Aldrich, and fir John Denham." Lord Dorfet was probably the lucky man; for this feems to be the very picture for which, as I have before obferved, Vertue wifhed Prior to fearch in lord Dorfet's collection. Sir Joshua Reynolds fays, "The picture is admirably painted, and with fuch a character of nature, that I am perfectly fure it was a striking likenefs. I have now a diftinct idea of the countenance of Milton, which cannot be got from any of the other pictures that I have feen. It is perfectly preferved, which fhews that it has been shut up in fome drawer; if it had been expofed to the light, the colours would long before this have vanished."

As we approach to the laft fcene, we fhall only mention. from Mr. Warton, or rather from Aubrey, the celebrated dreamer, that our poet was buried, at the upper end in S. Gyles Cripple-gate chancell. Mem. His ftone is now 1681, removed; for about two yeeres fince, the two steppes to the communion table were rayfed. I gheffe Jo. Speed and he Jie together.' There was a flone in 1725, traditionally fuppofed to cover his remains; though no infcription had been viible for forty years before. But thou wanteft no • rude

memorial.'

• Thou in our wonder and astonishment,
Haft built thyfelf a live long monument.'

The epitaph was probably erafed; for thofe who laid down. the flone, may be fuppofed to have carried their affection a little farther, and to have endeavoured, 'twas all they could,' to have conveyed his name to pofterity. In future ages, the ages into which Milton was rapt, when most anxious for fame, his monument has been raised in that venerable repository of kings and prelates; and the following lines, which we fhall extract, for their literary merit, were written for that purpose, by Dr. George, provost of Eton.

"Augufti regum cineres, fanctæque favillæ ;
Heroum vofque O, vix tanti nominis, umbræ !
Parcite, quod veftris infenfum regibus olim
Sedibus infertur nomen, liceatque fupremis
Funeribus finire odium: Mors obruat iras.
Nanc fub fæderibus coeant felicibus una
Libertas, et jus facri inviolabile fceptri.
Rege fub Augufto fas fit laudare Catonem."

We must now leave the commentary on Milton as a poet; his political writings are not the objects of Mr. Warton; yet in the conclufion, his obfervations deferve our attention, and we fhall confequently felect them.

Upon the whole, and with regard to his political writings. at large, even after the prejudices of party have fubfided,

Milton,

Milton, I believe, has found no great fhare of favour, of applaufe, or even of candour, from diftant generations. His fi quid meremur, in the fenfe here belonging to the words, has. been too fully afcertained by the mature determination of time. Toland, about thirty years after the Refloration, thought Milton's profe-works of fufficient excellence and importance to be collected and printed in one body But they were neglected and foon forgotten. Of late years, fome attempts have been made to revive them, with as little fuccefs. At prefent they are almost unknown: If they are ever infpected, it is perhaps occafionally by the commentator on Milton's verfe, as affording materials for comparative criticifm, or from motives of curiouty only, as the productions of the writer of Comus and Paradife Loft, and not fo much for any independent value of their own, In point of doctrine, they are calculated to annihilate the very foundations of our civil and religious eftablishment, as it now fubfifts: they are fubverfive of our legiflature, and our fpecies of government. In condemning tyranny, he ftrikes at the bare existence of kings; in combating fuperftition, he decries all public religion. Thefe difcourfes hold forth a fyltem of poli tics, at prefent as unconftitutional, and almost as obfolete, as the nonfenfe of paffive obedience: and in this view, we might just as well think of re-publishing the pernicious theories of the kingly bigot James, as of the republican ufurper Oliver Cromwell. Their style is perplexed, pedantic, poetical, and unnatural abounding in enthufiaftic effufions, which have been miftaken for eloquence and imagination. In the midst of the molt folemn rhapsodies, which would have fhone in a fast-sermon before Cromwell, he fometimes indulges a vein of jocularity; but his witticifms are as aukward as they are unfuit able, and Milton never more misunderstands the nature and bias of his genius, than when he affects to be arch either in profe or verse. His want of deference to fuperiours teaches him to write without good manners; and, when we confider his familiar acquaintance with the elegancies of antiquity, with the orators and hiftorians of Greece and Rome, few writers will be found to have made fo flender a facrifice to the graces. From fome of thefe ftrictures, I must except the Tractate on Education, and the Aereopagitica, which are written with a tolerable degree of facility, fimplicity, purity, and perfpicuity; and the latter, fome tedious hiftorical digreffions, and fome little fophiftry excepted, is the most clofe, conclufive, compre henfive, and decifive vindication of the liberty of the press that has yet appeared, on a subject on which it is difficult to decide between the licentioufnefs of fcepticifm and fedition, and the arbitrary exemptions of authority. In the mean time, Milton's profe-works, I fufpeét, were never popular: he deeply engaged in most of the ecclefiaftical difputes of his times, yet he is feldom quoted or mentioned by his contemporaries, either of the Prefbyterian or Independent perfuafion: even by Richard Baxter,

8

Baxter, paftor of Kidderminster, a jedicious and voluminous advocate on the fide of the Prefbyterians, who vehemently cenfures and oppofes feveral of his coadjutors in the caufe of churchindependency, he is paffed over in profound filence. For his brethren the Independents he feems to have been too learned and unintelligible. In 1652, fir Robert Filmer, in a general attack on the recent antimonarchical writers, bestows but a very fhort and flight refutation on his politics. It appears from the Cenfure of the Rota, a pamphlet published in 1660, faid to be fabricated by Harrington's club, that even his brother party-writers ridiculed the affectations and abfurdities of his tyle. Lord Monboddo is the only modern critic who ranks Milton as a profe-writer with Hooker, Sprat, and Clarendon.'

