by c An Apology for Smectymnuus ;' in 
 which I supported the five ministers " lying at 
 
 shall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young (Milton's quondam 
 tutor, See Symmons, p. 50, not. m.) Matthew Newcomen, and 
 William Spurstow ; five presbyterian divines, who wrote con- 
 junctively a pamphlet called, by an appellation formed from the 
 initial letters of their names, * Smectymnuus/ This drew from 
 Bishop Hall, the ilium of the text, ' A Defence of the Remon- 
 strance ;" and it was in angry opposition to this latter work, not 
 to the Remonstrance itself, that Milton published his e Animad- 
 versions,' &c. : a tract, throughout which te there prevails a 
 grim smile, sharpening and aggravating the offence." 
 
 The Translator does not think it necessary, in this place, to 
 encounter his author's reasonings upon the subject. 
 
 Bishop Hall was denominated * the Christian Seneca/ He 
 wrote f Episcopacy by Divine Right,' c Meditations,' and six 
 books of Satires under the Title of f Virgidemiarum? which 
 rank high in merit (three of them * toothless/ and three ex- 
 tremely 'biting') beside numerous other works. Jt may be 
 added, to his credit, that he very judiciously opposed the prac- 
 tice of burying in churches. 
 
milton's second defence. 119 
 
 the mercy of his coy and flurting stile ;" and, 
 thenceforward, upon every rejoinder of theirs I 
 took up the pen. 
 
 The Bishops having at length sunk under the 
 universal hostility, and left me disengaged in 
 that quarter, I turned my thoughts into a differ- 
 ent direction ; anxious as I exclusively was to 
 advance the interests of true substantial liberty, 
 which is to be sought not abroad but at home, 
 and to be attained not by war and bloodshed, 
 but by right principles and correct conduct. 
 Perceiving then that there were three kinds of 
 liberty, all essential to the comfort of human 
 life, viz. Religious, Domestic or Private, and 
 Political ; and having already written upon the 
 first, while the civil magistrate (I observed) was 
 strenuously exerting himself in promoting the 
 last, I undertook to examine the second, as the 
 only remaining branch which required discus- 
 sion. This, too, appearing to divide itself into 
 three parts ; the harmony of the wedded state, 
 the proper education of children, and the un- 
 disturbed privilege of pursuing philosophical in- 
 quiries — 1 explained my opinions, not only on 
 the contracting, but also (if circumstances ren- 
 dered it necessary) the dissolving of marriage ; 
 opinions formed upon the divine law, which 
 Christ did not at any time supersede, certainly 
 not by substituting another more grievous 
 than the whole Mosaic code in it's place. 
 As to what was to be understood likewise by 
 
120 
 
 the special exception of fornication, I delivered 
 both my own judgement and that of others ; 
 which our illustrious Selden in his c Hebrew- 
 Wife/ a treatise of greater length published 
 about two years afterward, fully confirmed. 
 Vainly, indeed, does he brag of liberty in pub- 
 lic, who is held in a state of unmanly bondage 
 by an inferior in his own house. Upon this 
 subject therefore I published some tracts, as 
 thinking them peculiarly adapted to a period, 
 when man and wife were often seen rancorously 
 espousing different sides; the first with his chil- 
 dren at home, and the latter breathing death 
 and destruction against her husband in the 
 enemy's camp. 
 
 I next wrote a brief c Tractate on Educa- 
 tion'* in a small volume, large enough how- 
 ever, in my judgement, for such as bestowed 
 due diligence upon the subject — a subject most 
 powerfully calculated to imbue the human mind 
 with virtue, the true source of genuine inward 
 freedom, and to secure the welfare and the 
 duration of states. 
 
 Finally, I composed the < Areopagitica, or 
 A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Print- 
 ing ;\ to the end that the distinguishing between 
 truth and falsehood, and deciding what should 
 be published and what not, might no longer re- 
 
 * This was addressed, in the form of a letter, to the learned 
 and patriotic ' Master Samuel Hartlib ; ' to whom Sir William 
 Petty, afterward, inscribed one of his first works. 
 
 
milton's second defence. 121 
 
 main in the breasts of a few (and those, gene- 
 rally, men of little learning or judgement) who 
 were appointed Licensers of Books, and de- 
 prived almost all such, as classed in intellect 
 above the vulgar* of both the power and the 
 will to give their studies to the world, f 
 
 Political liberty, the last division of the three, 
 I had not touched upon, as being sufficiently 
 guarded by the civil power : neither did I write 
 
 * An account of this Tract, and copious extracts from it, are 
 given by Dr. Symmons, pp. 259 — 267- One of them, for it's 
 uncommon splendor, I cannot so far deny myself as to withhold 
 from the reader. After referring to the sprightly vigour of a 
 people " casting off the old and wrinkled skin of corruption, 
 waxing young again, entering the glorious ways of truth and 
 prosperous virtue, and destined to become great and honourable 
 in these latter days " — " Me thinks I see in my mind," exclaims 
 this enthusiastic advocate of freedom in a strong burst of elo- 
 quence, " a noble and puissant nation rousing herself, like the 
 strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks : me- 
 thinks I see her, as an eagle, muing her mighty youth, and 
 kindled her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam ; purging 
 and unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of 
 heavenly radiance, while the whole noise of timorous and flock- 
 ing birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about 
 amazed at what she means ;" &c. 
 
 " Though all the winds of doctrine (he, elsewhere, observes) 
 were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, 
 we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her 
 strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple : Who ever knew 
 Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter ? " 
 
 Again : " I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, 
 unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her 
 adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal gar- 
 land is to be run for— not without dust and heat." 
 
122 milton's second defence. 
 
 a single syllable on the Royal Prerogative, till 
 the King had been proclaimed an enemy by the 
 Parliament, and conquered, and tried, and con- 
 demned to death. Then however at last, when 
 some Presbyterian ministers, who had before 
 been most vehement against Charles, resenting 
 now the popularity and parliamentary ascen- 
 dency of the Independents, began to remon- 
 strate against the sentence passed upon the 
 King (provoked, in fact, not that the thing was 
 done, but that it had not been done by them- 
 selves) and, with a view of raising commotions, 
 turbulently ventured to affirm that the Protest- 
 ant doctrine and all the Reformed Churches 
 strongly reprobated it's severity ; thinking that 
 such an open falsehood should be as openly 
 contradicted, I came forward to show in the 
 abstract, without any specific reference even 
 then to Charles, by a number of testimonies 
 from eminent divines, how it was generally 
 lawful to treat tyrants ; and chastised, almost 
 with the freedom of a public discourse, the 
 egregious ignorance or impudence of those, who 
 had recently affected better things.* This work 
 
 * This Tract was entitled, ' The Tenure of Kings and 
 Magistrates, proving that it is lawful, and hath been held so 
 through all ages, for any who have the power, to call to account 
 a tyrant or wicked king ; and after due conviction, to depose 
 and put him to death, if the ordinary magistrate have neglected 
 or denied to do it.' 
 
 Of Milton's bitterness against Presbyterianism, we have 
 
milton's second defence. 123 
 
 did not make it's appearance till after the King's 
 death, and was adapted rather to " compose the 
 minds of the people," than to suggest any 
 decision respecting Charles ; a decision, which 
 belonged to the magistrate, not to me, and 
 which had already indeed been carried into 
 effect. 
 
 Such were my alternate labours, in my own 
 house, for the Church and for the Common- 
 wealth : and for these I received nothing from 
 either party, except personal safety, in return. 
 To the works themselves, however, I certainly 
 owe many gratifying recollections, a good name 
 among the good, and this honourable privilege 
 of relating their history. While others without 
 any merit were engrossing emoluments and 
 honours, no one ever saw me soliciting any 
 thing either personally or by my friends, with a, 
 petitioning eye rivetted on the doors of the 
 parliament-house, or a foot glued to the threshold 
 of inferior assemblies. On the other hand, I 
 usually kept at home, and supported almost ex- 
 cessive imposts and an establishment — of the 
 most frugal description, in truth — by my own 
 
 abundant proofs in his Lycidas, vv. 114 (see the latter part of 
 Warton's note)— 129, and Sonnet xvi. ; where that commen- 
 tator informs us, " by hireling wolves he means the Pres- 
 byterian clergy, who possessed the revenues of the parochial 
 benefices on the old constitution, and whose conformity he 
 supposes to be founded altogether on motives of emolument." 
 The whole note is worth reading. 
 
124 
 
 income, which yet was often greatly reduced by 
 these civil disturbances. 
 
 This affair finished, and concluding that I 
 should thenceforth have abundance of leisure, I 
 sat down to compose, as well as I might be 
 able, a regular History of the nation from it's 
 remotest origin to the present times \ and had 
 already finished four books,* when I was most 
 unexpectedly summoned by the Council of 
 State, as it is called, then first constituted by 
 the authority of Parliament (the realm having 
 been modelled into the form of a Common- 
 wealth) and engaged in their service, particu- 
 larly in what related to Foreign Affairs. t 
 
 Soon afterward appeared a publication, as- 
 cribed to the late King, and written with a most 
 invidious design against the Parliament ; to 
 which I was appointed to draw up a reply. % 
 
 * These four books, of c the History of England/ conduct 
 the narrative to the Union of the Heptarchy under Egbert; 
 and the last two, written in his next pause from controversial 
 asperity, when he had crushed the interfering insolence of 
 More, bring it no lower than to the battle of Hastings. Some 
 of it's most spirited and brilliant passages were rejected by the 
 barbarian caprice of the licenser, previously to it's publication 
 in 1670. 
 
 f As Latin Secretary, or according to the full superscription 
 of Marvell's letter to him, « Secretary for the Foreign Affairs.* 
 
 % After what Dr. Symmons has briefly stated in his c Life of 
 Milton,' and Laing in his ' History of Scotland,' (III. 406 — 
 408, and Not. xiv. 530 — 544.) it may, without much presump- 
 tion, be concluded that " no one will henceforward venture to 
 
milton's second defence. 125 
 
 Accordingly, I encountered the c Icon I with 
 the ^ Iconoclast es ; 9 not, as is alleged by my 
 enemies, ' insulting the royal memory/ but 
 preferring the majesty of truth to his majesty 
 King Charles. Foreseeing, indeed, that such 
 a calumny would be in every slanderer's mouth* 
 both in the exordium and wherever else it was 
 in my power I endeavoured to obviate the im- 
 putation. Upon this, Saumaise stepped forth ; 
 to whom they were so far from being c long 
 (as More affirms) in providing an answer,' that 
 I, who happened also to be then present, was 
 instantly named to that employment by every 
 one in Council. 
 
 Thus far, More, have I given an account of 
 myself, in order to stop your mouth and con- 
 fute your falsehoods ; chiefly with a view to 
 the information of those respectable characters, 
 who have had no other opportunity of knowing 
 c who and what I am.' Curb then, More, to ex- 
 press myself indelicately,* curb that indecent 
 tongue of yours. Silence, I say : for the more 
 you rail at me, the more you make it necessary 
 for me to enter into my own vindication ; 
 whence arises nothing but a clearer detection 
 
 defend the authority of the Icon" But, as Mr. L. observes,, 
 " if ever a literary imposture were excusable, it was undoubt- 
 edly Gauden's, and had it appeared a week sooner, it might 
 have preserved the King." 
 * 4>i^<y^}jT<, Obmutesce. . 
 
126 milton's second defence. 
 
 of your calumnies, and a more satisfactory ex- 
 hibition of my integrity. 
 
 I had censured Saumaise for intruding him- 
 self, a stranger and a foreigner, into the affairs 
 of the English people. To this you pertly 
 reply, that those, who are least concerned with 
 England, are most concerned to undertake the De- 
 fence in question. And why ? Because, forsooth, 
 the English may he supposed to act more under 
 the influence of a spirit of party ; whereas the 
 French, it is probable, will have respect to mea- 
 sures, and not to men! To this I rejoin as before, 
 that no distant foreigner, like yourself, would 
 think of plunging himself without a bribe into 
 the affairs of another people, especially when 
 those affairs were in a state of commotion. I 
 have already proved, that Saumaise was hired 
 to the job : that you were aspiring to a pro- 
 fessor's chair through the interest of Saumaise 
 and the Orange-faction, is equally notorious ; 
 and then, still more to your disgrace, you defame 
 Parliament, and debauch Pontia. Your reason 
 too, for thinking c foreigners most concerned 
 to undertake this Defence/ is perfectly ridicu- 
 lous : for, admitting the English to be c under 
 the influence of a spirit of party' — what do you 
 do, who' from them derive all your information, 
 but simply transfer their passions to yourselves ? 
 So that, if they may not be trusted in their own 
 cause, still fewer claims to confidence rest with 
 you ; who apprehend, or at least admit, nothing 
 
milton's second defence. 12? 
 
 relative to that cause, except what you have 
 collected from persons, upon your own state- 
 ment scarcely worthy of credit. 
 
 Here again, you launch out into the praises of 
 the 'great' Saumaise; c great/ indeed, in your 
 estimation, when you made him a kind of pimp 
 to his own maid ? You praise him, however : so 
 did he not you. On the contrary, upon his 
 death-bed he expressed his detestation of you, 
 and often and severely reproached himself for 
 not having believed Spanheim, that most re- 
 spectable divine, when he informed him what a 
 reprobate you were. 
 
 Now, in a fit of phrensy, you relinquish all 
 argument ; for Saumaise, long ago, exhausted the 
 argumentative part. You claim only the office 
 of bellowing, and foaming at the mouth ; and 
 yet even here you vail the bonnet to Saumaise, 
 not for his virulence of language, hut because 
 he is — Saumaise ! Such are the happy conceits, 
 which we owe to you mooring by the side of 
 Pontia! Hence, I say, has your c cry* acquired 
 it's billing and cooing tone : and hence, too, it's 
 tone of menace, when you exclaim ; Ye shall 
 feel, filthy beasts, the force of our literary 
 weapons! Shall we feel you, you minion of 
 maids and of wives -, or your weapon, which is 
 only formidable to maids, and which at the very 
 sight of a pillory or a ducking-stool you would 
 think yourself particularly lucky to carry off in 
 safety. / am not (you say) w empty -headed, as 
 
128 Milton's second defence. 
 
 to obtrude myself upon a department undertaken 
 by Saumaise : a department, in fact, which 
 without 5 an empty head' he never would have 
 undertaken ; so that in empty-headedness you 
 rate yourself below c the great Saumaise/ 
 
 But, as even the unlearned ought to lift up 
 6 the Cry of the Royal Blood to heaven' you 
 venture to assert your privilege. c Cry' then, 
 bawl, vociferate ; pursue your hypocrisies : 
 affect the sanctity of a devotee-, and lead the 
 life of a debauchee. The God of vengeance, 
 trust me, whom you so often invoke, will at last 
 arise ; and arise to your confusion, you imp of 
 the devil, you abominable disgrace and pest of 
 the Reformed Church. 
 
 ■ In answer to the numerous charges of scur- 
 rility, adduced against Saumaise, you say; So- 
 parricides, the basest of monsters, ought to be 
 dealt with. Thank you for supplying us with 
 weapons, and accommodating us at once with a 
 hint how they ought to be used against you and 
 such traitors as you, and with an apology for 
 such use of them. 
 
 Since, then, reason is out of the question (for 
 that you do not venture upon, pretending that 
 c the argument on the subject of the Royal Pre- 
 rogative has been exhausted by Saumaise ') you 
 unreasonably turn from your frantic strain of 
 invective to some pitiful stories, an appropriate 
 sequel to the Very,' which you have set up 
 from the beginning; partly re-cast from Sau- 
 
milton's second defence. 129 
 
 Biaise, and partly transcribed and interpolated 
 from that most scrubby anonymous scribbler,* 
 who left not only his country, but his name be- 
 hind him! To these, to the principal parts of 
 them at least, I have already so replied either in 
 the c Iconoclastes,' or in my answers to Saumaise, 
 that short of the bulk of a complete history I 
 can take no farther notice of them. Must I 
 always be compelled to run the same dull 
 round, and to repeat over and over again, what 
 I have so often stated before, at every black- 
 guard's hissing ? No. I will not so mis-employ 
 either my labour, or my leisure. Should any 
 one give credit to the hired howling and studied 
 tears of this venal hypocrite, and to those feeble 
 declamations of his, adulterated and bastardised 
 by his intrigue with a servant girl and fit twins 
 of his little spurious Morell, I have no kind of 
 objection to it ; for our party can have nothing 
 to fear from such a rash and credulous fool. I 
 shall just, however, touch slightly upon a few 
 heads, as a sample of the rest, in order to show 
 briefly the character of both the fellow and his 
 work. 
 
 After babbling a great deal of exotic absur- 
 dity about combining the House of Commons 
 and the House of Peers into one body (a propo- 
 sition, to which no man in his senses would 
 ever object) in order to advance from equality 
 
 K 
 
ISO milton's second defence* 
 
 in the State to equality in the Church— for the 
 order of Bishops ivas then in existence— if this 
 he not sheer Anabaptism (he observes) I have 
 nothing farther to say. Who could have ex- 
 pected a sentence like this from a divine, and a 
 minister of the Gallican Church ? He who, ' if 
 this be not sheer Anabaptism, has nothing far- 
 ther to say/ can hardly be able to say a whit 
 more distinctly what Baptism is. If we would 
 call things by their proper names, equality in 
 the State is not Anabaptism, but Democracy, a 
 far older thing ; and in the Church, particularly 
 an Established Church, is the Apostolic dis- 
 cipline. But c the order of Bishops was then in 
 existence.' So it w r as too at Geneva, when that 
 state from a religious motive expelled it's 
 Bishop, who was likewise it's legitimate princeo 
 If this was their glory, why should it be our 
 disgrace? I can see, More, through your ob- 
 ject. You are revenging yourself upon the 
 Genevese, whose vote left it problematical whe- 
 ther you were ignominiously sent off, or actu- 
 ally expelled from that church. It is obvious 
 therefore that you, as well as your boasted 
 Saumaise, have apostatised from this evangelical 
 system of church-discipline, and (were the thing 
 of sufficient moment to be noted) have gone 
 over to the Bishops. 
 
 The commonwealth then* (you say) adopted 
 
 * 1641— 164£, 
 
milton's second defence. 131 
 
 our clerical equality ; a full proof, thai the same 
 spirit was at that time in high vigour, which 
 eight years of terward put a finishing hand to the 
 business by the impious parricide of the King. 
 Thus the same spirit, it seems, presided in the 
 constitution of your ministers, and in parri- 
 cide ! Go on; I entreat you, as you have 
 begun, to bellow out the ravings of apostasy. 
 
 They could not scrape together (you affirm) 
 more than three petitions for the King's execu- 
 tion. This is notoriously, and to my own know- 
 ledge completely, false. Our historians expressly 
 record that not only * three petitions' of this 
 kind, but a great many from different counties 
 and parts of the army were presented within 
 little more than a month, and three in one day ! 
 You see, then, with how much deliberation the 
 parliament proceeded in this matter, when the 
 people, from a suspicion of their excessive 
 lenity, thought it necessary to spur them for- 
 ward by so many entreaties. And how many 
 thousands, think you, were there of the same 
 sentiments, who might deem it either impor- 
 tunate or superfluous to press parliament upon 
 a subject, at that moment under it's serious 
 discussion ; of which number I was one, and 
 yet my wish on the occasion is sufficiently ob- 
 vious! And what, if all had been awed into 
 silence by the importance of the affair ! Must 
 the parliament therefore have suspended it's 
 decision, in expectation that the people by some 
 
 k 2 
 
132 milton's second defence. 
 
 intimation of their will would regulate the issue 
 of such an interesting inquiry ? What, indeed, 
 but an absolute surrender of our brave deliver- 
 ers to the tyrant would have been the conse- 
 quence ; had the Supreme Council of the State, 
 delegated by the people at large for the express 
 purpose of controlling the wanton despotism of 
 the King, after subduing his hostile fury in the 
 field, thought it necessary on the subject of his 
 execution to recur to the popular suffrages, 
 which might perhaps have pronounced his ac- 
 quittal ? Or where would be an end of refer- 
 ences backward and forward, should those who 
 have received the power of deciding upon 
 affairs of the greatest moment, particularly such 
 as exceed the comprehension of the lower 
 classes, be constrained to refer back, I do not 
 say to the people (for, so constituted, they are 
 themselves the people) but to the mob, those 
 things which from a consciousness of it's in- 
 capacity the mob had previously referred to 
 them ? What firm anchorage could there be, in 
 an eddy like this ? What stability among such a 
 heap of petitions, subscribed by nobody knows 
 whom ? What security amidst such fluctuations ? 
 What would have been the result, had they pe- 
 titioned for the restoration of Charles ; which 
 some disaffected persons indeed did, not with 
 entreaties but with threats : to the full as absurd 
 and as malignant in their pity, as in their re- 
 sentment? Was any attention due to characters 
 
milton's second defence* 133 
 
 bf this description, who crowding from their 
 different milages, and besetting (as you say) in 
 vast numbers the doors of the parliament-house, 
 to insist upon a conference with the King, were 
 many of them slain by the soldiery under the 
 direction of the Commons ? The simple fact is ; 
 some peasants out of Surrey, either by the 
 seditious impulse of others as mere rustics, or 
 from their own turbulent dispositions, paraded 
 drunk through the city with their petition, 
 much more like a set of wassailers than of pe- 
 titioners : they afterward fiercely beset in a 
 body the doors of the parliament-house, drove 
 the sentinels from their posts, and killed one of 
 them at the very entrance, before any thing had 
 been either said or done to provoke them. 
 They were then, however, attacked and com- 
 pelled to retire ; yet with only the loss of two 
 or three of their crew, and those with British 
 spirits rather than British spirit in their 
 mouths.* 
 
 You every where admit, that the party of 
 the Independents was superior to the other, not in 
 number, but in judgement and military talent. 
 Hence, I contend, they amply deserved their 
 ascendency ; for nothing is more natural, or 
 equitable, or indeed more generally expedient 
 
 * One can hardly help feeling a little surprise, that some jeu 
 de mot founded upon the different meanings of Liber did not 
 occur to our punning controversialist ! 
 
134 milton's second defence. 
 
 for society, than that the less should be sub- 
 ordinate to the greater : I speak not of greater 
 or less, as estimated by numbers, but by 6 judge- 
 ment and talent/ The prudent, the expe- 
 rienced, the active, and the good — these, how- 
 ever few in numbers, constitute ever in my 
 opinion, as to the weight and value of their 
 suffrages;, the majority. 
 
 You here and there say a great deal about 
 Cromwell, which shall be examined below : to 
 your other observations I have already replied, 
 in my * Answer to Saumaise.' 
 
 You venture also upon the King's trial, though 
 it had already been handled, most miserably in- 
 deed, in the way of declamation, by your great 
 rhetorician. The peers (you observe) that is, 
 the courtiers chiefly and ministers of state, 
 were averse from bringing the King to his 
 trial. This, as I have shown in a former work, 
 was a matter of very little consequence. The 
 ?iames of the regular Judges were next erased, 
 as having pronounced such trial illegal: What 
 they then pronounced, I know not ; but I know 
 what they now approve and defend. Besides, 
 it is no new thing, however disreputable, that 
 Judges should be cowards. A president there- 
 fore of suitable qualifications, a lozv-bom insolent 
 blockhead, is placed over this base and profligate 
 court. And can you, stained with so many 
 crimes and vices — nay, an absolute blot, an en- 
 tire lump of guilt — can you have become sq 
 
milton's second defence. 135 
 
 callous in your intellect and senses, if indeed 
 your intellect be not one complete callus, as 
 to dare (atheist, and profaner of every thing 
 sacred, as you are) to blaspheme God, and 
 calumniate every good man ? What is this to 
 be, but a genuine Iscariot, a very devil himself I 
 Though your censure however is the highest 
 commendation, yet will I not be wanting to my 
 most excellent and ever highly-valued friend, 
 against whom you thus bark ; but defend him 
 from those unprincipled assaults of vagabonds 
 and knaves,* to which but for his patriotism he 
 would never have been exposed. 
 
 John Bradshaw (a name consecrated by 
 Liberty, in every country where her power is ac- 
 knowledged, to immortal renown) is descended, 
 as it is generally known, of a noble family. 
 Hence he devoted the early part of his life to 
 the study of the laws of his country ; and then 
 becoming a profound lawyer, a most eloquent 
 advocate, and an inflexible asserter of freedom 
 and the rights of the people, he both engaged 
 in the more important affairs of the state, 
 and frequently discharged with unimpeachable 
 
 * Mororum. For an account of e the resolute but mistaken 
 republicanism of Bradshaw,' and an Inscription to his memory, 
 see Dr. S. pp. 309 — 316. The details of the trial over which 
 he presided, and it's issue, are well recorded by Laing, iii. 398° 
 The Stuartising Hume, indeed (vii. 139, 8vo. Ed.) and Lord 
 Clarendon (iii. 245, &c. 8vo. Ed.) give us a very different 
 picture of his conduct 
 
 
136 milton's second defence. 
 
 integrity the duties of a judge. When at 
 length he was solicited by the parliament to 
 preside at the trial of the King, he did not 
 shrink from this most perilous commission : for 
 to the service of the law he had brought a 
 liberal disposition, a lofty spirit, and sincere 
 and unoffending manners ; and, thus qualified, 
 he supported and satisfied that great and un- 
 precedentedly-fearful office, exposed to the 
 threats and daggers of innumerable assassins, 
 with so much firmness, so much weight of 
 manner, and such presence and dignity of mind, 
 that he seemed to have been formed and ap- 
 pointed expressly by the Deity himself for the 
 performance of 4;his very deed, which the Divine 
 Providence had of old decreed to be accom- 
 plished in this nation : and so far has he sur- 
 passed the glory of all tyrannicides, as it is 
 more humane, more just, and more noble to 
 try a tyrant, than without trial to put him to 
 death. Though in general neither gloomy nor 
 severe, but gentle and placid, he yet sustains 
 with unfaltering dignity the character, which he 
 has borne ; and uniformly consistent with him- 
 self, appears like a consul, from whom the 
 fasces are not to depart with the year : * so that 
 not on the tribunal alone, but throughout his 
 whole life, you would regard him as sitting in 
 
 * Consutyue non unius anni. 
 
 (Hor. Od. IV. ix. 39.) 
 
milton's second defence. 137 
 
 judgement upon kings. Unwearied beyond all 
 €thers, and singly equal to a multitude, in his 
 labours for the public ; in domestic life, to the 
 utmost stretch of his power, he is hospitable 
 and splendid: amidst all the vicissitudes of 
 fortunes a most faithful and steadfast friend ; 
 and instant and eager to acknowledge merit, 
 wherever it is discovered, as well as most muni- 
 ficent to reward it. The pious, the learned, the 
 eminent in every walk of genius, the soldier 
 and the hero, are either relieved by his wealth, 
 if in distress ; or, if otherwise, are cherished by 
 his kind attentions and regard. Delighted to 
 dwell on the praises of others, he studiously 
 suppresses his own : and so great is his placa- 
 bility, that it is readily extended (as the expe- 
 rience of numbers has ascertained) to any of 
 the public enemies, who from a sense of their 
 errors have reverted to reason. If the cause of 
 the oppressed is openly to be asserted, if the in- 
 fluence or power of the mighty is to be con- 
 trolled, if the public ingratitude toward any 
 meritorious individual is to be arraigned, in this 
 great man will no deficiency of eloquence or of 
 perseverance be found : in him the client will 
 possess an advocate and a friend, by his intre- 
 pidity and his oratory suited to all his wants ; 
 one, whom no threats can divert from the 
 straight path, whom neither intimidation nor 
 bribes can bend from the uprightness of duty, 
 
138 milton's second defence. 
 
 or for an instant deject from the conscious firm- 
 ness of his countenance and the determined 
 attitude of his mind. 
 
 These are the virtues, which render him de- 
 servedly dear to most, and to his greatest ene- 
 mies far from an object of contempt ; and these 
 will perpetuate to foreign nations and to future 
 ages the fame of his great civil exertions, when 
 you, More, and such as you shall have burst 
 with envy at his renown. But to proceed. 
 
 The King is condemned to death. Every 
 pulpit in London thunders against this frantic 
 decision. This wooden thunder of yours is not 
 very alarming. We have no fear of those Sal- 
 moneuses, who will at one time or other dearly 
 pay for their fictitious and usurped bolts. 
 Respectable and honest gentlemen, in truth ! 
 who not long before from the very same pulpits 
 thundered as loudly against Pluralists and Non- 
 residents ; and presently, when they had pil- 
 laged the Prelates (after scaring them away by 
 their rumbling) of three or four benefices a- 
 piece, and were of course become Non-Resi- 
 dents themselves, incurred the identical crime 
 against which they had been hurling their bolt, 
 and were each struck by his own thunder. And 
 of all this they are not yet ashamed ! They are, 
 at present, engrossed in establishing their claim 
 to tithes ; and if such be indeed their rage for 
 them, I think they ought themselves to be 
 
milton's second defence. 139 
 
 tithed ; and to have not only the tithe-sheaf, 
 but the tithe-wave,* for their portion. These 
 men at first recommended taking up arms 
 against the King, as a nefarious public enemy ; 
 and then, when he was captured, and convicted 
 of the carnage and bloodshed which they them- 
 selves had so often laid to his charge, they 
 wished him to be spared — as a King! Thus 
 perched in their pulpits, like a set of auctioneers, 
 they puff off what articles and trumpery they 
 choose upon the populace ; and, what is much 
 worse, after they have so puffed them off, when- 
 ever they choose, they reclaim them. 
 
 But the Scots demanded, that the King should 
 be given up to them again, and allege the pro- 
 mises made to them by the parliament at the 
 time of his delivery. That no such * promises * 
 were at that time c made,' I can prove ; and 
 most disgraceful, indeed, would it have been to 
 recover the King only conditionally from a 
 horde of Scottish mercenaries. Besides, the 
 very reply of the parliament to their represen- 
 tations, March 15, 1647, most distinctly affirms 
 
 * Fructus and Jluctus are here made to jingle in the original. 
 Ovid somewhere mentions, as the largest, the wave posterior 
 nono undecimoque prior. On the conduct of the ' Pluralists 
 and Non-residents' above mentioned, we have two Notes by 
 Warton, Lycid. 114, and Sonn. xvi. 14. (Min. Poem.) The- 
 valuable ' Memoirs of the Life of Col. Hutchinson,' lately 
 published, abound with severe and deserved invectives upon the 
 same subject. See II. 94, 160, &c. 
 
I4Q milton's second defence. 
 
 that no ' promise was made,' as to the mode of 
 treating the King. They justly deemed it be- 
 neath them, to stipulate for their rights with the 
 Scots upon any such condition. 
 
 They certainly however demanded, that the 
 King should be given up to them again. Tender 
 souls ! They were quite broken-hearted ; and 
 could not any longer support the longing for 
 their King 1 Yet these very men at the beginning 
 of our British disturbances had more than once, 
 after a full parliamentary discussion, unani- 
 mously determined that a King might be 
 cashiered* on three particular grounds, viz. for 
 tyranny, alienation of the royal domains, and 
 abdication; and about the year 1645, in a par- 
 liament held at Perth, had proposed the ques- 
 tion ; c Whether a King, notoriously disaffected 
 to the Saints, might not be excommunicated ?' 
 But, pending the inquiry, Montrose with his 
 troops advanced to that city, and broke up the 
 convention. These very men too, in one of 
 their answers to General Cromwell in 1650, 
 confess that c the King was justly punished ; 
 though the forms of procedure against him, on 
 account of their non-participation in the busi- 
 ness, were defective.' The deed then, without 
 them horrible, would with them have been 
 
 * See Burke's ' Reflexions on the French Revolution,' where 
 misconduct is the sweeping term assigned as the alleged ground 
 for cashiering a sovereign. 
 
mtlton's second DEFENCE. 142 
 
 honourable ! On their nod, right and wrong de- 
 pended ! They were to define, for us, what was 
 just and unjust ! And what milder sentence 
 would they themselves, I pray, have pronounced, 
 had c the King been given up to them again ? * 
 But the first answer which the Scottish Co?n~ 
 missioners received from the English parliament 
 was, that c they would not consent to change the 
 form of the English government ;' whereas they 
 subsequently replied that, ' though they had then 
 refused, they were now willing to do it, in order 
 to preserve the state from ruin' And they re- 
 plied rightly. What do you infer hence ? These 
 quirks (you say) are fatal to all compacts, to all. 
 intercourse, and even to common sense itself J* 
 Yes, to yours they are fatal, as you don't seem 
 to know the distinction between free promises 
 and positive engagements. The English at first 
 stated freely in their answer to the Scots, who 
 had no claim upon them for explanation on the 
 subject, what they had at that time determined 
 with regard to the future constitution of the 
 state. The ' preservation of that state from 
 ruin' appeared to them, afterwards, to demand 
 a different policy, if they meant to fulfil their 
 engagement and oath to the people, of whom 
 they were the representatives. Which, think 
 you, was the holier bond of obligation ; the free 
 answer at first given to the Scottish Commis- 
 sioners upon the future constitution of the 
 state, or the positive engagement and oath 
 
142 MILTON^ SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 pledged to their own countrymen for it's pre- 
 servation ? But that parliaments or senates 
 may vary their councils from motives of expe- 
 diency, since my affirmation you consider as 
 f anabaptistical* and abominable, I had rather 
 you should learn from Cicero's Oration for 
 Plancius : " We ought all to consider ourselves 
 as standing by a kind of great state-wheel ; and 
 as it turns round, to select that position, where 
 we may most effectually contribute to the com- 
 mon safety." And again, a little below : " For 
 I do not reckon it the part of a turn-coat, to 
 direct one's opinion, like a ship on her way, 
 with reference to existing emergencies. The 
 result of my learning, observation, and study, 
 and what history has recorded of the wisest and 
 greatest men in both this and foreign countries, 
 is — that the same opinions have not at all times 
 been stubbornly maintained by the same indi- 
 viduals ; but have been regulated and adapted to 
 the situation of public affairs, the exigencies of 
 the times, and the general harmony of the state. 5 * 
 So says Tully — Hortensius* indeed, I know, is 
 your favourite — and so say the ages most emi- 
 nent for civil wisdom, which the * Anabaptists' 
 in my opinion do wisely to follow. How many 
 judicious measures crowd upon my memory, 
 which are now condemned as ' anabaptistical 5 
 
 * In the name Hortensia occurs another allusion to the often- 
 quoted garden -intrigue. 
 
milton's second defence. 143 
 
 by these petty priests and their Saumaise; a 
 man, who estimated by things, not words, is a 
 complete ignoramus ? 
 
 Neither were their High Mightinesses, the 
 States General of Holland (you observe) a whit 
 more successful in the strenuous efforts, which 
 they made through their envoys, by entreaties 
 and the offer of a ransom, to save Charles* 
 " holy head!" To seek thus to set a price upon 
 justice, was in effect to clinch the King's fate. 
 They have now learned, by experience, that we 
 are not all c shopkeepers ; ,# that the English 
 parliament is not quite so venal, as they ex- 
 pected. 
 
 With regard to this famous trial — to identify 
 Charles (you remark) as much as possible in 
 suffering with Christ, the soldiery heap mockeries 
 upon him. Christ was much more ' identified ' 
 with malefactors c in suffering/ than Charles 
 with Christ ; and many circumstances of the 
 kind you refer to were rumoured by such as, in 
 their anxiety to heighten the odium of the mea- 
 sure, did not scruple to fabricate or circulate 
 any untruth. Allowing, however, that the com- 
 mon soldiers did behave themselves with some 
 small degree of insolence, this surely is not 
 
 * This old reproach was recently revived by our implacable 
 enemy, Buonaparte, who has endeavoured to stigmatise us as a 
 nation boutiquiere — Qu. ? for having attempted, as a punster 
 observed, to effect in France a Cowwter*revolution? 
 
144 milton's second defence. 
 
 necessarily to be imputed to the cause, in which 
 they were engaged. 
 
 But that any one was murthered at the feet 
 of the King, on his way to the courts as he was 
 beseeching God. to have mercy upon his Sove- 
 reign, I never before heard myself, nor have I 
 ever yet been able to find any one that had. 
 Nay, I got a friend to question the very officer, 
 who was on guard during the whole trial and 
 seldom for a moment quitted the King's side, 
 upon this subject ; and he uniformly asserted, 
 that he never heard this report before, and 
 knew it indeed himself to be most certainly false. 
 Hence we may ascertain the degree of credit 
 due to the rest of your stories : for you will 
 appear little more entitled to belief in concili- 
 ating regard, and even (were it feasible) adora- 
 tion to Charles after his death, than in throwing 
 upon us, most unjustly, every possible degree of 
 detestation. 
 
 The King (you say ) was heard upon the fatal 
 scaffold, repeating to the Bishop of London* 
 
 * Juxon. It is somewhat singular that, in the minute detail 
 given by Sir Thomas Herbert, in his * Memoirs of the two last 
 years of the Reign of Charles I.' he takes no notice of these 
 emphatical words. From him we are not surprised to learn 
 that, as the crowd prayed for the King in passing, the soldiers 
 » did not rebuke any of them, by their silence and dejected 
 faces seeming afflicted rather than insulting ;" though it contra- 
 dicts so decisively the royalist assertion in the text. But, after 
 his account of the interment at Windsor, so lately ascertained 
 to be true, the Girdle or circumscription of capital letters in 
 
milton's second defence* 145 
 
 " Remember, Remember." Hence, forsooth, his 
 judges were anxious to know, what this last re* 
 peated word meant ! The Bishop, according to 
 your account, is summoned, and commanded to 
 explain the mysterious injunction of this double 
 € Remember' He at first, artful dissembler ! pur- 
 posely affected some nice scruples, and refused 
 to disclose the profound secret. On being 
 more strongly urged, however, he was brought 
 with extreme reluctance and every appearance 
 of intimidation to relate what, if true, he must 
 have wished divulged at any price, and stated as 
 follows : " The King commanded me, if I should 
 ever accomplish an interview with his son, to 
 injoin him (as the last direction of his dying 
 father) when restored to his crown and pozver, to 
 pardon you his murthcrers. This is what he bade 
 me, again and again, c remember. 9 " O King, 
 shall I say, or Bishop more holy ; * who could so 
 easily be induced to disclose the whispered 
 secret, thus mysteriously confided to his keeping 
 
 lead put about the coffin, and the memorable circumstance that, 
 notwithstanding " the sky was serene and clear when the body 
 was brought out, by that time they came to the West end of 
 the Royal Chapel, the black velvet pall was all white {the 
 colour of innocence) being thick covered over with snow!" 
 we may pardonably wonder a little at the story of the substi- 
 tution of his corpse for that of Oliver Cromwell, &c. (See 
 Selection from Harl. Misc. 392.) Hume records the use of 
 " the simple word, remember," without stating his authority. 
 
 * This word furnishes a lucky equivoque for the pietatU et 
 rimarum plenus. 
 
 I- 
 
146 MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 Upon the scaffold ! But, O mirror of secresy ! 
 Charles had long since given his son the same 
 injunction, along with many others, in his c Icon 
 Basilike; 9 a work, obviously written on purpose 
 to circulate shortly afterward with all diligence 
 this mighty mystery (whether we wished it, or 
 not) as ostentatiously, as it had before been 
 suppressed. But I see clearly, that you are 
 determined to impose upon the un-informed a 
 perfect Charles, if not this very Stuart in ques- 
 tion, one of some hyperborean* and fabulous 
 breed, varnished over with a profusion of gaudy 
 colours. You have so prettily vamped up this 
 little story into a kind of operatic farce, inter- 
 spersed here and there with charming dialogue 
 and pathetic sentiment, in imitation of some 
 affected moralist or other, to captivate the popu- 
 lar ear. Admitting, however, that the Bishop 
 was perhaps slightly questioned by one or two 
 of the Commissioners upon this subject, I do 
 not find that he was expressly c summoned* on 
 the occasion either by the Council or the Com- 
 mission of Judges, as if they had all been 
 anxious or deeply interested in the inquiry. 
 But, granting even all you wish — that Charles 
 gave this last injunction to the Bishop upon the 
 scaffold, to carry to his son, relative to c the 
 pardoning of his murtherers* — what was there 
 in this so very extraordinary, or singular, beyond 
 
 * Alluding to the celestial Charles with his Wain. 
 
milton's second defence. 14? 
 
 what has been done by others in the same situ- 
 ation ? What man upon a scaffold, on the point 
 of closing the drama of life, and with a full 
 conviction of it's vanity, would not do the 
 same \ and either willingly lay aside, or at least 
 pretend to lay aside, his enmities, resentments, 
 and animosities (as about to quit the stage) 
 with a view either to conciliate compassion, 
 or to stamp an impression of his innocence 
 upon the public mind ? That Charles only pre- 
 tended to lay them aside, and never cordially 
 and sincerely injoined his son to c pardon his 
 murtherers,' or if he did so openly, that he 
 gave him in private a different injunction, may 
 be evinced by powerful arguments. For the 
 son, in other particulars abundantly obedient, 
 would assuredly have fulfilled the solemn re- 
 quest of his c dying father,' conveyed to him 
 with so much of religious sanction through the 
 medium of a Bishop ! Yet, how did he fulfil it ? 
 When he either ordered or authorised two of 
 our Envoys (one in Holland and the other 
 in Spain, the latter too in no respect impli- 
 cated in the king's death) to be assassinated ; 
 and has, finally, more than once by public pro- 
 clamation announced his fixed purpose of not 
 * pardoning his father's murtherers.'* Deter- 
 mine, therefore, for yourself the truth of this 
 
 * Yet Milton himself was, subsequently, pardoned ! 
 L 2 
 
148 milton's second defence. 
 
 little story of yours, which only praises the 
 father at the expense of the son. 
 
 Forgetful now of your original plan, you 
 fabricate c Cries/ not c of the Royal Blood to 
 Heaven,' but of the people to the parliament : 
 with a degree of pragmatical intrusion into the 
 concerns of another state, next to that of Sau- 
 maise, most odious ; especially in one, who so 
 wretchedly manages his own domestic concerns. 
 Must the people complain, you filthy fellow, 
 through your mouth, the very breath of which 
 stinks of venereal putrefaction, enough to poison 
 any person of tolerable purity ? And yet you 
 ascribe to the people the lugubrious clamor of 
 a parcel of unprincipled emigrants, and like 
 some outlandish mountebank addressing a mob, 
 mimic the noises of the meanest of animals. 
 Who denies that periods may often occur, in 
 which a great majority of the population is dis- 
 affected, and disposed to follow rather a Catiline 
 or an Antony, than the more virtuous part of 
 the senate ?* And yet this is no argument why 
 the good, weighing their duty rather than their 
 deficiency of numbers, should not struggle 
 against them with all possible energy. Let me 
 advise you then to get your pretty little speech, 
 in favour of the English people, inserted in the 
 
 * Tec %tpnovc& viv.cc, and Major pars vicit meliorem, however 
 appropriate, are no modern adages. 
 
milton's second defence. ]49 
 
 pages of some historic poetaster, that the paper 
 may not be wholly wasted, as we are not in 
 want of such a goatish and offensive advocate. 
 
 And now for our crimes against the Church ! 
 The army is the very Lerna of every heresy. 
 More dispasssionate appreciators pronounce it 
 not only the bravest, but the most moderate and 
 the most religious, of armies. Other camps are 
 a scene of drunkenness, lewdness, rapine, gam- 
 bling, blasphemy, and perjury: in ours, the 
 troops employ their leisure in searching the 
 truth, and studying the Scriptures ; nor does any 
 one of them think it more honourable to con- 
 quer an enemy, than to enlighten himself and 
 his comrades in spiritual Concerns, to excel as a 
 member of the state than of the Church Mili- 
 tant.* And what, if war be rightly estimated, 
 what is more becoming the character of sol- 
 diers ? Levied for the express purpose of de- 
 fending the laws, the red-coat guards of justice 
 and protectors of the church, they ought to be — 
 not the bloodiest and most ferocious, but the 
 most civilised and humane of men. The true 
 and proper end of their labours is, not to sow 
 and to reap the cc iron harvest of the field," 
 but to cultivate peace and safety for mankind. 
 And should any, in their pursuit of these noble 
 objects, be led astray either by the mistakes of 
 
 f An actual band of Christian Heroes ; seeking the Lord, or 
 their corkscrews ! 
 
150 milton's second defence. 
 
 others or by their own infirmity of mind, they 
 are to be reclaimed, not by severity, but by 
 reason and admonition ; accompanied with 
 prayer to God, who alone can dispel every 
 error, and impart to whom he pleases the hea- 
 venly light of truth. Of c heresies/ justly so 
 denominated, we approve none : we do not even 
 tolerate all. We would gladly, indeed, have them 
 extirpated, but extirpated by right methods ; by 
 instruction and the substitution of sounder doc- 
 trine, as best adapted to the ailments of the 
 mind ; not by the sword and the scourge, as if 
 they were to be slashed and flogged out of the 
 body. 
 
 Another ; and not lighter, injury we have done 
 (you allege) to xvhat is called c the temporal 
 property' of the Church. Ask of the Dutch 
 Protestants, or even of those of Upper Ger- 
 many, whether they ever respected this species 
 of property ? Is not the general pretext adduced 
 by the Austrian Sovereign, whenever he wages 
 war against them, the restitution of the domains 
 of the Church ? These, however, were in fact the 
 property not of the Church, but of churchmen ; 
 in this respect eminently the pillars, I mean the 
 caterpillars, of the Church. Wolves, indeed, is 
 an appellation most appropriate to the greater 
 part of them ; and, in applying to the exigencies 
 of a war, occasioned by themselves, the property 
 (or rather the accumulated prey) of those 
 wolves, derived from the superstition and en- 
 
miltgn's second defence. 151 
 
 joyed through the ignorance of so many ages, 
 there could not be any impiety : especially, as 
 no other resources remained for the demands of 
 such an expensive and protracted struggle. 
 
 But it was expected, that the income, thus 
 violently torn from the Bishops, would be divided 
 among the Presbyterian clergy. Yes, by them- 
 selves, I know, it was expected, and anxiously 
 coveted ; for they covet every thing. No whirl- 
 pool so insatiable as clerical avarice ! In other 
 places, the provision for the ministers of the 
 Church was perhaps inadequate : but ours had 
 surely enough, and more than enough, for their 
 support. The sheep rather than the shepherds, 
 not so much the feeders as the fed,* they had 
 every thing fat around them, without the excep- 
 tion even of their own heads. Gorging on 
 tithes, a mode of maintenance disapproved by 
 all other Protestant Churches, and with so little 
 trust in God as to think it better to extort them 
 through the intervention of the civil magistrate 
 by force, than to owe their subsistence to divine 
 providence or the affection and gratitude of 
 their respective congregations ; they still, not- 
 withstanding all this, so frequently guttle at the 
 houses of their male and female followers, that 
 they scarcely know what it is to dine or sup at 
 
 * He had elsewhere said, 
 
 * The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.' 
 
 (Lyeid. 125,) 
 
152 milton's second defence. 
 
 home. Hence they are generally characterised 
 less by want, than by superfluity : their wives 
 and children vie with those of the opulent in 
 parade and luxury ; and to have fostered this 
 prodigality by new accessions of income, would 
 have been to infuse new poison (a taint be- 
 wailed, in the days of Constantine, by a voice 
 from heaven) into the Reformed Church. 
 
 I proceed to reply to the charges respecting 
 our offences against God, among which you 
 particularly specify, our zvant of confidence in the 
 divine assistance, our prayers, and our fasts. 
 But " out of thine own mouth," thou most 
 profligate of men, will I confute thee ; and re- 
 tort upon thee thine own question in the words 
 of the Apostle, " Who art thou, that judgest 
 another man's servant?"* To our own master 
 let us stand, or fall. I add also, in the language 
 of David, * c when I weep and chasten my soul 
 with fasting, that is to my reproach." t 
 
 To go step by step over the rest of your deli- 
 rious babblings upon this subject, which nobody 
 will think of reading twice, would argue as 
 much folly in me, as in yourself. Neither are 
 your tedious prosings upon our successes less 
 irrelevant. Take care, my friend, that you do 
 not, in consequence of your Pontian efforts, 
 catch cold with a stuffing in the head or a 
 snuffling in the nose; so as, like your great 
 
 9 Rqixi. xiv. 4. t Ps. Uix, 10, 
 
milton's second defence. 153 
 
 Saumaise of late, to chill a hot bath. With re- 
 gard to success in general, my opinion in few 
 words is, that it proves nothing as to the good- 
 ness of the cause, one way or the other. We 
 wish, not that our cause should be estimated 
 from it's success, but our success from the 
 cause. 
 
 You now, though a mere toad-eater to pro- 
 fessors and proctors, boldly assume to discuss 
 political subjects — the injuries, forsooth, which 
 we have done to all Kings and all people 1 What 
 * injuries?' We certainly did not mean to do 
 any. Our sole object was, to regulate our own 
 concerns, without interfering at all in those of 
 others. If our neighbours derived any advan- 
 tage from our example, we assuredly do not 
 repine at it : if any mischief, that was not our 
 fault ; it arose out of the abuse of our prin- 
 ciples. And pray, what Kings or what people 
 appointed you, you miscreant, the herald of 
 their ' injuries?' Their Envoys and Embassa- 
 dors, most undoubtedly, both in parliament (as 
 I have been informed by those, who heard 
 them) and in the Council, where I heard them 
 myself, far from complaining of any l injuries/ 
 anxiously solicited our friendship and alliance : 
 nay, in the name of their respective Sovereigns 
 congratulated us upon the state of our affairs, 
 and zealously prayed for the continuance of our 
 tranquillity, and the perpetuation of our suc- 
 cesses. These are not the expressions of enmity, 
 
154 milton's second defence. 
 
 or of hatred, as you represent them. The alter- 
 native then is, either that you must be convicted 
 of a lie, a slight speck indeed in your character ; 
 or Kings, of deceit and dissimulation, which 
 would be an indelible blot in theirs. 
 
 But you quote our own acknowledgement, 
 that " we have held out an example salutary to all 
 people, and formidable to all tyrants" Inex- 
 plicable crime ! as heinous, in fact, as if any 
 one had said ; 
 
 Discite justitiam, moniti, et non temnere Divos.* 
 Learn justice, warn'd, and not to slight the Gods. 
 
 Could any thing worse have been said ? This 
 was the purport of Cromwell's letter to the 
 Scots, after the battle of Dunbar : and worthy 
 was that letter of himself, and of his noble vic- 
 tory ! With such like glozing and cant phrases 
 are the infamous pages of Milton besprinkled : 
 You always assign me an illustrious collegue, 
 and here you make me his equal, and even occa- 
 sionally his superior : a circumstance, which I 
 should consider as the highest honour you 
 could confer, if any thing honourable could 
 proceed from you. But those pages (you say) 
 were burnt by the common hangman at Paris, 
 under the orders of the parliament of that city. 
 This was done, I have been informed, not by 
 * the parliament,' but by a Lieutenant de Police 
 
 * Virg. ^n. vi. 620, 
 
milton's second defence. 156 
 
 (whether civil or uncivil, I cannot tell) on the 
 instigation of those most sluggish of all animals, 
 the clergy ; who trembled, even at such a far 
 distance (and may heaven realise their appre- 
 hensions !) for the fate of their own sensuality. 
 But might not we, think you, in our turn have 
 consigned Saumaise's ' Royal Defence' to the 
 same doom ? With the utmost ease could I have 
 procured this sentence from the magistrate, had 
 I not thought his scurrilities better avenged by 
 contempt. You, in your efforts to quench one 
 fire by another, reared a pile for me, like that of 
 Hercules, whence to rise with augmented lustre : 
 we, more judiciously, forbore attempting to 
 communicate any heat to the frozen pages of 
 the c Royal Defence.' What surprises me is, 
 that the inhabitants of Toulouse (for my work, 
 I understand, was burnt also in that city) should 
 have so degenerated from their ancestors, as on 
 the very spot where freedom and religion were 
 once eminently defended under the Counts Ray- 
 mond, to sentence a defence of freedom and re- 
 ligion to the flames. Would that the writer 
 (you add) had been burnt along with it I Say 
 you so, hangdog? You have taken admirable 
 care, More, that I shall not retaliate the wish 
 upon you. You have long ago been writhing 
 under the fury of much hotter fires. You are 
 scorched and shrivelled under the consciousness 
 of your adulteries, your rapes, and your per- 
 juries (by the aid of which you first foully de- 
 
156 milton's second defence. 
 
 bauched, and then faithlessly deserted, your 
 betrothed Pontia) finally, of that most abomi- 
 nable phrensy, which drove you to lust after 
 the sacred profession, and to pollute as a priest 
 with vour incestuous touch the hallowed ele- 
 ments, " not discerning the Lord's body;"* 
 under the affectation of sanctity to denounce, in 
 this c Cry' of yours, every one whom you repre- 
 sent as affecting sanctity ; and by your own 
 sentence to doom to destruction your devoted 
 self. With this accumulation of crime and in* 
 famy, you are all in a blaze : by these infuriate 
 fires you are tortured, night and day ; and en- 
 dure a punishment so keen, as to supersede the 
 curse of your bitterest enemy. In the mean 
 while, your public burnings do me no harm, 
 they affect me not in the least. Nay, even the 
 little ignominy, which they pretend to inflict, 
 is abundantly balanced by many gratifying and 
 delightful compensations. One court, one petty 
 Parisian beadle, it seems, under some sinister 
 influence consigned me to the flames : but in 
 spite of this my opinions are studied, approved, 
 and adopted by numbers of wise and good men 
 throughout France, throughout the spacious 
 tracts of Germany, that native home of Free- 
 dom, and wherever in fact any traces of her 
 footsteps are still to be found. And Greece, 
 even Athens herself with all her Attic refine- 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi. 29- 
 
milton's second defence. 157 
 
 merit as it were reviving again, through the 
 medium of her own most illustrious Philaras,* 
 has given me her applause. For I can with 
 truth aver that, from the first publication of my 
 € Defence/ as soon as it's readers acquired an in- 
 terest in the subject, not a single Envoy from 
 any foreign prince or state was then resident at 
 our court, who did not either in our casual ren- 
 contre congratulate me on it's appearance, or 
 invite me to his house, or visit me at mine. 
 And here, my dear Adrian Paw, I should ac- 
 count myself unpardonably guilty, were I to 
 pass over your memory in silence. Sent hither 
 on a splendid embassy, the pride and the boast 
 of Holland, you flatteringly signified to me by 
 many special messages, though we never per- 
 sonally met, your very high and extraordinary 
 regard. It is, indeed, most delightful to me, 
 often to recall to my remembrance (what, I am 
 convinced, could never have happened without 
 the peculiar favour of the Deity) the courtesy 
 with which I have been treated by Kings, though 
 the supposed impugner of kingly power ; and 
 what an emphatic testimony they have borne, 
 
 * An account of this distinguished scholar, and the interest 
 which he expressed about the restoration of Milton's sight, with 
 Milton's two classical Letters acknowledging the lirst kindness 
 (in the prczclarum de nostra pro P. A. Defensione judicium) 
 and the subsequent services of this native Athenarum Atticarum, 
 may be found in Dr. Symmons' ( Life/ pp. 374- — 387. 
 
