almost entirely the criticisms it contains upon Shakspeare and Marlow.*

Such, then, are the prose works of John Milton. Of those written in English, by far the greater number are contained in the volumes I now present to the public. Of his controversy with the bishops of the English church, his 'Animadversions' alone is abridged, and that would have been given entire were the parts of it omitted of any value. But so far from that, they are of a character to make every admirer of Milton regret that he ever wrote them. The same may be said of his Colasterion, from which I have selected only the short passages contained in this Preface. The reasons which have induced me to abridge other pieces of his, have been stated or intimated above.

As his Defence of the People of England is unquestionably his most celebrated prose composition, it may by some be regretted that I have made this Selection from his English works alone. But my object has been to make the English reader better acquainted than he now is, with Milton's own prose, not the prose of Mr Washington, Mr Bennett, or of any other translator. No translation, by another hand, let it be executed as it may, can do full justice to the original com

* Of Milton's 'wonder-working academy,' as Johnson sneeringly calls it, the only genuine product, I believe,' says this candid writer, 'is a small history of poetry, written in Latin, by his nephew, Philips, of which perhaps none of my readers have ever heard.'— 'We may be sure,' says the European Magazine, as quoted by an annotator on Johnson's Life of Milton, whose signature is R. at least, that Dr Johnson had never seen the book he speaks of; for it is entirely composed in English, though its title begins with two Latin words,—a circumstance that probably misled the biographer of Milton.'

poser of any work. Nay, it is hardly too much to say, that a perfect translation is an impossibility. Take up Washington's version of the first Defence, or Bennett's of the second, and any one at all conversant with Milton's prose, will be immediately sensible that it was not the master hand that wrought it. But the argument against translations, as adequate exhibitions of an author's style, is stale and too familiar to every one to be here repeated. I have wished to present Milton as a prose writer to my countrymen at large. This I conceived I could not do by giving them translations, and the limits I proposed to myself would not allow me to offer the original Latin to the comparatively few that can understand it.

As to the mode of executing my task, a few words will suffice. Milton's spelling and punctuation I have modernized. The first I was obliged to do, because I could not command a copy of his works in which his own spelling is retained. The second I thought it expedient to do, not only because Milton, as Mr Warton, and after him, Mr Todd maintains, was habitually careless of punctuation, but because I thought it would essentially contribute to make his works more easily read and more perfectly understood. The old punctuation is as uncouth to a modern reader, as the old spelling; and if it be expedient or allowable to change the one, I see no good reason why we may not do the same with the other. But I have never, in a single instance, exchanged one word of Milton for another, even when in abridging it would have been convenient to do so for the sake of preserving the appearance of connexion.

Again, I have broken up Milton's interminable paragraphs. In the Reason of Church Government, he appears to have laid it down as a rule not to be departed from, to make every chapter consist of a single paragraph. And throughout his prose works, these long paragraphs, I am persuaded, have been no small occasion of the neglect with which they have been so unjustly treated. The reader will doubtless thank me for the relief I have afforded him, by crumbling them into portions of tolerable size.

In the pieces abridged, wherever there is the least omission it will be found noted by asterisks.* In three or four instances, words will be found in brackets; they are not my words, however, but Milton's, taken from some passage omitted, but necessary to the full understanding of what is retained. There is not a word in the two volumes which is not Milton's.

I forbear entering upon the subject of Milton's character or style of writing. Of the latter, I could now merely state my own opinion, which, without my reasons for it, would be of no value. Besides, he that will not read Milton's prose for himself, will hardly read my criticism upon it.

With regard to his character, I am aware there are prejudices against it, which it is desirable should be removed. Johnson's Life of Milton is the source, from which most readers in this country, I suspect, re

*The four asterisks which stand on pp. 245, and 267, immediately after the titles of the pieces there begun, denote merely the omission of the dedications. They should have been followed, as they are preceded, by a line.

ceive their impressions respecting him. But there never was a greater disgrace to a man who professed to be guided by principle, than that Life is to its author. The admirers of Milton in this country, owe it to the injured shade of that great man, to enlighten the public mind on this subject. It would require but little knowledge and less skill. The biographer's motives are sufficiently clear, and his mere malignity stands out in tangible and bold relief on every page. They are both most ably and acutely exposed in Archdeacon Blackburne's 'Remarks upon Johnson's Life of Milton,' which were written in extreme old age with all the animation and strength of early manhood, and which ought to be in the hands of every one that reads or possesses the 'great critic's' pages.

FRANCIS JEnks.

Boston, December 26th, 1826.

AMIDST those deep and retired thoughts, which, with every man christianly instructed, ought to be most frequent of God, and of his miraculous ways and works amongst men, and of our religion and works, to be performed to him; after the story of our Saviour Christ, suffering to the lowest bent of weakness in the flesh, and presently triumphing to the highest pitch of glory in the spirit, which drew up his body also; till we in both be united to him in the revelation of his kingdom, I do not know of any thing more worthy to take up the whole passion of pity on the one side, and joy on the other, than to consider first the foul and sudden corruption, and then, after many a tedious age, the long deferred, but much more wonderful and happy reformation of the church in these latter days. Sad it is to think how that doctrine of the gospel, planted by teachers divinely inspired, and by them winnowed and sifted from the chaff of over