MILTON'S "PAR. L."B. 4. V. 256.

"And without thorn the rofe."

THIS, fome one has obferved, is an Italian conceit. Bentley has expunged the whole line, as unfit for a Terious poem. But it should be remembered," fays Newton in his note, "that it was part of the curfe denounc. ed upon the earth for Adam's tranfgreffion, that it should bring forth thorns and tbifles.-Gen. i. 18. And from hence the general opinion has prevailed, that there were no thorns before; which is enough to juftify a Poet in faving the rofe was without thorns." The following extracts from Bafil will forve to corroborate the Editor's remark. Milton read the Fathers. Some few re

ferences to Bafil have been made by Peck; but this obvious imitation has escaped him:

¡Price per lb. at the rates fpeci

fied in Table No. I.

· τὸ ῥόδον τοτὲ ἄνευ ἀκάνθης ἦν, &c.

rofa tunc fpinis carebat; pofica verò pulchritudini floris adjunctæ funt fpin; ut afficeremur mcrore, odoris fuavitati propinquo; memores delitit, propter quod fpinas et tribulos damnata tellus protulit.-Hom. 5. De Germinatione Terræ.

A fimilar obfervation occurs in his Third Oration, De Paradilo. Milton's hemiftich and these paffages from Bafil, when compared together, manifeft a ftriking coincidence of thought and expreffion.

The Father and the Poet have with equal feriousness afferted, that the rofe was originally without s thorn; but that, fince the Fall,

Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipsis flori

bus angit.

LUCR.

E.

SHALL I here reprefent before you his birth, his learning, his travels, the reverence of his age, and the like Thefe were all ornaments that belonged to him, and yet the leaft of his praite.

The nobleness of his birth was a good he little valued, nay, he ftrove to hide it with dignity acquired, as defiring to be begotten anew by virtue, and thence receive his honour, which the fortune of birth lazily beftows.

His learning, as it was great and choice, fo he used it only as a fervant to higher ends; bare knowledge he never doated on, nor wit, which his knowledge was fet off with, but as they both conduced to practice; the one as the weight, the other as the edge of his actings.

His travels, confidered in themfelves, were common to him with others; but the management of thofe travels was peculiar to him.and may therefore give him a property in fame; for they were fo many victories over the times, and the Vices of thofe kingdoms he lived in. The knowledge he had of the world's frauds never biaffed his foul, nor could his fight of fin in its feveral fhapes bend him from noble defigns; who was fuch a follower of virtue, that he learned from bad cuftoms a fricter practice of it; fuch a lover of truth that he (who was mafter of foreign languages) yet taught thofe languages to fpeak it. A ftrange current this! that has paffed through feveral lands, and yet received no taint from the foil, nor ever travelled from his own nature.

Laftly, the reverence of his age, and the dignity of gray hairs; thefe were a grace indeed to his perfon, but a grace VOL. XXVIII. Nov. 1793.

I am, &c.

G. H.

of itself not to be prized, for it is an effect of time, which folly as well as wildom may partake of; but in him age created refpect, because it fhewed a head that crowned it; it was like an old monument that has noble acts written upon it, and fo becomes honourable for that history. Therefore, paffing by thefe qualities, give me leave to go higher, and confider him in a threefold capacity; as a Subject, as a public Minifter, as a Chriftian.

1. As a Subject. Still times may prove happy to a ftate, but not glorious to a liver; they are dead calms, wherein the courage and fidelity of the fubject cannot move; but Heaven had or dered a trial of his loyalty in fuch an age wherein loyalty feemed a crime, when rebellion looked gay with fuccefs, and facrilege had Providence to gild it; yet ran he then conftantly the hazards of his Prince, and triumphed in an afAicted caufe, as feeing Heaven's juftice through the black nefs of its course, earth's fince through its profperous ufurpation. Such fervices (without worldly hopes to allure) could have only pure confcience for their principle; and it was the bare right of his mafter, joined with a love to the owner, made him digeft all the misfortune. Flattering arts and cunning practices were far from the temper of this perfon, who had a breaft large and open, made indeed to hide his mafter's fecrets, but not to diffemble his own principles; whence he manifefted them in the loweft extremes, fticking to the crown when i lay in duft, and following the fun in its eclipfe, which the multitude adores for its beams. When he had thus

thus recommended his duty, none could justly envy him in his Prince's height, that he should partake of that inAuence.