158 milton's second defence* 
 
 not only to my opinion, as the more correct, 
 but also to my integrity. Why should I shrink 
 from making this declaration, when I recollect 
 that most dignified of queens [Christina],* the 
 theme of universal praise ? Not even he, the 
 wisest of the Athenianst (with whom, however, 
 I affect no comparison) was in my judgement 
 more honoured by the testimony of Apollo 
 himself, than I am by the approbation of such a 
 patroness. Had it been my fortune to write 
 this in my earlier years, and were rhetoric as 
 highly privileged as poetry, I should not have 
 scrupled to prefer my lot to that of some of the 
 Gods themselves. It was theirs, to dispute the 
 prize of beauty or of harmony before a mortal 
 judge : I, a mortal, in far the noblest of con- 
 tests, was pronounced victor by the decision of 
 a goddess. So honoured, I cannot be treated 
 with disrespect by any one, except a common 
 hangman ; whether it be in the direction, or in 
 the execution, of the abuse. 
 
 Here you are extremely anxious, as Saumaise 
 was before, that we should not be allowed to 
 defend what we have done by the precedent of 
 what the Dutch did in their struggles for liberty. 
 
 * In the commendation of this singular woman, whose pranks 
 (according to Warton) had ( neither elegance nor even decency/ 
 Milton every where delights, and reverts to her evidently con 
 amore. See a former Note. 
 
 t Socrates. 
 
milton's second defence. 159 
 
 I answer you both in the same way : c That 
 they are mistaken, who think we depend upon 
 any precedent \ that we often aided and abetted 
 the Dutch in their struggles for liberty, but 
 never thought it necessary to copy them ; that, 
 if any great exertion was to be made in behalf 
 of liberty, we are authorities to ourselves, and 
 are wont not to follow others, but to lead the 
 way/ * But you, you twopenny halfpenny orator, 
 even dare to attempt to set the French at vari- 
 ance with us by a parcel of miserable argu- 
 ments, truly worthy of your own block-head : 
 The spirit of France (you say) will never con- 
 descend to receive an embassy from us. They 
 have deigned, however, by a still greater con- 
 descension, to send us one three or four times 
 of their own accord. The French therefore are, 
 as usual, high-minded ; and you a base dege- 
 nerate fellow, wholly unacquainted with the 
 first principles of politics, and a complete liar. 
 
 You then exert yourself to prove, that the 
 negotiation is purposely spun out by the United 
 States, and that their object is neither to treat 
 nor to quarrel xvith us. But it is surely the in- 
 terest of their High Mightinesses, not to allow 
 their projects to be thus exposed, and (if I may 
 so speak) vitiated, by a vagabond from Geneva, 
 to whom they have given shelter ; and who, if 
 
 (Thucyd. II.) 
 
1 60 MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 they endure him much longer, seems likely to 
 debauch not only their servant-girls, but their 
 public councils : when they themselves are pro- 
 fessing for us the kindest and most sincere re- 
 gard, and have recently, in compliance with 
 the wish of all good men, entered into perma- 
 nent c relations of peace and amity' with us. 
 
 It was delightful (he says) to observe the 
 hootings and hazards, to which these scoundrel 
 envoys [from England] xvere daily exposed, not 
 only on the part of the English Royalists, but 
 still more on that of the Dutch. If we had not 
 long known to whom to ascribe both the mur- 
 ther of our former envoy Dorislaus, and the 
 subsequent insults sustained by two of his suc- 
 cessors, we have here an informer, falsely im- 
 peaching those to whom he owes his shelter and 
 support ! And will you still, Hollanders, tolerate 
 among you one who debases his sacred pro- 
 fession not only by lust, but by blood-thirsti- 
 ness ; not only by recommending the violation 
 of all faith, but by foully arraigning the inno- 
 cent as guilty of that violation ? 
 
 The last article of the charge is, our injuries 
 tozvard the Reformed Churches. And how 6 our 
 injuries toward them,' rather than theirs to- 
 ward us ? If you refer to examples, from the 
 instances of the V/aldenses, # and the inhabi- 
 
 * <c The hand of the Latin Secretary, says Dr. Symmons, 
 most ably concurred with the spirit of the Executive Council ; 
 
milton's second defence. 16 i 
 
 tants of Toulouse to the famine of Rochelle,, 
 you will find that we have been the last of all 
 churches to take up arms against tyrants. But 
 we have been the jirst to sentence them to death* 
 Yes; because we first had it in our -power: 
 What others would have done, under similar 
 circumstances, I apprehend they themselves can 
 scarcely tell. In my mind he, against whom we 
 wage war, in every rational and sensible view of 
 
 and during his continuance in office, which was prolonged to 
 the Restoration, the state-papers in his department may be re- 
 garded as models in the class of diplomatic composition. They 
 speak, indeed, the language of energy and wisdom; and, en- 
 titled equally to the applause of the scholar and the statesman, 
 they must have impressed foreign states with a high opinion of 
 that government for which they were written, and in the service 
 of which so much ability was engaged. It may be observed, 
 that the character of their immediate author is too great to be 
 altogether lost in that of the ministerial organ, and that in 
 many of them Milton may be traced in distinct, though not dis- 
 cordant, existence from the power for which he acts. See the 
 letters, which he wrote in the Protector's name to mediate for 
 the oppressed Protestants of Piedmont to the Duke of Savoy, 
 to the Prince of Transilvania, to the King of Sweden, to the 
 States of Holland, Switzerland, and Geneva, and to the Kings 
 of France and of Denmark. These Letters, which might be 
 reprinted with great appositeness to the late bloody transactions 
 in the South of France, it will give the reader pleasure to be 
 told, were not written in vain. The unhappy victims (it ought 
 to be added) though in these official despatches called ' Pro- 
 testants/ had neither connexion nor a common origin with 
 those, who were properly so named from one of the first acts of 
 their association in Germany. The Waldenses asserted a much 
 more ancient pedigree ; and assumed to be of -the old Roman 
 Church; before it was corrupted by papal innovations. 
 
 M 
 
162 milton's second defence. 
 
 the matter is deemed an enemy ; and the same 
 principle, upon which you attack an enemy, 
 authorises you to put him to death. A tyrant 
 therefore, as the enemy not only of England, 
 but of all mankind, may not more lawfully be 
 attacked, than be put to death. This is no ex- 
 clusive or original opinion of mine : it has 
 been suggested to others by prudence, or by 
 common sense long ago. Hence Cicero, in his 
 c Oration for Rabirius :' " If it were criminal to 
 kill Saturninus, it could not be innocent to 
 take up arms against him ; if you admit that 
 arms were legally taken up against him, you 
 must also necessarily admit that he was legally 
 killed. " On this head I have spoken at some 
 length above, as well as frequently in other 
 places, and the thing is most indisputable. 
 Hence you may form some conjecture what the 
 French would have done, had they had the 
 same power.* Nay, I go farther and affirm 
 that, whoever oppose a tyrant in the field do in 
 in fact, to the extent of their power, put him to 
 death ; and have already in spirit put him to 
 death, however they may try to dupe them- 
 selves, or others, by absurd reasonings to the 
 contrary. This doctrine indeed is not more 
 referable to us, than to the Gauls, whom you 
 labour to exempt from the disgraceful imputa- 
 
 * How truly this sounds, after January 21, 1793 ! And how 
 much deeper did the French plunge in blood, as soon as the^\ 
 had it in their power ! 
 
milton's second defence. 163 
 
 tion of it. For to whom, but to the Gauls, do 
 we owe the ' Franco-Gallia, 9 the * Defence 
 against Tyrants' (a work, commonly ascribed 
 to Beza*) and those other writings mentioned 
 by De Thou ? And yet you exclaim, as if I 
 were the sole author, Upon this subject, Milton 
 is completely absorbed, whose frantic folly I 
 would have dealt with as it deserves — c You 
 would have dealt with,' caitiff? If the church 
 of Middleburgh, disgraced and disconsolate 
 under your ministry, had c dealt with' your in- 
 famous profligacy ' as it deserved,' it would 
 long since have consigned you to perdition ; 
 if the civil power had c dealt with it, as it de- 
 served,' you would long since have expiated 
 your debaucheries on a gibbet. And this will 
 ere long, probably, be your fate : for your Mid- 
 dleburgh congregation (I am told) are at length 
 roused to a regard for their own fame, and have 
 
 * Now known to have been written by the learned French 
 jurist Hotman, who having adopted the doctrines of the Refor- 
 mation, and owed his escape from the fury of the Massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew to the exertions of his grateful scholars, ac- 
 cepted in 1573 the chair of Civil Law at Geneva, and there 
 drew up his own favourite performance, the f Franco-Gallia, 
 sive Tractatus Isagogicus de Regimine Regum Gallics et de 
 Jure Successionis* which however gave great offence not only 
 to the nation in general, but even to several Protestants. It's 
 object was, to prove the crown of France elective, and that the 
 people had a right to depose and create kings ; as, also, that 
 women ought wholly to be excluded from the management of 
 public affairs. It was translated by Lord Molesworth. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 milton's second defence. 
 
 expelled you, goatsucker, or rather stinking 
 goat as you are ! Hence the magistracy of 
 Amsterdam have closed their pulpits, your scene 
 of exhibition, against you ; and have forbidden 
 the disgustful babbling of that impure mouth, 
 of that impious voice, to be heard from those 
 hallowed places. Your Greek professorship 
 alone is now left to you; and that too will 
 shortly be taken from you, with the exception 
 of a single letter (n), on which you will not 
 harangue as professor, but hang as possessor.* 
 This I augur, not in a spirit of passion : I am 
 only passing sentence upon you. Far from being 
 hurt, indeed, by such railers as you, we con- 
 stantly long for such : nay, deem it actually a 
 proof of the divine kindness, that our bitterest 
 opponents have chiefly been of this description ; 
 whose invectives instead of infamy have con- 
 ferred honour and commendation, as their com- 
 mendation would have had all the effect of 
 invective. But what, my valiant little hero, 
 held your uplifted hand f 
 
 * This allusion will easily be interpreted by schoolboys 
 who are accustomed to denounce against any one stealing their 
 books, 
 
 n ilium pro mentis, litera Grceca, manet. 
 
 In the ' Pro Se Defensio ' he again alludes to this species 
 of punishment, patibulo pendens luisses, which he introduces 
 with a quaint pun, replying to his adversary, who had called 
 him " Orestis cemule" in the language of Echo, « restis 
 
miltgn's second defence. 163 
 
 If I had not determined to forbear encroaching 
 upon the province of the great Saumaise, to whom 
 I leave the undivided glory of conquering this 
 great antagonist. As I now participate with 
 him in the epithet c great/ I may perchance be 
 a less manageable ' province' to him, espe- 
 cially since his decease. About conquest, so 
 truth prevail, I am very little solicitous. But 
 you bawl out, m continuation : Of parricide 
 they make an article of faith », and would, if they 
 durst, openly defend it by the concurrence of the 
 Reformed Churches. 'This,' says Milton, c was 
 the judgement of the most eminent divines, to 
 whom we owe the Reformation. 9 So it was, I 
 repeat it ; and so I have fully proved it to be in 
 my work entitled, c The Tenure of Kings and 
 Magistrates,' of which a second edition has made 
 it's appearance, and in several other places. It 
 is tiresome to go over the same ground again, 
 and again. But there the very passages are 
 cited verbatim from Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, 
 Bucer, Martyr, Paraeus, and lastly from Knox 
 himself, to which Scotchman alone (you say) I 
 allude, and whom all the Reformed Churches 9 
 especially those of France, in this particular 
 condemned. In contradiction to this he, as I 
 there state, affirms that he received the doctrine 
 expressly from Calvin and other eminent theo- 
 logians of that day, with whom he had lived in 
 habits of the utmost intimacy. You will find 
 likewise in that treatise many quotations, to 
 
166 milton's second defence. 
 
 the same purport, from the writings of the more 
 respectable English divines, during the reigns 
 of Mary and Elizabeth. 
 
 At last, with a wicked mockery of tedious 
 prayer to God, you wind up your peroration, 
 and impudently raise your adulterous eyes to 
 heaven ! Be it so. I will not interrupt you. 
 You cannot till higher the " measure of your 
 iniquity.'' 
 
 I now return, in conformity to my promise, 
 and by concentrating the principal allegations 
 against Cromwell, intend to show how frivolous 
 they must separately be, when collectively they 
 amount to nothing at all. 
 
 He declared, before several witnesses, his fixed 
 purpose of overturning all monarchies, and of 
 exterminating all kings. We have already seen, 
 more than once, what credit is due to your 
 stories. Some emigrant, perhaps, told you that 
 Cromwell had made this declaration. Of these 
 ' several witnesses,' you do not name so much 
 as one. Your unsupported scurrility, therefore, 
 falls of itself to the ground. Cromwell was 
 never heard to brag even of his actual achieve- 
 ments. It is not therefore very likely, that he 
 should have uttered any arrogant promise or 
 menace, as to things of difficulty yet unachieved. 
 Your authors consequently must have had more 
 of inclination and constitution, than of inge- 
 nuity, in their lies ; or they would never have 
 fabricated a falsehood so abhorrent from his 
 
milton's second defence. 167 
 
 very disposition. The kings, whom you so fre- 
 quently entreat to take care of themselves, 
 wheu they have provided for their own safety, 
 will do well (without paying any attention to 
 you, or to street-politicians of your description) 
 to adopt measures worthy of themselves, and 
 more conducive to the discovery of their own 
 true interests. 
 
 A second charge against Cromwell is, that he 
 persuaded Charles to withdraw privately to the 
 Isle of Wight. Charles, it is notorious, beside 
 many other fatal errors, thrice seriously injured 
 himself by flight : first, when he fled from 
 London to York ; next, when he took refuge 
 with the Scottish army, which was then in 
 English pay ; and, finally, when he retired to 
 the Isle of Wight. But this last measure was 
 adopted on Cromwell 9 s suggestion. Really ! How 
 wonderfully consistent those Royalists are, who 
 uniformly represent their King as the most pru- 
 dent of men, and yet at the same time as never 
 having a will of his own. Among friends or 
 among enemies, in the cabinet or in the field, 
 he is invariably under the influence of others — 
 of his wife, his bishops, his courtiers, his army, 
 his very adversaries ; seeming generally to have 
 followed the worst advice, and commonly of 
 the worst advisers. Charles is brought over, 
 Charles is imposed upon ; Charles is duped by 
 vain fears, or by hopes equally vain ; Charles is 
 made the common and universal prey, both of 
 
168 
 
 friends and of foes. Let them either expunge 
 then these proofs of his ductility, or forego 
 their praises of his sagacity. 
 
 Wisdom and penetration however, though in 
 themselves qualities highly creditable, in a com- 
 monwealth rent by factions have, I own, their 
 inconveniences. They expose their possessors, 
 in fact, alternately to the calumnies of both 
 parties. This, Cromwell frequently experienced 
 to his disadvantage : as to him exclusively, and 
 not to the parliament, both Presbyterians and 
 Royalists ascribed every measure of supposed 
 severity ; nay, imputed to his art and trea- 
 chery the disastrous consequences even of their 
 own mismanagement. Upon him are heaped 
 all kinds of reprehension ; he bears the sole 
 responsibility. And yet it is most certain, that 
 Charles' flight to the Isle of Wight was as 
 sudden and as surprising to Cromwell, who was 
 then at some miles' distance, as it could be to 
 any of the members of parliament at that time 
 sitting in London, to whom he instantly wrote 
 the very moment he heard of the unexpected 
 occurrence. The real fact was ; the King, ter- 
 rified by the clamors of the whole army (which, 
 finding him unimproved either by a sense of 
 duty, or a regard to his engagements, had 
 begun to insist upon his execution) determined, 
 with only two* attendants, to make his escape 
 
 * Three, says Hume ; Sir John Berkeley, Ashburnham, and 
 Leg. But he concurs in stating, that the King had not " any 
 
milton's second defence. 169 
 
 by night. More fixed however as to the pur- 
 pose than the place, and not knowing where 
 to take refuge through the ignorance or the 
 cowardice of his followers, he surrendered him- 
 self to Hammond, the Governor of the Isle of 
 Wight ; trusting that he might easily pass 
 thence, in a ship privately provided for the 
 occasion, into France or Holland. These par- 
 ticulars of his Majesty's flight I learned from 
 persons, who had the best opportunities of tho- 
 roughly sifting the whole affair. 
 
 Cromwell is farther criminated, as having 
 been the instrument, through whom the English 
 were gained* a great victory over the Scots. 
 Not f were gained/ More, but c gained ' most 
 gloriously, without a solecism. Think, what a 
 bloody battle to their enemies it must have 
 been, when you could not even simply mention 
 it without breaking that professor's head of 
 yours through your agitation against Priscian's 
 bookcase ! But let us see what this heinous 
 guilt of Cromwell's is, in having so decisively 
 vanquished the Scots, who were daring to in- 
 vade, and hoping to enthral, their English neigh- 
 bours. In the midst of these tumults, while 
 Cromwell zvith his army is out of the way — Nay - y 
 while Cromwell, though worn out by quelling 
 the Welch revolt and by the fatigues of a long 
 
 concerted, at least any rational, scheme for the future disposal 
 of his person." (Chap, lix.) 
 * Parti sunt. 
 
1T0 MILTONV SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 siege,* saw and conquered a foe, which had 
 advanced into the very heart of the kingdom, 
 and threatened parliament itself — the Presby- 
 terians conceived a disgust against him. Here 
 you, for once, speak the truth. While he is 
 risking his life for the common safety, the Pres- 
 byterians assail him at home with a parcel of 
 forged accusations, though he is bravely ex- 
 posing himself at the very time in their defence, 
 and suborn a Major Huntington t to depose 
 falsely against him ! Who can even hear the ac- 
 count of such monstrous ingratitude, without 
 horror ? Under their instigation, also, a most un- 
 principled and profligate rabble of apprentices 
 in great numbers besieged the door of the House 
 of Commons, and by their clamor and violence 
 (O shame !) obliged them to enact, whatever 
 they chose to prescribe. Thus must we have sub- 
 mitted to have seen our Camillus, on his return 
 from defeating the Scots, either driven into 
 exile, or doomed to an ignominious death : had 
 not General Fairfax;}: opposed this disgraceful 
 
 * Milton here alludes first to the royalist insurgents of 1648; 
 whom Colonel Horton had driven into Pembroke, where they 
 were besieged and taken by Cromwell ; and, secondly, to the 
 successive defeats of Langdale and Hamilton, near Preston in 
 Lancashire, where that vigorous commander at the head of 
 3,000 men subdued nearly thrice the number of Scots. 
 
 f See Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, III. 75, 81 3 
 728. Ed. 8vo. Oxf. 1717- 
 
 X To this respectable name is inscribed Milton's Fifteenth 
 Sonnet, which however (with the Sixteenth to Cromwell, and 
 
milton's second defence. 171 
 
 reception of his great lieutenant; had not the 
 whole army, itself too treated with no very 
 particular gratitude, effectively interfered in 
 his behalf. These, entering the city, easily 
 reduced the civic insurgents; and very pro- 
 perly expelled from their seats such members, 
 as were known to be favourable to the Scottish 
 party. The rest, emancipated from the control 
 of the mob, broke off the treaty, which in 
 opposition to the published resolution of the 
 parliament had been opened with the King 
 in the Isle of Wight : and Huntington the ac- 
 cuser, left unpunished and at large, in a fit of 
 remorse voluntarily solicited Cromwell's for- 
 giveness, and furnished him with the names of 
 his infamous employers. 
 
 Such are the chief charges, in addition to 
 those which I have above refuted, adduced 
 against this illustrious deliverer of his country. 
 Their weight you may easily estimate. But 
 simply to prove that such a man, who has de- 
 served so well of the commonwealth, has done 
 nothing criminal, would be a poor discharge of 
 duty : especially since it is not more for the 
 credit of my country than that of myself, as 
 closely implicated with him in the same infamy, 
 
 the Twenty First and Twenty Second to his friend Cyriac Skin- 
 ner) notwithstanding the merit of the poetry, was not for 
 obvious political reasons inserted m the edition of 1673. They 
 were first printed, Warton informs us, after the Revolution had 
 rendered good verse on any side less hazardous, in 16<M. 
 
172 milton's second defence. 
 
 to exhibit him to the utmost of ability to all 
 nations and ages, as the best and most illustrious 
 of men. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell is sprung from a distin- 
 guished race of ancestors,* eminent for their 
 public services under the monarchy, and still 
 more eminent for their zeal in the restoration 
 and establishment of the true religion. He 
 himself had grown up, " in peace and pri- 
 vacy" at home, to a robust and vigorous man- 
 
 * To prove tlie antiquity of his family, it may be enough to 
 state, that it was distinguished even in the pedigrees of Wales 
 in times anterior to the Conquest. Any one, who has perused 
 the first ninety pages of Noble's * Memoirs of the Protectoral 
 House,' and Letter (D) in his * Proofs and Illustrations,' will 
 admit that Cromwell was abundantly justified in asserting (in 
 his Speech of Sept. 12, 1654) that, f he was by birth a gentle- 
 man/ His piety is much more equivocal. I make no inference 
 from the character of him inserted immediately after his name in 
 the Admission- Boot of Sidney College, Cambridge, in a smaller 
 letter and at a posterior period, by some inveterate enemy ; ' e Hie 
 Juit grandis ille impostor, camifex perditissimus, qui pientissimo 
 rege Carol o 1°. nefaria ccede sublato ipsum usurpavit thronum, 
 et tria regno, per quinque ferme annorum spatium sub Pro- 
 iectoris nomine indomita tyrannide vexavit :" but the traditional 
 story of the Corkscrew, which Hume (Chap. Ixi.) has not dis- 
 dained to preserve, proves that even during the Protectorate he 
 was thought capable of profane levity. The historian, indeed, 
 elsewhere calls him a a fanatical hypocrite." His dress however, 
 to say nothing of the suspicious testimony of the turncoat 
 South, appears on the evidence of Sir Philip Warwick to have 
 afforded no proof of his personal or family respectability. 
 
 The character of this half-zealot, half-impostor, is drawn 
 with equal precision and spirit by Dr. Symmons, in his Life of 
 Milton, pp. 436, 473. 
 
milton's second defence. 173 
 
 hood; known principally for the strictness of 
 his piety and integrity, and silently cherish- 
 ing in his heart a confidence in God, and a 
 magnanimity well adapted to the emergencies 
 that followed. In the parliament last* sum- 
 moned by the King, he was elected Represen- 
 tative for his native borough (Huntingdon) and 
 quickly distinguished himself in it by the cor- 
 rectness of his opinions, and the energy of his 
 advice. When arms were resorted to, he offered 
 his services, and was appointed Captain of a 
 troop of horse; but from the number of good 
 men, who thronged on all sides to his standard, 
 he received such accessions, that in a short 
 time he surpassed nearly the most experienced 
 generals in the magnitude and the rapidity of 
 his achievements. Neither was this at all sur- 
 prising. For from his thorough exercise in the 
 art of self-knowledge, he had either extermi- 
 
 * There seems here some slight inaccuracy ; as from the au- 
 thority of both Willis and Sir William Dugdale it appears, that 
 he sat as member in 1625., 1 Charles I. From his fervid speeches 
 against government, Warwick informs us, he was speedily 
 noticed. Hampden even prophesied to Lord Digby, that ' the 
 sloven about whom he was inquiring would, in the event of a 
 breach (which he warmly deprecated) between the King and the 
 Parliament, be the greatest man in England : ' and, notwith- 
 standing Hume's assertion that " his name for above two years- 
 is not to be found oftener than twice in any Committee, from the 
 Journals of the House of Commons it appears in no less than 
 twenty (some of them, too, of great importance) between De* 
 member 17, 1641, and June 20, 1642 ! 
 
174 milton's second defence. 
 
 nated or subjugated his domestic foes, his idle 
 hopes, his fears, and his desires.* Having thus 
 learned to engage, and subdue, and triumph 
 over himself, he took the field against his 
 outward enemies^ a soldier practised in all the 
 discipline of war. It would be impossible for 
 me, within the bounds of this limited compo- 
 sition, to do justice to his exploits ; the cities 
 which he has taken, the battles (and those too 
 signal battles) which he has fought without ever 
 having experienced a defeat, or even a disaster, 
 the victories which he has won in every part of 
 the British domains. These would supply ma- 
 terials for a regular history, and demand as it 
 were a new field, co-extensive with themselves, 
 for the copious detail. I must satisfy myself 
 therefore with stating, as a single proof of his 
 
 * Those victories of peace, 
 
 No less renown'd than war ; 
 
 the achiever of which the old poet pronounces braver, than th£ 
 vanquisher of the strongest walls. " To well manage our affec- 
 tions, and wild horses of Plato, are the highest Circenses (says 
 that quaintest of moralists, Sir Thomas Browne) and the 
 noblest digladiation is in the theatre of ourselves : for therein 
 our inward antagonists, not only like common gladiators with 
 ordinary weapons and downright blows make at us, but also 
 like retiary and laqueary combatants with nets, frauds, and en- 
 tanglements fall upon us." 
 
 Dr. Sprat, in his Ode upon Cromwell's death, says (in su 
 somewhat different sense, however) 
 
 Thy conquests raised the state, not thee : 
 Thou overcamest thyself, in every victory. 
 
MILTON 's SECOND DEFENCE. 175 
 
 peculiar and almost preternatural excellence: 
 that by the force of his soul and genius, or of 
 his discipline (in addition to his care of military 
 tactics, exerted in introducing an almost Chris- 
 tian degree of purity and virtue among his 
 troops) he either attracted from all quarters fol- 
 lowers that were good and brave to his camp, 
 as to a school not more of military instruction 
 than of religion and piety, or rendered them 
 such by his example ; and throughout the whole 
 war, and occasionally during the intervals of 
 peace, in all the fluctuations of party and of 
 events, in spite of much opposition, held and 
 now holds them in,* not by largesses or relax- 
 ation of command, but by his sole authority 
 and with their mere pay — a circumstance, m 
 which he may be compared with the Cyruses, 
 Epaminondases, and other first-rate worthies of 
 antiquity. For hence he raised an army as nu- 
 merous and as well equipped, as was ever before 
 done within so short a period ; lessoned to the 
 most perfect obedience, high in the affection of 
 it's fellow-citizens, and not more formidable to 
 it's enemies in the field than admirable for it's 
 behaviour to them out of it ; having so forborne 
 all injury to their persons or properties, in com* 
 parison with the violence, intemperance, pro- 
 faneness, and debauchery of their own Royalists, 
 as to make them exult in the change, and hail in 
 
 * See Hume, upon this " new-modelling " of the Axmy A 
 £hap. Iviii. 
 
176 milton's second defence. 
 
 tliem a host not of fiends but of friends : a 
 protection to the good, a terror to the bad, and 
 an encouragement to every species of piety and 
 virtue. 
 
 To you, Fairfax, also I should be guilty of 
 flagrant injustice, were I here to omit your 
 name ; you, in whom nature and providence 
 have combined, with the truest courage, the 
 highest modesty and the utmost purity of life. 
 You have a peculiar claim, and right to be 
 summoned to a participation of these praises, 
 indeed : though, in character and inclination 
 like Scipio Africanus at Liternum, you seek to 
 hide yourself as much as possible in your rural 
 retreat ; victor, not only over the enemy, but 
 over ambition and glory, which even the most 
 illustrious of men have been unable to resist. 
 There you enjoy your virtues and your achieve- 
 ments in that most delightful and honourable 
 ease, which is the object of all human exertion, 
 and which (as enjoyed by the heroes of anti- 
 quity, after engagements and exploits not su- 
 perior to your own) their poetical panegyrists 
 despaired of adequately expressing otherwise, 
 than by representing them as received into 
 heaven and admitted to the banquets of the 
 gods. Whether however considerations of 
 health, as I am most inclined to believe, or 
 some other motive withdrew you from public 
 life, I am perfectly satisfied that nothing could 
 have forced you to relinquish the service of 
 
Hilton's second defence. 177 
 
 the commonwealth, but a full conviction that 
 in your successor you left her a protector of 
 her liberty, and a supporter and defender of 
 all her rights. For so long as you, Cromwell, 
 are safe, to tremble for the safety of England is 
 to distrust the Deity, whom every one must ob- 
 serve most partial to you and most evidently 
 ranged on your side. But you were at that 
 time exclusively engaged in other military en- 
 terprises. 
 
 Instead of protracting my narration of your 
 exploits however, I will, if possible, despatch it 
 with a brevity proportioned to the rapidity of 
 the exploits themselves. Ireland, with the ex- 
 ception of a single city, was totally lost. Thi- 
 ther you hurried over your troops, in an early 
 engagement crushed the strength of the mal- 
 contents, and were daily following up your 
 advantage, when you were suddenly recalled to 
 the Scottish war. Without losing a moment 
 you march against the Scots, then under their 
 King preparing an irruption into England ; in 
 about a twelvemonth subjugated and annexed 
 to your country a kingdom, which had been 
 vainly attempted by our monarchs throughout a 
 period of eight hundred years ; and pursuing 
 by forced marches the remains of their army, 
 still strong and active, which in a fit of despera- 
 tion had unexpectedly advanced through Eng- 
 land (at that time, almost ungarrisoned) as far as 
 
178 MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 Worcester,* in one battle you cut them off, and 
 took prisoners nearly the whole of their nobility. 
 In the profound peace which ensued we found 
 you, not however then for the first time, as 
 effective in the cabinet as you had previously 
 been in the field. Your unremitting endeavour 
 in parliament was, to enforce a religious ob- 
 servance of treaties made with the enemy, or a 
 speedy adoption of measures demanded by the 
 interests of the commonwealth. When you saw 
 those measures studiously procrastinated, and 
 beheld individuals anxious about promoting 
 their own interests rather than those of the 
 public, while the many felt that they were 
 baulked of their hopes and sacrificed to the 
 overgrown power of the few, the delinquents 
 themselves attending to no warnings, you put a 
 period to their domination. A new parliament 
 
 * This victory, his { crowning mercy/ as well as that of 
 Dunbar, was gained on his favourite third of September, his 
 birthday. He carried his superstition, indeed (or rather, per- 
 haps, hoped to carry the superstition of his soldiers) to the 
 length of believing, that whatever he enterprised upon that 
 day, was destined to be successful. The parliament of 1654 
 here alluded to, in which the small boroughs, as " most exposed 
 to influence and corruption," had no representatives (270 of 
 it's 400 members being chosen by the counties, and the rest 
 elected by London and the more considerable corporations) was 
 summoned upon this day ; and upon this day four years after- 
 ward — as if to mock his calculations ! — the Protector himself 
 died. 
 
milton's second defence. 179 
 
 is summoned, the right of suffrage having been 
 limited to proper electors. The members meet, 
 and — do nothing. At last, after having long 
 exhausted themselves by mutual quarrels and 
 recriminations, and discovered their incompe- 
 tency and incapacity for the great discussions 
 before them, they consent to their own dissolu- 
 tion.* We are abandoned, Cromwell ; you 
 alone remain to us. You have the sole and entire 
 care of us : upon you singly we repose. To 
 your unparallelled virtue we all resign ourselves, 
 with not a syllable muttered against you ; except 
 by such as either with far inferior pretensions 
 aspire to equal honours, or envy those conferred 
 upon their superiors, or perceive not that nothing 
 in the world can be more acceptable to God, 
 more agreeable to reason, or more expedient in 
 policy, than that the highest in worth should be 
 the most exalted in power. Such, Cromwell, 
 are you, by the confession of all men. Such 
 have been your services, greatest and most illus- 
 trious of citizens, guide of our councils, general 
 of our armies, c Father of our common Country;' 
 for so are you hailed by the unprompted and 
 cordial voice of all the good. Other appella- 
 tions, as more adequate to your excellence, 
 your exploits neither acknowledge, nor indeed 
 
 * Their minimum of duration, " five months," he computed 
 to be 140 days; and on the expiration of that tXctwrcirtfov of 
 constitutional existence, he made them (as we learn from Hume) 
 a tedious, confused, angry harangue, and dismissed them. 
 
 N2 
 
180 milton's second defence. 
 
 admit : those proud titles, which sound so great 
 in the vulgar ear, they properly reject. For 
 what is a title, but a definite limit of dignity ? 
 Whereas your achievements exceed all limit, 
 not only of title, but even of admiration ; and 
 like the points of pyramids, rising above the 
 breath of popular applause, hide themselves in 
 the skies. Since however it is politically expe- 
 dient, if not philosophically correct, that the 
 honour paid to eminent virtue should be defined 
 and bounded by some human distinction, you 
 have condescendingly thought it right, with a 
 view to the public good, to assume a title* 
 most like that of e Father of your Country ;' a 
 title, by which you are, not exalted, but brought 
 down as it were from your elevation more 
 nearly to the level of ordinary men. The 
 name of c King/ with a far superior feeling 
 of majesty, you disdained ; and most properly. 
 For after having humbled and annihilated that 
 name as a private man, to have been captivated 
 by it in the midst of your glory, would have 
 been almost the same as if, after having sub- 
 dued some idolatrous nation by the help of 
 the true God, you had bent the knee to the 
 idols which you had vanquished. 
 
 Proceed then,t O Cromwell, with the same 
 
 * That of f Protector.' 
 
 t The magnanimity and high tone of this address, though 
 adduced in our days to prove the sycophancy of it's author, was 
 
milton's second defence. 181 
 
 loftiness of mind : for it becomes you well. 
 The redeemer as you are of your country, the 
 author and guardian and preserver of her liberty, 
 you can assume no additional character more 
 important or more august ; * since not only the 
 actions of our kings, but the fabled exploits of 
 our heroes, are overcome by your achievements. 
 Reflect, then, frequently (how dear alike the 
 trust, and the parent from whom you have re- 
 ceived it !) that to your hands your country has 
 commended and confided her freedom : that 
 what she lately expected from her choicest repre- 
 sentatives, she now expects, now hopes, from you 
 alone. O reverence this high expectation, this 
 hope of your country relying exclusively upon 
 yourself! Reverence the glances and the gashes 
 of those brave men, who have so nobly struggled 
 
 objected to him by his adversary More as an evidence of his 
 overweening and imperious spirit : Qjtice quidem omnia spirkus 
 tibi tarn altos induerunt, ut proximus a primo censeri concu- 
 piverisy adeoque celsissimo Cromuello celsior appareas inter- 
 dum ; quern sine ulla honoris prcefatione Jamiliaritcr appellas, 
 quern specie laudantis doces, cui leges dicias, titulos circum- 
 scribis, munia prcescribis, consilia suggeris, et si secus Jecerii 
 minas ingeris. Illi arma et imperium concedis, ingenium tibi 
 togamque vindicas. (Fides Publica, pp. 72, 73. See Dr. 
 Symmons, 441, not.) 
 
 * It may be proper here with Dr. Symmons to remark, that 
 the allusion in this place is not to Cromwell's rejection of the 
 crown, for that was not offered to him till two years afterward, 
 in 1656; but to the result of a consultation on the subject, 
 immediately before the dismission of the Long Parliament, 
 between him and some of his principal friends, when Whitlocke 
 strongly dissuaded him from assuming the title of ' King/ 
 
182 MILTON S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 for liberty under your auspices, as well as the 
 shades of those who perished in the conflict ! 
 Reverence also the judgement, and the dis- 
 courses, of foreign communities : their lofty 
 anticipations with respect to our freedom so 
 valiantly obtained, to our republic so gloriously 
 established, of which the speedy extinction 
 would involve us in the deepest disgrace and 
 ignominy! Reverence, finally, yourself; and 
 suffer not that liberty, for the attainment of 
 which you have endured so many hardships, 
 and encountered so many perils, to sustain any 
 violation from your own hands, or any encroach- 
 ment from those of others. Without our free- 
 dom, in fact, ycu cannot yourself be free : for 
 it is justly ordained by nature that he, who in- 
 vades the liberty of others, shall in the very 
 outset lose his own, and be the first to feel the 
 servitude which he has induced. But if the 
 great patron himself, the tutelary Deity (as it 
 were) of freedom, if the man most eminent for 
 justice and sanctity and general excellence 
 should assail the liberty which he has asserted, 
 the issue must necessarily be pernicious, if not 
 fatal, both to the aggressor, and to the entire 
 system and interests of piety herself Honour 
 and virtue would, indeed, in that case appear to 
 be empty names ; and the credit and character 
 of religion would decline and perish under a 
 wound more deep than any which, since the 
 first transgression, had been inflicted on the 
 race of man. 
 

 milton's second defence. 183 
 
 You have engaged in a most arduous under- 
 taking, which will search you to the quick j 
 which will scrutinise you through and through ; 
 which will bring to the severest test your spirit, 
 your energy, your stability ; which will ascer- 
 tain whether you are really actuated by that 
 living piety, fidelity, equity, and moderation, 
 which seem with the favour of God to have 
 raised you to your present high dignity. To 
 rule with your counsels three mighty realms ; 
 in the place of their erroneous institutions to 
 introduce a sounder system of doctrine and 
 of discipline, to pervade their remotest pro- 
 vinces with unremitting attention, anxiety, vigi- 
 lance, and foresight, to decline no labours, to 
 yield to no blandishments, to spurn the pagean- 
 tries of wealth and of power — these are diffi- 
 culties, in comparison with which those of war 
 are the mere levities of play : these will sift 
 and winnow you : these demand a man sus- 
 tained by the divine assistance, tutored and in- 
 structed almost by a personal communication 
 with his God. These and more than these you 
 often, I doubt not, revolve and make the sub- 
 jects of your deepest meditation ; greatly solici- 
 tous how they may most happily be achieved, 
 and your country's freedom strengthened and 
 secured ; and these objects you cannot, in my 
 judgement, otherwise effect than by admitting, 
 as you do, to an intimate share in your counsels 
 the men, who have already participated your 
 toils and your dangers — men of the utmost 
 
184 MILTON'S SECOND DEFENCE. 
 
 moderation, integrity, and valour ; not rendered 
 savage or austere by the sight of so much blood- 
 shed, and of so many forms of death ; but in- 
 clined to justice, to the reverence of the Deity, 
 and to a sympathy with human suffering, and ani- 
 mated for the preservation of liberty with a zeal 
 strengthened by the hazards which they have 
 encountered for it's sake : not raked together 
 from the dregs of our own, or of a foreign 
 populace ; not a band of mercenary adven- 
 turers — but men, chiefly, of superior condition ; 
 in extraction, noble or reputable ; with respect 
 to property, considerable or competent, or (in 
 some instances) deriving a stronger claim to 
 our regard, even from their poverty itself: not 
 convened by the lust of plunder, but in times 
 of extreme difficulty, and under circumstances 
 generally doubtful and often almost desperate, 
 excited to vindicate their native land from oppres- 
 sion ; and prompt, not only in the safety of 
 the " senate-house" to wage the war of words, 
 but to join battle with the enemy in the field. 
 If we will then renounce the idleness of eternal 
 and fallacious expectation, I see not in whom, 
 if not in these and such as these, we can place 
 reliance or trust. Of their fidelity we have the 
 surest and most indisputable proof, in the rea- 
 diness which they have shown even to die, if it 
 had been their lot, in the cause of their country ; 
 of their piety, in the devotion with which, 
 having repeatedly and successfully implored the 
 protection of heaven, they uniformly ascribed 
 
milton's second defence. 185 
 
 all the glory to Him, from whom they had 
 solicited the victory ; of their equity, in their 
 not having exempted even their King from trial 
 and from execution ; of their moderation, in 
 our own experience, and in the certainty that 
 if their violence should disturb the peace which 
 they have established, they would themselves 
 be the foremost to feel the resulting mischiefs, 
 and receive the first wounds in their own bodies, 
 while they were again doomed to struggle for 
 all their fortunes and honours now happily se- 
 cured ; of their fortitude, lastly, in that none 
 ever recovered their liberty with more bravery 
 or effect, to give us the assurance that none will 
 ever watch over it with more solicitous anxiety. 
 I gladly seize the opportunity of enumerating 
 several illustrious names : and first yours, Fleet- 
 wood, # whom from your very first entrance into 
 
 * Charles Fleetwood, Esq. who became son 'in law to the 
 Protector by marrying Mrs. Ireton, his eldest daughter, was of 
 an ancient Lancashire family. He was one of Cromwell's 
 Privy Councillors, and of his Peers, and was made by him Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland. See Noble, I. 36'9, 375. II. 347, 354. 
 His brother Sir George also, who succeeded Hampden as 
 Member for Bucks, and signed the warrant for the execution of 
 Charles I., was raised to the same degree of transient nobility. 
 His hypocritical tears upon his trial, as a regicide, procured his 
 pardon. He was, subsequently, released from the Tower; 
 and, upon reaching New England, gloried in e the good old 
 cause ! ' 
 
 The same fleeting honours were shared by Desborough, or 
 Disbrowe (See Noble II. 274, &c.) and to a smaller extent by 
 
186 milton's second defence, 
 
 the army to your present military rank (which is 
 all but supreme) I have known unaltered in 
 humanity, in gentleness, and in benevolence; 
 and whom the foe has felt most valiant and un- 
 daunted in winning, as well as most merciful 
 after having won, the victory. Yours next, Lam- 
 bert, who when little more than a boy, at the 
 head of an inconsiderable force, checked the 
 march and sustained the attack of the Duke of 
 Hamilton with all the flower and strength of 
 Scotland in his train. Yours, Desborough, 
 and yours, Whalley, whom whether I heard or 
 read of fierce engagements, I always expected, 
 and never failed to find, involved in their hottest 
 fury. Yours, Overton, who were united with 
 me many long years ago by kindred studies, 
 and sweetness of manners, and a more than 
 
 Whalley, ib. II. 135, &c. "both of very respectable extraction; 
 and also by Lawrence, the ' virtuous father ' referred to in 
 Milton's c Twentieth Sonnet ' and President of Cromwell's 
 Council, Pickering, Sydenham, Whitlocke, Montagu, the last 
 three of whom were likewise, e Lords Commissioners of our 
 Treasury/ and Strickland. See Noble I. 375, 379, 385, 387, 
 397, and 376 or 400. These all appear to have been of 
 honourable descent, and were probably selected by their pane- 
 gyrist the rather on that account, to repel the charge of ple- 
 beianism so strongly urged against his party. How little could 
 he foresee, that he should himself be characterised by the candid 
 Whitlocke, as " one Milton, a blind man, employed in trans^ 
 lating a treaty with Sweden into Latin ! " His appeal to Pos- 
 terity, in his ' Ode to Rouse,' if we may interpret it some- 
 what more widely than the lyrist himself intended it, appears 
 to have been as necessary, as it was effectual. 
 
mh>ton's second defence. 187 
 
 brother's affection. On the memorable day of 
 Marston Moor, when our left wing was defeated, 
 you were still to be seen by the fugitive officers, 
 as they cast their eyes backward, making an 
 effectual stand with your infantry in the midst 
 of carnage against the assault of the enemy : 
 and afterward in the Scottish war, when under 
 Cromwell's directions you had taken possession 
 of the Coast of Fifeshire, and opened a way 
 beyond Stirling, the Scots of the West and of 
 the North confessed your clemency, and the 
 farthest Orkneys submitted to your power. I 
 will add others, known to me by friendship or 
 by fame, who have been admitted to the coun- 
 sels of the state from their political renown ; 
 Whitlocke, Pickering, Strickland, Syden- 
 ham, Sidney (a splendid name, which I rejoice 
 to find uniformly enrolled under our banners) 
 Montagu, Lawrence, both men of superior 
 talents and first-rate accomplishments, with 
 many more, eminently approved by their ser- 
 vices in the senate or in the field. To such 
 men, distinguished alike by their abilities and 
 their integrity, you may undoubtedly with per- 
 fect propriety entrust the charge of our liber- 
 ties ; nor would it indeed be easy to mention 
 any, in whose hands they might be deposited 
 with greater security. 
 
 Next, if you leave the church to the church, 
 and thus judiciously disburthen yourself and 
 the civil magistracy in general of a concern 
 forming half their encumbrance, and wholly in- 
 
188 milton's second defence. 
 
 congruous with their appropriate functions ; 
 not permitting the two heterogeneous autho- 
 rities of Church and State to continue their 
 intrigues (with an apparent, though deceitful, 
 reciprocity of support, but to the actual en- 
 feebling and eventual subversion of both) ; not 
 allowing any constraint upon conscience — 
 which however will necessarily continue as long 
 as gold, the poison of the Church and the very 
 quinsey of truth, shall continue to be extorted 
 from the laity to pay the wages of the clergy — 
 you will cast out the money-changers, and 
 hucksters not of doves, but of the Dove itself; 
 I mean, the Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 Then, if as legislator you exert yourself rather 
 in repealing old laws than in framing new ones, 
 since it often happens in a commonwealth that 
 persons have an itch for multiplying laws, like 
 that which versifiers have for multiplying rhymes ; 
 though laws are usually oppressive in proportion 
 to their numbers, and become rather reefs than 
 reliefs — you will retain merely what are neces- 
 sary, and enact only such as without subjecting 
 the good and the bad to the same yoke, or con- 
 trolling the proper freedom of the virtuous 
 while they guard against the frauds of the prof- 
 ligate, animadvert solely upon crime, and pro- 
 hibit nothing which is in itself lawful under 
 pretext of it's occasional abuses. For the only 
 object of legislation is, to hold vice in check : 
 liberty is the best tutress and improver of 
 virtue. 
 
milton's second defence. 189 
 
 Again ; if you provide better than has yet 
 been done for the education, literary and moral, 
 of our youth : not deeming it equitable, that 
 the teachable and the unteachable, the indus- 
 trious and the indolent should be equally in- 
 structed at the public expense ; but reserving 
 the rewards of learning for those who have 
 already merited them, for the learned : 
 
 Farther ; if you permit the friends of free 
 discussion to publish their lucubrations at their 
 own hazard, without being previously subjected 
 to the inspection of a superficial licenser — for 
 so will Truth have the best chance of flourishing; 
 and the opinion, or envy, or narrow minded- 
 ness, or superstition of the half-learned will no 
 longer mete the discoveries of others and science 
 itself by their own measure, and deal them out 
 to us at their own discretion : 
 
 Finally ; if you shrink not from hearing any 
 truth, or even any falsehood : not listening 
 however to those who deem their own liberty 
 established only by abridging that of others, 
 and exert themselves most anxiously and vehe- 
 mently in shackling not only the persons but 
 the consciences of their brethren, for the pur- 
 pose of introducing that most abominable of all 
 tyrannies, the tyranny of their own depraved 
 habits and opinions into the State and Church ; 
 but constantly found on the side of those, who 
 think that not only their own sect or party, 
 but every citizen without distinction in every 
 
190 milton's second defence. 
 
 state, has an equal right to be free — -Should 
 any one account this degree of liberty adminis- 
 tered through the medium of magistracy insuffi- 
 cient, he appears to me a zealot of ambition 
 and anarchy, rather than a lover of genuine 
 liberty ; especially as a people recently con- 
 vulsed by so many factions, like billows which 
 retain their agitation after the tempest has sub- 
 sided, are unfit for that more desirable and theo- 
 retically perfect state. 
 
 For it is of no slight moment, my fellow citu 
 zens, how you yourselves are qualified either for 
 the recovery, or the preservation, of your free- 
 dom. Unless that freedom be such, as arms 
 can neither confer, nor take away — a freedom 
 which, springing from piety and justice and 
 temperance and true virtue, strikes it's deep 
 and pervading roots in your hearts — there will 
 speedily be found some to seize without force 
 that, which you boastfully profess by force to 
 have acquired. Many, who have owed their 
 eminence to war, have been humbled by peace. 
 If, at the conclusion of your struggles, you 
 neglect the pursuits of peace ; if war is to be 
 your peace and liberty, your sole virtue and 
 your principal glory, trust me, you will soon 
 find peace your most fatal foe : peace itself will 
 be your most arduous warfare, and your imagi- 
 nary freedom complete servitude. If you do 
 not by a faithful and sincere discharge of duty 
 both toward God and man, consisting not in 
 
milton's second defence, 1 91 
 
 frivolous professions but in active and effica- 
 cious exertions, chase from their minds those 
 errors which arise out of the ignorance of pure 
 and substantial religion, you will have masters 
 who will bestride your necks and your backs, 
 as if you were so many beasts of burthen ; 
 who will knock you down in peace to the 
 highest bidder, in spite of all your victories, 
 like so much mere military booty, and convert 
 your ignorance and superstition to their own 
 abundant advantage. If you do not wholly 
 renounce avarice, ambition, and luxury, if you 
 do not root out every habit of expense * from 
 your entire system of domestic economy, you 
 will find at home and within doors a foe more 
 fierce than any, whom you ever looked for 
 abroad and in the field ; nay, within your own 
 
 * Milton's panegyrics on temperance (says Warton, in a 
 Note on Eleg. vi. 55.) both in eating and drinking, resulting 
 from his own practice, are frequent. See P. L. v. 5., xi. 472, 
 515, 530. ; II Pens. 46., and Comus in several places. " In 
 his way of living," says his Right Reverend Biographer, " he 
 was an example of sobriety and temperance. He was very 
 sparing in the use of wine, or strong liquors of any kind. Let 
 meaner poets make use of such expedients to raise their fancy, 
 and kindle their imagination. He wanted not any artificial 
 spirits ; he had a natural fire, and poetic warmth enough of his 
 own. He was, likewise, very abstemious in his diet; not 
 fastidiously nice or delicate in the choice of his dishes, but con- 
 tent with any thing that was most in season or easiest to be 
 procured, eating and drinking (according to the distinction of 
 the philosopher) that he might live, and not living that he 
 might eat and drink." 
 
