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Macaulay's Essay On Milton (BCL1-PR English Literature)
Macaulay's Essay On Milton - BCL1-PR English Literature Author:Thomas Babington Macaulay 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: MACAULAY'S ESSAY ON MILTON. (august, 1825.) Jnannis Miltoni, Angli, de Doctrina Christiana libri duo posthumi. A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled f... more »rom the Holy Scriptures alone. By John Milton, translated from the Original by Charles R. Sumner, M.A., etc., etc.: 1825. Towards the close of the year 1823, Mr. Lemon, deputy keeper of the state papers, in the course of his researches among the presses of his office, met with a large Latin manuscript.1 With it were found corrected copies of the foreign despatches written by Milton while he filled the 5 office of Secretary, and several papers relating to the Popish Trials and the Rye-house Plot.2 The whole was wrapped up in an envelope, superscribed To Mr. Skinner, Merchant. On examination, the large manuscript proved to be the long-lost essay on the Doctrines of Christianity, 10 which, according to Wood and Toland, Milton finished after the Restoration, and deposited with Cyriac Skinner.3 Skinner, it is well known, held the same political opinions with his illustrious friend. It is therefore probable, as Mr. Lemon conjectures, that he may have fallen under the 15 suspicions of the Government during that persecution of the Whigs which followed the dissolution of the Oxford parliament, and that, in consequence of a general seizure of his papers, this work may have been brought to the office in which it has been found. But whatever the ad- 20ventures of the manuscript may have been, no doubt can exist that it is a genuine relic of the great poet. Mr. Sumner, who was commanded by his Majesty to edit and translate the treatise, has acquitted himself of his task 5 in a manner honorable to his talents and to his character. His version is not indeed very easy or elegant; but it is entitled to the praise of clearness and fid...« less