The Works of Walter Bagehot (Volume 1); With Memoirs by R. H. Hutton

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1889. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... JOHN MILTON* (1859.) The Life of Milton, by Prof. Masson, is a difficulty for the critics. It is very laborious, very learned, and in the main, we believe, very accurate; it is exceedingly long, -- there are 780 pages in this volume, and there are to be two volumes more; it touches on very many subjects, and each of these has been investigated to the very best of the author's ability. No one can wish to speak with censure of a book on which so much genuine labor has been expended; and yet we are bound, as true critics, to say that we think it has been composed upon a principle that is utterly erroneous. In justice to ourselves we must explain our meaning. There are two methods on which biography may consistently be written. The first of these is what we may call the exhaustive method. Every fact which is known about the hero may be told us; everything which he did, everything which he would not do, everything which other people did to him, everything which other people would not do to him, may be narrated at full length. We may have a complete picture of all the events of his life; of all which he underwent, and all which he achieved. We The Life of John Milton, narrated in connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his time. By David Masson, M. A., Professor of English Literature in University College, London. Cambridge: Macmillan. An Account of the Life, Opinions, and Writings of John Milton. By Thomas Keightley; with an Introduction to Paradise Lost. London: Chapman and Hall. The Poems of Milton, with Notes by Thomas Keightley. London: Chapman and Hall. may, as Mr. Carlyle expresses it, have a complete account of his effect upon the universe, and of the effect of the universe upon him.* We admit that biographies of th...