"We think that, as civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily
declines. Therefore, though we admire those great works of imagination
which have appeared in dark ages, we do not admire them the more
because they have appeared in dark ages. On the contrary, we hold
that the most wonderful and splendid proof of genius is a great poem
produced in a civilized age....

"Of all people, children are the most imaginative. They abandon
themselves without reserve to every illusion. Every image which is
strongly presented to their mental eye produces on them the effect
of reality.... In a rude state of society, men are children with a
greater variety of ideas. It is therefore in such a state of society
that we may expect to find the poetical temperament in its highest
perfection. He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires
to be a great poet, must first become a little child. He must take
to pieces the whole web of his mind. He must unlearn much of that
knowledge which has perhaps constituted hitherto his chief title
to superiority. His very talents will be a hinderance to him. His
difficulties will be proportioned to his proficiency in the pursuits
which are fashionable among his contemporaries; and that proficiency
will in general be proportioned to the vigor and activity of his
mind....

"If these reasonings be just, no poet has ever triumphed over greater
difficulties than Milton. He received a learned education. He was
a profound and elegant classical scholar; he had studied all the
mysteries of Rabbinical literature; he was intimately acquainted
with every language of modern Europe from which either pleasure or
information was then to be derived. He was perhaps the only great poet