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PREFACE.

A NUMBER of years ago, Southey declared that a life of John Milton was "yet a desideratum in British literature." This is no longer true of what may be distinctively termed, English letters; but it is still true of American literature, which, up to this date, has never produced a biography of that illustrious republican and poet.

Before the recent appearance of Mr. Masson's admirable and elaborate Life of Milton, of which an American firm undertook some years ago to give a reprint, but of which only the first volume has been published, those who were curious to acquaint themselves with the details of his eventful and beneficent career, were obliged to glean their scanty information from some six or eight outline sketches, usually prefixed as introductory memoirs to the various editions of his works. But these, however useful as summaries of fact, are far below the dignity of independent biography.

Mr. Masson's Life has supplied the English people with an accurate and complete account of the immortal author of "Paradise Lost;" but even should its publication be completed in America, it can never, owing to its voluminous and costly character-it consists of three bulky volumes, each containing upwards of seven hundred pages-become

in any proper sense a popular life of Milton, but will remain of value chiefly as a book of reference.

A careful perusal of most of the so called "lives" of Milton, revealed the fact that they were almost exclusively devoted to criticisms upon Milton the poet, while Milton the statesman, Milton the controversialist, and Milton the prose writer, is either treated with neglect, or with supercilious contempt. Written mostly by authors connected with the English establishment, when Milton's political and religious opinions are touched upon, it is apologetically and deprecatingly.

Since, on this side of the Atlantic, the republican ideas and the ecclesiastical truths which Milton so ardently espoused and so ably expounded, have effected a fixed and lasting lodgment, and since it may, in some sense, be said that religious and political America sprang from his brain, it is somewhat singular that no American should have undertaken to present Milton's life to his fellow-countrymen, for the edification and instruction of those who stand so heavily in his debt. It certainly seems that this republic, based largely upon his ideas, and wedded enthusiastically to his religious opinions, owes John Milton at least the tribute and the grateful recognition of a biographical record.

This debt it has been the purpose of this biography, in a humble and unostentatious way, to pay. No special claim to originality is made for it, the desire of the author having been, not so much to write an original life, as, by levying freely upon the existing and authentic data, to group in one volume those numerous and authentic historical,

biographical, and anecdotal incidents which now lie scattered through a variety of obscure and rare manuscripts and scanty lives, and to present these from an American stand-point.

Milton's connection with the stirring events of the Revolution of 1640 was intimate and influential. Acting as Secretary of State during the ten years. of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, that galaxy of glorious and statesmanlike measures which made England during that whole decade the arbiter of Europe, either originated with him, or received from his pen their justification and defence.

Yet this period, so rich and fertile in his life, is, as we have said, passed by in comparative silence by most of his biographers; they entertaining no sympathy with his republicanism, while, captivated by his poetic splendors, they ignore even the interesting incidents of his youth. Thus Ivimey, the only dissenting clergyman who has written Milton's biography, though he has not suppressed the facts of his political career, whirls Milton on through all the scenes of his boyhood, through his college life, through his continental tour, to the commencement of the Revolution, in one short chapter of six pages.

In these respects it is confidently believed that this volume will be found a decided improvement upon most of its predecessors. Considerable space is devoted to the incidents of his youth and early manhood, not only because these phases of his life are interesting in themselves, but because it is instructive to learn the foundations upon which that august life was laid.

An attempt has also been made in these pages

to rescue from comparative obscurity the magnificent prose writings of John Milton. "It is to be regretted," says Macauley, "that the prose writings of Milton should in our time be so little read. As compositions, they deserve the attention of every man who wishes to become acquainted with the full power of the English language. They abound with passages, compared with which the finest declamations of Burke sink into insignificance. They are a perfect field of cloth of gold. The style is stiff with gorgeous embroidery. Not even in the earlier books of 'Paradise Lost' has he ever risen higher than in those parts of his controversial works in which his feelings, excited by conflict, find a vent in bursts of devotional and lyric rapture. It is, to borrow his own majestic language, ‘a seven-fold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies.'

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Since other biographers have amply descanted upon Milton's transcendent merits as a poet, this biography contents itself, in most cases, with merely mentioning the poems in the chronological order in which they were written, while large space is allotted to characteristic extracts from his religious and political pamphlets.

It is perhaps proper to say that care has been taken to exclude from this volume, so far as could be, every thing of a partisan bias. Engaged in heated controversy at the most exciting period of English history, Milton's ardent temperament occasionally hurried him into rhetorical excesses which in his cooler moments no one was more ready to condemn than himself. He belongs to no single sect in religion, and to no single party in politics.

In the broadest sense, Religion and Liberty unite to claim him as their well-loved son. Wedded himself not to party, but to principle, he was impartial in his defence of what he esteemed truth, came the assault from open foe or professed friend. Thus he opposed Archbishop Laud when that prelate* undertook to stifle freedom of discussion. In the same spirit he lashed the inconsistencies of the Puritans, when, themselves in power, they continued to shackle the press. He was earnest not to elevate a party, but to elevate mankind.

In his fourfold character of Christian, statesman, poet, and man, Milton deserves all the respect that he has ever received. His splendid genius and steadfast devotion to liberty and progress compel the homage of all generous and appreciative souls. God grant that these pages, devoted to the delineation of the life of one of the grandest teachers and benefactors ever lent the human race, may persuade all readers, to the extent of their ability, to emulate his virtues, and to be as faithful to Christianity and freedom in their day and generation, as John Milton was in his.

The authorities consulted in the compilation of this biography have been numerous and diverse. Milton's own works, and his letters of state have, of course, been liberally used; but the author wishes

*It is proper to say that when the word "prelate" occurs in the following pages, it is used, not in its modern and more legitimate English and American sense, but as it was understood in Milton's age, as synonymous with that extreme and intolerant high-churchism which bordered on the Vatican, and of which Archbishop Laud and his associates were the fitting representatives.

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