I lament that the neceffity of investigating many misrepresentations, and of correcting much asperity against him, has frequently obliged me to fpeak rather in the tone of an advocate, than of a common biographer; but I may fay, in the words of the great Roman author, pleading the cause of a poet infinitely less entitled to love and admiration; Hunc ego non diligam, non admirer, non omni ratione defendendum putem? Atque fic a fummis hominibus eruditiffimifque accepimus, cæterarum rerum ftudia & doctrina, & præceptis, & arte conftare; poetam natura ipfa valere, & mentis viribus excitari, & quafi divino quodam fpiritu afflari-if poetical powers may ever-deferve to be regarded as heavenly inspiration, fuch undoubtedly were thofe of Milton and the use to which he applied them was worthy of the fountain whence they flowed. He is pre-eminent in that class of poets, very happily described in the two following verfes by the amiable lord Falkland;

Who, while of heav'n the glories they recite,
Find it within, and feel the joys they write,

It is by the epic compofitions of Milton alone that England may esteem herself as a rival to antiquity in the highest province of literature; and it appears therefore juft, that the memory of the man, to whom he is indebted for the pureft, the most extenfive, and permanent glory, fhould for ever excite her affectionate veneration. thư lệ CONJECTURES

CONJECTURES, &c.

CONJECTURES, FANCIES BUILT ON NOTHING FIRM !

MILTON.

To write an Epic Poem was the prime object

of MILTON's ambition at an early period of life; a paffionate attachment to his country made him first think of celebrating its ancient heroes; but in the long interval between the dawn of fuch a project in his thoughts, and the commencement of his work, a new train of images got poffeffion of his fancy; Arthur yielded to Adam, and Eng land to Paradise.

To confider what various caufes might conspire to produce this revolution in the ideas of the great poet may be a pleasing speculation, if it is pursued with due refpect to the noble mind that it aspires to examine.

An investigation of a fimilar nature was undertaken fome years ago, upon very different principles, when a fingular attempt was made to annihilate the poetical glory of Milton, by prov ing him a plagiary. This attempt was fo extraordinary in its nature, and fin its end fo honorable

to the poet and his country, that a brief account of it should, I think, be annexed to the Life of Milton, whofe admirers may fay, on that occafion, to the flanderers of genius,

"Difcite juftitiam moniti, & non temnere divos."

I fhall give, therefore, a sketch of the literary tranfactions to which I allude, as an introduction to those conjectures, that a long and affectionate attachment to Milton has led me form, concerning the origin of his greatest work.

In 1746, William Lauder, an unfortunate adventurer, whom a furious temper, confiderable learning, and greater indigence, converted into an audacious impoftor, attacked the originality of the chief English poet. Having afferted, in a periodical mifcellany, that Milton had borrowed all his ideas from the juvenile work of Grotius, or from other lefs known writers of Latin verse, and finding the novelty of his charge attract the attention of the public, he endeavoured to enforce it in a pamphlet, entitled, "An Essay on Milton's Ufe and Imitation of the Moderns, printed in 1750, and addreffed to the two univerfities of Oxford and Cambridge. In the close of this effay he fcrupled not to say of Milton:

"His induftrious concealment of his helps, "his peremptory difclaiming all manner of af"fiftance, is highly ungenerous, nay criminal "to the laft degree, and abfolutely unworthy of