Thy course, there shalt thou find a lasting seat,
There to thy sons another Troy shall rise,
And kings be born of thee, whose dreadful might
Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold.

DANTE.

AH Constantine, of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy pope receiv'd of thee.

DANTE.

FOUNDED in chaste and humble poverty,

'Gainst them that rais'd thee dost thou lift thy horn, Impudent whore, where hast thou plac'd thy hope? In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth?

Another Constantine comes not in haste.

ARIOSTO.

THEN past he to a flow'ry mountain green,
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously:
This was the gift, if you the truth will have,
That Constantine to good Sylvester gave.

HORACE.

WHOм do we count a good man? Whom but he Who keeps the laws and statutes of the senate,

Who judges in great suits and controversies,
Whose witness and opinion wins the cause?
But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood,
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin.

HORACE.

THE power that did create can change the scene
Of things, make mean of great, and great of mean:
The brightest glory can eclipse with might,
And place the most obscure in dazzling light.

HORACE.

ALL barbarous people and their princes too,
All purple tyrants honour you,

The very wandering Scythians do.
Support the pillar of the Roman state,
Lest all men be involv'd in one man's fate,
Continue us in wealth and state,

Let wars and tumults ever cease.

CATULLUS.

THE worst of poets I myself declare,
By how much you the best of poets are.

OVID.

ABSTAIN, as manhood you esteem,
From Salmacis' pernicious stream;

If but one moment there you stay,
Too dear you'll for your bathing pay.—
Depart nor man, nor woman, but a sight
Disgracing both, a loath'd Hermaphrodite.

EURIPIDES.

THIS is true liberty, when freeborn men
Having t' advise the public may speak free:
Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise:
Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace,
What can be a juster in a state than this?

VIRGIL.

No eastern nation ever did adore

The majesty of sovereign princes more.

VIRGIL.

AND Britons interwove held the purple hangings.

HORACE.

LAUGHING, to teach the truth,

What hinders? As some teachers give to boys
Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace.

HORACE.

JOKING decides great things,

Stronger and better oft than earnest can.

SOPHOCLES.

You do the deeds,

'TIS you that say it, not I.
And your ungodly deeds find me the words.

SENECA.

THERE can be slain

No sacrifice to God more acceptable,
Than an unjust and wicked king.

TERENCE.

IN silence now and with attention wait,
That

ye may

know what th' Eunuch has to prate.

HOMER.

GLAUCUS, in Lycia we're ador'd as gods;
What makes 'twixt us and others so great odds?

EPIGRAM ON SALMASIUS'S HUNDREDA.

WHO taught Salmasius, that French chattering pye
To aim at English, and HUNDREDA cry?

The starving rascal, flush'd with just a hundred
English Jacobusses, HUNDREDA blunder'd:

An outlaw'd king's last stock. A hundred more Would make him pimp for th' antichristian whore; And in Rome's praise employ his poison'd breath, Who threaten'd once to stink the pope to death.

ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT.*

BECAUSE you have thrown off your Prelate Lord,
And with stiff vows renounced his Liturgy,
To seize the widow'd whore Plurality

From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorr'd,
Dare ye for this adjure the civil sword

To force our consciences that Christ set free,
And ride us with a classic hierarchy
Taught ye by mere A. S. and Rotherford?

5

The note of Warton on this sonnet appears to me to be extremely unjust and severe. Milton denoted his indignation against the Presbyterians because they had deserted their own principles, continued many of the supposed abuses, and usurped much of the power of the church which they had overthrown: in fact, the new Presbyter was more tyrannical than the old priest.

8 A. S.] A polemical writer of the times, named 'Adam Steuart.' See the notes of Warton and Todd. Rotherford was one of the Chief Commissioners of the Church of Scotland; also sat with the Assembly at Westminster. He was Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrew's; wrote many Calvinistic tracts; and was an avowed enemy of the Independents. T. Edwards had attacked Milton's Plan of Independency in his Antapologia, 1644. On Rotherford. See Heber's Life of I. Taylor, ii. 203.