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JOHN DOWNIE, M.A.

EXAMINER IN HISTORY IN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY; LECTURER ON
ENGLISH IN THE ABERDEEN F.C. TRAINING COLLEGE

LONDON
BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED, 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.

GLASGOW AND DUBLIN

1899

PREFACE

This edition of Macaulay's Essay on Milton is specially intended for students preparing for the Teachers' Certificate Examination. They are required (in the words of the Syllabus) to show "an intelligent acquaintance with the language, style, and subject-matter" of the book prescribed; and these points being precisely those to which every serious student would devote his attention, it is hoped that this edition may prove of use to many besides those for whom it is originally designed.

The essay, though less frequently studied than those on Clive and Hastings, has special points of interest that should win for it a more frequent reading in school and college. Presenting as it does a vivid picture of an interesting period and a unique personality, the very blunders in criticism, exaggerations in statement, and fallacies in argument it contains may be turned to judicious use by the teacher, who will find in them material for training the critical faculty and for developing independent (if not original) thought. The evi

dences of Macaulay's own second thoughts, collected in the Appendix, should be of considerable value to the student of style.

The text is that of the collected edition of the Essays, issued in 1849. Variations between it and the original form published in the Edinburgh Review are given in the Appendix. The paragraphs have been numbered, partly for facility of reference, and partly to emphasize the importance of what is really Macaulay's unit of composition. Both student and teacher will find it well to base each lesson on a definite number of paragraphs.

The notes aim not only at explaining with sufficient fulness all Macaulay's allusions, but at affording the student some guidance in relation to Macaulay's critical judgments.

I am indebted to Mr. George H. Ely for many valuable suggestions with reference to the notes, and in particular I have to thank him for collating the text with the original text of the essay as it appeared in the Edinburgh Review.

ABERDEEN, February, 1899.

JOHN DOWNIE.

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