'

fituation, would neceffarily have implied his conftant endeavour to attain the greatnefs and fuperiority he envied. His addreffes to the Parliament are undeniable teftimonies of his readiness to fubmit to every ordinance of man which was not a terror to good works; and the only dif

ference between Milton's fyftem of government and Dr. Johnson's is, that the former feated the laws above the King;

and the latter enthrones the monarch

above the laws.

Some portions of common fenfe how

ever are yet left

among us. Witness the following remark, tranfcribed from the news-paper above cited.

"With what emphafis do minifters "and men in power pronounce the words

ૐ

SERVICE and OBEY! and how great and

refpectable do they think themfelves

L

** when they fay, THE KING MY MASTER Todi pt

**They defpife the republicans, who

* only are free, and who are certainly more noble than they.

In conclufion, the good Doctor turns evesdropper; and, to warn the public against the principles of the mifcreant Milton, condefcends to inform us of what paffed in the domeftic privacies of his family. "Milton's character, in his "domeftic relations, was fevere and arbitrary." How does he know this? His family confifted of women," he "and there appears, in his

you,

tells "books, fomething like a Turkish con88 tempt of females, as fubordinate and

❝ in

inferior beings." A moft heinous of fence! enough to mufter the whole multitude of English Amazons againft Kim. But the question is not concerning what is in his books, but what passed in his kitchen and parlour. We want inftances; and here they are: "That his

own daughters might not break the «ranks, he suffered them to be depreffed by a mean and pemurious educa * tion."

The impudence of Belial would be abafhed at fo grofs a mifreprefentation. Milton's daughters grew impatient of reading what they did not understand; this impatience "broke out more and "more into expreffions of uneafiness." What had they how to expect from their Turkish

Turkish father? what! but ftripes and imprisonment in a dark chamber, and a daily pittance of bread and water. No fuch matter. They were relieved from their task, and "fent out to learn fome "curious and ingenious forts of manu"facture that were proper for women "to learn, particularly imbroideries in "gold and filver *." And how far this branch of education was from being either mean or penurious in those days, the remains of these curious and ingenious works, performed by accomplished females of the highest and noblest extraction, testify to this very day.

To account for this tyranny of Milton over his females, the Doctor fays, "He

Philips, p. xliii.

"thought

"thought woman made only for obe"dience, and man only for rebel

"lion *."

In the first member of this quaint antithefis the Doctor perhaps did not guess far amiss at Milton's thought. He seems to have been of St. Paul's opinion, that "women were made for obedience." But Paul and Milton had different ideas of rebellion from thofe of Dr. Johnson. That Prynne, Burton, and Baftwick, were rebels in Dr. Johnfon's fcale, no one can doubt. And yet they had cer tainly an equal right to infift upon the privileges of Englishmen against Dr. Laud and his affeffors, as Paul had to plead those of a Roman citizen against *Life, p. 144.

the