You fay that "all the proteftants, particularly those in the Low Countries and France, are ftruck with horror at the crime which we have committed ;" and immediately after, that "good men would every where think and fpeak differently on the fubject." That you fhould be at variance with yourself, is a matter of little moment; but what follows is of a more fhocking and atrocious cast. You fay that the wickedness of the Jews, who crucified Chrift, was nothing compared with ours, whether you regard the intentions of the parties, or the effects of the crime." Maniac! do you, a minister of Jesus, think so lightly of his crucifixion, as to have the audacity to assert, that the destruction of any king, whatever might be the intentions, or the effect, is equally atrocious? The Jews had the clearest and most convincing proofs that Jesus was the fon of God; but how could we poffibly be led to believe, that Charles was not a tyrant? To diminish the enormity of the guilt, you very abfurdly make mention of the effect; but I always obferve, that the royalists, in proportion to their bigotry, are ready to depreciate the fufferings of Christ, in order to exalt those of their king; yet as they affert, that we ought principally to obey him for Chrift's fake, they fhew that they cherish no fincere regard either for Chrift or for the king; and that they make their irrational and fuperftitious devotion to kings, only a pretext to conceal their ambitious, their finifter and interested views. "Salmafius, therefore, that great fovereign of literature advanced to the combat!" Cease Sir, I beseech you, to difguft us with the application of fuch an epithet as "great" to Salmafius; which you may repeat a thousand times, without ever perfuading any one that Salmafius was great; though you may, that More was little; a worthlefs fcribbler, who, quite ignorant of propriety, lavished the appellation of great without any fitnefs or difcrimination. To grammarians and critics, who are principally occupied in editing the works of others, or in correcting the errors of copyifts, we willingly concede the palm of industry and erudition; but we never beftow on them the firname of great. He alone is worthy of the appellation, who either does great things, or teaches how they may be done, or defcribes 590

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them with a suitable majesty when they have been done; but those only are great things, which tend to render life more happy, which increase the innocent enjoyments and comforts of existence, or which pave the way to a ftate of future blifs more permanent and more pure. But has Salmafius done any thing like this? Nothing at all; what, that is great, has he ever either taught or related? unless perhaps you except his writings against the bishops, and the fupremacy of the pope; the merit of which he entirely effaced by his fubfequent recantations; by the habits of his life, and his vindications of epifcopacy. He, therefore, cannot fitly be termed a great writer, who either never wrote any thing great, or who bafely recanted the best work that he ever wrote. He is welcome for me, to be "the fovereign of literature," and of the A, B, C; but you are not content with having him the "fovereign of literature," but must exalt him to be "the patron of kings;" and a patron well fitted to adorn fuch a station. of fublimity. You have certainly fhewn yourself very folicitous to promote the honour of kings, when in addition to their other illuftrious titles, you would fubjoin that of the clients of Claud Salmafius." On this condition, O fovereigns of the world, you may be released from every restraint upon your power; if you will but do homage to Salmafius the grammarian, and make your fceptres bend beneath his rod. "To him kings will be indebted, as long as the world lafts, for the vindication of their honour, and the existence of their power." Attend, ye fovereigns! he who composes for you his beggarly defence, and who defends what no one attacked, has the arrogance to impute to himself the continuance of your dignity and your power. Such has been the effect of provoking this infolent grammarian from his cabinet of worms and moths, to fupport the caufe of kings. "To whom the altar will be as much indebted as the throne;" not indeed for the protection, but for the fcandalous desertion of its interefts. Now, you lavish your panegyric in the defence of the royal caufe; "you admire the genius, the erudition, the boundless diverfity of matter, the intimate acquaintance with facred and profane ufages and laws, the impetuous volubility of diction, the limpid

eloquence,

eloquence, which characterise that golden work." Though I contend that the work is deficient in all these qualities; (for what has Salmafius to do with eloquence ?) yet that it was a truly golden compofition, I am willing a hundred times to acknowledge; for it coft Charles as many guineas, without mentioning the fums which the author received from the Prince of Orange. "The great man never appeared more mighty in his ftrength; Salmafius was never more himself." He was truly fo great that he burft; for we have seen how great he was in his former work; and fhall perhaps fee in what he may have left behind him on the same subject. I do not deny that Salmafius, on the first appearance of his book, was the general topic of converfation, and that he was in high favour with the royalifts; that he was invited by the most auguft queen of Sweden, and received the most munificent presents; and in fhort, that in the whole difpute, every circumftance was favourable to Salmafius and hoftile to me. Men in general entertained the highest opinion of his erudition, the celebrity of which, he had been accumulating for many years, by many voluminous and maffy publications, not indeed of any practical utility, but relating to the most abftrufe difcuffions, and crammed with quotations from the moft illuftrious authors. Nothing is fo apt as this to excite the astonishment of the literary vulgar. Who I was, no one in that country had ever known; his work had excited an impatient curiosity, which was increased by the magnitude of the subject. I had no means of exciting a fimilar intereft, or a like ardour of expectation. Many indeed endeavoured to diffuade me from engaging with fuch a veteran; fome from envy, left I should at any rate, gather fome glory from the conflict with fo mighty an adverfary; others from fear, left my defeat should prove injurious to myself and to the caufe, which I had undertaken to defend. Salmafius was invigorated and cheered by the specious plaufibility of his fubject, by the inveterate prejudices, or rather rooted fuperftitions of the vulgar, in favour of kingly power. All these were adverfe to my undertaking, and impediments to my fuccefs; and it is the lefs furprising, that my answer, on its first appearance, fhould be lefs

