Publisher's Synopsis
It is right that this anniversary should be kept in all English-speaking lands. Milton is as far away from us in time as Dante was from him; destructive criticism has been busy with his great poem; formidable rivals of his fame have arisen-Dryden and Pope, Wordsworth and Byron, Tennyson and Browning, not to speak of lesser names-poets whom we read perhaps oftener and with more pleasure. Yet still his throne remains unshaken. By general-by well-nigh universal-consent, he is still the second poet of our race, the greatest, save one, of all who have used the English speech.