192 milton's second defence. 
 
 bosoms will daily spring up in abundance a race 
 of insupportable tyrants. Be it your task to 
 subdue these first : this is the warfare of peace ; 
 these are the toilsome though bloodless vic- 
 tories, which far exceed in glory all that can be 
 won in sanguinary combats. These victories 
 unachieved, the foe, the tyrant opposed to you 
 merely in battle, will have been partially or 
 fruitlessly conquered. For if any of you deem 
 it nobler, more advantageous, or more politic to 
 devise subtile schemes of productive finance, to 
 direct with ability the manoeuvres of an army 
 or a fleet, or to display wanness in negotiating 
 and judgement in concluding treaties of alli- 
 ance and peace ; than to administer pure justice 
 to the community, to assist the injured and the 
 oppressed, and to determine the rightful claims 
 of suitors with despatch, you will too late dis- 
 cern your mistake, when those magnificent ac- 
 complishments shall have suddenly baulked your 
 expectations, while by the neglect of these infe- 
 rior qualities (as you now deem them) you will 
 find yourselves plunged into wretchedness and 
 ruin. Even of armies and allies, upon whom you 
 so confidently rely, the attachment is precarious, 
 unless it proceed from the single principle of 
 justice ; and opulence and honours, those objects 
 of general pursuit, easily change their masters, 
 deserting the slothful, and passing over to the 
 virtuous, the industrious, and the indefatigable. 
 Thus nation presses upon nation ; thus the 
 
milton's second defence. 193 
 
 sounder part of a state displace the more cor- 
 rupt, thus you overthrew the Royalists. But 
 should you begin to slide into the same vices, to 
 copy their profligacy and to covet their frivo- 
 lities, you become Royalists yourselves, and as 
 such lie open in your turn to their assault, 
 or to that of others *, who relying upon the 
 piety, patience, integrity, and discretion by 
 which you first grew strong, will justly triumph 
 over you, debilitated as you will in that case be 
 by royalist luxury and excess. And then will 
 you seem, sad sight ! as if God had repented of 
 his kindness toward you, to have passed through 
 the fire in order to perish by the smoke. You 
 are not now more admired by the world, than 
 you will then be despised ; and the only benefit, 
 which you will be able hereafter to confer upon 
 others, perhaps, not yourselves — will be, your 
 furnishing a salutary proof of what great things 
 real piety and virtue might have effected ; when 
 even their mere counterfeits and shadows in 
 your instance, through the bare operation of a 
 little dextrous mockery, were able to attempt 
 so nobly and to advance so far. For though by 
 your unskilfulness, unsteadiness, or unworthiness 
 what has already been achieved greatly may 
 end disastrously, better men will not on that 
 account be either authorised to dare, or disposed 
 to hope, the less extensively. But if you thus 
 readily sink into corruption, not even Cromwell 
 himself, nor a whole family of Brutuses, sup- 
 
194 milton's second defence. 
 
 posing them recalled into existence for the ex- 
 periment, would either be able or willing again to 
 effect your emancipation. Why, indeed, should 
 any one assert your right of independent suf- 
 frage, and of freely choosing whatever repre- 
 sentatives you please ; if you are simply to vote 
 each for the partisan of his own faction in the 
 cities or in the boroughs, for him who provides 
 the most expensive dinners and broaches the 
 largest hogsheads of ale for his country-con- 
 stituents, without the smallest regard to his 
 genuine respectability ? In that case not good 
 sense or high character, but faction and gor- 
 mandising, would fill our senate with political 
 hucksters and haberdashers from the shops, or 
 with boors and clowns from the plough-tail. 
 And would any person confide the care of the 
 commonwealth to one, whom nobody durst 
 venture to trust with the management of his 
 individual fortune ? Would the revenues of the 
 state be safe in the custody of those, who had 
 profligately squandered their own ? Would not 
 such characters speedily convert the public into 
 a private purse by their gross peculations ? 
 Could the office of legislating for an entire 
 people with any propriety be delegated all at 
 once to those, who themselves never understood 
 what law and reason, or right and wrong, or 
 straight and crooked, or legal and illegal meant ; 
 who regard all power as consisting in outrage, 
 all dignity in pride and insolence -, whose pri- 
 
milton's second defence. 19£ 
 
 mary objects in parliament are an unprincipled 
 zeal for their friends, and a vindictive opposition 
 to their adversaries ; who procure collectorships 
 of taxes and other lucrative appointments in 
 the different counties for their relations and 
 connexions, creatures generally of a low and 
 despicable condition, but who by fraudulent 
 purchases at sales of their own superintending 
 divert immense sums of money from their proper 
 destination, to the great injury of the common- 
 wealth and the ruin of individuals, while they 
 themselves suddenly emerge from rags and beg- 
 gary to opulence and magnificence? Who can 
 bear such pilfering slaves, fit proxies of their 
 masters ; who believe, that the masters and 
 patrons of those pilferers can prove the proper 
 guardians of liberty : or under such trustees, 
 though delegated by the different classes of 
 electors to the usual number of five hundred, 
 imagine himself one jot the freer ; when so 
 few of the guardians, or of those whose rights 
 they profess to guard, would then be found 
 either able or worthy to use and to enjoy that 
 freedom ? 
 
 Neither ought I, finally, to omit stating that 
 those, who are unworthy of freedom, are usually 
 the foremost to treat their deliverers with in- 
 gratitude. Who then, for the liberty of such a 
 description of persons, would choose either to 
 fight, or to incur the smallest danger ? It is 
 neither proper, nor indeed possible, that such 
 
 o 2 
 
196 milton's second defence. 
 
 persons should be free. Let them prate about 
 liberty, and brag of it as they will, they are 
 slaves, unconsciously slaves both at home and 
 abroad ; and whenever they come to know it, 
 and like wild horses disdainful of the rein, 
 under the impulse — not of a love of true liberty, 
 for that the good man* alone can rightly seek — 
 but of pride and depraved passions, endeavour 
 to shake off the yoke, they may attempt it again 
 and again by actual recourse to arms : but it will 
 be in vain. Even if they succeed in changing their 
 tyrant, they will never get rid of the tyranny. 
 This was frequently the case with the old 
 Romans, after they had become shattered and 
 enfeebled by luxury ; and still more strikingly 
 has it been illustrated in their modern successors, 
 when after a long lapse of years first under the 
 guidance of Crescentius Nomentanus, and sub- 
 sequently under that of Nicola Rienzi, who had 
 assumed the title of ' Tribune of the People,' 
 they affected to renew the glory and re-establish 
 the republic of ancient Rome. For know, to 
 check your indignation, and prevent you from 
 throwing the blame upon any one except your- 
 selves, that as to be free is identical with being 
 
 * ' Who loves that,, must first be wise and good j' 
 
 (Sonn. xii. 12.) 
 and his ( Tenure of Kings and Magistrates ; ' " Indeed, none 
 can love Freedom heartily but good men. The rest love not 
 Freedom, but Licence ; which never hath more scope, or more 
 indulgence, than under tyrants." 
 
milton's second defence. 197 
 
 pious and wise and just and temperate and 
 frugal and abstinent and lastly (of course) with 
 being magnanimous and brave ; so, to be the 
 reverse of all these, is identical with being a 
 slave. Hence, by the ordinary appointment and 
 equitable retribution of Providence, the nation 
 which is incapable of ruling and regulating itself, 
 and has fallen under the bondage of it's own 
 passions, is subjected to the domination of lords 
 whom it abhors, and is not only by choice, but 
 also against it's choice delivered over to ser- 
 vitude. This, in fact, is sanctioned by the very 
 principles of justice and nature, which ordain that 
 the incompetent, whether so rendered by original 
 defect or subsequent derangement of intellect, 
 shall not remain at their own disposal, but be 
 placed as minors under the control of others ; 
 much less, shall they be appointed to manage 
 the concerns either of individuals or the state. 
 Ye therefore, who would remain free, either in- 
 stantly exercise, or as soon as possible recover, 
 your discretion : if servitude is bitter, and you 
 are unwilling to swallow it, learn to obey reason, 
 to assert the mastery of yourselves ; finally, to 
 renounce on all sides your factions, your jea- 
 lousies, your superstitions, your outrages, your 
 lusts, and your rapines. So long as this remains 
 unattempted, you cannot appear in the eyes 
 either of God or man (even of your own deli- 
 verers) fit subjects to be entrusted with liberty, 
 and sovereignty, and what you so arrogantly 
 
198 milton's second defence. 
 
 covet, the power of commanding others ; as 
 you will in that case, like a nation in a state of 
 wardship, rather require a guardian, a valiant 
 and trusty superintendent of your affairs. 
 
 For myself, whatever may be the final result, 
 such efforts as in my own judgement were most 
 likely to be beneficial to the commonwealth, I 
 have made without reluctance, though not as I 
 trust without effect. I have wielded my weapons 
 for liberty not only in our domestic scene, but 
 on a far more extensive theatre : that the justice 
 and the principle of our extraordinary actions, 
 explained and vindicated both at home and 
 abroad, and confirmed in the universal appro- 
 bation of the good, might be unquestionably 
 established, as well for the honour of my com- 
 patriots as for precedents to posterity. That 
 the conclusion prove not unworthy of such a 
 commencement, be it the care of those my 
 compatriots to provide : it has been mine to 
 deliver a testimony, I had almost said, to erect 
 a monument which will not soon decay, to 
 deeds of greatness and of glory almost tran- 
 scending human panegyric ; and, if I have ac- 
 complished nothing farther, I have assuredly 
 discharged my engagement. As the bard, how- 
 ever, who is denominated Epic, if he at all con- 
 fine himself to the canons of his specific verse, 
 proposes to himself for a subject of poetical 
 embellishment, not the whole life of his hero, 
 but some single action (such as the Wrath of 
 
milton's second defence. 199 
 
 Achilles at Troy, the Return of Ulysses, or the 
 Arrival in Italy of iEneas) and takes no notice 
 of the rest of his conduct ; so will it suffice, 
 either to form my vindication or to satisfy my 
 duty, that I have recorded in heroic narrative 
 one only of my fellow-citizens' achievements. 
 The rest I omit, for who can display all the 
 splendid actions of a whole people ? 
 
 If then after such valiant exploits you fall 
 into gross delinquency, and perpetuate any thing 
 unw T orthy of yourselves, posterity will not fail to 
 discuss and to pronounce sentence upon the dis- 
 graceful deed. The foundation they will allow 
 indeed to have been firmly laid, and the first, nay 
 more than the first, parts of the superstructure to 
 have been erected with success : but with anguish 
 they will regret, that there were none found to 
 carry it forward to it's completion ; that such an 
 enterprise, and such virtues, were not crowned 
 by perseverance ; that a rich harvest of glory, 
 and abundant materials for noble achievement, 
 were prepared, but that men were wanting to 
 make use of them — while there wanted not a 
 man to instruct, to urge, to stimulate to action ; 
 a man, c who could call fame ' as well upon the 
 acts as the actors, and could spread c their 
 names over lands and seas' to the admiration 
 of all future ages. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 CAROLINE SYMMONS, 
 
 CAROLINE, daughter of the Rev. Charles 
 Symmons, D. D. and Elizabeth his wife,* was 
 born April 12, J 789. From her infancy she 
 discovered indications of very extraordinary 
 powers of intellect. Of these, as they existed 
 in her seventh year, I had first an opportunity 
 of forming an estimate ; and, ere a second 
 seven were well numbered, they were no more ! 
 
 Lt crespe chiome d'or puro lucente, 
 EH lampeggiar del* angelico riso, 
 Che solean Jar in terra mi paradiso, 
 
 Poca polvere son, che nulla sente. (Petr. II. xxiv.) 
 
 At a period of life, in which grace and 
 beauty are seldom so much disclosed as to 
 interest any eyes, except those of the relative 
 
 * Sister of Rear Admiral Foley, who so highly distinguished 
 himself under Lord Nelson, in the battle of the Nile, and in 
 that before Copenhagen. He has since married Lady Lucy 
 Fitzgerald, sister to the late Duke of Leinster. 
 
 [Only 50 copies printed separately.] 
 
2 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 
 
 or of the friend, she was strikingly endowed 
 with both ; and if I had the pencil of a Rey- 
 nolds or a Hoppner, I would endeavour to do 
 justice to her personal charms. But those, at 
 their " best state, are altogether vanity." Ut 
 vultus hominum,, it a simulacra vultus imbecilla 
 ac mortalia sunt ; forma mentis aterna* (Tac. 
 Agric. 46.) From a subject therefore, to which 
 I feel myself unequal, I turn to the display of 
 her mind ; a labour indeed still more hopeless, 
 if specimens of it's energies were not fortu- 
 nately in existence, which will in a great mea- 
 sure supersede the necessity of other descrip- 
 tion. 
 
 c Zelida,'i the first of her poems, with which I 
 was favoured by her father soon after it's com- 
 position, is dated November 24, 1800; and, as 
 the production of a child (if she could ever, pro- 
 
 * Yet with these perishable tokens of our regard we are de- 
 lighted to honour, and for a while to preserve, the memory of 
 the dear departed ; and he must be a stern philosopher, who 
 can deride or dissuade their adoption. A bust by Nollekens 
 was executed from a model taken from her face after her de- 
 cease. It represents her features with accuracy, and is one of 
 that excellent artist's best works : but to animate the marble 
 with the full character and illumination of her countenance, 
 would have exceeded the powers of the chissel in the hand of a 
 Phidias or a Praxiteles. 
 
 t These Poems have all been lately printed by her Father in 
 an octavo volume, accompanied and enriched with his own, 
 particularly a most admirable version of the fourth iEneid. 
 
MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 3 
 
 perly, have been called a child) of eleven years 
 of age, is surely most wonderful. What may 
 perhaps excite at least equal surprise with the 
 beauty of the stanzas themselves, is the selec- 
 tion of the subject — " A faded rose-bush!" 
 What a theme, to be chosen by a youthful 
 poetess, in the full tide of health and anima- 
 tion ! How sweetly characteristic of her own 
 blossoming, the third verse ! 
 
 This rose-tree once flourish' d, and sweeten' d the air ; 
 
 Like it's blossom all lovely she grew : 
 The scent of her breath, as it's fragrance, was rare ; 
 
 And her cheeks were more fresh than it's hue. 
 
 The fourth, how mournfully ominous of her 
 decay !* 
 
 She planted, she loved it, she dew'd it's gay head ; 
 
 And it's bloom every rival defied. 
 But, alas ! what was beauty, or virtue, soon fled : 
 
 In spring they both blossom'd and died ! 
 
 * What admirer of elegant modern Latinity will not here be 
 forcibly reminded of Vincent Bourne's distich ! 
 
 Stella, toscb miserere, et dum miserere, memento 
 Quod brevis est cevi, quod tua forma rosa est. 
 The breves rosce indeed, and the johv uKfjuu^ov fiociov xpovov, are 
 but too accurately applicable, in many melancholy instances, to 
 the choicest human flowers ; as the sad stories of Thomas Wil- 
 liams Malkin, Joshua Rowley Gilpin, Henry Kirke White, and 
 Elizabeth Smith, abundantly attest : but too often, 
 hoary-headed frosts 
 Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose ! 
 
 (Shaksp. Mids. Night's Dream, ii. 2.) 
 
4 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 
 
 " It is, indeed (said a lady of considerable 
 taste, upon reading it) little less than miracu- 
 lous, and so completely unlike any other com- 
 positions I have ever known, that delightful as 
 I think it, I should feel almost terrified at such 
 premature excellence — excellence of every 
 kind ; for one knows not which most to admire, 
 the genius which inspires, or the taste which 
 executes!" Prophetic forebodings! too soon, 
 too fully, to be realised ! 
 
 I must not omit adding, with respect to this 
 exquisite little piece, upon her father's autho- 
 rity, that like all her other works, u it was in 
 the strictest sense her own, having received no 
 improvements or heightenings from the sugges- 
 tions of any person whatever"- — a declaration 
 in which I place the most implicit confidence, 
 from my knowledge of both the parties con- 
 cerned, neither of whom could have done so 
 much violence to their nature, as to descend 
 for an instant to any thing like imposition or 
 deceit. 
 
 Four sonnets, entitled, c To Fannia ;'* ' On a 
 blighted Rose-bud ; ' t c Written in Winter •;* and 
 * On Spring ;' and dated October 21, November 
 27, 28, and 29, 1800, respectively; with a story 
 in the heroic measure, c Laura, 9 consisting of 
 
 * Her sister. 
 
 + These pathetic lines are to be inscribed on her tomb. 
 
MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 5 
 
 more than five hundred harmonious lines, and the 
 very pathetic 'Flower-Girl's Cry,'* distinguished 
 the close of this brilliant year. From the pre- 
 valence of wintry dates indeed throughout her 
 compositions, all of which were executed in the 
 interval between October and April, it may be 
 inferred, that the vein of this infantine muse 
 (like that of her own Milton, as represented by 
 Phillips) " flowed most happily from the au- 
 tumnal equinox to the vernal." 
 
 With regard to the whole of the above-named 
 effusions, if it be suggested that c the writer was 
 still not within sight of her teens,' it is not in 
 the slightest degree intended as an apology (for 
 what is there in them to demand apology ?) but 
 merely to keep in the reader's mind, what their 
 singularly elegant execution would otherwise 
 inevitably cause him to forget. He will be 
 astonished to discover in them at once accu- 
 racy of mechanical structure, flowing numbers, 
 and splendid expression ; and he will not fail to 
 observe, that she has gathered many a " wood- 
 hare-bell," which had been overlooked by her 
 taller predecessors in the same track. 
 
 * These beautiful verses have been set to music by Mr. 
 Adams, and by Miss Hague (daughter of Dr. Hague, Prof. 
 Mus. Camb.) herself, at the time, scarcely exceeding the 
 poetess in years. 
 
6 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 
 
 The passionate attachment, which she at this 
 
 period felt to the best English Poets, among 
 
 whom Spenser and young Milton were her prime 
 
 favourites, ought here to be mentioned. So 
 
 much, indeed, was she struck with the charms 
 
 of V Allegro and II Pe?iseroso, that to have been 
 
 the author of them, she declared " there was 
 
 no personal sacrifice of face or form, which she 
 
 would have declined:" and few have had so 
 
 much of either to offer. Nay, subsequently — 
 
 on her returning home one morning from 
 
 Ware's,* where she had been undergoing an 
 
 operation — when her sufferings became the 
 
 subject of conversation, and a tender concern 
 
 was expressed for the possible danger to which 
 
 the sight of the afflicted organ was exposed, 
 
 she said with a smile, that " to be a Milton, 
 
 she would cheerfully consent to lose both her 
 
 eyes." 
 
 From this feeble attempt to show her, like 
 
 * Of this eminent man illustrious mention is made in her 
 father's 'Life of Milton? where it is said, "If we were desirous 
 of paying Thevenot (a physician, most honourably alluded to 
 in one of Milton's letters to Leon. Philaras) a high compliment, 
 we should 'call him, ' the Ware of the seventeenth century, 
 and of France ! ' If the French physician actually possessed the 
 skill and the benevolence of our admirable oculist, he must 
 have been the ornament and the blessing of his age." (Ed. 
 2d. p. 375, not.) 
 
MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 7 
 
 her own rose-tree, " flourishing and sweetening 
 the air," 1 am reluctantly summoned to repre- 
 sent her, like it, fading away : to represent 
 
 Gli occhi sereni, e le stellanti ciglie, 
 
 La bella bocca angelica , di perle 
 
 Piena e di rose e di dolci parole, 8$c. (Petr. I. clxvii.) 
 
 gradually losing their hue and their lustre, 
 though not their sweetness. For now the deli- 
 cacy of her health began first to excite serious 
 alarm in the breasts of her parents. Of this, a 
 letter from her father, dated March 19, 1801, 
 conveyed to me the mournful intelligence ; 
 and, along with it, a promise (of which I did 
 not, I fear, sufficiently stimulate the fulfilment) 
 that the whole of her productions should, at 
 some time or other, be transcribed for me, " as 
 an interesting specimen of childish ability." 
 Of those which reached me, the earliest is an 
 * Invocation to Memory J a poem full of expres- 
 sions little noticed by her friends on it's original 
 appearance, February 18, 1801; but which must 
 since have recurred with painful emphasis to 
 their feelings ! This was followed by an ' Address 
 to Content J which from her peculiar diffidence 
 she would not permit to be called an ode, 
 dated February 22 ; ' May -day 1 and the 6 Snow- 
 drop; March 10; ' The Hare-bellS March 16; 
 c a Song J April SO ; an c Invocation to Sleep,' 
 
8 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 
 
 October 20; and 'a Sonnet to Mrs. Cornwall, 1 * 
 November 4, 1801. Of these, the Snow-drop, 
 the Song, and the Invocation to Sleep, were in- 
 tended for insertion in a romance (the ' Orphan 
 of the Cottage'^) which she and her elder sister 
 had begun in partnership, but which has since, 
 with a feeling easily conceivable, been thrown 
 into the fire by the lovely survivor. 
 
 Her last composition, 4 a Sonnet to her Aunt, 
 Lady Lucy Foley, on her Birth-day? ilia tan- 
 quam cycnea divince puellte vox, was written in 
 February, 1803. Before the end of this month, 
 a cough, accompanied with fever, had reduced 
 her to the lowest stage of weakness, without 
 however in the slightest degree affecting either 
 her spirits or her temper. By her father, who 
 with his excellent and beloved wife hung over 
 her sick bed in the most palpitating state of 
 anxiety, I was informed (in a letter, dated 
 April 17) that the nature of her complaint was 
 ascertained to be pulmonary ;t a conclusion in 
 
 * In the concluding couplet of this last exquisite production, 
 she had the candor to reject an alteration of one line proffered 
 by her father, on the plea of having the whole fourteen her 
 own j modestly remarking at the same time, that ' some faults 
 would stamp the composition as more legitimately hers.' 
 
 ■j- It was not, however, the common phthisis, but the catar- 
 rhal fever (generally known by the name of the ' Influenza') 
 which proved fatal to numbers in the early months of the year 
 1803. 
 
MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 9 
 
 no respect weakened by the frequent altern- 
 ations of better and worse, so generally charac- 
 teristic of affections of the lungs. Those who, 
 like myself, have ever lost a dear friend by the 
 mining of a similar assailant, will not need to 
 be told what were now the reciprocations of 
 hope and fear in the hearts of her surrounding 
 relations. The low and languid morning, so 
 often unexpectedly following a day of cheer- 
 fulness and a night of repose, the delusive glow 
 of the cheek, the debility and emaciation, and 
 above all, the importunate and unrelenting 
 cough — as exhibited to me in the last days of a 
 father, to whose judicious tenderness and self- 
 denying liberality, under God, I owe all my 
 blessings — will never be erased from my re- 
 membrance : 
 
 O thou, my mingled joy and woe,, 
 Sweet source of every bursting sigh 
 
 Who bidd'st these silent sorrows flow — 
 Hail ! heaven-born soothing Memory ! 
 
 (Caroline Symmons.) 
 
 Now might have been repeated over her, 
 with well-deserved and prophetical panegyric, 
 the well-known chef d'ceuvre of Petrarch : 
 
 Chi vuol veder quantunque pub natura 
 E'l del tra noi 9 venga a mirar costei, 
 Ch'e sola un sol ; non pur agli occhi miei 9 
 
 Ma al mondo cieco <he virtu non cura* 
 
10 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 
 
 E venga tosto ; perche Morte Jura 
 Prima i migliori, e lascia star i rei. 
 Questa, aspettata al regno degli Dei, 
 
 Cosa bella mortal passa e non dura. 
 
 Vedra, s 9 arriva a tempo, ogni virtute, 
 Ogni bellezza, ogni real costume 
 
 Giunti in un corpo con mirabil tempre : 
 Allor dira eke mie rime son mute, 
 
 L 9 ingegno qffeso dal soverchio lume — 
 
 Ma, se piu tarda, avra da pianger sempre.* 
 
 (I. ccx.) 
 
 On the first of June, the terrible blow, which 
 
 * Of tills inimitable sonnet I have attempted a translation, 
 which it perhaps requires some apology for subjoining to such a 
 masterpiece of elegance and pathos, giunti in un corpo, even in 
 a note : 
 
 Stranger ! whose curious glance delights to trace 
 What heaven and nature join'd to frame most rare, 
 Here view mine eyes' bright sun ; a sight so fair, 
 
 That purblind worlds, like me, enamour'd gaze. 
 
 But speed thy step ; for Death with rapid pace 
 Pursues the best, nor deems the bad his care : 
 Call'd to the skies, through yon blue fields of air, 
 
 On buoyant plume the cherub-child obeys. 
 
 Then haste, and mark in one rich form combined — 
 And while surpassing lustre pains the eye, 
 
 Chide the weak efforts of my trembling lay — 
 Each charm of person, and each grace of mind : 
 But if thy lingering foot my call deny, 
 
 Grief and repentant shame shall mourn the brief delay, 
 
MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 1 1 
 
 had been so long suspended, fell, and her gentle 
 spirit " returned unto God who gave it." 
 
 Early, bright, transient, chaste— as morning dew, 
 She sparkled, was exhaled, and went to heaven. 
 
 (Young, Night v.) 
 
 Another touch or two of the pencil, and I 
 have done. 
 
 To her extraordinary charms and talents, she 
 united virtues almost as extraordinary ; particu- 
 larly those of exquisite but well-regulated sen- 
 sibility, of active humanity, of diffidence which 
 shrunk from applause, and of piety, which like 
 the cypress ever-verdant, seemed to flourish 
 with augmented vigour upon the borders of the 
 grave. Those will be best illustrated by two or 
 three little anecdotes ; which however, inde- 
 pendently of their present application, deserve 
 to be recorded, were it only as they display at 
 a very early age an uncommon degree of re- 
 flexion and right feeling. 
 
 One of her uncles, on his return from France 
 (where he had spent some time, during the first 
 period of the disastrous revolution in that 
 country) presented to her, then quite a child, a 
 national cockade. This she wore with apparent 
 pleasure, until the King was put to death ; when 
 she instantly carried it to her father, declaring, 
 that 6 she would never again wear the colours 
 
12 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS- 
 
 of a people, who had committed so cruel a 
 deed.' 
 
 In a more advanced stage of her short life, 
 her father, to show his high approbation of her 
 poetry and of her general excellence, addressed 
 her in a sonnet,* which he inscribed in a copy 
 of his c Sicilian Captive,' and gave to her, in the 
 presence of his whole family. As soon as the 
 praise caught her eye, she closed the book; 
 and, with a countenance which " spoke un- 
 utterable things," returned it to the giver, to 
 be withdrawn from the observation of her bro- 
 thers, whose sensibilities she feared might be 
 hurt by the preference thus obviously assigned 
 to herself. 
 
 Not many months before her decease, a beg- 
 gar-woman in the neighbourhood, who had 
 long been the object of her secret beneficence, 
 through her interest with some of the managers 
 
 * The drama, to which these tender lines were prefixed, in 
 the better days of our English Melpomene would not have 
 been confined to the shelf of English classics : but 
 
 migravit ah aure voluptas 
 
 Omnis ad incertos oculos — (Hor. Ep. II. i. 188.) 
 And the meteor-glare of a masque or a procession, a stuffed 
 elephant, a Newfoundland dog, or a horse in mock convulsions 
 is preferred even to Shakspeare himself. I am prevented, how- 
 ever, from attempting to do justice to the author of the e Sicilian 
 Captive? by the recollection that these pages will pass under his 
 eye on their way to the press. 
 
MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 13 
 
 of the Westminster Hospital received for one of 
 her children, which had suffered by an accident, 
 support and medical assistance. In conse- 
 quence of not seeing for some time her youth- 
 ful benefactress, the poor creature was induced 
 to inquire of the servants about her ; and, on 
 being made acquainted with her loss, burst into 
 a violent fit of crying, and betrayed almost 
 frantic grief. These bounties, it appeared, the 
 little angel had furnished from a small fund of 
 her own ; and, when her purse failed, had (fre- 
 quently with her own hands) supplied the de- 
 ficiency from her father's kitchen. But what 
 distinguished her charity, and indeed her whole 
 conduct, from that of most other children was, 
 the principle from which they proceeded, and 
 from which they derived the steadiness and the 
 uniformity of system. This it is the parent's 
 rt delightful task," — in the present instance 
 how admirably executed ! — to infuse into their 
 offspring : not cherishing in them the capricious 
 self-indulgence of the sentimentalist, or the me- 
 chanical generosity of the spendthrift ; but 
 from their earliest dawn of reason proposing to 
 them, as the invariable object of all their alms 
 and actions, the fulfilment of the will of God. 
 With the five talents dispensed to Caroline 
 Symmons it does not, probably, fall to the lot of 
 one in a whole age or country to be entrusted ; 
 
14 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 
 
 but all may be rendered capable of enjoying, 
 and of diffusing, their maximum of happiness, 
 by the sedulous improvement of whatever smaller 
 number they have received. It should also be 
 recollected, as the compensation of their infe- 
 riority, that with great abilities are inseparably 
 connected great duties and great dangers : that 
 their functions are arduous, and their respon- 
 sibilities alarming : and, not to mention what 
 Waller represents as 
 
 The common fate of all things rare, 
 How small a part of time they share, 
 Who are so wondrous sweet and fair ! 
 
 that the largus et exundans ingenii fons* c the 
 prodigal and overflowing spring of genius,' even 
 without this perhaps superstitious notion of a 
 premature exhaustion, is still not one of the 
 boons (if we may trust the records of history) 
 which a father should importune heaven to 
 bestow upon his child. 
 
 To return. Not less remarkable than the 
 beauties of her person, the elegance of her 
 
 * Juv. Sat. X. 119; a poem once recommended by a Bishop 
 to his clergy in a pastoral letter, and for it's vivid imagery and 
 it's aweful sublimity perhaps unparallelled. What could be done 
 however, in the way of imitation, has been done by our own 
 Johnson in his 'Vanity of Human Wishes,' in which the whole 
 passage upon the perils of literary eminence in particular, 
 
 * When first the college-rolls/ ' &c. 
 is singularly impressive. 
 
MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. IS 
 
 taste, the strength of her understanding, and 
 the goodness of her heart, was her steadfast and 
 humble piety. Through the whole of her ill- 
 ness, she was constant in her devotions $ and, 
 when the extreme weakness and emaciation 
 occasioned by her malady made the posture of 
 kneeling (long painful) at length impracticable, 
 she deeply regretted the circumstance, as dis- 
 qualifying her for offering her adorations in a 
 suitable manner. With such a disposition, it 
 will not be matter of surprise that her beha- 
 viour, at all times exemplary, in the hours im- 
 mediately preceding her dissolution, should 
 have been admirable. Not a single complaint 
 fell from her lips. Even on the last morning of 
 her earthly existence, when she had expressed 
 to her maid a wish to die, she instantly cor- 
 rected herself, and said, " No, it is sinful to 
 wish for death ; I will not wish for it." 
 
 She was, in short, as pure a character as per- 
 haps has ever appeared ; and discovered, in the 
 short space of fourteen years, a very singular 
 combination of intellectual and moral excel- 
 lence. But she is gone from this valley of 
 grief to that better world, where there shall be 
 " no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, 
 neither shall there be any more pain : for to 
 her the former things are passed away." Res- 
 cued from the dangers and the evils of this pro- 
 
— 
 
 16 MEMOIR OF CAROLINE SYMMONS. 
 
 bationary state, she is surely in her fate, as she 
 was in her faculties and her accomplishments, 
 most enviable. — Alas ! I speak — as a philoso- 
 pher : but, when I turn my eyes lo my own 
 little prattling daughters, I shudder at the un- 
 certainty of fate ; I mingle my tears with those 
 of my friend ; I feel — as a man. 
 
A 
 
 DISSERTATION 
 
 On the best Means of civilising the Subjects of 
 the British Empire in India, and of diffusing 
 the Light of the Christian Religion through- 
 out the Eastern World. Originally Dedicated 
 to the Right Hon. Lord Teignmouth.* 
 
 MISERERE INOPUM SOCIORUM. 
 
 Jur. viii. 89. 
 
 IN entering upon a discussion like the present, 
 professing to suggest plans for the immediate 
 improvement of sixty or seventy millions of 
 people, and the contingent salvation of perhaps 
 nearly one half of the human species, the 
 mind pauses under the magnitude of the sub- 
 ject ; and is struck with awe, as she con- 
 templates the grandeur of the scene spread 
 before her. We view a country, which for 
 
 * If the Author could have induced himself to print two 
 Letters, which he received from the Right Hon, Lord Teign- 
 mouth, recently Governor General of India, and Charles 
 Grant j Esq. at that time Chairman of the East India Company, 
 subsequent to the Adjudication made by the three Academical 
 Judges (Dr. Seale, Dr. Jowett, and Mr. OutramJ he feels 
 assured, that his readers would not charge him with presump- 
 tion in giving to the Public a Dissertation, which they ho- 
 noured with their most decided preference, 
 
 A 
 
 [Only 50 copies printed separately.] 
 
2 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 extent, fertility, and population baffles the cold 
 conceptions of European fancy : a country, of 
 which in ancient times the looms supplied 
 splendid apparel, and the fields abundant and 
 permanent subsistence, when the skin-clad 
 savages of Europe sought their precarious diet 
 from the woods; and which, regarded in it's 
 modern fortunes, has been the prey of succes- 
 sive hordes of fierce or rapacious adventurers, 
 and the dungeon or the grave of it's afflicted 
 inhabitants. Confining our observation how- 
 ever principally to it's existing state, we see 
 this noble region, by the almost-continuous 
 ravages of eight hundred years, reduced to the 
 lowest degree of political wretchedness : with 
 it's manufactures nearly ruined, and with a 
 small portion only of it's exuberant soil brought 
 into rude cultivation by a degraded and starv- 
 ing peasantry ; while the rest of it's surface is 
 abandoned to the beasts of the forest, or to the 
 luxuriance of rank and useless vegetation. 
 With reference to it's religious condition, we 
 behold it divided between the followers of 
 Brahma and Mohammed, separated indeed 
 from each other by a long intervening space, 
 but aliens alike from Christ, and strangers to 
 the Covenant of grace. Of these erroneous and 
 discordant religionists, the latter, with the usual 
 composition of bigots, are a blind and bloody 
 sect j making the diffusion of their faith a 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 3 
 
 pretext of conquest, and presenting to their 
 captives the horrid alternative of conversion or 
 extermination, the Koran or the sword. The 
 former, on the contrary, are a mild and quiet 
 people, free from the stronger tumults of the 
 passions, with considerable powers of intellect 
 and some excellences of feeling ; and, above 
 all, distinguished by a pertinacious adherence to 
 customs, manners, and opinions, of which his- 
 tory records no parallel, and which has alike 
 withstood the sap of time, the attractions of 
 novelty, and the fury of persecution : on the 
 other hand, too generally debased by servility, 
 indolence, and avarice ; indifferent to religion 
 in her pure and abstract character, as influenc- 
 ing the heart and regulating the conduct ; but 
 enslaved by a wily priesthood, and abused by 
 an absurd superstition — a superstition made 
 aweful by the magnificence of it's temples and 
 ceremonies, and strong by it's subtile intermix- 
 ture in the concerns of common life; and a 
 priesthood, enriched by the pious prodigality of 
 pilgrims and of princes, upheld by the subordi- 
 nation of a well-constructed hierarchy, and 
 protected by the accumulated reverence of an 
 unascertained series of centuries. 
 
 To dispel this mass of darkness, which hangs 
 over the dreary recesses of Mecca and Benares, 
 is above the operation of mere human power. 
 The light, and the first impulse, must proceed 
 
 a 2 
 
4 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 from above. But, impressed with the full im- 
 portance of the object, we must not be deterred 
 by the arduousness of it's achievement. We 
 must reflect, that with God all things are possi- 
 ble ; that his Providence generally condescends 
 to make use of man, as his principal instrument ; 
 and that even out of the mouth of babes and 
 sucklings he can perfect praise. We must 
 remember, likewise, that Christ himself commit- 
 ted the treasure of the Gospel to earthen ves- 
 sels ; that it's propagation was his final com- 
 mand to his disciples ; and that the least *qf all 
 seeds, by his blessing, may become a tree, so that 
 the fowls of the air shall come and lodge in it's 
 branches. 
 
 These arguments would press powerfully upon 
 virtuous minds, in a question respecting a 
 population like that of India, even if it were 
 unconnected with them by any nearer ties than 
 those of a common nature. But, with us, the 
 hour of such honourable generosity is past; 
 and we have no longer the option of exercising a 
 disinterested benevolence. India is now identi- 
 fied with Great Britain. Long endeared to us by 
 the value of her traffic, which has always formed 
 an aera in the prosperity of those nations by 
 whom it has been successively possessed, she has 
 lately, from the growing incumbrances of our 
 finance and the unsettled condition of Europe, 
 become vital to our existence. In the debates. 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 5 
 
 which twenty years ago convulsed our senate, 
 however widely the contending parties differed 
 about the mode of administering the affairs of 
 our Asiatic empire, they concurred in asserting 
 it's importance. By their unanimous voice 
 India was represented as the chief source of 
 strength to our navy, and of wealth to our 
 exchequer : and the events of the last twenty 
 years have added irresistible force to their 
 testimony ! 
 
 But, whatever maybe her claims upon our 
 gratitude, upon our justice her demands must 
 be recognised as clear and peremptory. In our 
 intercourse with this unhappy country, it must 
 be acknowledged that we have hitherto been 
 anxious to increase the number, rather than to 
 promote the welfare, of our subjects : and there 
 are upon record, it may be feared, not only in 
 the memories of men but in the eternal register 
 of Heaven, numerous instances of mercantile 
 and military oppression. Whether the sword 
 however has been often drawn without cause, 
 or peculation has often spread it's ravages 
 without redress, is not within our present pur- 
 pose to inquire : but, on the most favourable 
 determination of this question, it will well 
 become us to examine how we may best com- 
 pensate the evils which we have occasioned, 
 allowing them to have been only such as follow 
 
6 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 occasionally perhaps in the train of ordinary 
 traffic, and always in that even of justifiable 
 war. 
 
 And at what period, more favourable to our 
 views of benevolence or of gratitude, can we 
 commence this mighty attempt? Our recent 
 acquisitions of territory, by widening the sphere 
 of our action and extending the conciliation of 
 our manners, equally at least we trust with the 
 terror of our arms, considerably enhance the 
 probability of success. The Genius of Investi- 
 gation has burst the fetters imposed upon him 
 by commercial and professional engagements. 
 India has thrown open to him the temple of 
 Sanscrit literature, hitherto trodden only by 
 the profoundest of her scholars and the holiest 
 of her priests : to his ardent researches has 
 been disclosed the venerable code, which com- 
 bines and regulates her religious and her secular 
 duties ; and Brahmins themselves have remitted 
 their habitual jealousy of the profane intruders 
 of Europe. We now know wherein resides 
 their strength, and what is of still more utility, 
 their weakness. The fatal lock of Brahma is 
 discovered, and the shears are committed to 
 our hands. 
 
 But in an enterprise of such momentous 
 consequence, where the smallest divergency in 
 the outset may lead to inextricable error, every 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 7 
 
 step must be guarded with the most vigilant 
 circumspection. The rooted attachment indeed 
 of the Hindus to the customs of their ancestors, 
 which has hitherto withstood the violence of the 
 Arabian and the intrigues of the Romish church, 
 is now slowly giving way to our civil influence ; 
 but, though they have ceased to be inflexible, 
 they are yet far from pliancy. They throng 
 around our missionaries, it is true, with acknow- 
 ledgements of their ignorance, and with en- 
 treaties for instruction ; they admit the contra- 
 dictions of their own scriptures, and solicit 
 copies of ours : but arguing from other parts of 
 their conduct, from their readiness to propose 
 quibbles and to detect flaws, from their ordi- 
 nary inattention to what is delivered and their 
 subsequent dismission of it from their minds, 
 the preacher finds it difficult to pronounce, 
 whether he be not principally indebted for his 
 audience to the levity or the curiosity of the 
 individuals who compose it. In a single inter- 
 view, they listen, they hesitate, they believe : 
 they depart, they doubt, they forget. 
 
 Admitting, however, that they have at length 
 begun to perceive the gross vanity of their tra- 
 ditions, the palpable absurdity of their ceremo- 
 nies, and the insulting despotism of their priests, 
 yet much time will still be requisite for the 
 eradication of a system, which for many ages 
 
A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 has possessed and flourished in the soil. Not 
 only must the jungle be cleared of it's giant 
 trunks, but the ground itself must be tempered 
 and mellowed by proper culture, before the good 
 seed can be committed to it's bosom with any 
 prospect of successful vegetation. Without 
 previous preparation, to throw the full blaze of 
 Christianity on the feeble vision of India, 
 plunged as she has been for centuries in the 
 more-than-Egyptian darkness of her horrid idola- 
 try would realise the sublime description of the 
 poet, when he represents the Monarch of the 
 Shades as trembling, 
 
 {AYI Oi U7T£0U£ 
 
 Tuioiv «i/appn^£;£ TLq<t&i$oiuv ei/oa^Owv, 
 
 But here a preliminary question arises, whe- 
 ther civilisation and conversion should advance 
 together ; or, if one of them must go before, 
 to which of them should be assigned the pre- 
 cedence. The claim of each to preference is 
 supported by specious arguments, and high 
 authorities. In behalf of the prior introduction 
 of Christianity it has been plausibly contended, 
 that c refinement is usually accompanied by a 
 train of vices, in their nature most hostile to the 
 spirit of the Gospel : that religion alone pro- 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 9 
 
 duces and establishes those moral habits, which 
 lead directly to intellectual and social excel- 
 lence ; that to temperance she gives the stabi- 
 lity of principle, and to industry the incentive 
 of duty ; and that these two virtues, when 
 unsupported by her invigorating influence, are 
 incapable of resisting the allurements of indo- 
 lence and the impetuosity of passion/ On the 
 other hand it is asserted, with perhaps more of 
 logical and historical induction, that c Christi- 
 anity pre-supposes the existence of refined, 
 rather than of savage vices $ that industry and 
 temperance, though from religion they may 
 derive their ulterior and more weighty sanctions, 
 powerfully recommend themselves by the health 
 which they preserve, and by the comforts 
 which they bestow : that the Gospel was the 
 last of a series of dispensations, each adapted to 
 the increased civilisation of it's respective 
 period ; and was itself revealed amidst the high 
 lustre of the Augustan age, when Rome had 
 comprehended within the pale of her dominion 
 the whole of the polished world : and that, even 
 subsequently to it's first disclosure, various mea- 
 sures of instruction were studiously accommo- 
 dated to the varying degrees of ignorance, 
 which prevailed among the objects of it's 
 author's divine mission/ These, however, are 
 investigations more strictly applicable to the 
 
10 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 sluggards of Greenland, or to the sensualists of 
 the South Sea, than to the partially-refined 
 subjects of our Indian empire. To the latter if 
 we impart the great and uncontroverted doc-* 
 trines of our faith in luminous arrangement 
 and perspicuous language, the communication 
 will assist our temporal efforts in diffusing among 
 them the blessings of science and civilisation ; 
 while these, in return, will prepare their minds 
 for the reception of the deeper and more 
 mysterious truths of Christianity. 
 
 A second doubt occurs, with regard to the 
 mode of conducting our projected enterprise. 
 The Baptist-Ministers in Bengal, objecting to 
 the dispersion of our teachers, have asserted 
 (and, apparently, with much truth) that c more 
 is lost by the feebleness, than is gained by the 
 extent, of the assault. Dum singidi pugnant, 
 universi vincuntur. By the concentration of 
 our energies the light of the Gospel, they 
 contend, might be effectually thrown upon some 
 single province ; and would thence emanate, as 
 from a new point of radiance, to illuminate the 
 rest.' This reasoning, which they have confined 
 to the provinces of Hindostan, may confidently 
 be extended to the kingdoms of Asia. If Tan- 
 jore, which from the indefatigable toils of it's apo- 
 stles appears to be the most favourably disposed 
 for the reception of the Christian doctrines, would 
 
CIVILISING INDIA, It 
 
 advantageously receive and transmit the result 
 of our united labours, India itself, on the same 
 ground of argument we may infer, will become 
 the centre of a wider sphere of conversion ; the 
 focus, whence future missionaries may diverge 
 to traverse the snows of Tibet, the wall of China, 
 and the recesses of Japan, Whatever, therefore, 
 is here suggested upon this subject, will be 
 referred principally to Hindostan ; a region, to 
 the greatest part of which we have entire access, 
 while the gates of the other oriental empires are 
 either cautiously opened for our introspection, or 
 rigidly barred against us by the jealousy ©f 
 commerce or of power. As it has been satisfac- 
 torily proved that the religions of Buddha, 
 Brahma, and Fo are only the varieties of^a 
 superstition, in it's more permanent characte- 
 ristics specifically the same, the means most 
 suitable for the introduction of knowledge and 
 true religion among our own subjects would, 
 with a few slight modifications (to be deter- 
 mined by local, and temporary, circumstances) 
 be the best adapted to diffuse these inestimable 
 blessings over the other portions of the Eastern 
 world. 
 
 L To communicate the leading and indispu- 
 table truths of Christianity seems to be the first 
 great object, which solicits our attention, 
 When this is well accomplished, the execution 
 
22 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 of the rest will be comparatively easy. We 
 must not, however, blind ourselves to the diffi- 
 culty of the undertaking. To conduct it to a 
 full and prosperous issue, we must studiously 
 pre-concert and digest our plans. We must 
 liberally allow for the differences of climate, of 
 manners, and of laws : our conduct must be 
 distinguished by it's candor, it's tolerance, and 
 it's moderation. In our chief adversaries, the 
 Imams and the Brahmins, we must anticipate 
 the pertinacity induced by interest, by preju- 
 dice, and by habit : in our hearers we must be 
 prepared to meet languor, or perversertess ; in 
 our converts schism, or apostasy. We must 
 level our topics to the apprehensions, and our 
 arguments to the weaknesses, of our followers : 
 while we convince their judgement, we must 
 impress their imagination : the ritual, which 
 we prescribe, must be perspicuously constructed 
 and punctually observed : the truths, which 
 we inculcate, must be delivered with colloquial 
 plainness and systematical precision ; must bor- 
 row strength from every fair collateral expe- 
 dient, and derive illustration from every domestic 
 and familiar incident of Indian life. 
 
 To descend into more minute detail. It has 
 been recommended by the immortal Sir William 
 Jones, as the only human mode of introducing 
 Christianity into Hindostan, that " one of the 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 13 
 
 "Evangelists, with selections from the Jewish 
 Prophets (from those parts of them especially, 
 which are made the more immediate subjects of 
 Gospel-reference) should be translated into the 
 Sanscrit and the Persian languages : that to this 
 should be annexed a simple statement of evi- 
 dence, proving the long interval between the 
 delivery of the predictions and their accomplish- 
 ment; and that the whole should, then, be 
 quietly thrown into circulation among the well- 
 educated natives/' The experience, however, 
 of the first propagators of the Gospel affords 
 abundant testimony, that a vital and practical 
 religion does not usually find among the well- 
 educated classes of the community it's ear- 
 liest supporters. To dissent upon almost any 
 subject (and, more particularly, upon one 
 connected with the literature of the East) from 
 the revered authority of One, in whom it is 
 questionable whether genius or industry or 
 philanthropy was the prevailing excellence, 
 presents the appearance at least, as the writer 
 is fully aware, of considerable presumption. 
 But Socrates and Plato must give way to truth; 
 and when he recollects the importunate inqui- 
 ries of the Jewish infidels respecting the Messiah, 
 Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, 
 believed on him ? he cannot but conclude with 
 the Apostle Paul that, in the original adoption 
 
14 A DISSERTATION ON" 
 
 of a divine faith, the wise, the mighty, and the 
 noble are frequently preceded by the foolish, the 
 base, and the despised. The truths in fact, of 
 which we are speaking, are such that, whatever 
 deference may on other occasions be justly due 
 to the teacher from his illiterate audience, no 
 particular condescension can in the present 
 instance be required. Plain in their own nature, 
 they are as obvious to the reason of the peasant, 
 as to that of the philosopher. In addition then 
 to the above documents, we should probably 
 find it serviceable to our great cause to distri- 
 bute short and approved treatises in the popular 
 dialects of India : such, for example, as that 
 of Leslie containing his ' Four Marks/ with a 
 particular application to the legends of her 
 multiform Vishnu ; a brief abstract of the 
 Scripture History, including a comparison of the 
 vicious deities of Hindostan with the divine 
 objects of Christian worship ; Paley's chapter on 
 Prophecy, some perspicuous forms of Catechism,. 
 a few simple Hymns adapted to the favourite 
 national airs of the Hindus, and such other 
 tracts on the absurdities of their traditions and 
 ceremonies, and the relatively-light burthen of 
 the Gospel, as might be cheaply circulated and 
 easily perused. Among a people proverbially 
 indolent, ' a great book ■ would certainly be c a 
 great evil.* Bulk, at all times an equivocal 
 
CIVILxSING INDIA. 15 
 
 criterion of value, would present an insur- 
 mountable obstacle to the first step of the lazy 
 and frivolous Asiatic : and a trite essay in duo- 
 decimo might attract and secure that attention, 
 which would shrink from the voluminous 
 eloquence of a Taylor or a Barrow. 
 
 It must not be dissembled however that, 
 before we can expect an adequate field for the 
 exertions of our Missionaries, the predominancy 
 of the Hindu priesthood must be destroyed. 
 So long as the Brahmins continue to be neces- 
 sary to all the ordinary concerns of civil life ; 
 so long as they are privileged to direct the dress, 
 prescribe the food, regulate the marriages, and 
 determine the professions, of their followers; 
 and authoritatively hold over the disobedient 
 the terrors of expulsion from their class — a 
 penalty, involving in the irretrievable* loss 
 of family, friends, and honour, a degree of su£ 
 fering, which Rome in her proudest hour was 
 never able to inflict — their subversion is impos- 
 sible. Dreadful sentence ! Against him, who 
 is authorised to pronounce it, what heart can be 
 so hardy as to rebel ! 
 
 This distribution then into Castes, even if ifc 
 
 * By Verelst, indeed, we are informed, that a person once 
 degraded may be restored — by the general suffrage of his 
 own Caste, the sanction of the Brahmins, and the authority of 
 the supreme Civil Power. Hopeless concurrence I 
 
16 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 be not rigidly precise, as from it's hostility to 
 the strongest principles of our nature and from 
 the varying accounts of travellers some have ven- 
 tured to surmise, must likewise be done away; or 
 it will fatally disappoint, not only our hopes of 
 converting the Hindus, but also our more hum- 
 ble project of promoting their civil improvement. 
 While the moral principle is sapped by an 
 endless succession of sacrifices and penances 
 and lustrations, the social feeling is annihilated 
 by unnatural distinctions, and the intellectual 
 spark extinguished by a total want of nutrition 
 and encouragement. Yet monstrous as this 
 abuse is, it is so artfully blended with the whole 
 irame of their superstition, that they must exist 
 or perish together. That they cannot be sub- 
 dued by the direct assault either of arguments 
 or of arms, if under any circumstances the 
 latter could be employed as legitimate auxilia- 
 ries, has been fully proved not only by our own 
 recent experience, but by the concurrent testi- 
 mony of the ancient records of India. Our 
 experiment, indeed, has hitherto been tried on a 
 very limited scale, but with unremitting zeal 
 and perseverance. The members of the Bap- 
 tist-Mission have been indefatigable in preach- 
 ing, translating, printing, and disseminating the 
 doctrines, simple and mysterious, of general 
 Christianity ; yet the number of natives con- 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 17 
 
 verted is still less than that of the years employed 
 in their conversion : and the annals of Hindos- 
 tan, in their relation of the effects of Moham- 
 medan ferocity, abundantly evince that the 
 compendious logic of the sword has not been 
 productive of a more favourable result. Satisfied 
 that the Deity not only tolerates but approves a 
 variety of religions, on the same principle upon 
 which the painter multiplies his figures and 
 colours, and the gardener diversifies his grounds 
 with intermingled shrubs and flowers, the 
 votaries of Brahma inflexibly resist all change ; 
 and reject not less firmly the preacher of 
 other opinions, than the proselyte to their 
 own. Upon a population thus prejudiced, 
 destitute of all masculine energy of intel- 
 lect, yet superior to the fear of tortures and 
 of death, how little can reason, how little 
 (were it justifiable to use it) could violence 
 prevail ?* 
 
 * Force, indeed, is wholly out of the question. Non est 
 religionis cogere religionem, quae sponte suscipi debet non vi 9 
 said a Father of the early Christian Church* This is a maxim 
 of universal application ; but with reference to Hindostan, and 
 to our connexion with it, it is enforced by numberless pruden- 
 tial and political considerations. To act, indeed,, upon the nega- 
 tive of them (if with thirty thousand Europeans, amidst twice 
 as many millions of natives, we could for a moment entertain 
 so wild a project) would be as hopeless, as it would be barba- 
 rous. They, who have steadfastly grasped their faith under the 
 
 B 
 
18 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 What reason however cannot directly achieve, 
 may often be not less honourably accomplished 
 by circuitous methods. Hdc non successit, alia 
 adgrediemur via* The faith in the Vedas, which 
 the Hindu will not surrender to our arguments, 
 may be gradually directed to the events of an 
 authentic revelation : his attachment to his own 
 ceremonies may be weakened, when he observes 
 the greater simplicity and pertinency of ours : 
 the auspicious effects of our civil institutions 
 may enhance his estimation of those, which are 
 religious ; and when in the fane of genuine 
 Christianity he discovers neither the sanguinary 
 intolerance of the mosque, nor the gross impo- 
 sition of the pagod, the evidences of the Gospel 
 may engage and secure his attention. If to 
 these oblique influences we add, what of all the 
 indirect means of conversion is perhaps the most 
 efficacious, the c visible rhetoric' of a good life ; 
 if we solicit the confidence of the lower and 
 more popular Castes by our kindness, their 
 respect by our proficiency in sciences and arts, 
 and their gratitude by our communication of 
 those benefits ; we may then, in our struggles 
 with their spiritual leaders, advance to more 
 avowed and more active hostility. It will not 
 require much depth of research to detect, nor in 
 
 keen edge of the Arabian cimiter, would cling to it with equal 
 pertinacity amidst the fires of the Inquisition. 
 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 19 
 
 the present state of our Eastern power much 
 intrepidity to expose, their gainful hypocrisy 
 Without incurring the imputation of impru- 
 dent daring, we may point out to their followers 
 where they lie, couched like their own tigers, 
 and ready to spring upon their devoted prey* 
 From the thickets of their superstition, we may 
 trace them to the recesses of their sensuality ; 
 from their savage obsequies on the banks of the 
 Holy River, or their murtherous processions in 
 honour of Jagrenaut, to the voluptuous interiors 
 of Chillambrum or Seringham. We may fear- 
 lessly open their legal code, with the certainty 
 of finding in every page the testimonies of 
 their crafty and interested legislation. Here 
 we may lay our ringer on the presumptuous 
 passage, in which they pronounce themselves a 
 portion of the Godhead, c invulnerable, inviola- 
 ble, and immortal:' there we may point to the 
 partial paragraph, by which they are permitted 
 to descend from their sacerdotal eminence, to 
 occupy lucrative or honourable stations in mili- 
 tary life. Documents of their avarice, ambition, 
 and self-indulgence will every where press upon 
 our notice. By thousands of individual refe- 
 rences, we may prove that they are not of that 
 superior and unearthly nature, which they arro- 
 gate : we may excite a contempt of them, by 
 displaying the absurd and gratuitous incarnations 
 
 b 2 
 
20 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 of their favourite Deity : we may expose them 
 to suspicion by commenting on the privilege, 
 reserved to themselves, of reading and inter- 
 preting their Sacred Books ; a privilege, guarded 
 by the infliction of severe penalties upon those 
 of the lower Castes, by whom it is infringed. 
 
