Excerpt from Lives of Sacred Poets, Vol. 2 In the former volume, my inquiries led me among books for gotten by all but the antiquary and the diligent student of our literature; and the sympathy of the heart was awakened by the contemplation of so many poetic graves, overgrown and neglect ed. The ridicule of Dryden transmitted the name of Shirley to the contempt of posterity; and we have seen Pope and Butler embalming Quarles and Wither for perpetual disgrace. But as the dramatist has risen from the scorn of Dryden, so Quarles and his companions have shaken off the missiles of their satirists. In the present volume, the same demand has not been made upon the feelings. Of the individuals who occupy the following pages, not one has gone down to the tomb unrewarded by a just measure of public approbation; praise has been offered liberally where it was due; and to the memory of the most unhappy of English poets, a monument has re cently been reared by the genius and the affection of Southey. My own memoir of Cowper, although subsequently revised, had been delivered to the Publisher before the appearance of the Laureate's biography; and in two or three instances my inqui ries had anticipated both his treatment and illustration of the subject. The history of Milton has been so frequently written, and under so many diversified forms, that a biographer finds it difficult to escape from occasional identity both of thought and expression; but I have advanced no opinion which has not been suggested and confirmed bya careful perusal of the works of the poet. 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.