honour was done in those dayes to men who profest the study of wisdome and eloquence not only in their own Country, but in other lands, that Cities and Siniories heard them gladly, and with great respect, if they had ought in publick to admonish "rietes aluit eam gloriam, quam nemo quidem, meo judicio est "poeta consecutus."-De Clar. Orat. s. 32. MILTON forbore to "name him," lest he should afford opportunity for the invidious remark, that he had made a proud comparison in placing himself by the side of a Professor of Rhetoric the most consummate that Athens ever saw. We learn from the Oration wherein Isocrates urged Philip to mediate a general peace among the Grecian States, and in confederacy with them to turn their united arms against the Persian Monarch; and the same again from one of those he is thought to have composed for recital at a Panathenaic commemoration, that organic impediments, and a stridulous voice, disqualified him for a public speaker: from this cause, instead of assisting personally at their deliberative Assemblies, this renowned Teacher of Eloquence, like some others, gave his counsel to the Athenians in the same mode by which MILTON now "admonishes" the Parliament-in the form of a Speech, supposed to have been spoken. 3 Cities and Siniories heard them gladly, and with great respect.] What Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and after him Hieronymus Wolfius, relate concerning the celebrity of Isocrates and his political writings seems to have afforded the hint for this statement. Ἔχων δὲ πολλὲς ἀντε καὶ ἄλλες διεξιέναι λόγους, πρὸς πόλεις τε καὶ δυνάστας καὶ ἰδιώτας γραφεντας, &c.-De Antiquis Oratoribus Commentarii; p. 89. Mores's edit. 1781. And Wolfius: "Et "ipse apud Græciæ principes ac reges,―celebris et gratiosus "fuit: & plerasque orationes vel ad maximas Græciæ civitates, "vel ad reges & principes scripsit."-De Vita Isoc. We must not forget that Cities is here used by MILTON in the Latin signification, for an independent community living under the State. Thus did Dion Prusæus, a stranger and a privat Orator*, counsell the Rhodians against a free Government. Siniories, in one of its senses, was, we may suppose, an honorary appellation equivalent to States, as already explained in a note on the first sentence of this Oration. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Signiory was the style and title of honour for the supreme magistracy in the Italian Republics. Agreeably to which, Harrington proposed for his imaginary Commonwealth-" that the, Duke with six "Counsellors be the signiory." Works; p. 529. fol. 1747. And Howell entitled the first Section of his Survey of Venice, “ Of the Republic or Signiory of Venice." In Shakspeare, this meaning of Signiory has not hitherto been explained. " to him put "The manage of my State; as, at that time, Through all the Signiories it was the first, "And Prospero the prime Duke.” Tempest, A. i. S. 2. Prospero is speaking of the Republics, into which so considerable a portion of Italy was in the middle ages parcelled out. Thus when Othello says, " My services which I have done the Signiory," he makes precisely the same boast, as when he afterward observes that he had " done the State some service;" and this line determines the word to mean the same as in my text, and in the quotation from the Tempest. * Dion Prusæus, a stranger and a privat Orator-1 Dio or Dion was a Rhetorician, and a Heathen Philosopher; he was called Prusaus from Prusa, a town in Bithynia, his birthplace. For his eminence in Literature, he was favoured by Nerva, and Trajan bestowed marks of peculiar grace on him. Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. III. 305. Hamburg. 1717. The splendid elegance of his Orations obtained for him the high-sounding surname of Chrysostom. From this appellation he has by some former Edict: and I abound with other like examples, which to set heer would be superfluous. But if from the industry of a life wholly dedicated to studious labours, and those naturall endowments haply not the worst for two and fifty degrees of northern latitude", so much must be derogated, as Writers been confounded with John Chrysostom, the eloquent Preacher; to whom our Authour hereafter gives the epithet of holy to discriminate them.-Why MILTON denominated him a privat Orator," I have explained in the Prefatory Remarks. 