able; but my real excuse for these, and for one or two digressions in the preceding portion of the Work, is, that I am fond of digressions, and discursive writers are my favourites, and that I thought these matters worth preserving, while I have a secret feeling that my literary career may be destined to terminate with Milton. Few readers, I should hope, will refuse to accept of this excuse. The reader of Milton should be acquainted with the state of public affairs in his time. I will here follow a rather unusual course, and boldly recommend my own. History of England. I do so both on account of its conciseness, and because I believe it to be the only one that can lay any just claim to impartiality. Hume is never trustworthy; Lingard, on account of his religious prejudices, rarely so,-most so however in this portion of his history. For myself I can truly assert that in relating the conflict between King and Parliament, I did my utmost to hold the balance even, and if it inclined at all, it was to the side of the former. For though I did not cry with Almanzor— I cannot stay to ask which cause is best, still my mind may have been secretly swayed by the royal misfortunes, and Charles perhaps appears to more advantage in my pages than he would in those of strict and rigorous truth. But where are such pages to be found? It has not, I fear, been given to man to be strictly impartial in history. In all my works I have adopted as a rule, from which I have never deviated, the principle of acknowledging the obligation when I was indebted for opinions or ideas to any preceding writer. What is unacknowledged therefore I claim as my own, though I may have, and probably often have been anticipated; for my reading has been select, rather than extensive, my literary appetite, though fond of variety, not being omnivorous. The opinions which I have given on various subjects have been long and carefully weighed, and viewed under every light; and thence, demonstration being out of the question, though they may be rejected by those of a different turn of mind, I do not think they can be confuted. Splendid passages, and what is usually called fine writing, will not be found in this volume. I have little talent and still less taste for them, for I have usually found the brilliants to be false, composed of metaphor, paradox, and antithesis. But Truth is simplex munditiis ; the habit in which she loves to appear is simple, chaste in hue, formed to display her fair lineaments and proportions, and put on at times with an air of graceful negligence. All that I ever then aim at is perspicuity, purity, and correctness of language, carefully shunning stiffness and affectation, and happy if now and then I can approach to vigour or amenity. I would fain have the idea of the writer absorbed and lost in the subject. As in writing this volume I have been actuated solely by a regard for truth and reverence for the fame of Milton-years and their attendant evils having nearly quenched my love of fame-and as I live in seclusion, with little society beyond that of my own family, I may perhaps say without presumption that I am almost indifferent to criticism: praise cannot elate, or censure depress me. To the public expression of either, especially the latter, my ear is little used, and I have long been accustomed to be content with the silent approbation of my own mind. Conscious then of having exerted myself to the utmost of my powers to do justice to my subject, justice is all I ask of any, while to the friendly critic I would say Approve it only-'tis too late to praise. May 4, 1855. T. K. CORRECTIONS. Page 86, line 14, before should be very soon after. My friend Mr. Carruthers, of Inverness, has kindly favoured me with some remarks on this Work. As they are corrective of errors into which I had fallen, I lay a part of them before the reader. To Mr. Marsh, of Warrington, I am also indebted for some valuable information and documents. T. K. Page 50. Milton's Letter.-"This is certainly not in Milton's handwriting: I am as positive of this as of my own existence. It is a fine current clerk-like hand, without interlineation or erasure. Read the letter, and see a distinct allusion by Milton to his blindness. The signature is not unlike Milton's, but appears to be by the same hand as the body of the letter."-C. Page 52.-" Mrs. Foster was right in saying that Milton's second wife died of a consumption more than three months after her lying-in; the child was baptized October 19, 1657. See Cunningham's Johnson, i. 105, iii. 423."-C. Page 60.-"The date of the marriage license is 11th Feb., 1662 [-3 P]. -Sir C. Young's Pedigree of the Minshulls in Mitford's Life, prefixed to works, octavo edition."-C. Page 90.-It appears from the facsimile of the signatures to the receipts published by Mr. Marsh, that Anne Milton could not write, and Mary very badly. There is great mystery about the education that Milton gave his daughters. Page 93.-Phillips says, etc. "You have been misled by Johnson. Phillips does not make this statement."-C. Page 158.-" In his 'Iconoclastes' he speaks of the infection of Arian and Pelagian heresies, a proof that up to his forty-first year he had not imbibed Arian opinions."-C. Page 257.-The right date is 1631. The subject of Beaumont's poem, as Mr. Hunter has shown, was Lucy, daughter of the Earl of Exeter: she died in 1614. Pages 267-269.-Donne's 'Divine Sonnets' are formed on the Italian model; but they were not published till 1633.-Ronsard and other French poets of the sixteenth century wrote numerous sonnets.-Among the one thousand sonnets of T. Tasso, there are two of the same form as Milton's three Italian sonnets. Page 383, note .-This was the orthography of the time. Page 434.-"Gods and men," Sam. Agon. v. 545, ed. 1671. "Gods or men," ed. 1680, and all till 1747. Page 439.-Sirocco is Italian also. Page 483.—This is a secondary, not the primary sense of the Hebrew terms. ERRATA. Page 4, last line, for 1642 read 1612. Page 10, line ninth, for he would relish read would retch. Page 28, last but one, for Spenstow read Spurstow. Page 60, last line, for features read fortunes. Page 234, last but two, for We read we. Page 314, seventh from bottom, for 1653 read 1652, dele or early in 1654. Page 315, line twelfth, for 1656, 1657 read 1655, 1656. Page 320, line eighteenth, for potentem read potantem. Page 387, line seventh, for never read seldom. Page 452, line seventh, for external read eternal. |