Contains the signature of furure United States Secretary of War General P.B. Porter on the half-title page. This two volume set of leather bound books were published in 1809 by W. Pople Printer for John Miller (for pages see collation below). The text contains 100 pages with scattered notations and notes and some occasional underlining in primarily pencil but on several pages one of the previous owners used a pen. The bindings are weak as the boards and first couple of pages are detached in each volume. The pages are toned with scattered foxing. The edges of the covers are heavily rubbed including several areas where they are rubbed through (especially to the corners which are bumped). Thirty five page have been creased at the top corner. The leather covers are heavily rubbed with several tears along the spine panels. The spine panels are heavily chipped with loss to title stips. Ex-library marks include a shelf label on the spine, a bookplate from the Library of the Theological Seminary of Princeton, N.J. Previous owners name present. Previous owners of note are John Breckinridge (stamp) and General P.B. Porter (signature). Another unidentified previous owner's name has been marked out with black marker at the top of the title page in both volumes.....Full Title: The Prose Works of John Milton; containing his principal Political and Ecclesiastical Pieces, with New Translations, and an Introduction; By George Burnett, Late of Baliol College, Oxford; In Two Volumes.Collation: Volume: Lacking endpaper; Blank; half title (verso has publishers imprint); title page (verso blank); Dedication pages; Preface vii-xi (verso of xi blank); Introduction 1x-lxv (page lxiv has a page number typo which reads xiv); error page (verso of lxv); Volume I Table of Contents (verso blank); 2nd Title Page; (Ecclesiastical Law with blank verso); Reformation in England pp.3 (actually has the B2 in the bottom margin)-449 (printers imprint at the bottom of the page) blank endpaper; VOLUME II: Lacking endpaper and half-title pages; Title page (publishers imprint on verso); Contents of Volume II (verso blank); 2nd Title Page (Tenure of Magistrates continued); pp. 3 (with B2 in the bottom margin)-623 (printers imprint at the bottom of the page); Error page (pp. 623 verso); blank; endpaper. Excerpt from the Preface: THE idea of this publication might probably not have been conceived, but for a hint by the reviewer of the late edition of Milton's Prose Works in the Annual. The precise words I cannot quote, as I have not the review by me, and as it is long since I read them ; but the idea suggested was, to convert the prose works also of our great poet into a popular classic, by selecting his best pieces, that is, his political writings, and giving extracts from the rest, and to print the whole in a smaller and cheaper form.. Finding it adviseable, from indisposition, to retire for a while to the country, and desirous of reading with attention the prose works of Milton, which I had not done before, but in part, I recollected also the hint I have alluded to, and resolved to proceed upon it......The chief of Milton's prose works may be referred to three general divisions, according as they relate, 1. To Ecclesiastical Law; 2. To Matrimonial Law ; 3. To the Tenure of the Magistrate. Two short pieces only, in the pre¬sent collection are not strictly referable to either of these divisions : these are, Of Education, and Areopagitiea. All the pieces which come under either of the ahove general heads, respectively, I have thought it most commodious to arrange together, whatever the dates either of their composition or publication ; so that they will now be read in succession, as so many books of the same treatise......The theological pieces, and those on divorce, have been considerably abridged ; Areopagitiea a little ; and Iconoclastes a good deal: the other pieces are entire; and the whole of the second volume is without any abridgment whatever. This volume contains the entire controversy of Milton with Salmasius and Morus, or More ; a controversy, which, (to use Milton's own words) made " All Europe ring from side to side." Of the quantity rejected from the pieces in the first volume I have spoken more particularly in the introduction.