REASON Only would be heard. He knew that the republican form of government, having little or no complication, and no confonance of parts by a nice mechanism forming a regular whole, was too fimple to be beautiful even in theory. In practice it, perhaps, never exifted. In its most flourishing state, at Athens, Rome, and Carthage, it was a constant scene of tumult and commotion. From the mifchiefs of a wild democracy, the progress has ever been to the dominion of an aristocracy; and the word aristocracy fatally includes the boldest and most turbulent citizens, who rise by their crimes, and call themselves the best men in the state. By intrigue, by cabal, and faction, a pernicious oligarchy is fure to fucceed, and end at last in the tyranny of a fingle ruler. Tacitus, the great master of political wisdom, faw, under the mixed authority of king, nobles, and people, a better form of government than Milton's boasted republic; and what Tacitus admired in theory, but defpaired of enjoying, Johnson faw established in this country. He knew that it had been overturned by the rage of frantic men; but he knew that, after the iron rod of Cromwell's ufurpation, the conftitution was once more restored

m 3

restored to its firft principles. Monarchy was established, and this country was regene

rated. It was regenerated a fecond time at the Revolution: the rights of men were then defined, and the bleffings of good order and civil liberty have been ever fince diffused through the whole community.

The peace and happiness of society were what Dr. Johnson had at heart. He knew that Milton called his Defence of the Regicides a defence of the people of England, but, however gloffed and varnished, he thought it an apology for murder. Had the men, who, under a fhow of liberty, brought their king to the fcaffold, proved by their subsequent conduct, that the public good infpired their actions, the end might have given fome fanction to the means; but ufurpation and flavery followed. Milton undertook the office of fecretary under the defpotic power of Cromwell, offering the incenfe of adulation to his mafter, with the titles of Director of public Councils, the Leader of unconquered Armies, the Father of his Country. Milton declared, at the fame time, that nothing is more pleafing to God, or more agreeable to reafon, than

that

that the highest mind should have the fovereign power. In this ftrain of fervile flattery Milton gives us the right divine of tyrants. But it feems, in the fame piece, he exhorts Cromwell "not to defert thofe great principles of liberty which he had profeffed to efpoufe; for, "it would be a grievous enormity, if, after having fuccefsfully oppofed tyranny, he "should himself act the part of a tyrant, and

66

betray the cause that he had defended." This desertion of every honest principle the advocate for liberty lived to fee. Cromwell acted the tyrant; and, with vile hypocrify, told the people, that he had confulted the Lord, and the Lord would have it fo. Milton took an under part in the tragedy. Did that become the defender of the people of England? Brutus faw his country enslaved; he struck the blow for freedom, and he died with honour in the caufe. Had he lived to be a fecretary under Tiberius, what would now be faid of his memory?

But still, it seems, the prostitution with which Milton is charged, fince it cannot be defended, is to be retorted on the character of Johnson.

Johnson. For this purpose a book has been published, called Remarks on Dr. Johnson's Life of Milton; to which are added Milton's Tractate of Education, and Areopagitica. In this laboured tract we are told, "There is one "performance afcribed to the pen of the "Doctor, where the prostitution is of so fin

66

gular a nature, that it would be difficult to "felect an adequate motive for it out of the "mountainous heap of conjectural caufes of "human paffions or human caprice. It is the "fpeech of the late unhappy Dr. William Dodd, when he was about to hear the fen

"tence of the law pronounced upon him, in "confequence of an indictment for forgery. "The voice of the publick has given the ho"nour of manufacturing this fpeech to Dr.

66

Johnfon; and the ftyle and configuration "of the speech itself confirm the imputation. "But it is hardly poffible to divine what "could be his motive for accepting the of"fice. A man, to express the precise state of "mind of another, about to be destined to an 'ignominious death for a capital crime, "should, one would imagine, have fome con"sciousness, that he himself had incurred

66

4.

"fome

"fome guilt of the fame kind." In all the schools of fophiftry is there to be found so vile an argument? In the purlies of Grub-street is there fuch another mouthful of dirt? in the whole quiver of Malice is there fo envenomed a shaft?

After this it is to be hoped, that a certain class of men will talk no more of Johnson's malignity. The last apology for Milton is, that he acted according to his principles. But Johnfon thought thofe principles deteftable; pernicious to the conftitution in Church and State, deftructive of the peace of fociety, and hostile to the great fabric of civil policy, which the wisdom of ages has taught every Briton to revere, to love, and cherish. He reckoned Milton in that clafs of men, whom the Roman hiftorian fays, when they want, by a fudden convulfion, to overturn the government, they roar and clamour for liberty; if they fucceed, they deftroy liberty itself. Ut imperium evertant, Libertatem præferunt ; fi perverterint, libertatem ipfam aggredientur. Such were the sentiments of Dr. Johnson; and it may be asked, in the language of Bolingbroke,

"Are