Critical and Historical Essays, Vol. 1 [1825]

The Online Library of Liberty A Project Of Liberty Fund, Inc. Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, Critical and Historical Essays, Vol. 1 [1825] The Online Library Of Liberty This E-Book (PDF format) is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a private, non-profit, educational foundation established in 1960 to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. 2010 was the 50th anniversary year of the founding of Liberty Fund. It is part of the Online Library of Liberty web site http://oll.libertyfund.org, which was established in 2004 in order to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. To find out more about the author or title, to use the site's powerful search engine, to see other titles in other formats (HTML, facsimile PDF), or to make use of the hundreds of essays, educational aids, and study guides, please visit the OLL web site. This title is also part of the Portable Library of Liberty DVD which contains over 1,000 books and quotes about liberty and power, and is available free of charge upon request. The cuneiform inscription that appears in the logo and serves as a design element in all Liberty Fund books and web sites is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash, in present day Iraq. To find out more about Liberty Fund, Inc., or the Online Library of Liberty Project, please contact the Director at [email protected]. LIBERTY FUND, INC. 8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite 300 Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-1684 Online Library of Liberty: Critical and Historical Essays, Vol. 1 Edition Used: Critical and Historical Essays contributed to the Edinburgh Review, 5th ed. in 3 vols. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1848). Vol. 1. Author: Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay About This Title: Essays which appeared in the Edinburgh Review between 1825-1831. They are on such topics as Milton, Machiavelli, Southey, Johnson, and other topics. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 2 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/362 Online Library of Liberty: Critical and Historical Essays, Vol. 1 About Liberty Fund: Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. Copyright Information: The text is in the public domain. Fair Use Statement: This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 3 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/362 Online Library of Liberty: Critical and Historical Essays, Vol. 1 Table Of Contents Notice. Preface. Critical and Historical Essays Contributed to the Edinburgh Review. Milton. (august, 1825.) Machiavelli. (march, 1827.) Hallam. (september, 1828.) Southey’s Colloquies. (jan. 1830.) Mr. Robert Montgomery. (april, 1830.) Civil Disabilities of the Jews. Moore’s Life of Lord Byron. (june, 1830.) Samuel Johnson. (september, 1831.) John Bunyan. (december, 1830.) John Hampden. (december, 1831.) PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 4 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/362 Online Library of Liberty: Critical and Historical Essays, Vol. 1 [Back to Table of Contents] NOTICE. The Publishers of this work beg to state that it is private property, protected by the late Copyright Act, the 5 & 6 Victoria, c. 45. They beg also to state that any person having in his possession, within the United Kingdom, for sale or hire, one or more copies printed abroad of any English work protected by the Act referred to, is liable to a penalty, which, in cases affecting their interests, they intend to enforce. The Public are farther informed that the Act 5 & 6 Victoria, c. 47. s. 24, prohibits the importation of all works printed in foreign countries, of which the copyright is not expired. Even single copies, though for the especial use of the importers, and marked with their names, are excluded; and the Customs officers in the different ports are strictly enjoined to carry this regulation into effect. N. B. — The above regulations are in force in all British colonies and dependencies, as well as in the United Kingdom. London: Spottiswoode and Shaw, New street Square TO FRANCIS JEFFREY THESE ESSAYS ARE DEDICATED, IN TOKEN OF THE ESTEEM, ADMIRATION, AND AFFECTION OF HIS FRIEND THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 5 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/362 Online Library of Liberty: Critical and Historical Essays, Vol. 1 [Back to Table of Contents] PREFACE. The author of these Essays is so sensible of their defects that he has repeatedly refused to let them appear in a form which might seem to indicate that he thought them worthy of a permanent place in English literature. Nor would he now give his consent to the republication of pieces so imperfect, if, by withholding his consent, he could make republication impossible. But, as they have been reprinted more than once in the United States, as many American copies have been imported into this country, and as a still larger importation is expected, he conceives that he cannot, in justice to the publishers of the Edinburgh Review, longer object to a measure which they consider as necessary to the protection of their rights, and that he cannot be accused of presumption for wishing that his writings, if they are read, may be read in an edition freed at least from errors of the press and from slips of the pen. These volumes contain the Reviews which have been reprinted in the United States, with a very few exceptions, which the most partial reader will not regret. The author has been strongly urged to insert three papers on the Utilitarian Philosophy, which, when they first appeared, attracted some notice, but which are not in the American editions. He has however determined to omit these papers, not because he is disposed to retract a single doctrine which they contain; but because he is unwilling to offer what might be regarded as an affront to the memory of one from whose opinions he still widely dissents, but to whose talents and virtues he admits that he formerly did not do justice. Serious as are the faults of the Essay on Government, a critic, while noticing those faults, should have abstained from using contemptuous language respecting the historian of British India. It ought to be known that Mr. Mill had the generosity, not only to forgive, but to forget the unbecoming acrimony with which he had been assailed, and was, when his valuable life closed, on terms of cordial friendship with his assailant. No attempt has been made to remodel any of the pieces which are contained in these volumes. Even the criticism on Milton, which was written when the author was fresh from college, and which contains scarcely a paragraph such as his matured judgment approves, still remains overloaded with gaudy and ungraceful ornament. The blemishes which have been removed were, for the most part, blemishes caused by unavoidable haste. The author has sometimes, like other contributors to periodical works, been under the necessity of writing at a distance from all books and from all advisers; of trusting to his memory for facts, dates, and quotations; and of sending manuscripts to the post without reading them over. What he has composed thus rapidly has often been as rapidly printed. His object has been that every Essay should now appear as it probably would have appeared when it was first published, if he had then been allowed an additional day or two to revise the proof-sheets, with the assistance of a good library. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 6 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/362 Online Library of Liberty: Critical and Historical Essays, Vol. 1 [Back to Table of Contents] CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS CONTRIBUTED TO THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. MILTON. (August, 1825.) Joannis Miltoni, Angli, de Doctrinâ. Christianâ libri duo posthumi. A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone. By John Milton, translated from the Original by Charles R. Summer, M. A. &c. &c. 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. With it were found corrected copies of the foreign despatches written by Milton, while he filled the office of Secretary, and several papers relating to the Popish Trials and the Rye-house Plot. 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, which, according to Wood and Toland, Milton finished after the Restoration, and deposited with Cyriac Skinner. 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 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 adventures 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 edite and translate the treatise, has acquitted himself of his task in a manner honourable to his talents and to his character.

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