John Milton |
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It is to be regretted 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 Engа lish language .
It is to be regretted 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 Engа lish language .
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John Milton, an Essay Thomas Babington MacAulay Macaulay, Baron,Thomas Babington Macaulay No preview available - 2008 |
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Popular passages
Page 27 - But now my task is smoothly done, I can fly, or I can run Quickly to the green earth's end, Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend ; And from thence can soar as soon To the corners of the moon. Mortals, that would follow me, Love Virtue, she alone is free : She can teach...
Page 70 - ... accompanied their steps, granted all their wishes, filled their houses with wealth, made them happy in love and victorious in war. Such a spirit is Liberty. At times she takes the form of a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses, she stings. But woe to those who in disgust shall venture 'to crush her ! And happy are those who, having dared to receive her in her degraded and frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by her in the time of her beauty and her glory ! There is only one cure for...
Page 104 - They are powerful, not only to delight, but to elevate and purify. Nor do we envy the man who can study either the life or the writings of the great poet and patriot, without aspiring to emulate, not indeed the sublime works with which his genius has enriched our literature, but the zeal with which he laboured...
Page 80 - Then came those days, never to be recalled without a blush, the days of servitude without loyalty, and sensuality without love; of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices; the paradise of cold hearts and narrow minds; the golden age of the coward, the bigot, and the slave.
Page 63 - We charge him with having broken his coronation oath ; and we are told that he kept his marriage vow! We accuse him of having given up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most hot-headed and hard-hearted of prelates ; and the defense is that he took his little son on his knee, and kissed him!
Page 103 - But there are a few characters which have stood the closest scrutiny and the severest tests, which have been tried in the furnace and have proved pure, which have been weighed in the balance and have not been found wanting, which have been declared sterling by the general consent of mankind, and which are visibly stamped with the image and superscription of the Most High. These great men we trust that we know how to prize ; and of these was Milton.
Page 47 - ... disappointments, nor abuse, nor proscription, nor neglect, had power to disturb his sedate and majestic patience. His spirits do not seem to have been high, but they were singularly equable. His temper was serious,, perhaps stern; but it was a temper which no sufferings could render sullen or fretful. Such as it was when, on the eve of great events, he returned from his travels, in the prime of health and manly beauty, loaded with literary distinctions, and glowing with patriotic hopes; such...
Page 94 - In his character the noblest qualities of every party were combined in harmonious union. From the. Parliament and from the Court, from the conventicle and from the Gothic cloister, from the gloomy and sepulchral circles of the Roundheads, and from the Christmas revel of the hospitable Cavalier, his nature selected and drew to itself whatever was great and good, while it rejected all the base and pernicious ingredients by which those finer elements were denied.
Page 51 - Then were first proclaimed those mighty principles which have since worked their way into the depths of the American forests, which have roused Greece from the slavery and degradation of two thousand years, and which, from one end of Europe to the other, have kindled an unquenchable fire in the hearts of the oppressed, and loosed the knees of the oppressors with an unwonted fear.
Bibliographic information
| Title | John Milton |
| Author | Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay |
| Publisher | J.R. Osgood, 1877 |
| Original from | Harvard University |
| Digitized | 16 Feb 2008 |
| Length | 104 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |