trymen with his fword than he did with

his

pen *?

Philips informs us, that Milton arrived in England from his travels about

the time of the King's making his fe"cond expedition against the Scots † ;"

Neque enim militiæ labores et pericula fic

defugi, ut non alia ratione, et operam multo uti'liorem, nec minore cum periculo, meis civibus navârim, et 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, et ingenio femper quam corpore validior, pofthabita caftrenfi opera, qua me gregarius quilibet robuftior facile fuperâffet, ad ea 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.

Miltoni Defenfio fecunda pro Populo Angli

cano, p. 366. vol. II. of Baron's edition of his profe-works.

Philips, p. xvi.

and

and fo fay Toland, Newton, &c; and it was in the very fame year that Milton published his Difcourfes of Reformation in two books, founded on the fame principles of liberty for which his countrymen were contending in the camp.

The fame Mr. Philips fays, that within the first two years that Milton inhabited the houfe which the new narrative dignifies with the name of boardingSchool, he fet out not only the tract above-mentioned, but likewise the sevetal treatises against Prelatical Epifcopacy, on the Reafon of Church-Govern

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*The expreffion was familiar to this writer: "At Edial, near Litchfield, in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are boarded, and taught the Latin and Greek Languages, by SAMUEL "JOHNSON."

Advertisement in Gent. Mag. 1736, p. 428.

ment,

ment, Defence of Smectymnus, and

others.

Dr. Johnson will hardly deny that these patriotic pieces vapoured beyond the environs of Milton's boarding-school, even perhaps to the warmest Scene of action, the Commons' House of Parliament: nor can we think he will (except in a fit of merriment) call them small performances, with refpect to their effects; as he himself must know by experience the fervice that political pamphlets do to the faction their authors adhere to, when feasonably published. The merit of the faction, or of the author, is out of the question. We believe it will not be difputed, that Milton was as valuable a writer to the party he

efpoufed,

efpoufed, as Dr. Johnfon is to the prefent administration, though not (at the time referred to) bought with a price.

The Doctor. fays, This is a part of "his life from which all his biographers "feem inclined to fhrink. They are un"willing that Milton fhould be degrad❝ed to a school-mafter; but fince it can"not be denied that he taught boys, one

દ

finds out that he taught for nothing; "and another, that his motive was only "zeal for the propagation of learning; "and all tell what they do not know to "be true, only to excufe an act which no "wife man will confider as in itself dif

graceful. His father was alive, his ૯ "allowance was not ample, and he fup

plied its deficiences by an honest and "ufeful employment."

This is faid with more confidence than the Doctor's careleffnefs in confulting Milton's Biographers will justify. Philips is not one and another; and he is the only original from whom those who have apologised for Milton's employment in teaching youth have copied.

Whether Toland knew the particulars of Milton's motives, must be left to God and his own confcience; but to say that "Milton had no fordid or mercenary "purposes" will not imply that he taught for nothing,

Milton's friends are obliged to Dr. Johnfon for doing credit to his fuppofed occupation of a schoolmaster; but To

4

land