diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/areop10.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/areop10.txt | 1997 |
1 files changed, 1997 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/areop10.txt b/old/areop10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aed9f0a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/areop10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1997 @@ +**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Areopagitica, by John Milton** +#4 in our series by John Milton [Two of Paradise Lost] + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +Areopagitica + +by John Milton + +July, 1996 [Etext #608] + + +**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Areopagitica, by John Milton** +*****This file should be named areop10.txt or areop10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, areop11.txt. +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, areop10a.txt. + + +This etext was created by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska. +The equipment: an IBM-compatible 486/50, a Hewlett-Packard +ScanJet IIc flatbed scanner, and Calera Recognition Systems' +M/600 Series Professional OCR software and RISC accelerator board +donated by Calera Recognition Systems. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text +files per month: or 400 more Etexts in 1996 for a total of 800. +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach 80 billion Etexts. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001 +should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it +will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001. + + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/BU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (BU = Benedictine +University). (Subscriptions to our paper newsletter go to BU.) + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Benedictine University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Benedictine + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Benedictine University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +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 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 Etext of Areopagitica, by John Milton + |