utch war. The Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury had set the
example, by applying to Holland the favourite maxim of the Roman
philosopher, _Delenda est Carthago._ When that versatile statesman
afterwards fled to Holland, he petitioned to be created a burgess
of Amsterdam, to ensure him against being delivered up to England.
The magistrates conferred on him the freedom desired, with the
memorable words, "_Ab nostra Carthagine nondum deleta, salutem
accipe._"

* * * * *

THE

STATE OF INNOCENCE,

AND

FALL OF MAN.

AN

OPERA.

--_Utinam modo dicere possem
Carmina digna dea: Certe est dea carmine digna._
OVID. MET.

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE, &c.

The "Paradise Lost" of Milton is a work so extraordinary in conception
and execution, that it required a lapse of many years to reconcile the
herd of readers, and of critics, to what was almost too sublime for
ordinary understandings. The poets, in particular, seemed to have
gazed on its excellencies, like the inferior animals on Dryden's
immortal Hind; and, incapable of fully estimating a merit, which, in
some degree, they could not help feeling, many were their absurd
experiments to lower it to the standard of their own comprehension.
One author, deeming the "Paradise Lost" deficient in harmony, was
pleased painfully to turn it into rhyme; and more than one, conceiving
the subject too serious to be treated in verse of any kind, employed
their leisure in humbling it into prose. The names of these
well-judging and considerate persons are preserved by Mr Todd in his
edition of Milton's Poetical Works.

But we must not confound with these effusions of gratuitous folly an
alteration, or imitation, planned and executed by John Dryden;
although we may be at a loss to guess the motives by which he was
guided in hazarding such an attempt. His reverence for Milton and his
high estimation of his poetry, had already called forth the well-known
verses, in which he attributes to him the joint excellencies of the
two most celebrated poets of antiquity; and if other proofs of his
veneration were wanting, they may be found in the preface to this very
p