been employed in discovering his excellencies, and extending his reputation. Subscriptions For the Relief of Mrs. ELIZABETH FOSTER, Grand-daughter to JOHN MILTON, are taken in by Mr. Dodsley, in Pall Mall; Messrs. Cox & Collings, under the Royal Exchange; Mr. Cave, at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell; and Messrs. Payne & Bouquet, in Paternoster Row. A LETTER TO THE REV. MR. DOUGLAS, WORTH, OCCASIONED BY HIS VINDICATION OF MILTON: To which are subjoined, several curious original Letters, from the Authors of the UNIVERSAL HISTORY, Mr. AINGMr. MACLAURIN, &c. By WILLIAM Lauder, A.M. Quem penitet peccasse pæne est innocens. SENECA. Corpora magnanimo satis est prostrasse Leoni. SIR, Pugna suum finem, quum jacet hostis, habet. OVID. Juris Rigori. GROTII Adamus Exul. First printed in the year 1751. TO THE REV. MR. DOUGLAS. CANDOUR and tenderness are in any relation, and on all occasions, eminently amiable; but when they are found in an adversary, and found so prevalent, as to overpower that zeal which his cause excites, and that heat which naturally increases in the prosecution of argument, and which may be in a great measure justified by the love of truth, they certainly appear with particular advantages; and it is impossible not to envy those who possess the friendship of him, whom it is even some degree of good fortune to have known as an enemy. I will not so far dissemble my weakness, or my fault, as not to confess that my wish was to have passed undetected; but since it has been my fortune to fail in my original design, to have the supposititious passages which I have inserted in my quotations made known to the world, and the shade which began to gather on the splendour of Milton totally dispersed, I cannot but count it an alleviation of my pain, that I have been defeated by a man who knows how to use advantages with so much moderation, and can enjoy the honour of conquest without the insolence of triumph. It was one of the maxims of the Spartans, not to press upon a flying army, and therefore their enemies were always ready to quit the field, because they knew the danger was only in opposing. The civility with which you have thought proper to treat me, when you had incontestible superiority, has inclined me to make your victory complete, without any further struggle, and not only publickly to acknowledge the truth of the charge which you have hitherto advanced, but to confess, without the least dissimulation, subterfuge, or concealment, every other interpolation I have made in those authors, which you have not yet had opportunity to examine. On the sincerity and punctuality of this con fession I am willing to depend for all the future regard of mankind, and cannot but indulge some hopes, that they whom my offence has alienated from me, may by this instance of ingenuity and repentance, be propitiated and reconciled. Whatever be the event, I shall at least have done all that can be done in reparation of my former injuries to Milton, to truth, and to mankind, and entreat that those who shall continue implacable, will examine their own hearts, whether they have not committed equal crimes without equal proofs of sorrow, or equal acts of atonement*. PASSAGES INTERPOLATED IN MASENIUS. The word pandemonium in the marginal notes of Book I. Essay, page 10. CITATION VI, Essay, page 38. Adnuit ipsa dolo, malumque (heu ! longa dolendi Materies! et triste nefas!) vesana momordit Tanti ignari mali. Mora nulla, solutus Avernus Exspuit infandas acies; fractumque remugit Divulso compage solum. Nabathæa receptum Regna dedere sonum, Pharioque in littore Nereus Territus erubuit: simul adgemuere dolentes Hesperiæ valles, Libyæque calentis arenæ Exarsere procul. Stupefacta Lycaonis ursa Constitit, et pavido riguit glacialis in axe : Omnis cardinibus submotus inhorruit orbis ; Angeli hoc efficiunt, cœlestia jussa secuti. CITATION VII. Essay, page 41. Illa quidem fugiens, sparsis per terga capillis, ⚫ The interpolations are distinguished by Italick characters. Ora rigat lacrimis, et coelum questibus implet: Præscius, elapsique memor: quem terra potentem Infaustas epulas, nosque omnes prodidit hosti. Vatibus antiquis numerantur lumine cassis, merus. The above passage stands thus in Masenius, in one line: Tiresias cæcus, Thamyrisque, et Daphnis, Ho merus. N.B. The verse now cited is in Masenius's Poems, but not in the Sarcotis. CITATION X. Essay, page 46. In medio, turmas inter provectus ovantes Sacri tonantis hostis, exsul patriæ Regnare dignum est ambitu, etsi in Tartaro: Libet vocare propriis vocabulis. CITATION V. Essay, page 63. Terrestris orbis rector! et princeps freti! CITATION VI. Essay, ibid. Quod illud animal, tramite obliquo means, |