We must now leave this very intelligent commentator, and we leave him with regret. We have not infulted him with indifcriminate praife; and, our having extended our remarks. through two articles, is the ftrongeft proof, that we think hist work highly valuable, and deferving of the public attention.

The Poetical Works of David Garrick, Efq. Now first collected into Two Volumes. With explanatory Notes. Small 8·00. 75. in Boards. Kearsley.

HIS edition does not promife us any poem of Mr. Garrick's, hitherto unknown: the compiler profeffes only to. collect the fugitive pieces from the diurnal vehicles of temporary humour. He feems to have fucceeded in his attempt; for we do not recollect any poetry, hitherto attributed to the English Rofcius, which we do not find in this collection. So far the editor demands praife; and, if he had aimed only at the merit of humble diligence, we might have difmiffed him 'with as much applaufe as fuch inferior labours could demand. But he wished to appear as a biographer alfo ; and, in this line, he fcarcely deferves even the negative merit of being. correct. Some circumftances are mifreprefented, and many omitted; but the great defect is, that the author has become the analist rather than the biographer: the events of Garrick's life are coldly related, without a fingle hint at the motive or effect of any of his actions. His works, and the characters which he reprefented, are chronologically arranged, without one reflection on either; and the whole is concluded without the flightest attempt to characterise the actor or the man. Such is the dreary poverty of the introductory pages!

The poetry of our author confifts either of fongs, in the. different operas which he wrote projogues and epilogues,. which he feemed fpontaneously to have produced, with the

most happy humour; and a few occafional pieces. As poems,
they are light and elegant, rather than grand or fublime:
they are replete with humour, fancy, and often with wit: the
reigning folly is fatirifed with acutenefs and good temper,
rather than severity or malignity. We may truly apply to
him what was faid of Horace,

• Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
Tangit, & admiffus circum præcordia ludit,
Callidus exceffo populum fufpendere Nafo.'

There are few authors who have more fuccefsfully hit the Cynthia of the minute, the fashion, as it flies; there are few whofe turns are more happy, whofe allufions are more delicate, and whofe fatire is occationally more poignant.

The great event, in the life of Mr. Garrick, as an author, was the Jubilee at Stratford; and we mention it chiefly to mark the limits of his genius. The poetry, confeffedly his own, in the lighter and more fanciful parts, is admirably adapted to the fubject; while, in the others, it is deficient in the weight and dignity neceffary for a proper contraft. If it be not too light a comparison, we may fay that it was a feast of whipt-fyllabubs. Yet there is much genuine poetry in the following stanza.

O from his muse of fire

Could but one fpark be caught,

Then might thefe humble ftrains afpire
To tell the wonders he has wrought.
To tell,-how fitting on his magic throne,
Unaided and alone,

In dreadful ftate,

The fubject paflions round him wait;
Who tho' unchain'd, and raging there,
He checks, inflames, or turns their mad career;

With that fuperior skill,

Which winds the fiery fleed at will,

He gives the awful word—

And they all foaming, trembling, own him for their

lord.'

We have quoted this ftanza, because we think we may, at
leaft with fafety to Mr. Garrick's fame, bring near it, Mr.
Gray's beautiful lines, which, in Dr. J. Warton's opinion,
contain the most poetical compliment ever paid to Shakspeare.
If it be fuppofed a plagiarism, it is furely an allowable one,
This pencil take, fhe faid, whofe colours clear
Richly paint the vernal year;

Thine too thefe golden keys, immortal boy!
This can unlock the gates of joy;

Of

J

Of horror that, and thrilling fears,

Or ope the facred fource of fympathetic tears."

Mr. Garrick's poetry is too well known to render any particular quotation neceffary: but we ought not to difmifs thefe volumes without thanking the editor for preferving the Monody to Memory. It is placed, with fingular propriety, in the beginning of this collection. The following lines are particularly expreffive and beautiful; we cannot conclude our article with any thing more favourable to its fubject, and we would not conclude it without the most earnest with to preferve the Memorial,' and to fulfil the truft.'

The grace of action, the adapted mein,
Faithful as nature to the varied scene;

Th' expreffive glance, whofe fubtle comment draws
Entranc'd attention, and a mute applause ;

Gefture that marks, with force and feeling fraught,
A fenfe in filence, and a will in thought;
Harmonious fpeech, whofe pure and liquid tone
Gives verfe a mufick, fcarce confefs'd its own;
As light from gems affumes a brighter ray,

And, cloath'd with orient hues, tranfcends the day!
Paflion's wild break, and frown that awes the fenfe,
And ev'ry charm of gentler eloquence,

All perishable!-like th' electric fire

But ftrike the frame, and as they strike, expire;
Incense too pure a bodied flame to bear,

Its fragrance charms the fenfe, and blends with air.
• Where then, while funk in cold decay he lies,
And pale eclipfe for ever veils thofe eyes!

Where is the bleft memorial that enfures

Our Garrick's fame whofe is the truft? 'tis your's.'

M. Tullii Ciceronis Opera, cum Indicibus et variis Lectionibus. Oxonii è Typographio Clarendoniano. 10 Vols. 410. 51. 55.

THIS

HIS work is fplendid but not oftentatious, and does credit to the liberality of the Clarendon delegates, by whom the expence was fupported, and to the diligence of the editors, by whom the prefs was corrected. While, however, we commend the execution, we do not approve, indifcriminately and 'entirely, of the plan.

The text is profeffedly regulated by that of Olivet's edition. We are not among the admirers of the model which the Oxford editors have condefcended to follow, but we readily ad mit the exactnefs of the copy.

The