2. As a public Minifter, which office he began betimes, and rofe by steps to the highest honours of employment, yet he never altered his courfe in his manage of affairs; juftice and integrity were notions fixed and rooted in his foul; no bribe could enter that room, for it was before richlier filled, and honefty kept the key; fo that with the fame truth he tied himfelf to the bufinefs of his Prince, as he did to his fortune. What truft he had in the world three Courts can witnefs; how well he managed it they may equally proclaim; for the general good was his aim, and thither he directed all his endeavours. I need not mention the care he had of his charge, for that was a work of his nature; nor the exactness of his performance, for that was an ordinary effect of his wifdom; but give me leave to declare the clearness of his defigns in all his undertakings, who never ftudied felf to enrich, but felf to command. His whole treaty of commerce had nothing of private traffic, for his foul was above wealth, and he nobly thewed it when he threw it away to preferve kingdoms. To the peace of crowns he made his flight in this embaffy, and not to merchandize; peace, the great gift of Heaven, and the nobleft copy man has left him for imitation. It was this endeared his labours abroad, and with this he thought to magnify his mafter at home, when the world fhould fee (by that mediation betwixt States) the goodness of our King, as in war they had felt the greatnefs of his power.

And what could be more honour to a Prince than the glory of faving with one hand, when the other conquered; of fettling dominion in Princes when he had broke it in States? The first work this one Minifter endeavoured, the latter a whole fleet ferved in; but though that good defign of his for uniting kingdoms (which he fo lately ventured to procure with his own dan gert,) be now frustrated by the prejudices of obftinate men, yet the fruit is not to himself; God looks to him as

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a peace-maker, and has accordingly be ftowed his reward.

3. As a Chriftian. What the graces of Christianity are the Apoftle defcribes. "The fruit of the fpirit," fays he, "is love, joy, peace, long-fuffering, gentleness, goodnefs, meeknefs, faith, temperance; against fuch there is no law ‡.” And-it were eafy for me to make out how in ail the fe he excelled. Love ruled in him as the moving principle, and joy as the attendant of his good actions; peace was his end; longfuffering, gentleness, goodness, meeknefs were his conftitution; temperance his habit, and faith in his God a grace that fanctified all. In his last fick nefs (that came upon him with a fevere face, like Death's Herald, and therefore required as fevere a welcome) that faith and patience he had long before exer. cifed, did then eminently fhine. No groan, no complaint was heard to come from him, though he had a fire raging within, and phyficians as executioners without him; executioners I mean in their tortures, though not in defign; and when the fatality of his fever was told him, with what compofednefs of fpirit did he refign himself up to the Almighty! With what indifferency of eye did he look on, nay part with his dearest friends! for his thoughts were carried upward to higher relations; and drawing near his laft (for I was an eye-witness of all paffages to his end), how readily did he make a good confeffion, profeffing openly he died in the English faith, which no son of our Church has more cordially efpoufed; in the affurance of everlasting life, which no martyr has more fully received; and then,giving himfelf upwholly to prayers, he breathed away the whole time in fuch calmnefs of devotion, that you would think he was never verfed in business of state, but only practised how to die.

God knows I have not studied to devife him a character; and you well know he needs none. Indeed the time and the place, as well as the subject, will not allow a fiction; the time is a time of ferioufnefs, and not of acting; the place is that of a Minifter before God, and therefore a place for truth,

and