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A VINDICATION,

SPECIALLY

FROM THE CHARGE OF ARIANISM.

BY J. W. MORRIS.

"Him whose works stimulate to applauses, but by their
beauty deprive of voice those bent on praising them."

CARLO DATI.

LONDON:

HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO.

BATH: C. W. OLIVER, MILSOM STREET.

BRISTOL: KERSLAKE & CO.

1862.

250. 9.73.

BATH: PRINTED FOR C. W. OLIVER, MILSOM STREET,

BY BINNS AND GOODWIN.

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PREFACE.

To publish in this year of grace, one thousand eight hundred and sixty two, a Vindication" of the immortal Milton, will be thought by many, itself to need vindication, or demand apology. When, however, a writer of such repute as Professor Stanley, can condescend to speak of Milton as "a half-heretic, half-Puritan layman;

author of the Paradise Lost,'" and when the belief in this half-heresy is, among the best informed, more than general; when again it is remembered that what the literate few believe to-day, will in the next generation be the faith of the many, it will scarcely be denied, that if any

cause can be shown against the confirmation of such sentence, it should be distinctly presented, and may claim to be calmly considered.

The following pages had their immediate origin in the delivery of a course of lectures on English Literature, in one of which, an attempt was made to rebut the charge of Arianism brought against Milton, as unsustained by the evidence of his published works. Hence some variation of style may be perceived, between those parts of the work which are essentially argumentative, and such as are free from the constraints of controversy. The original lecture having been delivered without notes, exact reproduction was impossible, and while much then considered, has been omitted as less important, a still larger proportion has been subsequently written.

The writer feels that it is his distinct misfortune to have to oppose the arguments, and doubt the conclusions, of men so worthy and eminent as Bishop Sumner and Mr. Keightley: at the same time, he cannot doubt that his misfortune would

be greater in their eyes, as in his own, could any deference to that worth, or consciousness of that eminence, deter him from attempting to refute in the behalf of Milton, what he is convinced is erroneous in their verdict. They have thought it right to record that verdict, honouring still the poet. Honouring the poet, the writer ventures to impugn that verdict. This he does, scarcely with the expectation that any appeal of his can suffice to reverse a judgment so long sustained, yet not without a hope that other pens may be induced to undertake a task, for which no one is more conscious of insufficiency than himself.

Notwithstanding every effort to eschew theological dogmatism, the writer is conscious that he has not altogether succeeded in avoiding the appearance of speaking strongly upon vexed questions. He can only say that while he has never pretended to disguise his distinct convictions of the importance of certain controverted doctrines, he has ever been withheld by a consciousness of the "fitness of things," from any attempt at the discussion or

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