Every Political Sect Has Its Esoteric And

The Perfect Disinterestedness And Self-devotion Of Which Men Seem Incapable, But Which Is Sometimes Found In Women.

Those Who Compare The Age In Which Their Lot Has Fallen With A Golden Age Which Exists Only In Imagination, May Talk Of Degeneracy And Decay; But No Man Who Is Correctly Informed As To The Past, Will Be Disposed To Take A Morose Or Desponding View Of The Present.

Generalization Is Necessary To The Advancement Of Knowledge; But Particularly Is Indispensable To The Creations Of The Imagination. In Proportion As Men Know More And Think More They Look Less At Individuals And More At Classes. They Therefore Make Better Theories And Worse Poems.

We Hold That The Most Wonderful And Splendid Proof Of Genius Is A Great Poem Produced In A Civilized Age.

The Passages In Which Milton Has Alluded To His Own Circumstances Are Perhaps Read More Frequently, And With More Interest, Than Any Other Lines In His Poems.