I cannot, however, but wish that the answer of Jesus to Satan in the 4th book, (v. 285.)
Think not but that I know these things;
Or think I know them not,
Not therefore am I short
Of knowing what I ought, &c.
had breathed the spirit of Hayley's noble quotation rather than the narrow bigotry of Gregory the Great. The passage is, indeed, excellent, and is partially true; but partial truth is the worst mode of conveying falsehood.
(Hayley, p. 75.) "The sincerest friends of Milton may here agree with Johnson, who speaks of his controversial merriment as disgusting."
The man who reads a work meant for immediate effect on one age with the notions and feelings of another, may be a refined gentleman, but must be a sorry critic. He who possesses imagination enough to live with his forefathers, and, leaving comparative reflection for an after moment, to give himself up during the first perusal to the feelings of a contemporary, if not a partizan, will, I dare aver, rarely find any part of Milton's prose works disgusting.
(Hayley, p. 104. Hayley is speaking of the passage in Milton's
Answer to Icon Basilice
, in which he accuses Charles of taking his Prayer in captivity from Pamela's prayer in the 3rd book of Sidney's
Arcadia
. The passage begins,