Let us now come to the charge, which he brings against me. Is there any thing in my

tamen tibi proposueram, omni culpâ et periculo vacabat. Con suluisses, si illud sequutus fuisses, et fama Regia et propria securitati. Videris velle irritare crabrones, et tuis inimicis oçça» siones præbere in te non sine occasione insaniendi, &c. &c. The offended critic remonstrated with acrimony upon such plainness of speech; and Sarrau was obliged to soften his observations. Scilicet non placet tibi libertas, quá soleo tecum de rebus scriptisve tuis agere. Monitus cautiùs agam imposterum→→ nihil est, propter quod ' durus, dirus, et non amplius amicus' credar.

From the same series of Letters (Gudii et Sarravii Epistola) we learn, that in the distribution of presentation-copies of the 'Defensio Regia,' the Dowager Queen complained of having been neglected by Saumaise ( Quamvis enim,' inquiebat, sit in re minimè lautâ, tamen potuisse solvere pretium tabellarii, qui illud attulisset'); and also, by implication at least, that his sickness at Stockholm in 1650 was generally referred to the issue of his Miltonian conflict: Mitiùs et cautiùs forsan aget deinceps cum suis adversariis. Ejus vehementior impetus bonis et gravibus dudùm improbatus est: sed non solet facilem se præbere amicorum monitis; uti nec alii plurimi præstantissimi viri, qui se suaque amant, et privatis affectibus indulgent.

In Burman's Preface to the Collection, the character of this Corypheus of literature is strongly sketched: Erat Salmasio ingenium sublime ac penè divinum, doctrina immensa, et memoria, quâ cuncta ab omni ævo scripta complectebatur, ultra humanam sortem tenacissima; sed cùm paucos sibi pares duceret, neminem verò superiorem ferret, contumeliosè ac acerbè de omnibus ejus ævi viris sentiret et loqueretur, et similis Pan Theocriteo, cui

Από δρόμειο χολα ποπε ρίνε καθηταί,

omnium famam laceraret, cum omnibus ferè contentiones et lites exercebat. Hence his terrors, as he was of a suspicious and

life or morals, upon which his censure can fasten? Certainly not. What, then, is his conduct? That, of which no one but a barbarian could have been guilty: he reproaches me with my form, and my blindness. In his page,

I am

"Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum;" A monster-horrid, hideous, huge, and blind.*

I certainly never imagined that, with respect to person, there would be instituted any competition between me and a Cyclops. But he immediately corrects himself: So far however is he from being huge, that a more puny, bloodless, shrivelled animal was never seen. Although it be idle for a man to speak of his own form, yet since even in this particular instance I have cause of thankfulness to God, and the power of

credulous nature, of personal retribution; particularly of being cudgelled, or even smothered in a ditch, by his adversary Daniel Heinsius. Grotius was another distinguished object of his safe hostility-after his death, it seems; as the widow of that great man threatened to publish twenty four of his letters addressed to her deceased husband, ut videat orbis quantum ei vivo detulerit, qui jam defunctum crudelissimè lacerat. At ☎juanapins conjux meus eum semper coluit; quinetiam sæpissimè in libris suis honorificè compellavit, &c.

The English reader, it is hoped, will forgive this long note; and not exclaim, if acquainted with French (what is observed by Vorstius' Translator upon his hero's trop d'impetuosité) les personnages moderés n'approuvent pas ce trop.

* Virg. Æn. iii. 658., where the line is applied to Polyphemus.

confuting the falsehoods of my adversaries, I will not be silent on the subject; lest any person should deem me, as the credulous populace of Spain are induced by their priests to believe those whom they call heretics, to be a kind of rhinoceros, or a monster with a dog's head. By any one indeed, who has seen me, I have never to the best of my knowledge been considered as deformed: whether as handsome, or not, is less an object of my concern.* My sta

* And yet, if we might trust the representations of his adversary, in his posthumous Reply, this was to his feeling no indifferent matter. Next to the barbarous sneers upon Milton's blindness, which abound in almost every page (such as, Bellua quæ nihil hominis sibi reliqui fecit, præter lippientes oculos;-Malo isto magnam partem tuce pulcritudinis deperiisse, pro eo ac debeo doleo;—talpâ cæcior, &c.) stand those ironical observations on his size and beauty-Staturâ pumilionem, malitiá gigantem ;—formosus pusio ;-formæ decore, quam semper plurimùm venditásti, &c. particularly as estimated by his Italian friends: Quid Itali nunc dicerent, si te viderent cum istâ fœdâ lippitudine?-quem olim pro foemina habuerunt ;-culcita-mollicellus et bellulus catamitus, &c. In the next paragraph, upon his stature, Milton perhaps remembered Aristotle's i μικροί δ' ατειοι και συμμετρος, καλοι δ' δ. Ηθ. iv. 7. In this discreditable contest of scurrility, in which it must be owned the invectives of both parties are equally reprehensible for their coarseness, it could hardly be expected that Manso's punning distich (comparing Milton in form, face, mien, mind, and manners' to an angel), or Milton's own tetrastic on the φαυλος δυσμίμημα ζωγραφο—the comptula imago, as Saumaise calls it-prefixed to an edition of his Poems, should escape notice. Accordingly the Itali poëtastri, and the retorted name of Salmacis upon one, qui quod est feminarum sibi arrogat, et de solo formæ bono gloriatur; qui

Were it

ture, I own, is not tall, but it approaches nearer to the middle size, than to the low. however even low, I should in this respect only resemble many, who have eminently distinguished themselves both in peace and in war.* Why indeed should that be called low, which is sufficiently lofty for all the purposes of human exertion? Neither am I to be pronounced very

puny;' having so much spirit and strength, that when my age and the habits of my life permitted, I daily accustomed myself to the exercise of the swordt in fencing; and ac

etiam sculptori suo versibus editis in vulgus maledixit, quòd se minùs formosum quàm reverà se esse putaret pinxerit, are introduced in the Responsio' of Saumaise. In the University, Johnson tells us, he was called "The Lady of his College." See a fine portrait of him by the pen of Dr. Symmons, p. 573, &c.

* "Alexander the Great, there is reason to believe, was scarcely larger than Buonaparte. Attila was very little; and this was the more remarkable, since his followers were in general a tall and athletic race, and people were only esteemed according to their bodily powers."- "Julius Cæsar, Mark Antony, Henry IV. of France, Louis XIV., Marechal Turenne, with many more who might be named, are all recorded as being below what is esteemed the middle stature for a man; and the same has been the case with almost all the French Generals, who have been celebrated since the commencement of the Revolution." (Plumptre's Residence in France,' I. 112.) + This Dr. Johnson supposes, was "not the rapier, but the back-sword, of which he recommends the use in his book on Education:" but, as it was the weapon with which he was generally armed,' Dr. Symmons much more probably thinks it was the small sword. (Life, p. 574.)

counted myself, armed with that weapon (as I generally was) secure in the assault of any man, hand to hand, how superior soever he might be in muscular power. The spirit and the strength remain, still unimpaired; my eyes alone have failed and yet they are as unblemished in appearance, as lucid and as free from spot, as those which possess the sharpest vision.* In this instance alone am I, most reluctantly, a deceiver. My bloodless' form, as he calls it,

-Clear,

To outward view, of blemish or of spot.

(Sonn. xxii.)

This is the characteristic of the Amaurosis, or Gutta Serena, which Milton pathetically deplores, P. L. iii. 25, &c.

'So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs,

where he subjoins, as here, in self-consolation,

Blind Tamyris, and blind Mæonides,

And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old,' &c.

Of which last line it may be observed, that the passage below, introducing Tiresias along with other celebrated bards of remote antiquity,' proves the authenticity (notwithstanding Dr. Bentley's objection) still better, perhaps, than the Dirceus augur De Id. Plat. 26. referred to by Warton, in his note on Eleg. vi. 67. It would sound more harmoniously however, to a modern ear, if the two names were to change places.

Upon the Gutta Serena occur some very interesting remarks, in Ware's late republication of his Observations on the Eye.' "To call Thevenot the Ware of the seventeenth century and of France,' would be to pay the former a high compliment (C. S. Life, 375.); for, of twelve cases, recorded in his third volume, four were cured by electricity, four chiefly by a mercurial snuff, and four relieved by other remedies!