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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:15:21 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:15:21 -0700 |
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diff --git a/608-h/608-h.htm b/608-h/608-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ace25e --- /dev/null +++ b/608-h/608-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2137 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Areopagitica, by Milton + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Areopagitica, by John Milton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Areopagitica + A Speech For The Liberty Of Unlicensed Printing To The + Parliament Of England + +Author: John Milton + +Release Date: January 21, 2006 [EBook #608] +Last Updated: February 6, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AREOPAGITICA *** + + + + +Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + AREOPAGITICA + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By John Milton + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENSED PRINTING <br /> TO THE PARLIAMENT OF + ENGLAND + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + This is true liberty, when free-born men, + Having to advise the public, may speak free, + Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise; + Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace: + What can be juster in a state than this? + + Euripid. Hicetid. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p> + They, who to states and governors of the Commonwealth direct their speech, + High Court of Parliament, or, wanting such access in a private condition, + write that which they foresee may advance the public good; I suppose them, + as at the beginning of no mean endeavour, not a little altered and moved + inwardly in their minds: some with doubt of what will be the success, + others with fear of what will be the censure; some with hope, others with + confidence of what they have to speak. And me perhaps each of these + dispositions, as the subject was whereon I entered, may have at other + times variously affected; and likely might in these foremost expressions + now also disclose which of them swayed most, but that the very attempt of + this address thus made, and the thought of whom it hath recourse to, hath + got the power within me to a passion, far more welcome than incidental to + a preface. + </p> + <p> + Which though I stay not to confess ere any ask, I shall be blameless, if + it be no other than the joy and gratulation which it brings to all who + wish and promote their country's liberty; whereof this whole discourse + proposed will be a certain testimony, if not a trophy. For this is not the + liberty which we can hope, that no grievance ever should arise in the + Commonwealth—that let no man in this world expect; but when + complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then + is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for. To + which if I now manifest by the very sound of this which I shall utter, + that we are already in good part arrived, and yet from such a steep + disadvantage of tyranny and superstition grounded into our principles as + was beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery, it will be attributed first, + as is most due, to the strong assistance of God our deliverer, next to + your faithful guidance and undaunted wisdom, Lords and Commons of England. + Neither is it in God's esteem the diminution of his glory, when honourable + things are spoken of good men and worthy magistrates; which if I now first + should begin to do, after so fair a progress of your laudable deeds, and + such a long obligement upon the whole realm to your indefatigable virtues, + I might be justly reckoned among the tardiest, and the unwillingest of + them that praise ye. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless there being three principal things, without which all + praising is but courtship and flattery: First, when that only is praised + which is solidly worth praise: next, when greatest likelihoods are brought + that such things are truly and really in those persons to whom they are + ascribed: the other, when he who praises, by showing that such his actual + persuasion is of whom he writes, can demonstrate that he flatters not; the + former two of these I have heretofore endeavoured, rescuing the employment + from him who went about to impair your merits with a trivial and malignant + encomium; the latter as belonging chiefly to mine own acquittal, that whom + I so extolled I did not flatter, hath been reserved opportunely to this + occasion. + </p> + <p> + For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to + declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best covenant of + his fidelity; and that his loyalest affection and his hope waits on your + proceedings. His highest praising is not flattery, and his plainest advice + is a kind of praising. For though I should affirm and hold by argument, + that it would fare better with truth, with learning and the Commonwealth, + if one of your published Orders, which I should name, were called in; yet + at the same time it could not but much redound to the lustre of your mild + and equal government, whenas private persons are hereby animated to think + ye better pleased with public advice, than other statists have been + delighted heretofore with public flattery. And men will then see what + difference there is between the magnanimity of a triennial Parliament, and + that jealous haughtiness of prelates and cabin counsellors that usurped of + late, whenas they shall observe ye in the midst of your victories and + successes more gently brooking written exceptions against a voted Order + than other courts, which had produced nothing worth memory but the weak + ostentation of wealth, would have endured the least signified dislike at + any sudden proclamation. + </p> + <p> + If I should thus far presume upon the meek demeanour of your civil and + gentle greatness, Lords and Commons, as what your published Order hath + directly said, that to gainsay, I might defend myself with ease, if any + should accuse me of being new or insolent, did they but know how much + better I find ye esteem it to imitate the old and elegant humanity of + Greece, than the barbaric pride of a Hunnish and Norwegian stateliness. + And out of those ages, to whose polite wisdom and letters we owe that we + are not yet Goths and Jutlanders, I could name him who from his private + house wrote that discourse to the Parliament of Athens, that persuades + them to change the form of democracy which was then established. Such + honour was done in those days to men who professed the study of wisdom and + eloquence, not only in their own country, but in other lands, that cities + and signiories heard them gladly, and with great respect, if they had + aught in public to admonish the state. Thus did Dion Prusaeus, a stranger + and a private orator, counsel the Rhodians against a former edict; and I + abound with other like examples, which to set here would be superfluous. + </p> + <p> + But if from the industry of a life wholly dedicated to studious labours, + and those natural endowments haply not the worst for two and fifty degrees + of northern latitude, so much must be derogated, as to count me not equal + to any of those who had this privilege, I would obtain to be thought not + so inferior, as yourselves are superior to the most of them who received + their counsel: and how far you excel them, be assured, Lords and Commons, + there can no greater testimony appear, than when your prudent spirit + acknowledges and obeys the voice of reason from what quarter soever it be + heard speaking; and renders ye as willing to repeal any Act of your own + setting forth, as any set forth by your predecessors. + </p> + <p> + If ye be thus resolved, as it were injury to think ye were not, I know not + what should withhold me from presenting ye with a fit instance wherein to + show both that love of truth which ye eminently profess, and that + uprightness of your judgment which is not wont to be partial to + yourselves; by judging over again that Order which ye have ordained to + regulate printing:—that no book, pamphlet, or paper shall be + henceforth printed, unless the same be first approved and licensed by + such, or at least one of such, as shall be thereto appointed. For that + part which preserves justly every man's copy to himself, or provides for + the poor, I touch not, only wish they be not made pretences to abuse and + persecute honest and painful men, who offend not in either of these + particulars. But that other clause of licensing books, which we thought + had died with his brother quadragesimal and matrimonial when the prelates + expired, I shall now attend with such a homily, as shall lay before ye, + first the inventors of it to be those whom ye will be loath to own; next + what is to be thought in general of reading, whatever sort the books be; + and that this Order avails nothing to the suppressing of scandalous, + seditious, and libellous books, which were mainly intended to be + suppressed. Last, that it will be primely to the discouragement of all + learning, and the stop of truth, not only by disexercising and blunting + our abilities in what we know already, but by hindering and cropping the + discovery that might be yet further made both in religious and civil + wisdom. + </p> + <p> + I deny not, but that it is of greatest concernment in the Church and + Commonwealth, to have a vigilant eye how books demean themselves as well + as men; and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice on + them as malefactors. For books are not absolutely dead things, but do + contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose + progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy + and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as + lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth; + and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet, on + the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill + a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but + he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, + as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good + book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured + up on purpose to a life beyond life. 'Tis true, no age can restore a life, + whereof perhaps there is no great loss; and revolutions of ages do not oft + recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations + fare the worse. + </p> + <p> + We should be wary therefore what persecution we raise against the living + labours of public men, how we spill that seasoned life of man, preserved + and stored up in books; since we see a kind of homicide may be thus + committed, sometimes a martyrdom, and if it extend to the whole + impression, a kind of massacre; whereof the execution ends not in the + slaying of an elemental life, but strikes at that ethereal and fifth + essence, the breath of reason itself, slays an immortality rather than a + life. But lest I should be condemned of introducing license, while I + oppose licensing, I refuse not the pains to be so much historical, as will + serve to show what hath been done by ancient and famous commonwealths + against this disorder, till the very time that this project of licensing + crept out of the Inquisition, was catched up by our prelates, and hath + caught some of our presbyters. + </p> + <p> + In Athens, where books and wits were ever busier than in any other part of + Greece, I find but only two sorts of writings which the magistrate cared + to take notice of; those either blasphemous and atheistical, or libellous. + Thus the books of Protagoras were by the judges of Areopagus commanded to + be burnt, and himself banished the territory for a discourse begun with + his confessing not to know WHETHER THERE WERE GODS, OR WHETHER NOT. And + against defaming, it was decreed that none should be traduced by name, as + was the manner of Vetus Comoedia, whereby we may guess how they censured + libelling. And this course was quick enough, as Cicero writes, to quell + both the desperate wits of other atheists, and the open way of defaming, + as the event showed. Of other sects and opinions, though tending to + voluptuousness, and the denying of divine Providence, they took no heed. + </p> + <p> + Therefore we do not read that either Epicurus, or that libertine school of + Cyrene, or what the Cynic impudence uttered, was ever questioned by the + laws. Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old comedians were + suppressed, though the acting of them were forbid; and that Plato + commended the reading of Aristophanes, the loosest of them all, to his + royal scholar Dionysius, is commonly known, and may be excused, if holy + Chrysostom, as is reported, nightly studied so much the same author and + had the art to cleanse a scurrilous vehemence into the style of a rousing + sermon. + </p> + <p> + That other leading city of Greece, Lacedaemon, considering that Lycurgus + their lawgiver was so addicted to elegant learning, as to have been the + first that brought out of Ionia the scattered works of Homer, and sent the + poet Thales from Crete to prepare and mollify the Spartan surliness with + his smooth songs and odes, the better to plant among them law and + civility, it is to be wondered how museless and unbookish they were, + minding nought but the feats of war. There needed no licensing of books + among them, for they disliked all but their own laconic apophthegms, and + took a slight occasion to chase Archilochus out of their city, perhaps for + composing in a higher strain than their own soldierly ballads and roundels + could reach to. Or if it were for his broad verses, they were not therein + so cautious but they were as dissolute in their promiscuous conversing; + whence Euripides affirms in Andromache, that their women were all + unchaste. Thus much may give us light after what sort of books were + prohibited among the Greeks. + </p> + <p> + The Romans also, for many ages trained up only to a military roughness + resembling most the Lacedaemonian guise, knew of learning little but what + their twelve Tables, and the Pontific College with their augurs and + flamens taught them in religion and law; so unacquainted with other + learning, that when Carneades and Critolaus, with the Stoic Diogenes, + coming ambassadors to Rome, took thereby occasion to give the city a taste + of their philosophy, they were suspected for seducers by no less a man + than Cato the Censor, who moved it in the Senate to dismiss them speedily, + and to banish all such Attic babblers out of Italy. But Scipio and others + of the noblest senators withstood him and his old Sabine austerity; + honoured and admired the men; and the censor himself at last, in his old + age, fell to the study of that whereof before he was so scrupulous. And + yet at the same time Naevius and Plautus, the first Latin comedians, had + filled the city with all the borrowed scenes of Menander and Philemon. + Then began to be considered there also what was to be done to libellous + books and authors; for Naevius was quickly cast into prison for his + unbridled pen, and released by the tribunes upon his recantation; we read + also that libels were burnt, and the makers punished by Augustus. The like + severity, no doubt, was used, if aught were impiously written against + their esteemed gods. Except in these two points, how the world went in + books, the magistrate kept no reckoning. + </p> + <p> + And therefore Lucretius without impeachment versifies his Epicurism to + Memmius, and had the honour to be set forth the second time by Cicero, so + great a father of the Commonwealth; although himself disputes against that + opinion in his own writings. Nor was the satirical sharpness or naked + plainness of Lucilius, or Catullus, or Flaccus, by any order prohibited. + And for matters of state, the story of Titus Livius, though it extolled + that part which Pompey held, was not therefore suppressed by Octavius + Caesar of the other faction. But that Naso was by him banished in his old + age, for the wanton poems of his youth, was but a mere covert of state + over some secret cause: and besides, the books were neither banished nor + called in. From hence we shall meet with little else but tyranny in the + Roman empire, that we may not marvel, if not so often bad as good books + were silenced. I shall therefore deem to have been large enough, in + producing what among the ancients was punishable to write; save only + which, all other arguments were free to treat on. + </p> + <p> + By this time the emperors were become Christians, whose discipline in this + point I do not find to have been more severe than what was formerly in + practice. The books of those whom they took to be grand heretics were + examined, refuted, and condemned in the general Councils; and not till + then were prohibited, or burnt, by authority of the emperor. As for the + writings of heathen authors, unless they were plain invectives against + Christianity, as those of Porphyrius and Proclus, they met with no + interdict that can be cited, till about the year 400, in a Carthaginian + Council, wherein bishops themselves were forbid to read the books of + Gentiles, but heresies they might read: while others long before them, on + the contrary, scrupled more the books of heretics than of Gentiles. And + that the primitive Councils and bishops were wont only to declare what + books were not commendable, passing no further, but leaving it to each + one's conscience to read or to lay by, till after the year 800, is + observed already by Padre Paolo, the great unmasker of the Trentine + Council. + </p> + <p> + After which time the Popes of Rome, engrossing what they pleased of + political rule into their own hands, extended their dominion over men's + eyes, as they had before over their judgments, burning and prohibiting to + be read what they fancied not; yet sparing in their censures, and the + books not many which they so dealt with: till Martin V., by his bull, not + only prohibited, but was the first that excommunicated the reading of + heretical books; for about that time Wickliffe and Huss, growing terrible, + were they who first drove the Papal Court to a stricter policy of + prohibiting. Which course Leo X. and his successors followed, until the + Council of Trent and the Spanish Inquisition engendering together brought + forth, or perfected, those Catalogues and expurging Indexes, that rake + through the entrails of many an old good author, with a violation worse + than any could be offered to his tomb. Nor did they stay in matters + heretical, but any subject that was not to their palate, they either + condemned in a Prohibition, or had it straight into the new purgatory of + an index. + </p> + <p> + To fill up the measure of encroachment, their last invention was to ordain + that no book, pamphlet, or paper should be printed (as if St. Peter had + bequeathed them the keys of the press also out of Paradise) unless it were + approved and licensed under the hands of two or three glutton friars. For + example: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Let the Chancellor Cini be pleased to see if in this present + work be contained aught that may withstand the printing. + + VINCENT RABBATTA, Vicar of Florence. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + I have seen this present work, and find nothing athwart the + Catholic faith and good manners: in witness whereof I + have given, etc. + + NICOLO GINI, Chancellor of Florence. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + Attending the precedent relation, it is allowed that this + present work of Davanzati may be printed. + + VINCENT RABBATTA, etc. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + It may be printed, July 15. + + FRIAR SIMON MOMPEI D'AMELIA, + Chancellor of the Holy Office in Florence. +</pre> + <p> + Sure they have a conceit, if he of the bottomless pit had not long since + broke prison, that this quadruple exorcism would bar him down. I fear + their next design will be to get into their custody the licensing of that + which they say Claudius intended, but went not through with. Vouchsafe to + see another of their forms, the Roman stamp: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Imprimatur, If it seem good to the reverend Master of the + Holy Palace. + + BELCASTRO, Vicegerent. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + Imprimatur, Friar Nicolo Rodolphi, Master of the Holy Palace. +</pre> + <p> + Sometimes five Imprimaturs are seen together dialogue-wise in the piazza + of one title-page, complimenting and ducking each to other with their + shaven reverences, whether the author, who stands by in perplexity at the + foot of his epistle, shall to the press or to the sponge. These are the + pretty responsories, these are the dear antiphonies, that so bewitched of + late our prelates and their chaplains with the goodly echo they made; and + besotted us to the gay imitation of a lordly Imprimatur, one from Lambeth + House, another from the west end of Paul's; so apishly Romanizing, that + the word of command still was set down in Latin; as if the learned + grammatical pen that wrote it would cast no ink without Latin; or perhaps, + as they thought, because no vulgar tongue was worthy to express the pure + conceit of an Imprimatur, but rather, as I hope, for that our English, the + language of men ever famous and foremost in the achievements of liberty, + will not easily find servile letters enow to spell such a dictatory + presumption English. + </p> + <p> + And thus ye have the inventors and the original of book-licensing ripped + up and drawn as lineally as any pedigree. We have it not, that can be + heard of, from any ancient state, or polity or church; nor by any statute + left us by our ancestors elder or later; nor from the modern custom of any + reformed city or church abroad, but from the most anti-christian council + and the most tyrannous inquisition that ever inquired. Till then books + were ever as freely admitted into the world as any other birth; the issue + of the brain was no more stifled than the issue of the womb: no envious + Juno sat cross-legged over the nativity of any man's intellectual + offspring; but if it proved a monster, who denies, but that it was justly + burnt, or sunk into the sea? But that a book, in worse condition than a + peccant soul, should be to stand before a jury ere it be born to the + world, and undergo yet in darkness the judgment of Radamanth and his + colleagues, ere it can pass the ferry backward into light, was never heard + before, till that mysterious iniquity, provoked and troubled at the first + entrance of Reformation, sought out new limbos and new hells wherein they + might include our books also within the number of their damned. And this + was the rare morsel so officiously snatched up, and so ill-favouredly + imitated by our inquisiturient bishops, and the attendant minorites their + chaplains. That ye like not now these most certain authors of this + licensing order, and that all sinister intention was far distant from your + thoughts, when ye were importuned the passing it, all men who know the + integrity of your actions, and how ye honour truth, will clear ye readily. + </p> + <p> + But some will say, what though the inventors were bad, the thing for all + that may be good? It may so; yet if that thing be no such deep invention, + but obvious, and easy for any man to light on, and yet best and wisest + commonwealths through all ages and occasions have forborne to use it, and + falsest seducers and oppressors of men were the first who took it up, and + to no other purpose but to obstruct and hinder the first approach of + Reformation; I am of those who believe it will be a harder alchemy than + Lullius ever knew, to sublimate any good use out of such an invention. Yet + this only is what I request to gain from this reason, that it may be held + a dangerous and suspicious fruit, as certainly it deserves, for the tree + that bore it, until I can dissect one by one the properties it has. But I + have first to finish, as was propounded, what is to be thought in general + of reading books, whatever sort they be, and whether be more the benefit + or the harm that thence proceeds. + </p> + <p> + Not to insist upon the examples of Moses, Daniel, and Paul, who were + skilful in all the learning of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Greeks, which + could not probably be without reading their books of all sorts; in Paul + especially, who thought it no defilement to insert into Holy Scripture the + sentences of three Greek poets, and one of them a tragedian; the question + was notwithstanding sometimes controverted among the primitive doctors, + but with great odds on that side which affirmed it both lawful and + profitable; as was then evidently perceived, when Julian the Apostate and + subtlest enemy to our faith made a decree forbidding Christians the study + of heathen learning: for, said he, they wound us with our own weapons, and + with our own arts and sciences they overcome us. And indeed the Christians + were put so to their shifts by this crafty means, and so much in danger to + decline into all ignorance, that the two Apollinarii were fain, as a man + may say, to coin all the seven liberal sciences out of the Bible, reducing + it into divers forms of orations, poems, dialogues, even to the + calculating of a new Christian grammar. But, saith the historian Socrates, + the providence of God provided better than the industry of Apollinarius + and his son, by taking away that illiterate law with the life of him who + devised it. So great an injury they then held it to be deprived of + Hellenic learning; and thought it a persecution more undermining, and + secretly decaying the Church, than the open cruelty of Decius or + Diocletian. + </p> + <p> + And perhaps it was the same politic drift that the devil whipped St. + Jerome in a lenten dream, for reading Cicero; or else it was a phantasm + bred by the fever which had then seized him. For had an angel been his + discipliner, unless it were for dwelling too much upon Ciceronianisms, and + had chastised the reading, not the vanity, it had been plainly partial; + first to correct him for grave Cicero, and not for scurril Plautus, whom + he confesses to have been reading, not long before; next to correct him + only, and let so many more ancient fathers wax old in those pleasant and + florid studies without the lash of such a tutoring apparition; insomuch + that Basil teaches how some good use may be made of Margites, a sportful + poem, not now extant, writ by Homer; and why not then of Morgante, an + Italian romance much to the same purpose? + </p> + <p> + But if it be agreed we shall be tried by visions, there is a vision + recorded by Eusebius, far ancienter than this tale of Jerome, to the nun + Eustochium, and, besides, has nothing of a fever in it. Dionysius + Alexandrinus was about the year 240 a person of great name in the Church + for piety and learning, who had wont to avail himself much against + heretics by being conversant in their books; until a certain presbyter + laid it scrupulously to his conscience, how he durst venture himself among + those defiling volumes. The worthy man, loath to give offence, fell into a + new debate with himself what was to be thought; when suddenly a vision + sent from God (it is his own epistle that so avers it) confirmed him in + these words: READ ANY BOOKS WHATEVER COME TO THY HANDS, FOR THOU ART + SUFFICIENT BOTH TO JUDGE ARIGHT AND TO EXAMINE EACH MATTER. To this + revelation he assented the sooner, as he confesses, because it was + answerable to that of the Apostle to the Thessalonians, PROVE ALL THINGS, + HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD. And he might have added another remarkable + saying of the same author: TO THE PURE, ALL THINGS ARE PURE; not only + meats and drinks, but all kind of knowledge whether of good or evil; the + knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and + conscience be not defiled. + </p> + <p> + For books are as meats and viands are; some of good, some of evil + substance; and yet God, in that unapocryphal vision, said without + exception, RISE, PETER, KILL AND EAT, leaving the choice to each man's + discretion. Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomach differ little or nothing + from unwholesome; and best books to a naughty mind are not unappliable to + occasions of evil. Bad meats will scarce breed good nourishment in the + healthiest concoction; but herein the difference is of bad books, that + they to a discreet and judicious reader serve in many respects to + discover, to confute, to forewarn, and to illustrate. Whereof what better + witness can ye expect I should produce, than one of your own now sitting + in Parliament, the chief of learned men reputed in this land, Mr. Selden; + whose volume of natural and national laws proves, not only by great + authorities brought together, but by exquisite reasons and theorems almost + mathematically demonstrative, that all opinions, yea errors, known, read, + and collated, are of main service and assistance toward the speedy + attainment of what is truest. I conceive, therefore, that when God did + enlarge the universal diet of man's body, saving ever the rules of + temperance, he then also, as before, left arbitrary the dieting and + repasting of our minds; as wherein every mature man might have to exercise + his own leading capacity. + </p> + <p> + How great a virtue is temperance, how much of moment through the whole + life of man! Yet God commits the managing so great a trust, without + particular law or prescription, wholly to the demeanour of every grown + man. And therefore when he himself tabled the Jews from heaven, that omer, + which was every man's daily portion of manna, is computed to have been + more than might have well sufficed the heartiest feeder thrice as many + meals. For those actions which enter into a man, rather than issue out of + him, and therefore defile not, God uses not to captivate under a perpetual + childhood of prescription, but trusts him with the gift of reason to be + his own chooser; there were but little work left for preaching, if law and + compulsion should grow so fast upon those things which heretofore were + governed only by exhortation. Solomon informs us, that much reading is a + weariness to the flesh; but neither he nor other inspired author tells us + that such or such reading is unlawful: yet certainly had God thought good + to limit us herein, it had been much more expedient to have told us what + was unlawful than what was wearisome. As for the burning of those Ephesian + books by St. Paul's converts; 'tis replied the books were magic, the + Syriac so renders them. It was a private act, a voluntary act, and leaves + us to a voluntary imitation: the men in remorse burnt those books which + were their own; the magistrate by this example is not appointed; these men + practised the books, another might perhaps have read them in some sort + usefully. + </p> + <p> + Good and evil we know in the field of this world grow up together almost + inseparably; and the knowledge of good is so involved and interwoven with + the knowledge of evil, and in so many cunning resemblances hardly to be + discerned, that those confused seeds which were imposed upon Psyche as an + incessant labour to cull out, and sort asunder, were not more intermixed. + It was from out the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good + and evil, as two twins cleaving together, leaped forth into the world. And + perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into of knowing good and evil, + that is to say of knowing good by evil. As therefore the state of man now + is; what wisdom can there be to choose, what continence to forbear without + the knowledge of evil? He that can apprehend and consider vice with all + her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and + yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true warfaring Christian. + </p> + <p> + I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and + unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary but slinks out + of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without + dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring + impurity much rather; that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by + what is contrary. That virtue therefore which is but a youngling in the + contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her + followers, and rejects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure; her + whiteness is but an excremental whiteness. Which was the reason why our + sage and serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better + teacher than Scotus or Aquinas, describing true temperance under the + person of Guion, brings him in with his palmer through the cave of Mammon, + and the bower of earthly bliss, that he might see and know, and yet + abstain. Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world + so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of + error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less + danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all + manner of tractates and hearing all manner of reason? And this is the + benefit which may be had of books promiscuously read. + </p> + <p> +But of the harm that may result hence three kinds are usually reckoned. +First, is feared the infection that may spread; but then all human learning +and controversy in religious points must remove out of the world, yea the +Bible itself; for that ofttimes relates blasphemy not nicely, it describes +the carnal sense of wicked men not unelegantly, it brings in holiest men +passionately murmuring against Providence through all the arguments of +Epicurus: in other great disputes it answers dubiously and darkly to the +common reader. And ask a Talmudist what ails the modesty of his marginal +Keri, that Moses and all the prophets cannot persuade him to pronounce the +textual Chetiv. For these causes we all know the Bible itself put by the +Papist put by the Papist into the first rank of prohibited books. The +ancientest Fathers must be next removed, as Clement of Alexandria, and that +Eusebian book of Evangelic preparation, transmitting our ears through a +hoard of heathenish obscenities to receive the Gospel. Who finds not that +Irenaeus, Epiphanius, Jerome, and others discover more heresies than they +well confute, and that oft for heresy which is the truer opinion? + </p> + <p> + Nor boots it to say for these, and all the heathen writers of greatest + infection, if it must be thought so, with whom is bound up the life of + human learning, that they writ in an unknown tongue, so long as we are + sure those languages are known as well to the worst of men, who are both + most able and most diligent to instil the poison they suck, first into the + courts of princes, acquainting them with the choicest delights and + criticisms of sin. As perhaps did that Petronius whom Nero called his + Arbiter, the master of his revels; and the notorious ribald of Arezzo, + dreaded and yet dear to the Italian courtiers. I name not him for + posterity's sake, whom Henry VIII. named in merriment his vicar of hell. + By which compendious way all the contagion that foreign books can infuse + will find a passage to the people far easier and shorter than an Indian + voyage, though it could be sailed either by the north of Cataio eastward, + or of Canada westward, while our Spanish licensing gags the English press + never so severely. + </p> + <p> + But on the other side that infection which is from books of controversy in + religion is more doubtful and dangerous to the learned than to the + ignorant; and yet those books must be permitted untouched by the licenser. + It will be hard to instance where any ignorant man hath been ever seduced + by papistical book in English, unless it were commended and expounded to + him by some of that clergy: and indeed all such tractates, whether false + or true, are as the prophecy of Isaiah was to the eunuch, not to be + UNDERSTOOD WITHOUT A GUIDE. But of our priests and doctors how many have + been corrupted by studying the comments of Jesuits and Sorbonists, and how + fast they could transfuse that corruption into the people, our experience + is both late and sad. It is not forgot, since the acute and distinct + Arminius was perverted merely by the perusing of a nameless discourse + written at Delft, which at first he took in hand to confute. + </p> + <p> + Seeing, therefore, that those books, and those in great abundance, which + are likeliest to taint both life and doctrine, cannot be suppressed + without the fall of learning and of all ability in disputation, and that + these books of either sort are most and soonest catching to the learned, + from whom to the common people whatever is heretical or dissolute may + quickly be conveyed, and that evil manners are as perfectly learnt without + books a thousand other ways which cannot be stopped, and evil doctrine not + with books can propagate, except a teacher guide, which he might also do + without writing, and so beyond prohibiting, I am not able to unfold, how + this cautelous enterprise of licensing can be exempted from the number of + vain and impossible attempts. And he who were pleasantly disposed could + not well avoid to liken it to the exploit of that gallant man who thought + to pound up the crows by shutting his park gate. + </p> + <p> + Besides another inconvenience, if learned men be the first receivers out + of books and dispreaders both of vice and error, how shall the licensers + themselves be confided in, unless we can confer upon them, or they assume + to themselves above all others in the land, the grace of infallibility and + uncorruptedness? And again, if it be true that a wise man, like a good + refiner, can gather gold out of the drossiest volume, and that a fool will + be a fool with the best book, yea or without book; there is no reason that + we should deprive a wise man of any advantage to his wisdom, while we seek + to restrain from a fool, that which being restrained will be no hindrance + to his folly. For if there should be so much exactness always used to keep + that from him which is unfit for his reading, we should in the judgment of + Aristotle not only, but of Solomon and of our Saviour, not vouchsafe him + good precepts, and by consequence not willingly admit him to good books; + as being certain that a wise man will make better use of an idle pamphlet, + than a fool will do of sacred Scripture. + </p> + <p> + 'Tis next alleged we must not expose ourselves to temptations without + necessity, and next to that, not employ our time in vain things. To both + these objections one answer will serve, out of the grounds already laid, + that to all men such books are not temptations, nor vanities, but useful + drugs and materials wherewith to temper and compose effective and strong + medicines, which man's life cannot want. The rest, as children and + childish men, who have not the art to qualify and prepare these working + minerals, well may be exhorted to forbear, but hindered forcibly they + cannot be by all the licensing that Sainted Inquisition could ever yet + contrive. Which is what I promised to deliver next: that this order of + licensing conduces nothing to the end for which it was framed; and hath + almost prevented me by being clear already while thus much hath been + explaining. See the ingenuity of Truth, who, when she gets a free and + willing hand, opens herself faster than the pace of method and discourse + can overtake her. + </p> + <p> + It was the task which I began with, to show that no nation, or + well-instituted state, if they valued books at all, did ever use this way + of licensing; and it might be answered, that this is a piece of prudence + lately discovered. To which I return, that as it was a thing slight and + obvious to think on, so if it had been difficult to find out, there wanted + not among them long since who suggested such a course; which they not + following, leave us a pattern of their judgment that it was not the rest + knowing, but the not approving, which was the cause of their not using it. + </p> + <p> + Plato, a man of high authority, indeed, but least of all for his + Commonwealth, in the book of his Laws, which no city ever yet received, + fed his fancy by making many edicts to his airy burgomasters, which they + who otherwise admire him wish had been rather buried and excused in the + genial cups of an Academic night sitting. By which laws he seems to + tolerate no kind of learning but by unalterable decree, consisting most of + practical traditions, to the attainment whereof a library of smaller bulk + than his own Dialogues would be abundant. And there also enacts, that no + poet should so much as read to any private man what he had written, until + the judges and law-keepers had seen it, and allowed it. But that Plato + meant this law peculiarly to that commonwealth which he had imagined, and + to no other, is evident. Why was he not else a lawgiver to himself, but a + transgressor, and to be expelled by his own magistrates; both for the + wanton epigrams and dialogues which he made, and his perpetual reading of + Sophron Mimus and Aristophanes, books of grossest infamy, and also for + commending the latter of them, though he were the malicious libeller of + his chief friends, to be read by the tyrant Dionysius, who had little need + of such trash to spend his time on? But that he knew this licensing of + poems had reference and dependence to many other provisos there set down + in his fancied republic, which in this world could have no place: and so + neither he himself, nor any magistrate or city, ever imitated that course, + which, taken apart from those other collateral injunctions, must needs be + vain and fruitless. For if they fell upon one kind of strictness, unless + their care were equal to regulate all other things of like aptness to + corrupt the mind, that single endeavour they knew would be but a fond + labour; to shut and fortify one gate against corruption, and be + necessitated to leave others round about wide open. + </p> + <p> + If we think to regulate printing, thereby to rectify manners, we must + regulate all recreation and pastimes, all that is delightful to man. No + music must be heard, no song be set or sung, but what is grave and Doric. + There must be licensing dancers, that no gesture, motion, or deportment be + taught our youth but what by their allowance shall be thought honest; for + such Plato was provided of. It will ask more than the work of twenty + licensers to examine all the lutes, the violins, and the guitars in every + house; they must not be suffered to prattle as they do, but must be + licensed what they may say. And who shall silence all the airs and + madrigals that whisper softness in chambers? The windows also, and the + balconies must be thought on; there are shrewd books, with dangerous + frontispieces, set to sale; who shall prohibit them, shall twenty + licensers? The villages also must have their visitors to inquire what + lectures the bagpipe and the rebeck reads, even to the ballatry and the + gamut of every municipal fiddler, for these are the countryman's Arcadias, + and his Monte Mayors. + </p> + <p> + Next, what more national corruption, for which England hears ill abroad, + than household gluttony: who shall be the rectors of our daily rioting? + And what shall be done to inhibit the multitudes that frequent those + houses where drunkenness is sold and harboured? Our garments also should + be referred to the licensing of some more sober workmasters to see them + cut into a less wanton garb. Who shall regulate all the mixed conversation + of our youth, male and female together, as is the fashion of this country? + Who shall still appoint what shall be discoursed, what presumed, and no + further? Lastly, who shall forbid and separate all idle resort, all evil + company? These things will be, and must be; but how they shall be least + hurtful, how least enticing, herein consists the grave and governing + wisdom of a state. + </p> + <p> + To sequester out of the world into Atlantic and Utopian polities, which + never can be drawn into use, will not mend our condition; but to ordain + wisely as in this world of evil, in the midst whereof God hath placed us + unavoidably. Nor is it Plato's licensing of books will do this, which + necessarily pulls along with it so many other kinds of licensing, as will + make us all both ridiculous and weary, and yet frustrate; but those + unwritten, or at least unconstraining, laws of virtuous education, + religious and civil nurture, which Plato there mentions as the bonds and + ligaments of the commonwealth, the pillars and the sustainers of every + written statute; these they be which will bear chief sway in such matters + as these, when all licensing will be easily eluded. Impunity and + remissness, for certain, are the bane of a commonwealth; but here the + great art lies, to discern in what the law is to bid restraint and + punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work. + </p> + <p> + If every action, which is good or evil in man at ripe years, were to be + under pittance and prescription and compulsion, what were virtue but a + name, what praise could be then due to well-doing, what gramercy to be + sober, just, or continent? Many there be that complain of divine + Providence for suffering Adam to transgress; foolish tongues! When God + gave him reason, he gave him freedom to choose, for reason is but + choosing; he had been else a mere artificial Adam, such an Adam as he is + in the motions. We ourselves esteem not of that obedience, or love, or + gift, which is of force: God therefore left him free, set before him a + provoking object, ever almost in his eyes; herein consisted his merit, + herein the right of his reward, the praise of his abstinence. Wherefore + did he create passions within us, pleasures round about us, but that these + rightly tempered are the very ingredients of virtue? + </p> + <p> + They are not skilful considerers of human things, who imagine to remove + sin by removing the matter of sin; for, besides that it is a huge heap + increasing under the very act of diminishing, though some part of it may + for a time be withdrawn from some persons, it cannot from all, in such a + universal thing as books are; and when this is done, yet the sin remains + entire. Though ye take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet + one jewel left, ye cannot bereave him of his covetousness. Banish all + objects of lust, shut up all youth into the severest discipline that can + be exercised in any hermitage, ye cannot make them chaste, that came not + hither so; such great care and wisdom is required to the right managing of + this point. Suppose we could expel sin by this means; look how much we + thus expel of sin, so much we expel of virtue: for the matter of them both + is the same; remove that, and ye remove them both alike. + </p> + <p> + This justifies the high providence of God, who, though he command us + temperance, justice, continence, yet pours out before us, even to a + profuseness, all desirable things, and gives us minds that can wander + beyond all limit and satiety. Why should we then affect a rigour contrary + to the manner of God and of nature, by abridging or scanting those means, + which books freely permitted are, both to the trial of virtue and the + exercise of truth? It would be better done, to learn that the law must + needs be frivolous, which goes to restrain things, uncertainly and yet + equally working to good and to evil. And were I the chooser, a dream of + well-doing should be preferred before many times as much the forcible + hindrance of evil-doing. For God sure esteems the growth and completing of + one virtuous person more than the restraint of ten vicious. + </p> + <p> + And albeit whatever thing we hear or see, sitting, walking, travelling, or + conversing, may be fitly called our book, and is of the same effect that + writings are, yet grant the thing to be prohibited were only books, it + appears that this Order hitherto is far insufficient to the end which it + intends. Do we not see, not once or oftener, but weekly, that continued + court-libel against the Parliament and City, printed, as the wet sheets + can witness, and dispersed among us, for all that licensing can do? Yet + this is the prime service a man would think, wherein this Order should + give proof of itself. If it were executed, you'll say. But certain, if + execution be remiss or blindfold now, and in this particular, what will it + be hereafter and in other books? If then the Order shall not be vain and + frustrate, behold a new labour, Lords and Commons, ye must repeal and + proscribe all scandalous and unlicensed books already printed and + divulged; after ye have drawn them up into a list, that all may know which + are condemned, and which not; and ordain that no foreign books be + delivered out of custody, till they have been read over. This office will + require the whole time of not a few overseers, and those no vulgar men. + There be also books which are partly useful and excellent, partly culpable + and pernicious; this work will ask as many more officials, to make + expurgations and expunctions, that the commonwealth of learning be not + damnified. In fine, when the multitude of books increase upon their hands, + ye must be fain to catalogue all those printers who are found frequently + offending, and forbid the importation of their whole suspected typography. + In a word, that this your Order may be exact and not deficient, ye must + reform it perfectly according to the model of Trent and Seville, which I + know ye abhor to do. + </p> + <p> + Yet though ye should condescend to this, which God forbid, the Order still + would be but fruitless and defective to that end whereto ye meant it. If + to prevent sects and schisms, who is so unread or so uncatechized in + story, that hath not heard of many sects refusing books as a hindrance, + and preserving their doctrine unmixed for many ages, only by unwritten + traditions? The Christian faith, for that was once a schism, is not + unknown to have spread all over Asia, ere any Gospel or Epistle was seen + in writing. If the amendment of manners be aimed at, look into Italy and + Spain, whether those places be one scruple the better, the honester, the + wiser, the chaster, since all the inquisitional rigour that hath been + executed upon books. + </p> + <p> + Another reason, whereby to make it plain that this Order will miss the end + it seeks, consider by the quality which ought to be in every licenser. It + cannot be denied but that he who is made judge to sit upon the birth or + death of books, whether they may be wafted into this world or not, had + need to be a man above the common measure, both studious, learned, and + judicious; there may be else no mean mistakes in the censure of what is + passable or not; which is also no mean injury. If he be of such worth as + behooves him, there cannot be a more tedious and unpleasing journey-work, + a greater loss of time levied upon his head, than to be made the perpetual + reader of unchosen books and pamphlets, ofttimes huge volumes. There is no + book that is acceptable unless at certain seasons; but to be enjoined the + reading of that at all times, and in a hand scarce legible, whereof three + pages would not down at any time in the fairest print, is an imposition + which I cannot believe how he that values time and his own studies, or is + but of a sensible nostril, should be able to endure. In this one thing I + crave leave of the present licensers to be pardoned for so thinking; who + doubtless took this office up, looking on it through their obedience to + the Parliament, whose command perhaps made all things seem easy and + unlaborious to them; but that this short trial hath wearied them out + already, their own expressions and excuses to them who make so many + journeys to solicit their licence are testimony enough. Seeing therefore + those who now possess the employment by all evident signs wish themselves + well rid of it; and that no man of worth, none that is not a plain + unthrift of his own hours, is ever likely to succeed them, except he mean + to put himself to the salary of a press corrector; we may easily foresee + what kind of licensers we are to expect hereafter, either ignorant, + imperious, and remiss, or basely pecuniary. This is what I had to show, + wherein this Order cannot conduce to that end whereof it bears the + intention. + </p> + <p> + I lastly proceed from the no good it can do, to the manifest hurt it + causes, in being first the greatest discouragement and affront that can be + offered to learning, and to learned men. + </p> + <p> + It