agree with them, if they had been difperfed only among thofe, who were thoroughly acquainted with our principles and our conduct; but, how were strangers to discover the falfe affertions of our adverfaries? When proper pains have been taken to make the vindication as extenfive as the calumny I think that they will ceafe to think ill of us, and that he will be afhamed of the falfehoods which he has promulgated; but, if he be paft the feeling of fhame, we may then well leave him to contempt. I fhould fooner have prepared an answer to his invective, if he had not entrenched himself in unfounded rumours and frequent denunciations that Salamafius was labouring at the anvil, and fabricating new libels against us, which would foon make their appearance; by which he obtained only a fhort delay of vengeance and of punishment; for I thought it right to referve my whole ftrength unimpaired against the more potent adverfary. But the conflict between me and Salamafius is now finally terminated by his death; and I will not write against the dead; nor will I reproach him with the lofs of life as he did me with the lofs of fight; though there are fome, who impute his death to the penetrating feverity of my ftrictures, which he rendered only the more fharp by his endeavours to refift. When he faw the work which he had in hand proceed flowly on, the time of reply elapfed, the public curiofity fubfided, his fame marred, and his reputation loft; the favour of the princes, whose cause he had fo ill-defended, alienated, he was destroyed after three years of grief rather by the force of depreffion than difease. However this may be, if I must wage even a posthumous war with an enemy whofe ftrength I fo well know, whose most vigorous and impetuous attacks I fo easily sustained, there seems no reason why I should dread the languid exertions of his dying hour.

But now, at last, let us come to this thing, whatever it may be, that provokes us to the combat; though I hear, indeed, the cry not of the royal blood, as the title pretends, but that of fome fkulking and drivelling mifcreant. Well, I befeech, who are you? a man or nobody at all? Certainly one of the dregs of men, for even flaves are not without a name. Shall I always have to contend with

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anonymous fcribblers? though they would willingly indeed pass for kings men, but I much doubt whether they can make kings believe that they are. The followers and friends of kings are not afhamed of kings. How then are thefe the friends of kings? They make no contributions? they more willingly receive them; they will not even lend their names to the fupport of the royal caufe. What then? they support it by their pen; but even this fervice they have not fufficient liberality to render gratuitously to their kings; nor have they the courage to affix their names to their productions. But though, O anonymous Sirs! I might plead the example of your Claudius, who compofed a plaufible work concerning the rights of kings, but without having respect enough either for me or for the fubject to put his name to the production, I fhould think it fcandalous to undertake the difcuffion of fo weighty a subject, while I concealed my name. What I, in a republic, openly attempt against kings, why do you in a monarchy, and under the patronage of kings, not dare to do except clandeftinely and by ftealth? Why do you, trembling with apprehenfion in the midst of fecurity, and feeking darkness in the midst of light, depreciate the power and the majefty of fovereigns by a cowardice, which must excite both hatred and distrust? Do you fufpect that you have no protection in the power of kings? But furely, thus fkulking in obfcurity and prowling in difguife, you feem to have come not fo much as advocates to maintain the right of kings as thieves to rob the treasury. What I am, I ingenuously profefs to be. The prerogative which I deny to kings, I would perfift in denying in any legitimate monarchy; for no fovereign could injure me without firft condemning himself by a confeffion of his defpotifm. If I inveigh against tyrants, what is this to kings? whom I am far from affo ciating with tyrants. As much as an honeft man differs from a rogue, fo much I contend that a king differs from a tyrant. Whence it is clear, that a tyrant is fo far from being a king, that he is always in direct oppofition to a king. And he who perufes the records of history, will find that more kings have been fubverted by tyrants than by their fubjects. He, therefore, who would authorife

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the deftruction of tyrants, does not authorise the destruction of kings, but of the most inveterate enemies to kings. But that right, which you concede to kings, the right of doing what they please, is not justice, but injuftice, ruin and despair. By that envenomed prefent you yourfelves destroy thofe, whom you extol as if they were above the reach of danger and oppreffion; and you quite obliterate the difference between a king and a tyrant, if you inveft both with the fame arbitrary power. For, if a king does not exercise that power, (and no king will exercise it as long as he is not a tyrant,) the power must be ascribed, not to the king, but to the individual. For, what can be imagined more abfurd than that regal prerogative, which, if any one ufes, as often as he wishes to act the king, fo often he ceafes to be an honest man; and, as often as he chooses to be an honest man, so often he muft evince that he is not a king? Can any more bitter reproach be caft upon kings? He, who maintains this prerogative, must himself be a monster of injustice and iniquity; for how can there be a worse perfon than him, who must himself first verify the exaggerated picture of atrocity, which he delineates? But if every good man, as an ancient fect of philofophers magnificently taught, is a king, it follows that every bad one is, according to his capacity, a tyrant; nor does the name of tyrant fignify any thing foaring or illuftrious, but the meanest reptile on the earth; for in proportion as he is great, he is contemptible and abject. Others are vicious only for themselves: but tyrants are vicious, not only for themselves, but are even involuntarily obliged to participate in the crimes of their importunate menials and favourites, and to entrust certain portions of their defpotifm to the vileft of their dependants. Tyrants are thus the most abject of slaves, for they are the fervants of those who are themselves in fervitude. This name therefore may be rightly applied to the moft infignificant pugilift of tyranny, or even to this brawler; who, why he fhould fo ftrenuously clamour for the interefts of defpotifm, will fufficiently appear from what has been faid already, and what will be faid in the fequel; as alfo why this hireling chooses to conceal his name. Treading in the VOL. VI. Bb

