nis: he might now point out the beauties of a particular bed, now covet the shade, now enter. into a practical disquisition upon engrafting, &c. Assuredly, I admit it. Of this, however, he could not convince the presbytery, so as to elude their censure and suspension; and the heads of the charge, as well as of others of a similar kind, are to this day preserved in the public library of that city. In the mean time, before the affair became public, being invited into Holland (through the management of Saumaise) by the Gallic church at Middleburg, to the great disgust of Spanheim, a pastor of approved learning and integrity who had known him thoroughly at Geneva,† he at length with * The garden (pot. orchard,' or as Milton spells the word, orchat, from the Gr. opzaros: See Pegge's Anonymiana,' vi. 95.) of Alcinous is beautifully described by Homer, Od. vii. 112— 132, with it's xooμntai πpaσiai, or beds of all various herbs for ever green,' like the nuptial bed of espoused Eve' (P. L. iv. 710.) The Adavidos xnzo, consecrated to Venus on account of her handsome paramour, are explained by Erasmus, in his Adages,' as referring to res leviculæ parùmque frugiferæ, et ad brevem præsentemque modò fructum idonea. Of the passage which follows, ficui morum inserere, complures inde sycomoros quàm citissimè enasci, &c. we cannot regret the impossibility of presenting an adequate version to the English reader. Our term bed,' however, is proportionally more expressive than the original areola. ✦ In this story, Milton seems to have made some slight mistake. More, whose learning procured him the offer of several the utmost difficulty procured some cold formal • Letters Testimonial,' as they are called, from that place-on condition of his immediate departure; several indeed thinking it very wrong, that the church should bear testimony in favour of such a profligate, but the majority deeming any thing rather to be borne than the profligate himself. On his arrival in Holland, he waited upon Saumaise, and there cast a lustful eye upon Pontia, his wife's maid; for the gentleman is always partial to servant-girls. Thenceforward, he began assiduously to cultivate Saumaise, and as often as occasion served, Pontia too. Whether indeed Saumaise, won by the convenience and fulsomeness of the fellow, or More thinking that he should have better and more frequent opportunities of seeing Pontia, first introduced mention of Milton's Reply,' literary appointments, had obtained Letters Testimonial with some other view, six or seven years previously to his final departure from Geneva; and upon that occasion being obliged to apply for Letters Recommendatory, by going round to individuals and importuning them for their signatures, he got (not, as in the former case, frigidulas but) frigidissimas literas, granted chiefly for the credit of his profession and the removal of himself. These however, under the pretext of not having been able to procure a copy, he suppressed. See the Pro Se Defensio,' where Milton takes an opportunity, in his copious and animated account of this affair, of estimating the weight of Testimonials in general, and of paying a fine compliment to the small republic of Geneva. He there, likewise, renews the allegation, which immediately follows: Ancillis, ut videtur, quocunque vadis, nullum abs te refugium est. D I am not competent to decide. However that be, More undertakes Saumaise's defence, and Saumaise promises More a divinity-chair in that city, by his interest, in return: More likewise promising himself the indulgence of carrying on a sly intrigue with Pontia into the bargain. Under the pretence of consulting his principal upon this subject, he frequents his house day and night. And now, as Pyramus was formerly transformed into a mulberry-tree, behold our mulberry-treet suddenly transformed into a Pyramus, transplanted from Geneva to Baby * Leyden. + Lat. Morus. This, as it might be expected, is not a new pun. At Losely, the seat of the Mores (near Godalmin, in Surrey) we learn from Manning's History and Antiquities of that County,' p. 98, were sundry notable devices: and among the rest, "in the corner of the great withdrawingroom, is inserted a Mulberry-tree, on the side of which is this inscription, MORUS tardè moriens; on the other, MORUM citò moriturum," meaning respectively, The tree perennial,' Perishing the fruit.' From the Moria Encomium of Erasmus, indeed, to the Honores Mutant Mores of Jo Miller, the word is fertile in witticisms. In Vossius' Letters to Heinsius, this unlucky name appears under the aliàs of Ethiops (Maurus.) In the Genevensis in Babylonium, which follows, we find an antithesis between the churches of Geneva and Rome, which latter city has been deemed by most commentators the anti-type of the Babylon in the Apocalypse; a fortunate circumstance, as Milton would esteem it, with reference to the scene of Pyramus' story. We may be permitted indeed to wonder, that no allusion is made to the fornication and harlotry of that city, Rev. xvii. 2, 5, &c. lon; but luckier, though less deserving than that youth, he can converse with his Pontia as he pleases under the same roof: no need to seek a cranny in the wall. He promises her marriage, under that engagement he debauches her, and thus at once (I shudder to state it, but it must be stated) he violates the purity of his profession, and the rites of hospitality. From this intercourse sprung a monstrous and unnatural compound birth. Both the male and the female conceived; Pontia a little Morell, destined long afterward to exercise the patience of Saumaise, the Plinian exercise-writer;* and More an empty wind-egg, whence issued this flatulent Cry of the Royal Blood, at first indeed holding out the prospect of an agreeable treat to our hungry royalists in Belgium, but proving to their regret, upon breaking the shell, addle and rotten. For More swelling with his conception, and fancying that he had curried favour with all the Orange-faction, greedily swallowed in anticipation whole pro • Saumaise's celebrated Work, entitled Exercitationes Pliniana in Cai. Jul. Solin. Polyhist. was first published at Paris in 1629. The subject of this commentary, a miserable compilation of historical and geographical remarks on different countries, abounds with extracts from Pliny the Naturalist to such a degree, as to have procured for it's author the name of 'Plinii Simia.' The term conception,' occurring below, Milton would probably have used, if he had written in English, instead of the less equivocal word fœtu. fessorships; and had wickedly abandoned his Pontia, now pregnant, as a servant and a beggar. Upon this she applied to the synod and the magistracy, with complaints of his neglect and breach of faith. Thus the story got abroad, and was long a subject of joke and ridicule at almost every table and in every party. Whence some one, no bungler in epigram, threw off the following distich: < Pontia's with child by More-but why this fuss? # The whole affair of this English Abigail, Pontia, or (as More himself, in his Reply, taught Milton more correctly to call her) Bontia-see his Pro Se Defensio'-after every deduction for the virulence of our author's invective, appears to have been a most disgraceful piece of business. It is not perhaps worth the more ample investigation, which Milton in his subsequent Rejoinder has bestowed upon it, or Warton's very prolix note, pp. 485-487. It's best result was the present Audoënic epigram, which M. Colomies emphatically calls un sanglant distique, but of which the poignancy (depending on a verbal conceit) is with difficulty transferable to our language. My attempt in the text, aiming to be literal, is I fear obscure; to Dr. Symmons the reader will be indebted for a superior version: 'Though Pontia's big, cease, dames, to call her w- e: Madame Saumaise has not wholly escaped the suspicion of having, like Juno, been actuated by a sense of the spreta injuria formæ in the prosecution, which she instituted against More upon the occasion. See Thurloe's State-Papers,' ii. $94., where mention is made also of Ulack the printer, in |