Particularly of the LETTER : 21TMA. 15* 



There feems, however, to be no good reafon either for ap- 

 plauding or condemning the found of this letter in the extreme. 

 Paflages have been already quoted from Euripides and Cicero, 

 which, if read with attention, muft convince every one, that 

 its frequent recurrence is difagreeable to the ear, though that 

 circumftance feems to have efcaped the notice of the authors 

 themfelves in compofing thofe fentences. But Milton has, 

 with manifeft defign, availed himfelf of the difcordant found 

 produced by fuch a repetition, and that with powerful effect, in 

 the following verfes, where Satan, when defcribed as having 

 arrived at Pandaemonium, and in a boafting manner related his 

 fuccefs againft Man, is received by his infernal audience with a 

 general hifs. 



So 



poets of ignorance who defpife this letter, he puts the queftion, '* Have not I now faid- 

 " enough, Lipsius, about the fondroefs and refpeft: which the ancients had for this I et- 

 " ter ? — Yes, quite enough." 



This Dialogue betwixt Lipsius and Muretus, is dedicated to the renowned Sir Philip 

 Sidney. The fcene is laid on theQuirinal, in a garden .belonging to the fplendid Hippo- 

 lytus of Efte, the patron of Muretus. Lipslus repre/ents. himfelf as a young man on 

 his travels at Rome, poflefling an ardent defire of knowledge. Having paid a vifit at 

 the apartments occupied by Muretus in the houfe of his patrop, he was fhewed into the 

 garden, where he found that accomplifhed fcholar fo deeply engaged in reading, as for. 

 Tome time to pay no attention to the approach of the ltranger. The book he had in his 

 hand happened to b& a work of Lipsius himfejf, entitled Variix, which had been lately 

 publifhed at Antwerp. A pleafing defcnption of this interview is given by Lipsius in 

 the commencement of the Dialogue, " Cubiculum ejus cum pu/fajfe/e," &x. They af- 

 terwards enter upon the proper fubjeft of the piece, in which Muretus is reprefented as 

 the principal Ipeaker. But the ftyle, in point of elegance, is far inferior to what 

 Muretus would have really made ufe of. The work indeed is confefledly the composi- 

 tion of Lipsius, whofe Latinity, though he was one of the ableft critics of the fixteenth> 

 century, has with juftice been cenfured. His merit was fuch, however, that even his ftyle 

 procured a numerous tribe of imitators. But no modern writer of Latin has furpafled 

 the elegance of Muretus. His orations in particular, in point of eafe and fluency of 

 #spreffion, may perhaps even vie with thofe of Cicero. It muft give every, fcholar 

 pleafure to hear, that the celebrated Ruhnkenius of Leyden, is at prefent engaged in 

 preparing for the prefs a new and complete edition of the works of Muretus. " 11 faut 

 " (fays Bayle) bien aimer les mauvais modeles quand on eft capable de preferer le 

 " ftyle de Lipse a celui de Paul Manuce, ou a celui de Muret j un ftyle qui va par 

 u fauts, et par bonds, herifle de pointes et d'ellipfes, a.un ftyle bien, lie et coulant, et qui 

 v develope toute la penf&e." Di&~ /Irtic. Lipse, Not. [L.] 



