An Account of the Life, Opinions, and Writings of John Milton: With an Introduction to Paradise Lost

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Chapman and Hall, 1855 - Poets, English - 484 pages

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Page 377 - Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep and shaking her invincible locks : methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam, purging and unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would...
Page 477 - He made darkness his secret place ; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
Page 353 - 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 355 - ... devout prayer to that eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases...
Page 368 - He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true wayfaring Christian.
Page 480 - With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass Floated redundant...
Page 355 - I am now indebted, as being a work not to be raised from the heat of youth, or the vapours of wine; like that which flows at waste from the pen of some vulgar amourist, or the trencher fury of a rhyming parasite; nor to be obtained by the invocation of dame Memory and her siren daughters, but by devout prayer to that eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim, with the...
Page 296 - For so, to interpose a little ease, Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise ; Ay me ! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled: Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides...
Page 365 - I was confirmed in this opinion, that he, who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem, that is a composition and pattern of the best and honourablest things, not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men or famous cities, unless he have in himself the experience and the practice of all that which is praiseworthy.
Page 124 - And strait conjunction with this sex: for either He never shall find out fit mate, but such As some misfortune brings him, or mistake; Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd...

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