JOHN MILTON. 



tory, a national epopea, were the two everlasting possessions which 

 he aspired to bestow upon his country. 



The " Discourse of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, and Toleration," 

 has this of objectionable that it proposes to withhold toleration from 

 popery, under the insufficient pretext that papists necessarily form a 

 pernicious foreign faction, bearing allegiance to the Roman see, not 

 to the national metropolis. 



te A Brief History of Muscovy." This is one of the many proofs of 

 Milton's great attention, while he was in fact secretary of state, to 

 the commercial and prospective interests of Great Britain. He has 

 here condensed and promulgated that information concerning Russia 

 which the age could supply, with a view to predispose the govern- 

 ment and the people here to cultivate a friendly, profitable, and civi- 

 lizing intercourse with that vast empire. 



" The Letters of State." The various state papers here collected, 

 exhibit the strong sympathies of the republican government, with the 

 private and personal interests of the subject, and with the European 

 interests of protestantism. Almost every letter is to solicit redress 

 from the courts of international law, or to heal differences hostile to 

 the protestant interest. This plain policy is wise and great : the 

 subjects of a state can every where conduct concerns to more advan- 

 tage, if assured of the ready interference of the supreme power to 

 protect them from wrong ; and a nation can in no way so well aspire 

 to the rank of a leading power in Europe, as by heading one of the 

 great European parties, and taking in tow the adherent potentates or 

 the adherent population. 



Then follow the Latin works of Milton. Of the Prolusiones 

 Oratoriae, the best is that entitled " Beatiores reddit homines ars 

 quam ignorantia." To these orations succeeds a system of logic, ac- 

 commodated to that of Ramus, of whose life Milton has given a 

 sketch. 



A translation of the " Second Defence of the People of England," 

 by Mr. Robert Fellowes, comes next, but why separated by so long 

 an interval from the translation of the first, we cannot divine. To 

 all the merits of the first, this superadds the interesting character of 

 mingling more among men. The leaders of the British revolution 

 are marshalled in proud array ; their several features are sketched in 

 that heroic style of delineation, to which the sublime fancy of Milton 

 was accustomed. The panegyric of Cromwell is peculiarly well 

 managed : it is a model of what Lord Bacon calls laudendo prcecipere ; 

 and under the pretext of telling the Protector what he is, puts him in 

 mind of what he should be. In the scented robe of flattery, truth is 

 ushered into the very presence-chamber of power. The translation 

 does great honour to the pen of Mr. Fellowes. 



The last division comprises a translation of thirty-one familiar 

 Epistles, as they are called ; they are chiefly parade letters to men of 

 celebrity, intended to be shewn about among the learned, and com- 

 posed with all the anxiety of a sonnet. They want that idiosyncrasy 

 which constitutes the charm of correspondence ; they do not display 

 Milton in undress, but Milton in court-dress, When Johnson com- 

 posed a paper for " The Rambler," he employed an eloquence so 



