THE BRITISH CRITIC, For JUNE, 1795. "Cum humanum fit errare, cumque erroris caftigatio per fe ipfa fit acerba, humanitas omnino poftulat ut acerbitas, reprehenfionis lenitate orationis mitigetur." CUNINGH, IN HOR. Error being the lot of man, and the correction of it being natu rally painful, humanity requires that the harfhnefs of reprehenfion fhould be foftened by delicacy of expreffion. ART. I. The Poetical Works of John Milton. With a Life of the Author, by William Hayley. Vol. I. Folio. 350 pp. 41. 4s. Boydell and Nicol. 1794. Printed by Bulmer. A MONUMENT to the genius of Milton in the most fplendid form of our prefent exquifite typography, must be confidered univerfally, as bestowed with the utmost judgement. The poems of this fublime writer, the proudest boaft of our language, cannot occupy a place too honourable in the libraries of Great Britain: and, if we can excel other countries in the beauty of our books, we are certain that no where can this be furpaffed in the value of the matter contained. It is pleafing alfo to fee two living posts uniting to do honour to their great predeceffor. Mr. Hayley writing his life, with an enthufiafm of admiration which does honour, at least, to his feelings; and Mr. Cowper fupplying the tranflations of fuch parts of his Latin poems as are brought for Rr. BRIT. CRIT. VOL. V. JUNE, 1795. ward ward by his friend. Much indeed could we wish to repeat from the beginning of the life, that Mr. Cowper is preparing to oblige the world with a complete tranflation of Milton's Latin and Italian poetry, which, from the fpecimens here adduced, -fome of which we fhall bring forward, promifes to folve the very difficult problem of uniting perfect originality of manner, and true poetic fpirit, with much fidelity of reprefentation. Mr. Cowper evidently has laboured in the caufe of Milton with the ardour of affection, and fo as to give full evidence of that admiration, the dawn of which, in his youthful mind, he has fo exquifitely expreffed. Then Then Milton had indeed a poet's charms; TASK. In this publication the chief matter that offers itself to the critic's attention is the life, which we fhall notice at large. For the volume, its beauty is fuch, as leaves us nothing further to with, in point of typographical execution. Three heads of Miltong at different periods of his life, all taken from original pictures and very finely engraved, adorn the biographical part: and one ornament intended for it, is ftill wanting, the print of Milton when blind, attended by his two daughters, from a picture by Mr. Romney, which (we are told in p. cxiii.) will be delivered to the fubfcribers with the fecond volume, in the courfe of this fpring. The prints prefixed to the books of the poem, are alfo finely engraved by Simon, Earlom, and Schiavonetti; but in their defigns we cannot but think that the artist fometimes miflakes extravagance for fublimity, and diftortion for force. In the defign for the fifth book, a very little ftudy, even of the author he was to illuftrate, would have taught him to give his Adam rather the graceful manliness of the Belvidere Apollo, than the gigantic brawn of the Farhefe Hercules. The moft happily imagined of these prints is that annexed to the fixth book. Something of more fublime expreffion in the countenance would have made it very fatisfactory] (19MA The Life of Milton is compofed with a dignity and elegance worthy of the fubject, and calculated to extend the well-earned fame of the writer. Mr. Hayley profefles to have formed it upon the plan which Milton's Friend Manfo, Marquis of Villa, in fome meafure adopted in his Life of Taffo, and the Abbé de Sade and Mr. Mafon more perfectly employed in their respective memoirs of Petrarch and Gray: that of illuftrating the lifelofahe poet from his own works. Thefe illuf. rations he has drawn principally from the Latin poems of ---5.1. Milton, Milton, and we agree with him in the opinion, that it is more fair to judge of his temper from those genuine effusions of his youthful feelings, than from his controverfial profe works, the/ offspring of irritation and polemic acrimony. But above all things, we admire how truly, in a manner worthy of himself and of his great antagonist, this biographer oppofes the harsh reflections, unjuft infinuations, and prejudiced criticisms, of ' the great Johnfon. Had we feen the revered veteran here, as in other places we have feen him, vilified and infulted, our fpirit would have rifen in his defence; and though we could not have denied his unfairness towards Milton, we should have endeavoured' ftrenuously to enforce that refpect, of which his human errors have by no means rendered him unworthy. But Mr. Hayley has felt with us; he has written as we should have fuggefted, and our gratification in perufing his encomium of Milton, for fuch in truth it is, has been fincere and unmixed. As we have mentioned this ftriking characteristic in Mr. Hayley's Life of Milton, we fhall haften, before we mention any other circumftance, to exemplify it. His firft oppofition to Johnfon refpects his preference of the Juvenile Latin poems of Cowley to thofe of Milton, which we agree in thinking injudicious. It is introduced by thefe elevated and just reflections. "This is the first of many remarks replete with detraction, in which an illuftrious author has indulged his fpleen againft Milton, in a life of the poet, where an ill-fubdued propenfity to cenfure is ever combating with a neceffity to commend. The partizans of the powerful critick, from a natural partiality to their departed mafter, affect to confider his malignity as exifting only in the prejudices of thofe who endeavour to counteract his injuftice. A biographer of Milton ought, therefore, to regard it as his indifpenfable duty, to show how far this malignity is diffufed, through a long feries of obfervations, which affect the reputation both of the poet and the man; a duty that must be painful, in proportion to the fincerity of our esteem for literary genius; fince, different as they were in their principles, their manners, and their writings, both the poet and his critical biographer are affuredly entitled to the praife of exalted genius: perhaps in the republick of letters there never exifted two writers more defervedly distinguished, not only for the energy of their mental faculties, but for a generous and