eagerly

eagerly read, except by those who were anxious to learn, who had the inconfiderate audacity to enter the lists with Salmafius. But the work foon excited general approbation and delight; the author was loft fight of in the blaze of truth; and Salmafius, who had fo lately been towering on the pinnacle of distinction, stripped of the mask which he had worn, foon dwindled into infignificance and contempt; from which, as long as he lived, he could never afterwards emerge or recover his former confequence. But your penetrating mind, O! Serene queen of Sweden, foon detected his impofture; and, with a magnanimity almost above human, you taught fovereigns and the world to prefer truth to the interested clamours of faction. For, though the splendor of his erudition, and the celebrity which he had acquired in the defence of the royal cause, had induced you to honour him with many marks of diftinction, yet, when my answer appeared, which you perufed with fingular equanimity, you perceived that he had been convicted of the most palpable effrontery and mifrepresentation; that he had betrayed the utmost indifcretion and intemperance, that he had uttered many falfehoods, many inconfiftencies and contradictions. On this account, as it is faid, you had him called into your prefence; but, when he was unable to vindicate himself, you were fo vifibly offended, that from that time, you neither showed him the fame attentions, nor held his talents nor his learning in the fame esteem; and, what was entirely unexpected, you manifested a difpofition to favour his adverfary. You denied that what I had written against tyrants, could have any reference to you; whence, in your own breaft, you enjoyed the fweets, and among others the fame of a good conscience. For, fince the whole tenor of your conduct fufficiently proves, that you are no tyrant, this unreferved expreffion of your fentiments makes it ftill more clear, that you are not even confcious to yourself of being one. How happy am I beyond my utmost expectations! (for to the praife of eloquence, except as far as eloquence confists in the force of truth, I lay no claim,) that, when the criti cal exigencies of my country demanded that I fhould undertake the arduous and invidious task of impugning

the

the rights of kings, I fhould meet with fo illustrious, fo truly a royal evidence to my integrity, and to this truth, that I had not written a word against kings, but only againft tyrants, the fpots and the pefts of royalty! But you, O Augufta, poffeffed not only fo much magnanimity, but were fo irradiated by the glorious beams of wisdom and of virtue, that you not only read with patience, with incredible impartiality, with a ferene complacency of countenance, what might feem to be levelled against your rights and dignity; but expreffed fuch an opinion of the defender of thofe rights, as may well be confidered an adjudication of the palm of victory to his opponent. You, O queen! will for ever be the object of my homage, my veneration and my love; for it was your greatness of foul, fo honourable to yourself and fo aufpicious to me, which ferved to efface the unfavourable impreffion against me at other courts, and to refcue me from the evil furmifes of other fovereigns. What a high and favourable opinion must foreigners conceive, and your own fubjects for ever entertain, of your impartiality and justice, when in a matter, which fo nearly interested the fate of fovereigns and the rights of your crown; they faw you fit down to the difcuffion, with as much equanimity and compofure, as you would to determine a dispute between two private individuals. It was not in vain that you made fuch large collections of books, and so many monuments of learning; not indeed, that they could contribute much to your instruction, but because they fo well teach your fubjects to appreciate the merits of your reign, and the rare excellence of your virtue and your wifdom. For the divinity himself feems to have inspired you with a love of wisdom, and a thirst for improvement, beyond what any books ever could have produced. It excites our astonishment to fee a force of intellect fo truly divine, a particle of celeftial flame fo refplendently pure in a region fo remote; of which an atmosphere, fo darkened with clouds, and fo chilled with frofts, could not extinguish the light, nor reprefs the operations. The rocky and barren foil, which is often as unfavourable to the growth of genius as of plants, has not impeded the maturation of your fa, culties and that country, fo rich in metallic ore, which

appears