Excerpt from The Life and Times of John Milton It may be thought by some, that the following Memoir of the Life and Times of Milton is rendered unnecessary by the numerous biographies of the patriot and poet already extant. There is certainly no lack of these, in point of number; but there is not one amongst them, in which Milton's character as a political writer is so fully exhibited and so justly appreciated, as the writer of the following memoir has long felt to be desirable. A recent editor of Milton's Prose Works has justly observed, that Milton has been imprisoned in the temple of the Muses; we may add, that his biographers, generally, have been more disposed to do the office of jailors than to set him at liberty, and make the world acquainted with his political character and patriotic claims. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.