from which the verses had been copied, was brought into England, and placed in Dr. Mead's collection. On examination, it appeared that the inscription was originally cut in the very same letters which Bentley had conjectured.

This remarkable instance of critical sagacity has been recorded and celebrated, by the learned Dr. Taylor, in the preface to his admirable little treatise De inopi debitore in partis dissecando, in which he has given a fac simile of inscription on the marble; and among other short pieces of criticisms, which are subjoined to this work, he has preserved the original letters of Bentley and Chishull.

Our great critick's disputes with his college and the university were now finally settled and his real merits, aided by justice and truth, crushed the efforts of faction and malevolence. Those who had envied his erudition and talents, now saw all their schemes defeated. Dr. Bentley, whose degradation they had so strenuously laboured to accomplish, now rose superiour to their little arts,and the publick in general began to view the proceedings of his enemies in their proper light.

His duty as royal librarian was rendered agreeable, not only by the nature of his favourite pursuits, but also by the attention which was shewn him by Queen Caroline, who was his constant patroness, and was justly entitled to the elegant compliment which he paid her in his publick, speech on creating the Doctor in Divinity. Her Majesty was particularly fond of engaging him in literary disputes with Dr. Clarke, Vir supra nostrum præconium longissime positus. To these amicable contests, Bentley for some time submitted, but as they generally terminated with

out either party's deriving much information from them, he declin-1 ed them, and pleaded his health as

an excuse.

The instigations of Queen Caroline, as she wished him to publish an English classick, induced Dr. Bentley to undertake his edition of Milton, which appeared in quarto in the year 1732, with two busts of the poet, at different periods of his life, engraved by Vertue. In his preface, he tells us that the mistakes in pointing, orthography, and distinction of capital letters are here carefully corrected. The elision of vowels, and the accent are particularly marked. The verses which have been foisted into the book, by the former editor, are pointed out as spurious, and several lines corrected or interposed by the editor himself, in order to give that appearance of system and consistency, which Milton himself would have done, if he had been able himself to have revised and corrected the whole poem.

Such is the account which Bentley gives of his own edition. He then very happily.compares Paradise Lost, in its former state, with the defadations of printer and editor, and debased by the malignity of his enemies, to the condition of the beautiful, though poor and illdressed virgin, in Terence's Phormio:

Ut, ni VIS. BONI

In ipsa inesset forma, hæc formam extinguerent.

He then endeavours to account for the silence of the criticks with regard to the faults which he had pointed out, and thus concludes : "Who durst oppose the universal vogue? and risque his own character, while he laboured to exalt Milton's? I wonder rather, that it is done even now. Had these

very notes been written forty years ago, it would then have been prudence to have suppressed them, for fear of injuring one's rising fortune. But now, when seventy years jamdudum memorem monuerunt, and spoke loudly in my ears,

Mitte leves spes et certamina divitiarum; I made the notes extempore, and put them to the press as soon as made; without any apprehension of growing leaner by censures, or plumper by commendations.”

We shall not pretend to enter into a minute examination of Bentley's notes and corrections of this noble poem. That he has improved several passages is certain, and that he has made many trifling remarks, and many unjustifiable and indeed unnecessary alterations cannot be denied. The text, however, he has not violated, but has given all his alterations in the margin.

His plan seems strange and unwarrantable. Above three hund red of Milton's verses are inclosed in hooks, as spurious, and above seventy either wholly written or altered by the editor himself, are proposed to supply their places. These, he hopes, will not be found disagreeing from the Miltonian character. Besides these innovations in above three hundred lines, he offers a change of two or more words, and in above six hundred more, one word only is altered. Such was his rage for emendation.

