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Lectures on the English Poets - Delivered at the Surrey Institution by William Hazlitt
page 89 of 257 (34%)
indebted, as being a work not to be raised from the heat of youth or the
vapours of wine; like that which flows at waste from the pen of some
vulgar amourist, or the trencher fury of a rhyming parasite, nor to be
obtained by the invocation of Dame Memory and her Siren daughters, but
by devout prayer to that eternal spirit who can enrich with all
utterance and knowledge, and sends out his Seraphim with the hallowed
fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases: to
this must be added industrious and select reading, steady observation,
and insight into all seemly and generous arts and affairs. Although it
nothing content me to have disclosed thus much beforehand; but that I
trust hereby to make it manifest with what small willingness I endure to
interrupt the pursuit of no less hopes than these, and leave a calm and
pleasing solitariness, fed with cheerful and confident thoughts, to
embark in a troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes, from beholding
the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful
studies."

So that of Spenser:

"The noble heart that harbours virtuous thought,
And is with child of glorious great intent,
Can never rest until it forth have brought
The eternal brood of glory excellent."

Milton, therefore, did not write from casual impulse, but after a
severe examination of his own strength, and with a resolution to leave
nothing undone which it was in his power to do. He always labours, and
almost always succeeds. He strives hard to say the finest things in the
world, and he does say them. He adorns and dignifies his subject to the
utmost: he surrounds it with every possible association of beauty or
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