 If we can once succeed in drawing our 
 hearers by the talisman of knowledge from the 
 fatal circle, within which for so long a time they 
 have been inclosed, the spell will be dissolved. 
 Anxious to learn, and capable of learning, they 
 will advance with accelerated speed in the paths 
 of science and religion. The advantages of 
 British refinement, and the blessings of Protest- 
 ant Christianity, will open on their view. From 
 our commerce they will obtain affluence, from 
 Our manners civilisation, and from our instruction 
 manliness and independence. A certain portion 
 of our spirit of freedom will be diffused, notwith- 
 standing all the disadvantages of climate, over 
 the plains of Hindostan ; and the divine genius 
 of the Gospel will confer emancipation on 
 millions, who are now groaning under the heavy 
 yoke of Brahminical superstition. 
 
 In our first administration however of bap- 
 tism, we must be vigilantly cautious not to fall 
 into the error, which proved fatal to the labours 
 of the first Missionaries in the West. When 
 through levity or carelessness, influenced by 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 21 
 
 the example of their own chiefs or instigated by 
 their dread of the Spanish power, the Ameri- 
 cans crowded to the standard of the cross \ they 
 were admitted by thousands, in a state of gross 
 ignorance respecting the mysteries or the duties 
 of their new faith, and secretly cherishing an 
 undiminished affection for their paternal creed, 
 into the Christian sanctuary, In consequence 
 of this blind zeal of proselyting, " the religious 
 institutions of their ancestors," as we are 
 informed by the elegant historian of those coun- 
 tries, " are still remembered and held in honour 
 both in Mexico and Peru ; and, whenever 
 they think themselves out of reach of inspection 
 by the Spaniards, they assemble and celebrate 
 jtheir idolatrous rites. "* With understandings 
 but little cultivated, and in their range of obser- 
 vation confined almost wholly to objects of 
 sense, the natives of the East will at first perhaps 
 find the sublime and spiritual doctrines of 
 Christianity, even when separated from it's 
 mysteries, not easily to be apprehended. Sel- 
 dom reflecting upon what is past, or antici- 
 pating what is to come, they will only be tran- 
 siently affected by the magnificent futurity, 
 which our religion displays. The Hindu, with 
 his habitual negligence, will soon dismiss it 
 
 * Robertson's ' History of America/ VIIJ. 
 
22 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 from his mind ; while the Mohammedan will 
 shrink from it's purity, and return to wallow in 
 the c sensual sty' of his licentious prophet. 
 These conclusions are fully confirmed by the 
 experience of the recent Asiatic missions. The 
 initiatory rite of the Gospel has, therefore, been 
 judiciously suspended over the head of the new 
 Catechumen, till his sincerity is approved by a 
 steady noviciate; and a creditable indifference 
 to the parade of numerous converts has been 
 observed, while the Papal Missionaries in China 
 are inscribing upon the forehead of unenlight- 
 ened myriads the mark of their anti-christian 
 Church. 
 
 II. Neither must we be more sanguine in our 
 hopes of rapidly improving the civil condition 
 of our Indian empire. To this, indeed, refe- 
 rence has already been incidentally made, in 
 consequence of the close union of the spiritual 
 and temporal interests of every community. 
 Righteousness exalteth a nation. Sympathising 
 completely in the end, they harmonise through- 
 out the course of their progress. Danger is 
 always involved in sudden changes of system of 
 every kind ; and plethora is found to be as fatal, 
 in it's consequences, as atrophy. It is by a 
 slow development, that the mind expands for 
 the reception of new modes of thinking. Opi- 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 23 
 
 nion, which alone can give permanency to 
 regulation, is of tardy growth ; and to trans* 
 plant the oak of the British forest, in it's mature 
 state, to the banks of the Ganges would be a 
 feat of as easy accomplishment, as to communi- 
 cate with instantaneous effect to the tropical 
 regions of Asia a code of laws and manners, the 
 growth of a distant country, and ripened by a 
 succession of ages in the latitudes of the North. 
 As well might we expect the Hindu* to change 
 his skin, as in a moment to renounce his customs, 
 endeared by long familiarity and consecrated 
 by Brahma himself. Neither are the falsa, 
 voces only to be unlearned : the true accents 
 also are to be acquired. An entire regeneration 
 in short of the whole man is to take place, in an 
 instant, from the magical operation of some 
 unknown, unsolicited, and at first probably 
 unpalatable laws ! 
 
 Unthinking benevolence may be productive 
 of as much mischief, as deliberate malignity. 
 We must follow the genius, observe the habits, 
 and respect to a considerable degree the preju- 
 
 * The aboriginal inhabitants of India, on account of their 
 great disproportion ti majori to the rest of it's population, have 
 been chiefly referred to throughout tjiis Essay. Mohammeda- 
 nism, in that country, is incidental and imperfect. It's profes- 
 sors affect to belong to Castes, and imbibe many other pollution^ 
 from the contiguous idolatry of their dependents. 
 Grcecia captajerum victorem cepit. 
 
24 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 dices, of such a mighty mass of people. Their 
 involuntary ignorance must be treated with 
 tenderness, and some degree of regard must be 
 extended even to their erroneous customs, as 
 well as to their irrational modes of worship.* 
 We are not to estimate the future river, at it's 
 influx into the ocean, from the gushing of it's 
 source. It is one of the eternal ordinaries of 
 nature, that what is great must be produced by 
 great efforts. This is the law of gestation of the 
 elephant. 
 
 With a view then to the melioration of our 
 subjects in Hindostan, one of our first objects, 
 whether we look to their civil or to their reli- 
 gious improvement, should be the establishment 
 of a Christian Caste or tribe. To attain this 
 
 * Not however to the immoral length of tolerating the 
 Mohammedan in his polygamy (as recommended by Madan, 
 Thelyphth. ii.) or the Hindu in his horrid immolation of widows, 
 and in his throwing propitiatory infants into the sacred stream. 
 Verelst, in his ' View of the English Government in Bengal, ' 
 contends for the continuance of polygamy, as the law of the 
 climate ! for the seclusion of females, as immutable ! &c. See 
 likewise Hodges' ( Travels in India/ Craufurd's ' Sketches of 
 the Hindus,' &c. That the self-devotion of the widow is not 
 always a voluntary act, some horrid proofs are given in a note 
 to the f Memoirs of the Baptist-*Mission' (i. 57. ii. 245.) The 
 number of Indian infants and young persons, annually offered 
 to the genius of the stream, has been estimated at five and 
 twenty, or thirty thousand. 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 25 
 
 end, in opposition to the strong resistance of 
 Eastern prejudices, will probably be an achieve- 
 ment of extraordinary difficulty. But when it 
 is considered, that the convert inevitably loses 
 his original Caste by communion with strangers, 
 and that this forfeiture, severe in the extreme 
 to himself, descends with undiminished rigour 
 to his posterity, we cannot deem any honour- 
 able exertions to obviate it's terrors too labo- 
 rious. If seclusion in one of the solitary cells 
 of a British gaol, with the assurance of a speedy 
 restoration to social life, be justly regarded by 
 the criminal as one of the heaviest of penalties, 
 what must be the dismay produced in the mind 
 of the timid Hindu, when he contemplates 
 that c total eclipse,' in the disastrous shade of 
 which his unoffending little ones and their 
 posterity are equally with himself to be for ever 
 included ! Unaccustomed, and from his igno- 
 rance of all moral symbols and modes of compu- 
 tation unqualified, to calculate the relative 
 merits of theological systems, he may well 
 hesitate, before he pronounces upon himself and 
 his issue the terrible sentence of political and 
 social suicide. The partial famine, to which 
 he is instantly consigned, is but a trivial earnest 
 of the horrors in reserve for him, when his 
 touch will be sufficient to induce even Famine 
 herself to reject her scanty morsel with disgust, 
 
26 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 and his very shadow will pollute the unfortunate 
 being upon whom it may casually rest. If the 
 project however here suggested be practicable, 
 an asylum will be opened for his reception, 
 which, providing a double remedy for the shame 
 and the suffering inflicted by this inexorable 
 resentment, may supply him at once with society 
 and with employment. Both these ends will 
 be attained to an extent, proportioned to the 7 
 wealth and the authority of the members of the 
 newly- constituted tribe. If a few of the Brah-? 
 mins or Khatrys, especially such as possess 
 extensive territorial influence ; if a Rajah or a 
 powerful Zemindar could be won by the spirit of 
 that gospel, which though emphatically preached 
 to the poor numbered among it's earliest pro- 
 fessors a member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, of 
 the Athenian Areopagus, and of the Roman 
 Senate, the countenance and resources of the 
 illustrious converts would be speedily effectual 
 for the proselyting of multitudes. The neces- 
 sity of such an institution is strongly evinced 
 by the documents exhibited in the Baptist- 
 Accounts, to which the present Essay has so 
 frequently referred : and, as it might cau- 
 tiously admit the more deserving Parias (or 
 outcasts) of well-attested integrity, it would 
 probably swell in progress of time, from the 
 size of a small cloud like a man's hand, till it 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. £? 
 
 over-shadowed the giant superstition, and co- 
 vered with freshness and fertility the burning 
 deserts of Hindostan. 
 
 Many subordinate plans, of contemporary 
 execution, now press at once upon our view. 
 While Societies, philosophical and literary, and 
 Academies with their accompaniments of lec- 
 tures, museums, and printing-presses would more 
 exclusively be demanded for the illumination 
 of the great and the affluent, Schools, of the 
 nature which in Great Britain would be called 
 Parochial, should everywhere be established for 
 the instruction of the lower classes of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 Literary Institutions, under proper regulati- 
 ons, have always promoted the diffusion of valu- 
 able knowledge. By the collision of mind with 
 mind, truth is elicited. The Asiatic Society, 
 founded twenty years ago under the auspices 
 of Sir William Jones, distrusting their own 
 powers of acquiring and communicating infor- 
 mation, invited with dignified condescension 
 the literati of the West to assist their researches 
 for the benefit of mankind. O noble challenge! 
 O virtuous competition ! Philosophy and Piety 
 may indeed well exult in contemplating indivi- 
 duals, disjoined by half the circumference of the 
 globe, amidst languages, manners, and pursuits 
 
28 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 the most dissimilar, harmonising in one bene- 
 volent exercise of their faculties, and combining 
 to multiply the sources of universal happi- 
 ness! 
 
 Seminaries likewise of different characters, 
 adapted to the different stages of education or 
 to the different ranks of the educated, the 
 School and the University, will be found essen- 
 tial to the progress of science, and calculated 
 to give it rapidity, extent, and permanence. Of 
 the erection of Universities a magnificent exam- 
 ple has already been exhibited in the College, 
 recently founded at Fort- William under the 
 auspices of the Honourable the Directors of the 
 East India Company, and the more immediate 
 orders and inspection of the Governor General, 
 the Marquis Wellesley ; a nobleman, as a 
 Roman would have pronounced him, familiar 
 with both the Minervas, and qualified equally 
 to conciliate the suffrages of the senate and to 
 control the fortunes of the field. On a topic 
 like this, the writer finds it difficult to restrain 
 himself within the bounds of legitimate digres- 
 sion, when he sees the favourite and successful 
 system of his own Cambridge flourishing in the 
 capital of Bengal ; when he hears disputations 
 supported, in the different dialects of that 
 immense country, upon moral topics of the 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 29 
 
 highest local interest, under names once familiar 
 and ever grateful to his ear.* But without 
 indulging in partialities, however venial, it is 
 his duty to suggest the valuable purposes, which 
 this and similar establishments promise to effect. 
 By systematic regulation and discipline they 
 secure attention to a due course of study, which 
 had previously been dependent on individual 
 fancy or accidental situation : and to perpetuate 
 these advantages, as far as is consistent with the 
 frailty of all human projects, they are calculated 
 to transmit to future times by the uniformity of 
 public institution whatever benefit can be derived 
 from present examples of wisdom, virtue, and 
 learning. Hence also the future ministers of 
 our Indian government may be selected, with 
 the greatest advantage both to our subjects and 
 to ourselves: ministers, who will best know 
 how to exert it's energies in war, and to aug- 
 ment it's resources in peace ; " to maintain, 
 with honour and respect, it's relations with the 
 native powers ; and to establish (under a just 
 and benignant system of internal administration) 
 the prosperity of our finances and commerce on 
 the solid foundations of the affluence, the hap- 
 
 * It will be readily understood, that the writer refers to the 
 terms opponent, moderator, &c., used in the public examinations 
 at the new College. 
 
30 A DISSERTATION OK 
 
 piness, and the confidence of a contented and 
 grateful people.*" 
 
 In Mr, Burke's celebrated speech on East 
 Indian affairs in 1783, it was strongly urged, as 
 an instance of fatal abuse in our management of 
 that empire, that u young men (boys almost) 
 govern there, without society and without 
 sympathy with the natives. They have no 
 more social habits with the people, than if they 
 still resided in England > nor indeed any species 
 of intercourse, but that which is necessary to 
 making a sudden fortune with a view to a remote 
 settlement. Animated with all the avarice of 
 age, and all the impetuosity of youth, they roll 
 in one after another, wave after wave ; and 
 there is nothing before the eyes of the natives, 
 but an endless hopeless prospect of new flights 
 of birds of prey and passage, with appetites 
 continually renewing for a food that is conti- 
 nually wasting. Their prey is lodged in 
 England ; and the cries of India are given to 
 seas and winds to be blown about, in every 
 breaking up of the monsoon, over a remote and 
 unhearing ocean." This statement will be 
 perused with augmented interest, when it is 
 
 * See Marquis Wellesley's Address to the Students, &c. It 
 would be unjust not to mention the judisious plan, lately 
 adopted by the Honourable the Directors of the East India 
 Company, for an establishment of a similar nature at Hertford, 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 31 
 
 considered that by the late accessions to our 
 Eastern territory, and it's growing importance 
 to our welfare, we have now a much more 
 valuable property at stake, a more extended 
 frontier to defend, and a broader surface of 
 population to maintain in tranquillity ; that in 
 the multitudes of Hindostan we cannot hope, 
 under the most favourable combination of cir- 
 cumstances, to be without enemies ;* and that a 
 malignant European foe, indefatigable in the 
 pursuit of advantages and inexorable in the use 
 of them, watches every opportunity of annoying 
 us in that paradise of our commerce and of 
 infusing venom into the ear of India, 
 
 Assaying with his devilish art to reach 
 The organs of her fancy. 
 
 To obviate the effects of these secret machi- 
 nations, if we consider the question merely in 
 it's political bearings, who so competent as 
 merchants and military characters attached to 
 their interests from an enlightened conviction 
 of their being identified with their own ; as 
 envoys rendered familiar with their languages, 
 their manners, and their customs ? What so 
 likely to generate this conviction, and to 
 increase this familiarity, as an academical esta- 
 
 fowjvTw ouuwq s%w ii[Atv, (Demosth.) 
 
32 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 blishment, having these objects chiefly if not 
 solely in it's contemplation ? We may add how- 
 ever, as it's farther and less direct consequences, 
 that it will assimilate the pursuits, and thus give 
 unity to the principles and the systems, of the 
 three distinct Presidencies ; and, by patronising 
 and producing elementary and other works in 
 the department of oriental literature, facilitate 
 it's diffusion through the remotest provinces of 
 the East : that it will supply the means of study* 
 ing the laws, and comparing the former modes 
 of government in those countries with their 
 respective effects ; of contracting within due 
 bounds the monstrous extravagances of their 
 chronology, one of the last remaining weak posts 
 of modern scepticism ; and of ascertaining their 
 geography and the products of their soil, many 
 of them turgid perhaps with salubrious juices 
 inspissated by a vertical sun ; and that, in union 
 with British science, it will open new sources 
 of national wealth in those hitherto-neglected 
 regions. 
 
 But, in a religious aspect, Institutions of this 
 kind will eventually be productive of still more 
 beneficial and important results. At the first 
 propagation of the gospel, a knowledge of lan- 
 guages was miraculously communicated, both 
 as an attestation of it's truth, and for the pur- 
 pose of expediting it's progress. What, for 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. $3 
 
 causes which no longer exist, was at that time 
 supernaturally imparted, is now to be attained 
 only by the ordinary exertions of human indus- 
 try. Neither are we, in the discharge of this 
 arduous part of our duty, without the recom- 
 pence of present reward. Accepted by the Hin- 
 dus as a compliment to their national prejudices, 
 the study of their learned and their vernacu- 
 lar tongues has already proved highly concilia- 
 tory. In the investigation of the Sanscrit more 
 particularly, long buried as it has been under 
 the political lava of many successive invasions, 
 much has occurred to instruct and to gratify. 
 We have scarcely passed the outer wall of 
 this literary Herculaneum, and glittering frag- 
 ments of the utmost value appear on every side 
 of us. The Christian scholar, especially, is 
 delighted to meet, in the short progress which 
 has. hitherto been made, with many bright con- 
 firmations of the Mosaic story. 
 
 As subsidiary to Colleges, and of more exten- 
 sive efficacy with reference to the great mass of 
 population, Schools also should be erected. With 
 these instruments, chiefly, have the minds of the 
 negroes in the interior of Africa been led by 
 their Mohammedan conquerors to relative 
 refinement. Civilised by the introduction of 
 Arabian science, with the information they 
 have imbibed the superstition of their teachers* 
 
34 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 It was the suggestion of the enlightened Wash- 
 ington*, that schools should be established 
 
 * Nor is his successor, if we may trust his own representa- 
 tion, deficient in those attentions, which justice and policy and 
 humanity so imperiously require. In the inaugural speech of 
 the American President, delivered March 4, 1805, is a strong 
 passage relative to the aboriginal inhabitants of that country. 
 <( Endowed with the faculties and the rights of men, breathing 
 an ardent love of liberty and independence, and occupying a 
 country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed, the 
 stream of overflowing population from other regions directed 
 itself on their shores. Without power to divert or habits to 
 contend against it, they have been overwhelmed by the current 
 or driven before it. Now reduced within limits too narrow for 
 the hunter state, humanity injoins us to teach them agriculture 
 and the domestic arts ; to encourage them to that industry, 
 which alone can enable them to maintain their place in exist- 
 ence, and to prepare them in time for that state of society, 
 which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind 
 and morals. We have, therefore, liberally furnished them with 
 the implements of husbandry and household use: we have 
 placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity; and 
 they are covered with the aegis of the law against aggressors 
 from among ourselves. — But the endeavours to enlighten them 
 on the fate which awaits their present course of life, to induce 
 them to exercise their reason, follow it's dictates, and change 
 their pursuits with the change of circumstances, have powerful 
 obstacles to encounter. They are combated by the habits of 
 their bodies, the prejudices of their minds, ignorance, pride, and 
 the influence of interested and crafty individuals among them, 
 who feel themselves something in the present order of things, 
 and fear to become nothing in any other. These persons incul- 
 cate a sanctimonious reverence for the customs of their ances- 
 tors; that whatever they did, must be done through all time; 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 35 
 
 throughout America at the public expense. In 
 countries, where they have long subsisted, 
 their beneficial consequences in the prevention 
 of crimes and the promotion of industry and 
 morality have been strikingly conspicuous.* 
 To be taught indeed to read only, greatly pro- 
 motes both the comprehension and the practice 
 
 that reason is a false guide, and to advance under it's counsel 
 in their physical, moral, or political condition is perilous inno- 
 vation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made 
 them, ignorance being safety, and knowledge full of danger ;" 
 &c. 
 
 * In Scotland, and in Switzerland, as I have elsewhere 
 stated, the benevolent Howard found the gaols more empty than 
 in any other parts of his extensive travels; a fact, which he 
 ascribed wholly to the more regular instruction of their lower 
 classes. Well therefore may " the law, by which parish- 
 schools were founded in the former of those countries, challenge 
 comparison with any act of legislation recorded by history, 
 whether we consider the wisdom of the end, the simplicity of the 
 means, or the provision made for insuring the effect." In 
 1698, Fletcher of Saltoun states that there could not be fewer 
 than " 100,000 vagabonds living in that country, without any 
 regard or subjection either to the laws of the land, or even to 
 those of God and nature:" that "no magistrate could at any 
 time discover, whether or not they had ever been baptized, or 
 in what way one in a hundred went out of the world : n that 
 u they were frequently guilty of robbery, and sometimes of 
 Hmrther;" and that "at country- weddings, markets, burials, 
 and other public occasions they were to be seen (both men, and 
 women) perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting 
 together." What a contrast to Burns' c Cotter's Saturday 
 night ! ' 
 
 c 2 
 
36 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 of religion. This with the distribution of the 
 Versions and Tracts, which have been recom- 
 mended, will best qualify the people to judge 
 for themselves upon that important topic. Their 
 faith will rest upon something more solid, than 
 mere human authority. Like the Bereans of 
 old, they may search the scriptures daily, whe- 
 ther these things be so. 
 
 As education (particularly, that of a religious 
 kind) is diffused, civilisation, rural economy, 
 and morality with their certain consequences, 
 affluence and augmented population, will follow 
 in it's train. Abeunt studia in mores. From 
 the reluctant submission and frequent rebellions 
 of the subdued Rajahs, the Mohammedans 
 might have inferred what Mr. Burke somewhere 
 emphatically calls c the ill-husbandry of injus- 
 tice.' We shall profit by their experience ; 
 and in the increased resources of our finance, 
 and still more in the affectionate attachment of 
 our fellow-subjects, we shall receive, even at 
 present, our exceeding great reward. 
 
 Now will exulting congregations throng to 
 hear the glad tidings of great joy, xvhich shall he 
 to all people. The pagodas of Vishnu and Shiva 
 will be universally dispossessed, as they have 
 recently been in some parts of Tanjore,* of 
 
 * It is satisfactory to state that the Rajah of this country, 
 from respect to the memory of it's great apostle Swartz, whoa 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 37 
 
 their horrid idols, and converted into Christian 
 churches : the hallowed axe and hammer will 
 ring through the land : Sabbaths will be insti- 
 tuted, and the cheerful sound of village-bells 
 will announce the welcome return of the day of 
 devotion and repose : the purified edifices will 
 echo with the accents of genuine religion, 
 uttered by British tongues in the respective 
 dialects of Bengal, Guzerat, and Malabar : the 
 humble responses of rustic piety will rise, like 
 incense, to heaven : the mass of the people 
 will be inspired with those feelings of truth and 
 ustice, and with that reverence for an oath, 
 which are essential to the safety of the social 
 state ; and, while at the footstool of the Throne 
 of Grace they unite in acknowledging their 
 common dependence upon God, and dismiss 
 from their breasts every selfish and ungenerous 
 regard, their long-expected Avatar* will take 
 place; not, as they fondly trust, with the dis- 
 astrous splendor of temporal conquest, but in 
 
 he has honoured with a monument, protects the Christian con- 
 verts, and allows divine service in the Tamulian to be continued 
 in the two forts of Tanjore. 
 
 * The Avatars or descents of the Deity, in the Hindu my* 
 thology, are ten, nine of which have already happened. In the 
 one still future, the Divine Being is to appear as a mighty angel, 
 leading a white and winged horse. Between these and some 
 Jewish traditions Dr. Allix, in his e Judgement of tho Jewish 
 Church,' has discovered a surprising parallelism. 
 
38 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 the silent illapse of the Holy Spirit into the 
 regenerated heart. 
 
 That the continuance of an exclusive Com- 
 pany is closely, perhaps vitally, connected with 
 the subject before us, cannot be denied. By 
 the regulations which have been suggested, and 
 still more perhaps by the measure next to be pro- 
 posed, their existing system of intercourse with 
 India would, assuredly, be deeply affected ; whe- 
 ther for the better or for the worse, with refer- 
 ence to their private interests (for of the even- 
 tual advantage to the British empire there can 
 be no doubt) is, probably, at present an undrawn 
 conclusion. With regard indeed to the general 
 operation of a commercial charter, the most 
 opposite opinions have prevailed ; and great 
 names have arranged themselves on each side of 
 the discussion. One party, drawing their 
 arrows from the quiver of our countryman, Dr. 
 Adam Smith, affirm of the East India Com- 
 pany, that c it is a nuisance pernicious almost 
 equally to the country in which it is established, 
 and to that with which it trades:* that, 
 c abroad, it confounds the functions of mer- 
 chant and sovereign, and from their incom- 
 patibility abuses both ; prefers little transitory 
 profits in possession to large permanent reve- 
 nues in contingency ; by the exclusion of com- 
 petition keeps down the price of Eastern manu- 
 
CIVILISING INDIA, 39 
 
 factures, and through the depression of the 
 artist destroys the prosperity of the husband- 
 man ; paralyses, in short, every principle of 
 Asiatic industry ; and is in the majority of it's 
 proprietors, from irresistible moral causes, per- 
 fectly indifferent about the happiness or the 
 misery of it's subjects, the improvement or the 
 waste of it's dominions, the glory or the disgrace 
 of it's administration : while, at home, it infal- 
 libly raises the value of every article, which it 
 imports ; limits the introduction of the raw, and 
 the exportation of the wrought material ; and 
 yet under the most invidious partiality of en- 
 couragement, in spite of favour and of artifice, 
 has often been impelled to the very edge of 
 that perdition, which has already swallowed up 
 all it's predecessors chartered by foreign states, 
 and at present exists only by the generous for- 
 bearance of it's injured country.' By the oppo- 
 site party it is contended that, c whatever may 
 be the plausibility of the theory, the experiment 
 of throwing down the enclosure, which appro- 
 priates our Indian commerce, was tried in the 
 time of the Protectorate for a period of nearly 
 five years, and completely failed : that all the 
 adventurers, after exciting disgust by their 
 haughtiness or tumults by their turbulence, in 
 the regions which they visited, fell victims to 
 their indiscreet cupidity : that, generally speak- 
 
40 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 ing, individual capitals cannot bear the slow 
 returns of a distant and hazardous commerce : 
 that, independently of the grand circulation be- 
 tween those huge extremes of our empire, the 
 capitals of the three Presidencies, and London 
 it's mighty heart, there is one of a minor and 
 more delicate character (like that in the human 
 system, which transmits the blood through the 
 lungs, to prepare it for it's vital functions) 
 between the Company's collectors of revenue, 
 their overseers distributed through different 
 parts of their dominions, the manufacturers, 
 and the ryuts or native peasantry, which it 
 would be dangerous to disturb and perhaps im% 
 possible to recompose ; and that, this circulation 
 intercepted, first the influence of our govern- 
 ment, next our political connexion, and lastly 
 our commerce itself with India would probably 
 perish.' The progress of this political argu- 
 ment, which has been productive of much alter- 
 cation, it is not my present intention to state. 
 It is allowed, however, by many respectable au- 
 thorities that, whatever might be it's immediate 
 effect upon the traffic of the East, it would be 
 judicious at this point to introduce a gradual 
 and guarded colonisation from Europe, as essen- 
 tial to the stability of our Asiatic power. 
 
 But, upon this question, the alarm of some is 
 excited by a recollection of the issue of our 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 41 
 
 American experiment. The dissimilarity of 
 the two cases, which must infallibly operate to 
 dissipate such an apprehension, has been stated 
 with much precision and perspicuity in the 
 Edinburgh Review.* Generated by persecu- 
 tion, and thriving from neglect, the establish- 
 ments of the West owed little gratitude to the 
 parent-state. Protected at first by their poverty, 
 and long afterward by their remoteness, they 
 sprang up with a love of freedom and a con- 
 sciousness of importance, which ultimately pro- 
 voked a melancholy struggle with the mother- 
 country, embittered by mutual excesses, and 
 ending in the total disruption of the ties of 
 nature and policy. Our colonists in the oppo^ 
 site quarter of the globe will enter, not (like 
 the original emigrants to America) on wastes 
 and forests, the haunts of scattered and vagrant 
 hordes of savages, but upon tracts in many 
 places occupied by a numerous and a partially* 
 
 * No. vii. 305., to which the author is, likewise, under obli- 
 gations for some of his subsequent remarks upon the agriculture 
 of Hindostan, and for other occasional illustrations of his sub- 
 ject. On a topic like this indeed, which would have demanded 
 at least Horace's term of years for composition, revision, &c. 
 and upon which opportunities of personal or local observation, 
 are scarcely to be presumed in a youthful writer, much of what 
 is advanced must virtually partake of the nature of a cento. 
 
42 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 civilised population ; and can only by a syste- 
 matical union among themselves, and a close 
 combination with Great Britain, be enabled to 
 surmount the perils, which in their unsettled 
 state they must be prepared to encounter, of 
 insurrection at home and of invasion from 
 abroad. With respect to the former, especially, 
 their numbers and diffusion will be necessary to 
 check those conspiracies among the natives, 
 which will be fomented with secret and unre- 
 mitting industry by our inveterate European 
 enemy. We have not forgotten his appoint- 
 ment of Agents (as a part of the late peace- 
 establishment) in many of our principal sea- 
 ports ; nor the crude mixture of whining sen- 
 sibility and political intrigue, by which, in his 
 instructions to the Missionaries* (one of the 
 many fruits of his recent zeal for Christianity !) 
 he " recalls, with tender emotion, to the minds 
 of the young enthusiasts the services rendered 
 
 * Their number is to "be five hundred; of whom fifty are 
 destined for the East Indies (to preach piety, no doubt, and 
 observance of oaths to the Mahratta princes) one hundred for 
 China, one hundred for Africa and America, fifty for the South 
 Sea Islands, twenty for the savages of Canada, and the rest, 
 one hundred and eighty, for the refined population of France ! 
 But his projects have happily, it is to be hoped, found their 
 termination. (1816.) 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 43 
 
 to humanity by Bartholomew de las Casas, 
 Xavier, Vincent de Paul, Lamy, Tachard, &c. j" 
 and concludes, by injoining them to "acquire 
 every possible intelligence respecting the com- 
 mercial capabilities of the countries, to which 
 they are sent!" He has elsewhere* professed 
 his fixed purpose of " forming multiplied and* 
 permanent relations with India, of learning and 
 consulting the interests of her different princes, 
 following the course and vicissitudes of their 
 policy, entering into advantageous connexions 
 with them, and thus placing himself in a situa- 
 tion to profit by the chances of fortune !'* an 
 other terms, to sap the British power in Hin- 
 dostan, and upon it's ruins to erect his own. 
 But these, if the meditated introduction of 
 science and Christianity should be effected, will 
 prove to be vain hopes. The benevolence of 
 our motives, the efficacy of our means, and the 
 magnitude of the end will attach the natives 
 too strongly to their present protectors, to 
 admit of their being seduced by the great 
 Deceiver. 
 
 Others again have urged, that the mild and 
 unaspiring Hindu, if once he catch from co- 
 
 * See a Memoir of M. Briere de Surgy on the Indian Trade, 
 published in M. Herbin's < Statistique generate et particulierc 
 de la France et de ses Colonies. 9 
 
44 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 habitation a portion of the characteristic spirit, 
 or receive an impression of the civil and politi- 
 cal rights of his British teachers, may burst our 
 chains and expel us from our dominion. This 
 anticipated change, as far as it substitutes man- 
 liness for servility, and elevates the native of 
 India from the rank of a mere automaton to 
 the dignity of a thinking creature, would surely 
 be highly desirable, and must for Christianity 
 be most honourable. But Christianity teaches 
 no wild lessons of impracticable or useless inde- 
 pendence : the spiritual equality, of which she 
 everywhere speaks, is accompanied by expla* 
 nations and correctives which, far from levelling, 
 oppose the firmest obstacles to the encroach- 
 ments of insubordination. Common nature, as 
 it may be hoped, would not exert it's newly- 
 acquired energies in stinging the bosom, by 
 whose fostering warmth it had been awakened 
 into animation ; and to Christian nature such a 
 deed would be impossible. On the contrary 
 we may conclude that, with a grateful sense of 
 the inestimable boon of our arts and our re- 
 ligion, as soon as they can properly appretiate 
 their value, instead of regarding us with sus- 
 picion or rejecting us with coldness, the bene- 
 fited people will embrace us as brethren, and 
 reverence us as saviours. A circulation of ser* 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 45 
 
 vices and requitals will be established : Great 
 Britain will protect and enlighten India, and 
 India will enrich and strengthen Great Britain. 
 
 But, till the superstitious prejudices of the 
 Hindus are so far softened as to tolerate the 
 admission of foreigners on the liberal principle 
 here suggested, insulated settlements upon a 
 smaller scale must be made among them ; either 
 as Colonists, after the example of those at 
 Sierra Leone, who may display the advantages 
 of rural economy, supply employment and 
 society to such of the natives as from the adop- 
 tion of Christianity may require those supports, 
 and thus imperceptibly exert a beneficial in- 
 fluence over the habits and manners of their 
 idolatrous neighbourhood ; or as Missionaries 
 on foundations similar to those of the United 
 Brethren, consisting of individuals of both 
 sexes, who by the simplicity and piety of their 
 conduct may still more visibly exhibit the beauty 
 of holiness, prove that they themselves are 
 what they would persuade their hearers to be, 
 and like Oases in the midst of a dreary desert 
 refresh the eye with greenness and fertility. 
 
 When, by these and other means, a more 
 enlarged intercourse shall at length be opened ; 
 when we begin to share the rites of hospitality, 
 to contract affinities, and to blend ourselves with 
 our Indian fellow-subjects in all the endearing 
 
46 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 relations of private life, then may the rich har- 
 vest of our preceding labours be expected, 
 
 et incipient magni procedere menses. 
 
 Of this more intimate connexion, one of the 
 first and most important consequences will be 
 the improvement of the agriculture of Hin- 
 dostan. This, though in some respects favoured 
 by their religious system, is generally at pre- 
 sent, from many concurring causes, in a most 
 wretched state. Rude in their implements, 
 slovenly in their practice, and ignorant to a sur- 
 prising degree of the most simple principles of 
 their vocation, the peasantry of India throw 
 away their toil in ill-directed efforts. Their 
 ploughs, which make little impression even 
 upon the lightest soils, are wholly unequal to 
 the resistance of new and loamy countries, such 
 as in particular is that of Bengal ; their harrows, 
 still more primitive in their construction, are 
 boughs broken from the nearest tree. Unac- 
 quainted with the prime necessity of manure to 
 renovate, and of the rotation of crops to relieve, 
 the exhausted earth ; with the uses of green 
 crops to increase the quantity of subsistence 
 and manure, or the value of artificial grasses to 
 supply the native vegetation when checked by 
 the excessive heats ; with the proper seasons 
 for ploughing and sowing, and the most advan- 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 47 
 
 tageous methods of reaping the produce ; with 
 the inestimable benefit of enclosures, and the 
 judicious principle of confining each field for 
 the year to a single species of grain — the Hindu 
 farmer, notwithstanding the number of his har- 
 vests and the fertility of his soil, is for ever 
 trembling on the verge of beggary and famine. 
 To this, however, the fluctuation of rent, which 
 is made by the Zemindar* (or next superior 
 landlord) to depend upon the success of the 
 year, and the total want of capital in the tenant, 
 more fatally contribute than all the other causes 
 which we have enumerated ; the latter denying 
 the means, while the former annihilates the very 
 spirit, of agricultural improvement. From the 
 introduction alone of British wealth, skill, and 
 enterprise can these miserable beings t ever ex- 
 
 * It would be impossible in this place to discuss the question, 
 whether the Zemindar be a mere collector of revenues, remov- 
 able at pleasure (as asserted by Mr. Grant in his valuable 
 * Inquiry into the Nature of Zemindary Tenures, &c.') or an 
 hereditary feodary under the Great Mogul (as contended by 
 Mr. Rous, and Sir William Jones) ; though the question be of 
 considerable importance with reference to the alteration of te«= 
 nure, &c. necessary to secure the interests of the cultivator. In 
 Mr. Verelst's valuable < Form of Instructions to Supra- visors/ 
 the distinctions of land into Jaghires, Taluks, Coss, Comar, 
 Ryutty, &c, and their respective abuses, are well ascertained. 
 
 f The penury and wretchedness of the Ryuts is attested by 
 Craufurd, in his f Sketches of the Hindus' from personal obser- 
 
4S A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 perience any substantial amendment of their 
 condition. With a formidable opinion of our 
 energy, they have already began to combine a 
 favourable impression of our benevolence.* 
 They have condescended on our suggestion to 
 cultivate the potatoe, which fortunately thrives 
 best in those seasons of drought, in which their 
 rice-crops are least productive ; they have en- 
 gaged in the management of indigo, and they 
 have learnt the art of ship-building. An attempt 
 has been made to transfer the cochineal-plant 
 from the forests of Mexico to the groves of 
 Bengal, and the bread-fruit tree flourishes at 
 Madras. With the new settlers new plans of 
 melioration will be imported, and the experience 
 
 vation. (i One of them showed Hie his feet covered with 
 Misters,, by being alternately in the water and on the scorching 
 ground ; and, pointing to some coarse rice and a few pepper- 
 pods, said, ' This is all we have in return.' I am sorry to add, that- 
 I fear he gave but too faithful a representation of the state of 
 some millions beside himself." 
 
 * In no instance, perhaps, more unequivocally or more suc- 
 cessfully evinced, than by our recent introduction of vaccination 
 into the East. It will require great vigilance on our part, and 
 some address, to prevent it's acting toward the confirmation of 
 their superstitious opinion of the divinity of the cow, which 
 has undoubtedly facilitated it's reception. With this caution 
 however it will prove a blessing, of which, from the previous 
 ravages of the small-pox, the effects are scarcely to be calcu- 
 lated. It has already established itself in the greatest part of 
 Hindustan and Ceylon. 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 49 
 
 of former benefits will, as we may reasonably 
 conclude, induce their ready adoption. India 
 abounds in navigable rivers ; but these, in con- 
 sequence of the sudden swells to which they 
 are liable in the more contracted part of their 
 channel from the monsoons, and from the Bore 
 or rapid influx of the tide near their opening 
 into the sea, are extremely hazardous. In the 
 formation, however, of canals (a mode of com- 
 munication the more necessary in Bengal, as 
 that province is destitute of materials for the 
 making of roads) and in the distribution of 
 water for the purposes of irrigation, these rivers 
 afford the greatest facilities. The ruined re- 
 servoirs,* many of them works of royal gran- 
 deur, intended to preserve the precious deposit 
 of the periodical rains, will be repaired ; new 
 ones will be constructed ; receptacles will be 
 formed, and embankments raised, to guard 
 against the present ruinous effects of inun- 
 
 * " Formed (as described by Mr. Burke, in his Speech on the 
 Nabob of Arcot's debts, in 1785) in the happier times of India, 
 for the greater part of mounds of earth and stones, with sluices 
 of solid masonry ; the whole constructed with admirable skill 
 and labour, maintained at a mighty charge, and varying from 
 an extent of two or three acres to five miles in circuit.'' — " There 
 cannot be, in the Carnatic and Tanjore alone, fewer than 10,000 
 of these reservoirs of the larger and middling dimensions ; to say 
 nothing of those for domestic services, and the use of religious 
 purification." 
 
 D 
 
50 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 dations : fresh systems of medicine, improved 
 processes in the arts, more efficient agricultural 
 implements, new seeds, useful applications of 
 the indigenous gums and resins will be intro- 
 duced : property will be protected ; and in lieu 
 of their present dreariness the valleys of India, 
 now literally vales of tears, will stand so thick 
 with corn that they shall laugh and sing. 
 
 But here again the necessity of caution, as a 
 principle most essential both from the mag- 
 nitude and the delicacy of the undertaking, 
 recurs in it's full force. From the evidence of 
 Mr. Petrie before a Select Committee of the 
 House of Commons in 1782 it appeared, with 
 reference to the township of Nagore, and by no 
 means as an extraordinary instance, that " some 
 farmers from Madras, strangers to the manners 
 and customs of the people, by their new modes 
 of proceeding threw the whole district into 
 confusion, upon which many deserted the cul- 
 tivation and left the country." When we thus 
 repeatedly enforce the necessity of circum- 
 spection, it would be unjust not to record the 
 tender solicitude of Sir William Jones to pre- 
 serve from violation the peculiar laws and the 
 inveterate prejudices of Hindostan. The zeal 
 with which, in his Charges to the Grand Jury 
 of Calcutta, he contends for the reasonable in? 
 (Julgence of the one and the strict observance 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 51 
 
 of the other, as the best means of conciliating 
 the affections and of promoting the industry and 
 the happiness of the natives ; his careful scrutiny 
 into the forms of adjuration, held as obligatory 
 by the consciences of Hindu witnesses; his 
 assiduity in studying (what he himself pro- 
 nounces, e difficult and unprofitable ' languages) 
 the Arabic and the Sanscrit, in which the laws 
 of the two great divisions of Indian population 
 are written ; the earnest representation, which 
 he made to the British government in that 
 country, respecting the necessity of a Digest, 
 by which the particular statutes relative to con- 
 tracts and inheritances might be simplified ; 
 with his judicious suggestion of a plan of the 
 work, and his disinterested generosity in offering 
 to superintend it's execution, are circumstances, 
 which leave us at a loss what part of his charac- 
 ter we ought principally to idolise. But his 
 conduct in Hindostan, illustrious and admirable 
 as it was, disclosed only a small portion of his 
 various excellence. The humanity, integrity, 
 affection, unconquerable independence of spirit, 
 and ceaseless activity of intellect, which were 
 discovered through the whole tenor of his life, 
 would have secured to him the love and vene- 
 ration of his darling country ; even if he had 
 never in the pursuit of her interests, incor- 
 porated with those of the human race, crossed 
 
 D 2 
 
52 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 the oc aa and faded under the sun of India. — 
 But I return. 
 
 The right of property once established, by 
 making it's great boundaries distinct, visible, 
 and irremovable, and leaving nothing to the 
 jus xagum aut incognitw?i 9 the caprice or the un- 
 certainty of discretionary interpretation, every 
 wheel of the social machine, cleansed from the 
 foulness and rust which it has contracted from 
 the continued neglect of many ages, will resume 
 it's functions with renovated vigour : the hus- 
 bandman will supply abundant nutriment to 
 the families of the manufacturer, the mechanic, 
 and the artist ; and will receive from them, in 
 ample requital, whatever the necessities of his 
 own family may lead him to demand. Influ- 
 enced by our example, and by considerations of 
 subsistence for themselves and their posterity, 
 the natives will renounce their pernicious pre- 
 maturity of marriage, which is ordained by the 
 laws of the East not to be deferred beyond the 
 eleventh year ; and, with this abuse, the con- 
 comitant emasculation of character will pro- 
 bably cease. They will begin to cherish a 
 generous propensity to live beyond the grave, 
 in the memory of their descendents, as well as 
 in the bosom of their God. Upon this three- 
 fold base, of secured property, regulated mar- 
 riage, and tempered self-love, will rise the 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 33 
 
 proud pyramid of Hindu civilisation ; it's apex 
 surmounted with that true emblem of conver- 
 sion, a heart exhaling in fervent adoration to 
 Heaven.* 
 
 III. For, if " it be glorious to civilise," let 
 us recollect that " it is sublime to convert." 
 Now must be unfolded the peculiar and more 
 recondite doctrines of the Gospel. No barren 
 
 * I have purposely abstained from speaking of the Catholic 
 Missionariesj who have issued at different times from the reces- 
 ses of their cloisters to enlighten the heathen world. Question- 
 able at least in their motives, and equivocal in their success (for 
 their habits and views are seldom such, as to attach eredit to 
 their narratives) t}iey seem in general, from the Revolutionists 
 of Malabar t6 the Jesuits of Japan, to have carried along with 
 them a due portion of the secularity of their parent-church. 
 Can we then be surprised that the inhabitants of India, when 
 they saw the wooden images in the pontifical temples, shrunk 
 from the idea of incurring all the privations consequent on the 
 loss of Caste, in behalf of what they might reasonably esteem 
 to be idolatries not greatly superior to their own ? Illic cceruleos, 
 hie piscem Jiuminis. From the failure, therefore, of Popish 
 missions we have no cause to apprehend the unsuccessful issue 
 of ours. As precursors indeed, introducing the knowledge 
 of the Scriptures, they have unconsciously prepared the way 
 for pure Protestantism. For the human mind, any religion is 
 preferable to none. The errors of the Church of Rome, where 
 they are adopted, involve their own eventual refutation. The 
 good will remain. The stream of time, which continually 
 washes away the gaudy and dissoluble additions of human 
 policy, will finally leave in it's own simple grandeur the ada- 
 mantine rock of Christianity, 
 
54? A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 generalities, which under the names of Christian 
 Philosophy, Rational Christianity, &c. would 
 vainly recommend religion to the unsanctifled 
 heart ; no mere morality, such as the Ethics of 
 Aristotle or the Offices of Tully would supply, 
 and which might have been as effectually pro- 
 pagated without the death of the o r :ginal com- 
 piler ; no dry metaphysics, beyond the reach or 
 the relish of an humble congregation soliciting 
 from our lips the words of life, are now required 
 of us : but a bold appeal to the avres i<px of 
 Him, who spake as never man spake, for the 
 mystery of his will ; a plain practical statement 
 of the guilt of man, and of the mode provided 
 for it's expiation, Repentance toward God and 
 Faith tozvard our Lord Jesus Christ, with their 
 invariable result, holiness of life. This will lead 
 to detailed representations of the evil and the 
 misery of sin, in it's threefold division, as affect- 
 ing the heart, the tongue, and the life ; the 
 justice of the Deity ; the incarnation and suffer- 
 ings of the Messiah ; and the necessity, promise, 
 and operation of Divine Grace. These all must 
 be urged again and again; must be exhibited 
 in every view, and accompanied with every pos- 
 sible illustration, by the means of printing and 
 of preaching, in public and in private. The Press 
 in particular, which forwarded the Reformation 
 in Europe, must renew it's mighty efforts, and 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. $5 
 
 become a second time the blessed instrument of 
 regenerating another and a far larger portion of 
 the human race. The Preachers* must be of 
 a spirit affectionate, open, and generous ; with 
 the glory of God, and the salvation of their 
 fellow-creatures uniformly in their view. In dis- 
 putes with their opponents they must be meek 
 and courteous, but courageous in encounter- 
 ing difficulties and dangers ; wholly disengaged 
 from worldly pursuits, that no golden apple, no 
 secular object or interest, may tempt them to 
 turn aside from their glorious career ; uniting 
 the zeal of a Berkeley! with the constancy of a 
 
 * That they have hitherto been much too few in number, 
 appears both from the Reports made annually to the Society for 
 promoting Christian Knowledge, and from the ( Memoirs of 
 the Baptist-Mission.' A supply of assistants will soon, it is 
 hoped, be furnished by the natives themselves, who (as in the 
 instance of Satianaden, mentioned in the first of the above au- 
 thorities) from their local and personal information, as well as 
 from their familiar acquaintance with the idolatries which they 
 are intended to oppose, will be eminently useful. A knowledge 
 of medicine is, likewise, most desirable in the Missionaries, not 
 only for the purposes of safety (as Mungo Park frequently ex- 
 perienced, in his African travels) but as it may give them access 
 to the mind, when softened and prepared by suffering for the 
 reception of religious impressions. It was after setting the 
 arm of Kristno, the first native proselyte to the Baptist-Mission, 
 that Mr. Thomas reasoned with him till he wept like a child ; 
 and his conversion was the eventual consequence. 
 
 t The benevolent project of the excellent Berkeley ( for coj> 
 
56 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 Xavier; bold, in short, as lions and wise as ser- 
 pents, yet gentle as lambs and harmless as doves 
 — Such must be the amiable and exalted cha- 
 racter of those, whose feet will be pronounced 
 beautiful upon the mountains of India, as the 
 bringers of good tidings and the publishers of 
 peace. 
 
 Shaken already by the defection of the Seiks, 
 a numerous and warlike sect possessing the 
 Panjab who sprung up about three centuries 
 ago, and by the schism of Dulol * (a powerful 
 heretic near Chinsurah) the Brahmins begin to 
 totter. Let us go forth against them, in the sim- 
 plicity of the Gospel. With the most strenuous 
 earnestness let us attack the Goliath-principle, 
 advanced in the front of the Hindu host, that 
 * the Deity not only admits, but admires a variety 
 of religions in his creatures.' With the grand 
 
 verting the savage Americans to Christianity by a College to 
 be erected in the Isles of Bermuda/ of which, resigning his 
 opulent preferment (the Deanery of Derry) he offered to be- 
 come the Superintendent, with the very moderate salary of 
 100/. per ann. is generally known. See a farther account of this 
 generous man, and of his noble project, in Swift's Works (Ed. 
 Nichols, 8vo. 1801.) XII. 103, note, and 124—126. 
 
 * His followers are stated, in the ' Memoirs of the Baptist- 
 Mission,' xi. 263., to have a kind of negative creed : " They 
 believe that Caste is nothing, that the debtahs (or inferior spi- 
 ritual orders worshipped by the Hindus) are nothing, that the 
 Brahmins are nothing!" These schismatics already amount to 
 Several thousands. 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 5*7 
 
 scheme of prophecy in our hands, let us sum- 
 mon the disciples of Mohammed to trace it 
 through all it's nice dependencies and gradual 
 evolutions. Known to them both, hitherto, 
 chiefly by our energies exhibited on the field of 
 victory, let us show them the high virtues seated 
 in the sanctuary of our character ; that they 
 may bless the day, which first beheld us mounted 
 on the throne of India : and recollecting, with 
 all humility, that the Druidism of Britain was 
 once as barbarous as the Brahminism of Hindos- 
 tan, let us evince our gratitude to our Great 
 Enlightener, by doing to others what we now so 
 justly rejoice that others have done to us. 
 
 Such is our obvious line of duty. If the 
 fulness of the time be not yet come, when all 
 the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of 
 our God, the purposes of Heaven will baffle 
 the efforts of our premature diligence. But the 
 present appearance of things seems to justify a 
 contrary conclusion. Neither, if our imme- 
 diate success should be inconsiderable, let us be 
 disheartened ; or reject a limited and actual- 
 good, from indistinct views of something which, 
 under certain assignable contingencies, might 
 be better. We know not the concealed rapidity, 
 with which the grand process may even now be 
 going forward. The seed, cast by the husband- 
 man into the ground, is for a time apparently 
 
58 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 lost : but it springeth and groweth up, he know- 
 eth not how ;— -first the blade, then the ear, after 
 that the full corn in the ear. 
 
 These are the imperfect rudiments of a plan, 
 of which the object is undoubtedly one of the 
 most glorious that can be conceived. To have 
 extended our view, if such a measure had been 
 consistent with the limits of the present Disser- 
 tation, to it's more minute and particular details, 
 would have demanded the local knowledge of a 
 Hastings, united with the genius of a Burke or 
 of a Jones. For us suffice it, to have sketched 
 the civil and religious wretchedness of Hindos- 
 tan, to have traced an outline for her improve- 
 ment, and to have hailed her dawning glories. 
 In the dispensations of Providence, extremes 
 often introduce each other. In the common 
 refracting lens the image, after receding (in 
 consequence of the varied position of the ob- 
 ject) through every various distance to infinity, 
 suddenly re-appears inverted on the other side 
 of the glass. The bloody conflicts of the two 
 triumvirates, and the vicious refinement of the 
 empire under Augustus, ushered in the Gospel 
 of purity and peace. If the fierce reformers of 
 Ghizni and of Tartary, roused at first by the 
 crying pollutions of Indian idolatry, gradually 
 exchanged their fury of conversion for the 
 
CIVILISING INDIA. 59 
 
 phrensy of conquest, and destroyed pagodas 
 rather from the love of their wealth than from 
 an abhorrence of their idols ; if this mighty 
 empire, founded by a Tamerlane, extended by 
 a Baber and an Akbar, and carried to it's great- 
 est altitude by an Aurengzebe, with the ordi- 
 nary fate of vast usurpations at length fell 
 beneath it's own weight, and made way for the 
 merchants and through them for the missionaries 
 of Europe, we may almost exclaim with Lucan, 
 
 Scelera ipsa nefasque 
 
 Hdc mercede placent. 
 
 We see, in fact, an Almighty Power con- 
 trolling the moral elements, as the obsequious 
 servants of his will ; from physical evil educing 
 social and civil good, and converting even the 
 sufferings of his creatures into the means of 
 their final salvation. 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 REV. XIII. 18. 
 
 Tv\V ptV CCXpiGtlO!,]/ T7\q 4^1^)8, W? XMl TOC \017TQC TTipl 
 
 toij y»<p8(riv. (Arethas in Apocal. xxxviii.) 
 
 Quanto Me magis Jbrmas se vertet in omnes, 
 
 Tanto, nate 9 magis contende tenacia vincla. 
 
 (Virg. Georg. IV. 412.) 
 
