venant, and presented his model of government for the imitation of statesmen, and the inftruction of the people. Confider however in refpect of the time in which it was written, and the circumstances, and that it came from the pen of a foreigner, and one whofe life had been chiefly devoted to the study of antiquity and the correction and explanation of the texts of the Greek and Latin writers; it will be a proof, if such is wanting, that the fame which Salmafius had acquired beyond that of every other scholar of his time for his extenfive erudition was justly beftowed, and that he poffeffed other knowledge befides that which is to be found amid the gloffaries and grammarians of ancient tongues. That it was not so popular as the answer of Milton, in the reformed countries as well as England, in the United States, in Zurich, or at Geneva, we may readily believe; in these countries the literature of Europe was chiefly to be found, and they were the head-quarters of republican doctrines. The reception of the rival volumes however in foreign nations was pretty equally balanced by the contending parties. Salmafius's treatise was suppressed at Amsterdam, and Milton's was burnt by the common hangman at Paris and Toulouse. It excites a smile at the present day to read fuch reflections as the following, where the wit and the confidence are alike confpicuous: "Un Anglais nommé Jean Milton a repondu a M. de Saumaise; je pense que M. de Saumaife lui repondra!" (Vide L'Efprit de G. Patin. p. 171.) But the learning and ability with which this treatise is compofed, must shield it from contempt, though they can no longer fave it from neglect. If now extinct, as to all public curiofity, and opened only occafionally by the Critic or the Biographer, yet it can boaft that no common attention had been paid to its authority; and that its importance is declared in the commendation of one party, as in the cenfure of another; its doctrines were opposed 43 by the greatest Poet of one age, and they have been supported and fanctioned by the greatest Statesman of another. Salmafius might be equally proud of the declared hoftility of Milton, and the silent admiration of Burke. It must not however be unnoticed, that the enemies of Salmafius not only objected to the whole force and tenor of his arguments, but, further, accused him of plagiarism; and they afferted that the reasoning which defended the divine right of kings, was borrowed from the great work De Jure Belli et Pacis of his contemporary and rival in literary fame, Hugo Grotius: a work which that great writer commenced, when emerging from the gloom of a cruel and unjust captivity, which he carried on amid the privations of an unfettled life and uncertain fortune, and which at length led him to the splendours of an honourable and illustrious embaffy. Yet fomething more than a just confidence in his own talents and extensive resources, would have kept Salmafius from being indebted to a contemporary, from whom he was alienated during his life, and whofe reputation after death he attacked with an unrelenting and unprovoked hoftility. It has been faid that Salmafius loft the favour of Chriftina, at whose court he was refiding, when Milton's anfwer appeared; and that his death was caused by the bitterness of his fuppofed defeat by an antagonist previously 43 The learned Gataker confidered Salmafius worthy of the appellation bestowed on Pic. Mirandula,-" the Miracle of the Age he lived in." See his answer to Lilie, p. 85. Sarrave calls him the Coryphæus of facred and profane literature, and Grotius honoured him with the title, Super Eminentiffime. The fanatical Republicans who hated his arguments, and the jealoufy of fcholars who envied his erudition, attempted to pull down the noble statue from the pedestal on which it had fo long ftood-but in vain; it ftill rofe in its majestic proportion and coloffal fize. unknown. The truth of either of these affertions, too haftily affumed by the biographers of Milton, is more than questionable. It is not at all improbable that the capricious Queen of the North may have vexed this old scholar with commendations of his enemy," and that she may have joined in the voice of general praise; but Salmafius left the Court of Stockholm, not from the frowns of the Queen, but driven away by the severity of that 44 Salmafius describes himself as fupported in his work by the confcioufnefs of integrity and the intrepidity of truth. Deum teftabor me hanc caufam tuendam fufcepiffe non tantum rogatus, fed quia meliorem et justiorem nullam ea me potuiffe defendere confcientia mea mihi fuggeffit, ratio et veritas docuit, refque ipfa dictavit, &c. It does not appear exactly when the "firft bold man dared to talk of bringing the King to juftice;" but fuch language was heard in 1646 and 1647. Berkeley afferts that the refolution was taken at Windfor in a Council of officers, foon after the King's confinement at Carifbrooke. See Maferes's Tracts, i. 383, and Hallam's Conft. Hiftory, ii. 302. Mr. Bowles confiders that Milton was the first who cried out for national justice, in his Exordium of Defenfio Populi; that