of Edinburgh, Session 1880 - 81 . 159 
quaker, acted as his reader after his blindness, and says : — -“ At my 
first sitting to him, observing that I used the English pronunciation, 
he told me if I would have the benefit of the Latin tongue, not 
only to understand and read Latin authors, but to converse with 
foreigners, abroad or at home, I must have the foreign pronuncia- 
tion, ” and accordingly Milton proceeded to teach him what I fancy 
our old High School masters taught us — a striking testimony from so 
great a master of the language. 
Altogether this treatise, of which I now take my leave, does not 
rise to the height of the great argument, clever and entertaining as 
it is. One or two noble sentiments in praise of liberty are to be 
found scattered up and down its pages ; and its power is undeniable, 
in its own style, but it is captious and hypercritical. Butler, who 
was a strong royalist, was not without reason when he wrote : — 
“Some polemics use to draw their swords 
Against the language only, and the words, 
As he who fought at barriers with Salmasius, 
Engaged with nothing but his style and phrases, 
Waived to assert the murder of a prince, 
The author of false Latin to convince.” 
Fortunately Milton’s mighty name rests on a more enduring and 
firmer pedestal. Yet in this work we may see combined his love 
for those two companions of whom he says 
“ In thy light hand lead with thee 
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty, 
And if I give thee honour due, 
Mirth, admit me of thy crew.” 
I. must, however, try to draw this essay to a conclusion. There 
were published about this time two other political treatises of some 
celebrity — the first Hobbes’s “Leviathan,” and the second, Harring- 
ton’s political romance, entitled “Oceana.” But I do not stop to 
analyze them, because their views are too fanciful for practical affairs. 
Hobbes would have none of the democratic element. Democracy, 
he maintained, had not even the merit of being the government of 
the many, but was merely the government of half-a-dozen orators. 
Harrington, on the other hand, is all for a Commonwealth ; and he 
sketches in considerable detail, and with great ingenuity and 
acuteness, his ideal constitution for “Oceana.” One peculiarity of it 
was that the elections were to be taken by ballot. His book was 
VOL. XI. 
X 
