The former biographers of Milton have exhibited him principally in his character as a poet, but have obscured his features as a patriot, a protestant, and non-conformist. The writer has attempted to give an accurate and full-length portrait, in all those respects, of this most eminent of our countrymen. For the purpose of accomplishing this design, he has made considerable extracts from the prose writings of Milton, by which, in a good degree, he appears as his own biographer.