and both he and his friends were more willing that Du Moulin fhould efcape than that he fhould be convicted of mistake.

In this fecond Defence he fhews that his eloquence is not merely fatirical; the rudeness of his invective is equalled by the groffnefs of his flattery. Deferimur, Cromuelle, "tu folus fuperes, ad te fumma noftrarum "rerum rediit, in te folo confiftit, infupera“bili tuæ virtuti cedimus cuncti, nemine vel

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obloquente, nifi qui æquales inæqualis ipfe "honores fibi quærit, aut digniori conceffos "invidet, aut non intelligit nihil effe in fo❝cietate hominum magis vel Deo gratum, "vel rationi confentaneum, effe in civitate "nihil æquius, utilius, quam potiri rerum

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digniffimum. Eum te agnofcunt omnes, "Cromuelle, ea tu civis maximus & * glo"riofiffimus, dux publici confilii, exercitum "fortiffimorum imperator, pater patriæ gef"fifti. Sic tu fpontanea bonorum omnium " & animitus miffa voce falutaris."

It may be doubted whether gloriofiffimus be here ufed with Milton's boafted purity. Res gloriofa is an illuftrious thing, but vir gloriofus is commonly a braggart, as in miles gloriofus. Dr. J.

Cæfar,

Cæfar, when he affumed the perpetual dictatorship, had not more fervile or more elegant flattery. A tranflation may fhew its fervility; but its elegance is lefs attainable. Having expofed the unfkilfulness or selfishness of the former government, "We were left," fays Milton, "to ourselves the whole na

tional intereft fell into your hands, and "fubfifts only in your abilities. To your "virtue, overpowering and refiftlefs, every "man gives way, except fome who, with"out equal qualifications, aspire to equal ho66 nours, who envy the diftinctions of merit greater than their own, or who have yet "to learn, that in the coalition of human fociety nothing is more pleafing to God, or

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more agreeable to reafon, than that the

highest mind fhould have the fovereign 16 power. Such, Sir, are you by general "confeffion; such are the things atchieved

by you, the greatest and most glorious of "our countrymen, the director of our pub"lick councils, the leader of unconquered "armies, the father of your country; for by "that title does every good man hail you, with fincere and voluntary praife."

Next year, having defended all that wanted defence, he found leisure to defend himself. He undertook his own vindication against More, whom he declares in his title to be justly called the author of the Regii Sanguinis clamor. In this there is no want of vehemence or eloquence, nor does he forget his wonted wit. "Morus es? an Momus? an

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uterque idem eft ?" He then remembers that Morus is Latin for a Mulberry-tree, and hints at the known transformation;

-Poma alba ferebat

Quæ poft nigra tulit Morus.

With this piece ended his controverfies : and he from this time gave himself up to his private ftudies and his civil employment.

As fecretary to the Protector he is fuppofed to have written the Declaration of the reafons for a war with Spain. His agency was confidered as of great importance; for when a treaty with Sweden was artfully fufpended, the delay was publickly imputed to Mr. Milton's indifpofition; and the Swedish agent was provoked to exprefs his wonder, that

only

only one man in England could write Latin, and that man blind.

Being now forty-feven years old, and feeing himself difencumbered from external interruptions, he feems to have recollected his former purposes, and to have refumed three great works which he had planned for his future employment: an epick poem, the hiftory of his country, and a dictionary of the Latin tongue.

To collect a dictionary, feems a work of all others least practicable in a state of blindnefs, because it depends upon perpetual and minute inspection and collation. Nor would Milton probably have begun it, after he had loft his eyes; but having had it always before him, he continued it, fays Philips, almoft to bis dying-day; but the papers were fo difcompofed and deficient, that they could not be fitted for the prefs. The compilers of the Latin dictionary, printed at Cambridge, had the use of those collections in three folios; but what was their fate afterwards is not known *.

Τα

* The Cambridge Dictionary, published in 4to 1693, # no other than a copy, with fome fall additions, of that

of

To compile a history from various authors, when they can only be confulted by other eyes, is not eafy, nor poffible, but with more skilful and attentive help than can be commonly obtained; and it was probably the difficulty of confulting and comparing that ftopped Milton's narrative at the Conqueft; a period at which affairs were not yet very intricate, nor authors very numerous.

For the fubject of his epick poem, after much deliberation, long chufing, and beginning

of Dr. Adam Littleton in 1685, by fundry perfons, of whom, though their names are concealed, there is great reafon to conjecture that Milton's nephew, Edward Philips, is one; for it is exprefsly faid by Wood, Fasti, vol. I. p. 266, that Milton's "Thefaurus" came to his hands; and it is afferted, in the preface thereto, that the editors thereof had the use of three large folios in manufcript, collected and digefted into alphabetical order by Mr. John Milton.

It has been remarked, that the additions, together with the preface abovementioned, and a large part of the title of the "Cambridge Dictionary," have been incorporated and printed with the fubfequent editions of "Littleton's "Dictionary," till that of 1735. Vid. Biogr. Brit. 2985, in not. So that, for aught that appears to the contrary, Philips was the laft poffeffor of Milton's MS. H.

late,