 JL O the number 666, by a remarkable con- 
 currence, several different appellations of the 
 Pope (it has been found) interpreted according 
 to the arithmetical notation of their respective 
 languages, accurately amount. I begin with 
 the Hebrew. 
 
 1- iTDVk signifying c the Roman' (Church) 
 in the Jewish numeration j n?np5 ecclesia, ac- 
 cording to Piscator, or as Newton says, HTT> 
 ' Beast,' or HD^D, ' kingdom,' being under. 
 
 A 
 [Only 50 copies printed separately.] 
 
2 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 stood.* (Daubuz.) This, says Pyle, as well 
 as Aurstvos, is an appellative name, such as 
 St. John means ; a name of a man, or body, 
 or kingdom, or government of man, in a certain 
 place and situation. No other word, in any lan- 
 guage whatever, can be found to express both 
 the same number, and the same thing. 
 
 The following Hebrew conjectures are col- 
 lected and dismissed by Wolfius in loc, who 
 divides the critics on the verse into various 
 classes. The first, the Cabbalists, he subdivides 
 into the advocates of the Gematria, and of the 
 Notarikon. Of the former description are 
 Vitringa's rmm PlDn, his b*Ui HY) (where 
 the D final, or 600, is lowered to it's medial 
 value of 40 !) and his Adonikam, whose children 
 are said by Ezra (ii. 13.) to be sLv hundred 
 slvty and sir ;\ and whose name, though not 
 numerically convenient, has (he adds) a very 
 
 * In this explication of the mystic sum Jurieu agrees; ex 
 cujus tanien nomine Hebraice scripto (fors. t^imy) eundem 
 numerum elici posse quidam regis Gallia legatus, prceeunte 
 Rich. Simone, per nummum cere expressum docuit. (Wolf, in 
 he.) 
 
 f This is also sanctioned by Hugh Broughton, whom Bright- 
 man calls cc that learned man of our own country/' and who 
 is cited by O shorn, in his ' Traditional Memoirs of the Reign 
 of King James/ as " manifestly painting the fall of the Pope 
 to the oily fancies of his readers." But, alas ! this number, in 
 Neh. vii. 18, is said to be * six hundred threescore and seven !" 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX; 3 
 
 pithy mystical meaning, c Dominus insur gens' 
 sive c Adversarius; 9 vel c Adversarius Domini :' 
 as Anti-Christ is pronounced, 2 Thess. ii. 4., 
 
 V7ripxipGfjt.il/oq and aurmufxivog, 
 
 John Fox, the Martyrologist, as I find him 
 quoted by Paraeus, discovers it in t^WO% 
 
 Matt. Hillerus in >£Htf D1&* where beside 
 the inserted % the » paragogic performs a double 
 function, by depressing the value of a to 40, 
 and supplying a needful 10 ! 
 
 Jac. Hasaeus in JTTDDj res venales ; sc. lm 
 [ay\tis dwYiroa ccyopMcroii, n 7TcoA?](ro4t, quia Anti-Christ us 
 emtione venditioneque omnium rerum ad lucrum 
 spectantium diffiuit. 
 
 Zach. Portzigius in fiYIDj Apo stasia, as mori; 
 connected with the subject ; but he quickly 
 leaves this true scent. 
 
 Dr. Lightfoot in *nfiD 5 a name taken from 
 Numb. xiii. 13,, meaning crypticum quid, she 
 mysterium.f 
 
 A black-letter writer quotes, and rejects, 
 c Lateranus' in Hebrew letters (Qu. DWHfw?) 
 and LVDVVIC in those of Rome; adding, 
 
 * Nimirum rubet Anti-Ckristus a sanctorum sanguine ; et ct 
 sanguine martyrum Jesu Bestia ; Rev. vii. 6, xiii. 7, xviii. 24. 
 
 t This conjecture is sustained by Peter a Sam [Misc. Duis- 
 burg.) who says, Sethuri numeris arithmeticus, nomen, tri- 
 bus, familia, conditio, res gesta, peccatum, et exitus apprimc 
 in Anti-Christi Romani conspirant persond ! 
 
 A 2 
 
4 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 " and thus much by the way and occasion of 
 Nicolaus de Lyra, Paulus Bergen, Matthias 
 Dorinkus, the Author of c Fortalitium Fidei, 
 and other commentaries more of the same fac- 
 tion ; who writing upon this thirteenth chapter 
 of the Apocalypse, and not considering the cir- 
 cumstances thereof, both are deceived them- 
 selves, and deceive many others : applying that 
 to the Turk, which cannot otherwise be verified 
 but only upon the Pope, as may appear suffi- 
 ciently by the premises. Not that I write this 
 of any mood or malice, either to the city of 
 Rome, or to the person of the Bishop, as being 
 God's creature : but being occasioned here to 
 entreat of the prophecies against the Turks, I 
 would wish the readers not to be deceived, but 
 rightly to understand the simple Scriptures ac- 
 cording as they lie ; to the intent that, the true 
 meaning thereof being blotted out, it may be 
 the better known what prophecies directly make 
 against these Turks, what otherwise." 
 
 From the Chronologies of Genebrard, Bellar- 
 min * cites inblS (Luther) ; and adds, of his 
 
 * " The name ' Bellarminus Jesuita * doth more elegantly by 
 for yield us the number of the Beast, thus written in Hebrew 
 KtDWDtf' DU'D^VVm ; — notwithstanding, I confess, Bellar- 
 minus is not the Beast as yet, though perhaps he cleave to his 
 horn." {Comment, on the Revelation, translated fr©m Parseus, 
 fol.; where, among other things, it is proved by copious quota- 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. $ 
 
 own discovery, mnO T31 (David Chytraeus) 
 as amounting to the same number. 
 
 J. Goth. Lakemacherus refers it to }TO&* "), 
 i. e. Rabban Simon, who was made prefect of 
 the Jewish Council by Herod Agrippa, and as 
 he gravely states, was very like the latter 
 Beast ! 
 
 Lastly, Professor Hales of Dublin, in his 
 6 Inspector,' suggests TOTO (Mohamed) mean- 
 ing £v$o<roc^ c celebrated ; ' but makes it qua- 
 drate by a double artifice so obvious, that the 
 most timorous Mussulman may feel himself per- 
 fectly secure upon the subject ; viz. by an arbi- 
 trary duplication of the n> and by assigning to 
 £ initial the value of tD final ! ! The first of 
 these licences, however, he defends by the high 
 authority of Sir William Jones, who speaks of 
 a double aspirate in Muhhamed ( c Asiatic Re- 
 searches,' I. 32.) ; and the second, by stating 
 that " what is initial in Hebrew and Arabic is 
 final in Sanscrit and European alphabets !"* 
 
 tions, that " Franeiscus Petrarcha, a most eloquent philologer 
 of Italy in his time/' wrote such things Anno 1370 against the 
 Pontifical See, " as almost Luther never spoke worse.' ' See 
 Mornay ' Mysterium Iniquitatis, 9 Salm. 1612, pp.1040 — 
 1050 ; where Petrarch is pronounced sceculi sui lumen, apud 
 Pontifices, si ahlandiri voluisset, nihil non consecuiorum. Some 
 •ne has, also, found in J. Calvin, Hebra'ice (Qu. \L>yu>)hyp ») 
 an equal amount. 
 
 * With the same view, of proving the Arabian impostor to 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 2. Among the Greek solutions stands fore- 
 most AcLTstvog, the name given by the East- 
 ern to the Western branch of the Church, 
 after the division of the empire. For the 
 oriental Romans, in compliment to their mo- 
 ther-city, denominated Byzantium Roma Nova, 
 and the surrounding country Romania* To 
 the objection, that we ought to write Accnvos, 
 is replied, that c the ancients expressed i long 
 by ei 9 as in qaeibus, capteivei,' &c. ; and to 
 those, who allege the abundance of other is- 
 arithmetic appellations, Parseus and More have 
 answered, that this alone combines with the 
 other characteristics of the Beast it's " seven 
 heads" and it's " ten horns." # 
 
 be the Beast, no less a commentator than Euthemius, the Patri- 
 arch of Constantinople, in his Graecised name M«eo^s«s detected 
 the ubiquitarian 666 : and thus is his name spelt by Zonaras 
 iind Cedrenus. 
 
 * And, in addition to this, as Dr. H. More expresses himself> 
 they ' latinise in every thing.' See his ' Mystery of Iniquity,' 
 II. i. 15, § 1, and Petr. Molinaei ' Vates,' p. 500, &c. Missa, 
 Preces, Hymni, Litanies, Canones, Decreta, Bailee Latine 
 conceptce sunt. Concilia Papalia Latine loquuntur. Ipsce 
 mulierculec precantur Latine. Nee alio sermone Scriptura 
 legitur sub Papismo, quam Latino. Quapropter Concilium 
 Tridentinum jussit solam Versionem Vulgatam Latinam esse 
 authenticam ; nee dabitant doctores earn prceferre ipsi textui 
 Hebraico et Grceco, ab ipsis Apostolis et Proplietis exarato. 
 Denique sunt omnia Latina : nempe Papa populis a se 
 subactis dedit suam linguam, ut sui imperii notam et charac- 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 7 
 
 This interpretation, by Irenaeus (the hearer 
 of Polycarp, who was the disciple of St. John) 
 pronounced probable, valde verisimile, Adv. 
 Haer. v. 30, though Bellarmin of course vigor- 
 ously opposes it's pretensions, seems to have 
 been by far the most generally adopted ; and 
 modern commentators of the highest character, 
 Napier, Brightman, Dent, Sir Isaac Newton 
 himself and his namesake prelate, Pyle, Low- 
 man, Marsh, Faber, &c. still continue to main- 
 tain it's claim to preference. See also Rosen- 
 miiller, Eickhorn, and Limborch, TheoL Christ. 
 VII. xi. 19, who candidly adds however, nihil 
 certi definire prcesumimus — cum incertum ad- 
 modiim sit ex numero liter arum alicujus nominis in 
 unam summam collecto certum quendam hominem, 
 cui nomen illud applicari potest, definire velle ; 
 cum videamus unumquemque pro studio partium 
 nomen effingere in quo numerum hunc inveniat, 
 et eo adversarios suos premere, aut saltern ipso- 
 rum argumentum ex nominis numero depromptun 
 retorquere. 
 
 Irenseus suggests also mi*Ba?i and Tsnocv* 
 
 terem. Paraeus makes,, very nearly, the same obvious obser» 
 vations. Upon Aaruvoc Salmasius has some remarks, in his Tract 
 on Transubstantiation, as likewise upon Grotius' conjecture 
 Ovtotos, mentioned below. 
 
 * With regard to the appropriation of this name to Anti- 
 Christ, as authorised by Hesychius, see Henley's ingenious 
 
8 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 Other Greek guesses are, api^g for ot?v*pu,i\ ' I 
 renounce ;' zvivccg (a word, however, of Hebrew 
 extraction) ; a^tthti?, barbarously for x^-mr-nq ; 
 apvoq ahnos , uvts[aqs 9 qu. honori contrarius (Hay- 
 mo in Apocal. col. 1529, fol. q. viii.) ; r^o-ti^x©? ; 
 o viwwm (as the anti-type, of the Beast may, per- 
 haps, Call himself) ; xotxoq ofayos ', ctXnSyg (3Aa€£po? ; 
 fraXoci, $cc<rxcLVQc ; Bs££a dcvt&eos \ 2,ol%qvsios 9 for 2a£o- 
 
 fiof (sc. Luther, BcllarmJ) ; Irax*** ExxA*<na, or 
 ExXfjo-ia AaTtva;* 7rtxpa$o<ri<; 3 as the Papacy is a 
 kingdom of Traditions, &c. &c. (See Method. 
 II. &c.) But these latter, at least, are not 
 " the number of a man." 
 
 Clericus in his Supplement to Hammond's 
 Paraphrase, with the true zeal of a system- 
 monger contends, that Aio$ e^i % Hpccg ap- 
 propriates the number to Paganism, as Jupiter 
 
 £ Dissertation upon the controverted passages in St. Peter aad 
 St. Jude (2 Pet. ii. 4, 6, Jude 6, 7-) concerning the Angels 
 that sinned, and kept not their first estate.' These he inter- 
 prets of the first Apostasy and rebellion upon earth, carried 
 on by the sons of Chus under their imperious leader Nimrod, 
 who took upon himself the sacred titles of Alorus, Titan, 
 and Orion j whence his followers, called f Titanians' and 
 c Atlantians/ might be designated as soi-disans AyysXoi. Bishop 
 Haymo, however, interprets it of (( the Sun of Righteousness" 
 more especially, who " rejoices as ' a giant' to run his course," 
 and whose name Anti-Christ would not fail to usurp. 
 
 * Where one » is omitted, and the diphthong st is commo- 
 diously reduced to the simple i. 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 9 
 
 and Juno were the principal Capitoline dei- 
 ties ! 
 
 Sturmius, in a German 8vo. upon the subject 
 (Rostock, 1716) has collected many additional 
 illustrations, all referring either to the name of 
 some Pope, or to some badge or description of 
 the Papacy ; sometimes indeed trespassing a 
 little in the idiom or the orthography of his 
 Greek, and sometimes in the numerical inter- 
 pretation of the separate letters ! ! This has 
 been proved by an adversary, who finds in 
 Sturmii (Qu. Sti^u) nomine et conditioner Gr&cl 
 descriptis, the all-pervading number. 
 
 Wolfius bestows the praise of ingenuity on 
 the conjecture of Lcescher (the conjecture, also, 
 of Fleming) who by various dexterities dis- 
 covers the triple characteristic of date, district, 
 and denomination in Boniface III. For l . He 
 accepted from Phocas the title of 'CEcumenical 
 Bishop,' A. D. 606 ; and between that and 
 B. C. 60., when Judaea first became a Roman 
 province ! elapsed an interval of 666 years : 2. 
 Aureivos gives his local designation ; and 3. B<w- 
 &*£io? y Tio^TTcc gn'. E. E. or Bonifacius III., Papa 
 LXVIIL, Episcopus Episcoporum, is his personal 
 description ! 
 
 " Alii" observes De Dieu in loc., " ex i 
 y.icr<r<x, « 7rix7n<TYi, circum annum Christi 666 pri- 
 miim cani cceptd, eundem numerum eliciunt" 
 
10 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 Grotius assigns OjAttio?, nomen notissimum 
 Trajanis, si in fine scribas non 2, quod valet 
 200, sed r vel C, quod et sigma ! et pro eodem 
 numero (sc. senario) ponitur in Inscript. Grut. 
 To which he adds (ingeniously, in H. More's 
 opinion) Senarius numerus res hujus mundi sig- 
 nficaty et Septenarlus res scbcuU melioris ; 
 accounting for the implied censure of this prince 
 from the persecution of the Christians in the 
 tenth year of his reign. Against this inter- 
 pretation, however, Poole adduces from More 
 and Maresius six strong arguments, all inde- 
 pendent of the objection founded upon the 
 change of the final letter, which is in itself in- 
 superable. For 2 is always 200 ; as in Iuc-a?, 
 expressed in the Pseudo-Sibylline verses by 
 an equivalent of 888 ; NsiAo?, which as con- 
 taining the number of days in the year, is 
 therefore (Napier remarks) celebrated as holy, 
 &c. See a paper by Dr. Pegge, in the ( Selec- 
 tions from the Gentleman's Magazine/ II. 41. 
 
 3. The Latin titles of the Pope, VICarIVs 
 generaLIs Del In terrls, and VICarIVs fILII 
 Del,* occupy the next place. 
 
 * This mot d' enigme, remarks an anonymous writer,, has 
 also farther mystical applications ; for singula in universim 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. i 1 
 
 Of other Latin guesses, as collected by Calo- 
 vius in his e Bibl. Illustr? and in the c Crit. 
 Curios. MiscelL 9 the most approved are paVLo 
 V. VICe-Deo,* approved by Bishop Bedell; 
 Kleschius' LVDoVICVst (xiv.) King of 
 
 hitjus nominis element a, secundum numerum alphabeticum more 
 Grcecorum et Hebrceorum disposita, tarn accedunt prope ut 
 tribus saltern adscitis punctis eundem numerum expleant ; qui 
 tamen ipse defectus quid mysterii in se contineat, et quo pacta 
 rite suppleatur, alio Jvrtassis loco et tempore prodam ! 
 jr abcdefghiklmnopqrs t u or t &c. 
 
 Cy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 
 By this scheme, Vicariusfilii Dei == 663. By a similar key, 
 varying only in making v = 110, and a few other accommoda- 
 tions, we have lately seen the fatal number applied to Napolean 
 Buonaparte ; or with a happy variety of orthography, in the 
 English vulgarism, and by the Greek notation, BovvsxeipTv ! (See 
 Motto to Hioan's ' Thoughts on Prophecy.') Another finds 
 the three Sixes in the eighteen letters constituting the name of 
 that chieftain ! ! ! 
 
 * Brocard finds, or makes, Pope Paul IV. equally conve- 
 nient : first, as he was the sixth from Leo X. ! as six is, se- 
 condly, contained in paVLVs (being sixty in. the Latin tongue!); 
 and as I and V, his ordinal number — first disjoined, and then 
 conjoined! — form the third six I Well might the Sr. des Accords 
 say, in his * Bigarrures,' " Quelquun a ete bien deux ans & 
 rechercher tous les noms des Papes, mais jamais n'a pic ren- 
 contrer chose qui vaille." 
 
 + He finds a corroborative argument in the Three Lilies (Hex- 
 andrian) of the ancient royal shield of France, which are in 
 Hebrew called WW, as WW means six! Another writer brings 
 down the reference to Louis XIV's successor. " The Beast," 
 says he, " is the Constitution .; the War is the present persecu^ 
 
12 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 France; and Driessenius' Vna Vera Catho 
 LICa InfaLLIblLIS eCCLesIa. 
 
 I find also in Calmet, voc. ' Anti-Christ,' 
 DIoCLes. aVgVstVs,* with the additional solu- 
 tions \ D. f. jVLIanVs Caesar atheVs (or rather, 
 he subjoins, D. f. jVLIanVs Caes. aVg.) *fl^ 
 8t£T!pn WM9 c ° ur h°ty Father the Pope ;' and 
 lastly, to show the vanity of conjecture, £HpH 
 mrv >n& p*W> * the Most High, the Lord, the 
 Holy Godl't Though he says very justly, 'many 
 
 tion of the Reformed, which began March 1730, and will end 
 September 1733. This is included in the name ' Ludovicus,' 
 the numeral letters cf which amount to 666 : the rest of the 
 King's title, DeCIMVs qVIntVs franCIae (or, gaLLIse) et 
 naVarrae reX, makes exactly 1733!" &c. (Calend. Myst. r 
 fondee sur V Apocalypse, et sur Esaie.) Here, by substituting 
 for Quintus seXtVs, and subjoining gVIL. as the abridged 
 name of the mnrtherous implement, by which (to descend 
 lower still) the Sixteenth Louis was sacrificed, we get not only 
 the date, 1793, but also the very mode, of his execution. 
 
 * AiozXxo-iizvoc, both numerically, and as a persecutor, would 
 have answered much better than Grotius' Ov^kloc. 
 
 f The Jews, we are told, affect to discover this mark of 
 Anti-Christ in the divine name of Jesus of Nazareth, nyj 
 1E>>. Seethe { Key to the French Revolution,' by Triebner; who 
 in another work entitled, c Christ is Risen/ states that 666 x 3 
 (for three and it's multiples, from considerations of the number 
 of persons constituting the Elohim, are his favourites) = 1998, 
 which increased by seven, the days of the first week, and an 
 additional three, reaches from the Creation to the birth oi 
 Abraham ; 666x6 + 7 (again, but without the three) =4005 
 the year of Christ's Conception, &c. &c. ! ! 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 13 
 
 doubts have been entertained, as to the lan- 
 guage in which the interpretation of this num- 
 ber is to be sought, as well as the quality indi- 
 cated by it — whether simply the person, or the 
 dignity, or the name bestowed by his adherents, 
 or the stigma impressed by his crimes.' 
 
 But of these violent adaptations, which 
 make the Chronogram they cannot find ? 
 there is no end. Scarcely a single controversy 
 has started up, in which this accommodating 
 number may not be ranged on either side. The 
 Anti-Calvinist may adduce his 'CaLVInVS trls- 
 tls f IDel Interpres ;' and the Calvinist, thougli 
 Arminius is protected by his M, may attack a 
 senior antagonist with 'LVtherVs DVCtor gre- 
 gls* in Roman, as well as above in Hebrew nu- 
 meration. Feuardentius indeed, in his Notes 
 upon Irenaeus, to retaliate upon the Protestants, 
 expressly gives it to this most formidable foe of 
 the Romish Church under his correct Saxon 
 name of Martin Lauter, as interpreted by the 
 key in the note, p. 411 ! The Neptunist may 
 refer his opponent to c VVLCano eDItVs* 
 (sc. orbis terrarum); and may have retorted 
 upon him, in return, ' oCeanVs e prof VnDo 
 tVlit!' — But it would be idle to chase the sha- 
 dow any farther. 
 
 I pass to the easier species of Jewish Cab- 
 
14 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 bala, the Notarikon, by which letters are made 
 to designate words. 
 
 666, Gr. ^£r, as M. Henningius informs us, 
 may imply x?^ ov fatty™ ruvpw, Christum hos- 
 pitantem (apud se) crucifigens, and refer to 
 Julian ; or, according to Portzigius mentioned 
 above, XP^P^X * £ u ^ s ^ rMpw/Kpopo;, Christi oppug- 
 nator rasus coronam germs. 
 
 Heumannus says, Anti-Christ has the show of 
 Christianity before and behind : for x ls tne 
 initial, and r the final letter (or, rather, the 
 initial letter of the final syllable) of x? 1 ? ^ 
 But, he cautiously adds, latet anguis in herbd — 
 intus et in cute habet to £, qua est Jigura Ser- 
 pentis, i. e. Diaboli. Rev. xii. 9, xx. 2. 
 
 Napier observes, %gs is contained in x& > 
 " the two extreme letters respectively agreeing 
 in one, and the small disagreeance of the mid- 
 dlemost (to wit, betwixt £ and f) being upon 
 very necessity : for whereas St. John here speaks 
 expressly of numeral letters, he could have no 
 one numeral letter to represent both ^ and his 
 crown, this was f , more like it nor £, whereof the 
 upper part represents the crown and the nether 
 part the figure of g. Moreover, there is yet 
 greater affinity betwixt £ and g ; for ^, or rather 
 £ after this form in the Greek, and £ in this 
 Beast's language and common written letter in 
 Latin is X, which is all one in figure ! &c." — 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 15 
 
 *l As to the name of the Cross, in Latin Crux 
 and in Greek ravpog, it is not possible for them 
 to be expressed under so few letters more vively 
 nor they are here ; for here have you their 
 chief letters, even both their capital and their 
 final — for by X and g have you in Latin C and X 
 making Ctilv, or CH and X, making barba- 
 rously Chrux, as I have seen and heard it so in 
 print and pronounced : And again by the last 
 letter ? have ye the Greek name of the Cross 
 ruvpos likewise expressed, by his capital and final 
 letters," &c. &c. 
 
 A Second Class adopt a different system. 
 Henr. Horchius contends, that the number in 
 question must be resolved arithmetically into 
 it's principles, either by dividing it, solitarie 
 sped at um — his own theory ; or by extracting 
 it's square root, which was Potter's plan \ m or 
 
 * Poole, after some intricate and unsatisfactory calculations 
 from Forbes, has given an abridgement of Potter's thin 4to. on 
 the number 666, ushered in with a high and undeserved pane- 
 gyric by More ; and by Mede characterised as follows : nihil 
 unquamjelicius in illo tarn difficili argnmento in lucem prodii&se; 
 nee librum hunc sine summo stupore, nisi ah incredulis plane, 
 legi posse I In this Work a strong contrast is marked between 
 the Christian number 144, with it's root 12, and the Anti- 
 Christian number 666, with it's greatest integral root 2& 
 With regard to the surplus remaining in the latter case, he 
 coolly remarks, perinde illud est ; and assigns, as a reason 
 for taking the number 666 rather than the perfect square 
 
16 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 by dividing it, and it's opposite 14,400 (the 
 number of the Company of the Lamb, Rev. 
 xiv. i.) unum per alterum, vel illius radicem. 
 This last process was adopted by Cocceius, 
 Herm. Deusingius, and I. C. Laersius. 
 
 625, the necessity of * mystery to guard against the counter* 
 action of the Beast/ with some others equally valid ! ! To the 
 former numbers he refers the 12 Gates, literal or spiritual, of 
 the New Jerusalem, with it's 12 Angels or Ministers, it's 12 
 Tribes or Parishes, it's 12 Foundations or Apostles, it's 12 
 thousand stadia literally expressing the solid measure of the old 
 City, and it's 12 kinds of Fruits or Articles of Faith. On the 
 other hand, in the Romish City (as we learn from Onuphrius 
 ex Plin.) were literally 24 Gates, augmented by a Porta Tri- 
 umphalis between the ages of Pliny and Justinian, and in her 
 Hierarchy spiritually 25 Churches, 25 Cardinals at the first in- 
 stitution (Baron. A. D. 309, &c.) 25 thousand stadia forming 
 the solid measure of a Cube, whose perimeter is 116 or 117 
 stadia or about 14 miles, stated by Lipsius and Onuphrius 
 to be the circuit of modern Rome (and whose side there- 
 fore is 29.24 + stadia, which cubed = 24,999-545024 -j-) 
 25 Articles of Faith in Pius IV's Bull, according to the 
 doctrine of the Council of Trent ; the frequent establishment 
 of 25 Monks in a Monastery, 25 Pcenitentiarii Minores, 
 and 25 Abbreviatores (Bzovius) 25 Altars in St. Peter's 
 ( Onuphr. ) beside the great one, upon which a crucifix is placed 
 25 palms high (Angel. Rocca) it's figure, too, a perfect cube of 
 25 feet (Baron., and Onuphr.) the 5 wounds of Christ marked 
 upon the Romish Altars in 5 different places, whereas 12 is 
 applied to Scripture- Altars, 1 Kings xviii. 31, Ezek. xliii. 16. ; 
 their Jubilee for many ages celebrated every 25 th year, the 
 25th day of the month most frequently a holy-day, &c. &c. &c 
 and Hcsc, concludes Poole, ds nobili hdc qucestione dicta sunto* 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 1? 
 
 J. Henr. Ursinus thinks, that reference is 
 made to the 25 idolaters of Ezek. viii. 16., 
 which number multiplied into itself produces 
 625, significative of the corpus plenum, et in 
 omnem partem quadrat urn, obduratum, immobile, 
 ex omnium voluptatum appetentid in extremam 
 Apostasiam prolapsum, 8$c. ; to which adding 
 41 (1 to mark the caput, and 40 the anwersitas 
 membrorum plena per orbem terraruin) we have 
 666111 
 
 It has even been surmised, that a remote al- 
 lusion is intended to Dives and his five brethren^ 
 Luke xvi. 28 ; six being the element, of which 
 the number in question is exclusively com- 
 posed. 
 
 With an equal violence to probability Dr, 
 Duport, in his c Poetica Stromata,' supposes it 
 to contain some prophetical allusion to the 
 Great Fire in London (kindled, if we may trust 
 the Monument, by Papists) in 1666!— A con- 
 ceit frigid enough, if we may adopt the not less 
 frigid conceit of the old Critic, to have extin- 
 guished the conflagration. (See Pearc. Not. in 
 Longin.) 
 
 Dr. Geddes, of Macaronic memory, records 
 one of his friends (John Payne) as the 
 
 Under this head> however, I may add the old prophecy, Ann^s 
 Petri non attinges (25.) This fatal limit Pius VI. just 
 reached, broke the charm, and overturned the Hierarchy! 
 
 B 
 
18 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX* 
 
 ■Sacro prcedictum in codice Payneum 
 
 which is thus perhaps to be solved, 
 « o v 7T a, v (= the English y) v t\ 
 10 70 50 80 1 400 50 5 
 
 By the same system of numeration, the loyal 
 subject finds the prophecy couched in ' Tom 
 Paine Exile !' And the family-name of the late 
 Pope, Pius VI., in Greek (Bpo-xi) amounting to 
 333, he with his Nephew, the Duke di Braschi, 
 which may imply the characteristical Nepotism 
 of the Romish Church, jointly complete the 
 sum ! While an enemy to Taxation detects the 
 solution in 1 Kings x. 14., 2 Chron. ix. 13, 
 where Solomon's revenue is represented to be 
 iC six hundred threescore and six talents of 
 gold." 
 
 It is merely on the principle of compre- 
 hension, that I introduce the conjecture TraTmo-xo?, 
 " which may in some measure agree with Papa, 
 or what we call in English < Pope ; ' " DIC LVX, 
 of which Haymo says, c Ipse enim fatebitur se 
 .esse lucem ;' r\ kXcc&ihx, (3ia (665), to which Alca- 
 sar ineffectually labours to add another unit; the 
 quadrature of the circle, which (as Dr. Hutton 
 informs us, in his ' Recreations,' I. 365.) Henry 
 Sullamar, a real Bedlamite, found in this num- 
 ber ; the cow-pox (Qu. xov-Trox?) as asserted by 
 a German physician at Frankfort ; the Pope's 
 Learning, which that worthy man and great 
 light of the Church Francis Junius bringeth^ 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX". 19 
 
 chiefly now thai 6 the Sixth book of decretals 
 hath been added to the five former by Boniface 
 VIII. For this number is perfect,* and arising 
 perfectly out of the parts thereof at some 
 times ; neither is there any part of the Pope's 
 law, which is not conferred to the head thereof, 
 or is not contained in it. The Beast also teach- 
 eth this name, and makes it to be as it were the 
 mark of his members !' 
 
 Aristobulus Eulabius, an assumed name, de- 
 ducts one from " the seven heads" of v. 1., as 
 natural to the Beast ; and upon each of the re- 
 maining 6 or secondary heads places " 10 
 horns," 60 in all, as upon each horn " ten 
 crowns," 600 in all — making, collectively, 666 I 
 
 Mayer observes, " As this Beast is said to 
 have a number, it is evident other beasts de- 
 scribed in the prophecy are to be enumerated 
 with it \ and as beasts in prophetic language re- 
 present either civil or ecclesiastical govern- 
 ments, and it is said of the number of the Beast \ 
 
 * This, Haymo correctly defines, qui primus in numeris 
 eompletur partibus suis, i. e. sextd sui parte, tertid, et dimidid, 
 quce sunt unum et duo et tria, quce in summa ducta sex Jaciunt. 
 And it is the first perfect number, because (if we may adopt 
 t}ie R. R. Commentator's theory) on that day God perfected 
 his Creation. That his notion, however, of ' perfect numbers' 
 differed from those of modern mathematicians appears, from his 
 proceeding to assign particular reasons for the perfe6tness of 
 10, 60, 100, &c. 
 
20 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 that it is the number of a man, therefore the 
 Roman Emperors from Julius Csesar to Augus- 
 tulus (who are typified by the Bear and Leopard, 
 Dan. vii. 5, 6.) the Emperors of Germany, and 
 the Sovereigns of those nations # on the Con- 
 tinent of Europe, who are alluded to by the 
 horns of Daniel's fourth and John's first Beast, 
 with the Popes or Bishops of Rome from Linus 
 to Pius VII., Sovereign of the Ecclesiastical 
 State (the horn, that had a mouth speaking very 
 great things, whose look was moi*e stout than 
 his fellows) I suppose to be those, referred to 
 numerically by the prophecy ; as they amount 
 to the exact number of 665, and Buonaparte, 
 the head of the French Government, who is 
 represented by the second Beast, makes up the 
 number 6661" (' Hint to England.') 
 
 Selden himself did not think this number 
 beneath, or beyond, his notice. (See his Works^ 
 III. 2, 1402.) 
 
 A Mr. Stephens, likewise, wrote a 'Disser- 
 tation on the Name, Character, and Number of 
 the Beast,' of which however I have never met 
 with a Copy : and Mr. Bellamy, I am told, in 
 
 * Qu. Does this include France, from Charles le Gros to 
 Louis XVI.; Spain, from Pelagius to the present King, 
 omitting Charles VI, (Why ?) ; Portugal, Bohemia and Hun~ 
 fary, Poland, Denmark, so long as it's princes continued 
 papists, and Sardinia and Naples f 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 21 
 
 his c History of all Religions' proves, that it 
 refers neither to Kings, Kingdoms, nor Popes. 
 It is, also, adverted to in Malcolm's Work 
 on c Caricaturing.' Of the German Divines, 
 who have toiled in this field of conjecture, 
 Wolflus has preserved many names, with the 
 titles of their works, in his Notes ad loc. 
 
 The Third Class, or the Chronologists, con- 
 sider it as referring simply to dates. Pope Vita- 
 lian (A. D. 657—672) as we are told by Gottf. 
 Kohlreiffius on the authority of J. Balaeus, Act. 
 Rom. Pontif. iii. 11., Ecclesiasticam Regulam 
 scripsit, Horas Latinas, cceremonias, missas, ei 
 idololatrias Latinas omnes in templis Latinb Jicrl 
 disposuit ; and this, as Fleming states, A. D. 
 666. In 663 and 664, likewise, the Pontiff 
 continued to acknowledge, to some extent, the 
 Imperial supremacy. It was only the year 666 , 
 which in this respect meritb, nt primus illius 
 potestatis, in Apocalypsi Joanned numeratur ! 
 Bullinger and Lowman, also, interpret it of time. 
 
 Mr. Kett thinks, with Lowman, Doddridge, 
 &c. that 666 years elapsed between the time 
 when St. John saw this prophetic vision (which 
 he thus fixes to A. D. 90.) in Patmos, and the 
 period at which " the Papacy received the tem- 
 poral power and became the Beast, viz. A. IX 
 
22 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 756 : " for then Pope Paul I. received the exar- 
 chate of Ravenna as a donation from Pepin, 
 King of France. 
 
 And Dr. Bryce Johnstone supposes them to 
 be 666 lunar, or 657 solar years, commencing at 
 the time of the vision, which he fixes to A. D. 
 vulg. 95, more correctly 99, and ending at the 
 same epoch, 756. He adds, that the three equi- 
 valent periods assigned for it's duration, "forty- 
 two months," "twelve hundred and sixty days,'* 
 and " time, times, and half a time," or 1260 
 years reduced to solar time make 1243, which 
 gives 1999 for the end of the reign of Anti- 
 Christ, and the year 2000 for the commence* 
 ment of the Millennium ! Mosheim and Sigo- 
 nius furnish him with long quotations, and for 
 historical references he copiously cites Me- 
 zeray. 
 
 I possess a thin quarto Tract,* entitled 
 c Romcz Ruina Finalis ' Anno Dom. 1 666/ 
 which beside tracing this date in ALeXanDer 
 7 epIsCopVs roMse, observes, that all the letters 
 used as numerals by the Latins M. D. C. L. X* 
 
 * This Tract written in the reign of Elizabeth, and re«* 
 published with a dedication to the Protector by J. W. in 
 1653, was sent ad Anglos Romce versa?ites, to repeat the 
 warning, " Come out of her, my people," &c. Rev. xviii. 4, 
 It's Epilogue, or Peroration, is signed WA. TH. RW. J&< 
 SS. JW. 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE ANTD SIX. 23 
 
 V. and I. conjunctively make up the critical 
 amount ! Of these the three first are said to be 
 adopted as initials of their respective values, 
 {Milk, Dimidium Milk, and Centum ;) and the 
 four remaining ones form Luxi, the preterit, both 
 ofLuceo (sc. " I have said in my heart/' " I sit 
 a queen," &c. Rev. xviii. 7.) and of Lugeo (" for 
 in one hour is she made desolate," ib. 19) ! ! 
 Taken however by pairs, the first two of Luxi 
 added to the preceding three make up the very 
 year of the publication, 1655, and thus appro- 
 priate the application to the Pope Alexander of 
 that day, the Seventh ; while the other two 
 (but the author with unusual caution adds, 
 quod dimnare non ausim) may indicate the pre- 
 cise duration of his Pontificate ! 
 
 The 1260 years, he suggests, reach from 
 A. D. 406, when Honorius granted to Inno- 
 cent I. rogatu hianti efflagitatione que eblandienti 
 locorum prioritatem^ suffragium> et super om- 
 nes Censuram. 
 
 Amidst such a clashing of interpretations, 
 Wolfius quotes from Irenasus, E* ya.% noxxa 
 
 £f* roc Ivptcrxoptvoc ovofj.ix.Toe, iyowo>< rov ocvrov apt^ov, 
 
 1T0IQV f£ QCVTOOV popElTSl Sp^O^SVOg, QriTYi^YiCTBTXl, 
 
 From these varieties indeed of solution, con- 
 taining however but a small part of the 
 
24 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 theories, which at different times have been 
 propounded upon this inexhaustible subject, I 
 think we have abundant reason to conclude with 
 Kohlreiffius and Eulabius, qudcunque id in 
 lingua finer it } cerium esse, hac ratione quidlibet 
 ex quolibet, ex luce tenebras, et ex tenebris lucem 
 fieri posse* Unde in gravitatem et sanctitatem 
 Script urce S. omriinb peccant, quibus ex variis 
 ejusmodi atque inanibus institutis nos velle sa- 
 pientiores redder e videtur. We must explore, 
 therefore, some meaning from considerations 
 of dignity or generality more worthy of adop- 
 tion. 
 
 The Beast having seven heads and ten horns, 
 and upon his horns ten crowns, has upon his 
 heads (we are told, Rev. xiii. l.) the name of 
 "Blasphemy.* That this term, particularly in the 
 Apocalypse, t means renunciation of Christ, or 
 Apostasy, the late Mrs. Bowdler in her c Prac- 
 tical Observations on the Revelation of St. 
 John' has satisfactorily proved. Thus, in the 
 Old Testament, " Idolatry, as the root of all 
 wickedness, is every where pointed out as the 
 
 * In allusion to the heathen custom of marking soldiers and 
 slaves. 
 
 t See, likewise, Acts xxvi. 11. I compelled them to ^ blas- 
 pheme ; i. e. to deny the faith. Our Saviour, also, himself is 
 charged by the Jews with blasphemy, i. e. Apostasy from 
 God, in assuming the Divine Attributes. 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 26 
 
 cause of God's judgements on the Hebrews ; 
 and I think, to those who consider the book of 
 the Revelation, it will appear as plain a fact, 
 that Blasphemy (so interpreted) is in the same 
 manner the sin here pointed out, as being the 
 characteristic of the latter times." — " From it's 
 first chapter to it's last, Jesus Christ the Lamb 
 of God, his faith, his testimony, is the great 
 object set before us." — " He appears in the 
 first, as in a state of glory: he claims the title of 
 c Alpha and Omega,' and the other attributes 
 of God : He receives the praise and worship of 
 all created beings : He claims them as his own : 
 He unfolds mysteries, he commands, he pro- 
 mises, he threatens, as God." — " Apostasy from 
 him, therefore, is the Blasphemy here spoken 
 of 5* and the causer of this offence is justly 
 called Anti-Christ." 
 
 Hence have I ventured to suggest, as the 
 solution of this long-disputed passage, the word 
 
 ATTOfXTVlt;. 
 
 In the identification of Blasphemy with 
 Apostasy Dr. Middleton, the learned Bishop 
 of Calcutta, Professor Bridge of the East 
 
 * Whosoever shall deny me, him will I deny. Matt. x. 23., 
 Luke xii. 9- If we deny him, he also will deny us. 2 Tim. 
 ii. 12. He 3 that denieth the faith, is worse than an infidel. 
 1 Tim. v. 8. See also 2 Pet. ii. 1., 1 John ii. 22, 23., Jude 
 4., and particularly 1 John iv. 2, 3. 
 
 c 
 
26 SIXHUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 India College established near Hertford, and 
 Mr. Faber in private communications made 
 to me agree. The latter says, " Sir Isaac 
 Newton appears to restrict the word too much, 
 in confining it to Idolatry considered merely as 
 Apostasy from the worship of God ; " but he 
 does " not see how h-rro^r^ can be called 
 either the naifie of the Beast, or the name of 
 some individual man. It is a word (he adds) 
 descriptive of the qualities of the Beast, see 
 Rev. xiii. 1 ; and it is a word descriptive of 
 the qualities of a man, who is an Apostate : but 
 it can scarcely be considered as e the name' 
 either of the 6east, or of any man.— But I pre- 
 tend not to say (he proceeds) that A7ror«w like- 
 wise, as well as Aocrsivog, may not be hinted at. 
 It, certainly, describes the character of the Beast 
 very exactly ; and agrees, in a very curious man- 
 ner with the very phraseology used by St. Paul 
 in 2 Thess. ii. 3, and 1 Tim. iv. 1." He far- 
 ther approves it, as having (in common with 
 Autmo;) the advantage of being a Greek 
 word ; justly deeming it " in the highest de- 
 gree unnatural, that St. John should write in 
 one language, and compute in another." He 
 prefers, however, his original favourite; as 
 AaTfivo? is at once the name of a man,* the 
 
 * Bishop Newton, it may be observed, remarks that i( the 
 number of a man" may mean only * a method of numbering" 
 
SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 27 
 
 title of an empire, and the distinguishing ap- 
 pellation of every individual in that empire. 
 
 The Bishop of Calcutta, to whose piety, 
 talents, and acquirements Preferment has only 
 done justice, objects — if, indeed, he can be 
 said to object — to my conjecture, merely from 
 it's obviousness ; though it does not appear, as 
 far as my reading has extended, to have occur- 
 red to any of the numerous commentators, who 
 have written upon the subject. 
 
 I forbear to transcribe the testimonies borne 
 to it by Mr. Thurston in his late publication, and 
 in private letters by the highly respectable 
 Dean of Lichfield, Dr. Woodhouse, and the 
 Rev. J. H. Bromby, Vicar of Hull. 
 
 The plain English arguments of Mrs. Bowdler, 
 unconnected with numerical calculations in 
 Greek (of which she was, probably, ignorant) 
 appeared to me so satisfactory that, simply as a 
 matter of curiosity and with no sanguine anti- 
 cipation of the result, I computed the amount 
 — not of Avos-ouns or Awor«<n«, for the number 
 of the beast, we are told, is the number of a 
 Man, but — of Airowrw, and found it to be 
 exactly 666. If then it be farther considered 
 that this quaint enigmatising stile, by which 
 
 practised among men ;' and in this idea Pyle concurs. See Isai. 
 viii. 1, Rev. xxi. 17, &c. 
 
28 SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX. 
 
 words and numbers are reciprocally commuted 
 for each other, was in fashion in the decay of 
 Greek literature ; * and that there is no reason 
 to suspect of prudential motives, in the con- 
 cealment of a personal name contemporary or 
 remote, One who was shortly afterward a 
 willing martyr, we shall perhaps deem the riddle 
 least doubtfully solved by the generic word 
 
 ATTCqctT/li. 
 
 . * " It was a method practised among the ancients, to denote 
 names by numbers; as the name of Thouth (®vv$) or the 
 Egyptian Mercury, was signified by the number 1218 : the 
 name of Jupiter, as H-Ap^jj or the beginning of things, by the 
 number 737 ; and the name of the Sun, as jj^s Good, or Cm the 
 Author of rain, by the number 608. St. Barnabas the com- 
 panion of St. Paul, in his Epistle, ix., discovers in like 
 manner the name of Jesus Crucified (sc. IH the two first letters, 
 and T as the mark of his cross) in the number 318." (New- 
 ton's f Dissertations on the Prophecies,' II. 298.) See, also, 
 two Papers in the Monthly Magazine by Mr. Dyer on the 
 isttygfot, or Verses containing Equal Numbers, X. 134, .212. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 ELUCIDATED. 
 
 (ABRIDGED FROM BRYANT.) 
 
 X HE object of Bryant, in his volume entitled 
 * Observations upon Four Passages in Scrip- 
 ture,' was to prevent the obloquy thrown upon 
 them by some persons, in consequence either of 
 their ignorance of the true purport of these 
 narratives, or their unhappy disaffection toward 
 the Sacred Records in general ; by showing 
 that the Miracles related in them are pointed 
 and significant, evincing not only supernatural 
 power, but also a uniform reference to the cir- 
 cumstances of the persons to whom they refer. 
 The lateness of the discovery, arising from the 
 depth of the proofs, leads us to infer, that there 
 is store of additional (though unneeded) evi- 
 dence still to be elicited in favour of the truth 
 of the Scriptures; and also that there could 
 not be any fallacy in the narrative, as no present 
 advantage was to be expected from a scheme, 
 of which the development was not to take place 
 for two or three thousand years. 
 
 A 
 
 [Only 50 copies printed separately.] 
 
2 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 
 
 c The Four Passages' are, 
 
 1 . Balaam, reproved by his Ass, Numbers, 
 xxii. &c.; 
 
 2. Samson, smiting the Philistines with the 
 jaw-bone of an Ass, &c. Judges, xv. 15 — 19; 
 
 3. Joshua, stopping the Sun and the Moon, 
 Joshua, v. 15 ; and 
 
 4. Jonah, entombed in the body of a large 
 Fish or Whale, Jonah, i. 4 — 17. 
 
 1. 
 
 BALAAM. 
 
 The Midian, of which Balaam was a priest 
 (probably, from his great reputation, Numb, 
 xxii. 6, the High Priest) residing at Pethor,* 
 was an Edomite province of that name, to the 
 east of the lake Asphaltites, peopled by the 
 progeny of Abraham and Keturah, and not 
 the similarly named region near the Red Sea, 
 where Moses took refuge for forty years, Exod. 
 ii. 15. Balaam indeed is said, Numb, xxiii. 7, 
 
 * Called by the Greeks mr^x, and by Tacitus, probably (Hist, 
 v. 13.) interpreted ' a rock ; ' instead of being explained from 
 it's Hebrew etymology ins, ' a place of prophecy/ Peter, in 
 the opinion of Hesychius, has this additional meaning ; and 
 Patara, anciently celebrated for it's Lycice sortes, is probably of 
 the same extraction. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 3 
 
 to be brought from Aram, or Syria, and is still 
 more fully represented, Deut. xxiii. 4, as of 
 Aram Naharaim, or Mesopotamia: but if in 
 both these passages, by the easy and not un- 
 usual substitution of a ^ for a *?,* for Aram we 
 read Adam or Edom, and dismiss Naharaim as 
 is gloss, the whole becomes consistent. This 
 we shall not hesitate to do, if we consider : 
 
 1. That Naharaim means c the space between 
 the rivers' (in this instance, the Euphrates and 
 it's tributary the Aborras), whereas Balaam 
 came from Pethor, " by the single river of the 
 land of the children of his people ;"t 
 
 2. That he came " upon his ass, with only 
 two servants," Numb. xxii. 22, whereas the im- 
 mense desert between Mesopotamia and Moab 
 could only be traversed by camels and cara- 
 vans ; t 
 
 * The converse of this mistake, viz. a T for a n, occurs pro- 
 bably Ps. cxxiv. 1 ; and 1 Chron. xviii. 2. Compare 2 Sam. 
 viii. 12, and 1 Chron. xviii. 2, 3, 7, &c. 
 
 f Numb. xxii. 5. This river, so particularised, cannot (as 
 JLe Clerc supposes) mean, kcct tlo^v, the Euphrates ; but by 
 changing, on the authority of many of the Versions, a single 
 letter in the original for w reading iDtf or jd#, it becomes 
 still more incapable of that interpretation, and signifies e of 
 the children of Omar, Oman, or Anion/ a powerful tribe in 
 Seir and Edom. 
 
 J So it was traversed by Abraham's servant, Gen. xxiv. 19, 
 and by Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 15; whereas the armies of Crassus^ 
 
 A 2 
 
4 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 
 
 3. That he came on the joint requisition of 
 the elders of Moab and of Midian, Numb. xxii. 
 7, whereas there is no Midian or Pethor in 
 Mesopotamia ; 
 
 4. That he was met by Balak, " at a city of 
 Moab which is on the border of Arnon, which 
 is in the utmost coast 5 ,, Numb. xxii. 36, i. e. to 
 the south of Moab, not toward the Euphrates, 
 which was nearly north ; and, lastly, 
 
 5. That on his way he was carried by his 
 ass into " a field," and " among vineyards/' 
 Numb. xxii. 23, 24; whereas Mesopotamia, 
 though fruitful toward Armenia, on the side of 
 the Euphrates is a perfect desert, without any 
 grass or trees : and that no vines were to be 
 found even at Babylon, we have the testimony 
 of Herodotus (i. 193), while Moab, and Midian, 
 and Edom were in a high state of cultivation 
 in this respect.* 
 
 These arguments, conjunctively taken, prove 
 that Pethor must have been an oracular city 
 
 Antony, Trajan, Julian, and Gordian, in their expeditions to 
 Babylon and the east, went about by Syria north, and crossed 
 the Euphrates at Zeugma or Cerusium, as well as the Assy- 
 rian armies on their way to Judaea and Egypt. Solomon 
 built Tadmor, or Palmyra, near the western extremity of the 
 desert, for the use of travellers. (2 Chron. viii. 4.) 
 
 * See Numb. xx. 17, xxi. 22. Isai. xvi. 8, 9. Jeremiah 
 xxviii. 32, &c. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 5 
 
 or temple in Midian (called, also, Edom) near 
 Moab, of which Balaam was very probably 
 the Archimage, or chief diviner. Here the 
 worship of Baal-peor (the Peor-Apis, or Pria- 
 pus, of the ancients) and, most likely, of his 
 attendant the ass principally prevailed. This 
 animal, in it's wild state remarkably beautiful,* 
 and an emblem of liberty, Job xxxix. 5, was 
 first (it may be presumed) made an object of 
 veneration, in these thirsty regions, from it's 
 peculiar sagacity — perhaps by snuffing up the 
 air, and thence inhaling the moisture — in dis- 
 covering springs of water.t The female ass 
 had the farther recommendation of supplying 
 nutriment, which in these districtst could not 
 
 *Mart. xiii. 110. 
 
 \ See Ps. civ. 2. To this faculty, we can hardly doubt, 
 allusion is made, Gen. xxxvi. 24, where the word on*, trans- 
 lated ( Mules,' should (on the authority of the Syriac Version, 
 and the Vulgate) be translated { Waters ;' implying, that 
 Anah first remarked this valuable instinct of the Ass, and what 
 well deserved honourable record, taught it's useful application. 
 His name, derived from vk, a fountain, appears to confirm this 
 conjecture. Tacitus (Hist. v. 3.), with the venial mistake of a 
 heathen and a foreigner, seems to have jumbled together the 
 stories of Anah and of Moses (Numb. xx. 2) ; for it is, surely, 
 not too refined in his rupes to trace the Pethor (jnrycc) in ques- 
 tion. See Note p. 430. 
 
 % So in Job's stock, which would naturally be adapted to the 
 barrenness of his situation (whether Ur was an Arabian pro- 
 vince in the neighbourhood of Midian, or actually a part of the 
 
6 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 
 
 be derived from the cow (though worshipped, 
 on this very account, in the more fertile plains of 
 Egypt), and was, therefore, probably preferred 
 for the saddle ; as that both of Abraham, Gen. 
 xxii. 3, and of Balaam is rendered by the LXX. 
 
 *} cvo$. 
 
 That the asinine species did not then bear 
 it's present despised character, in the heathen 
 idea, will appear — if we recollect, that asses 
 carried Bacchus and Silenus, as well as the 
 sacred vessels in the mysteries of Ceres ; that 
 the first of those deities, indeed, was reputed to 
 have placed them in the celestial sphere (as 
 having saved him from a mighty deluge) with 
 their Qarvy, or crib, itself perhaps a distant ad- 
 umbration of the Ark ; and that both these 
 constellations are reckoned ominous of sere- 
 nity. * It proves nothing hostile to this obser- 
 vation, that the Greeks t and more modern 
 
 latter country she-asses are exclusively mentioned, as best 
 suiting a sandy soil (i. 3, xlii. 12) ; for ce Edom's dwelling was 
 of the dew of heaven from above ;" (Gen. xxvii. 39 :) whereas 
 to Abraham, who was going to ' c a land of brooks of water " 
 (Deut. viii. 70 Pharaoh gave both he-asses and she-asses, Gen. 
 xii. 16. 
 
 * Theocr. xxii, 2. They were, probably, placed in the heavens 
 by the Edomites, their votaries ; as " the wisdom" ascribed to 
 that people (Jerem. xlix. 7, Obad. 8.) doubtless, included astro* 
 nomy. Dion, n^Mjy- 109. 
 
 j Ova? xyot, Aypav, cy* <r*j#, ov» 9-fltyewfls, x, t. a. See Jerenu 
 xxii. 19. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 7 
 
 nations, by their proverbs and their usage of 
 this unfortunate animal, have evinced a differ- 
 ent opinion, or that Balaam treated his with 
 so much severity ; as the imputed sanctity, in 
 countries where the OvoXur^a, was established, 
 did not extend beyond the enshrined indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 The general inferences, then, are 
 
 1. That Balaam, a man highly gifted, but 
 devoted to the foulest idolatries, and persever- 
 ing (notwithstanding the denunciations of the 
 Almighty) in his infatuated determination to 
 serve Balak, * was reproved by his own oracle, 
 which he then found to be invested with facul- 
 ties loftier than even he had suspected ; and 
 constrained, in deliquio, with words not his own 
 to " bless those whom the Lord had blessed," 
 Numb, xxiii. 20. This blessing, extorted from 
 the mouth of an enemy, must have had great 
 weight. 
 