was the complaint and lamentation of prelates, upon every least breath + of a motion to remove pluralities, and distribute more equally Church + revenues, that then all learning would be for ever dashed and discouraged. + But as for that opinion, I never found cause to think that the tenth part + of learning stood or fell with the clergy: nor could I ever but hold it + for a sordid and unworthy speech of any churchman who had a competency + left him. If therefore ye be loath to dishearten utterly and discontent, + not the mercenary crew of false pretenders to learning, but the free and + ingenuous sort of such as evidently were born to study, and love learning + for itself, not for lucre or any other end but the service of God and of + truth, and perhaps that lasting fame and perpetuity of praise which God + and good men have consented shall be the reward of those whose published + labours advance the good of mankind; then know that, so far to distrust + the judgment and the honesty of one who hath but a common repute in + learning, and never yet offended, as not to count him fit to print his + mind without a tutor and examiner, lest he should drop a schism, or + something of corruption, is the greatest displeasure and indignity to a + free and knowing spirit that can be put upon him. + </p> + <p> + What advantage is it to be a man, over it is to be a boy at school, if we + have only escaped the ferula to come under the fescue of an Imprimatur; if + serious and elaborate writings, as if they were no more than the theme of + a grammar-lad under his pedagogue, must not be uttered without the cursory + eyes of a temporizing and extemporizing licenser? He who is not trusted + with his own actions, his drift not being known to be evil, and standing + to the hazard of law and penalty, has no great argument to think himself + reputed in the Commonwealth wherein he was born for other than a fool or a + foreigner. When a man writes to the world, he summons up all his reason + and deliberation to assist him; he searches, meditates, is industrious, + and likely consults and confers with his judicious friends; after all + which done he takes himself to be informed in what he writes, as well as + any that writ before him. If, in this the most consummate act of his + fidelity and ripeness, no years, no industry, no former proof of his + abilities can bring him to that state of maturity, as not to be still + mistrusted and suspected, unless he carry all his considerate diligence, + all his midnight watchings and expense of Palladian oil, to the hasty view + of an unleisured licenser, perhaps much his younger, perhaps his inferior + in judgment, perhaps one who never knew the labour of bookwriting, and if + he be not repulsed or slighted, must appear in print like a puny with his + guardian, and his censor's hand on the back of his title to be his bail + and surety that he is no idiot or seducer, it cannot be but a dishonour + and derogation to the author, to the book, to the privilege and dignity of + learning. + </p> + <p> + And what if the author shall be one so copious of fancy, as to have many + things well worth the adding come into his mind after licensing, while the + book is yet under the press, which not seldom happens to the best and + diligentest writers; and that perhaps a dozen times in one book? The + printer dares not go beyond his licensed copy; so often then must the + author trudge to his leave-giver, that those his new insertions may be + viewed; and many a jaunt will be made, ere that licenser, for it must be + the same man, can either be found, or found at leisure; meanwhile either + the press must stand still, which is no small damage, or the author lose + his accuratest thoughts, and send the book forth worse than he had made + it, which to a diligent writer is the greatest melancholy and vexation + that can befall. + </p> + <p> + And how can a man teach with authority, which is the life of teaching; how + can he be a doctor in his book as he ought to be, or else had better be + silent, whenas all he teaches, all he delivers, is but under the tuition, + under the correction of his patriarchal licenser to blot or alter what + precisely accords not with the hidebound humour which he calls his + judgment? When every acute reader, upon the first sight of a pedantic + licence, will be ready with these like words to ding the book a quoit's + distance from him: I hate a pupil teacher, I endure not an instructor that + comes to me under the wardship of an overseeing fist. I know nothing of + the licenser, but that I have his own hand here for his arrogance; who + shall warrant me his judgment? The State, sir, replies the stationer, but + has a quick return: The State shall be my governors, but not my critics; + they may be mistaken in the choice of a licenser, as easily as this + licenser may be mistaken in an author; this is some common stuff; and he + might add from Sir Francis Bacon, THAT SUCH AUTHORIZED BOOKS ARE BUT THE + LANGUAGE OF THE TIMES. For though a licenser should happen to be judicious + more than ordinary, which will be a great jeopardy of the next succession, + yet his very office and his commission enjoins him to let pass nothing but + what is vulgarly received already. + </p> + <p> + Nay, which is more lamentable, if the work of any deceased author, though + never so famous in his lifetime and even to this day, come to their hands + for licence to be printed, or reprinted, if there be found in his book one + sentence of a venturous edge, uttered in the height of zeal (and who knows + whether it might not be the dictate of a divine spirit?) yet not suiting + with every low decrepit humour of their own, though it were Knox himself, + the reformer of a kingdom, that spake it, they will not pardon him their + dash: the sense of that great man shall to all posterity be lost, for the + fearfulness or the presumptuous rashness of a perfunctory licenser. And to + what an author this violence hath been lately done, and in what book of + greatest consequence to be faithfully published, I could now instance, but + shall forbear till a more convenient season. + </p> + <p> + Yet if these things be not resented seriously and timely by them who have + the remedy in their power, but that such iron-moulds as these shall have + authority to gnaw out the choicest periods of exquisitest books, and to + commit such a treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest + men after death, the more sorrow will belong to that hapless race of men, + whose misfortune it is to have understanding. Henceforth let no man care + to learn, or care to be more than worldly-wise; for certainly in higher + matters to be ignorant and slothful, to be a common steadfast dunce, will + be the only pleasant life, and only in request. + </p> + <p> + And it is a particular disesteem of every knowing person alive, and most + injurious to the written labours and monuments of the dead, so to me it + seems an undervaluing and vilifying of the whole nation. I cannot set so + light by all the invention, the art, the wit, the grave and solid judgment + which is in England, as that it can be comprehended in any twenty + capacities how good soever, much less that it should not pass except their + superintendence be over it, except it be sifted and strained with their + strainers, that it should be uncurrent without their manual stamp. Truth + and understanding are not such wares as to be monopolized and traded in by + tickets and statutes and standards. We must not think to make a staple + commodity of all the knowledge in the land, to mark and licence it like + our broadcloth and our woolpacks. What is it but a servitude like that + imposed by the Philistines, not to be allowed the sharpening of our own + axes and coulters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty + licensing forges? Had anyone written and divulged erroneous things and + scandalous to honest life, misusing and forfeiting the esteem had of his + reason among men, if after conviction this only censure were adjudged him + that he should never henceforth write but what were first examined by an + appointed officer, whose hand should be annexed to pass his credit for him + that now he might be safely read; it could not be apprehended less than a + disgraceful punishment. Whence to include the whole nation, and those that + never yet thus offended, under such a diffident and suspectful + prohibition, may plainly be understood what a disparagement it is. So much + the more, whenas debtors and delinquents may walk abroad without a keeper, + but unoffensive books must not stir forth without a visible jailer in + their title. + </p> + <p> + Nor is it to the common people less than a reproach; for if we be so + jealous over them, as that we dare not trust them with an English + pamphlet, what do we but censure them for a giddy, vicious, and ungrounded + people; in such a sick and weak state of faith and discretion, as to be + able to take nothing down but through the pipe of a licenser? That this is + care or love of them, we cannot pretend, whenas, in those popish places + where the laity are most hated and despised, the same strictness is used + over them. Wisdom we cannot call it, because it stops but one breach of + licence, nor that neither: whenas those corruptions, which it seeks to + prevent, break in faster at other doors which cannot be shut. + </p> + <p> + And in conclusion it reflects to the disrepute of our ministers also, of + whose labours we should hope better, and of the proficiency which their + flock reaps by them, than that after all this light of the Gospel which + is, and is to be, and all this continual preaching, they should still be + frequented with such an unprincipled, unedified and laic rabble, as that + the whiff of every new pamphlet should stagger them out of their catechism + and Christian walking. This may have much reason to discourage the + ministers when such a low conceit is had of all their exhortations, and + the benefiting of their hearers, as that they are not thought fit to be + turned loose to three sheets of paper without a licenser; that all the + sermons, all the lectures preached, printed, vented in such numbers, and + such volumes, as have now well nigh made all other books unsaleable, + should not be armour enough against one single Enchiridion, without the + castle of St. Angelo of an Imprimatur. + </p> + <p> + And lest some should persuade ye, Lords and Commons, that these arguments + of learned men's discouragement at this your Order are mere flourishes, + and not real, I could recount what I have seen and heard in other + countries, where this kind of inquisition tyrannizes; when I have sat + among their learned men, for that honour I had, and been counted happy to + be born in such a place of philosophic freedom, as they supposed England + was, while themselves did nothing but bemoan the servile condition into + which learning amongst them was brought; that this was it which had damped + the glory of Italian wits; that nothing had been there written now these + many years but flattery and fustian. There it was that I found and visited + the famous Galileo, grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking + in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers + thought. And though I knew that England then was groaning loudest under + the prelatical yoke, nevertheless I took it as a pledge of future + happiness, that other nations were so persuaded of her liberty. Yet was it + beyond my hope that those worthies were then breathing in her air, who + should be her leaders to such a deliverance, as shall never be forgotten + by any revolution of time that this world hath to finish. When that was + once begun, it was as little in my fear that what words of complaint I + heard among learned men of other parts uttered against the Inquisition, + the same I should hear by as learned men at home, uttered in time of + Parliament against an order of licensing; and that so generally that, when + I had disclosed myself a companion of their discontent, I might say, if + without envy, that he whom an honest quaestorship had endeared to the + Sicilians was not more by them importuned against Verres, than the + favourable opinion which I had among many who honour ye, and are known and + respected by ye, loaded me with entreaties and persuasions, that I would + not despair to lay together that which just reason should bring into my + mind, toward the removal of an undeserved thraldom upon learning. That + this is not therefore the disburdening of a particular fancy, but the + common grievance of all those who had prepared their minds and studies + above the vulgar pitch to advance truth in others, and from others to + entertain it, thus much may satisfy. + </p> + <p> + And in their name I shall for neither friend nor foe conceal what the + general murmur is; that if it come to inquisitioning again and licensing, + and that we are so timorous of ourselves, and so suspicious of all men, as + to fear each book and the shaking of every leaf, before we know what the + contents are; if some who but of late were little better than silenced + from preaching shall come now to silence us from reading, except what they + please, it cannot be guessed