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commonly fo called, which differ from the Church of England about church-government and ceremonies only, give indeed too little to the authority of thofe how truly learned or ancient foever; which is their fault, and their great fault," &c.-App. p. 380. "That alfo is falfe in the affertion that the Puritans deny the Church of England to be a true church. Unless the Puritans and Brownists be with you all one, which you have made divers sects above, and then you were to blame thus to multiply names before, fo now again to confound them.”

P. clv. In the Mélanges de Critique et Philologie par S. Chardon de la Rochette, vol. ii. p. 302-332, is a very learned and interesting account of Leonard Philaras, the correspondent of Milton, whofe name, M. de la Rochette fays, does not appear in any Historical Dictionary.-" Aucun de nos dictionnaires hiftoriques, aucun biographe n'a parlé de ce perfonnage qui pourtant a rempli des miffions importantes en Europe, qui aimait et cultivait les lettres et qui était en relation avec les hommes les plus illuftres de fon temps," &c. He died in 1673. This name is not in the Onomafticon of Saxius.

P. clxxii. note. In the verses of Samuel Barrow, which are prefixed to most editions of Paradise Loft, I do not know why, in the first line,

Qui legis Amiffam Paradifum, &c.

the Poet has made "Paradifum" of the feminine gender, the Greek Пaçadeiros being masculine. Prudentius in Cathemerinon, x. 161.

Patet ceu fidelibus ampli

Via lucida jam Paradifi.

Paulinus, Poem 37, ad Severum ad Picturam Martyrum "Inter floriferi cœlefte nemus Paradifi."

And an auctor incertus de Bebiani Baptifmo, who copies him, "Manat et ætherii cœlefte nemus Paradifi."

I

What authority there may be on the other fide I am ignorant. may here observe, that Milton, in Paradise Loft, iv. 143, has an expreffion defcribing Paradife, which has not met the attention of the commentators.

"Yet higher than their tops

The verdurous wall of Paradife upfprung.'

But in the works of a Latin Poet of the Chriftian ages we find the fame expreffion on the fame subject.

"Illic floret humus femper fub vere perenni
Arboreis hinc inde comis veftitur amœne,
Frondibus intextis ramorum murus opacus

Stringitur, atque omni pendet ex arbore fructus."

See Dracontii Carm. de Deo, i. 185.

And being on the fubject of Milton's poetical expreffions, I may add, that in the description of the Indian fig tree (the Banian) Mr. Todd, in his Variorum Editions, has not observed that the fimilitude in the following line,

"Those leaves

They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe,'

is taken from Pliny, Nat. Hift. xii. c. 5, describing the same tree"Foliarum latitudo Pelta effigiem Amazonia habet." The leaves of this tree, however, are about the fize, though not exactly the shape of the laurel. Neither Pliny nor Milton had ever seen the tree which they here describe.

Additional Note.

P. lxiii. On the question of Unlicensed Printing,' in its benefits and its abuses, we may trace the progrefs of opinion during nearly two centuries, which have elapfed fince Milton's noble defence of a free press, in the following obfervations, to be found in a late work, of great merit and high authority, proceeding from one who now fills that eminent fituation fo long and ably held by him " who must be confidered the most prominent legal character, and the brightest ornament to the profeffion of the law that appeared in England during the paft century." "No one born in the reign of Queen Anne ought to be feverely blamed for entertaining apprehenfions for the fafety of the state from permitting juries to determine what publications are innocent or criminal. We should recollect that Lord Somers and the leaders of the Revolution of 1688, would not venture for some years to allow printing without a previous licenfe, and that in the opinion of many of the most enlightened men of the next generation, a licenfer could only be dispensed with upon the condition that the fentence upon writings after they were published, should be pronounced by permanent functionaries, whom the Crown fhould felect for having a fufficient horror of every thing approaching to fedition. It was not till after a ftruggle of half a century, and under a minister then highly liberal (although he afterwards tried to hang a few of his brother reformers who continued steady in the cause) that the bill paffed, directing that on a trial for libel, the jury, in giving their verdict, should have a right to take into confideration the character and the tendency of the paper alleged to be libellous. Still the truth of the facts ftated in the publication complained of could not be inquired into; for half a century longer the maxim pleaded-The greater the truth, the greater the libel,'and it was only in the year 1845 that Lord Campbell's Libel

* Lord Mansfield.

Bill' paffed, permitting the truth to be given in evidence, and referring it to the jury to decide whether the defendant was actuated by malice, or by a defire for the good of the community. Thefe fucceffive alterations of the law are now admitted to have operated beneficially-not only being favourable to free difcuffion, but really tending to restrain the licentiousness of the prefs. Candour however requires the confeffion that they were attended with some hazard, and we must not confound exceffive caution with bigotry or a love of arbitrary government. The great problem for free ftates now to confider is, how journalism is to be rendered confiftent with public tranquillity and the Stability of political inftitutions. A licenfer can never more be endured: and against a journal which daily excites to infurrection and revolution, a profecution of the proprietor or printer for a libel— to be heard before a jury after the lapse of several monthsaffords no adequate remedy. If the great capitals of Europe are to be constantly in a state of fiege,' we may be driven to regret the quiet old times when Royal Gazettes, announcing court appointments, were the only periodicals."-See Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chief Juftices (Lord Mansfield), vol. ii. p. 544.

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