The sacred top of Horeb, for sccret, is an improvement; but when he wishes to read ardent gems, in the third book, for orient gems; and in the fourth, radiant pearl, for orient pearl, we cannot but exclaim

Quis novus hic hospes ? But in Book V. v. 177, when he proposes ye four other wandering

stars, instead of ye five-fires, because the sun, moon, and Venus had been already named in the Morning Hymn, we are indeed surprised. Did not Bentley know that the sun is not one of the planets, and that the earth is, and was complete the number five; as in certainly intended by Milton to the eighth book he says, "The planet earth ?" The change of darkness visible into transpicuous gloom is idle and unwarrantable, though transpicuous be of the Miltonian character.

The passages of this admirable poem which our critick rejects are usually those, which contain similies or descriptions. Why these ornamental parts of the work, though sometimes defective,are to be deemed interpolations, would require no common portion of sagacity to determine. To us these appear beauties. To confess the truth, Bentley, with all his critical acumen, was ill calculated for a corrector of Milton's verses. He is too daring, and does not appear to possess any extraordinary portion of poetical taste, which was highly requisite. "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling," seems not to have fallen to his lot; and even in his grammatical strictures he is sometimes mistaken, as the Bishop of London has observed.

Let not this edition, however, be deprived of its deserts. Many of his remarks are acute, and several of his emendations are certainly improvements. Among these may be reckoned "Ichorous humor issuing flow'd," which he defends by the well-known line of Homer.

Ιχως, οιοσπες τι ριει μακαρίσσι Θεοίσι, and in Book IV. v. 944,

"With songs to hymn his throne And practise discipline to cringe not fight,"

instead of practis'd distances. This emendation is established by verse 954, in which Gabriel says:

"Was this your discipline ?"—

He ought, indeed, in justice, to have pointed out the beauties of

the work, as well as its errorsfor though he comforts himself in Latin and Greek :

It was observed, on the evidence of a writer in the Grub-street Journal, who received the intelligence from Dr. Ashenhurst, that Bentley had employed eight or nine years he talks of extemporary notes, in in preparing his Milton, although his preface. This may be true,

yet it does not contradict the Doctor's assertion. For he might have formed his plan, and have

in his concluding note; yet if he had valued his reputation more than the advice of his friends, or, perhaps, than his own opinion of his abilities, he certainly would never have assumed such an office, as editor and reviser of Milton, but would have declined the task imposed on him by her Majesty.

These notes roused an army of petty criticks, who stood forth as champions of the injured poet. The Grub-street Journal, and other periodical works, attacked the critick. But of all the pamphlets and remarks which were then published, Dr. Pearce's review of the text of Paradise Lost, with considerations on Bentley's emendations and new corrections, was of the most consequence. The principal part of these remarks, however, has been incorporated into the late Bishop of Bristol's edition of Milton's poetical works, so that as our readers in general must be well acquainted with them, we forbear transcriptions, and shall only observe, that Newton and Pearce seem unwarrantably severe in their strictures on Bentley's corrections. Let it be remembered, likewise, that the learned editor of the new Biographia Britannica is of the same opinion.

He

his intention, and yet not have written his notes until the book was going to the printer. might even have noted his corrections on the margin of a Milton, and yet have been prevented from explaining them, by indisposition, or the disputes in which he was involved with the university during that period.

We shall conclude these loose remarks, with a passage from Dr. Johnson's life of Milton, whose criticism on Paradise Lost, cannot be praised too loudly, or perused too frequently:"The generality of my scheme does not admit the frequent notice of verbal inaccuracies; which Bentley, better skilled in grammar than in poetry, has often found, though he sometimes made them, and which he imputed to the obtrusions of a reviser, whom the author's blindness obliged him to employ. A supposition rash and groundless, if he thought it true; and vile and pernicious, if, as is said, he in private allowed it to be false."

Bentley never attempted any defence of this work, but permitted his enemies to triumph, and the criticks to cavil. He seemed at last inclined to enjoy the otium cum dignitute, and to leave disputes and criticisms to those whose age, health,& spirits were better calculated to endure fatigue,and who were

Et cantare PARES, et respondere parati·