32 
Chaucer, in deference to his feniority, is 
appointed prefident, and enlarges, with 
great eloquence, upon the fine qualifica- 
tions, the learning, and genius of Milton, 
who, he obferves, had a right, now that his 
monument was’ereéted, to a feat in that 
affembly, which would receive addition 
of dignity from the admiffion of fuch a 
member, to which, for its own fake, he 
hopes no oppofition will be fhown.  ~ 
Cowley ftands up. At firft, his air is 
modeft, if not bafhful; but as ‘he preceeds, 
he gathers firehgth; until at laft he ries 
into “ great dignity, boch of aétion and 
language’ —lays,that he is extremely fenfi- 
ble of the trutas which the vencrable pre- 
fident has advanced in favour of Milron, 
for whom, were he to be regarded only as a 
poet, no voice fhould be more rcady than 
his owns but moral as weil as intellectual 
qualities, he humbly conceives, are necel- 
fary for confiltuting a member of that af- 
fembly; “ Toa loyaliy and duty to one’s 
prince may be jufily ranked among the mot 
eminent of all virtues, fince, without ther, 
amon muft be deftitute of the moft glorious 
pajfion that the human brea can be capable 
of veeciving, the love of on-’s country :”’ and 
after {peaking in praife of the patriotic paf- 
fion, and declaring the diflovaity of Milton, 
concludes (at which time, it 1s prefumed, 
the great dignity he arofe to was at the 
higheft) with faving, ‘6 I own I could not, 
authout borreur, endure to fee fuch a man fill 
a place in this auguft affenbly.” 
Such a man was then unfit for'that af- 
fembly, as his lateft biographer, with fo 
much truth, as well as what one would 
vith it ever fhould accompany, enchant- 
ing eloquence, has, to borrow his words, fo. 
“* highly and bolily accomplifoed !” 
No attempt at ridicule, we fee, by the 
great dignity attributed to him, is aimed 
at, by putting abfurdities in the mouth of 
Cowley ; whatever the aim may be in the 
title of the piece, “ THEAPOTHEOSIS OF 
MiILToN, A VISION. For fo it is point. 
ed; as if to indicate, tha’, as the apotheofis 
ef Milton isa vifion only, his {pirit has in 
reality gone in, what the author may 
conceive, a more congenial direction. 
Inftead of an apotheofis then, we have 
here rather a bear and a fiddle, as the nar- 
ration breaks off in the middle; for, after 
we are to!d that Cowley’s fpeech was re- 
ceived with a murmur, which fhowed 
that the. affembly was variovfly affeCied 
with what had been delivered, three lines 
of aftertks with a “cetera defunt” ter- 
minate the piece. 
Afterifks, to leave meaning doubtful or 
difguifed, fhould .net be ufed at all by 
Ug 
= 
Dr. Fohnfon’s Apothenfis of Mitton. 
[Jans 
fuch a moralift as Dr. Johnfon3 efpecially 
after their having been fo wickedly em- 
Pioyed by the hiftor:an of Dr.Slop.. — 
Tt mutt, however, be confefled, that, m 
this endeavour at fill diminifhing the ho- 
pour of “THE SLANDERED PaRa- 
MOUNT OF ENGLISH SONG,” the au- 
thor of “ The Rambler’ is more een- 
hitent than a brothér moralift, who, dike 
him, had fuffered paffion to fubdue his 
vietue, and couid with the fame pen'both 
dcify and deride. Die juneris,fays Tacitus, 
landationem ejus{Ciandii| Princeps [Nero | 
exorfus eft 5 oraiss a Seneca compofita: the 
oration was compoicd by that moralift who 
for once admitted a gleam of candour, and 
thought, perhaps, thongh in inverted 
order, of that defunét emperor’s faying 
to Britannicus, ** He that wounded thee 
fhall heal”?—s Tyueas weS2dic. W hether tit 
was given from candour or necefity—for 
being then Nero’s penfioner, he muft of 
courfe, mour di€tiionary-maker’s defini- 
tion of the word,be *¢ aflave of fate, hired 
by a ftipend to obey his mafter”—good 
matter of praife might this moralift have 
found ; for Claudius, though befotted, and 
as unfit for power as moft of thofe we read 
of, into whofe’hands it hasfallen, in the 
great game and chefs-play of the world, 
was a man Of as many mild virtues as he, 
who, now fo highly extolled’ for them, 
and in fo many points refembling Clau- 
dius, particularly as a hufband, if net as a 
{cholar, had the hard fate of being brought 
lately to the {caffold, for the praétice only 
of that duplicity which is fo generally al- 
lowed to belong to his calling, that it can- 
not, as one of Ciaudius’s predeceffors in 
the calling faid, be carried oa without it— 
“ Qu nefest diffimuiare nefcit regnare.”’ 
Cowley’s, or rather Johnfon’s, con- 
cifely expreffed argument againft the mo- 
rality cf Milton, would, fylliogiftically and 
paraphraftically put, be this: 
1. The love of one’s country is the 
moft glorious paffron that the human 
breaft can be capable of receiving—Su- 
perior then to what has been called, 
“The godlike attribute of the love of 
mankind,” which vulgar minds might 
think preferably intitled to fach a magni- 
ficent qualification—and fo neceffary as 
wellas great a virtpe isthe love of one’s 
country, that a man who is deftitute -of it, 
muft be deitituce alfo of morality. 
2. Buta man muft be deftitute of the 
love of his country, and confequently of 
morality, who is deftitute, as Miiton was,of 
loyalty and duty to his prince, juftly rank - 
‘ed among the moft eminent of all virtues, 
be that prince what or who he may ; 
whether 