what is intended by some but a second tyranny + over learning: and will soon put it out of controversy, that bishops and + presbyters are the same to us, both name and thing. That those evils of + prelaty, which before from five or six and twenty sees were distributively + charged upon the whole people, will now light wholly upon learning, is not + obscure to us: whenas now the pastor of a small unlearned parish on the + sudden shall be exalted archbishop over a large diocese of books, and yet + not remove, but keep his other cure too, a mystical pluralist. He who but + of late cried down the sole ordination of every novice Bachelor of Art, + and denied sole jurisdiction over the simplest parishioner, shall now at + home in his private chair assume both these over worthiest and + excellentest books and ablest authors that write them. + </p> + <p> + This is not, ye Covenants and Protestations that we have made! this is not + to put down prelaty; this is but to chop an episcopacy; this is but to + translate the Palace Metropolitan from one kind of dominion into another; + this is but an old canonical sleight of commuting our penance. To startle + thus betimes at a mere unlicensed pamphlet will after a while be afraid of + every conventicle, and a while after will make a conventicle of every + Christian meeting. But I am certain that a State governed by the rules of + justice and fortitude, or a Church built and founded upon the rock of + faith and true knowledge, cannot be so pusillanimous. While things are yet + not constituted in religion, that freedom of writing should be restrained + by a discipline imitated from the prelates and learnt by them from the + Inquisition, to shut us up all again into the breast of a licenser, must + needs give cause of doubt and discouragement to all learned and religious + men. + </p> + <p> + Who cannot but discern the fineness of this politic drift, and who are the + contrivers; that while bishops were to be baited down, then all presses + might be open; it was the people's birthright and privilege in time of + Parliament, it was the breaking forth of light. But now, the bishops + abrogated and voided out of the Church, as if our Reformation sought no + more but to make room for others into their seats under another name, the + episcopal arts begin to bud again, the cruse of truth must run no more + oil, liberty of printing must be enthralled again under a prelatical + commission of twenty, the privilege of the people nullified, and, which is + worse, the freedom of learning must groan again, and to her old fetters: + all this the Parliament yet sitting. Although their own late arguments and + defences against the prelates might remember them, that this obstructing + violence meets for the most part with an event utterly opposite to the end + which it drives at: instead of suppressing sects and schisms, it raises + them and invests them with a reputation. The punishing of wits enhances + their authority, saith the Viscount St. Albans; and a forbidden writing is + thought to be a certain spark of truth that flies up in the faces of them + who seek to tread it out. This Order, therefore, may prove a + nursing-mother to sects, but I shall easily show how it will be a + step-dame to Truth: and first by disenabling us to the maintenance of what + is known already. + </p> + <p> + Well knows he who uses to consider, that our faith and knowledge thrives + by exercise, as well as our limbs and complexion. Truth is compared in + Scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual + progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition. A + man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because + his pastor says so, or the Assembly so determines, without knowing other + reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his + heresy. + </p> + <p> + There is not any burden that some would gladlier post off to another than + the charge and care of their religion. There be—who knows not that + there be?—of Protestants and professors who live and die in as + arrant an implicit faith as any lay Papist of Loretto. A wealthy man, + addicted to his pleasure and to his profits, finds religion to be a + traffic so entangled, and of so many piddling accounts, that of all + mysteries he cannot skill to keep a stock going upon that trade. What + should he do? fain he would have the name to be religious, fain he would + bear up with his neighbours in that. What does he therefore, but resolves + to give over toiling, and to find himself out some factor, to whose care + and credit he may commit the whole managing of his religious affairs; some + divine of note and estimation that must be. To him he adheres, resigns the + whole warehouse of his religion, with all the locks and keys, into his + custody; and indeed makes the very person of that man his religion; + esteems his associating with him a sufficient evidence and commendatory of + his own piety. So that a man may say his religion is now no more within + himself, but is become a dividual movable, and goes and comes near him, + according as that good man frequents the house. He entertains him, gives + him gifts, feasts him, lodges him; his religion comes home at night, + prays, is liberally supped, and sumptuously laid to sleep; rises, is + saluted, and after the malmsey, or some well-spiced brewage, and better + breakfasted than he whose morning appetite would have gladly fed on green + figs between Bethany and Jerusalem, his religion walks abroad at eight, + and leaves his kind entertainer in the shop trading all day without his + religion. + </p> + <p> + Another sort there be who, when they hear that all things shall be + ordered, all things regulated and settled, nothing written but what passes + through the custom-house of certain publicans that have the tonnaging and + poundaging of all free-spoken truth, will straight give themselves up into + your hands, make 'em and cut 'em out what religion ye please: there be + delights, there be recreations and jolly pastimes that will fetch the day + about from sun to sun, and rock the tedious year as in a delightful dream. + What need they torture their heads with that which others have taken so + strictly and so unalterably into their own purveying? These are the fruits + which a dull ease and cessation of our knowledge will bring forth among + the people. How goodly and how to be wished were such an obedient + unanimity as this, what a fine conformity would it starch us all into! + Doubtless a staunch and solid piece of framework, as any January could + freeze together. + </p> + <p> + Nor much better will be the consequence even among the clergy themselves. + It is no new thing never heard of before, for a parochial minister, who + has his reward and is at his Hercules' pillars in a warm benefice, to be + easily inclinable, if he have nothing else that may rouse up his studies, + to finish his circuit in an English Concordance and a topic folio, the + gatherings and savings of a sober graduateship, a Harmony and a Catena; + treading the constant round of certain common doctrinal heads, attended + with their uses, motives, marks, and means, out of which, as out of an + alphabet, or sol-fa, by forming and transforming, joining and disjoining + variously, a little bookcraft, and two hours' meditation, might furnish + him unspeakably to the performance of more than a weekly charge of + sermoning: not to reckon up the infinite helps of interlinearies, + breviaries, synopses, and other loitering gear. But as for the multitude + of sermons ready printed and piled up, on every text that is not + difficult, our London trading St. Thomas in his vestry, and add to boot + St. Martin and St. Hugh, have not within their hallowed limits more + vendible ware of all sorts ready made: so that penury he never need fear + of pulpit provision, having where so plenteously to refresh his magazine. + But if his rear and flanks be not impaled, if his back door be not secured + by the rigid licenser, but that a bold book may now and then issue forth + and give the assault to some of his old collections in their trenches, it + will concern him then to keep waking, to stand in watch, to set good + guards and sentinels about his received opinions, to walk the round and + counter-round with his fellow inspectors, fearing lest any of his flock be + seduced, who also then would be better instructed, better exercised and + disciplined. And God send that the fear of this diligence, which must then + be used, do not make us affect the laziness of a licensing Church. + </p> + <p> + For if we be sure we are in the right, and do not hold the truth guiltily, + which becomes not, if we ourselves condemn not our own weak and frivolous + teaching, and the people for an untaught and irreligious gadding rout, + what can be more fair than when a man judicious, learned, and of a + conscience, for aught we know, as good as theirs that taught us what we + know, shall not privily from house to house, which is more dangerous, but + openly by writing publish to the world what his opinion is, what his + reasons, and wherefore that which is now thought cannot be sound? Christ + urged it as wherewith to justify himself, that he preached in public; yet + writing is more public than preaching; and more easy to refutation, if + need be, there being so many whose business and profession merely it is to + be the champions of truth; which if they neglect, what can be imputed but + their sloth, or unability? + </p> + <p> + Thus much we are hindered and disinured by this course of licensing, + toward the true knowledge of what we seem to know. For how much it hurts + and hinders the licensers themselves in the calling of their ministry, + more than any secular employment, if they will discharge that office as + they ought, so that of necessity they must neglect either the one duty or + the other, I insist not, because it is a particular, but leave it to their + own conscience, how they will decide it there. + </p> + <p> + There is yet behind of what I purposed to lay open, the incredible loss + and detriment that this plot of licensing puts us to; more than if some + enemy at sea should stop up all our havens and ports and creeks, it + hinders and retards the importation of our richest merchandise, truth; + nay, it was first established and put in practice by Antichristian malice + and mystery on set purpose to extinguish, if it were possible, the light + of Reformation, and to settle falsehood; little differing from that policy + wherewith the Turk upholds his Alcoran, by the prohibition of printing. + 'Tis not denied, but gladly confessed, we are to send our thanks and vows + to Heaven louder than most of nations, for that great measure of truth + which we enjoy, especially in those main points between us and the Pope, + with his appurtenances the prelates: but he who thinks we are to pitch our + tent here, and have attained the utmost prospect of reformation that the + mortal glass wherein we contemplate can show us, till we come to beatific + vision, that man by this very opinion declares that he is yet far short of + truth. + </p> + <p> + Truth indeed came once into the world with her divine Master, and was a + perfect shape most glorious to look on: but when he ascended, and his + Apostles after him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race of + deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon with his + conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, + hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the + four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such as + durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled + body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb by limb, still as they + could find them. We have not yet found them all, Lords and Commons, nor + ever shall do, till her Master's second coming; he shall bring together + every joint and member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of + loveliness and perfection. Suffer not these licensing prohibitions to + stand at every place of opportunity, forbidding and disturbing them that + continue seeking, that continue to do our obsequies to the torn body of + our martyred saint. + </p> + <p> + We boast our light; but if we look not wisely on the sun itself, it smites + us into darkness. Who can discern those planets that are oft combust, and + those stars of brightest magnitude that rise and set with the sun, until + the opposite motion of their orbs bring them to such a place in the + firmament, where they may be seen evening or morning? The light which we + have gained was given us, not to be ever staring on, but by it to discover + onward things more remote from our knowledge. It is not the unfrocking of + a priest, the unmitring of a bishop, and the removing him from off the + presbyterian shoulders, that will make us a happy nation. No, if other + things as great in the Church, and in the rule of life both economical and + political, be not looked into and reformed, we have looked so long upon + the blaze that Zuinglius and Calvin hath beaconed up to us, that we are + stark blind. There be who perpetually complain of schisms and sects, and + make it such a calamity that any man dissents from their maxims. 