...the settlement of New England; when we consider, moreover, that Milton's life overlapped the grand siecle of French literature, with its irresistible temptations to digression and homily for a man of Mr. Masson 's temperament, we may be pardoned if a sigh of doubt and discouragement escape us. We envy the secular leisures of Methusaleh, and are thankful that his biography at least (if written in the same lon...