5 Those naturall endowments haply not the worst, for two and. fifty degrees of northern latitude.] It stands "worst" in all the Editions, that have been in my hands, but the context makes it, I think, manifest, that MILTON wrote " haply not the worse." The apprehension that the ungenial Climate of his native country might be detrimental to his poetical talent, is not unfrequently expressed in our Authour's writings: yet if he seriously entertained the fancy, that the scale of Genius is graduated by degrees of Latitude, his lavish encomium hereafter in this Tract on the proud pre-eminence of the English in mental qualifications is much at variance with that opinion. It is where he beseeches the Parliament to beware of what they do by placing the Press under an Imprimatur-" Lords and Commons of England! consider what Nation it is whereof ye are and "whereof ye are the Governors: a Nation not slow and dull, "but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit; acute to in"vent, subtle and sinewy to discourse; not beneath the reach "of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to." Montesquieu has dedicated more than one Book of his work on Laws to the effects of Climate upon the character of Nations. But may we not with more truth attribute their diversity to the predominancy of moral rather than of physical causes? think that Gray went on surer grounds in ascribing a superiour efficacy to the wise institutions resulting from free Governments than to the influence of Soil and the temperature of the Air? to count me not equall to any of those who had this priviledge, I would obtain to be thought not so inferior, as your selves are superior to the most of them who receiv'd their counsell: and how farre you excell them, be assur'd, Lords and Commons! there can no greater testimony appear, then when your prudent spirit acknowledges and obeyes the voice of reason, from what quarter soever it be heard speaking; and renders ye as willing to repeal any Act of your own setting forth, as any set forth by your Predecessors. If ye be thus resolv'd, as it were injury to thinke ye were not, I know not what should withhold me from presenting ye with a fit instance wherein to shew both that love of Truth which ye eminently professe, and that uprightnesse of your judgement See the sketch of his Ethical Poem, in which he projected to show, that a full development of Intellect may under due culture be the growth of every Country. "How rude soe'er the exteriour form we find, By the way, it is singular enough, that Gray's first Editor, himself a Poet, should not have perceived that his Authour, in the proemial lines to the exquisite fragment he left of this philosophical work, was emulating the majestic march of Dryden. In his own disposition of the Similies in this exordium, a disposition which Mason would disturb, he is pacing in the very footsteps of his great predecessor. which is not wont to be partiall to your selves; by judging over again that Order which ye have ordain'd to regulate Printing: That no Book, Pamphlet, or Paper shall be henceforth printed, unlesse the same be first approv'd and licenc't by such, or at least one of such as shall be thereto appointed. For that part which preserves justly every mans Copy to himselfe, or provides for the Poor, I touch not, only wish they be not made pretenses to abuse and persecute honest and painfull men, who offend not in either of these particulars. But that other clause of Licencing Books, which we thought had dy'd with his brother quadragesimal and matrimonial when the Prelats expir'd, I shall now attend with such a Homily', as shall lay before ye, first the 6 For that part which preserves justly every Mans Copy to himselfe, &c.] See this Order in Rushworth's Hist. Collect. V. 335. Lord Mansfield, in the Case of Literary Property, laid considerable stress on this passage, as an authority of weight for the Judgement he was pronouncing in favour of Copyrights: "The single opinion of such a Man as MILTON, speaking after "much consideration upon the very point, is stronger than any "inferences from gathering acorns, and seizing a vacant piece of "ground; when the Writers, so far from thinking of the very point, speak of an imaginary state of Nature before the inven"tion of Letters."—Holiday's Life of Lord Mansfield; p. 232. " Our Authour could not have ventured to expect that his Tract would be cited from the Bench in such terms of praise by a Chief Justice of England. ་ ▾ That other clause of Licensing Books, which we thought had dy'd with his brother quadragesimal and matrimonial, when the Prelats expir'd, I shall now attend with such a Homily,] Quad |