Some Account of the Life and Writings of John Milton: Derived Principally from Documents in His Majesty's State-paper Office, Now First Published, Volume 6

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C. and J. Rivington, 1826 - Poets, English - 370 pages

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Page 53 - These abilities, wheresoever they be found, are the inspired gift of God, rarely bestowed, but yet to some (though most abuse) in every nation : and are of power, beside the office of a pulpit, to inbreed and cherish in a great people the seeds of virtue and public civility, to allay the perturbations of the mind, and set the affections in right tune...
Page 234 - ... that by labour and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life) joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to aftertimes, as they should not willingly let it die.
Page 24 - And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures Whilst the...
Page 52 - Job a brief model ; or whether the rules of Aristotle herein are strictly to be kept, or nature to be followed,* which, in them that know art and use judgement, is no transgression, but an enriching of art ; and lastly, what king or knight, before the Conquest, might be chosen in whom to lay the pattern of a Christian hero...
Page 190 - After some common discourses had passed between us, he called for a manuscript of his ; which, being brought, he delivered to me, bidding me take it home with me and read it at my leisure; and when I had so done, return it to him with my judgment thereupon. When I came home, and had set myself to read it, I found it was that excellent poem which he entitled
Page 52 - Time serves not now, and perhaps I might seem too profuse, to give any certain account of what the mind at home, in the spacious circuits of her musing, hath liberty to propose to herself, though of highest hope and hardest attempting; whether that epic form whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other two of Virgil and Tasso, are a diffuse, and the book of Job a brief model...
Page 245 - Since thy original lapse, true liberty Is lost, which always with right reason dwells Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being : Reason in man obscur'd, or not obey'd, Immediately inordinate desires, And upstart passions, catch the government From reason ; and to servitude reduce Man, till then free. Therefore, since...
Page 47 - Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides. Come, and trip it as you go On the light fantastic toe; And in thy right hand lead with thee, The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty; And if I give thee honour due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her, and live with thee, In unreproved pleasures free...
Page 53 - But those frequent songs throughout the law and prophets beyond all these, not in their divine argument alone, but in the very critical art of composition, may be easily made appear over all the kinds of lyric poesy to be incomparable.
Page 313 - Thou, therefore, that sittest in light and glory unapproachable, parent of angels and men ! next, thee I implore, omnipotent King, Redeemer of that lost remnant whose nature thou didst assume, ineffable and everlasting Love...

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