Caption: "Milton, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes and Other Poems, 'There are no flats amongst his elevations' - Dryden, printed by the Doves Press, London, 1905. Milton's brilliant and profound mind, which illuminated so many aspects of life in one of the most important of eras, the seventeenth century, still challenges us today, three centuries later, in our struggle for human and individual liberty. To deep thought Milton added consummate art. Milton's position as the 'greatest' pamphleteer and as the author of the 'greatest' ode in the English language, the 'supreme' monody, and the 'mightiest' sonnet in any language, is rarely questioned. Dr. Johnson once commented, 'Milton, madam, has a genius that could cut a colossus from a rock, but could not carve heads on a cherry stone.' Paradise Lost is generally conceded to be Milton's greatest work, but he himself, as well as Coleridge and Wordsworth, considered Paradise Regained to be his masterpiece. This work was published in 1671, four years after Paradise Lost, upon which he had spent at least twenty years. It is not a sequel to the other. The text is concerned with St. Luke’s account of the temptation of Christ and is written in less ornate and figurative language than was used in Paradise Lost. The poem Samson Agonistes is memorable for the fusion of a Semitic theme, Greek tragic manner and matchless English verse. In 1900, Cobden Sanderson, the mystic, established the Doves Press. His books were, according to his own words, ‘… to be symbols of a vision of Cosmic Order, Order wrought in Rhythm and touched with Beauty and Delight.’ He wished ‘… to print in suitable form some of the great literary achievements of man’s creative and constructive genius.’ The roman type of Jenson was the model for the Doves Press. Pollard calls it the finest roman type in existence. Ransom commenting on the Doves Press books, states, ‘They approach dangerously near to the absolute perfection in composition, presswork, and page placement.’”
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