Mr. TAIT has published a very cheap and excellent volume,
that deserves to have a place on every book-shelf however humble, as it may fearlessly claim one in any library however costly. We allude to his Extracts from the Prose Works of John Milton ; containing the whole of the writings on Church Govern- ment which the author of " Paradise Lost" composed. The de- mand which seems to be springing up for the works of this mighty writer, has latterly brought him so often before us, that it is un- necessary on the present occasion to go into critical remarks. It is enough to observe, that, independent of the poetical richness of imagery, the quaint and biting humour, and the strength of dic- tion displayed in these controversies on the Church question, their matter has an immediate relation to the great points of Prelacy and the Voluntary principle which are now agitating the public mind. Were it necessary, (which it is not in a book so easily accessible,) and could we bestow the space, all the fallacies and arguments both political and religious of Tory Establishment- men, might be triumphantly refuted, point by point, by extracts from this volume.
Scarcely was the ink of the preceding notice dry, ere another selection from the same author was laid before us, in the shape-of the second volume of Mr. ST. J oft WS Select Prose Works of Milton; whose contents do not clash in the slightest degree with those of the preceding publication (although the book is more ornate in its typography and getting-up),—Mr. TAIT'S selection dealing only with Church affairs ; Mr. ST.Jonit's partly with the personal character of the author, as displayed in his familiar letters, partly with his political principles as shown in his tract on the Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, and in that extraordinary monument of skilful dialectics and powerful and pointed language the Eikonoklastes.
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