Excerpt from Select Mir Poems of John Milton The form of this book has been determined by the same considerations which influenced me in the preparation of my volume of Selections from Paradise Lost, I had learned from my observation of nearly two thousand pupils in literature that Milton's erudition makes it impossible for pupils of secondary school age to read his works intelligently without a definite preparation, through the study of certain conceptions with which he, in common with all the educated classes of his time, was perfectly familiar. Among these were the conceptions in regard to physical science which prevailed during the Middle Ages, the myths which are found in the Greek and Roman classics, and the religious dogmas held by the Christian world in the seventeenth century. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.