1798. ] 
whether his exiftence be a curfe to that 
country, which fuch aman as M. may 
pretend to love, and to be difloyal merely 
from that love, or a bleffing to it, as the 
prince from-his fituation ought to be, or 
he is paid highly toa bad purpofe; whe- 
ther, for inftance, he be a James the IId, 
whem the people had fo much reafon to 
deteft, as they did. or a George the IIId, 
whom the people have fo much reafon to 
love, as they do. 
3. Argal, would a grave-digger fay, 
and fay juftly from fuch premifes, but 
which are worthy only of the digger of 
a grave for the happinefs of the human 
race tomake—Argal, M. a man who was 
deftitute of loyalty and duty to his prince, 
and, confequently, deftirute of the love 
_ of his country, and of morality, is nota 
fit man to fill a place in this auguft a‘lem- 
bly. Q. E. D. Even the dean of Weft- 
minfter himfelf, withall his grave-diggers, 
muft, by denying the major and minor, 
annihilate the confequence and its trium- 
phant demonftration. 
The reader will judge if the words 
have been unfairly dealt with. He will 
likewife. exercife his ingenuity, it is 
hoped, to find, if he can, whether the 
matter may be mended by imputing to 
the printer any mifcollocation or omiffion 
of words, the be refource in thefe cafes 
of emergency, when we are furprized by 
moft unexpected and extraordinary things, 
It was of fingular ufe, to relieve the dif- 
trefs of the clergy, upon their recciving, 
in 1794, the occafional prayer from, but 
affuredly not as it came out of the hands 
of, authority. They were allamazed, and 
fome terrified, thofe of them, about nine- 
teen in twenty, who have fquabbles with 
their parifhioners, that might be avoided, 
if they would but ftarve contentedly 5. {fo 
equally well calculated is the tythe-ty{- 
tem fer the advancement of religion and 
’ virtue as of agriculrura) improvement, 
Little liable to fufpicion as one would 
think were the members of a hody fo 
properly and happily in alliance with the 
{tate, and, confequently, fuch faithful 
gyards of the powers that be, yet they 
were terrified, left they fhould be inform - 
ed agaiuft, and brought ro atrial for high 
treafon, as they, doubrlefs, might have 
been, more juftly than many by whom it 
has lately been undergone, if, before their 
refpeétivecongregations,they hidfolemuly 
ualified all chriftian kings qs impious and 
avowed blafphemers, which the prayer 
does at the very fetting-out, in thefe 
words, * Look down, from heayen, O 
Lord ! we befeceh thee, “and proteét ug 
Moxtuty Mxé: XBVIIe~~ | 
Dr. Fobnfan’s Apatheofis of Milton. 
* 
33 
againft the declared enemies of all chrifs 
tian kings, princes, and ftates! the impi- 
ous and avowed blafphemers of thy hole 
name ! &c.’’ where, the relative, ‘*blaf- 
phemers,” clearly belongs to the imme- 
diately antecedent -** kings,’ &c. But 
after they had carefully exercifed their 
judgments, and-difcovered that the prin- 
ter had omitted to repeat the propofition 
* avainft’’, before the words * the impis 
ous, &c.’’ they very laudably ventured to 
fupply it in their reading’; ticklith thing 
as it is to make any, the minuteft, alteras 
tion in aform of prayer, evento fay ‘ for 
Jefus Chrift’s fake’’ inftead of “ for Je- 
fus Chrift his fake,” that ancient barba> 
rifm fo univerfally praétifed before th 
Saxon genitive was underftood. . . rf 
Bur if the very curious argument to 
prove the immorality and unworthinefs 
of M. cannot be helped out by the fup- 
pofition of a typographical error, how . 
muft we deplore that the firong mental 
powers which the fabricator of that ar. 
gument certainly. had, and the fervent 
piety which he is faid to have had, were 
too weak to reftrain his envious malige 
nity from leading him, like a foul fiend, 
into fuch a bog of peerlefs paralogifms, 
or abfurd and perverfe blunders! It is 
remarkable enough here, that he not only 
fuffers the eulogies given by the prefident 
to the talents and genius of M. to pafs 
unqueftioned, but in his own fpeech, as 
that put into the mouth of Cowley may 
be fairly underitood, re-echoes them, and 
declares that no one fhould be more ready 
for his admiffion, were he to be regarded 
merely as a poet; for here his bufinefs 
was to deftroy him as a man. But in 
another pkice, in the Life of Philips,. as 
if he could not find room in the lon 
life he has written ef M. himfelf for all 
his detrattive farcafms, he is for de- 
ftroying him as a poet; by degrading his 
univerfally admired diétion; when he 
fays ** The Splendid S>illing has the un- 
common merit of an original defign, un- 
lefs it may be thought precluded by the an. 
cient Centos. To degrade the founding 
words and fiarely conftruétion of M, by an 
application to the loweft and moft trivial 
things, gratifics the mind with a momen- 
tary triumph over that grandeur, which 
bitherty bold its captives in admiration; 
the words and things are prefented with 
a new appearance, and novelty is always 
grateful where it gives no pain.” Yet 
this is but a weak expreffion of the fen. 
timent he would inculcate upon this fub- 
je€t, to. what he was wont to give with 
his living voice. For, from that charm- 
E ing 
