lefs are capable of admitting any degree of pure Latinity. I will give a few inftances, out of a great multitude, from the Davideis. Again, "Hic fociatorum facra conftellatio vatum, b" "Temporis ingreditur penetralia celfa futuri, Implumefque videt nidis cœleftibus annos "." And, to be short, we have the Plufquam vifus aquilinus of lovers, Natio verborum, Exuit vitam aeriam, Menti auditur fymphonia dulcis, Naturæ archiva, Omnes fymmetria fenfus congerit, Condit aromatica prohibetque putefcere laude. Again, where Aliquid is perfonified, Monogramma exordia mundi. It may be faid, that Cowley is here tranflating from his own English Davideis. But I will bring examples from his original Latin poems. In praise of the fpring. "Et refonet toto mufica verna libro; Undique laudis odor dulciffimus halet, &c." And in the fame poem in a party worthy of the paftoral pencil of Watteau. "Hauferunt avide Chocolatam Flora Venufque." Of the Fraxinella. "Tu tres metropoles humani corporis armis "Propugnas, uterum, cor, cerebrumque, tuisf." * See Cowley's Poemata latina, Lond. 1668. 8vo. p. 398. b Ibid. p. 399. Plantar. Lib. iii. p. 137. • Ibid. p. 386. 397. 399. 400. • L. iv. p. 254. L. iv. p. 207. He calls the Lychnis, Candelabrum ingens. Cupid is Arbiter formæ criticus. Ovid is Antiquarius ingens. An ill smell is fhunned Olfactus tetricitate fui. And in the fame page, is nugatoria peftis. But all his faults are confpicuoufly and collectively exemplified in these stanzas, among others, of his Hymn on Light". "Pulchra de nigro foboles parente, "Quam Chaos fertur peperiffe primam, "Rifus O terræ facer et polorum, And afterwards, of the waves of the fea, perpetually in motion. "Lucidum trudis properanter agmen : "At mare immenfum oceanufque Lucis "Hinc inexhausto per utrumque mundum Milton's Latin poems may be justly confidered as legitimate claffical compofitions, and are never difgraced with fuch language and fuch imagery. Cowley's Latinity, dictated by an irregular and unreftrained imagination, prefents a mode of diction half Latin and half English. It is not fo much that Cowley wanted a knowledge of the Latin ftyle, but that he suffered that knowledge to be perverted and corrupted by falfe and extravagant thoughts. Milton was a more perfect fcholar than Cowley, and his mind was more deeply tinctured with the excellencies of ancient literature. He was a more just thinker, and therefore a more juft writer. In a word, he had more tafte, and more poetry, and confequently more propriety. If a fondness for the Italian writers has fometimes infected his English poetry with falfe ornaments, his Latin verfes, both in diction and fentiment, are at least free from thofe depravations. Some of Milton's Latin poems were written in his first year at Cambridge, when he was only seventeen: they must be allowed to be very correct and manly performances for a youth of that age. And, confidered in that view, they discover an extraordinary copioufnefs and command of ancient fable and hiftory. I cannot but add, that Gray resembles Milton in many inftances. Among others, in their youth they were both ftrongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry. T. WARTON. *Charles Deodate was one of Milton's most intimate friends. He was an excellent fcholar, and practifed phyfick in Cheshire. He was educated with our author at Saint Paul's school in London; and from thence was fent to Trinity college Oxford, where he was entered Feb. 7, in the year 1621, at thirteen years of age. Lib. Matric. Univ. Oxon. fub ann. He was born in London, and the name of his father, " in Medicina Doctoris," was Theodore. Ibid. He was a fellow-collegian there with Alexander Gill, another of Milton's intimate friends, who was fucceffively Usher and Master of Saint Paul's fchool. Deodate has a copy of Alcaicks extant in an Oxford-collection on the death of Camden, called Camdeni Infignia, Oxon. 1624. He left the college, when he was a Gentleman commoner in 1628, having taken the degree of Master of Arts. Lib Caution. Coll. Trin. Toland fays, that he had in his poffeffion two Greek letters, very well written, from Deodate to Milton. Two of Milton's familiar Latin letters, in the utmoft freedom of friendship, are to Deodate. Epift. Fam. Profe-works, vol. ii. 567, 568. Both dated from London, 1637. But the best, certainly the most pleasing, evidences of their intimacy, and of Deodate's admirable character, are our author's first and fixth Elegies, the fourth Sonnet, and the Epitaphium Damonis. And it is highly probable, that Deodate is the fimple fhepherd lud, in Comus, who is skilled in plants, and loved to hear Thyrfis fing, |