Light : its influence on life and health / by Forbes Winslow.

  • Winslow, Forbes, 1810-1874.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Light : its influence on life and health / by Forbes Winslow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    THE BLESSINGS OF LIGHT: MILTON’S BLINDNESS. (Vide Preface.) In the subjoined lines Milton alludes with touching pa- thos to his own sad deprivation of sight: “ Thus with the year Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of eve or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer’s rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ; But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut ofF, and for the brook of knowledge fair Presented with an universal blank Of Nature’s works, to me expunged and rased. And knowledge at one entrance quite shut out.” I append to the preceding affecting wail of distress a copy of a posthumous poem (having reference to his blind- ness) said to have been written by Milton. I have not been able to ascertain at what period these lines were pen- ned ; but assuming them to be genuine, I should suppose they were written long subsequently to the verses previ- ously quoted.* They are deeply interesting, as showing the [* The American Publishers deem it proper to state that this poem was not written by Milton, but by Elizabeth Lloyd, a Quakeress of Philadelphia. In reprinting it here, they have deemed it proper to follow the version pub- lished in the National Magazine, vol. viii, 1856, p. 85, which is more correct than that of Dr. Winslow. Elizabeth Lloyd died in the latter part of the 18th century.]