Cromwell feized the idea, and that the King was hurried to judgment. He ingeniously finds a corroboration of this opinion in the motto of Milton, in his last address to the people, when it was determined by the whole voice of the Nation to execute the exiled King. The motto as appears in Milton's works Et nos Confilium dedimus Scyllæ. See Bowles's Life of Ken, vol. i. pp. 87, 156, &c. and his Laft Days of Chillingworth, p. 12. I find a note in my copy of Milton, that Sir Thomas Phillipps prefented the Royal Society of Literature with extracts from MS. Letters of Milton to Cromwell, purporting to be the sketch of a republic, which he had devised as a model of perfection. Has this letter been publifhed? Is it generally known that the State Letters of Milton were not only tranflated by J. Philips, but by fome other writer, and printed abroad, with curious interpolations? The original Latin was published 1676. The Anon. Tranflation, 1682, 4to. and Philips's in 1694. Refer particularly to p. 88 of the 4to. and p. 236 of Philips. In Todd's Life of Milton, p. 180, it is faid that the Latin letters were given not accurately. iron climate. There, at the fame Court, Defcartes died from the effects of a Northern winter. Naudæus, another eminent scholar who had been fummoned there by the fame authority, was obliged for the fame cause to retire to the South. Grotius, then refident in Sweden, mentions, "illa Mundi pars quam fibi frigidus feptentrio fepofuit,"-"il ne pourroit pas fouffrir l'air froid de Suede. L'Air de Stokolm lui étoit contraire." The biographer of Salmafius afferts that, unable to bear the climate, "he was always in bed with a fire in his room." Hence the joke of Philips, "In Suecorum aulâ jam diu friget." We have before us a volume of Latin poetry by that unfortunate and inconfiderate writer, who too rafhly lent his name to protect the character of another- Poemata Alexandri Mori, 1669, 4to. in which is an epitaph on Salmafius (p. 122), and the laft couplet of which fets at rest the subject of Chriftina's treatment of him— Poftquam Chriftina colitur-nihil addo-quid ultra In this volume is no allufion to the controversy with Milton, except as just mentioned in the lines on Salmafius, p. 123. As regards his death, it did not take place till three years after this time, and after his Answer to Milton had been nearly completed. Salmafius was advanced in years, was of a very weak conftitution, was worn out with a life of hard ftudy, enfeebled by gout, probably injured by his refidence and by the fnows of Stockholm; he went to Spa for its medicinal waters, and there this "Monster of Erudition" died. Chriftina's high regard of him, is shown beyond all difpute, in the affectionate and zealous letter which she sent to the widow, in which she repeats, that she had all the fentiments of love to him, as to a father; and was deeply interested in the glory of his reputation: fhe falls foul of the widow for burning his manufcripts. The biographers of Milton might have profitably spent a few hours on the volume of Sarravius.45 While it is confeffed that Milton's language, in this famous treatise, descended into the indecent groffness of perfonal abuse, it yet may be said that such was the tone and temper, not only of the controverfial writers, but even the scholars of the day; that he had not exceeded the fcurrilous and violent declarations of the fanatical preachers and the angry bark of their feditious pulpits. South fays-"It was the pulpit that supplied the field with fwordsmen and the Parliament House with incendiaries." Probably it was expected of him, as the public champion of the great and holy cause, that his tone should be uncompromifing and decifive; that he should blow aloud the blaft of defiance and contempt to the enemies of Sion; while the fevere and farcaftic language which his opponent had applied to the leaders of the fanatical party, and to their motives and principles, had goaded him into perfonal recrimination. "Had the heart of Milton," fays Mr. D'Ifraeli, "beat as coldly on the death of Charles as Ludlow's, his democratic feelings might be refpected. But that this great tragic genius having witnessed this folemn scene of Majefty in its last affliction, should have ridiculed and calumniated and belied it, as the meanest of the mob,-who would credit this, had it been a fecret anecdote hitherto concealed from the public eye? Milton, in his celebrated Defence of the 45 In his Answer written at Spa, after his return from Sweden, Salmafius fpeaks of Christina with praise :-" faciliores aditus habet et molliora fandi tempora," &c. p. 225. When fhe relinquifhed her crown and retired to Rome, she was equally the patronefs of the Italian scholars. "Chriftinæ Reginæ nihil magis lætabile in orbitate regni videri folebat, quam celebrari a magni nominis poetis. Præter cæteras enim piλaury et erat et habebatur." See Fabronis Vita Filicaia, vol. vii. p. 296, and elsewhere; and The Anti-Baillet of Menage, T. 1. cap. iii. p. 15, on the fubject of Salmafius's learning, his reputation, Chriftino's admiration of them-the calumny of her neglect, and his death. |