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That I mention'd, p. cxvii; but That Edition is very Difficult to be had; though if it were Not, and though All the Others were at Hand, we hope we may have Leave to fay What We have done was far from being Unneceffary on Several Accounts which shall not be Here Enumerated, but which will be found by an Impartial Examiner. Every body knows that no Tranflation can give All the Beauties of a Fine Original, but They tell us How the Tranflator Understands their Author, and Thus they also are Commentators: We have not been wanting to Our Selves in getting what Affiftance we could from Thefe; Nor fhall fail of making our Thankful Acknowledgments.

it has been Our Good Fortune and the World's, that we have not been put to Conjecture what were the Genuine Thoughts of our Author from a Corrupted Text, or Even from an Incorrect One. We have Prov'd That of 74, to be Neither One, nor the Other. There are Several Careful Editions, I mean Those in which That has been follow'd without Pretending to make a Better; but This we are to confider as That which the Author bequeath'd as his Legacy to the World, and 'tis As much His as if his Own Manufcript, He having his Sight, had been in Our Hands; and Probably more Exact than Such would have been; Unless Revis'd Sheet by Sheet with the Same Care and Diligence, and

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by as many Eyes as a Well Printed Book is. We have Therefore Confider'd This Edition as bearing the Image and Superfcription of Milton; and that to Mutilate or Alter any thing in it, (except the Error of the Printer, or Överfight is Apparent,) is Clipping or Coining, and Capitally Criminal in the Re publick of Letters.

Thus we have had but One Single Point in View, That Important One, to give Our Author's Senfe, as we Conceiv'd He would have Explain'd Himfelf, had he risen from his Urn and Dictated to Us. We have Always Confulted Him in his Own Words, Pointed as Himself gave them to us; We have feen what he has faid in Other Parts of his Work, or in Other Works of His, and brought him to be his own Expofitor. We have Confider'd his Opinions and Turn of Mind, as particularly in Our Explanation of the Four Laft Books. He had from his Youth been Thoroughly Imbu'd with thofe Noble and Divine Principles of Genuine Christianity, Regeneration, and Union with God; and Seems to have Perfifted in Them to the Laft; and indeed the Sublimeft Poetry can defire Nothing more for its Purpofe; Thefe Include the Idea of God, and his Goodness to Mankind by the Mediation of his Son, the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints. And as Milton poffefs'd Thefe Doctrines Fully as they were Thofe of the People he Always

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Convers'd with; and as they are Moreover the Greatest Ornaments of his Poem, and Such as make Him in That refpect, whatever he is in Others, Indifputably, Superiour to the Greatest of the Ancient Poets. We have Explain'd and Expatiated on him Accordingly. We have alfo Confider'd him as a Poet, and Such he was, if ever HumanNature could Boaft it had produc'd One; Not only he had a Genius, truly Exalted Above the Species in General, but he had Grafp'd All That Poetry had Adorn'd the World with. in Expounding Him we have Therefore Always given, as well as we were Enabled, a Poetic Sense, either as what was found in Other Great Poets whence it Seem'd Himself had receiv'd it; and innumerable Inftances, there might be given of This Kind; Or where the Thoughts feem'd to be his Own, we have Understood him in the Nobleft Sense we could Attain to, as believing That to be moft Probably His. for a Poem, Such a One as This Especially, is not to be Read, and Conftrued as an Act of Parliament, or a Mathematical Differtation; the things of the Spirit are Spiritually Difcern'd.

We have Reverenc'd our Text, have handled it as Somthing which it would be a Sort of Prophaneness, as well as a Ridiculous Prefumption in Us to Aim at Improving, by Adding or Diminishing. If any Man Could do it, 'tis not his Bufinefs; 'tis his Author's Thoughts,

Thoughts, not his Own, which the Publick Expects from an Expofitor, and Such Only We pretend to be. if in Any thing we may Seem to have done Otherwife it has been in That View, That is Our End in All we have done.

Thus what Paffages we have Selected as moft Neceffary to be Explain'd are Printed juft as we find them in the Authentick Edition of 74. the Spelling and Pointing is the Same as There; but we have Offer'd a Specimen of Emphafifing, which certainly would be of Great Ufe if Always done by Writers, the want of which, Efpecially at First Reading, Occafions Frequent Mistakes, and False Pronunciations, Somtimes fo as to be Obscure, and Unintelligible; and Somtimes Impreffions are taken at First reading which are not Eafily, if Ever Eradicated, though what the Writer was an Utter Stranger to. thing of This, Marking where the Stress was, is done in Every thing that is Printed or Written; but not being Carefully obferv'd Throughout 'tis of Little ufe, the Reason of doing it at All is Good However for Conftantly doing it; and indeed 'tis in a Manner as Neceffary as Pointing, as 'tis done for the Same Purpofe, the Clearing and Establishing the Senfe, and Immediately. We have Us'd Great Letters, wherever any particular Weight is to be laid on the Word; and not Elfe, though at the beginning of a Paragraph in Profe, or of a

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Line in Verfe, where there is no Other Pretence for One than Custom, and an Imagin'd Beauty in it; for 'tis Imagination Only; or if it Really was Handsomer to the Eye; or if So many Great Letters as We put into the Page Look'd not So well as None at all, or very Few, as in the Old Italian Books by Giolito, or the Giunti and Some Others, is That Sufficient to ftand in Ballance with what is fo much more Important?

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in our Expofition We have done what haps has not been attempted by any Expofitor before, but which is Neceffary to the Understanding of an Author when he speaks to the Imagination, and would Convey the Image Himself Sees. Milton was as Great a Mafter in This Kind of Painting as Ever was; but Few have Pencils to Copy his Images in their Own Minds; we have Endeavour'd to Affift Such as when he speaks to the Understanding, particularly in Sett Orations (in which he is Excellent) we have by Analyzing, Paraphrafing, or Varying the Words of our Author endeavour'd to Affift him in Communicating These Ideas.

With all our Care, Helps, or other Advantages of what Kind foever, we Expect to have it Frequently faid We are Mistaken, and Those that Say fo will be Somtimes in the Right; we pretend to no Other; but hope we may have Leave to Prefume They will

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