'Tis + their own pride and ignorance which causes the disturbing, who neither + will hear with meekness, nor can convince; yet all must be suppressed + which is not found in their Syntagma. They are the troublers, they are the + dividers of unity, who neglect and permit not others to unite those + dissevered pieces which are yet wanting to the body of Truth. To be still + searching what we know not by what we know, still closing up truth to + truth as we find it (for all her body is homogeneal and proportional), + this is the golden rule in theology as well as in arithmetic, and makes up + the best harmony in a Church; not the forced and outward union of cold, + and neutral, and inwardly divided minds. + </p> + <p> + Lords and Commons of England! consider what nation it is whereof ye are, + and whereof ye are the governors: a nation not slow and dull, but of a + quick, ingenious and piercing spirit, acute to invent, subtle and sinewy + to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human + capacity can soar to. Therefore the studies of learning in her deepest + sciences have been so ancient and so eminent among us, that writers of + good antiquity and ablest judgment have been persuaded that even the + school of Pythagoras and the Persian wisdom took beginning from the old + philosophy of this island. And that wise and civil Roman, Julius Agricola, + who governed once here for Caesar, preferred the natural wits of Britain + before the laboured studies of the French. Nor is it for nothing that the + grave and frugal Transylvanian sends out yearly from as far as the + mountainous borders of Russia, and beyond the Hercynian wilderness, not + their youth, but their staid men, to learn our language and our theologic + arts. + </p> + <p> + Yet that which is above all this, the favour and the love of Heaven, we + have great argument to think in a peculiar manner propitious and + propending towards us. Why else was this nation chosen before any other, + that out of her, as out of Sion, should be proclaimed and sounded forth + the first tidings and trumpet of Reformation to all Europe? And had it not + been the obstinate perverseness of our prelates against the divine and + admirable spirit of Wickliff, to suppress him as a schismatic and + innovator, perhaps neither the Bohemian Huns and Jerome, no nor the name + of Luther or of Calvin, had been ever known: the glory of reforming all + our neighbours had been completely ours. But now, as our obdurate clergy + have with violence demeaned the matter, we are become hitherto the latest + and the backwardest scholars, of whom God offered to have made us the + teachers. Now once again by all concurrence of signs, and by the general + instinct of holy and devout men, as they daily and solemnly express their + thoughts, God is decreeing to begin some new and great period in his + Church, even to the reforming of Reformation itself: what does he then but + reveal himself to his servants, and as his manner is, first to his + Englishmen? I say, as his manner is, first to us, though we mark not the + method of his counsels, and are unworthy. + </p> + <p> + Behold now this vast city: a city of refuge, the mansion house of liberty, + encompassed and surrounded with his protection; the shop of war hath not + there more anvils and hammers waking, to fashion out the plates and + instruments of armed justice in defence of beleaguered truth, than there + be pens and heads there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, + searching, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with + their homage and their fealty, the approaching Reformation: others as fast + reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of reason and + convincement. What could a man require more from a nation so pliant and so + prone to seek after knowledge? What wants there to such a towardly and + pregnant soil, but wise and faithful labourers, to make a knowing people, + a nation of prophets, of sages, and of worthies? We reckon more than five + months yet to harvest; there need not be five weeks; had we but eyes to + lift up, the fields are white already. + </p> + <p> + Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much + arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but + knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic terrors of sect and schism, + we wrong the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding + which God hath stirred up in this city. What some lament of, we rather + should rejoice at, should rather praise this pious forwardness among men, + to reassume the ill-deputed care of their religion into their own hands + again. A little generous prudence, a little forbearance of one another, + and some grain of charity might win all these diligences to join, and + unite in one general and brotherly search after truth; could we but forgo + this prelatical tradition of crowding free consciences and Christian + liberties into canons and precepts of men. I doubt not, if some great and + worthy stranger should come among us, wise to discern the mould and temper + of a people, and how to govern it, observing the high hopes and aims, the + diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts and reasonings in the pursuance + of truth and freedom, but that he would cry out as Pyrrhus did, admiring + the Roman docility and courage: If such were my Epirots, I would not + despair the greatest design that could be attempted, to make a Church or + kingdom happy. + </p> + <p> + Yet these are the men cried out against for schismatics and sectaries; as + if, while the temple of the Lord was building, some cutting, some squaring + the marble, others hewing the cedars, there should be a sort of irrational + men who could not consider there must be many schisms and many dissections + made in the quarry and in the timber, ere the house of God can be built. + And when every stone is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into a + continuity, it can but be contiguous in this world; neither can every + piece of the building be of one form; nay rather the perfection consists + in this, that, out of many moderate varieties and brotherly dissimilitudes + that are not vastly disproportional, arises the goodly and the graceful + symmetry that commends the whole pile and structure. + </p> + <p> + Let us therefore be more considerate builders, more wise in spiritual + architecture, when great reformation is expected. For now the time seems + come, wherein Moses the great prophet may sit in heaven rejoicing to see + that memorable and glorious wish of his fulfilled, when not only our + seventy elders, but all the Lord's people, are become prophets. No marvel + then though some men, and some good men too perhaps, but young in + goodness, as Joshua then was, envy them. They fret, and out of their own + weakness are in agony, lest these divisions and subdivisions will undo us. + The adversary again applauds, and waits the hour: when they have branched + themselves out, saith he, small enough into parties and partitions, then + will be our time. Fool! he sees not the firm root, out of which we all + grow, though into branches: nor will beware until he see our small divided + maniples cutting through at every angle of his ill-united and unwieldy + brigade. And that we are to hope better of all these supposed sects and + schisms, and that we shall not need that solicitude, honest perhaps, + though over-timorous, of them that vex in this behalf, but shall laugh in + the end at those malicious applauders of our differences, I have these + reasons to persuade me. + </p> + <p> + First, when a city shall be as it were besieged and blocked about, her + navigable river infested, inroads and incursions round, defiance and + battle oft rumoured to be marching up even to her walls and suburb + trenches, that then the people, or the greater part, more than at other + times, wholly taken up with the study of highest and most important + matters to be reformed, should be disputing, reasoning, reading, + inventing, discoursing, even to a rarity and admiration, things not before + discoursed or written of, argues first a singular goodwill, contentedness + and confidence in your prudent foresight and safe government, Lords and + Commons; and from thence derives itself to a gallant bravery and + well-grounded contempt of their enemies, as if there were no small number + of as great spirits among us, as his was, who when Rome was nigh besieged + by Hannibal, being in the city, bought that piece of ground at no cheap + rate, whereon Hannibal himself encamped his own regiment. + </p> + <p> + Next, it is a lively and cheerful presage of our happy success and + victory. For as in a body, when the blood is fresh, the spirits pure and + vigorous, not only to vital but to rational faculties, and those in the + acutest and the pertest operations of wit and subtlety, it argues in what + good plight and constitution the body is; so when the cheerfulness of the + people is so sprightly up, as that it has not only wherewith to guard well + its own freedom and safety, but to spare, and to bestow upon the solidest + and sublimest points of controversy and new invention, it betokens us not + degenerated, nor drooping to a fatal decay, but casting off the old and + wrinkled skin of corruption to outlive these pangs and wax young again, + entering the glorious ways of truth and prosperous virtue, destined to + become great and honourable in these latter ages. Methinks I see in my + mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after + sleep, and shaking her invincible locks: methinks I see her as an eagle + mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full + midday beam; purging and unscaling her long-abused sight at the fountain + itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous and + flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, + amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate + a year of sects and schisms. + </p> + <p> + What would ye do then? should ye suppress all this flowery crop of + knowledge and new light sprung up and yet springing daily in this city? + Should ye set an oligarchy of twenty engrossers over it, to bring a famine + upon our minds again, when we shall know nothing but what is measured to + us by their bushel? Believe it, Lords and Commons, they who counsel ye to + such a suppressing do as good as bid ye suppress yourselves; and I will + soon show how. If it be desired to know the immediate cause of all this + free writing and free speaking, there cannot be assigned a truer than your + own mild and free and humane government. It is the liberty, Lords and + Commons, which your own valorous and happy counsels have purchased us, + liberty which is the nurse of all great wits; this is that which hath + rarefied and enlightened our spirits like the influence of heaven; this is + that which hath enfranchised, enlarged and lifted up our apprehensions, + degrees above themselves. + </p> + <p> + Ye cannot make us now less capable, less knowing, less eagerly pursuing of + the truth, unless ye first make yourselves, that made us so, less the + lovers, less the founders of our true liberty. We can grow ignorant again, + brutish, formal and slavish, as ye found us; but you then must first + become that which ye cannot be, oppressive, arbitrary and tyrannous, as + they were from whom ye have freed us. That our hearts are now more + capacious, our thoughts more erected to the search and expectation of + greatest and exactest things, is the issue of your own virtue propagated + in us; ye cannot suppress that, unless ye reinforce an abrogated and + merciless law, that fathers may dispatch at will their own children. And + who shall then stick closest to ye, and excite others? not he who takes up + arms for coat and conduct, and his four nobles of Danegelt. Although I + dispraise not the defence of just immunities, yet love my peace better, if + that were all. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely + according to conscience, above all liberties. + </p> + <p> + What would be best advised, then, if it be found so hurtful and so unequal + to suppress opinions for the newness or the unsuitableness to a customary + acceptance, will not be my task to say. I only shall repeat what I have + learned from one of your own honourable number, a right noble and pious + lord, who, had he not sacrificed his life and fortunes to the Church and + Commonwealth, we had not now missed and bewailed a worthy and undoubted + patron of this argument. Ye know him, I am sure; yet I for honour's sake, + and may it be eternal to him, shall name him, the Lord Brook. He writing + of episcopacy, and by the way treating of sects and schisms, left ye his + vote, or rather now the last words of his dying charge, which I know will + ever be of dear and honoured regard with ye, so full of meekness and + breathing charity, that next to his last testament, who bequeathed love + and peace to his disciples, I cannot call to mind where I have read or + heard words more mild and peaceful. He there exhorts us to hear with + patience and humility those, however they be miscalled, that desire to + live purely, in such a use of God's ordinances, as the best guidance of + their conscience gives them, and to tolerate them, though in some + disconformity to ourselves. The book itself will tell us more at large, + being published to the world, and dedicated to the Parliament by him who, + both for his life and for his death, deserves that what advice he left be + not laid by without perusal. + </p> + <p> + And now the time in special is, by privilege to write and speak what may + help to the further discussing of matters in agitation. The temple of + Janus with his two controversial faces might now not unsignificantly be + set open. And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon + the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and + prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who + ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter? Her + confuting is the best and surest suppressing. He who hears what praying + there is for light and clearer knowledge to be sent down among us, would + think of other matters to be constituted beyond the discipline of Geneva, + framed and fabricked already to our hands. Yet when the new light which we + beg for shines in upon us, there be who envy and oppose, if it come not + first in at their casements. What a collusion is this, whenas we are + exhorted by the wise man to use diligence, to seek for wisdom as for + hidden treasures early and late, that another order shall enjoin us to + know nothing but by statute? When a man hath been labouring the hardest + labour in the deep mines of knowledge, hath furnished out his findings in + all their equipage: drawn forth his reasons as it were a battle ranged: + scattered and defeated all objections in his way; calls out his adversary + into the plain, offers him the advantage of wind and sun, if he please, + only that he may try the matter by dint of argument: for his opponents + then to skulk, to lay ambushments, to keep a narrow bridge of licensing + where the challenger should pass, though it be valour enough in + soldiership, is but weakness and cowardice in the wars of Truth. + </p> + <p> + For who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty? She needs no + policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious; those are + the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power. Give her + but room, and do not bind her when she sleeps, for then she speaks not + true, as the old Proteus did, who spake oracles only when he was caught + and bound, but then rather she turns herself into all shapes, except her + own, and perhaps tunes her voice according to the time, as Micaiah did + before Ahab, until she be adjured into her own likeness. Yet is it not + impossible that she may have more shapes than one. What else is all that + rank of things indifferent, wherein Truth may be on this side or on the + other, without being unlike herself? What but a vain shadow else is the + abolition of those ordinances, that hand-writing nailed to the cross? What + great purchase is this Christian liberty which Paul so often boasts of? + His doctrine is, that he who eats or eats not, regards a day or regards it + not, may do either to the Lord. How many other things might be tolerated + in peace, and left to conscience, had we but charity, and were it not the + chief stronghold of our hypocrisy to be ever judging one another? + </p> + <p> + I fear yet this iron yoke of outward conformity hath left a slavish print + upon our necks; the ghost of a linen decency yet haunts us. We stumble and + are impatient at the least dividing of one visible congregation from + another, though it be not in fundamentals; and through our forwardness to + suppress, and our backwardness to recover any enthralled piece of truth + out of the gripe of custom, we care not to keep truth separated from + truth, which is the fiercest rent and disunion of all. We do not see that, + while we still affect by all means a rigid external formality, we may as + soon fall again into a gross conforming stupidity, a stark and dead + congealment of wood and hay and stubble, forced and frozen together, which + is more to the sudden degenerating of a Church than many subdichotomies of + petty schisms. + </p> + <p> + Not that I can think well of every light separation, or that all in a + Church is to be expected gold and silver and precious stones: it is not + possible for man to sever the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the + other fry; that must be the Angels' ministry at the end of mortal things. + Yet if all cannot be of one mind—as who looks they should be?—this + doubtless is more wholesome, more prudent, and more Christian, that many + be tolerated, rather than all compelled. I mean not tolerated popery, and + open superstition, which, as it extirpates all religions and civil + supremacies, so itself should be extirpate, provided first that all + charitable and compassionate means be used to win and regain the weak and + the misled: that also which is impious or evil absolutely either against + faith or manners no law can possibly permit, that intends not to unlaw + itself: but those neighbouring differences, or rather indifferences, are + what I speak of, whether in some point of doctrine or of discipline, + which, though they may be many, yet need not interrupt THE UNITY OF + SPIRIT, if we could but find among us THE BOND OF PEACE. + </p> + <p> + In the meanwhile if any one would write, and bring his helpful hand to the + slow-moving Reformation which we labour under, if Truth have spoken to him + before others, or but seemed at least to speak, who hath so bejesuited us + that we should trouble that man with asking license to do so worthy a + deed? and not consider this, that if it come to prohibiting, there is not + aught more likely to be prohibited than truth itself; whose first + appearance to our eyes, bleared and dimmed with prejudice and custom, is + more unsightly and unplausible than many errors, even as the person is of + many a great man slight and contemptuous to see to. And what do they tell + us vainly of new opinions, when this very opinion of theirs, that none + must be heard but whom they like, is the worst and newest opinion of all + others; and is the chief cause why sects and schisms do so much abound, + and true knowledge is kept at distance from us; besides yet a greater + danger which is in it. + </p> + <p> + For when God shakes a kingdom with strong and healthful commotions to a + general reforming, 'tis not untrue that many sectaries and false teachers + are then busiest in seducing; but yet more true it is, that God then + raises to his own work men of rare abilities, and more than common + industry, not only to look back and revise what hath been taught + heretofore, but to gain further and go on some new enlightened steps in + the discovery of truth. For such is the order of God's enlightening his + Church, to dispense and deal out by degrees his beam, so as our earthly + eyes may best sustain it. + </p> + <p> + Neither is God appointed and confined, where and out of what place these + his chosen shall be first heard to speak; for he sees not as man sees, + chooses not as man chooses, lest we should devote ourselves again to set + places, and assemblies, and outward callings of men; planting our faith + one while in the old Convocation house, and another while in the Chapel at + Westminster; when all the faith and religion that shall be there canonized + is not sufficient without plain convincement, and the charity of patient + instruction to supple the least bruise of conscience, to edify the meanest + Christian, who desires to walk in the Spirit, and not in the letter of + human trust, for all the number of voices that can be there made; no, + though Harry VII himself there, with all his liege tombs about him, should + lend them voices from the dead, to swell their number. + </p> + <p> + And if the men be erroneous who appear to be the leading schismatics, what + withholds us but our sloth, our self-will, and distrust in the right + cause, that we do not give them gentle meetings and gentle dismissions, + that we debate not and examine the matter thoroughly with liberal and + frequent audience; if not for their sakes, yet for our own? seeing no man + who hath tasted learning, but will confess the many ways of profiting by + those who, not contented with stale receipts, are able to manage and set + forth new positions to the world. And were they but as the dust and + cinders of our feet, so long as in that notion they may yet serve to + polish and brighten the armoury of Truth, even for that respect they were + not utterly to be cast away. But if they be of those whom God hath fitted + for the special use of these times with eminent and ample gifts, and those + perhaps neither among the priests nor among the Pharisees, and we in the + haste of a precipitant zeal shall make no distinction, but resolve to stop + their mouths, because we fear they come with new and dangerous opinions, + as we commonly forejudge them ere we understand them; no less than woe to + us, while, thinking thus to defend the Gospel, we are found the + persecutors. + </p> + <p> + There have been not a few since the beginning of this Parliament, both of + the presbytery and others, who by their unlicensed books, to the contempt + of an Imprimatur, first broke that triple ice clung about our hearts, and + taught the people to see day: I hope that none of those were the + persuaders to renew upon us this bondage which they themselves have + wrought so much good by contemning. But if neither the check that Moses + gave to young Joshua, nor the countermand which our Saviour gave to young + John, who was so ready to prohibit those whom he thought unlicensed, be + not enough to admonish our elders how unacceptable to God their testy mood + of prohibiting is; if neither their own remembrance what evil hath + abounded in the Church by this set of licensing, and what good they + themselves have begun by transgressing it, be not enough, but that they + will persuade and execute the most Dominican part of the Inquisition over + us, and are already with one foot in the stirrup so active at suppressing, + it would be no unequal distribution in the first place to suppress the + suppressors themselves: whom the change of their condition hath puffed up, + more than their late experience of harder times hath made wise. + </p> + <p> + And as for regulating the press, let no man think to have the honour of + advising ye better than yourselves have done in that Order published next + before this, "that no book be printed, unless the printer's and the + author's name, or at least the printer's, be registered." Those which + otherwise come forth, if they be found mischievous and libellous, the fire + and the executioner will be the timeliest and the most effectual remedy + that man's prevention can use. For this authentic Spanish policy of + licensing books, if I have said aught, will prove the most unlicensed book + itself within a short while; and was the immediate image of a Star Chamber + decree to that purpose made in those very times when that Court did the + rest of those her pious works, for which she is now fallen from the stars + with Lucifer. Whereby ye may guess what kind of state prudence, what love + of the people, what care of religion or good manners there was at the + contriving, although with singular hypocrisy it pretended to bind books to + their good behaviour. And how it got the upper hand of your precedent + Order so well constituted before, if we may believe those men whose + profession gives them cause to inquire most, it may be doubted there was + in it the fraud of some old patentees and monopolizers in the trade of + bookselling; who under pretence of the poor in their Company not to be + defrauded, and the just retaining of each man his several copy, which God + forbid should be gainsaid, brought divers glossing colours to the House, + which were indeed but colours, and serving to no end except it be to + exercise a superiority over their neighbours; men who do not therefore + labour in an honest profession to which learning is indebted, that they + should be made other men's vassals. Another end is thought was aimed at by + some of them in procuring by petition this Order, that, having power in + their hands, malignant books might the easier scape abroad, as the event + shows. + </p> + <p> + But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not. This I know, + that errors in a good government and in a bad are equally almost incident; + for what magistrate may not be misinformed, and much the sooner, if + liberty of printing be reduced into the power of a few? But to redress + willingly and speedily what hath been erred, and in highest authority to + esteem a plain advertisement more than others have done a sumptuous bride, + is a virtue (honoured Lords and Commons) answerable to your highest + actions, and whereof none can participate but greatest and wisest men. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Areopagitica, by John Milton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AREOPAGITICA *** + +***** This file should be named 608-h.htm or 608-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/608/ + +Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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