Having made these discoveries, Dr. Douglas communicated them to the world in a pamphlet intitled, Milton vindicated from the charge of plagiarism, brought against him by Mr. Lauder, &c. 8vo. 1750. Upon the publication thereof his bookfellers called on Lauder for a juftification of themselves, and a confirmation of the charge; but he, with a degree of impudence not to be exceeded, acknowledged the interpolation of the books by him cited, and feemed to wonder at the folly of mankind in 'making fuch a rout about eighteen or twenty lines.' However, being a fhort time after convinced by Johnfon and others, that it would be more for his interest to make an ample confeffion of his guilt, than to fet mankind at defiance, and ftigmatize them with folly; he did fo in a letter addreffed to Mr. Douglas, published in quarto, 1751, beginning thus :

< Candour and tenderness are in any relation, and on all occafions, eminently amiable; but when they ⚫ are found in an adverfary, and found fo prevalent as to overpower that zeal which his caufe excites, and that heat which naturally increases in the profe'cution of argument, and which may be in a great 'measure justified by the love of truth, they certainly appear with particular advantages; and it is impoffible not to envy those who poffefs the friendship of him, whom it is even fome degree of good for'tune to have known as an enemy.

'I will not fo far diffemble my weakness, or my fault, as not to confefs, that my wifh was to have 'paffed undetected; but fince it has been my fortune to fail in my original defign, to have the fuppofitious • paffages

T3

paffages which I have inferted in my quotations made known to the world, and the fhade which began to gather on the fplendour of Milton totally difperfed, I cannot but count it an allevation of my pain, that I have been defeated by a man who knows how to ufe advantages with fo much moderation, and can enjoy the honour of conqueft withC out the infolence of triumph.

It was one of the maxims of the Spartans, not to prefs upon a flying army, and therefore their enemies were always ready to quit the field, because they knew the danger was only in oppofing. The civility with which you have thought proper to treat • me, when you had incontestable fuperiority, has inclined me to make your victory complete,without any further ftruggle, and not only publicly to acknowledge the truth of the charge which you have hitherto advanced, but to confefs, without the leaft diffimulation, fubterfuge, or concealment, every other interpolation I have made in thofe authors, which you have not yet had opportunity to examine.

On the fincerity and punctuality of this confession, I am willing to depend for all the future regard of mankind, and cannot but indulge fome hopes, that they whom my offence has alienated from me, may, • by this inftance of ingenuity and repentance, be pro• pitiated and reconciled. Whatever be the event, I fhall at leaft have done all that can be done in reparation of my former injuries to Milton, to truth, and to mankind, and entreat that those who fhall' • continue implacable, will examine their own hearts, whether they have not committed equal crimes without equal proofs of forrow, or equal acts of atonement.'

Then

Then follow the citations, fome of which appear to be gratuitous, that is to fay, fuch as had escaped the detection of the author's adversary.

He then proceeds to affign the motive for hist attempt to fubvert the reputation of Milton, in these words:

About ten years ago, I publifhed an edition of Dr. Johnston's Tranflation of the Pfalms, and having procured from the general affembly of the church of Scotland, a recommendation of its use to the lower claffes of grammar-schools, into which I had begun to introduce it, though not without much 'controversy and oppofition, I thought it likely that I should, by annual publications, improve my little fortune, and be enabled to fupport myself in freedom from the miseries of indigence. But Mr. Pope, • in his malevolence to Mr. Benfon, who had distinguished himself by his fondnefs for the fame ver'fion, destroyed all my hopes by a diftich, in which he places Johnston in a contemptuous comparison' with the author of Paradise Loft.

From this time, all my praises of Johnston became ridiculous, and I was cenfured with great 'freedom, for forcing upon the fchools an author, 'whom Mr. Pope had mentioned only as a foil to a 'better poet. On this occafion, it was natural not to ' be pleased, and my refentment seeking to discharge ' itself somewhere, was unhappily directed against

On two unequal crutches propt, he [Benfon] came,
Milton's on this, on that one Johnston's name.

Dunciad, book iv. line 109.

< Milton. I refolved to attack his fame, and found fome paffages in curfory reading, which gave me hopes of ftigmatizing him as a plagiary, The farther I carried my fearch, the more eager I grew for. the discovery, and the more my hypothesis was oppofed, the more I was heated with rage. The confequence of my blind paffion, I need not relate; it has, by your detection, become apparent to mankind. Nor do I mention this provocation as adequate to the fury which I have fhewn, but as a cause of anger less fhameful and reproachful ⚫ than fractious malice, perfonal envy, or national jealoufy.'

The concluding paragraph of this confeffion carries in it fuch an appearance of contrition, that few who red it at the time could withhold that forgiveness which it implores; these are the words of it:

More I cannot per

For the violation of truth, I offer no excufe, be⚫ cause I well know, that nothing can excufe it. Nor ⚫ will I aggravate my crime, by difingenuous palliations. I confefs it, I repent it, and refolve, that my first offence fhall be my laft. form, and more therefore cannot be required. I intreat the pardon of all men, whom I have by any means induced to fupport, to countenance, or pa'tronize any frauds, of which I think myself obliged to declare, that not one of my friends was confcious. I hope to deserve by better conduct and more ufeful undertakings, that patronage which I have • obtained from the most illuftrious and venerable names by mifreprefentation and delufion, and to appear hereafter in fuch a character, as fhall give

с you

you no reason to regret, that your name is frequently mentioned with that of,

• Reverend Sir,

Your most humble fervant,

! WILLIAM LAUDER.'

Notwithstanding this humiliating and abject confeffion, which, though it was penned by Johnson*, was fubfcribed by himself, Lauder had the impudence, in a postscript thereto, in effect to retract it, by pretending that the defign of his effay was only to try how deeply the prepoffeffion in favour of Milton was rooted in the minds of his admirers; and that the ftratagem, as he calls it, was intended to impofe only on a few obftinate perfons; and, whether that. was fo criminal as it has been reprefented, he leaves the impartial mind to determine.

After the publication of this letter, the perusers of it refted in a conviction of the villainy of its author, ftrengthened by the inconfiftency between the reasons affigned in that and those in the poftfcript. Nevertheless, in the year 1754, refolving to attack Milton in another quarter, Lauder published a pamphlet intided, King Charles I. vindicated from the charge of 'plagiarism brought against him by Milton, and

Milton himself convicted of forgery and a grofs 'impofition on the public.' The defign of this pamphlet was, to ingratiate himself with the friends to the memory of Charles by fhewing, that the prayer of Pamela, in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, was, by an artifice of Milton, inferted in an edition of the Eikon Bafilike, with a view to fix on the king a charge of impiety.

• Vide infra, the account of a subsequent publication of Lauder's.