That in the reigns of Charles and James the "Paradise Lost "
received no public acclamations is readily confessed. Wit and
literature were on the side of the court: and who that solicited
favour or fashion would venture to praise the defender of the
regicides? All that he himself could think his due, from "evil
tongues" in "evil days," was that reverential silence which was
generously preserved. But it cannot be inferred that his poem was
not read, or not, however unwillingly, admired.

The sale, if it be considered, will justify the public. Those who
have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always
doubt their conclusions. The call for books was not, in Milton's
age, what it is at present. To read was not then a general
amusement; neither traders, nor often gentlemen, thought themselves
disgraced by ignorance. The women had not then aspired to
literature, nor was every house supplied with a closet of knowledge.
Those, indeed, who professed learning, were not less learned than at
any other time; but of that middle race of students who read for
pleasure or accomplishment, and who buy the numerous products of
modern typography, the number was then comparatively small. To
prove the paucity of readers, it may be sufficient to remark, that
the nation had been satisfied from 1623 to 1664--that is, forty-one
years--with only two editions of the works of Shakespeare, which
probably did not together make one thousand copies.

The sale of thirteen hundred copies in two years, in opposition to
so much recent enmity, and to a style of versification new to all
and disgusting to many, was an uncommon example of the prevalence of
genius. The demand did not immediately increase; for many more