Having made these discoveries, Dr. Douglas communicated them to the world in a pamphlet intitled, Milton vindicated from the charge of plagiarifin, brought against him by Mr. Lauder, &c. 8vo. 1750.' Upon the publication thereof his bookfellers called on Lauder for a justification 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 such 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 intereft 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, pub lifhed in quarto, 1751, beginning thus:

Candour and tenderness are in any relation, and on all occasions, 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 profecution of argument, and which may be in a great measure juftified 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 fortune 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 since it has been my fortune f 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 splendour 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 use advantages with fo much mode<ration, and can enjoy the honour of conqueft without 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 inconteftable 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 confeffion, 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 propitiated and reconciled. Whatever be the event, I fhall at least have done all that can be done in re

'paration of my former injuries to Milton, to truth, and to mankind, and entreat that thofe who shall • 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 his attempt to fubvert the reputation of Milton, in thefe 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 ufe to the ' lower claffes of grammar-fchools, into which I had begun to introduce it, though not without much ⚫ controverfy and oppofition, I thought it likely that

I fhould, by annual publications, improve my little 'fortune, and be enabled to fupport myself in free· dom from the miferies of indigence. But Mr. Pope, • in his malevolence to Mr. Benson, who had distinguished himself by his fondness 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 Paradife Loft.

From this time, all my praifes 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 pleafed, and my refentment feeking to discharge ⚫ itself somewhere, was unhappily directed against

On two unequal crutches propt, he [Benfon] came,
Milton's on this, on that one Johnfton'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 op

pofed, 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 caufe of anger lefs 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:

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 shall be my last. More I cannot perform, 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 patronize any frauds, of which I think myself obliged to declare, that not one of my friends was confcious. I hope to deferve by better conduct and more ufeful undertakings, that patronage which I have • obtained from the moft illuftrious and venerable names by mifreprefentation and delufion, and to appear hereafter in fuch a character, as fhall give

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 poftfcript thereto, in effect to retract it, by pretending that the design 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 stratagem, as he calls it, was intended to impofe only on a few obftinate perfons; and, whether that was fo criminal as it has been represented, he leaves the impartial mind to determine.

After the publication of this letter, the perusers of it rested in a conviction of the villainy of its author, ftrengthened by the inconfiftency between the reasons affigned in that and thofe in the poftfcript. Nevertheless, in the year 1754, refolving to attack Milton in another quarter, Lauder published a pamphlet intitled, King Charles I. vindicated from the charge of plagiarifm 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, inserted 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 fubfequent publication of Lauder's.