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steps of Salmafius, he has prostituted his cry for the royal blood, and either blushing for the disgrace of his erudition, or the flagitiousness of his life, it is not strange that he fhould wish to be concealed, or perhaps he is watching an opportunity, wherever he may fcent fome richer odours of emolument, to defert the caufe of kings, and transfer his fervices to fome future republic. This was the manner of Salmafius, who, captivated by the lure of gain, apoftatifed, even when finking in years, from the orthodox to the epifcopalians, from the popular party to the royalifts. Thou brawler, then, from the ftews, who thou art thou in vain endeavoureft to conceal; believe me, you will be dragged to light, nor will the helmet of Pluto any longer ferve you for a disguise. And you will fwear downright, as long as you live, either that I am not blind, or that I was quickfighted enough to detect you in the labyrinth of impofture. Attend then, while I relate who he is, from whom defcended, by what expectations he was led, or by what blandifhments foothed to advocate the royal caufe.

There is one More, part Frenchman and part Scot, so that one country, or one people, cannot be quite overwhelmed with the whole infamy of his extraction; an unprincipled mifcreant, and proved not only by the general teftimony of his enemies, but even by that of his deareft friends whom he has alienated by his infincerity, to be a monster of perfidy, falfehood, ingratitude and malevolence, the perpetual flanderer, not only of men, but of women, whofe chastity he is no more accustomed to regard than their reputation. To pafs over the more obfcure tranfactions of his youth, he first made his appearance as a teacher of the Greek language at Geneva; where he could not diveft himfelf either of the knave or fool; but where, even while fecretly confcious, though perhaps not yet publicly convicted of fo many enormities, he had the audacity to folicit the office of paltor in the church, and to profane the character by his crimes. But his debaucheries, his pride, and the general profligacies of his conduct, could not long efcape the cenfure of the Prefbyters; after being condemned for many herefies, which he bafely recanted, and to which he ftill as impiously adhered, he was

at laft openly found guilty of adultery. He had conceived a violent paffion for the maid-servant of his host, and even after fhe was married to another, did not cease to folicit the gratification of his love. The neighbours often obferved them together in clofe converse under a shed in the garden. But you will fay this might have no reference to any criminal amours; he might have converfed upon horti culture, and have read lectures on the art, to the untutored and curious girl; he might one while have praised the beauty of the parterres, or regretted the abfence of fhade; he might have inferted a mulberry in a fig, and thence have rapidly raised a progeny of fycamores; a cooling bower; and might then have taught the art of grafting to the fair. All this and more, he might, no doubt have done. But all this would not fatisfy the Prefbyters, who paffed fentence on him as an adulterer, and judged him unworthy of the ecclefiaftical functions. The heads of thofe, and other accufations of the like kind, are still preferved in the public library of Geneva. But, even after this had become matter of public notoriety, he was invited, at the inftance of Salmafius, to officiate in the French church at Middleburgh. This gave great offence to Spanheim, a man of fingular erudition and integrity; who was well acquainted with his character at Geneva, though at last, but not without the most violent oppofition, he fucceeded in obtaining letters teftimonial from the Genevefe, but thefe only on the condition that he should leave the place, and couched in expreffions rather bordering on cenfure than on praife. As foon as he arrived in Holland, he went to pay his refpects to Salmafius; where

e immediately caft his libidinous looks on his wife's maid, whofe name was Fortia; for the fellow's luft is always inflamed by cooks and waiting-maids; hence he began to pay affiduous court to Salmafius, and, as often as he had opportunity to Portia. I know not whether Salmafius, taken by the bufy attentions and unintermitted adulation of More, or More thinking that it would favour his purpofe of meeting Portia, which firft caufed their converfation to turn on the anfwer of Milton to Salmafius. But, however this might be, More undertook to defend Salmafius, and Salmafius promifes to obtain for More

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