Prose of Milton - Livres de poche

Excerpt from Prose of Milton: Selected and Edited, With an Introduction

The excerpters from Milton's prose are now a numerous body, but the saying is by no means applicable to them, to! Izomz'nes quot sentem'z'e; rather may we remark the agreement in things fundamental which Sydney Smith observed to 'prevail between Pythagoras and Mrs. Trimmer. They all have eyes for the purple patches, and originality in this department of editorship must absolutely declare in favour of drab. No future editor is likely to be so ultra original and at the same time so ultra-foolish 3 and nothing short of this will lead him far from the path of Mr. Ernest Myers, the latest and the most tasteful anthologist. We, at all events, have deemed that it would be injurious to depart from it except as regards the order of the pieces and the inclusion Of translations from Milton's Latin writings, which we Shall hereafter endeavour to justify. Nor can much he added to Mr. Myers' critical appreciation of his author; though something may be subtracted if we dispute, as we must, his assertion that, among the good prose of good English poets, Milton's alone has preserved any considerable power. Surely Mr. Myers would admit that Coleridge's prose has influenced the national mind far more profoundly than Milton's. It may also be questioned whether a fallacy does not lurk in the comparison: whetherviii inti? 0d U C T] 01v.

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