them I took it for granted, and thought I might safely take it for granted, that the passages which he had quoted from such and such authors were really in those authors; and could not have harboured a suspicion, that a man of any learning and ingenuity, for the sake of defaming the venerable dead, could have been guilty of such monstrous forgeries, as have since been proved upon him, and as he himself indeed has confessed. For a learned and ingenious Gentleman being at Oxford the last summer had the curiosity to search in the Bodleian library for some of these German and Dutch poets, who according to Mr. Lauder held out the lighted torch to Milton; and after searching in vain for Masenius and the Adamus Exul of Grotius, he was so fortunate as to find the same edition, that Mr. Lauder had quoted, of Staphorstius's Latin poem intitled Triumphis Pacis, on the conclusion of the peace between the States of Holland and the Commonwealth of England in 1655. It appears to be a prolix, as well as a wretched dull composition, and such as could not possibly have afforded any assistance to Milton: and it being one of Mr. Lauder's artifices in his quotations never to refer to particular places or pages, for the better direction of his readers, the Gentleman had the trouble of turning over the whole poem, and of examining page after page, before he could find the passages which Mr. Lauder had quoted; and upon comparing his quotations with the printed copy, he discovered to his surprise, that Mr. Lauder had

taken the liberty of omitting and inserting lines at pleasure, to make out a likeness; and particularly that the eight lines on marriage have no existence in Staphorstins, but were interpolated by Mr. Lauder; and well indeed might they bear a strong resemblance to Milton, Mr. Lauder having had the assurance to transcribe them word for word from the Latin translation of the Paradise Lost by Hog or Hogaeus, printed in 1690. This discovery incited the Gentleman to make farther researches, and farther researches produced more discoveries, which the Gentleman has fairly laid before the world in an excellent pamphlet lately published, and intitled Milton vindicated from the Charge of Plagiarism brought against him by Mr. Lauder, and Lauder himself convicted of several Forgeries and gross Impositions on the Public. In a letter humbly addressed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Bath. By John Douglass, M. A. Rector of Eton Constantine, Salop. Printed for A. Millar in the Strand. Such a vindication of Milton must be pleasing to every Briton, who hath any love for poetry, or any regard for the honour of his country and if Scotland suffers the mortification of seeing one of her sons guilty of bringing an injurious slander upon our country, she enjoys the satisfaction likewise of seeing another deserving of the highest commendation for refuting the calumny and wiping. the stain away: and there cannot be a better recommendation of the vindication, nor a stronger proof of its being well written, than its having brought

the Offender himself to a proper sense and acknow. ledgment of his various frauds and impositions upon the public. For Mr. Lauder, looking upon me, I suppose, as a person peculiarly interested in the fame and reputation of Milton, has been with me to plead guilty to the charge which Mr. Douglass has brought against him, and to beg pardon of me and of the public. And in the sorrow and sincerity of his heart he has made some farther confessions to me. For I told him plainly, that his forgeries had been detected in so many instances, that one could not help suspecting him in all the rest, and particularly in Masenius and Grotius, whose books for ought that appeared no body in England had seen besides himself: I thought that the merit of his Essay consisted chiefly in his quotations from the Adamus Exul of Grotius, which were more for his purpose than any others: but he had said himself (Essay, p. 49.) that he could not procure a printed copy of that tragedy either in Britain or Holland, and had only a transcript of it from Abraham Gronovius, keeper of the public library at Leyden: and I could assure him, that an extract of those passages was sent over to a gentleman in Holland, who was employed to inquire of Gronovius whether they were genuine or not; and therefore he might as well confess the truth himself, which would be known in a little time without his confession. He acknowledged that he had himself composed several verses, which he had quoted as from Grotius. I inquired particularly

after those verses so nearly resembling that passage

in Milton,

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven:

and he confessed that he had made those very verses, and indeed all which had any particular likeness to any thing in Milton. I expressed my suspicions likewise about Masenius, especially as he had lost the book so long ago, and as Mr. Douglass had proved that one of his quotations from Masenius, consisting of eight lines, was taken literally from the Latin translation of the Paradise Lost by Hogæus; and it was not probable that the same eight lines should be in Hogaus, and Masenius too. He owned honestly that they were not, nor several things which he had ascribed to Masenius. I asked particularly whether the word Pandemonium was in Masenius, for I had all along suspected that it was not, Concilium inferorum sive Pandamonium: and he acknowledged that it was an interpolation of his own. I questioned whether Masenius had enumerated the four blind poets,

Tiresius, Phineus, Thamyrisque, et magnus Ho

merus:

and he answered, that there was some foundation for that; Masenius had reckoned up three of them, and he had inserted the fourth and commonly I found, that when he had caused any thing to be printed in capital letters or Italic characters, as worthy of the

peculiar notice and observation of his readers, that was interpolated and forged by himself. Well might Mr. Lauder select this verse for the motto to his book,

Things unattempted yet in prose or rhime;

for though there have been frequent forgeries in the literary world, yet such as these I believe not only were never practised before, but were never at. tempted: but

aliter non fit, Avite, liber;

he had recourse to these artifices, as he himself confesses, because he plainly perceived that he could not otherwise have proved his point to the satisfaction of any body. But I forbear to aggravate matters. I would not inflame the reader's indignation. The man has already been sufficiently exposed, and expresses sorrow for his offence, and promises to make a public recantation, acknowledging his crimes, and begging pardon of the world: and though hẹ has entirely ruined his character as a man of probity, yet it must be said for him, that he has given some proofs of his abilities as a man of learning.

THOMAS NEWTON,

December 5,

1759.