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Selections from the prose works of John Milton
Selections from the prose works of John Milton Author:John Milton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND, AND THE CAUSES THAT HITHERTO HAVE HINDERED IT. WRITTEN TO A FRIEND. TTTE are glad this work comes first under notice, T f be... more »cause it furnishes a good specimen of Milton's peculiar style. The length of the sentences almost takes away one's breath, and the wonder is how those which occur in his speeches could have been spoken by him; just as we wonder how the actors in the ancient theatres madet hemselves heard by an audience of thirty thousand in the open air. Long as they are. they are built up most artistically, and we confess to liking them in Milton, though perhaps we should not in any one else. The exordium and the peroration of this remarkable production are exceedingly grand and striking. The latter astonishes and enchants us by its powerful and matchless eloquence, and its richly musical cadences. It has never been surpassed in any language, and is a glorious specimen of impassioned prose. Such an outburst seems to us little less than direct inspiration. It is in fact a prose-poem, a patriotic lyric; and uaturally prompts the question where does poetry begin and prose end, and what is the proper domain of each art ? for here we see them invading each other. Macaulay doubtless had this celebrated passage in view when he spoke of his prose style as ' stiff with gorgeous embroidery—a perfect field of cloth of gold.' This burst of ' devotional and lyric rapture,' in which his excited feelings find a vent, and others, especially in the Areopagitica, seem to us to rival the poetry of the Paradise Lost. We have said so much that we think our readers will not thank us if we detain them any longer from the rich feast we propose to set before them. " Amidst those deep and retired thoughts, which, with every man Christianity instructed, ought...« less