. 
4799-] 
tant refemblance to it, I can only feel 
the emotion of furprife at fo very ftrange 
an affertion. Satire has, undoubtedly, 
Great latitude; but it may be.a queftion 
whether, even in a fatirical compofition, 
it is perfectly juftifiable, in order to make 
aman a proper object of attack, to affrm, 
that when he calls an ation vicious, he 
means virtuous; when he {peaks of evil, 
he means good. Yet, without fome 
{uch converlion of terms, I am at a lofs 
to conjecture how Mr. D. can make out, 
that I have ever faid’a fingle fyllable in 
favour of war. If Mr. D. has any can- 
dour, he muft acknowledge, that, from 
inadvertence, or fome other caufe, he has 
in this inftance been guilty of a more pal- 
pable mifreprefentation than any which 
he imputes to the author of the ‘* Purfuits 
of Literature.” 
_ It is my intention at a future time to 
enlarge and illaftrate, by a greater num- 
ber of faéts, the principal part of the 
£¢ Efjay on Population 3° and, 2s the fub- 
jet of the two: laft chapters is not necef- 
farily conneéted with it, I fhall, in de- 
ference to the opinion of fome friends 
whole judgments I refpeét, omit them in 
another edition. J fhould rather with, 
therefore, the fubject to reft: but, in an- 
fwer to Mr. D.’s irenical obfervations, 
I cannot help begging him to reflect for a 
moment, if ever he thinks upon thefe 
fubjeéts, whether it is more derogatory 
to the Deity, to fuppofe that an immor- 
tal fpirit may require fome time or pro- 
cefs for its formation; or, to fuppofe 
that man might be placed at once in the 
moft exalted ftate of happinels, exafly 
jn the fame manner formed to, or con- 
firmed in virtae, as if he had paffed with 
approbation through this life; but that 
the Supreme Being faw with fatisfaction 
the toil, the tears, the pains, the conti- 
nual failure of numbers, in this world, 
and was plealed with the fpeétacle of uz- 
neceffary evil? 
Author of the ** Effay on the Principles 
March t, 1799: of Population.” 

Jo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
MR. EDITOR, 
SROM an unauthenticated report of 
Aubrey, the antiquary, in an un- 
publifhed MS. of the Afimolear mufeum, 
and an apparent corroboration in fome 
Latin verfes of Milton's elegies, this 
great genius is concluded to have fuffered 
flagellation whillt a ftudent at Cambridge : 
and this foolifh tale is moft eagerly em- 
braced and exaggerated by Mr. Warton 
Mr. Wakefield on the Flagellation of Milton. 
~< 
179 
in his edition of Milton’s fmaller poems, 
and by Dr. Johnion in his “ Life of Mil- 
ton,” trom the pleafure derived by thefe 
two gentlemen in attempting to degrade 
a Cambridge man and a republican. As 
to Aubrey’s ftory, it muit be left to its 
own merits, and the proportionate cre- 
dulity of the reader. Milton’s verfes are 
thefé, “in Ele. i. ver. 11. 
Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revifere Ca- 
mum, 
Nec dudun vetiti me laris angit amor: 
Mec duri libet uigue minas perferre magiftri, 
Ceiteraque, ingenio non fubeunda meo. 
That fome circumttance, different from 
riffiication, either of dome{tic avocation, 
bodily indifpofition, or fome other impe- 
diment, not now difcoverable, is intended 
in the firf? difiich, I conclude from the 
dates of his admiffion, Feb. 12, 1624-5, 
and his two degrees, 1628-9 and 1632, 
by which there is no appearance of any 
lofs of terms; and from an unwillingnefs 
which every man muit feel to the publi- 
cation of his own difgrace: for certainly 
a punifhment from fuch a fociety as Chrift’s 
college is at that time reprefented to 
have becn by Milton himfelf, would have 
been difzraceful to any man. And that 
reader maft have very little acquaintance 
with Milton’s profe works, and the uni- 
form fpirit of the man through life, who 
cannot fee in college jobations, and impo- 
fiions, and firmal exercifes, and rigorous 
exactions of a regular attendance at chapel, 
an adequate explanation of the /econd di- 
fitch. ‘ 
How long the jigging difcipline was 
continued at Oxford, or whether it be- 
exerciled at thts day, I know not; but 
its prevalence at Cambridge, fo as to 
render a public flagellation of Milton cre- 
dible, is muca difcountenanced by a paf- 
fage in ‘* Gardiner’s Letter to Cheke,” fo 
far back as June 1542, towards the con- 
clufion. ‘* Puerilem denique temeritatem, 
fi quid publice aufa fuerit, DOMI APUD 
SUOS CASTIGARI curato.”’ 
But to thofe who have well confidered 
the magnanimity and fandity of Milton’s - 
character, the following pafflage ‘muf be © 
regarded as a fufhcient refutation of all 
unauthenticated furmifes to his difcredit. 
“Proje Works,” pp.174, 175. edit. Am- 
fterdam. 
<<] muf be thought, if this libeller can 
find belief, after an inordinate and riotous 
youth fpent at the univerfity, to have been 
at length womited ovt there. For which com- 
modious lie, that he may be encouraged in 
the trade another time, I thank him; for it 
hath given me an apt occafion to acknow- 
ledge 