 2. A farther effect of the miracle would be, 
 that Israel, seeing a fact exhibiting might 
 
 * In reference to this obstinacy, if we adopt the idea (fa- 
 voured by many of the Versions) that the ass only bent to the 
 earth, or bowed down, in reverence to the angel, we may inter- 
 pret a proverbial maxim current in the east, "not to proceed in 
 any road, t<p' ov o oro§ okXuq-y), ' where an ass had bent it's 
 knees.'" This maxim, Pythagoras (according to Hermippus, 
 t*s tuv Ixhiim, often confounded with the Idumaeans, &|Ǥ 
 fAifjwptvoi) subsequently introduced into his institutions. 
 
8 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 
 
 beyond that of the gods of Edom and Midian, 
 would despise superstitions, by which they 
 might otherwise (from their future contiguity 
 to those nations) have been seduced. 
 
 3. But a principal consequence is, the sub- 
 stantiating of a prophecy delivered, received, 
 and recorded by an enemy ; referring to events, 
 many of which did not take place for several 
 ages, till Versions of the Sacred History had 
 precluded all interpolation. One part of it, 
 in particular, demands remark: " He shall 
 smite the corners, nntfD, of Moab (where 
 the LXX. translation, iys^ovx?, af^yj**,* is pro- 
 bably the best) and destroy all the children 
 of Seth." Now Plutarch, in his 6 Isis and 
 Osiris,' expressly identifies Seth with Typhon 
 or Peor-Apis, in whose temple the OvoXocr^noo 
 was practised by the Egyptians. 
 
 It remains only to add, that Balaam, having 
 taught Balak " to cast a stumbling block before 
 the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed 
 unto idols, and to commit fornication," Rev. 
 ii. 14, returned home, Numb. xxiv. 25., and 
 was there slain, xxxi. 7, 8.' 
 
 * Meaning, perhaps, ' Magi, or Priests of the first order.' 
 So Poti-phera, Priest of Phar, or the sacred Ox or Cow; Peta- 
 phree, of Ree the Sun ; Petasacus, of the deified Crocodile ; 
 Petosiris, of Osiris, &c. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. Q 
 
 The EFfp, c the mountains of Kiddim,' or 
 the east (it should be remarked) would ill apply 
 to countries beyond the Euphrates which, as 
 above observed, lay nearly north of Moab ; and 
 may much more probably be interpreted of 
 some eastern eminences, as distinguished from 
 others in the west. Such were Hor and Seir, 
 with respect to the Ereb, or western ridges; 
 both described by Josephus, Bell. Jud. iv. 8. 
 These ran parallel in a direction north and 
 south, and the valley of Salt lay between them. 
 
 Upon this subject, the learned Hugh Farmer 
 wrote an Essay. Such, as can be amused with 
 flippant levity on the text of Scripture, may 
 consult the c Critical Remarks' ofGeddesupon 
 the passage, who sets out with pronouncing the 
 whole " to have all the air of a legendary tale," 
 and comments on both the twenty-second and 
 the twenty third chapter of Numbers in a man- 
 ner grossly profane. His version of CDDS c hot 
 baths,' in the story of Anah, and indeed every 
 part of his work immane quantum discrepat from 
 the acute, profound, and reverential disquisitions 
 of Mr. Bryant. 
 
 £. 
 
 SAMSON. 
 
 Samson had been bound, and delivered to 
 
 <s\ 
 
10 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED, 
 
 the Philistines at Lechi.* This name, as inter- 
 preted by Aquila, Symmachus, &c. <na«y«v, and 
 by Jerome and others maxilla, must have refer- 
 ence to some animal ; and was probably, with 
 it's namesake fountain (of which we are in- 
 formed by Mich. Glycas) sacred to the Ass,t on 
 
 * This, Jerome and Reland (' in his Palcest?) identify with 
 Hormah, Jos. xv. 10, or Eleutheropolis : but Bryant thinks that 
 Lechi was more properly the temple, and Hormah a city of 
 Philistim, not far to the east of Gath, and (the real Eleuthe- 
 ropolis) Azotus or Ashdod, and consequently the nearest to 
 Hebron, whence Samson was brought captive, of any in that 
 region ; this latter name being the substitute for the Hor and 
 Hormah in Edom, Numb. xxi. 1, Josh. xii. 14. (See Jerom on 
 Obad. 1, and Rel. ib. 750.) But the name of the city, 
 Judg. i. 17, was most probably superseded, to give effect to the 
 miracle connected with the name of the temple. 
 
 •j- So m« ' Urbs Onagri/ near Kadesh, Petra in Edom, 
 and many Grecian names of similar import, derived by the 
 early colonisation of Greece from Egypt, Philistim, and the 
 regions about Tyre and Sidon ; e. g., Leche or Lechaeum near 
 Corinth, above which lay what Strabo calls rot. or net opt) and 
 Thucydides opos ovuov. The fountain Pirene in it's neighbour- 
 hood, discovered by Pegasus (who found Hippocrene by his 
 foot) is most probably from «ns, ' Onager. 9 So, near an old 
 statue of an ass at Nauplia in Argolis, ran a stream called 
 Amymone : now On is the primitive name of this animal, 
 whence Or*yp*o$, or Onager, and Amera. (odh) or Aqua 
 Asinaria. So, likewise, owymB-cs (precisely the same as 
 Lechi-Chomar) mentioned by Strabo and Pausanias on the 
 coast of Laconia, near the ruins of some Egyptian temples, 
 &c. So, lastly, B-^ui omen, near Lyons in Gaul. 
 
 There was also, it may be added, a Petra in Macedon (or . 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 11 
 
 account of it's peculiar instinct in discovering 
 water, and it's being here, as well as in Edora 
 and Midian, reputed oracular. On this hypo- 
 thesis, then, the object of the miracle, per- 
 formed with the fresh jaw-bone of an ass upon 
 the worshippers of that animal, was (like that of 
 Balaam) two-fold ; to prove the superiority of 
 the God of Israel to the Canaanitish deities, 
 and to deter the Jews from being smitten by 
 the epidemic idolatry. It was, indeed, the 
 drift of all Samson's preternatural operations, 
 more particularly to bring into abomination 
 with the Israelites Baal-peor, or Priapus, the 
 god of fountains. 
 
 If there were here a Petra, or temple of 
 divination, as Bryant conjectures from the 
 Philistines having assembled* at this place to 
 
 rather, in Illyricum) near Dyrrachium, called also Lechi (Pal- 
 lad. Fuse.) which farther proves the conformity in ritual wor- 
 ship among all the cities named Petra. 
 
 * Their solemn encampment seems to imply, that some pecu- 
 liar honour was intended to one of their deities, who probably 
 had a temple at this place. The freshness of the jaw-bone 
 apparently involves a recent sacrifice, and feast upon the victim. 
 The ass was a common food in the districts near Ishmael and 
 Edom, and what they themselves fed upon, they usually offered 
 to their gods. The oblation of asses, among the Hyperboreans 
 and Scythians, is said by Callimachus to have been particu- 
 larly grateful to Apollo. Strabo mentions it, likewise, as a 
 Persian custom: and Mirmcius Felix reproaches the Romans 
 
12 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRTPTURE ELUCIDATED. 
 
 receive Samson, Judg. xv. 9, the name imposed 
 upon it (Ramah Lechi, Gr. Avat^o-*?) in conse- 
 quence of that chieftain's subsequent victory, 
 would imply not simply c the casting away of 
 the jaw-bone,' which was only a typical action, 
 but also the rejection of Lechi and it's idolatrous 
 worship. 
 
 That Samson did not slake his thirst at this 
 fountain, which like many others in Egypt, 
 Greece, and the east was esteemed sacred, 
 might arise from his fears of the Philistines, ver. 
 18, or from the curse recently denounced against 
 it and it's rites. He, therefore, invokes God for 
 assistance ; and a miraculous discharge of water 
 takes place from the jaw-bone, which he calls 
 En-Haccori, c the fountain of invocation.'* 
 The subsequent phrase, " which is in Lechi at 
 this day," implying any thing of long duration, 
 (1 Kings, xii. 19. 2 Chron. iii. 8. Deut. xi. 4. 
 Josh. xiv. 4,) by no means identifies this tem- 
 
 with both worshipping and devouring these animals, practices, 
 which had undoubtedly been introduced with the Isiaca Sacra. 
 Pliny, H. N. viii. 44, records it as common in Africa. Beth- 
 phage, ' the temple of the jaw/ must have been, not as Origen 
 states (in Matt, xxi.) a residence of the Jewish priests, who 
 had the jaws of the victim, but a temple of this Canaanitish 
 idolatry. 
 
 * LXX. nsr/>j tv tvMctxVfAtfit, implying perhaps that spiritual 
 health was to be found, not in the polluted channel of Lechi, 
 but in the living water of the ( inyoked' God of Israel. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 13 
 
 porary supply with the fountain Lechi, which 
 (notwithstanding it's apparently appropriated 
 name) is described by many authors as long 
 prior to Samson's time ; but refers to it's natural 
 antecedent, the name En-Haccori, which with 
 the connected miracle was for a considerable 
 period preserved at that place. 
 
 To the objection, that c the jaw-bone could 
 not contain water enough for the purpose,' may 
 be opposed the widow of Sarepta's cruse of oil, 
 
 1 Kings, xvii. 15, the oil of the Shunamite, 
 
 2 Kings, iv. 6, the loaves and fishes of the N. T. 
 &c. if indeed an objection, professing to limit 
 the operation of an avowed miracle, deserves 
 any answer. 
 
 The story of the foxes with the firebrands, 
 represented Judg. xv. 4, 5. as doing effectual in- 
 jury to the enemy, is vindicated by Ovid's Fast, 
 iv. 681, 707, (passages which imply, though the 
 author himself affirms the contrary, more than 
 a solitary instance of mischief) to justify a 
 general and annual memorial, and is farther ex- 
 plained by Lycophron's xa^a^s* and Suidas, 
 voc. v£W£ia. The Roman celebration of the 
 
 * ' A fox with a firebrand at his tail/ as Cassandra, ver. 344, 
 calls Ulysses, with reference both to his cunning and to his 
 mischievousness. 
 
14 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 
 
 festival, c Vulpium CombustioJ recurred about 
 the middle of April, when (as Bochart, in his 
 6 Hieroz.' remarked) there was no harvest in 
 Italy. Hence, it must have been imported 
 from a warmer climate ; and from Buhle, CV 
 lend Palcest.y we learn that at Jericho, ineunte 
 Aprili triticum jlavescere jam et maturescere 
 incipiebat, et hordeum maturescit. 
 
 3. 
 
 JOSHUA, 
 
 That the verses 13 and 14 of Joshua x. are 
 interpolations, is highly probable from the words, 
 " Is not this written in the book of Jaslier ?"* 
 
 * ' Jasher ' recurs 2 Samuel i. 1 8, as referring to circum- 
 stances by some centuries posterior to this event. He must, 
 therefore, himself have been far removed from the days of 
 Joshua, of which he writes ; and his quoter, of course, still 
 farther. A similar instance is found in Numb. xxi. 14, where 
 a marginal comment must have been admitted into the text; as 
 " the wars of the Lord" only commenced at the time alluded 
 to, and writing itself is supposed to have been introduced by 
 Moses, who in that case could not refer to any prior writer. 
 Jasher does not appear, from Josephus, to have made part of 
 the Jewish canon. Whether, indeed, it be the name of an 
 author, or of a treatise, is unknown ; as in Origen's Hexapla 
 we read im B&*us m Evbisc, and in the Vulgate, in Libro Jus- 
 torum. Grotius endeavours to resolve the whole miracle into a 
 poetical embellishment, or a reflexion of the sun from the 
 clouds for some hours after his setting ! 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 15 
 
 succeeded by the actual quotation, " So the 
 sun stood still, &c." The former part of verse 
 13, " And the sun," &c. appears to be a 
 gloss of the quoter. 
 
 The passage most probably refers to the 
 idolatrous worship of Gibeon and Ajalon, where 
 (as in other parts of Canaan*) we have reason 
 to think, were temples of the sun and the moon, 
 whose oracles were now to be silenced, and 
 with them the superstitions of the surrounding 
 districts to be suppressed. Against the esta- 
 blished interpretation it may be alleged, 
 
 l. That the mention of the places, over 
 which these two luminaries are supposed to 
 have stood, is very unsatisfactory. An army 
 extends to a great distance. If to Joshua the 
 sun appeared to " stand still upon Gibeon," to 
 those who were east or west of him it would 
 appear eastward or westward of that place 
 respectively. All specification of place, indeed, 
 would have been totally superfluous, if the ob- 
 ject had been simply to gain time to pursue the 
 enemy. 
 
 The same, and even greater, difficulties 
 occur with regard to the moon. For the moon 
 could never be seen so near the sun, as both to 
 
 * Beth-shan, Beth-sur, Beth-meon, Beth-baal-meon, and 
 Bethshemesh (which Jerome, in his ' Onomast.,' interprets 
 Domus SolU) very near Ajalon, &c. From pV, ' the moon/ 
 were derived Labanah Libnah, M. Libanus, &c. 
 
16 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED, 
 
 seem stationed over objects in close vicinity, 
 which (it appears from Eusebius, Jerom, Epi- 
 taphium Paulae, &c.) was the case of Gibeon and 
 Ajalon. Neither indeed could her full light, if 
 she had been in the opposite part of the heavens, 
 have been of much service in the presence of 
 the sun. Besides, she is injoined to stand still 
 " in the valley of Ajalon :" 
 
 2. The duration of the day could not be 
 measured. They had no time-keepers, and 
 dials would be useless : 
 
 3. The battle too was now over, ver. 1 1 , and 
 the storm come down. u Then spake Joshua, 
 &c." The prolongation of the day, therefore, 
 was unnecessary. 
 
 Lastly; The enemy had been chased to 
 Beth-Horon, and thence had fled to Azekah* 
 and unto Makkedah, cities farther to the 
 south, in the neighbourhood of Eglon and La- 
 chish. Joshua's whole progress from Gibeon 
 had been southward, with the sun before, and 
 Gibeon and Ajalon nearly behind him. 
 
 In favour of an alteration of the version, it 
 
 * The Israelites must have stopped at Beth-Horon, or they 
 would have suffered equally with their enemies from the storm. 
 They had previously, indeed, made a forced march, which would 
 render rest necessary for them, as they had performed in one 
 night what had before cost them two. (Numb. ix. 17-) 
 
POUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 1*7 
 
 may be considered that the word tDH? trans- 
 lated Cf stand thou still," properly signifies^ 
 * remain thou silent/ and is so interpreted by 
 Montanus* and others. In the first of the spu- 
 rious verses a different word is used, 1Sy»% 
 which proves that the passages in the two 
 verses, \1 and 3 3, are from different writers. 
 Jasher, indeed, has not a word about the moon, 
 neither can his " midst of heaven" be referred, 
 with any precision, to " Gibeon and the valley 
 of Ajalon." 
 
 Gibeon, which was one of the royal cities 
 (Josh. x ? 3) was, very probably, guilty of 
 the prevalent idolatry. It's name, from 3?^, 
 \ a hill,' and On the sun, implies this. So like- 
 wise Ajalon t (pW) denotes ( the place (or 
 shrine) of the moon,' whose temple, we find, was 
 in a valley; and Benjamin of Tudela informs us, 
 that Christians still call this place 6 Vaal de 
 Luna. 9 As the gods and the altars, however, of 
 this friendly people had been left untouched by 
 
 * Sol, in Gibhon, site, &c. So Aquila, a-tuxx ; and Symma- 
 chus, ttocvtov. The LXX. alone have trr/jrw: the Latin, however, 
 pf the Syriac and Arabic Versions concurs with it. The Vul- 
 gate translates, Contra Giboan ne movearis. Qu. Is our word 
 f dumb ' to be traced to this origin ? 
 
 \ Lun among the ancient Hetrurians, Germans, &c. signified 
 I the morn/ and Ai or Aia, in the language of Egypt, ( a 
 place.' 
 
 B 
 
 [Only 50 copies printed separately,] 
 
18 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED*. 
 
 the new comers, to them this victory might 
 possibly by both be ascribed. To wean there- 
 fore the one, and to deter the other, from this 
 impious superstition more effectually than by a 
 mere arbitrary edict, Joshua " in the sight of 
 Israel said : 6 Sun, upon (the high place of) 
 Gibeon, be silent ; and thou, Moon, in the 
 valley of Ajalon,'" ver. 12. Then properly 
 follows, ver. 15, " And Joshua returned," &c. 
 
 c These words Joshua undoubtedly, in his zeal 
 to establish the worship of the true God, 
 uttered rather as a prayer than as a command. 
 His wish w r as accomplished ; for Gibeon, sub- 
 sequently, bore a high religious character. * 
 
 The above correction is strengthened by the 
 consideration, that neither the Prophets, the 
 Psalmist, nor St. Paul, although they often 
 refer to the divine miracles, ever mention the 
 circumstance of the sun's standing still (Grot. 
 in loc). The only allusion to it occurs in the 
 Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, xlvi. 1, 4. t 
 where however, by a double mistake, the sun 
 
 * 1 Kings, iii. 2, 4. It appears, indeed, to have stood next 
 in holy repute to Shiloh and Jerusalem. 
 
 f Hahakk. iii. 11. obviously, from the context, refers to the 
 passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, the grandeur of 
 the Deity descending on Mount Sinai, and his moving all 
 nature. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 19 
 
 is said to have " gone back" instead of stand- 
 ing still, and " one day to have been as long 
 as two." 
 
 L 
 
 JONAH. 
 
 The history of Jonah is attested by our 
 Saviour, who would never have appealed for 
 the illustration of a fact to a Galilean apologue 
 or novel. His date is not quite certain, but 
 that he was prior to Jeroboam appears from 
 2 Kings, xiv. 25. Gath-Hepher, in the tribe 
 of Zebulon (as well as Nazareth, a few miles to 
 the south of it) was in "Galilee of the nations;"* 
 so that out of Galilee did arise prophets,t John, 
 vii 9 41, 42. Coming from a mixed people, he 
 was probably of unsettled principles (though 
 like Balaam, Numb. xxii. 18, and the old pro- 
 
 * So called from it's vicinity to and intermixture with several 
 Gentile states, the remains of the Canaanites or aliens from 
 Tyre, Hamath, and the cities of Syria, as well as probably 
 some of the Philistines, Josh. xix. 13 ; and even Gath-Hepher 
 might be so named, to distinguish it from Gath of Philistim. 
 The contagious effect of this neighbourhood was such, that few 
 of the Galileans went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Pass- 
 over. 
 
 y A prophet however the Jews, probably on account of his 
 refractoriness, did not, apparently from this passage, allow him 
 to have been. 
 
20 four Passages of scripture ExuciDAXEbi 
 
 phet, 1 Kings, xiii. 1, represented as " a servant 
 of the Lord ") or he would not have thought it 
 possible to elude his power.* He never, indeed, 
 showed any regard for duty, except under 
 divine constraint ; and, when that was removed, 
 he returned to his old superstitions. This 
 might be the cause of employing him upon 
 the present occasion, to evince the supe- 
 riority of Jehovah to both the prophet and his 
 deities. 
 
 The forbearance of his shipmates was much 
 greater, than that of the Jews toward the true 
 prophet of Nazareth; of whose death and resur- 
 rection Jonah's hymn in the fish's belly, " Thou 
 hast brought my life from corruption, &c." (as 
 well as Ps. xvi. 10.) is strictly vaticinatory. 
 
 Upon his arrival at Joppa, as not disinclined 
 to the prevalent idolatry, he appears to have 
 put himself under the protection of the female t 
 deity of the place, a large Fish or Whale under 
 the name of Dercetis or Derceto, whose sup- 
 posed daughter Semiramis, according to Ovid, 
 Met. iv. 44., was changed into a Dove (!W, 
 Jonah) Luc. de Ded Syria, Diod. Sic. S« 
 
 * If the Tarshish here mentioned were the Tartessus of 
 Spain,, he attempted to flee as far as, in the existing state of 
 geographical knowledge, he well could. 
 
 f Colitur istic fabulosa Ceto. (Plin. H. N. v. 23.) This 
 Hesy chins calls 3wA#<r<r<o$ <£$t/$ x-oifApivy&iiu 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATE^. 2l 
 
 These two objects were worshipped not only 
 in Palestine, but likewise in many parts of 
 Syria. 
 
 1. Dercetus is an abbreviation of the Greek 
 Ara^-yung, or Atarcetus, i. e. Venus Piscis*, 
 under which name that goddess was adored at 
 Hierapolis.* From both Strabo and Hesychius 
 we learn, that Atargatis, whom Ctesias iden- 
 tifies with Derceto, was also called Athara; 
 and this, or AS-w£> (Etymol. Mag.) is the name 
 given to Venus by the Egyptians,! among 
 
 * Called also Bombyce, in Syria. Here, according to 
 Lucian (De Dea Syria) she was represented as half-woman 
 and half-fish. Some have pronounced Atargatis a composition 
 Atar-dag (:m, * Piscis') but Bryant prefers Atarcetus. 
 
 t At Atarbeck in Egypt, Venus A tar was worshipped, 
 (Herod, ii. 41.) and, probably, under this appearance. Beck is 
 the same as the Hebrew Beth ; and signifies ' a city,' as well as 
 ' a temple,' in the ancient Coptic. Bachi, noXv. (Woide's Lex. 
 Copt.) Thus Bal-bec was ' Beli CivitasJ 
 
 At Ashdod, also, there were similar rites, as we learn from 
 Diod. Sie. ii., who mentions likewise Semiramis ; and farther 
 informs us that, at Ascalon near Joppa, she had only the head 
 of a woman, the rest being fish. Desinit in piscem mulier. 
 The human part, perhaps, proceeded out of the mouth of the 
 fish (like the Indian Vishnod) both there, at Ashdod, and at 
 Joppa. At Ashdod, however, the deity was masculine, and 
 worshipped under the name of Dagon, 1 Sam. v. 3, where what 
 remained standing was probably Dag, or the fish-part; the 
 human head and palms having been cut off by falling before 
 the captive and insulted Ark of God. These deities were once 
 worshipped in Canaan, exclusive of Plglistim or Palestine 
 
22 FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 
 
 whom she, or her equivalent Isis, is likewise 
 denominated AS-u^ (Plut. Is. et Osir.) and, in 
 the character of Atargatis, this deity was also 
 represented as a Cetus. Manilius, Astron. iv. 
 580. says., she transformed herself into a fish $ 
 and Ovid, Met. v. 331. that she concealed her- 
 self in one, to escape some great danger. She 
 was, in fact, the same as the Venus Marina, 
 whom the Greeks denominated noma, Eth- 
 7tovtioi 9 ilsAayja, &c. all with reference to the sea. 
 She is constantly represented as Queen of the 
 Ocean, Orph. Hymn. 28., Her. et Leand. 249., 
 Ov. Fast. iv. 91, 105., # Hor. Od. T. iii. 1., 
 Lucret. i. 3, 8., Apul. Met. xi. &c. This 
 accounts for Jonah's particularly applying to 
 her upon this occasion. 
 
 2. Jonah, c a Dove,' was an appellation 
 deemed applicable to one sent upon a divine 
 mission j and hence, among others, John the 
 Baptist had his name. To Venus Jiovroyeviq 
 this mystical bird was especially consecrated, 
 from it's having announced to Deucalion, at sea 
 iv t*j xogvax^ good or bad weather (Plut. De So~ 
 
 Proper, 2 Mace. xii. 26., Josh. xv. 41., andxix. 27.,' where the 
 Beth-dagon in Asser's portion, " reaching to Zebulon," must 
 have been near Jacob's city, Gath-Hepher. 
 
 * The two last-named poets assign her marine influence to 
 her extraction, calling her avxwxopc, &«A«er<r>j$ and orta mart 
 <Ep. Her, xv. 213.) respectively. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 23 
 
 Urt. Anim.) Hence it was much venerated, 
 chiefly by the natives of Babylonia, Syria, and 
 Palestine,* and wherever Atargatis was wor- 
 shipped : and from it many cities had the name 
 of Icoi/7], as Antioch in Syria, Goza near Joppa 
 (Steph. Byz.) and even the sea upon this coast, 
 from Gaza to Egypt, was called imiw. 
 
 Jonah therefore, residing as above stated, 
 was most likely one of the Ionim, or wor- 
 shippers of the Dove and Cetus, and might 
 thence even have had his name given by the 
 people of Gath-Hepher, as a prophet and a 
 priest.t It is even probable, that he had offi- 
 ciated at their altars. He did not go to Tyre 
 or Sidon to take shipping, but to Joppa, the 
 primitive seat of this idolatry; J having greater 
 faith in his own deities, whom he had adopted 
 from the Philistines, than in Astarte and Baal. 
 In the storm, however, like Naaman, 2 Kings, 
 v. 1.5. and even Balaam, who yet was devoted 
 to Baal-peor, he owned that, " he feared God." 
 His direction to the mariners, w Cast me forth 
 
 * Tibull. I. vii. 18. Phil. Apud. Euseb. Prsep. Evang. viii., 
 and Diod. Sic. ii. 
 
 t Jonah, in many countries denoted ' a priest,' xfdpqTnt t*$* 
 <E€p«Mt$ (Hesych.) or priestess, Herod, ii. 54. See Soph. Tra*- 
 chin., Pausan. vii., and Horn. Odyss. M. 62. 
 
 % The very ship, in which he sailed, had perhaps the insigne 
 of the Ceto. 
 
%4f FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 
 
 into the sea ; so shall the sea be calm," he must 
 have uttered by a divine cogency, Sbqttvzvg-to; ; 
 otherwise, he could not have been so certain of 
 the physical consequence. The moral conse- 
 quence was still more happy ; for the mariners, 
 seeing the miracle of the whale, " offered a 
 sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows." They 
 were appalled at witnessing a real Leviathan, 
 against which their emblematical one had no 
 power, swallowing up a strenuous votary of their 
 superstitions. This they would naturally report 
 on their return, and it would quickly afterward 
 be confirmed by the stranded Cetus disgorging 
 the prophet ; an event, which would brand 
 with disgrace their boasted empress of the seas. 
 The enormous bones of a sea-animal, long 
 preserved and reverenced at Joppa, whence 
 Pliny (H. N. v. 25.) informs us, they were car- 
 ried to Rome to be exhibited by the iEdile M. 
 Scaurus, seem to confirm this account.* These 
 bones were preserved the more naturally, from 
 the monster's being thrown so far inland, as to 
 lodge Jonah stti g»pai/. This implies a low coast: 
 and such that of Joppa is ; the water being shoal 
 from Gaza to the Nile, so tjiat Hasselquist was 
 
 * See Pomp. Mel. i. 11. That these huge relics could have 
 no connexion with the fable of Perseus and Andromeda is 
 obvious, from the scene of the latter being laid in ^Ethiopia. 
 Apollod. ii. 4., Hygin. Astron. ix. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 25 
 
 carried ashore (he tells us) on men's shoulders., 
 and the road at present, according to Pocock, 
 admits only boats. 
 
 Now fishes of this magnitude are never 
 seen in these, or the neighbouring seas.* The, 
 one in question, therefore, must have been sent 
 from the north for the purpose to be stranded 
 on a shore, where a huge fish was an object of 
 worship, 
 
 This miracle therefore, as well as the pre- 
 ceding three, was significant and appropriate: 
 there was an analogy between the crime and 
 the punishment. At Carthage, or at Tyre, 
 the propriety would have been lost. 
 
 P. S. Bishop Lowth, in a note to his Praelect. xxiii. D* 
 Sacra Poesi Hebrceorum, observes ; Bis citatur Liber iw* ; 
 primd Josh. x. 13., ubi quae inde proferuntur manifeste sunt 
 Poetica, ac tria quidem Disticha conficiunt— rtum in Threno 
 Davidis, 2 Sam. i. 17 — 27. Notus est Hebraeorum mos Libras 
 suos ex prima cujusque voce inscribendi ; ut n^^ll Genesis, 
 niTI Numeri; vel ex praecipua aliqua primae Sententise vocq: 
 sic idem Liber Numerorum vocatur etiam nmna. Videmus 
 
 * The one, stated by Zonaras to have been killed in Severus* 
 time with fifty bears in it's body ! and a second, said to have 
 infested the Euxine, &c. under Justinian, from it's love of 
 sailors' flesh, for fifty years (Procop. iii., Mich. Glyc. iv,) 
 are not easily to be swallowed in these days. 
 
 C 
 
U6 FOUlt PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 
 
 etiam apud eosdem Cantica, insigni aliqua occasione edita, 
 hujusmodi forma, qua ea notetur oc'casio, induci : w i« sive 
 ltp*i »JdV^ »:n^S, sic nit>D vttf» IK, Exod. xv. 1. (Samar. legit 
 ntL>») mm ")ti>m Jud. v. i. Vide etiam Inscriptioneni Psalm! 
 xviii. Itaque Librum Jashar fuisse opinor aliquam Syllogen 
 Canticorum Sacrorum, variis de rebus et diversis temporibus 
 conditorum, eumque habuisse Titulum ex eo, quod et ipse Libef 
 et singula pleraque Cantica cum voce *itr»l inciperent. In ea 
 sane opinione fuisse videtur vetus Interpres Syrus, qui in ho- 
 rum locorum altero vocem hanc reddidit per *vttm> hoc est, 
 cecinit (cujus Interpretation, inquit Arabs eum in hoc loco se- 
 cutus, est Liber Canticorum), in altero hujus Tituli significa- 
 tionem ipse exposuit voce Knnittfm, id est, Hymnorunv* 
 
 From this etymology however, it ought to be added, the 
 learned Lecturer's Commentator, Michaelis, dissents; both 
 because Vttf*, not lty», signifies canebat, and that it has the 
 prefix n, 1tt>>n ; though he admits, that Lowth has by his 
 other arguments sufficiently proved it to have been a collection 
 of Poems. 
 
 The miracle itself the German theologian resolves into a 
 figure; partly as the light of the Moon, even if her full light 
 could be shed at the same time with that of the Sun, would be 
 of little service ; partly as Habakkuk iii. 11. describing the same 
 event says, at the light of thine arrows they went (which* 
 though Calvin explains the passage of the weapons of the Israe- 
 lites, in prophetical poetry called f the arrows of God,' Michaelis 
 interprets e lightnings ') meaning, the flashes accompanying 
 the hail storm lit up the night with sunlike splendor. He also 
 
 * The Dirge of David Lowth conjectures from v. 18., parti- 
 cularly as translated by the LXX. to have been called < The 
 Bow ' ; in reference either to the Bow of Jonathan, v. 22. or 
 to the ' Archers ' of 1 Sam. xxxi. 3. Michaelis thinks nttfp may, 
 also, signify metrum, i. e. carmen metrice composition ; which 
 Professor Hunt, however, doubts. 
 
FOUR PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ELUCIDATED. 27 
 
 thinks the physical consequences, which would result from an 
 apparent cessation of the sun's or moon's motion, as connected 
 with the considerations of centrifugal force, the doubled and 
 intolerable heat of the tropical regions, the flowing of the tides, 
 &c. insurmountable objections to the common version, even if 
 the end to be attained, the destroying of quantilla pars incola- 
 <rum Asice, had presented a knot more worthy of a God I The 
 attempt to establish the fact from the ancient Tables of Eclipses 
 of the Chinese (Gent. Magazine, Nov. 1758, pp. 512, 513.) 
 he encounters by modestly suggesting his doubts of their 
 authenticity, as their later astronomical calculations are said to 
 have been corrected by the Jesuit missionaries, and their re- 
 moter records of every kind are of very doubtful faich. 
 
ARTICLES 
 
 SUGGESTED FOR A 
 
 VILLAGE COW-CLUB, 
 
 {Communicated to the Reports for bettering the 
 Condition of the Poor, v. 156 — 160. Number 
 cxxxix.) 
 
 1 . X HAT a Treasurer and a Commissioner 
 or Commissioners, without stipend, shall be 
 elected for each District within the circuit of 
 this Institution : 
 
 2. That, in the event of one or more of the 
 said Officers dying or declining to act, the 
 vacancy or vacancies shall be supplied by such 
 person or persons, as a majority of Subscribers 
 in their respective Districts by letter or assent 
 otherwise signified shall elect : 
 
 3. That each of the Subscribers shall pay half- 
 yearly (May 12, and November 12) for each Cow 
 by him or her admitted, after the rate of one 
 halfpenny per £ upon her value per calendar 
 month, into the hands of the Treasure/ of the 
 District ; which sums, when amounting to 
 £20 respectively, shall be placed at interest 
 
 > 
 
 [Only 50 copies printed separately.] 
 
1 VILLAGE COW-CLUB. 
 
 till wanted, to accumulate for the benefit of 
 the Fund : 
 
 4. That no Cow shall be admitted without 
 the approbation, and valuation, of the Commis- 
 sioners or one of the Commissioners of the Dis- 
 trict, to whom (if required) she shall be sent 
 for inspection : 
 
 5. That, upon the death of any Cow so 
 admitted, the Commissioner or Commissioners 
 of the District shall inquire into the manner of 
 it ; and if it appear to have been caused by the 
 wilful neglect of the Owner, or by his or her 
 refusing to employ such farrier as they may 
 have appointed (the excess of whose bill above 
 One sixth of her value shall be paid out of the 
 Fund) he or she shall receive no- benefit from this 
 Institution : but, with this exception, for each 
 Cow so admitted and dying there shall be paid 
 Five sixths of her estimated value, in no case 
 however exceeding =Sl2 ; her hide, tallow, &c. 
 to be sold for the purposes of the Fund :■ 
 
 6. That when the subscriptions shall amount 
 in each District respectively to ^S per Cent. 
 upon the aggregate value of the Cows admitted, 
 the half-yearly payments shall be suspended, 
 until the respective Funds shall be reduced by 
 losses beneath that proportion, when they shall 
 again be renewed : and, if in consequence of 
 additional losses resulting from any other cause 
 
VILLAGE COW-CLUB. 3 
 
 than a murrain, those Funds prove inadequate 
 to the claims upon them, each Subscriber shall 
 contribute, in .proportion to the value of the 
 Cow or Cows by him or her admitted, to supply 
 the deficiency : 
 
 7. That no Subscriber shall receive any bene- 
 fit from this Institution, upon the death of a 
 Cow above Fourteen years old : 
 
 8. That if upon any accident the Commis- 
 sioner or Commissioners for the District deem 
 it necessary to have a Cow slaughtered, the 
 Owner shall have the option of receiving the net 
 value of her carcase, after the expenses of 
 slaughtering are deducted, or Five sixths 
 of her value, as entered in the books of the 
 Club: 
 
 9. That every Subscriber, not making his 
 payments on the days appointed by the third 
 Article for that purpose, when the Fund is 
 incomplete, or within fourteen days after 
 notice in writing from the Treasurer of the 
 District, shall be excluded : 
 
 10. That all disputes upon the meaning of 
 any par f of these Articles, or of the purposes 
 of thL institution, shall be determined by the 
 Commissioner or Commissioners of the District 
 wherein they occur, subject to the control of a 
 General Committee, to be subsequently elected 
 from the whole Circuit. 
 
4 VILLAGE COW-CLUB. 
 
 As some Subscribers may only insure a part 
 of their Stock, it will be necessary to have 
 the Animals insured ascertained by some Mark 
 or Brand, upon the horn or elsewhere. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 By this plan the rate of payment is proportioned, in Art. 3., 
 to the value of the Cow insured. 
 
 The sum paid by the Fund on the death of a Cow, by Art. 
 5., never exceeds a certain proportion (Five sixths) of her value, 
 nor a certain absolute sum (£12); the first restriction ope- 
 rates to keep alive the owner's interest in her recovery, and 
 the latter to prevent his dealing in these animals with any 
 other view than to the nutriment of his family. 
 
 Even the moderate payments, directed in Art. 3., are sus- 
 pended by Art. 6., as soon as a moderate per centage is raised 
 upon the aggregate value of the Cows admitted ; as the object 
 of the Institution is simply to provide against the probable 
 contingencies of the ensuing six months, and a new call for 
 contributions to supply deficiencies may always be made upon 
 the next following pay day. This is abundantly effected by 
 three per cent. ; which, if the full value were paid on the 
 death of a Cow, would cover the loss of about one in thirty- 
 three, but by the existing arrangement of paying only Five 
 sixths, will cover the loss of one in twenty-eight. 
 
 It is obvious, lastly, that though primarily intended for the 
 benefit of Cottagers, this Institution admits Farmers and other 
 opulent Owners of Cows to insure them ; as there is nothing, 
 in it's composition, of an eleemosynary nature. 
 
ON VILLAGE-LIBRARIES. 
 
 x HE chief design of the first of the preced- 
 ing Assize-Sermons, I need scarcely remark, 
 is to recommend the unreserved communica- 
 tion and strenuous enforcement of ( the 
 peculiar truths and precepts of the Gospel/ 
 This should constantly be attempted in the 
 school, and from the pulpit; and will, perhaps 
 not less effectually, be accomplished (among the 
 lower classes, in particular) by supplying them 
 with books, to occupy agreeably and usefully 
 their hours of leisure. The school-boy may be 
 negligent, or the congregation drowsy : but 
 what is subjected to the faithful eyes of the 
 voluntary student, qu<£ ipse sibi tradlt^ will not 
 quickly or easily be forgotten. 
 
 From the present prices however of books, 
 which scarcely any but the opulent can pur- 
 chase (and not even they, for the purpose of 
 gratuitous and general distribution) as well as 
 from their inexhaustible variety,, which involves 
 
 [Only 50 copies printed separately.] 
 
2 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 
 
 the ignorant in the extreme hazard of frequently 
 choosing wrong, the establishment of select 
 Village-Libraries seems highly desirable : and 
 the principles, upon which such an establish- 
 ment may most advantageously be conducted, 
 and the publications in which those principles 
 appear most happily exemplified, become con- 
 sequently necessary and, indeed, very import- 
 ant topics of inquiry. The two projects, which 
 I have seen suggested upon this head in print, 
 are both in the one thing needful wretchedly 
 defective. I hope, therefore, that I shall be 
 considered as strictly within the line of profes- 
 sional propriety, when I take the liberty of 
 laying before the public a third. 
 
 If the shelves are to be loaded with the 
 County Agricultural Reports, Gregory's Cyclo- 
 pedia, Dickson's Agriculture, A System of Geo- 
 graphy and Arrow smith 9 s Maps, Mayor's Uni- 
 versal History, Johnson's Dictionary, Hume's 
 and Belsham's History of England, The 
 Monthly Magazine, The Annals of Agricul- 
 ture, The Oxford Review, and The Journal 
 Modern Voyages and Travels ; * a clergyman 
 
 * See Monthly Magazine, xxiv. 28, 29- In justice how- 
 ever to both the plans alluded to, it should be added, that 
 their views are professedly secular ; and, that, as a subscrip- 
 tion is exacted from all who are to profit by them, they seem 
 intended chiefly for the classes of middle life. 
 
OX VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 3 
 
 may pardonably hesitate to solicit subscriptions 
 for their purchase, or to lend his vestry for 
 their reception : because, however respectable 
 some of those compositions may be in other 
 points of view, they are all (professionally 
 speaking) out of his way, as to religious improve- 
 ment, which ought always to be a primary 
 object for the great mass of village-readers. I 
 question, indeed, whether the publishers of any 
 of them, with a single exception or two at the 
 most, would not deem their pages contaminated 
 by the admission of what they would sarcasti- 
 cally term c evangelical nonsense,' for the use of 
 these humble scholars ; though it was the glory 
 of the Divine Founder of Christianity, that he 
 preached the gospel to the poor, 
 
 Mr. Riddel's plan, reported in a letter from 
 Robert Burns to Sir John Sinclair,* seems 
 little better adapted to the true interests of the 
 students under contemplation. What may be 
 the literary appetite of the Scottish peasantry, 
 I own myself incompetent precisely to estimate. 
 Without any derogation from the intellectual 
 credit of the South, they may be allowed, I 
 apprehend, in consequence of the universal 
 institution of Parish-schools in that part of the 
 
 * See his Works by Currie, ii. 272. For an interesting 
 account of the Scottish Parochial Schools, &c. see ib. i. 4, and 
 App. No. 1. not. A. See, also, Monthly Magazine, xxiv. 106. 
 
4 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 
 
 island, to rank considerably higher in informa- 
 tion than their English brethren. Yet, even 
 with this concession, what are we to think of the 
 following selection ; Blair s Sermons, Robert- 
 sons History of Scotland, Humes History of 
 the Stuarts, The Spectator, The Idler, The 
 Adventurer, The Mirror, The Lounger, The 
 Observer, The Man of Feeling, The Man of 
 the World, Chrysal, Don Quixote, Joseph An- 
 drews, &c. ? We see here, along with some of 
 the constitutional characteristics of the poet, 
 the operation of prejudices national and personal 
 in abundance; prejudices, in themselves un- 
 doubtedly often amiable and salutary, but 
 putting Scotland and Mackenzie out of the 
 question, what do we see besides ? Certainly, 
 very little that is religious. 
 
 Neither of those collections then seems likely 
 to achieve, for the inferior orders of the com- 
 munity, any valuable ends. It is not to make 
 the peasant a theorist in agriculture, a smat- 
 terer in history, and a pedant in philology ; or 
 to polish his taste, to stimulate his feelings, and 
 to gratify his curiosity by periodical essays 
 and sentimental or satirical novels, that Esta- 
 blishments of this kind should be encouraged. 
 The instruction necessary for his temporal 
 purposes he will best acquire, in early life, at a 
 parochial school ; and the superfluities or luxu? 
 
Ott VILLAGE LIBRARIES 5 
 
 ries of learning he must, throughout life, be 
 contented to forego. The rudiments of science 
 are, usually, the least pleasant ; and he will 
 seldom, under the most favourable circum- 
 stances, be enabled to make much progress in 
 it. His principal enjoyment therefore, accru- 
 ing from his superficial studies, would be to 
 find himself a little less ignorant, and a great 
 deal more arrogant, than his idler neighbours ; 
 to puzzle by explanation, and to triumph in the 
 village-circle without an antagonist. Whether 
 such accomplishments would enhance his merit, 
 or improve the tranquillity of his parish, let the 
 projectors of those collections themselves de- 
 cide. 
 
 The claims of the soul appear, in both the 
 above schemes, to have been studiously neg- 
 lected : and yet, if we indeed believe that it 
 will survive c the wreck of worlds/ and subsist 
 to eternity, it's education may well demand no 
 trifling portion of our regard. It is not,, how- 
 everj by every species of religious disquisition, 
 that this purpose would be promoted. The 
 most popular and beneficial perhaps, next to 
 the word of God, would be Tracts which 
 should neither perplex by their abstruseness, 
 harass by their diffusion, nor fatigue by 
 their prolixity ; which should be, in three 
 words, Perspicuous, Interesting, and Short. 
 
 
6 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 
 
 If with these were combined the essential qua- 
 lities of Piety, Fulness of ideas, and an Accom- 
 modation to the various situations and contin- 
 gencies of humbler society, there would be 
 little wanting, with the Divine Blessing, to 
 excite attention or to reward it. 
 
 That they should be rendered Interesting in 
 particular by incident, or dialogue, or general 
 vivacity of composition, appears an indispensa- 
 ble requisite. It has long and justly been 
 complained, that ' Sermons are less read than 
 Tales.' The chief attention, therefore, upon 
 this occasion should be to select Books, where 
 narrative and precept are so intimately blended, 
 that in seizing the first, even gross apprehensions 
 may imperceptibly lay hold on the latter. It is 
 by such books alone, that the cottager can be 
 lured back from the alehouse-corner, and the 
 boon companion, to his family and his own 
 fireside. He will read them to his children, or 
 his children will read them to him, with equal 
 instruction and entertainment; and amidst 
 their innocent questions, and his own simple 
 replies, the evening will glide more happily by, 
 than if spent in the torpor of dozing or the 
 tumult of a debauch. Works of this descrip- 
 tion however, it is to be regretted, are at 
 present comparatively few; but, with the 
 increased demand, they would rapidly multi- 
 
ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 7 
 
 ply. Neither would the writer in many 
 instances, it may be presumed, derive from 
 them less benefit or less pleasure than his 
 readers. They would not, indeed, naturally 
 lead him to fame or to emolument : but they 
 might withdraw him, if a clergyman, from 
 unclerica] amusements ; they might beguile 
 him, if a resident in the country, of many a 
 solitary hour; and they might furnish him, what- 
 ever were his profession or his place of abode, 
 with many a copious theme for profitable medi- 
 tation and discourse. In superintending the 
 Institution, likewise, a minister would find it a 
 delightful duty carefully to exclude every thing 
 noxious, and to adapt it's contents with judi- 
 cious variety to the young, the gay, the vigor- 
 ous, the declining, the melancholy, and the 
 aged. To assist in it's formation, he would 
 abridge himself, were it necessary, of many 
 enjoyments ; and think it no trouble to crave, 
 for the same object, the contributions of his 
 wealthy and well-disposed neighbours : to pro- 
 vide for it's reception, he would resign, were it 
 necessary, not only his vestry, but c a room in 
 his parsonage-house.' And for indulgences 
 renounced, labour incurred, and sacrifices 
 exacted, he would feel himself more than 
 repaid by the improved morality and extended 
 heavenly-mindedness of his grateful parish* 
 
8 ON VILLAGE LlBRA&IEg. 
 
 It's mechanism should be extremely simple, 
 The clerk or schoolmaster of the village might 
 attend on Sundays for half an hour prior to the 
 beginning of the service, to receive the books 
 returned, and to deliver those required ; enter- 
 ing their names or number, with those of their 
 borrowers and the dates of their delivery and 
 return, in a page divided into four columns for 
 that purpose. From this the clergyman might, 
 with very slight trouble, draw up a list of the 
 works which each of his parishioners has 
 perused, and regulate his conversation with 
 them accordingly. He might likewise, through 
 the agency of his librarian, unsuspectedly insi- 
 nuate appropriate works into the hands of parti- 
 cular readers, as they frequently take whatever 
 volume is offered for their perusal. 
 
 The only condition imposed should be, a 
 proper care of the books. 
 
 If the benefit of such an Establishment may 
 be measured by the avidity, with which it has 
 been received in my own parish (Hun man by), 
 it is great indeed. Of nearly a hundred vo- 
 lumes contained in it's catalogue, though it has 
 yet been little more than a twelvemonth in 
 existence, there are rarely half a dozen left 
 upon the vestry-shelves, and thirty upon an 
 average are exchanged every week. 
 
 To the variety of tastes, which may be 
 
ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 9 
 
 employed in appreciating the merits of the 
 books selected, it is highly probable that some 
 of mine may appear more or less objectionable. 
 But it should be remembered in vindication of 
 him, by whom they have been presented, that 
 books, like their authors, have universally their 
 faults ; and that those of both classes c are the 
 best, which have the fewest.' Amidst the petty 
 discords too of those received into this selection, 
 which merely mark the inconsiderable diffe- 
 rences of the schools whence they have respec- 
 tively issued, the ordinary reader (it is trusted) 
 will readily distinguish a grand and general 
 harmony, such c as never was by mortal finger 
 struck.' Should any of them indeed, along 
 with lighter demerits, be represented to dispute 
 the necessity or to omit the recommendation of 
 Faith as the root and Holiness as the fruit of 
 unremitting Earnestness in the pursuit and 
 unfeigned Humility in the practice of Christian 
 virtue, he will instantly expunge it's name, and 
 farther thank the detector for the substitution 
 of another less liable to exception. 
 
 Beside the books, which I have enumerated 
 in the c Reports of the Society for better- 
 ing the Condition, &c. of the Poor,*' viz. 
 
 * See V. p. I69—I72., Ed. 12mo. No. CXLI., with the 
 subjoined Observations extracted from Dr. Charters' Sermons. 
 
10 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 
 
 The Religious Tracts by the Society for promot- 
 ing Christian Knowledge, 12 vols., The Cheap 
 Repository Tracts, 3 vols., The Cottage-Library, 
 2 vols., The Pilgrim's Progress, Doddridge's 
 Remarkable Passages in the Life of Colonel 
 Gardiner, Gilpin's Lives of Trueman and At- 
 kins, The History of Susan Gray, and The 
 Vain Cottager or The History of Lucy Frank- 
 lin ; my list includes at present Doddridge s 
 Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, 
 and his Sermons on Regeneration, Murray's 
 Pozver of Religion on the Mind, <$c, The 
 Life and Death of Margaret Whyte, Ma- 
 claurins Sermon on the Cross of Christ, Han- 
 way's Domestic Happiness promoted, Mrs. 
 Trimmer's Family-Magazine, 3 vols., her Fabu- 
 lous Histories, her Servant's Friend, and her 
 Two Farmers, The History of the Dobson 
 Family, Robinson Crusoe, The Contrast, The 
 Work-House, The History of Betty Thomson, 
 Hardie's Extracts, Edgeworth's Parent's As- 
 sistant, 6 vols., and Popular Tales, 3 vols., 
 Law's Serious Call, Buck's Anecdotes, Neale's 
 Sacred History, 4 vols., Amusement- Hall, and 
 Memoirs of Experimental Religion Delineated, 
 Hill's Village- Dialogues, Collier's Voyages, De 
 Foe's Family -Instruct or, Humanity to Animals, 
 Wakefield's Instinct Displayed, Mrs. Taylor's 
 
ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 11 
 
 Lessons to Servants, Selloris Abridgement of 
 the Holy Scriptures, Pious Country-Parishioner 
 Instructed, Cottagers Religious Meditations, 
 Farmer Truman's Advice to his Daughter 
 Mary on her going to Service, Gastrell's Chris- 
 tian Institutes, History of Mary West ley, Isaac 
 Jenkins, The Religious Tradesman, Burders 
 Village- Sermons, 5 vols., Dialogue between a 
 Churchman and a Methodist ', Port ens' Summary 
 of the Evidences of the Christian Religion, 'lis 
 all for the best ; with the following publications 
 of the Christian Society not comprehended in 
 their Collection of Tracts, as Seeker's Lectures 
 on the Catechism, Wilsons Principles and Du- 
 ties of Christianity, Burkitt's Help and Guide 
 to Christian Families, The Whole Duty of Man, 
 Melmoth's Great Importance of a Religious 
 Life, Greene's Discourses on the Four Last 
 Things, The Trial of the Witnesses of the 
 Resurrection of Jesus, Jones' Book of Nature, 
 Nelson's Practice of True Devotion, Peers 9 
 Companion for the Aged, and Essay on the Hap- 
 piness of a well-ordered Family. Of several 
 of these, recommended more particularly either 
 by their subject (the Duty of attending Public 
 Service, the Lord's Table, &c.) or their popu- 
 larity, duplicates have been procured ; and 
 for the sake of more extensive circulation, 
 
12 ON VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 
 
 they have been strongly bound in half or 
 quarter-volumes.* 
 
 The total expense of the selection, I believe, 
 has very little exceeded five pounds ; and half 
 that sum annually expended henceforward will, 
 I am confident, not only fully meet the neces- 
 sary c wear and tear' of the Institution, but 
 also contribute occasionally to it's enlargement. 
 Can such a sum be employed, in any other mode 
 of chanty, with an equal chance of doing equal 
 good ? 
 
 This, it should be added, by no means pre- 
 cludes the occasional distribution of small tracts 
 on religious and moral duties ; which may 
 justly be regarded as at once a promising, easy, 
 cheap, extensive, and effectual way of doing 
 good. Each tract should contain, at least, c no- 
 thing but the truth,' and (affirmatively) some 
 account of the way of a sinner's salvation by 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 * The British Critic of October 18Q9, recommends the ad- 
 dition of the very valuable sets of Bampton, Boyle, Moyer % 
 and Warjurton Lectures. But these would, generally, surpass 
 the comprehension of Village-readers. 
 
VIRGIL'S 
 
 BUCOLICS. 
 
 • — Neque ego Paraphrasim esse interpretationem tanlum volo j sed circa 
 fosdem ssnsus cerlamen atque amulationem. (Quint, x. 5.) 
 
 [Only fifty Copies printed separately.] 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 I. TITYRUS. 
 
 Mel. Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi 
 Sylvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena : 
 Nos patriae fines, et dulcia linquimus arva ; 
 Nos patriam fugimus : tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra 
 Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida sylvas. 5 
 
 Tit. O Melibcee, deus nobis haec otia fecit : 
 Namque erit ille mihi semper deus ; illius aram 
 Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus. 
 Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum 
 Ludere, quae vellem, calamo permisit agresti. 10 
 
 Mel. Non equidem invideo ; miror magis : undique totis 
 Usque ade6 turbatur agris. En, ipse capellas 
 Protenus aeger ago ; hanc etiam vix, Tityre, duco. 
 Hie inter densas corulos modo namque gemellos, 
 Spem gregis, ah ! silice in nuda connixa reliquit. 15 
 Saepe malum hoc nobis, si mens non laeva fuisset, 
 De ccelo tactas memini praedicere quercus : 
 Saepe sinistra cava praedixit ab ilice cornix. 
 — Sed tamen, iste deus qui sit, da, Tityre, nobis, 
 
 Tit. Urbem, quam dicunt Romam, Melibcee, putavi 20 
 Stultus ego huic nostrae similem, quo saepe solemus 
 Pastores ovium teneros depellere foetus. 
 Sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus haedos 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 I. TITYRUS. 
 
