NOVA SOLYMA AN ANONYMOUS ROMANCE WRIT- "THE lucubrations of a mind which could conceive Paradise Lost or the Areopagitica must always have a certain value." (GRAHAM, Selections from Milton, p. 6.) "WE regard the series of thoughts that was in his [Milton's] mind through any month or series of months as something of prime interest in the spirit of the past, a prize that we would give gold to recover." (MASSON'S Life of Milton, iii. 52.) "IT surely must be a matter of the utmost interest to ascertain what a man [Milton] so eminently endowed, and so free from the restraints of authority and custom in his sentiments, thought on matters which men have agreed in regarding as those of the deepest importance." (KEIGHTLEY'S Life of Milton, p. 153.) "AN editor of Milton's juvenile poems cannot but express his concern that their number is so inconsiderable. With Milton's mellow hangings, delicious as they are, we reasonably rest contented; but we are justified in regretting that he has left so few of his early blossoms, not only because they are so exquisitely sweet, but because so many more might have naturally been expected." (THOMAS WHARTON, Minor Poems of Milton, English, Italian, and Latin, London, 1791, p. xiii.) "MILTON was no democrat: he was an aristocratic republican like Plato. He was for an ordered liberty, a commonwealth of men whom, as Cowper said, the truth had made free, living under a reign of law. If our life and influence as a nation are to stand for a living influence in the world, if we are to be saved from the very real perils of materialism, we shall go to Milton for our ideal." (Article in Spectator, November 18th, 1899.) AT ultimi nepotes Et cordatior aetas Judicia rebus aequiora forsitan Adhibebit integro sinu, Tum, livore sepulto, Si quid merimur sana posteritas sciet. (JOHN MILTON, Ad Joannem Rousium, January 13th, 1646.) |