Auspice te, fugiens alieni subcuba lecti, CITATION VI. Essay, page 109. Cœlestes animæ ! sublimia templa tenentes, INTERPOLATION IN FOX. Essay, page 116. Tu Psychephone Hypocrisis esto, hoc sub Francisci pallio. Tu Thanate, Martyromastix re & nomine sies. Altered thus, Tu Pyschephone! Hypocrisis esto; hoc sub Francisci pallio, INTERPOLATION IN QUINTIANUS. Mic. Cur huc procaci veneris cursu refer? INTERPOLATION IN BEZA. Essay, page 119. Stygemque testor, & profunda Tartari, Nisi impediret livor, & queis prosequor Odia supremum numen, atque hominum genus, Pietate motus hinc patris, & hinc filii, Possem parenti condolere & filio, Quasi exuissem omnem malitiam ex pectore. INTERPOLATION IN FLETCHER. Nec tamen æternos obliti (absiste timere) *For facile, the word volupe was substituted in the Essay. Nec fas; non sic deficimus, nec talia tecum Ne dubita, numquam fractis hæc pectora, numquam INTERPOLATIONS IN TAUBMAN. Essay, page 132. Tune, ait, imperio regere omnia solus; et una Ut nequeam relevare caput, colloque superbum Essay, page 152. Throni, dominationes, principatus, virtutes, potestates, is said to be a line borrowed by Milton from the title-page of Heywood's Hierarchy of 66 Angels." But there are more words in Heywood's title; and, according to his own arrangement of his subjects, they should be read thus:-Seraphim, cherubim, throni, potestates, angeli, archangeli, principatus, dominationes. These are my interpolations, minutely traced without any arts of evasion. Whether from the passages that yet remain, any reader will be convinced of my general assertion, and allow, that Milton had recourse for assistance to any of the authors whose names I have mentioned, I shall not now be very diligent to enquire, for I had no particular pleasure in subverting the reputation of Milton, which I had myself once endeavoured to exalt*; and of which, the foundation had always remained untouched by me, had not my credit and my interest been blasted, * Virorum maximus-JoANNES MILTONUS-Poeta celeberrimus-non Angliæ modo, soli natalis, vérum generis humani ornamentum-cujus eximius liber, Anglicanis versibus conscriptus, vulgo PARADISUS AMISSUS, immortalis illud ingenii monumentum, cum ipsa ferè æternitate perennaturum est opus!Hujus memoriam Anglorum primus, post tantum, proh dolor! ab tanti excessu poetæ intervallum, statua eleganti in loco celeberrimo, cœnobio Westmonasteriensi, posita, regum, principum, or thought to be blasted, by the shade which it cast from its boundless elevation. About ten years ago, I published an edition of Dr. Johnston's translation of the "Psalms," and having procured from the general assembly of the church of Scotland, a recommendation of its use to the lower classes of grammar-schools, into which I had begun to introduce it, though not without much controversy and opposition; I thought it likely that I should, by annual publications, improve my little fortune, and be enabled to support myself in freedom from the miseries of indigence. But Mr. Pope, in his malevolence to Mr. Benson, who had distinguished himself by his fondness for the same version, destroyed all my hopes by a distich, in which he places Johnston in a contemptuous comparison with the author of " Paradise Lost."* 66 antistitum, illustriumque Angliæ virorum cæmeterio, vir ornatissimus, Gulielmus Benson prosecutus est. upon Poetarum Scotorum Muse Sacræ in præfatione, Edinb. 1739. A character, as high and honourable as ever was bestowed him by the most sanguine of his admirers! and as this was my cool and sincere opinion of that wonderful man formerly, so I declare it to be the same still, and ever will be, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary, occasioned merely by passion and resentment; which appear, however, by the Postscript to the Essay, to be so far from extending to the posterity of Milton, that I recommend his only remaining descendant, in the warmest terms, to the public. * On two unequal crutches prop'd he came MILTON'S on this, on that one JOHNSTON's name. + Benson.] This man endeavoured to raise himself to fame, by erecting monuments, striking coins, and procuring translations of Milton; and afterwards by a great passion for Arthur Johnston, |