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REMARKS

14

ON THE

CHARACTER AND WRITINGS

OF

JOHN MILTON;

OCCASIONED BY THE

PUBLICATION OF HIS LATELY DISCOVERED

'TREATISE ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.'

BY THE REV. DR. CHANNING,

OF BOSTON, NORTH AMERICA.

BOSTON, PRINTED:-LONDON, REPRINTED

for Edward rainford, 13 RED LION PASSAGE, RED LION SQUARE;
SOLD ALSO BY R. HUNTER, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD :

AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS.

[graphic][subsumed]

[These Remarks appeared anonymously in "The Christian Examiner" published at Boston. They were put into the Publisher's hands by an American gentleman of this city, who received several copies of the pamphlet from Boston as the work of Dr. Channing.]

PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR, SHOE-LANE.

BAL

CHARACTER AND WRITINGS

OF

JOHN MILTON.

A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone. By JOHN MILTON. Translated from the Original by CHARLES R. SUMNER, M.A. Librarian and Historiographer to His Majesty, and Prebendary of Canterbury. From the London Edition. Boston, 1825. 2 vols. 8vo.

THE discovery of a work of Milton, unknown to his own times, is an important event in literary history. The consideration, that we of this age are the first readers of this treatise, naturally heightens our interest in it; for we seem in this way to be brought nearer to the author, and to sustain the same relation which his cotemporaries bore to his writings. The work opens with a salutation, which, from any other man, might be chargeable with inflation; but which we feel to be the natural and appropriate expression of the spirit of Milton. Endowed with gifts of the soul, which have been imparted to few of our race, and conscious of having consecrated them through life to God and mankind, he rose without effort or affectation to the style of an Apostle.-JOHN MILTON, TO ALL THE CHURCHES of Christ, AND TO ALL WHO profess the CHRISTIAN FAITH THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, peace, and THE RECOGNITION OF THE TRUTH, AND ETERNAL SALVATION IN GOD THE FATher, and in our LORD JESUS CHRIST.' Our ears are the first to hear this benediction, and it seems not so much to be borne to us from a distant age, as to come immediately from the sainted spirit by which it was indited.

Without meaning to disparage the Treatise on ChristianDoctrine,' we may say that it owes very much of the attention which it has excited, to the fame of its author. We value it

chiefly as showing us the mind of Milton on that subject which above all others presses upon men of thought and sensibility. We want to know in what conclusions such a man rested after a life of extensive and profound research, of magnanimous efforts for freedom and his country, and of communion with the most gifted minds of his own and former times. The book derives its chief interest from its author, and accordingly there seems to be a propriety in introducing our remarks upon it with some notice of the character of Milton. We are not sure that we could have abstained from this subject, even if we had not been able to offer so good an apology for attempting it. The intellectual and moral qualities of a great man are attractions not easily withstood, and we can hardly serve others or ourselves more, than by recalling to him the attention, which is scattered among inferior topics.

In speaking of the intellectual qualities of Milton, we may begin with observing, that the very splendour of his poetic fame has tended to obscure or conceal the extent of his mind, and the variety of its energies and attainments. To many he seems only a poet, when in truth he was a profound scholar, a man of vast compass of thought, imbued thoroughly with all ancient and modern learning, and able to master, to mould, to impregnate with his own intellectual power, his great and various acquisitions. He had not learned the superficial doctrine of a later day, that poetry flourishes most in an uncultivated soil, and that imagination shapes its brightest visions from the mists of a superstitious age; and he had no dread of accumulating knowledge, lest it should oppress and smother his genius. He was conscious of that within him, which could quicken all knowledge, and wield it with ease and might; which could give freshness to old truths and harmony to discordant thoughts; which could bind together by living ties and mysterious affinities the most remote discoveries; and rear fabrics of glory and beauty from the rude materials which other minds had collected. Milton had that universality which marks the highest order of intellect. Though accustomed almost from infancy to drink at the fountains of classical literature, he had nothing of the pedantry and fastidiousness which disdain all other draughts. His healthy mind delighted in genius, on whatever soil or in whatever age it burst forth and poured out its fulness. He understood too well the rights, and dignity, and pride of creative imagination, to lay on it the laws of the Greek or Roman

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