AUTHOR OF

WITH NOTES

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL

EDITED BY

REV. JAMES R. BOYD, A. M.

ELEMENTS OF RHETORIC," "FOLECTIO MORAL PHILOSOPHY," AND
OF AN IMPROVED EDITION OF AMES' ELEMENTS," ETO.

A. S. BARNES & Co., 111 & 113 WILLIAM STREET,

(CORNER OF JOHN STREET.)

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by

BAKER AND SCRIBNER

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

REASONS

FOR PREPARING THIS AMERICAN EDITION.

PARADISE LOST is, by common consent, pronounced to be a work of transcendent genius and taste. It takes rank with the Iliad of Homer, and with the Æneid of Virgil, as an Epic of incomparable merit. Dryden was by no means extravagant in the praise which he bestowed upon it in his well-known lines;

"Three poets in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adcrn
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed;
The next in majesty; in both the last.
The force of nature could no further go:

To make a third she joined the other two."

Its praise is often on the lips of every man endowed with the most moderate literaly qualifications; but the work has been read by comparatively few persons. How few even of educated men can affirm that they have so read and understood it, as to appreciate all its parts? How does this happer Is the poem considered unworthy of their most careful perusal Is it not inviting to the intellect, the imagination, and the sensibilities? Is it not acknowledged to be superior to any other poetic composition, the Hebrew writings only excepted, to whose lofty strains of inspired song the blind bard of London was s greatly indebted for his own subordinate inspiration?

If inquiry should extensively be made, it will be ascertained that Paradise Lost, is but little read, less understood, and still less appreciated, though it may be found on the shelves of almost every library, or upon the parlor table of almost every dwelling. Every school boy,