THE PROSE WORKS OF MILTON.
WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, BY R. W. GRISWOLD.
|
|
The noble lines of Wordsworth, quoted by Mr. Griswold on his title-page, would be the best and a sufficient advertisement of each reprint:
| “Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour. |
| Return to us again, |
| And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. |
| Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; |
| Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the Sea: |
| Pure as the naked Heavens, majestic, free: |
| So didst thou travel on life’s common way |
| In cheerful Godliness, and yet thy heart |
| The lowliest duties on herself did lay.” |
One should have climbed to as high a point as Wordsworth to be able to review Milton, or even to view in part his high places. From the hill-top we still strain our eyes looking up to the mountain-peak—
“Itself Earth’s Rosy Star.”
We rejoice to see that there is again a call for an edition of Milton’s Prose Works. There could not be a surer sign that there is still pure blood in the nation than a call for these. The print and paper are tolerably good; if not worthy of the matter, yet they are, we suppose, as good as can be afforded and make the book cheap enough for general circulation. We wish there
