[ ^9 ] 



are they to ranfack, to be enabled to perufe the writings of 

 Johnfon without frequent recourfe to his didionary ? Nor has 

 this wilful exclufion of the unlearned readers ferved as a means 

 of conciliating the favour of the learned, who, though they 

 underftand Latin, in an Englifn work exped to find Englilh ; 

 and whatever may be the peculiarities of their own ftile, are 

 forward enough to difcover and reprobate thofe of others. 



Thus Dr. Johnfon obferves, that Milton formed his ftile on 

 a perverfc and pedaniic principle : he was defirous " to ufe Englifh 

 " words with a forc'gn idiom." But JVIilton's poetry, if indeed 

 a defence be ncceiTaiy, is fufficiently defended by eftablifhed 

 poetic licenfe : and for his profe, let it be obferved, that his 

 fubjeds were learned, and I may fay technical, and his readers 

 of fuch defcription as left it matter of indifference whether they 

 fhould be addrefl'ed in Englilli or in Latin : that he was en- 

 gaged in repeated controverfies with foreigners, and his works 

 defigned to perfecute the fortunes of the exiled monarch over 

 the continent, and written, in fomc fort officially, by the Latin 

 fecretary to Cromwell. But furely that principle, which has led 

 Johnfon to feek for remote words, though with the Englifh idiom, 

 is no lefs pedantic than Milton's, and much more injurious by its 

 obfcurity. The reader who knows the fingle words may perhaps 

 be able to overcome the difficulties of the arrangement, but for 

 ignorance of the fingle words no remedy can with efficacy be 

 applied. Johnfon has befides no peculiarity of fituation to plead 

 in excufe, but has on the contrary adopted his pedantic principle 

 againfl: the difl"uafive influence of circumflances. From the 

 writer of an Englifli didionary, there might reafonably be ex- 



peded 