devout defire to benefit mankind by their exertion. Yet it must be lamented (and by the lovers of Milton in particular) that a moralift who has given us, in the Rambler, fuch fublime leffons for the difcipline of the heart and mind, should be unable to preferve his own from that acrimonious fpirit of detraction, • We, though strong partizans of Johnson, by no means go fo far as this. Rr 2 which 572 which led him to depreciate, to the utmost of his power, the rare abilities, and perhaps the ftill rarer integrity of Milton." P. x. On the contrary, when he meets with a paffage honourable to Milton, in Johnfon's account of his life, Mr. H. speaks thus liberally of it. "It is fo pleafing to find one great author fpeaking of another in terms that do honour to both, that I tranfcribe with fingular fatiffaction, the preceding paffage of the eminent biographer, whose frequent and injurious afperity to Milton I have fo repeatedly noticed, and muft continue to notice, with reprehenfion and regret." P. cv. We prefent thefe paffages as affording a perfect model for writers who may be led by their fubject to oppose an author of acknowledged worth and excellence; difplaying in what manner they may preferve their own dignity and character, by refpecting his. But the excellent fentiment and expreffion of the biographer thine in their full fplendor in the following paffage, which deferves to be perufed by all who love, or may derive advantage from fublime morality. "There can hardly be any contemplation more painful than to dwell on the virulent exceffes of eminent and good men; yet the utility of fuch contemplation may be equal to its pain. What mildnefs and candour should it not intil into ordinary mortals, to obferve that even genius and virtue weaken their title to refpect, in proportion as they recede from that evangelical charity, which fhould influence every man in his judgement of another. "The ftrength and acuteness of fenfation, which partly constitute genius, have a great tendency to produce virulence, if the mind is not perpetually on its guard against that fubtle, infinuating, and corrofive paffion, hatred againft all whofe opinions are oppofite to our own. Johnfon profeffed in one of his letters to love a good hater; and in the Latin correspondence of Milton there are words that imply a fimilarity of fentiment; they both thought there might be a fanc tified bitterness, to ufe an expreffion of Milton, towards political and religious opponents. Yet furely thefe two devout men were both wrong, and both, in fome degree, unchriftian in this principle. To what fingular iniquities of judgement fuch a principle may lead, we might perhaps have had a mott striking and a double proof, had it been poffible for thefe two energetick writers to exhibit alternately a Milton adorned with every graceful endowportrait of each other. ment, highly and holily accomplished as he was, appears, in the dark colouring of Johnfon, a mott unamiable being; but could he revifit earth in his mortal character, with a wifh to retaliate, what a picture might be drawn by that fublime and offended genius, of the great moralift who has treated him with fuch excefs of afperity! The paffions are powerful colourifts, and marvellous adepts in the art of exaggeration; but the portraits executed by love (famous as he is for overcharging them) are infinitely more faithful to nature, than gloomy fketches from the heavy hand of hatred; a paflion not to be trufted OF or indulged, even in minds of the highest purity and power, fince hatred, though it may enter the field of conteft under the banners of juftice, yet generally becomes fo blind and outrageous from the heat of contention, as to execute, in the name of virtue, the worst purposes of vice. Hence arifes that fpecies of calumny lavifhed by men of talents and worth on their equals or their fuperiors, whom they have rafhly and blindly hated for a difference of opinion. To fuch hatred the fervid and oppofite characters who gave rife to this obfervation, were both more inclined perhaps by nature and by habit, than chrif tianity can allow. The freedom of thefe remarks on two very great, and equally devout, though different writers, may pollibly offend the partizans of both. In that cafe my confolation will be, that I have endeavoured to fpeak of them with that temperate, though undaunted, fincerity, which may fatisfy the spirit of each in a purer ftate of exiftence." P. cxxiv. After citing fuch noble and exalted fentiments (which we have given the more at large, on account of the difficulty of procuring this expenfive volume) fhall we cavil with the biographer on trifling differences of opinion, or paffages in which he may have carried fomewhat too far his praifeworthy partiality? Forbid it liberality! Nor, in truth, do we think that our objections of this kind, were they accumulated to the utmoft, would amount to any thing important: for very much are we inclined to think that the more favourable portrait of Milton, is that which is moft juft. From his poems have we taken our conceptions of his foul, and from that impreffion we love him; and though he might be foured by conteft, and the indulgence of prejudices, which lead to harfhiefs and afperity, we cannot poffibly believe him to have been by nature unamiable. That he was deceived by the hypocrify of Cromwell, as Mr. Hayley imagines, we confider as molt probable. An enthufiaftic mind, ardent in its defire, of imagined good, is certainly most prone to felf deceit, on the fubject of its wishes: and Milton, whofe ancient fpirit of freedom pictured to itself a perfect patriot, would doubtless believe as long as he was able, efpecially after having engaged in his fervice, that Cromwell was the patriot whom his fancy had pourtrayed. Royalists ourselves, almost as sturdy even as Johnson, we do not hate Milton for republicanifm, which in him originated in virtue; nor do we deny that a man may be even now a republican virtuously, though, after the examples of the prefent age, we think difficult for any to be fo wifely. With refpect to the poetry alfo of Milton we agree with Mr. Hayley, more than with Johnson, whofe unfeeling critique on Lycidas we lament, as totally unworthy of him. We affent, indeed, to that excellent critic Dr. Warton, who confiders a relish for the Lycidas as a test of true tafte in poetry: and of the |