 Meliboeus. Beneath this beech you, Tityrus, thrown 
 at ease 
 Pour through the reed your sylvan melodies : 
 We quit our homes, our pleasant native plains ; 
 We our dear country fly ! You trill your strains, 
 As love inspires, stretch'd careless in the shade, 5 
 
 And Amaryllis echoes through the glade. 
 
 Tityrus. O Meliboeus, to a God I owe 
 This blest repose : to him, as God, I bow ; 
 And oft a youngling of my fleecy brood 
 Shall stain his hallow'd shrine with offer'd blood. 10 
 
 He gave my herds, as here you see, to stray ; 
 And me to breathe at will my woodland lay. 
 
 Mel. Your lot I envy not, but more admire — 
 When all the region shakes with storms so dire ! 
 Lo ! I my goats urge fainting o'er the mead : 15 
 
 This, feebler than the rest, with pains I lead. 
 Yean'd 'mid yon hazels on the flinty plain, 
 Her dying twins, my flock's late hope, remain. 
 Oft (had I mark'd it) to myself, and fold, 
 This whelming ruin the scath'd tree foretold ; 20 
 
 [The left-hand raven oft, with prescient croak, 
 Distinctly boded from the hollow oak !] 
 — But who this God of your idolatry ? 
 
 Tit. The city they call Rome, ah silly me 
 I fondly thought might like our Mantua be ; J 25 
 
 Where oft we, shepherds, drive our tender lambs — 
 Their sires so whelps resemble, kids their dams. 
 
 B 2 
 
 ri 
 
4? VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 Noram ; sic parvis componere magna solebam. 
 
 Verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes, 25 
 
 Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi. 
 
 Mel. Et quae tanta fuit Romam tibi causa videndi ? 
 
 Tit. Libertas, quae sera tamen respexit inertem; 
 Candidior postquam tondenti barba cadebat : 
 Respexit tamen, et longo post tempore venit, 30 
 
 Postquam nos Amaryllis habet, Galatea reliquit. 
 Namque, fatebor enim, dum me Galatea tenebat, 
 Nee spes libertatis erat, nee cura peculi. 
 Quamvis multa meis exiret victima septis, 
 Pinguis et ingratse premeretur caseus urbi ; 35 
 
 Non umquam gravis sere domum mihi dextra redibat. 
 
 Mel. Mirabar, quid maesta deos, Amarylli, vocares ; 
 Cui pendere sua patereris in arbore poma. 
 Tityrus hinc aberat. Ipsae te, Tityre, pinus, 
 Ipsi te fontes, ipsa hasc arbusta vocabant. 40 
 
 Tit. Quid facerem ? Neque servitio me exire licebat, 
 Nee tarn praesentes alibi cognoscere divos. 
 Hie ilium vidi juvenem, Melibcee, quotannis 
 Bis senos cui nostra dies altaria fumant. 
 Hie mihi responsum primus dedit ille petenti : 45 
 
 6i Pascite, ut ante, boves, pueri; submittite tauros/" 
 
 Mel. Fortunate senex, ergo tua rura manebunt ! 
 Et tibi magna satis ; quamvis lapis omnia nudus, 
 Limosoque palus obducat pascua junco. 
 Non insueta graves tentabunt pabula fcetas; 50 
 
 Nee mala vicini pecoris contagia lsedent. 
 Fortunate senex, hie inter flumina nota 
 Et fontes sacros, frigus captabis opacum ! 
 Hinc tibi, quas semper vicino ab limite saepes 
 Hy blaeis apibus florem depasta salicti, 55 
 
 Saepe levi somnum suadebit inire susurro. 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 5 
 
 Thus mighty things I measured by the mean ! 
 
 But high o'er other cities Rome is seen, 
 
 As the tall cypress o'er the osier's shoot. 30 
 
 Mel. And what to Rome seduced your vagrant foot? 
 
 Tit. Freedom : who, though her visit late she paid, 
 Approach'd at length my long-neglected shed ; 
 When ripening age now clad with grey my chin, 
 And Amaryllis ruled the heart within. 35 
 
 That heart, I own, while Galatea sway'd, 
 Hopeless was freedom, profitless my trade : 
 Though many a victim issued from my fold, 
 And many a cheese to Mantua's dames I sold ; 
 Yet unproductive were my thriftiest pains, 40 
 
 And ne'er return'd I burthen'd with my gains. 
 
 Mel. Oft have I wonder'd, why with sorrowing cries 
 Thou, Amaryllis, did'st invoke the skies ; 
 For whom thine apples linger'd on the spray : 
 Now, 'tis explain'd — thy Tityrus was away ! 45 
 
 Thee, Tityrus, thee the pines, the brooks, the bowers 
 Call'd, fondly call'd from Rome's imperial towers. 
 
 Tit. What could I do ? For there, and only there, 
 Freedom I hoped, and Gods to hear my prayer. 
 There first to view that heaven-sprung youth was mine, 50 
 Yearly to whom twelve days shall flame my shrine. 
 First, to my suit propitious, there he spoke ; 
 " Feed boys, as erst, your herds, your bullocks yoke." 
 
 Mel. Happy old man ! to you then shall remain, 
 For you sufficient, your dear native plain ; 55 
 
 Though shingles here the sterile wild o'erspread, 
 And there the fenny bulrush rears it's head. 
 With no new food your yeaning ewes shall faint ; 
 Your herds no neighbouring herd with sickness taint ! 
 Happy old man ! here by this hallow'd spring, 60 
 
 These well-known streams, the breeze it's health shall fling : 
 Here by the neighbouring hedge that bounds your farm a 
 Whose willow-flowers allure their busy swarm, 
 
6 virgil's bucolics. 
 
 Hinc alta sub rupe canet frondator ad auras ; 
 Nee tamen interea raucae, tua cura, palumbes, 
 Nee gemere aeria cessabit turtur ab ulmo. 
 
 Tit. Ante leves ergo pascentur in aethere cervi, 60 
 Et freta destituent nudos in litore pisces ; 
 Ante, pererratis amborum finibus, exsul 
 Aut Ararim Parthus bibet, aut Germania Tigrim ; 
 Quam nostro illius labatur pectore vultus. 
 
 Mel. At nos hinc alii sitientes ibimus Afros ; 65 
 
 Pars Scythiam et rapidum Cretae veniemus Oaxem, 
 Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos. 
 En, umquam patrios longo post tempore fines, 
 Pauperis et tuguri congestum cespite culmen, 
 Post aliquot, mea regna, videns mirabor aristas ? 70 
 
 Impius haec tarn culta novalia miles habebit ? 
 Barbarus has segetes ? En, quo discordia cives 
 Produxit miseros ! en, queis consevimus agros ! 
 Insere nunc, Melibcee, piros, pone ordine vites — 
 Ite mese, felix quondam pecus, ite capellae. 75 
 
 Non ego vos posthac, viridi projectus in antro, 
 Dumosa pendere procul de rupe videbo ; 
 Carmina nulla canam ; non, me pascente, capellas, 
 Florentem cytisum et salices carpetis amaras. 
 
 Tit. Hie tamen hanc mecum poteras requiescere noctem 
 Fronde super viridi : sunt nobis mitia poma, 81 
 
 Castanese molles, et pressi copia lactis ; 
 Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant, 
 Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae. 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 7 
 
 The wild bee's hum shall oft persuade to sleep, 
 
 And oft the pruner's song shall echo from the steep : 65 
 
 While, from yon lofty elm, your darling dove 
 
 With ceaseless plaints shall woo her turtle's love. 
 
 Tit. Sooner in air shall stags expect their food, 
 And fishes change for earth the ocean-flood : 
 Sooner, with toil their distant confines past, 70 
 
 Germania's nations shall the Tigris taste, 
 Or Parthian hordes the Saone's swift current trace, 
 Than his dear form elude my heart's embrace. 
 
 Mel. We, we meanwhile to Afric's thirsty sands, 
 Oaxes' stream and Scythia's waste of lands, 75 
 
 Or Britain sunder'd from the world, must go ! 
 — And shall I, after many a year of woe, 
 E'er my loved country tread ; e'er hail again 
 My turf-roof 'd cot, the palace of my reign ? 
 These well-wrought fallows shall the soldier own ; 80 
 These crops be for a ruffian master sown ? 
 What direful ills from civil fury flow I 
 See, for whose use our cherish'd harvests grow ! 
 Now, Melibceus, graft thy pears : in lines, 
 At measured distance, now dispose thy vines ! 85 
 
 — Hence, my poor goats, once happy creatures, hence ! 
 No more shall I, in rustic indolence, 
 From the green cave your frolic sports survey, 
 As on the mountain's briery crags ye play : 
 No more with joyous pipe your footsteps lead, 90 
 
 Their boughs where cytisus and willows spread. 
 
 Tit. Yet here with me one night, I ask not much, 
 Forget your woes upon this leafy couch : 
 Here 'mid ripe apples and soft chesnuts piled, 
 And thicken'd curds, your anguish be beguiled ! 95 
 
 Curling from distant roofs the smokes rise slow, 
 And the tall hills their lengthening shadows throw. 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 II. ALEXIS. 
 
 Formosum pastor Corydon ardebat Alexin, 
 Delicias domini ; nee, quid speraret, habebal . 
 Tantum inter densas, urabrosa cacumina, fagos 
 Adsidiie veniebat : ibi haec incondita solus 
 Montibus et sylvis studio jactabat inani : 5 
 
 " O crudelis Alexi, nihil mea carmina curas ? 
 Nil nostri miserere ? Mori me denique coges. 
 Nunc etiam pecudes umbras et frigora captant ; 
 Nunc virides etiam occultant spineta lacertos ; 
 Thestylis et rapido fessis messoribus aestu 10 
 
 Allia serpyllumque herbas contundit olentes : 
 At mecum raucis, tua dum vestigia lustro, 
 Sole sub ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis. 
 Nonne fuit satius tristes Amaryllidis iras, 
 Atque superba pati fastidia ? Nonne Menalcan ; 1 5 
 
 Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses? 
 O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori : 
 Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra Ieguntur. 
 Despectus tibi sum, nee qui sim quaeris, Alexi ; 
 Quam dives pecoris, nivei quam lactis abundans. 20 
 
 Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus agnae : 
 Lac mihi non testate novum 5 non frigore defit : 
 Canto quae solitus, si quando armenta vocabat, 
 Amphion Dircaeus in Actaeo Aracyntho. 
 Nee sum adeo informis : nuper me in litore vidi, 25 
 
 Quum placidum ventis staret mare ; non ego Daphnin 
 Judice te metuam, si numquam fallat imago. 
 O tantum libeat mecum tibi sordida rura, 
 Atque humiles habitare casas, et figere cervos, 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS, 
 
 II. ALEXIS. 
 
 I 
 
 Alexis, beauteous and his lord's delight, 
 Was loved by Corydon, in hope's despite. 
 Oft 'mid the solitary beechen glade, 
 As with his pipe the pensive shepherd stray'd, 
 These simple lays he pour'd to hill and grove : 
 " And cannot aught my plaint, Alexis, move ? 
 " Unpitying youth ! thy frowns my death will prove. 
 " Now herds for cooling shade their meads forsake: 
 " Now the green lizard lurks within the brake ; 
 " And for the mowers, all faint with sultry airs, 10 
 
 " Wild thyme and garlick Thestylis prepares : 
 " Whilst, as I trace thee o'er the sun-struck ground, 
 " The copses wild with shrill cicadas sound. 
 " Of Amaryllis happier had it been 
 " Still to endure the wayward scorn, or spleen ; 15 
 
 " Happier Menalcas' caprice to bear, 
 " Though he so dusky dark, and thou so fair ! 
 " Trust not too much thathue, which charms the sight i^ 
 " The hyacinth we pluck, the privet slight ; [white. > 
 " Though that, sweet boy ! be dark, and this all snowy J 20 
 " — Still am I scorn'd ; nor dost thou ask, or know, 
 " What milk my pails, my folds what flocks o'erflow. 
 " A thousand gimmers roam across my hills ; 
 " And summer's, winter's milk my dairy fills : 
 " Nor breathed Amphion notes more soft than mine, 25 
 " When he on Aracynthus call'd his kine. 
 " Nor so unsightly I : as late I stood 
 " Upon the beach, beside th' unruffled flood, 
 " Myself I view'd ; and might I trust the wave, 
 " E'en Daphnis self I'd in thy judgement brave. 30 
 
 " Ah ! then with me this now-neglected dell 
 " Deign to frequent, in this poor hut to dwell ; 
 
10 
 
 Haedorumque gregem viridi compellere hibisco ! 30 
 
 Mecum una in sylvis iraitabere Pana canendo. 
 
 Pan primus calamos cera conjungere plures 
 
 Instituit; Pan curat oves oviumque magistros. 
 
 Nee te pceniteat calamo trivisse labellum : 
 
 Haec eadem ut sciret, quid non faciebat Amyntas ? 35 
 
 Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis 
 
 Fistula, Damcetas dono mihi quam dedit olim, 
 
 Et dixit moriens : 6 Te nunc habet ista secundum.' 
 
 Dixit Damcetas ; invidit stultus Amyntas. 
 
 Praeterea duo, nee tuta mihi valle reperti, 40 
 
 Capreoli, sparsis etiam nunc pellibus albo, 
 
 Bina die siccant ovis ubera ; quos tibi servo. 
 
 Jam pridem a me illos abducere Thestylis orat — 
 
 Et faciet ; quoniam sordent tibi munera nostra. 
 
 Hue ades, 6 formose puer : tibi lilia plenis 45 
 
 Ecce ferunt Nymphae calathis ; tibi Candida Nai's, 
 Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens, 
 Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis anethi ; 
 Turn, casia atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis, 
 Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia caltha. 50 
 
 Ipse ego cana legam tenera lanugine mala, 
 Castaneasque nuces, mea quas Amaryllis amabat. 
 Addam cerea pruna ; honos erit huic quoque porno ; 
 Et vos, 6 lauri, carpam, et te, proxima myrte : 
 Sic positse quoniam suaves miscetis odores. 55 
 
 Rusticus es, Corydon : nee munera curat Alexis ; 
 Nee, si muneribus certes, concedat Tolas. 
 Heu, heu, quid volui misero mihi ! Floribus Austrum, 
 Perditus, et liquidis immisi fontibus apros. 
 Quern fugis, ah demens ? Habitarunt di quoque sylvas, 60 
 Dardaniusque Paris. Pallas, quas condidit, arces 
 
virgil's bucolics. li 
 
 " With me to pierce the stag, and to the mead 
 
 " Drive the young kids, my tender flock, to feed. 
 
 M Here we, in song conjoin'd, with Pan will vie : 35 
 
 " Pan, who first taught the art with waxen tie 
 
 " To bind the reeds unequal ; Pan, whose arm 
 
 " Protects the shepherd and the sheep from harm. 
 
 " Nor with the reed to wear thy lip disdain : 
 
 " This skill how long'd Amyntas to attain ! 40 
 
 " Mine is a pipe of sevenfold tube combined, 
 
 " Which old Damoetas to my hand consign*d : 
 
 ** * It's second master thou,' he dying said — 
 
 " He said ; and weak Amyntas droop'd the head. 
 
 " And mine two kids, their hides still dappled round 45 
 
 " (As late I roved, in no safe valley found) 
 
 " Which daily of two ewes the udders drain ; 
 
 " These I for thee preserve — alas ! in vain : 
 
 " These oft has Thestylis implored of me ; 
 
 — " And let her take them, since despised by thee ! 50 
 
 " O come ! The Nymphs for thee in baskets bring 
 iC Their lilied stores : for thee the blooming spring 
 " The white-arm'd Naiad rifles ; violets pale, 
 *' The poppy's flush, and dill which scents the gale, 
 " Cassia, and hyacinth, and daffodil 55 
 
 " With yellow marigold the chaplet fill. 
 " The downy apricot be mine to bear, 
 " And chesnuts once to Amaryllis dear : 
 ■ Nor shall the bloomy plum unhonour'd pine ; ""j 
 " And ye, proud bays, shall with the myrtle twine : >60 
 " For, blended so, ye breathe an odour all divine. J 
 
 " Ah ! clownish Corydon, thy gifts he'll none : 
 " Nor would Iblas be in gifts outdone — 
 " Wretch that I am \ that name — not south winds more 
 u Can vex my flowers, my streams the wallowing boar! 65 
 " Whom shunn'st thou, inconsiderate boy ? The Gods, 
 " And Dardan Paris, whilom dwelt in woods. 
 
12 
 
 Ipsa colat : nobis placeant ante omnia sylvae. 
 
 Torva leeena lupum sequitur ; lupus ipse capellam ; 
 
 Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella ; 
 
 Te Corydon, 6 Alexi : trahit sua quemque voluptas. 65 
 
 Adspice, aratra jugo referunt suspensa juvenci, 
 
 Et sol crescentes decedens duplicat umbras : 
 
 Me tamen urit amor ; quis enim modus adsit amori ? 
 
 Ah Corydon, Corydon, quae te dementia cepit ! 
 Semiputata tibi frondosa vitis in ulmo est. 70 
 
 Quin tu aliquid saltern potius, quorum indiget usus, 
 Viminibus mollique paras detexere junco/ 
 Invenies alium, si te hie fastidit, Alexin." 
 
 III. PALjEMON. 
 
 Men. Die mihi, Damoeta, cujum pecus ? an Meliboei ? 
 
 Dam. Non; verumiEgonis: nupermihitradiditiEgon. 
 
 Men. Infelix 6 semper, oves, pecus ! Ipse Neaeram 
 Dum fovet, ac ne me sibi praeferat ilia veretur, 
 Hie alienus oves custos bis mulget in hora ; 5 
 
 Et succus pecori et lac subducitur agnis. 
 
 Dam. Parciiis ista viris tamen objicienda memento : 
 Novimus et qui te, transversa tuentibus hircis, 
 Et quo, sed faciles Nymphse risere, sacello. 
 
 Men. Turn, credo, quum me arbustum videre Miconis, 
 Atque mala vites incidere falce novellas. 1 1 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. IS 
 
 € * Let Pallas love- the towers, 'twas hers to rear : 
 
 " To us the woodlands be for ever dear ! 
 
 " The lioness pursues the wolf, her prey ; 70 
 
 " The wolf the kid, the kid the trefoil's spray, 
 
 " And Corydon Alexis : bound by laws 
 
 " Peculiar, each his special pleasure draws. 
 
 " And see, their yokes upon their shoulders hung, 
 " Homeward the weary bullocks plod along : 75 
 
 " The sun, cool setting, whelms in shade the grove; 
 " Yet still I burn — for what can temper love ? 
 
 " Ah ! Corydon, what madness fires thy brain ! 
 " Thy vines, half-pruned, on leafy elms remain. 
 " Rather of osiers thou, with happier care, 80 
 
 " Or plaited rushes useful frails prepare; 
 " Nor fear, should still Alexis frown, to find 
 4i Some love, though not so fair, yet far more kind." 
 
 III. PAL^EMON, 
 
 Menalcas. Are these, Damoetas, Melibceus' sheep? 
 
 Darncetas. No, iEgon's ; JEgon gave them me to keep, 
 
 Men. Ah ! ever luckless flock ! While he pursues 
 Neaera's love, and trembles still to lose 
 — Her favour'd suitor I — this varlet swain 
 Dares twice an hour their milky juices drain, [plain. 
 While the wrong'd lambs with hungry bleats coni- 
 
 Dam. These taunts on men be cautious how you throw ! 
 We know, who saw you — in what chapel too — 
 With glance oblique while goats congenial peer'd ; 10 
 But the indulgent Nymphs look'd on, and leer'd. 
 
 Men. Aye, 'twas, I trow, upon that self-same day,^J 
 When arm'd with savage Jmife for fierce affray, S 
 
 I hack'd poor Micon's shrubs and vines away ! J 
 
 • V 
 
 Lin. > 
 ni-J 
 
14 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 Dam. Aut hie ad veteres fagos, quum Daphmdis arcum 
 Fregisti et calamos : quae tu, perverse Menalca, 
 Et quum vidisti puero donata dolebas ; 
 Et, si non aliqua nocuisses, mortuus esses. 15 
 
 Men. Quid domini faciant, audent quum talia fures ! 
 Non ego te vidi Damonis, pessime, caprum 
 Excipere insidiis, multum latrante Lycisca ? 
 Et quum clamarem : " Quo nunc se proripit ille ? 
 " Tityre, coge pecus ;" tu post carecta latebas. 20 
 
 Dam. An mihi cantando victus non redderet ille, 
 Quern mea carminibus meruisset fistula, caprum? 
 Si nescis, meus ille caper fuit : et mihi Damon 
 Ipse fatebatur ; sed reddere posse negabat. 
 
 Men. Cantando tu ilium ? Aut umquam tibi fistula cera 
 Juncta fuit ? Non tu in triviis, indocte, solebas 26 
 
 Stridenti miserum stipula disperdere carmen ? 
 
 Dam. Vis ergo inter nos, quid possit uterque, vicissim 
 Experiamur ? Ego hanc vitulam (ne forte recuses, 
 Bis venit ad mulctram, binos alit ubere foetus) 30 
 
 Depono : tu die, mecum quo pignore certes. 
 
 Men. De grege non ausim quidquam deponere tecum : 
 Est mihi namque domi pater, est injusta noverca ; 
 Bisque die numerant ambo pecus, alter et hsedos. 
 Verum, id quod multo tute ipse fatebere majus, 35 
 
 (Insanire libet quoniam tibi) pocula ponam 
 Fagina, cselatum divini opus Alcimedontis : 
 Lenta quibus torno facili superaddita vitis 
 Diffusos edera vestit pallente corymbos. 
 In medio duo signa ; Conon, et — quis fuit alter, 40 
 
 Descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem ; 
 Tempora quae messor, quae curvus arator haberet ? 
 Necdum illis labra admovi, sed condita servo. 
 
virgil's bucolics. 15 
 
 Dam. Or when by these old beeches, envy-rapt, 15 
 The bow of Daphnis and his shafts you snapt ! 
 These, when presented to the blooming boy, 
 You mark'd, Menalcas, with malignant eye ; 
 And. had you not found means to vent your spite, 
 In very passion you had burst outright. 20 
 
 Men. Slaves thus audacious, what will masters dare ? 
 Did I not see you, rascal as you are, 
 While loud Lycisca bark'd, steal Damon's goat ? 
 And when I cried, " You hurrying skulker note ; 
 " Tityrus, collect your stragglers :" in the hedge 25 
 
 You sneak'd, conceal'd behind the rustling sedge. 
 
 Dam. And should not he, in minstrelsy outdone, 
 Resign the goat my sweeter pipe had won ? 
 Haply, you know not that the goat was mine : 
 This Damon own'd ; yet could he not resign. SO 
 
 Men. Your 'sweeter pipe !' Thepipe you call so e sweet/ 
 Was it with wax e'er fasten'd ? In the street 
 Did you not, blockhead, to the rabble train 
 Through grating straws squeak out your wretched strain? 
 Dam. And dare you, then, a match in singing make? 35 
 This heifer on my fi wretched strain ' I stake : 
 Two calves she nurses, twice is milk'd each day — 
 What will you bet of equal value ? Say. 
 
 Men. No wager dare I offer from my fold ; 
 For, twice a day, both sheep and kids are told 40 
 
 By my strict sire and stepmother severe : 
 But what yourself must own a stake more dear, 
 Since on this madman's match your heart is set, 
 Two beechen cups (Alcimedon's) I'll bet; 
 Carved round whose rims flows gracefully a vine, 45 
 With leaves that mixt 'mid clustering ivy twine. 
 Conon their sides adorns, and — who was he, 
 That with his circling line traced earth and sea, 
 And for the scythe and plough assign'd their days ? 
 Pure have I kept them from the lip, and gaze. 50 
 
16 VlfcGlL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 Dam. Et nobis idem Alcimedon duo pocula fecit, 
 Et molli circum est ansas amplexus acantho ; 45 
 
 Orpheaque in medio posuit, sylvasque sequentes. 
 Necdum illis labra admovi, sed condita servo. 
 Si ad vitulam spectas, nihil est quod pocula laudes. 
 
 Men. Numquam hodie effugies ; veniam, quocumque 
 vocaris. 
 Audiat haec tantum, vel qui venit, ecce, Palaemon. 50 
 Efficiam posthac, ne quemquam voce lacessas. 
 
 Dam. Quin age, si quid habes, in me mora non erit 
 ulla; 
 Nee quemquam fugio : tantum, vicine Palaemon, 
 Sensibus haec imis, res est non parva, reponas. 
 
 Palcemon. Dicite : quandoquidem in molli consedimus 
 herba ; 55 
 
 Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos ; 
 Nunc frondent sylvae ; nunc formosissimus annus. 
 Incipe, Damceta ; tu deinde sequere, Menalca. 
 Alternis dicetis ; amant alterna Camcenae* 
 
 Dam. Ab Jove principium, Musae : Jovis omnia plena. 
 Ille colit terras ; illi mea carmina curae. 61 
 
 Men, Et me Phcebus amat; Phcebo sua semper apud me 
 Munera sunt, lauri et suave rubens hyacinthus. 
 
 Dam. Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella ,* 
 Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri. 65 
 
 Men. At mihi sese ofiert ultro, meus ignis, Amyntas ; 
 Notior ut jam sit canibus non Delia nostris. 
 
 Dam. Parta meae Veneri sunt munera ; namque notavi 
 Ipse locum, aeriae quo congessere palumbes. 
 
 Men. Quod potui, puero sylvestri ex arbore lecta 70 
 Aurea mala decern misi ; eras altera mittam. 
 
 Dam. O quoties et quas nobis Galatea locuta est ! 
 Partem aliquam, venti, divum referatis ad aures. 
 
VIRGIl/s BUCOLICS. 17 
 
 • Dam. Two cups for me, too, scoop'dthat handrenown'd, 
 And with acanthus wreathed their handles round : 
 Orpheus upon the side his skill portray'd, 
 And ductile forests following as he play'd. 
 Pure have I kept them from the lip, and gaze ; 55 
 
 But, with the heifer match'd, they claim no praise. 
 
 Men. Not so your challenge shall you fly to-day; 
 I close with it : who passes, judge our lay ! 
 — And lo, Palaemon ! — I will teach your tongue, 
 Henceforth less license, friend, to dare in song. 60 
 
 Dam. Come on then, if of music aught be thine : 
 I nor the challenge, nor the judge, decline. 
 Your best attention, good Palaemon, pay 
 (The stake's no trifle) to our rival lay. 
 
 Palcemon. Begin : since here the turf supplies our seat, 
 And the soft mead strews flowers beneath our feet ; 66 
 And forest-glades their greenest livery wear, 
 And nature's freshest beauties deck the year. 
 You first, Damcetas ; then, Menalcas, prove 
 Your skill : alternate strains the Muses love. 70 
 
 Dam. c From Jove my song begins: through all he reigns; 
 
 * Sways the wide earth, nor even my verse disdains.' 
 
 Men. c To Phoebus I am dear ; and all he loves, 
 6 The bay and hyacinth, adorn my groves.' 
 
 Dam. e Me Galatea pelts with apples green ; 75 
 
 * Then flies, but hopes she does not fly unseen.' 
 
 Men. c To me my flame has ever joyous flown ; 
 
 * Not to my dogs my Dian better known.' 
 
 Dam. c Gifts, to my Venus welcome, I have got ; 
 ' The stock-dove's nest — I mark'd the secret spot.' 80 
 
 Men. ' To mine ten quinces I — 'twas all my store— 
 8 Have sent : and will to morrow send ten more.' 
 
 Dam. i How oft has Galatea charm'd my ear ! 
 6 Winds, waft her words to heaven, that Gods may hear.' 
 
 c 
 
IB virgil's bucolics. 
 
 Men. Quid prodest, quod me ipse animo non spernis, 
 Amynta ; 
 Si, dum tu sectaris apros, ego retia servo ? 75 
 
 Dam. Phyllida mitte mihi ; meus est natalis, Iola ; 
 Cum faciam vitula pro frugibus, ipse venito. 
 
 Men. Phyllida amo ante alias ; nam me discedere flevit, 
 Et, " Longum, formose, vale, vale," inquit, Iola. 
 
 Dam. Triste lupus stabulis, maturis frugibus imbres, 80 
 Arboribus venti, nobis Amaryllidis irae. 
 
 Men. Dulce satis humor, depulsis arbutus hasdis, 
 Lenta salix fceto pecori, mihi solus Amyntas. 
 
 Dam. Pollioamatnostram, quamvis est rustica, Musam : 
 Pierides, vitulam lectori pascite vestro. 85 
 
 Men. Pollio et ipse facit nova carmina : pascite taurum, 
 Jam cornu petat, et pedibus qui spargat arenam. 
 
 Dam. Qui te, Pollio, amat, veniat, quo te quoquegaudet: 
 Mella fluant illi, ferat et rubus asper amomum. 
 
 Men. Qui Bavium non odit, amet tua carmina, Maevi ; 
 Atque idem jungat vulpes et mulgeat hircos. 91 
 
 Dam. Qui legitis flores et humi nascentia fraga, 
 Frigidus — 6 pueri, fugite hinc — latet anguis in herba. 
 
 Men. Parcite, oves, nimium procedere : non bene ripae 
 Creditur: ipse aries etiam nunc veil era siccat. 95 
 
 Dam. Tityre, pascentes a flumine reice capellas : 
 Ipse, ubi tempus erit, omnes in fonte lavabo. 
 
 Men. Cogite oves, pueri ; si lac praeceperit aestus, 95 
 Ut nuper, frustra pressabimus ubera palmis. 
 
 Dam. Heu, heu, quam pingui macer est mihi taurus in 
 ervo ! 
 Idem amor exitium pecori pecorisque magistro. 
 
 Men. His certe neque amor causa est: vix ossibus 
 haerent. 
 Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos. 
 
 Dam. Die, quibus in terris, et eris mihi magnus Apollo, 
 Tres pateat cceli spatium non amplius ulnas. 105 
 
virgil's bucolics, 19 
 
 Men. c Nought it avails me, that Amyntas smiles ; 85 
 
 * If, while he hunts, I still must watch the toils.' 
 
 Dam. 6 Iolas, 'tis my birth-day ; Phyllis send : 
 4 When bleeds my harvest-calf, yourself attend/ 
 
 Men. 4 Phyllis I love : for grieved when I withdrew, 
 4 " Adieu," she wept and cried, " a long adieu !"' 90 
 Darn. ' Wolves hurt the flocks, and showers the 
 ripen'd corn, 
 4 And storms the woods ; and me my fair one's scorn.' 
 Men. 4 Young grain likes moisture ; kids the budding 
 grove ; 
 
 * Lithe osiers teeming cows ; I but Amyntas love.' 
 
 Dam. i Rude though it be, kind Pollio bears my reed : 
 
 * A heifer, Muses, for your votary feed.' 96 
 
 Men. ' Pollio, himself a bard, a bull demands, 
 4 Who threatens with his horns and spurns the sands.' 
 
 Dam. * Who loves thee, Pollio, may he be as thou : 
 4 For him drop honey, spice on brambles grow !' 100 
 
 Men. 4 Love Maevius he who, Bavius, hates thee not ; 
 
 * And yoke the fox, and milk the rank he-goat ! ' 
 
 Dam. 4 Hence, boys, who gather berries in the brake, 
 4 And woodland flowers ! There lurks the chilly snake." 
 
 Men. 4 Ewes, tread with caution near that treacherous 
 pool: 105 
 
 4 See, where the ram still dripping dries his wool ! ' 
 
 Dam. ■ Tityrus, your goats restrain from that deep wave: 
 € Them will I soon in shallower waters lave.' 
 
 Men. 4 Boys, fold your flocks : if heat the ewes distress, 
 ' In vain, as late, our hands their teats shall press.' 110 
 
 Dam. i How lean that bull o'er clover-pastures strays ! 
 ' Love on the herd, as on the master, preys.' [seem, 
 
 Men. * Love has not struck my lambs ; yet worse they 
 4 Scath'd by some unknown eye's malignant beam ! ' 
 
 Dam . * Say, in what lands — and be my Phoebus crown'd — 
 4 By three short ells yon spacious heavens are bound,' 
 
 c V 
 
20 virgil's bucolics* 
 
 Men, I)ic, quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum. 
 Nascantur flores ; et Phyllida solus habeto. 
 
 Pal. Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites : 
 Et vitula tu dignus, et hie, et quisquis amores 
 Aut metuet dulces, aut experietur amaros. 1 10 
 
 Claudite jam rivos, pueri : sat prata biberunt. 
 
 IV. POLLIO. 
 
 Sicelides Musae, paullo majora canamus ; 
 Non omnes arbusta juvant humilesque myricae. 
 Si canimus sylvas, sylvae sint Consule dignae. 
 Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas : 
 1 Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo ; 5 
 
 Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna : 
 Jam nova progenies ccelo demittitur alto. 
 Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum 
 Desinet, ac toto surget gens aurea mundo, 
 Casta fave Lucina : tuus jam regnat Apollo. 10 
 
 Teque adeo decus hoc aevi, te Consule, inibit, 
 Pollio ; et incipient magni procedere menses. 
 Te duce, si qua manent, sceleris vestigia nostri 
 Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras. 
 Die deum vitam accipiet, divisque videbit 1 5 
 
 Permixtos heroas, et ipse videbitur illis, 
 Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem. 
 
VIRGIL'S BUCOLICS. 21 
 
 Men. ' Say, in what lands those wondrous flowers are 
 
 grown, [own.* 
 
 Which bear the names of kings — and Phyllis be thine 
 
 Pal. Not mine your tuneful struggle to decide : 
 Ye both deserve the prize, for which ye've vied ; 120 
 
 [And whoso or shall dread love's sweet control, 
 Or feel his shaft deep rankling in the soul]. 
 — Close, boys, the streams : enough has flow'd to feed 
 The swelling green, and saturate the mead. 12* 
 
 IV. POLLIO. 
 
 Muses of Sicily, a loftier strain 
 Be ours : the lowly offspring of the plain, 
 Shrubs and the humble tamarisk, please not all ; 
 Worthy of consuls be our woodland pastoral ! 
 
 Comes the last age, by Cumae's maid foretold : 5 
 
 ( Afresh the mighty line of years unrolPd, 
 
 * The Virgin now, now Saturn's sway returns ; 
 
 * Now the blest globe a heaven-sprung Child adorns ; 
 ' Whose genial power shall whelm earth's iron race, 
 
 6 And plant once more the golden in it's place — 10 
 
 ' Thou, chaste Lucina, but that child sustain : 
 6 And, lo ! disclosed thine own Apollo's reign ! 
 ' This glory, Pollio, in thy year begun, 
 
 * Thence the great months their radiant course shall run ; 
 ' And, of our crimes should still some trace appear, 15 
 c Shall rid the trembling earth of all her fear. 
 
 * His shall it be a life divine to hold, 
 
 ' With heroes mingled and 'mid gods enroll'd ; 
 
 6 And, form'd by patrimonial worth for sway, 
 
 ' Him shall the tranquil universe obey. 20 
 
22 virchi/s BUCOLICS. 
 
 At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu, 
 
 Errantes ederas passim cum baccare tellus, 
 
 Mixtaque ridenti colocasia fiindet acantho. 20 
 
 Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae 
 
 Ubera ; nee magnos metuent armenta leones. 
 
 Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cmiabula flores : 
 
 Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni 
 
 Occidet; Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum. 25 
 
 At, simul heroiim laudes et facta parentis 
 
 Jam legere, et quae sit poteris cognoscere virtus : 
 
 Molli paullatim flavescet campus arista, 
 
 Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva ; 
 
 Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella. 30 
 
 Pauca tamen suberunt priscae vestigia fraudis, 
 
 Quae tentare Thetim ratibus, quae cingere muris 
 
 Oppida, quae jubeant telluri infindere sulcos. 
 
 Alter erit turn Tiphys, et altera quae vehat Argo 
 
 Delectos heroas : erunt etiam altera bella ; 35 
 
 Atque iterum ad Trojam magnus mittetur Achilles. 
 
 Hinc, ubi jam firmata virum te fecerit aetas, 
 
 Cedet et ipse mari vector ; nee nautica pinus 
 
 Mutabit merces : omnis feret omnia tellus. 
 
 Non rastros patietur humus, non vinea falcem ; 40 
 
 Robustus quoque jam tauris juga solvet arator. 
 
 Nee varios discet mentiri lana colores : 
 
 Ipse sed in pratis aries jam suave rubenti 
 
 Murice, jam croceo mutabit vellera luto ; 
 
 Sponte sua sandyx pascentes vestiet agnos. 45 
 
 " Talia saecla," suis dixerunt, " currite," fusis 
 
 Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae. 
 
} 
 
 } 
 
 virgil's bucolics. 2S 
 
 * Gladly to thee it's earliest gifts the field, 
 Till'd by no human hand, bright Boy, shall yield ; 
 The baccar's stem with curling ivy twine, 
 And colocasia and acanthus join. 
 Home their full udders goats, unurged, shall bear ; 25 
 Nor shall the herd the lordly Lion fear : 
 Flowers of all hues shall round thy cradle vie, 
 The snake and poison's treacherous weed shall die, 
 And far Assyria's spice shall every hedge supply. 
 
 ' But soon as thou thy father's acts can'st read 30 
 
 And heroes' toils, and rate each deathless deed; 
 "With soften'd harvests every plain shall glow, 
 On the wild brier the grape's rich cluster grow, 
 And gnarled oaks with dripping honey flow. 
 — i Yet of old guilt shall still survive some stain : 35 
 Still the bold ship shall tempt the boisterous main ; 
 Cities with walls shall still repel the foe, 
 And earth's torn breast be furrow'd with the plough. 
 Some Tiphys other chiefs again shall guide, 
 And other Argoes bear them o'er the tide : 40 
 
 Fresh wars shall rise ; and, eager to destroy, 
 A new Achilles shall be sent to Troy. 
 
 c When now to vigorous manhood thou art come, 
 O'er seas no more the labouring keel shall roam ; 
 No more to distant realms shall Traffic hie : 45 
 
 Each land each produce shall, itself, supply. 
 O'er the vex'd tillage shall no harrow sound, 
 No pruner's hook the vine luxuriant wound : 
 The sturdy ploughman shall unyoke his steer, 
 The wool no counterfeited stain shall bear ; 50 
 
 But tinctured from the mead he crops, the ram 
 Shall flush with purple, or in saffron flame, 
 While native crimson tints the frolic lamb. 
 " Flow, happy ages," to their distaffs cried 
 Th' harmonious Fates ; " and pour your golden tide." 
 
 ) 
 
24 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 Adgredere 6 magnos, aderit jam tempus^ honores, 
 Cara deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum ! 
 Adspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum, 50 
 
 Terrasque, tractusque maris, ccelumque profundum ; 
 Adspice, venturo laetantur ut omnia saeclo. 
 O mihi tarn longae maneat pars ultima vita?, 
 Spiritus et, quantum sat erit tua dicere facta ! 
 Non me carminibus vincet nee Thracius Orpheus, 55 
 Nee Linus, huic mater quamvis : atque huic pater adsit ; 
 Orphei Calliopea, Lino formosus Apollo. 
 Pan etiam Arcadia mecum si judice certet, 
 Pan etiam Arcadia dicat se judice victum. 
 
 Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem : 60 
 
 Matri longa decern tulerunt fastidia menses. 
 Incipe, parve puer : cui non risere parentes, 
 Nee deus hunc mensa, dea nee dignata cubili est. 
 
 V. DAPHNIS, 
 
 Men. Cur non, Mopse, boni quoniam convenimus ambo, 
 Tu calamos inflare leves, ego dicere versus, 
 Hie corulis mixtas inter considimus ulmos ? 
 
 Mops. Tu major; tibi me est sequum parere, Menalca : 
 Sive sub incertas Zephyris mutantibus umbras, 5 
 
 Sive antro potius succedimus. Adspice, ut antrum 
 Sylvestris raris sparsit labrusca racemis. 
 
 Men. Montibus in nostris solus tibi certet Amyntas. 
 
 Mops. Quid, si idem certet Phcebum superare canendo? 
 
virgil's bucolics. 25 
 
 ' Those honours Thou — 'tis now the time — approve, 56 
 
 * Child of the skies, great progeny of Jove ! 
 6 Beneath the solid orb's vast convex bent, 
 
 4 See on the coming year the world intent : 
 
 ' See earth and sea and highest heaven rejoice ; 60 
 
 1 All but articulate their grateful voice. 
 
 6 O reach so far my long life's closing strain, 
 ' My breath so long to hymn thy deeds remain ! 
 ( Orpheus, nor Linus, should my verse excel ; 
 6 Though even Calliope her Orpheus' shell 65 
 
 * Should string, and (anxious for the son the sire) 
 4 His Linus' numbers Phoebus should inspire ! 
 
 * Should Pan himself before his Arcady 
 
 6 Contend, he'd own his song surpass'd by me. 
 
 6 Know then, dear Boy, thy mother by her smile : 70 
 
 * Enough ten months have given of pain and toil. 
 
 ' Dear Boy, begin — who ne'er such smile has known, 
 
 * Nor board nor bed divine 'tis his to own.' 
 
 V. DAPHNIS, 
 
 Menalcas. And, why not, Mopsus, since we're met to 
 day— 
 You skill'd to pipe, and I to trill the lay — 
 Here seat us, where the elm and hazel blend 
 Their quivering boughs ? 
 
 Mopsus. The elder you, my friend, 
 Just what you please prescribe, and I obey : 5 
 
 Whether, where Zephyrs 'mid the branches play, 
 We court the checquer'd shade; or choose yon cave, 
 Where gadding free the wild-vine's tendrils wave. 
 
 Men. None but Amyntas on our hills may try ^J 
 To match your art in sylvan minstrelsy : — >10 
 
 Mops. And he would strive e'en Phoebus to outvie. J 
 
26 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 Men. Incipe, Mopse, prior; si quos aut Phyllidis ignes, 
 Aut Alconis habes laudes, aut jurgia Codri: 11 
 
 Incipe ; pascentes servabit Tityrus haedos. 
 
 Mops. Imm6 haec, in viridi nuper quae cortice fagi 
 Carmina descripsi, et modulans alterna notavi, 
 Experiar; tu deinde jubeto certet Amyntas. 15 
 
 Men. Lenta salix quantum pallenti cedit olivae, 
 Puniceis humilis quantum saliunca rosetis : 
 Judicio nostro tantum tibi cedit Amyntas — 
 
 Mops. Sed tu desine plura, puer ; successimus antro. 
 
 ' Exstinctum Nymphae crudeli funere Daphnin 20 
 Flebant : vos coruli testes et flumina Nymphis : 
 Quum, complexa sui corpus miserabile gnati, 
 Atque deos atque astra vocat crudelia mater. 
 Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus 
 
 Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina ; nulla neque amnent 
 Libavit quadrupes, nee graminis adtigit herbam. 26 
 
 Daphni, tuum Pcenos etiam ingemuisse leones 
 Interitum, montesque feri sylvaeque loquuntur. 
 Daphnis et Armenias curru subjungere tigres 
 Instituit, Daphnis thiasos inducere Bacchi, 30 
 
 Et foliis lentas intexere mollibus hastas. 
 
 * Vitis ut arboribus decori est, ut vitibus uvae, 
 Ut gregibus tauri, segetes ut pinguibus arvis ; 
 Tu decus omne tuis : postquam te fata tulerunt, 
 Ipsa Pales agros atque ipse reliquit Apollo. 35 
 
 Grandia saepe quibus mandavimus hordea sulcis, 
 Infelix lolium et steriles nascuntur avenae. 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 27 
 
 Men. Begin then, Mopsus ; if or love's fierce flame 
 By beauteous Phyllis felt, or Alcon's fame, 
 Or Codrus' tuneful strife inspire your reed — 
 Begin : your kids young Tityrus here will feed. 15 
 
 Mops. Rather those numbers let me now rehearse, 
 Which on the beech's rind in measured verse 
 I carved, and sung alternate as I lay : 
 Then bid Amyntas bear the palm away ! 
 
 Men. Far as the willow olives pale o'erpass, 20 
 
 Or glowing rose-beds dim the spiked grass, 
 So far dost thou Amyntas, in my thought — [sought. 
 
 Mops. Hush, shepherd : see, we've gain'd the grot we 
 
 * The Nymphs their Daphnis wail'd, by fate austere 
 
 * To death consign'd : ye hazels, witness bear, 25 
 6 And you, ye streamlets ; when, with fond embrace 
 
 * Clasping the darling corse, in wild amaze 
 
 8 The frantic mother pour'd her piteous moan, 
 
 6 And charged on Gods and stars her ravish'd son. 
 
 6 That day, no shepherd drove his flock to drink 30 
 
 * The cooling wave ; upon the river's brink 
 
 4 No steed or sipp'd the flood, or cropp'd the green : 
 ' Even Lybian lions, melting at the scene 
 
 * (As the wild hills, and savage woodlands tell) 
 
 * Wept o'er thy doom, and howl'd their sad farewell. 35 
 6 First Daphnis o'er th' Armenian tiger's mane 
 
 * Strapp'd the strong harness ; first the Bacchant train 
 
 * To lead their orgies to the God injoin'd, 
 
 1 And the slight thyrsus with soft foliage twined. 
 
 8 As vines of trees, and grapes of vines the pride, 40 
 
 * And bulls of herds, and corn of champaign wide, 
 
 * So thou of thine : now nought of thee remains — 
 ' Pales and Phoebus both have fled the plains. 
 
 * Where to the furrow bulky grain we gave, 
 
 * Tares and the barren wild-oat idly wave ; 4S 
 
28 
 
 Pro molli viola, pro purpureo narcisso, 
 
 Carduus et spinis surgit paliurus acutis. 
 
 Spargite humum foliis ; inducite fontibus umbras, 40 
 
 Pastores : mandat fieri sibi talia Daphnis ; 
 
 Et tumulum facite, et tumulo superadd ite carmen : 
 
 " Daphnis ego in sylvis, hinc usque ad sidera notus, 
 
 " Formosi pecoris custos, formosior ipse." ' 
 
 Men. Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta, 45 
 
 Quale sopor fessis in gramine ; quale per aestum 
 Dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo. 
 Nee calamis solum sequiparas, sed voce, magistrum : 
 Fortunate puer, tu nunc eris alter ab illo. 
 Nos tamen haec quocumque modo tibi nostra vicissim 50 
 Dicemus, Daphninque tuum tollemus ad astra ; 
 Daphnin ad astra feremus : amavit nos quoque Daphnis. 
 
 Mops. An quidquam nobis tali sit munere majus ? 
 Et puer ipse fuit cantari dignus ; et ista 
 Jam pridem Stimicon laudavit carmina nobis. 55 
 
 Men. * Candidus insuetum miratur limen Olympi, 
 Sub pedibusque videt nubes et sidera Daphnis. 
 Ergo alacris sylvas et camera rura voluptas 
 Panaque, pastoresque tenet, Dryadasque puellas. 
 Nee lupus insidias pecori, nee retia cervis 60 
 
 Ulla dolum meditantur : amat bonus otia Daphnis. 
 Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant 
 Intonsi montes ; ipsae jam carmina rapes. 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 29 
 
 * And, for the daffodil and violet's bloom, 
 'Thistles and briers in rank luxuriance gloom. 
 
 ' Scatter the ground with leaves ; around each spring 
 
 ' Let rising groves their sacred freshness fling 
 
 — fi So Daphnis gives command — and rear his tomb ; 50 
 
 * And grave this verse, memorial of his doom : 
 
 c a p r id e f the woods, I Daphnis here am laid : 
 ' " Fair was my flock ; but fairer I, who fed." ' 
 
 Men, Sweet to the ear, blest bard, thy tuneful reed, 
 As sleep to wearied shepherds on the mead : 55 
 
 As to the traveller, parch 'd with noontide heat, 
 The crystal rill soft purling at his feet. 
 Nor with your reed alone your master's fame ^ 
 
 You emulate ; like praise your voice may claim : \ 
 Blest boy ! henceforth ordain'd to second such a name. J 60 
 Yet shall my simple strain, in turn, arise — 
 That strain alas ! how mean ! — and to the skies 
 Exalt your Daphnis, to the skies above : 
 For me, too, Daphnis honour'd with his love. 
 
 Mops. What boon more grateful can my song repay ? 
 Worthy was Daphnis of thy happiest lay ; 66 
 
 And oft, that lay how ravishingly sweet, 
 Has Stimicon delighted to repeat. 
 
 Men. « Surprised, bright Daphnis hails the heavenly 
 world, 
 « And views the clouds and stars beneath him whirl'd. 70 
 
 * Hence Rapture, bounding 'mid the groves and plains, 
 6 O'er Pan, the shepherds, and the Dryads reigns ! 
 
 1 No more the wolf prowls nightly round the fold ; 
 
 * The careless stag no wily meshes hold. 
 
 « Peace, peace mild Daphnis loves : with joyous cry 75 
 6 The wood-clad mountains strike the echoing sky ; 
 
30 
 
 Ipsa sonant arbusta : " Deus, deus ille," Menalca ! 
 
 6 Sis bonus 6 felixque tuis ! en quatuor aras ; 63 
 
 Ecce duas tibi, Daphni, duas altaria Phoebo : 
 Pocula bina novo spumantia lacte quotannis, 
 Craterasque duo statuam tibi pinguis olivi ; 
 Et 3 multo in primis hilarans convivia Baccho 
 (Ante focum, si frigus erit, si messis, in umbra) 70 
 
 Vina novum fundam calathis Ariusia nectar. 
 Cantabunt mihi Damoetas et Lyctius iEgon ; 
 Saltantes Satyros imitabitur Alphesiboeus. 
 Haec tibi semper erunt, et quum sollennia vota 
 Reddemus Nymphis, et quum lustrabimus agros. 75 
 Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit, 
 Dumque thymo pascentur apes, dum rore cicadae ; 
 Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt; 
 Ut Baccho Cererique, tibi sic vota quotannis 
 Agricolae facient : damnabis tu quoque votis.' 80 
 
 Mops. Quae tibi, quae tali reddam pro carmine dona ? 
 Nam neque me tantum venientis sibilus Austri, 
 Nee percussa juvant fluctu tarn litora, nee quae 
 Saxosas inter decurrunt flumina valles. 
 
 Men. Hac te nos fragili donabimus ante cicuta. 83 
 Haec nos, ' Formosum Corydon ardebat Alexin ; ' 
 Haec eadem docuit, * Cujum pecus? an Melibcei?' 
 
 Mops. At tu sume pedum, quod, me quum saepe rogaret, 
 Non tulit Antigenes (et erat turn dignus amari) 
 Formosum paribus nodis atque aere, Menalca. 90 
 
virgil's bucolics. 3i 
 
 * And rocks and towers the triumph speed abroad — 
 
 * " A God," Menalcas, " Daphnis is a God." 
 
 ' O shine serene ! Four altars, lo ! we raise ; 
 
 * And two to Phoebus, two to thee shall blaze. 80 
 
 * Yearly two bowls of milk shall bathe thy shrine, 
 
 * And two rich goblets crown'd with oil be thine : 
 f And cheerful shall thy feast with wine be made, 
 ' By winter's fire or in the summer's shade ; 
 
 ' For my full flask it's Ariusian store, 85 
 
 8 New nectar worthy of the day, shall pour. 
 ' The hymn shall iEgon and Damoetas sound, 
 4 While light Alphesiboeus frisks around. 
 
 * Such, when our offerings to the Nymphs we bear, "} 
 
 * Or with wreathed victims to the fields repair, >90 
 
 * Such honours shall thy shrine, blest Daphnis, wear. J 
 4 While boars the hills, the streams while fishes love, 
 6 And Hybla's thyme to bees shall grateful prove, 
 
 ' Or dew to the Cicada's thirsty taste ; 
 
 * So long thy rites, thy name, thy praise shall last. 95 
 
 * Yearly to thee his vows the hind shall pay : 
 
 * Not more his prayer shall Bacchus, Ceres sway ; 
 
 * Thou arbiter of vows, as well as they.' 
 
 I 
 
 Mops. A strain so soft what recompence shall greet ? 
 For to my ear the whispering breeze less sweet, 100 
 
 And waves low rippling as they kiss the shore, 
 And brooks their pebbled channels gurgling o'er. 
 
 Men. First thou from me this reed, a gift, approve : 
 With this I sung " Young Corydon's" sad love ; 
 This breathed of " iEgon's sheep" the playful strain. 105 
 
 Mops. And thou, what oft Antigenes in vain 
 Solicited, but I refused to give 
 (Fair though he was) this jointed crook receive : 
 With polish'd brass it's knobs all equal shine ; 
 *Ti§ elegantly wrought, and it is thine. 110 
 
32 » 
 
 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 VI. SILENUS. 
 
 Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere versu 
 Nostra, nee erubuit sylvas habitare, Thalia. 
 Quum canerem reges et prcelia, Cynthius aurem 
 Vellit, et admonuit : " Pastorem, Tityre, pingues 
 Pascere oportet oves, deductum dicere carmen." 5 
 
 Nunc ego (namque super tibi erunt, qui dicere laudes, 
 Vare, tuas cupiant, et tristia condere bella) 
 Agrestem tenui meditabor arundine Musam. 
 Non injussa cano. Si quis tamen haec quoque, si quis 
 Captus amore leget; te nostras, Vare, myricae, 10 
 
 Te nemus omne canet : nee Phoebo gratior ulla est, 
 Quam sibi quae Vari praescripsit pagina nomen. 
 
 Pergite, Pierides. Chromis et Mnasylos in antro 
 Silenum pueri somno videre jacentem, 
 Inflatum hesterno venas, ut semper, Jaccho ; 15 
 
 Serta procul tantum capiti delapsa jacebant ; 
 Et gravis adtrita pendebat cantharus ansa. 
 Adgressi (nam saepe senex spe carminis ambo 
 Luserat) injiciunt ipsis ex vincula sertis. 
 Addit se sociam, timidisque supervenit, Mgle ; 20 
 
 iEgle, Nai'adum pulcherrima : jamque videnti 
 Sanguineis frontem moris et tempora pingit. 
 Iile dolum ridens, " Quo vincula nectitis?" inquit. 
 6i Solvite me, pueri : satis est potuisse videri. 
 " Carmina, quaa vultis, cognoscite ; carmina vobis, 25 
 " Huic aliud mercedis erit :" simul incipit ipse. 
 Turn vero in numerum Faunosque ferasque videres 
 
virgil's bucolics. 33 
 
 VI. SILENUS. 
 
 First breathed my Muse the Syracusan strain, 
 Nor blush'd to dwell amidst the woodland train. 
 When, rashly bold, I struck the lyre to kings, 
 And war's achievements flutter'd o'er my strings, 
 With friendly caution Phoebus touch'd my ear ; 5 
 
 " Tityrus, to shepherds still their flocks be dear : 
 " Still shrink the rural bard from lofty themes : 
 " His modest pipe a lowlier lay beseems." 
 Still, then, that lay be mine ! There yet will be, 
 Varus, enow to sing of war and thee. 10 
 
 Nor flows my verse unbidden. Should the Muse, 
 Ah ! should she win some fond eye to peruse ; 
 Thee, Varus, shall our tamarisks give to fame : 
 Phoebus most loves the page, that bears thy name. 
 
 Proceed, sweet Maids. Within a cavern wide 15 
 Silenus Chromis and Mnasylos spied. 
 Heavy with sleep the aged tippler lay, 
 And swoln his veins, as wont, with wine of yesterday : 
 Slipt from his brow, unburst, his wreath was here ; 
 There his huge goblet hung, with well-worn ear. 20 
 
 Oft cheated with the promise of a strain, 
 They seize him ; and his chaplet forms his chain. 
 iEgle, the fairest of the Naiad throng, 
 JEgle the tremblers joins, who press the song; 
 And, as the wondering captive opes his, eyes, 26 
 
 With ruddy mulberries his temples dyes. 
 " Why bind me, boys ?" at last with smiles he cried : 
 " Loose me; suffice a demi-god descried ! 
 " The lay ye ask be yours; the lay to you? 
 " To her another recompence is due/' SO 
 
 He sings ! In measured step you then might see 
 Fauns and fierce beasts frisk to the minstrelsy? 
 
34 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 Ludere, turn rigidas motare cacumina quercus. 
 
 Nee tantam Phcebo gaudet Parnasia rupes : 
 
 Nee tantum Rhodope mirantur et Ismarus Orphea. 30 
 
 Namque canebat, uti magnum per inane coacta 
 
 S< rnina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent, 
 
 Et liquid! simul ignis ; ut his exordia primis 
 
 Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis. 
 
 Turn durare solum, et discludere Nerea ponto 35 
 
 Cceperit, et rerum paullatim sumere formas ; 
 
 Jamque novum terras stupeant lucescere solem, 
 
 Aldus atque cadant submotis nubibus imbres : 
 
 Incipiant sylvae quum primum surgere, quumque 
 
 Rara per ignotos errent animalia montes. 40 
 
 Hinc lapides Pyrrhae jactos, Saturnia regna, 
 
 Caucasiasque refert volucres, furtumque Promethei. 
 
 His adjungit, Ply Ian nautae quo fonte relictum 
 
 Clamassent : ut litus, " Hyla, Hyla," omne sonaret. 
 
 Et fortunatam, si nunquam armenta fuissent, 45 
 
 Pasiphaen nivei solatur amore juvenci — 
 Ah, virgo infelix, quae te dementia cepit ! 
 Prce tides implerunt falsis mugitibus agros : 
 At non tarn turpis pecudum tamen ulla secuta est 
 Concubitus, quamvis collo timuisset aratrum, 50 
 
 Et saepe in laevi quaesisset cornua fronte. 
 Ah, virgo infelix, tu nunc in montibus erras ! 
 Me, latus niveum molli fultus hyacinth o, 
 Ilice sub nigr, pallentes ruminat herbas ; ' [phae, 
 
 Aut aliquam in magnos equitur grege. " Claudite, Nym- 
 Dictaeae Nymphag, nemorum jam claudite saltus : 56 
 Si qua forte ferant oculis sese obvia nostris 
 Errabunda bovis vestigia ; forsitan ilium, 
 Aut herb i captum viridi, aut armenta secutum, 
 Perducant aliquae stabula ad Gortynia vaccae." 60 
 
virgil's bucolics. 35 
 
 And knotted oaks their tops in rapture nod : 
 
 Not with such glee Parnassus hails it's God ; 
 
 Less, when the Muses breathe from Orpheus' shell, 35 
 
 Feel Rhodope and Ismarus the spell ! 
 
 He sung, how from the void immense combined, 
 Their seeds earth, ocean, fire, and aether join'd ; 
 And how, no more in wild disorder hurl'd. 
 Sprang from these elements the nascent world. 40 
 
 It's firmness how the soil, the sea it's bed 
 Received, and gradual vegetation spread : 
 How the new sun o'er wondering lands arose, 
 And buoyant clouds their liquid wealth disclose : 
 How rising woods first cast their little shade, 45 
 
 And few the beasts o'er unknown mountains stray'd : 
 The stones of Pyrrha, Saturn's golden time, 
 Prometheus' penal vulture, and his crime ; 
 And Hylas, whom his messmates loud deplore, 
 Whilst ' Hylas ! Hylas ! ' rings from all the shore. 50 
 
 Happy had herds ne'er been, Pasiphae next 
 He sooths, with love of her white steer perplext : 
 Ah, wretched fair ! what madness fires thy brain ? 
 Though Prcetus' maids with lowings mock'd the plain, 
 None ever coveted such foul embrace ; "i 55 
 
 Oft though they fear'd the plough, and o'er their face > 
 Trembling essay'd the sprouting horn to trace. J 
 Ah, wretched fair ! thy heart in absence pines : 
 He on soft hyacinths his side reclines ; 
 Or in some shade reposed the cud he chews, 60 
 
 Or some congenial paramour pursues — [groves : 
 
 " Close, nymphs of Crete ! ye nymphs, now close the 
 " Some friendly chance, as near my favourite roves, 
 " May give the rambler to my longing view ; 
 " Some emerald pasture, bright with morning dew, 
 " May lure his taste, or as her willing thrall, 66 
 
 " Some Gnossian heifer lead him to her stall." 
 
 d 2 
 
36 virgil's bucolics. 
 
 Turn canit Hesperidum miratara mala puellam: 
 
 Turn Phaethontiadas musco circumdat amarae 
 
 Corticis, atque solo proceras erigit alnos. 
 
 Turn canit, errantem Permessi ad flumina Galium 
 
 Aonas in monies ut duxerit una sororum ; 65 
 
 Utque viro Phcebi chorus adsurrexerit omnis ; 
 
 Ut Linus haec illi divino carmine pastor, 
 
 Floribus atque apio crines ornatus amaro, 
 
 Dixerit : M Hos tibi dant calamos, en adcipe, Musa?, 
 
 Ascraeo quos ante seni : quibus ille solebat 70 
 
 Cantando rigidas deducere montibus ornos. 
 
 His tibi Grynei nemoris dicatur origo : 
 
 Ne quis sit lucus, quo se plus jactet Apollo." 
 
 Quid loquar, ut Scyllam Nisi quam fama secuta est, 
 Candida succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris 75 
 
 Dulichias vexasse rates, et gurgite in alto 
 Ah ! timidos nautas canibus lacerasse marinis ? 
 Aut ut mutatos Terei narraverit artus ; 
 Quas illi Philomela dapes, quae dona pararit, 
 Quo cursu deserta petiverit, et quibus ante 80 
 
 Intelix sua tecta supervolitaverit alis ? 
 
 Omnia, quae, Phcebo quondam meditante, beatus 
 Audiit Eurotas, jussitque ediscere lauros, 
 Ille canit : pulsae referunt ad sidera valles ; 
 Cogere donee oves stabulis, numerumque referre 85 
 
 Jussit, et invito processit Vesper Olympo. 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 37 
 
 And now his verse laments the miser-maid, 
 By lust of the Hesperian fruit betray'd ; 
 And now with mossy bark, to alders grown, 70 
 
 He girdles thy sad sisters, Phaeton. 
 Next Gallus, wandering by Permessus' stream, 
 Supplies the minstrel's desultory theme : 
 Him to th' Aonian mount a Muse convey'd, 
 And all the sisters rose, and reverent homage paid ; 75 
 While Linus, shepherd he of sacred song 
 (Flowers, and wild parsley, twined his locks among) 
 Cried, " Take this reed, the Muses' gift, before 
 " To Hesiod given : with this 'twas his, of yore, 
 ff 'Midst Ascra's glades to charm the hours away, 80 
 " When woods their hills forsook to list his lay. 
 " With this to hymn Gryneum's grove be thine, 
 " Nor seem there bower to Phcebus more divine." 
 
 Why should I tell, how Seylla's deed he sung, 
 Scylla the false of royal Nisus sprung ; 85 
 
 Scylla, who girt with howling monsters shook 
 Ulysses' keels, and as the surges broke 
 In fearful thunders on that barbarous shore, 
 Their shuddering crews with savage sea-dogs tore ? 
 Tereus' changed form ; and, ere that change declared, 90 
 What foods, what gifts the vengeful dame prepared ? 
 How fleetly to the desert she is flown : 
 How wing'd she skims o'er domes, ah ! once her own ? 
 
 All, all he chaunts, which erst the God of verse 
 Taught blest Eurotas' laurels to rehearse. 95 
 
 The echoing vales, as swell the notes along, 
 Throw to the skies the far-resounding song : 
 Till eve's bright star the folding hour led on, 
 Bade count their flocks, and claim'd th' ethereal throne. 
 
38 
 
 VII. MELIBCEUS. 
 
 Forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis, 
 Compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum ; 
 Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas : 
 Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo, 
 Et cantare pares, et respondere parati. 5 
 
 Hue mihi, dum teneras defendo a frigore myrtos, 
 Vir gregis ipse caper deerraverat ; atque ego Daphnin 
 Adspicio ; ille ubi me contra videt : " Ocius," inquit, 
 " Hue ades, 6 Melibcee, caper tibi salvus et haedi ; 
 Et, si quid cessare potes, requiesce sub umbra. 10 
 
 Hue ipsi potum venient per prata juvenci ; 
 Hie viridis tenera praetexit arundine ripas 
 Mincius, eque sacra resonant examina quercu." 
 Quid facerem? neque ego Alcippen necPhyllida habebam, 
 Depulsos a lacte domi quae clauderet agnos; 15 
 
 Et certamen erat, Corydon cum Thyrside, magnum : 
 Posthabui tamen illorum mea seria ludo. 
 Alternis igitur contendere versibus ambo 
 Ccepere ; alternos Musae meminisse volebant. 
 Hos Corydon, illos referebat in ordine Thyrsis. 20 
 
 Cor. « Nymphae, noster amor, Libethrides, aut mihi 
 carmen, 
 Quale meo Codro, concedite ; proxima Phcebi 
 Versibus ille facit ; aut, si non possumus omnes, 
 Hie arguta sacra pendebit fistula pinu/ 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 39 
 
 VII. MELIBCEUS. 
 
 Daphnis beneath a whispering holm reclined, 
 And near him Cory don and Thyrsis join'd 
 Their flocks ; his sheep one pastured on the lawn, 
 And one his goats with udders yet undrawn : 
 Both freshly blooming, both of Arcady, 5 
 
 Skill'd or to lead the lay or to reply. 
 Here, as I seek the father of my fold 
 (Stray 'd hither, while my shrubs I shield from cold) 
 Daphnis I see ; who soon as me he spies, 
 " Safe are your goats, your kids," delighted cries : 10 
 <6 Here, friend, this morning be the truant play'd ! 
 " Haste, Melibceus, join us in the shade. 
 " Hither your steers will cross the meads to drink : 
 "" With slender reeds here Mincius veils his brink; 
 " And, cheering so his toils, the tiny bee 15 
 
 " Hums his low music round Jove's sacred tree." 
 
 What should I do ? for no Alcippe mine, 
 No Phillis, who my lambkins might confine 
 Wean'd from their bleating dams : and, rivals long, 
 The shepherds twain were met to vie in song. 20 
 
 To their sweet play my serious cares I yield ; 
 In strains alternate they dispute the field : 
 Alternate strains the sacred Muses please ; 
 Those Thyrsis sung, and Corydon's were these. 
 
 Cor. < Dear to my heart, ye Muses, or bestow 25 
 
 Such lays, as from the reed of Codrus flow — , 
 Codrus, who Phoebus all but mates in verse ; 
 Or, if denied such numbers to rehearse 
 (Since not to all is given the power divine) 
 My pipe shall hang upon yon hallow'd pine/ 30 
 
40 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 Thyr. £ Pastores, edera crescentem ornate poetam, 25 
 Arcades, invidia rumpantur ut ilia Codro ; 
 Aut, si ultra placitum laudarit, baccare frontem 
 Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro.' 
 
 Cor. < Saetosi caput hoc apri tibi, Delia, parvus 
 Et ramosa Micon vivacis cornua cervi. 30 
 
 Si proprium hoc fuerit ; laevi de marmore tota 
 Puniceo stabis suras evincta cothurno.' 
 
 Thyr. c Sinum lactis, et haec te liba, Priape, quotannis 
 Exspectare sat est : custos es pauperis horti. 
 Nunc te marmoreum pro tempore fecimus ; at tu, 35 
 Si fcetura gregem suppleverit, aureus esto.' 
 
 Cor. e Nerine Galatea, thy mo mihi dulcior Hyblse, 
 Candidior cycnis, edera formosior alba ; 
 Quum primum pasti repetent prsesepia tauri, 
 Si qua tui Corydonis habet te cura, venito/ 40 
 
 Thyr. i Imm6 ego Sardois videar tibi amarior herbis, 
 Horridior rusco, projecta vilior alga ; 
 Si mihi non hsec lux toto jam longior anno est. 
 Ite domum pasti, si quis pudor, ite, juvenci.' 
 
 Cor. 6 Muscosi fontes, et somno mollior herba, 45 
 Et quae vos rara viridis tegit arbutus umbra, 
 Solstitium pecori defendite ; jam venit aestas 
 Torrida^ jam laeto turgent in palmite gemmae/ 
 
41 
 
 Thyr. 4 Shepherds of Arcady, with ivy crown 
 4 Your rising bard, though furious Codrus frown, 
 4 And eating jealousy consume his heart ; 
 4 Or should mock praise betray the envier's art, 
 ' With spikenard amulet protect my head, 35 
 
 6 That no ill tongue malignant influence shed.' 
 - Cor. 4 Dian, this head, the boar's late bristled pride, 
 4 These branching antlers by the stag supplied, 
 4 Young Micon hangs as offerings on thy shrine ; 
 4 But would'st thou grant that flocks like these were mine, 
 1 In polish'd marble thou should'st stand enshrined, 41 
 6 And purple buskins should thy ancles bind.' 
 
 Thyr. 4 This bowl of milk, these annual cakes, we give ; 
 4 Wealthier, Priapus, hope not to receive : 
 4 The fruits 'tis thine to guard, alas ! are mean — 45 
 4 Now poorly form'd in marble thou art seen ; 
 4 But, should a teeming season bless my fold, 
 
 * My grateful voice should bid that form be gold.' 
 
 Cor. 4 O Galatea, thou who scent'st the air 
 4 Sweeter than Hybla's thyme, than swans more fair, 50 
 4 More graceful than the ivy's flexile twine — 
 4 O if one thought of Corydon be thine, 
 4 Soon as the herd shall seek it's nightly rest, 
 4 O come, and clasp thy shepherd to thy breast ! ' 
 
 Thyr. 4 Bitterer than crow-foot be I deem'd by thee, 55 
 6 Which glows on far Sardinia's yellow lea; 
 
 * Rougher than gorse with prickles cover'd o'er, 
 4 And viler than the sea-weed cast ashore, 
 
 4 If this long lingering day outlast not years ! 
 4 Homeward, for shame ! haste homeward, well-fed steers.' 
 Cor. 4 Ye springs, whosemargins are with moss inlaid; 61 
 4 Thou grassy couch, than slumber softer made ; 
 4 And thou, green arbutus, whose slender bough 
 4 Can but a thin and scanty shade bestow : 
 4 O screen my flock ! 'Tis summer's sultry day ; 65 
 
 4 See, the glad vines their turgid buds display ! ' 
 
42 virgil's bucolics. 
 
 Thyr. c Hie focus tsedse pingues, hie plurimus ignis 
 Semper, et adsidua postes fuligine nigri. 50 
 
 Hie tantdm Boreae curamus frigora, quantum 
 Aut numerum lupus, aut torrentia flumina ripas.' 
 
 Cor. 6 Stant et juniperi et castaneae hirsutae ; 
 Strata jacent passim sua qupque sub arbore poma; 
 Omnia nunc rident : at, si formosus Alexis 55 
 
 Montibus his abeat, videas et flumina sicca/ 
 
 Thyr. s Aret ager ; vitio moriens sitit aeris herba ; 
 Liber pampineas invidit collibus umbras : 
 Phyllidis adventu nostras nemus omne virebit ; 
 Juppiter et laeto descendet plurimus imbri.' 60 
 
 Cor. c Populus Alcidae gratissima, vitis Iaccho, 
 Formosae myrtus Veneri, sua laurea Phcebo ; 
 Phyllis amat corulos : illas dum Phyllis amabit, 
 Nee myrtus vincet corulos, nee laurea Phcebi.' 
 
 Thyr. ' Fraxinus in sylvis pulcherrima, pinus in hortis, 
 Populus in fluviis, abies in montibus altis : 66 
 
 Saepius at si me, Lycida formose, revisas, 
 Fraxinus in sylvis cedat tibi, pinus in hortis.' 
 
 Haec memini, et victum frustri contendere Thyrsin. 
 Ex illo Corydon, Corydon est tempore nobis. 70 
 
43 
 
 Thyr. 4 Here, on this hearth with resinous billets piled, 
 The pine-branch blazes ; and the rafters, soil'd 
 With constant smoke, bespeak the warmth within : 
 Nor more we care for winter's snow-clad scene, 70 
 
 Than wolves respect the numbers of the fold, 
 ; Or streams their banks, in mountain-torrent rolFd.' 
 
 Cor. 4 Now wears the juniper it's leafy pride, 
 ' And the rough chesnut throws it's branches wide ; 
 1 Fall'n from their boughs, the apples here survey : 75 
 1 All nature laughs, and every bower is gay ! 
 i But, if Alexis from these mountains hie, 
 4 All nature sickens, and each stream is dry/ 
 
 Thyr. 4 The fields are parch'd : by sultriness opprest, 
 4 The russet meads have lost their summer vest : 80 
 
 4 No shade, so Bacchus wills, the vineyards rear — 
 
 * But should my beauteous Phyllis re-appear, 
 
 4 The vines shall robe themselves in green again, 
 4 And welcome showers shall gladden all the plain/ 
 Cor. 4 Dear to Alcides are his poplar groves ; 85 
 
 * Bacchus the vine, the myrtle Venus loves ; 
 
 * Apollo glories in his own green bay, 
 
 4 And Phyllis doats upon the hazel gray — 
 6 Long as the hazel is to Phyllis dear, 
 
 * Nor bay nor myrtle lovelier shall appear.' 90 
 
 Thyr. 4 Graceful the ash amidst the woodland towers, 
 4 Poplars by brooks, and pines in garden-bowers ; 
 4 By spiry firs the mountain is possest — 
 4 But be thou, Lycidas, my frequent guest, 
 4 Less fair the woodland ash would seem to me, 95 
 
 4 The pine in garden-bower less fair than thee/ 
 
 Thus, I remember, vanquish'd Thyrsis strove : 
 And Corydon, thenceforward, rules the grove. 
 
44 
 
 VIII. PHARMACEUTRIA. 
 
 Pastorum Musam Damonis et Alphesibcei, 
 Inmemor herbarum quos est mirata juvenca 
 Certantes, quorum stupefactae carmine lynces, 
 Et mutata suos requierunt flumina cursus ; 
 Damonis Musam dicemus et Alphesibcei. 5 
 
 Tu mihi, seu magni superas jam saxa Timavi, 
 Sive oram Illyrici legis aequoris ; en erit umquam 
 Ille dies, mihi c^m liceat tua dicere facta? 
 En erit, ut liceat totum mihi ferre per orbem 
 Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothurno ? 10 
 
 A te principium ; tibi desinet : adcipe jussis 
 Carmina ccepta tuis, atque hanc sine tempora circum 
 Inter victrices ederam tibi serpere lauros. 
 
 Frigida vix coelo noctis decesssrat umbra, 
 Quum ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba; 15 
 
 Incumbens tereti Damon sic ccepit olivae : 
 " Nascere, prseque diem veniens age, Lucifer, almum : 
 Conjugis indigno Nisag deceptus amore 
 Dum queror, et divos, quamquam nil testibus illis 
 Profeci, extrema moriens tamen adloquor hora. 20 
 
 Incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 
 
 Maenalus argutumque nemus, pinosque loquentes, 
 Semper habet ; semper pastorum ille audit amores, 
 Panaque, qui primus calamos non passus inertes. 
 
 Incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 25 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. '15 
 
 VIII. PHARMACEUTRIA. 
 
 The tale of love Alphesibceus sung 
 And Damon, when the heifer wondering hung 
 ( Forgetful of her food) upon the strain, 
 And headlong torrents paused, nor sought the main ; 
 And lynxes couch'd, to list the lay divine — 5 
 
 That tale to give posterity be mine. 
 
 O Pollio ! whether now thou bend'st thy way, 
 Where huge Timavus glitters on the day, 
 Or tread'st Illyrian strands : when, when will be 
 The happy hour, that I may sing of thee; 10 
 
 To distant lands thy deeds of war rehearse, 
 And hymn thee lord of Sophoclean verse ? 
 From thee the Muse began, with thee shall end : 
 Framed at thy bidding, to her song extend 
 Thy favouring smile ; and O forgive the lay, 15 
 
 Which twines this ivy with thy victor-bay. 
 
 Scarce from the sky had night's cold shadow fled, 
 When herds delighted crop the dewy mead ; 
 Propt on his staff, sad Damon thus begun : 
 " Rise, Phosphor, and lead on the lingering sun ; 20 
 " While duped by Nisa's love I mourn in vain, 
 " And to the Gods of broken faith complain : 
 u For not a God, who witness'd, heals the wrong ! "j 
 " Yet, yet to them my parting strains belong — > 
 
 " Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. J 25 
 " Still blooms on Msenalus the rustling grove, 
 " And vocal pines resound the shepherd's love : 
 " Still Pan is heard it's echoing bowers among ; "J 
 " Pan, who first bade the reed it's notes prolong — \ 
 
 " Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song, j 30 
 
46 virgil's bucolics. 
 
 Mopso Nisa datur : quid non speremus amantes ? 
 Jungentur jam gryphes equis ; sevoque sequenti 
 Cum canibus timidi venient ad pocula damse. 
 Mopse, novas incide faces ; tibi ducitur uxor : 
 Sparge, marite, nuces ; tibi deserit Hesperus CEtam. 30 
 Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 
 
 O digno conjuncta viro ! dum despicis omnes, 
 Dumque tibi est odio mea fistula, dumque capellse 
 Hirsutumque supercilium promissaque barba ; 
 Nee curare deum credis mortalia quemquam. 35 
 
 Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 
 
 Ssepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala 
 (Dux ego vester eram) vidi cum matre legentem : 
 Alter ab undecimo turn me jam ceperat annus ; 
 Jam fragiles poteram a terra contingere ramos. 40 
 
 Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error ! 
 Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 
 
 Nunc scio, quid sit Amor : duris in cotibus ilium 
 Aut Tmaros, aut Rhodope, aut extremi Garamantes, 
 Nee generis nostri puerum nee sanguinis edunt. 45 
 
 Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 
 
 Saevus Amor docuit gnatorum sanguine matrem 
 Commaculare manus : crudelis tu quoque, mater — 
 Crudelis mater magis, an puer improbus ille ? 
 Improbus ille puer ; crudelis tu quoque, mater. 50 
 
 Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 
 
 Nunc et oves ultro fugiat lupus ; aurea durse 
 Mala ferant quercus ; narcisso floreat alnus ; 
 
virgil's bucolics. 47 
 
 " To Mopsus now is faithless Nisa given : 
 
 " What may not lovers dread from angry heaven ! 
 
 " Henceforth shall blend the griffin with the steed, 
 
 iC And dogs and trembling deer together feed. 
 
 u Prepare thy torches, Mopsus, thou art wed ; 35 
 
 " Scatter thy nuts : for thee his CEta's head 
 
 " Hesper forsakes, and hastes the night along — 
 
 " Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
 " Well worthy, Nisa, of thy conquer'd swain* 
 " For whom thy other suitors met disdain ; 40 
 
 " For whom thou scorn' st my reed and humble herd, 
 " My shaggy eye-brows, and my lengthen'd beard ! 
 " Nor deem'st the Gods, resentful, visit wrong — 
 
 " Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
 " First did'st thou to these doting eyes appear 45 
 
 " Within our orchard's bound, thy mother near; 
 " Thy little hands the dewy apples pile : 
 " I was your guide — too happy I the while ! 
 " Just enter'd on my teens, with utmost stretch 
 " On tip-toe rising I the boughs could reach : 50 
 
 " I saw, I died, by passion borne along — 
 
 " Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
 " Now know I Love's dire source : in Thracia bred 
 " Where Rhodope in tempests veils it's head, 
 " Or rock'd 'mid Garamantian crags to rest, 55 
 
 " He tears, remorseless tears the human breast : 
 " Not to our nature does the boy belong — 
 
 " Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
 " Love taught the mother, barbarous lore and wild ! 
 " To plunge the dagger in her guiltless child : 60 
 
 — " O savage mother, who such lore could'st learn ! 
 " O boy too savage, teaching lore so stern ! 
 " Savage alike who urged, and did, the wrong — 
 
 " Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
 " Fly now, ye hungry wolves, th' unguarded fold, 65 
 " And glow each oak with vegetable gold ; 
 
48 VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 Pinguia corticibus sudent electra rnyricae ; 
 Certent et cycnis ululae ; sit Tityrus Orpheus — 55 
 
 Orpheus in silvis, inter delphinas Arion. 
 Incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 
 
 Omnia vel medium fiant mare : vivite, sylvae. 
 Praeceps aerii specula de montis in undas 
 Deferar : extremum hoc munus morientis habeto. 60 
 Desine, Maenalios jam desine, tibia, versus." 
 
 Haec Damon : vos, quae respondent Alphesibceus, 
 Dicite, Pierides ; non omnia possumus omnes. 
 
 " Effer aquam, et molli cinge haec altaria vitta ; 
 Verbenasque adole pingues, et mascula tura : 65 
 
 Conjugis ut magicis sanos avertere sacris 
 Experiar sensus : nihil hie nisi carmina desunt. 
 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 
 
 Carmina vel ccelo possunt deducere Lunam : 
 Carminibus Circe socios mutavit Ulixi : 70 
 
 Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis. 
 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 
 
 Terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore 
 Licia circumdo, terque haec altaria circum 
 Eingiem duco : numero deus impare gaudet. 75 
 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 
 
virgil's bucolics. 49 
 
 " All gay with daffodils let alders tower, 
 
 66 And lowliest tamarisks weep their amber shower : 
 
 " Vie owls with cygnets : Tityrus Orpheus be ; 
 
 " Orpheus amid the woods, or in the sea 70 
 
 " Arion, sovereign of the dolphin throng — 
 
 " Begin with me, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
 " Be earth one watery waste : ye woods, farewell ! 
 " Headlong, amidst the sweeping surges' swell, 
 " From some sky-piercing cliff I'll spring to death : 75 
 " Accept these strains, thy lover's latest breath, 
 " His dying legacy, withheld too long I — 
 " Cease now, O cease, my pipe, the soft Maenalian song. 
 
 Thus Damon : next Alphesibceus' strain 
 Record, ye Muses ! for our powers are vain. 80 
 
 " Bring water, and with fleecy fillet wreathe 
 " This altar's frame, and bid rich incense breathe, 
 " And vervain burn ; that so my spells may fire 
 " The cold swain's sense, and force him to admire. 
 " Those spells, unseconded, will stamp his doom — 85 
 
 " Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
 home. 
 " The spell of verse can drag th' obedient moon 
 " From heaven, when riding in her highest noon : 
 " Ulysses' comrades with the numerous spell 
 " Circe transform'd : cold serpents writhe and swell, 90 
 " Compell'd by mighty song, and burst in foam — 
 
 " Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
 home. 
 " First, these three threads in mystic union join'd, 
 " Three-colour'd, I around his image bind ; 
 " And with that image circle thrice the shrine 95 
 
 " (Uneven numbers please the powers divine !) 
 " So may he at my potent summons come — [home. 
 
 " Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
 
50 
 
 Necte tribus nodis ternos, Amarylli, colores : [necto." 
 
 Necte, Amarylli, modo ; et, " Veneris," die, " vincula 
 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 
 
 Limus ut hie durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit 80 
 
 Uno eodemque igni ; sic nostro Daphnis amore ! 
 Sparge molam, et fragiles incende bitumine lauros. 
 Daphnis me malus urit ; ego hanc in Daphnida laurum. 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 
 
 Talis amor Daphnin, qualis quum fessa juvencum 85 
 Per nemora atque altos quaerendo bucula lucos 
 Propter aquae rivum viridi procumbit in ulva 
 Perdita, nee serae meminit decedere nocti, 
 Talis amor teneat, nee sit mihi cura mederi. 
 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 
 
 Has olim exuvias mihi perfldus ille reliquit, 91 
 
 Pignora cara sui ! quae nunc ego limine in ipso, 
 Terra, tibi mando ; debent haec pignora Daphnin. 
 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 
 
 Has herbas, atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena, 95 
 
 Ipse dedit Mceris ; nascuntur plurima Ponto. 
 His ego saepe lupum fieri, et se condere sylvis 
 Mcerin, saepe animas imis excire sepulcris, 
 
51 
 
 " In threefold knot now, Amaryllis, tie 
 " The triple threads : and still, in tightening, cry ; 100 
 " ' With these, love's knots, I knit him ne'er to roam' — 
 " Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
 
 home. 
 " As hardens in one fire this moulded clay, 
 " And melts this wax, so Daphnis melt away; 
 " So harden in my love ! The salted meal 105 
 
 " Now sprinkle ; burn the crackling bay : I feel 
 " Harsh Daphnis fire me ! Such his lot I doom— 
 " Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
 
 home. 
 " O seize him love like that, when far and near 
 " The wearied heifer seeks her wandering steer ; 110 
 " And having languished much, and rambled long 
 " The wide-spread forest's lengthening glades among, 
 ** Sinks on some river's bank : nor quits the grove, 
 " Though night's late hours approach ! Him seize such 
 
 love, 
 " Nor deign I his physician to become — 115 
 
 " Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
 
 home. 
 " To me these relics once the traitor left, 
 " Dear relics ! These I now, of him bereft, 
 <£ Beneath my threshold, earth, to thee consign : 
 " These, these again shall make the rover mine ; 120 
 " Though, far estranged, 'midst other scenes he roam — 
 " Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
 
 home. 
 " These herbs, these poisons cull'd on Pontic ground 
 " (In Pontus, herbs of deadly power abound) 
 " Mceris bestow'd : and him I oft have view'd, 125 
 
 " Changed by their force, in sylvan solitude 
 " Howl, a fierce wolf; transport the bearded grain 
 " From it's first native to a distant plain, 
 
 e 2 
 
52 
 
 Atque satas alio vidi traducere messes. 
 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 
 
 Fer cineres, Amarylli, foras, rivoque fluenti 101 
 
 Transque caput jace ; ne respexeris : his ego Daphnin 
 Adgrediar. Nihil ille deos, nil carmina, curat. 
 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnin. 
 
 Adspice : conripuit tremulis altaria flammis 105 
 
 Sponte sua, dum ferre moror, cinis ipse. Bonum sit ! 
 Nescio quid certe est ; et Hylax in limine latrat — 
 Credimus ? an, qui amant, ipsi sibi somnia fingunt ? 
 Parcite, ab urbe venit, jam parcite carmina, Daphnis." 
 
 IX. MCERIS. 
 
 Lye. Quo te, Moeri, pedes ? an, quo via ducitin urbem? 
 
 Mcer. O Lycida, vivi pervenimus, advena nostri 
 (Quod numquam veriti sumus) ut possessor agelli 
 Diceret : " Hsec mea sunt : veteres, migrate, coloni." 
 Nunc victi, tristes, quoniam Fors omnia versat, 5 
 
 Hos illi (quod nee bene vertat) mittimus hasdos. 
 
 Lye. Certe equidem audieram, qua se subducere colles 
 Incipiunt mollique jugum demittere clivo, 
 Usque ad aquam et veteres, jam fracta cacumina, fagos, 
 Omnia carminibus vestrum servasse Menalcan. 10 
 
VIKGIL S BUCOLICS. 53 
 
 i( And call pale spectres from the yawning tomb — 
 " Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
 home. 130 
 
 " Forth, Amaryllis, forth the ashes bear, 
 " And o'er thy shoulder in the streamlet clear 
 " Whelm them, with unreverted head : a spell 
 (i Of different kind his stubborn soul shall quell. 
 " Nor Gods he heeds, nor dreads the strains of doom — 
 " Bring from the city, bring, ye charms, my Daphnis 
 home. 136 
 
 " And lo ! the altar gleams with quivering blaze, 
 " Self-kindled, while my tardy hand delays 
 " To bear the ashes to the destined flood : 
 " Something it, sure, portends — O be it good ! 140 
 
 " May I, then, trust my heart's fond wishes ? Hark I 
 " Loud at the door I hear my Hylax bark — 
 " Or weave I Love's light dream in fancy's loom ? 
 " No, cease, my charms; he comes, comes from the 
 city home ! " 
 
 IX. MCERIS. 
 
 Lycidas. Whither, good Moeris ? For the city bent 
 Mceris. O Lycidas, our life, with sad extent, 
 Has reached to woes beyond my utmost fear ; 
 " Begone, old landlords ; I am master here," 
 Our little field's usurper sternly cries ! 5 
 
 To him, since thus her wheel dame Fortune plies, 
 These kids— ill luck go with them ! sad I bear. 
 
 Lye. I heard, indeed— and oh, would such things were ! 
 That where yon hills slope gently to the plain, 
 Far as to Mincius' banks (his own domain) 10 
 
 Their shatter'd tops where those old beeches raise, 
 Menalcas had protected by his lays. 
 

 54? VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 
 
 Mcer. Audieras ; et fama fuit : sed carmina tantum 
 Nostra valent, Lycida, tela inter Martia, quantum 
 Chaonias dicunt, aquila veniente, columbas. 
 Quod nisi me quacumque novas incidere lites 
 Ante sinistra cava monuisset ab ilice cornix, 15 
 
 Nee tuus hie Moeris, nee viveret ipse Menalcas. [nobis 
 
 Lye. Heu ! cadit in quemquam tantum scelus ? heu ! tua 
 Paene simul tecum solatia rapta, Menalca ! 
 Quis caneret Nymphas ? Quis humum florentibus herbis 
 Spargeret, aut viridi fontes induceret umbra ? 20 
 
 Vel quae sublegi tacitus tibi carmina nuperj 
 Quum te ad delicias ferres, Amaryllida, nostras ? 
 " Tityre, dum redeo, brevis est via, pasce capellas ; 
 " Et potum pastas age, Tityre ; et inter agendum 
 " Occursare capro, cornu ferit ille, caveto." 25 
 
 Mcer. Imm6 hasc, qua? Varo necdum perfecta canebat. 
 " Vare, tuum nomen (superet modo Mantua nobis, 
 " Mantua, vae ! miserae nimitim vicina Cremonse !) 
 " Cantantes sublime ferent ad sidera eyeni." 
 
 Lye. Sic tua Cyrneas fugiant examina taxos ; 30 
 
 Sic, cytiso pastas, distendant ubera vaccag : 
 Incipe, si quid habes. Et me fecere poetam 
 Pierides ; sunt et mihi carmina ; me quoque dicunt 
 Vatem pastores : sed non ego credulus illis. 
 Nam neque adhuc Vario videor, nee dicere Cinna S5 
 Digna, sed argutos inter strepere -anser olores. 
 
 Mcer. Id quidem ago ; et tacitus, Lycida, mecum ipse 
 voluto, 
 Si valeam meminisse ; neque est ignobile carmen. 
 " Hue ades, 6 Galatea; quis est nam ludus in undis ? 
 "Hie ver purpureum ; varios hie flumina circum 40 
 " Fundi t humus flores ; hie Candida populus antro 
 
VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. 55 
 
 Moer. So were you told, and Fame so blazed abroad : 
 But weak our lays, by clashing arms o'er-awed, 
 Asj when the eagle swoops, Dodona's dove. 15 
 
 Nay — but that, croaking from the tree of Jove, 
 The left-hand raven warn'd me not to strive, 
 Nor Mceris nor his lord had been alive. [dare ? 
 
 Lye. And lives there, who such deed of death would 
 Alas ! how near had vanish' d into air 20 
 
 With thee, Menalcas, all thy soothing verse ! 
 For who the nymphs' soft praises would rehearse ? 
 Who o'er the ground the gather'd foliage fling, 
 Or screen with verdant shade the living spring? 
 WTio those sweet lines repeat I slily heard, 25 
 
 As to my Amaryllis you repair'd ? 
 
 6 Till, I return, my flock, kind Tityrus, feed 
 f (Short is my journey) and to water lead; 
 * But as thou lead'st them, Tityrus, have a care : 
 ' Of that old butting goat, dear boy, beware/ 30 
 
 Moer. Or (sung to Varus) that unfinished strain ; 
 6 Varus, thy name — if Mantua still remain, 
 8 Ah ! to Cremona fatally too near ! 
 6 Melodious swans to yon bright stars shall bear.' 
 
 Lye. So may thy bees the poisonous yew forego ; 35 
 Thy cows, on trefoil fed, with milk overflow ! 
 Begin, if aught thy memory retain : 
 Me, too, the Muses taught the sylvan strain ; 
 I have my songs ; and many a swain avers, 
 A bard I am : but far their judgement errs ! 40 
 
 Unfit with Varius or with Cinna I, 
 As gabbling geese with sweetest swans, to vie. 
 
 Moer. Much I in silence have revolved, and long, 
 To call to mind — 'tis no ignoble song — 
 
 6 Hither to land, O Galatea, haste : 45 
 
 6 What joy can flourish 'mid the watry waste ? 
 < Here purple Spring with verdure decks the bowers, 
 ' And every streamlet's brink is strew'd with flowers : 
 
56 virgil's bucolics. 
 
 " Imminet, et lentae texunt umbracula vites. 
 " Hue ades ; insani feriant sine litora fluctus." 
 
 Lye. Quid, quae te pura solum sub nocte canentem 
 Audieram ? numeros memini, si verba tenerem. 45 
 
 Mcer. " Daphni, quid antiquos signorum suspicis ortus? 
 " Ecce, Dionaei processit Caesaris astrum ; 
 " Astrum, quo segetes gauderent frugibus, et quo 
 " Duceret apricis in collibus uva color em. 
 " Insere, Daphni, piros ; carpent tuapoma nepotes — " 50 
 Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque ; saepe ego longos 
 Cantando puerum memini me condere soles. 
 Nunc oblita mihi tot carmina ; vox quoque Moerin 
 Jam fugit ipsa : lupi Moerin videre priores. 
 Sed tamen ista satis referet tibi saepe Menalcas. 55 
 
 Lye. Caussando nostros in longum ducis amores. 
 Et nunc omne tibi stratum silet aequor ; et omnes, 
 Adspice, ventosi ceciderunt murmuris aurae. 
 Hinc adeo media est nobis via; namque sepulcrum 
 Incipit adparere Bianoris : hie, ubi densas 60 
 
 Agricolae stringunt frondes, hie, Moeri, canamus : 
 Hie haedos depone; tamen veniemus in urbem. 
 Aut si, nox pluviam ne colligat ante, veremur, 
 Cantantes licet usque (minus via laedat) eamus : 
 Cantantes ut eamus, ego hoc te fasce levabo. 65 
 
 Mcer. Desine plura, puer ; et quod nunc instat, agamus, 
 Carmina turn melius, quum venerit Ipse, canemus. 
 
VIltGIl/s BUCOLICS. 57 
 
 ' Here the white poplar quivers o'er each cave, 
 
 6 And curling vines their shady foliage wave. 50 
 
 * Hither, O Galatea, haste to land, 
 
 ' And let the surge rave idly on the strand/ [strain ! 
 
 Lye. One moon-light night, thou sung'st too — such a 
 The words forgotten, I the air retain. 
 
 Moer. ' Why on old constellations, Daphnis gaze ? 55 
 6 See, where it's beams the Julian star displays ; 
 6 A star, whence fields draw fatness as it rolls, 
 
 * And grapes grow duskier on their sunny knolls. 
 6 Graft, Daphnis, for the rising race your pears :' 
 
 ~ Ah ! age, which pilfers all, not e'en the memory spares ! 
 
 Oft when, a careless boy, I trod the mead, 
 
 The lingering sun I carol'd to his bed : 
 
 Now, every lay is vanish'd from my head. 
 
 His very voice has hapless Moeris lost ; 
 
 His path some wolf's first-darted glance has crost : 65 
 
 But well the chasm Menalcas will supply. 
 
 Lye. My wish but grows with your apology. 
 And see ! the lake's broad plain unruffled spread, 
 Nor moves one murmuring breeze the beech's head. 
 Now midway of our journey we are come, 70 
 
 For lo ! where rears it's head Bianor's tomb. 
 Here sit we, Mceris, where the cluster'd boughs 
 The farmers trim, and sing as we repose. 
 Here rest your kids : we soon shall reach the town ; 
 Or if we fear the night-storm's gathering frown, 75 
 
 Light song will ease the road of half it's care : 
 To aid your song, let me this burthen bear. 
 
 Moer. Press me no more, but onward let us go : 
 Sprightlier the strain, when He returns, will flow. 
 
 } 
 
58 virgil's bucolics. 
 
 X. GALLUS. 
 
 Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede labor em. 
 Pauca meo Gallo, sed quae legat ipsa Lycoris, 
 Carmina sunt dicenda : neget quis carmina Gallo ? 
 Sic tibi, quum fluctus subterlabere Sicanos, 
 Doris amara suam non intermisceat undam. 5 
 
 Incipe; sollicitos Galli dicamus amores, 
 Dum tenera adtondent simae virgulta oapellae. 
 Non canimus surdis : respondent omnia sylvae. 
 
 Quae nemora, aut qui vos saltus habuere, puellae 
 Nai'des, indigno quiim Gallus amore periret? 10 
 
 Nam neque Parnasi vobis juga, nam neque Pindi 
 Ulla moram fecere, neque Aonie Aganippe. 
 Ilium etiam lauri, etiam flevere myricae ; 
 Pinifer ilium etiam sola sub rupe jacentem 
 Maenalus, et gelidi fleverunt saxa Lycaei. 15 
 
 Stant et OVes Circum ; nostri nee poenitet illas 
 
 Nee te pceniteat pecoris, divine poeta ; 
 
 Et formosus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis. 
 
 Venit et upilio : tardi venere bubulci ; 
 
 Uvidus hiberna venit de glande Menalcas. 20 
 
 Omnes, " Unde amor iste," rogant, "tibi?" Venit Apollo; 
 
 ct Galle, quid insanis?" inquit: " tua cura Lycoris 
 
 Perque nives alium, perque horrida castra, secuta est." 
 
 Venit et agresti capitis Sylvanus honore, 
 
 Florentes ferulas et grandia lilia quassans. 25 
 
59 
 
 X. GALLUS. 
 
 This closing effort, Arethusa, aid ; 
 A few brief strains be to my Gallus paid : 
 What bard to Gallus can a lay refuse ? 
 And may L,ycoris' eye that mournful lay peruse. 
 So, as thou glidest beneath Sicilia's brine, 5 
 
 Her wave no bitter sea-nymph blend with thine ! 
 
 Begin : record we Gallus, love's sad prey ; 
 Our goats, meanwhile, will browse the tender spray. 
 Nor sing we to the deaf: the woods reply, 
 And bear the strains of sadness to the sky. 10 
 
 Nymphs, o'er what lawns, what forests did ye rove, 
 When Gallus faded in disastrous love ? 
 For then nor Pindus nor th' Aonian mount 
 Detain'd your steps, nor Aganippe's fount. 
 For him the bay, for him the tamarisk pined ; 15 
 
 For him, beneath their craggy feet reclined, 
 Even Maenalus the dews of sorrow shed, 
 And cold Lycaeus on his craggy bed. * 
 
 The sheep stand round, nor slight their master's pain ; 
 Nor thou, bright bard, the humble flock disdain : 20 
 In beauty's prime beside the lucid flood, 
 Well-pleased, Adonis fed his fleecy brood. 
 The shepherd came ; and, with the herdsmen last, 
 Menalcas dripping from the snow-soak'd mast. 
 All seek thy passion's source. Apollo came ; 25 
 
 And, " Whence this phrensy, Gallus ? She, thy flame 
 " Lycoris," he exclaim'd, " another swain [domain." 
 " Follows through barbarous camps and winter's drear 
 With woodland wreath came old Sylvanus crown'd, 
 Fennel and largest lilies nodding round. 30 
 
60 
 
 Pan, deus Arcadiae, venit ; quern vidimus ipsi 
 
 Sanguineis ebuli baccis minioque rubentem. 
 
 " Ecquis erit modus?" inquit : " Amor non talia curat. 
 
 Nee lacrimis crudelis Amor, nee gramina rivis, 
 
 Nee cytiso saturantur apes, nee fronde capellae." 30 
 
 Tristis at ille : " Tamen cantabitis, Arcades," inquit, 
 
 " Montibus haec vestris ; soli cantare periti 
 
 Arcades. O mihi turn quam molliter ossa quiescant, 
 
 Vestra meos olim si fistula dicat amores ! 
 
 Atque utinam ex vobis unus, vestrique fuissem 35 
 
 Aut custos gregis, aut maturae vinitor uvae ! 
 Certe, sive mihi Phyllis, sive esset Amyntas, 
 Seu quicumque furor (quid turn, si fuscus Amyntas ? 
 Et nigrae violae sunt, et vaccinia nigra) 
 Mecum inter salices lenta sub vite jaceret; 40 
 
 Serta mihi Phyllis legeret, cantaret Amyntas. 
 Hie gelidi fontes; hie mollia prata, Lycori; 
 Hie nemus ; hie ipso tecum consumerer aevo. 
 
 Nunc insanus amor duri te Martis in armis 
 Tela inter media atque adversos detinet hostes. 45 
 
 Tu procul a patria (nee sit mihi credere tantum !) 
 
 Alpinas, ah dura, iiives et frigoxa Rheni 
 
 Me sine sola vides. Ah te ne frigora laedant ! 
 
 Ah tibi ne teneras glacies secet aspera plantas ! 
 
 Ibo et, Chalcidico quae sunt mihi condita versu 50 
 
 Carmina, pastoris Siculi modulabor avena. 
 
 Certum est in sylvis, inter spelsea ferarum 
 
 Malle pati, tenerisque meos incidere amores 
 
 Arboribus : crescent illse ; crescetis, amores. 
 
61 
 
 Pan, too, we saw : th' Arcadian God appear'd 
 
 With vermil dye and elder-berries smear'd ; 
 
 " And yet this grief?" he asks. " In vain it flows : 
 
 " No glut of tears insatiate Cupid knows. 
 
 " Sooner shall herbage moisture cease to love, 35 
 
 " The bee his trefoil, goats the budding grove." 
 
 — " But you, Arcadians, deign (sad Gallus cried) 
 
 " To sing my sorrows on each mountain's side : 
 
 " You, only, of the poet's art possest ; "J 
 
 " And softly, sweetly, will my relics rest, j>40 
 
 " If by your simple reeds my suffering be exprest. J 
 
 iC Ah had I, one of you, your flocks or fed, 
 " Or pluck'd the grape' with luscious ripeness red ! 
 " Then, whomsoe'er had woo'd my amorous strain — . 
 " Or Phyllis, or Amyntas — we had lain 45 
 
 " In willowy bower o'erhung with flaunting vine ; 
 " And he would sing, or she the chaplet twine. 
 " Nor had I cared, that dusky he to view : 
 " Dusky the hyacinth's, the violet's hue. 
 cc Here cooling springs, Lycoris, meadows gay ^ 50 
 
 " With flowers, and winding glades invite to stray; £ 
 " Here could I, blest with thee, wile life's fleet hours 
 away. 
 
 " Thee reckless love in iron fields detains, 
 " Where all the fury of the battle reigns : 
 " Thou tread'st — and is it true? perfidious fair, 55 
 
 " No Gallus at thy side to shield or share, 
 " Dauntless tread'st Alpine snows, and ice-bound Rhine I 
 " Ah ! may no ice wound those soft feet of thine ; 
 " No arrowy sleet that tender person pierce ! "} 
 " For me, adapting my Chalcidian verse V 60 
 
 " To pastoral pipe, I'll sylvan strains rehearse. J 
 " Yes, 'tis resolved : 'mid wildest lairs I'll go, 
 " And there in solitude endure my woe ; 
 " Carve on the tender rind my tale of love, 
 (i And mark it growing with the growing grove. 65 
 
 5 
 
62 virgil's bucolics. 
 
 Interea mixtis lustrabo Maenala Nymphis ; 55 
 
 Aut acres venabor apros ; non me ulla vetabunt 
 
 Frigora Parthenios canibus circumdare saltus. 
 
 Jam mihi per rupes videor, lucosque sonantes, 
 
 Ire ; libet Partho torquere Cydonia cornu 
 
 Spicula ; tamquam haec sint nostri medicina furoris, 60 
 
 Aut deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat ! 
 
 Jam neque Hamadryades rursum, nee carmina nobis 
 Ipsa placent; ipsa?, rursum concedite, sylvae. 
 Non ilium nostri possunt mutare labor es ; 
 Nee, si frigoribus mediis Hebrumque bibamus, 65' 
 
 Sithoniasque nives hiemis subeamus aquosae ; 
 Nee si, quiim moriens alta liber aret in ulmo, 
 iEthiopum versemus oves sub sidere Cancri. 
 Omnia vincit Amor ; et nos cedamus Amori." 
 
 Haec sat erit, Divae, vestrum cecinisse poetam, 70 
 
 Dum sedet, et gracili fiscellam texit hibisco, 
 Pierides. Vos haec facietis maxima Gallo ; 
 Gallo, cujus amor tantum mihi crescit in horas, 
 Quantum vere novo viridis se subjicit alnus. 
 
 Surgamus : solet esse gravis cantantibus umbra^ 75 
 Juniperi gravis umbra ; nocent et frugibus umbrae. 
 Ite domum saturae, venit Hesperus, ite, capellae. 
 
virgil's bucolics. 63 
 
 " Or Maenalus, with mingling nymphs, I'll tread ; 
 
 €c Or chase the tusky savage, undismay'd : 
 
 " Nor storms shall stay me, as with faithful hound 
 
 " Arcadia's forest-depths T girdle round. 
 
 " Now over rocks, through groves, I seem to go ; 70 
 
 " Now twang my shafts from Parthia's horned bow : 
 
 " As if such toils the tyrant could remove, 
 
 * Or any human art could medicine love ! 
 
 " Ah ! nor by wood-nymphs I, nor woodland strain, 
 " Solaced or sooth'd ! Farewell, ye woods, again. 75 
 " Vainly to tame th' obdurate God we try : 
 " Not should our lip drain wintry Hebrus dry, 
 " Not though our foot 'mid storms trod Thracia's snows, 
 " Not though we fed our flocks where Cancer glows 
 " On Indian sands, and peels the towering grove — 80 
 " Love conquers all ; and we must yield to love." 
 
 Enough, ye Muses, has your bard essay'd, 
 Weaving his rushy basket in the shade. 
 These numbers you to Gallus will endear ; 
 Gallus for whom, as year succeeds to year, 85 
 
 My love still grows, as in the vernal prime 
 The alder's shoots with strong luxuriance climb. 
 
 Rise we ; the juniper's strong shade annoys 
 The minstrel choir, the ripening grain destroys : 
 Goats, from your pastures sated homeward hie — 90 
 
 See, where bright Hesper fires the evening sky. 
 


 
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