uncle, which merely proves, that they read more books than are usually read in our common schools; and that their diligent inftructor thought it advisable for boys, as they approach towards fixteen, to blend a little knowledge of the fciences with their Greek and Latin.

That he taught the familiar and useful doctrine of the Attic philofopher, even in his lighter poetry, we have a pleafing inftance in the following lines of his fonnet to Syriac Skinner, who was one of his fcholars :

"To measure life learn thou betimes and know

"Toward folid good what leads the nearest way."

But his brief treatise, addreffed to Hartlib, affords, perhaps, the best proof that his ideas of moral difcipline were perfectly in unison with those of Socrates; he fays, in that treatise, "I "call a complete and generous education that, "which fits a man to perform juftly, fkilfully, "and magnanimoufly, all the offices, both priક vate and public, of peace and war. Who can define a good education in terms more truly Socratic ?

Milton, however in his attachment to morality, forgot not the claims of religion; his Sundays were devoted to theology, and Johnson duly praises the care, with which he inftructed his scholars in the primary duties of men.

With a critic fo fincerely devout as Johnson unqueftionably was, we might have hoped that

the fublime piety of our author would have secured him from farcaftic attacks; but we have yet to notice two infults of this kind, which the acrimony of uncorrected fpleen has lavifled upon Milton as a preceptor.

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"From this wonder-working academy," fays the biographer, "I do not know that there ever proceeded any man very eminent for knowledge; "its only genuine product, I believe, is a fmall history of poetry, written in Latin by his nephew, of which, perhaps, none of my readers ever heard. The contemptuous spirit and the inaccuracy of this farcasm are equally remarkable. The scholars of Milton were far from being numerous. Can it be just to speak with derifion of a small academy, merely because it raises no celebrated author, when we confider how few of that description every nation produces? We know little of thofe, who were under the tuition of our poet, except his two nephews; these were both writers; and a biographer of Milton fhould not have utterly forgotten his oblition to Edward Philips, if he allowed no credit to his brother, for the fpirited Latin treatise in which that young man appeared as the defender of his uncle. But the ftriking inaccuracy of the critic confifts in not giving a juft account of a book that particularly claimed his attention Philips's Theatrum Poetarum, a book that, under a Latin title, contains in English a very comprehensive lift of poets, ancient and modern,

with reflections upon many of them, particularly thofe of our own nation. It is remarkable that this book was licensed Sep. 14, 1674, just two months before the death of Milton, and printed the following year. The author affigns an article both to his uncle and his brother. After enumerating the chief works of the former, he modeftly fays, "how far he hath revived the majefty and "true decorum of heroic poefy and tragedy, it will better become a perfon lefs related than myself to deliver his judgment.

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Though he here fuppreffes a defire to praise his most eminent relation, it burfts forth in an amiable manner, when he comes to speak of his brother; for he calls him, "the maternal nephew "and difciple of an author of moft deferved "fame, late deceased, being the exacteft of heroic poets (if the truth were well examined, and "it is the opinion of many, both learned and judicions perfons) either of the ancients or mo"derns, either of our own or whatever nation else.”

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I transcribe with pleasure this honeft and fimple eulogy; it does credit to the intelligence and affection of the poet's difciple, and it in fome measure vindicates the good fenfe of our country, by fhowing that in the very year of Milton's decease, when fome writers have fuppofed that his poetical merit was almoft utterly unknown, there were perfons in the nation, who understood his full value.

Let us return to the author in his little academy, and the fecond farcaftic infult, which his biographer has bestowed upon him as the master

of a school. The lodging in which he fettled, on his arrival from the continent, was foon exchanged for a more fpacious house and garden, in Alderfgate-street, that fupplied him with conveniencies for the reception of scholars on this occafion Johnson exclaims, "let not our venera"tion for Milton forbid us to look with fome

:

degree of merriment on great promises and "fmall performance; on the man who haftens "home, because his countrymen are contending "for their liberty, and, when he reaches the "scene of action, vapors away his patriotism "in a private boarding-school.

To excite merriment by rendering Milton ridiculous for having preferred the pen to the sword was an enterprise that surpassed the powers of Johnson; the attempt affords a melancholy proof how far prejudice may mislead a very vigorous understanding. What but the blind hatred of bigotry could have tempted one great author to deride another, merely for having thought that he might serve his country more effentially by the rare and highly cultivated faculties of his mind, than by the ordinary fervice of a foldier. But let us hear Milton on this fubject. We have this obligation to the malice of his contempora ries, that it led him to speak publicly of himself, and to relate, in the most manly and explicit manner, the real motives of his conduct.

Speaking of the English people, in the commencement of his Second Defence

he

fays it was the juft vindication of their laws "and their religion, that neceffarily led them "into civil war; they have driven fervitude from "them by the molt honorable arms; in which "praise, though I can claim no perfonal fhare, yet I can easily defend myself from a charge "of timidity or indolence, should any such be "alledged against me; for I have avoided the "toil and danger of military life only to render my country affistance more useful, and not "lefs to my own peril, exerting a mind never dejected in adversity never influenced by "unworthy terrors of detraction or of death;

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* Quos non legum contemptus aut violatio in effrænatam licentiam effudit;. non virtutis & gloriæ falfa fpecies, aut ftulta veterum æmulatio inani nomine libertatis incendit, fed innocentia vitæ morumque fanctitas rectum atque folum iter ad libertatem veram docuit, legum & religionis juftiffima defenfio neceffario armavit. Atque illi quidem Deo perinde confifi, fervitutem honeftiffimis armis pepulere : cujus laudis etfi nullam partem mihi vindico, a reprehenfione tamen vel timiditatis vel ignaviæ, fi qua infertur, facile me tueor. Neque enim militiæ labores & pericula fic defugi, ut non alia ratione, & operam, multo utiliorem, nec minore cum periculo meis civibus navarim, & animum dubiis in rebus neque demiffum unquam, neque ullius invidiæ, vel etiam mortis plus æquo metuentem præftiterim. Nam cum ab adolefcentulo humanioribus effem ftudiis, ut qui maxime deditus, & ingenio femper quam corpore validior, posthabita caftrenfi opera, qua me gregarius quilibet robuftior facile fuperaffet, ad ca me contuli, quibus plus potui; ut parte mei meliore ac potiore, fi faperem, non deteriore, ad rationes patriæ, caufamque hanc præftantiffimam, quantum maxime poffem momentum accederem.