diff options
Diffstat (limited to '608.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 608.txt | 2002 |
1 files changed, 2002 insertions, 0 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,2002 @@ +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] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AREOPAGITICA *** + + + + +Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger + + + + + +AREOPAGITICA + + +A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENSED PRINTING TO THE PARLIAMENT OF +ENGLAND + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + + 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. + + + 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. + + + Attending the precedent relation, it is allowed that this + present work of Davanzati may be printed. + + VINCENT RABBATTA, etc. + + + It may be printed, July 15. + + FRIAR SIMON MOMPEI D'AMELIA, + Chancellor of the Holy Office in Florence. + +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: + + Imprimatur, If it seem good to the reverend Master of the + Holy Palace. + + BELCASTRO, Vicegerent. + + + Imprimatur, Friar Nicolo Rodolphi, Master of the Holy Palace. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +'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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Areopagitica, by John Milton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AREOPAGITICA *** + +***** This file should be named 608.txt or 608.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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |