Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/areopagiticaspeeOOmiltricli AREOPAGITICA; WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY T. HOLT WHITE, ESQ. AREOPAGITICA: A SPEECH TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND, fOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENSED PRINTING, BY JOHN MILTON; fvltji prefatory remarks, copious notes, and excursive Illustrations, BY T. HOLT WHITE, ES^. To which is subjoined, A TRACT SUR LA LIBERTE DE LA PRESSE, IMITE' DE L'ANGLOIS DE MILTON, PAR LE COMTE DE MIRABEAU. LONDON: PRINTED FOR R. HUNTER, SUCCESSOR TO MR. JOHNSON, NO. 72, ST. PAUl's CHURCHYARD, AND RICHARD STEEVENS, BELL YARD^ TEMPLE BAR. I8I9. CHARLES WOOD, Printer, Poppin's Court, Fleet Street, London. ^3? ' OJUU CONTENTS- Page Prefatory Remarks, hy the Present Editor i Thomson's Preface Ixv Cursory Observations , hy the Present Editor, on the Invention of Printing . Ixxxiii Preface to the Edition in 1772 xcvii A List of the Editions of the Areopa- GiTiCA, known to the Editor, which have been published separately from Milton's Prose Works cxxi Commendatory Testimonies cxxiii Glossarial Index cxxxv Argument 0/ Milton's Apeopagitica . . . cxxxix M 1^581501 CONTENTS. Page Areopagitica, a Speech of Mr. John Milton, 8^c 1 Excursive Illustrations 205 Sur la Liberty de la Presse, imitd de VAnglois de Milton, par le Comte de MiRABEAU 2Q^ PREFATORY REMARKS. Milton begins a letter to a learned Athe- nian with informing him, that from boyhood he had been devoutly attached to the study of every circumstance connected with Greece, and above all with Athens*. That this was not a cold nor barren admiration of Grecian laws and usages is proved by the eagerness which he manifested to transplant them into his native country. Warmed with this fair idea, and as a step toward realizing it, he availed himself of an opportunity to sub- mit to the ruling authorities, whether they should not refine our own " high tides and "solemn festivals,'' so as to render them instrumental to purposes of general im- provement, and one mean for conveying instruction to the public. This refinement was to have for its model the Panathensea, and other stated celebrations among the * " Cum sim a piieriti^ totius Graeci nominis, tuartimque in primis Athenarum cultor," &c. Leonardo PhUarce, . b 11 - PREFATORY REMARKS BY Greeks. He had learnt the memorablcr efficacy with which Fanegyiies, or festal conventions of the citizens, had co-operated with their popular form of Government on the ingenious and illuminated inhabitants of Attica in the formation of the Athenian character ; he therefore allowed to his fancy somewhat more than an imaginary range, when he intimated a wish to occupy by festive observances of a similar description the anniversary intervals our ancestors gave up to pleasurable relaxation, and thus to turn their festivities and diversions to moral advantage. It was in the exordial Section, to the second Book on Church Government, that he pointed out to those who then guided the public councels this course for the improvement of the occasion which offered itself. Since all his Biographers have either over- looked or disregarded this intellectual fea- ture, I will extract the entire passage. We gain from it an insight of the curious plans for national amelioration to which he at one time resigned his imagination : " Because " the Spirit of Man cannot demean itself " lively in this body without some recreating *•• tut: PRESENt EDITOR. Ill ** intermission of labour, and serious things^ " it were happy for the commonwealth, if *' our Magistrates, as in those famous Govern^ *' ments of okU would take into their care, " not only the deciding of our contentious " Law-cases and brawls, but the managing " of our public sports, and festival pastimes, " that they might be, not such as were *' authorized awhile since, the provocations " of Drunkenness and Lust, but such as may " inure and harden our Bodies by martial " exercises to all warlike skill and perform- *' ance ; and may civilize, adorn, and •' make discreet our Minds by the learned " and affable meeting of frequent Academies^ " and the procurement of wise and artful " recitations, sweetened with eloquent and " graceful inticements to the love and prac- " tice of Justice, Temperance, and Forti- •' tude, instructing and bettering the Nation " at all opportunities, that the call of Wisdom ** and Virtue may be heard every where, as " Solomon saith. She crieth without, she " uttereth her voice in the streets, in the •^ top of high places, in the chief concourse, *' and in the openings of the gates. Whe- *^ ther this may be not only in Pulpits, but b2 IV PREFATORY REMARKS BY " after another persuasive method, at set and " solemn Panegi/rieSy in Theatres^ Porches^ or " what other place or way, may win most " upon the People to receive at once both " Recreation, and Instruction ; let them in *' Authority consult/' Such were the ele- vated prospects that opened to Milton^s view. In his expansion of heart, now the fortune of war inclined to the side of the Parhament, and his hopes were fresh, it should appear that he looked forward not without a fond anticipation of succeeding in these high aims. The publication of his Areopagitica, when more than twelve months had elapsed after this energetic aspiration for the glories of Solo7is Republic, evince it to have been no loose nor transient thought, springing up for a moment and then dying away. On the contrary, to assimilate our customs and estabUshments as nearly as the different dispositions, and the diversity in the forms of society and manners would permit, to those in the free States of Greece during the effulgence of their meridian splendour, was a consum- mation that had taken a rooted possession of his mind, and which he encouraged THE PRESENT EDITOR. V the pleasing expectation might be accom- plished. Many, it is to be presumed, will pause before they assent to the opinion, that if these speculations had ripened into act, they would have been found congenial to the more staid temperament of the English, and in consequence that they would have failed in producing the beneficial results which from the example of the Grecian Common- wealths he had promised to himself from their adoption. However that be, thus much is certainly to be regretted, that the indifference with which this suggestion was received has deprived the world of letters of some emanations from Milton's Muse, which doubtless would not for sublimity of conception have suffered by a comparison with the Lyre of Greece in its severer and didactic moods. For he further disclosed, in the introductory Chapter I have just cited, that he had revolved in his thoughts poetical compositions in the very spirit of those which bore away the prize at the Olympic Games and at the periodical celebrations at Delphi. Had events induced him to have bestowed a positive shape and being Jl PRJiFATORY REMARKS BY on these musings, it was in his contem- plation to have impressed them, Hke his Areopagitica, with the stamp and seal of Attic genius. He balanced in these meditations between the dithyrambic boldness of Pindaric song, and Tragedy, " full of wise saws,'' as she spoke in Greece : " whether those dramatic *^ constitutions, wherein Sophocles and Euripides *' reign, shall be found more doctrinal and *' exemplary to a Nation,'' — ^' Or, if occasion ^' shall lead, to imitate those magnific Odes and Hymns wherein Pindarus and Callima- chus are in most things worthy." — ^' These abilities (he presently afterward proceeds), " wheresoever they b^ found, are the in- *' spired gift of God rarely bestowed, but " yet to some (though most abuse) in every " Nation : and are of power, beside the *' office of a Pulpit, to inbreed and cherish ^' in a great People the seeds of Virtue, and ^' public Civility, to allay the perturbations ^' of the Mind, and set the affections in right •' tune."' In these passages we perceive the fine touches of an ardent imagination bent on improving the moral condition of Society by every means withiu the compass of bis THE PRESENT EDITOR. Vll ^ability. But the spirit of the times did not answer to the spirit of the Bard. The season was gloomy, and unpropitious to the culti- vation of the ornaments and elegancies of a polished nation. Few, very few, of that party who gained the lead at this juncture, had minds enlarged enough to comprehend how festival assemblages of the People could be made subservient to public instruction. Beside, Poetry had no charms for them : " museless and unbookish," they decried it, and discountenanced heathen Learning; while Stage-Poetry and all representations of a theatrical nature were doubly offensive to their bigotry. Of these men, much the greater part was notoriously deficient in the attainments likely to dispose them to assist his elated expectations. AVhen urging these topics on their consideration, he might have addressed them not unaptly in the very words of the Sibyl to jE?ieas : " Via prima salutis, " Quod mini me r^ris, Graia pandetur ab urbe." Their beau ideal of the best form of Govern- ment would have been drawn from quite a different quarter ; I mean from the Hebrew Theocracy. Vlll PREFATORY REMARKS BY The popular Preachers, the demagogues of these stormy times, teemed with zeal, and the memories of Richard Baxter^ and of Edmimd Calamy^ and of many more, ought to be always held in reverence for their dauntless, invincible, and exem- plary constancy under sufferings, brought on them by their resistance to the civil and religious tyranny of the Stuarts. They were at the same time (the exceptions are rare) of a low size as to scholar- ship, and in general devoid of knowlege out of their peculiar and narrow track, with minds absorbed in designs to advance the exclusive aggrandizement of their own Sect. Too many among them, when for a while they had the ascendancy, panted to rear on the ruins of Laud's a priestly superstructure of their own, as heavily oppressive to the laity as the overweening hierarchy of which this Primate flattered himself he should have become the founder, when he expressed a hope to see the day that no Jack Gentleman in England woidd stand before a Clergyman zdth his hat on. To put down absolutely and completely all public pastimes and recreations was with a number of the non-conforming enthusiasts THE PRESENT EDITOR. IX a point of Conscience, grounded on prepos- terous and, I believe, very pernicious no- tions. A fast day with Pulpit Lectures voluminous as Mantons^ would, in the con- ception of Philip Aye and Obadiah Sedge- wick, and their brethren, contribute more to the edification of the People, than holydays for sports and games with choral Odes and Hymns full of the purest Morality in strains the most sublime. It was our Poet's com- plaint, that in his day Sermons were vended in such numbers as well nigh to thrust all other Books out of circulation. His endea- vour to impart to the Puritans his own liberal and juster conviction of the impor- tant benefits to be extracted from the Drama was of course not listened to, or listened to with coldness and disapprobation. They heard with averted ears his tribute of praise on the lofty grave Tragedians who inculcate the duties of Ufa " In Chorus or Iambic ; Teachers best " Of moral Prudence, with delight received *• In brief sententious precepts." Par. Reg, Not all the exhortations to the practice of / X PREFATORY REMARKS BY Virtue, so thickly strown over the tragic scenes of Euripides, partly perhaps by the hand of Socrates, would in the opinion of Prt/nne atone for the original sin of a stage- play. To talk of the ethics of the Stage to him or to his followers was lost labour. In fact, two Ordinances were passed in 1647 for the total suppression of Plays and Inter- ludes. Notwithstanding Milton's various and strong claims on the veneration of his country, it can have been the fate of few, perhaps of no man, who, thrown upon a period of civil discord, has acted in a con- spicuous station, to have been mahgned by posthumous detraction in the same degree. Not easily, nor soon, were his labours in the parliamentary cause forgotten or forgiven by those who held contrary opinions. This hostility to his memory continued virulent beyond the common measure of political virulence. So late as the middle of the last century, if we may place implicit reUance on Baron, " many high-church Priests and " Doctors laid out considerable sums to " destroy the Prose-works of Milton ; and purchased copies of his particular writings a THE PRESENT EDITOR. XI *^ for the infernal pleasure of consuming ^' them*/' It is of daily occurrence, that the conspiracy of an adverse party against living merit, while the passions are agitated by the struggle, seldom fails to be commen- surate to acts performed or apprehended to its disservice. But these bigots must have persisted to " hate with a most operative " hatred,'' from a conscious dread that his mighty spirit survived him and still spoke in his writings. Or, could their enmity originate in chagrin that so great a Name was to be counted among their opponents ? I am at a loss to devise any other ascribable mo- lives for the merciless rancour which would not allow him to rest in peace for years after he had been laid asleep in the grave ; a rancour which time has yet been hardly able to subdue. With how sensitive a prudery in politics, nearly all the eulogists of his poetry, from Fenton downward, have been anxious to redeem their praise by entering circum- spect protests against his tenets in civil and religious affairs, it is not a Uttle amusing to observe. But the candour which accom-* * Preface to 'EaovoxAao-'ny;, 4to. 1756^ XU PREFATORY REMARKS BY panied T, Warton throughout his critical labours on different writers, would, without considering the fiHal gratitude which he owed to his poetical forefather, forbid the unworthy suspicion, that he wilfully discre- dited Milton by any reflection that he deemed to be unfounded, though their utter contrariety of opinion as to the most eligible forms of ecclesiastical and temporal policy oc- casionally incited him to splenetic ebullitions, which would have been better repressed. It was in a moody moment, and under this influence, that this ingenious Critic breaks out — " No man was ever so disqualified to turn " Puritan as Milton/' We meet with an ample refutation of all such reproach in his recorded endeavour to establish festival en- tertainments for the People, and other public institutions, imagined on the same princi- ples which the Grecian legislators had expe- rienced to have been a very effective auxi- liary in raising Greece to her unexampled height of greatness. If further confirmation were wanted, more facts of the same ten- dency are at hand. In the Tract which gives occasion to these notices, it again appears how far. he was before those persons with THE PRESENT EDITOR. XUl whom he is here injuriously ranked. He there states, that he dared he known to think Spenser a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas. When therefore Mr. Warton charged him in addition with the adoption of " itnpoetical principles'' the accusation was equally- groundless. The current of general opinion, I admit, then drove in this direction; we have seen that Milton set himself indivi- dually to stem it. He can no more be said to have de- serted Poetry than Locke can be said to have deserted Philosophy, because this great Writer for a season dedicated himself to assert the right of private judgment in reli- gious concerns, and to justify the People's expulsion of James from the throne. In the stead of such light and air-built sur- mises, we must require unobjectionable testimony before it will enter our belief, that he, who published to the world the inte- resting anecdote in the history of his own mind which now follows, would ever have harboured a thought incompatible with a love for Poetry. He introduced this digres- sive narration to show, that if he had sought for praise by the ostentation of Talents and Learninjy, he would, never have / XlV PREFATORY REMAKRS ^Y written, till, in pursuance of the plan which he had marked out for himself, he had completed to his satisfaction the full circle of his private studies*. To demon- strate this, he appeals to the character of the work by which he first appeared as an authour — a disquisition on Ecclesiastical Government. Left to his free choice, he tells the reader, that he should have selected a subject purposely; some subject which would have admitted " time enough to *' pencil it over with all the curious touches " of art ; even to the perfection of a fault- ** less picture.'^ After enforcing these argu- ments to prove, that he was impelled into the service of the Anti-prelatical Party by the mandate of Conscience, and did not enlist in it to gratify any personal conside- I'ations, nor without repugnance, he pro- * He repeats much the same in his Defemio Secunda : •f Equidem tacere diu, et posse non scribere, quod nunquam <'potuit Salmasius, didiceram; eaque in sinu gestabam ** tacitus, quae si tum proferre libuisset, seque ac nunc, in- " claruisse jamdudum poteram : sed cunctantis famse avidus *^ non eram, ne hsec quidem, nisi idone^ datA occasione *' unquam prolaturus ; nihil laborans etsi alii me quaecunque «* n6ssem scire nesciebant; non enim famam sed opportu- " nitatem cujusque rei prsestolabar." — Vr, TV, II. 330, edit, 1738. tHE PRESENT EDITOR. XV ceeds, " Lastly, I should not choose this " manner of writing wherein knowing myself " inferior to myself, led by the genial power "of Nature to another task*, I have the *' use, as I may account it, but of my left *' hand. And though I shall be fooUsh in '* saying more to this purpose, yet since it *' will be such a folly, as wisest men going *' about to commit, have only confest and so " committed, I may trust with more reason^ *' because with more follj?", to have courteous ** pardon. For although a Poet, soaring in *' the high region of his fancies, with his *' garland and singing robes about him, might without apology speak more of him- «( * Compare what he wrote to Oldenhirg in 1654 : " Ad •* alia ut me parem, nescio sane an nobiliora aut utih'ora ^ (quid enim in rebus humanis asserend^ Libertate nobiliuJ ** aut utilius esse possit ?) siquidem per valetudinem et banc " luminum orbitatem, omni senectute graviorem, si denique " per hujusmodi Rabularum clamores licuerit, facile induci ** potero : neque enim iners otium unquam mihi placuit, et " hoc cum Libertatis adversariis inopinatum certamen, di- ** versis longe, et amoenioribus omnino me studiis intentura, " ad se rapuit invitum ; ita tamen ut rei gestae quando id *' necesse erat, nequaquam poenlteat: nam in vanis operam •' consumpsisse me, quod innuere videris, longe abest, ut " putem." Epist, Fam, XVI PREFATOllY REMARKS BY ' self than I mean to do ; yet for me sitting ' here below in the cool element of Prose, ' a mortal thing among many readers of no ' empyreal conceit, to venture and divulge ' unusual things of myself, I shall petition to ' the gentler sort, it may not be envy to me. ' I must say therefore, that after I had from ' my first years, by the ceaseless diligence ^ and care of my Father^', whom God ' recompence,been exercised to the Tongues, ' and some Sciences, as my age would ' suffer, by sundry Masters and Teachers ' both at home and at the schools, it was ' found, that whether aught was imposed ' me by them that had the overlooking, or ' betaken to of mine own choice in English, * or other tongue, prosing or versing, but ' chiefly this latter, the style, by certain ' vital signs it had, was likely to live. But * much latelier in the private Academies ' of Italy, whither I was favoured to resort, * Again, in the Defensio Secunda^ he says, " ?~*er me .^* puerulum humaniorum literarwrn studiis destinwii; «)uas ** ita avide anripui, ut ab anno setatis duodecimo vix unquam "ante mediam noctem a lucubrationibus cubitum disce- "derem; quae prima oculorum pernicies fuit:" &c. Pr.^. II. 33 Let/. 173S. THE PRESENT EDITOR. XVU * perceiving that some trifles which I had in ' memory, composed at under twenty or ' thereabout (for the manner is, that every * one must give some proof of his Wit and ' and Reading there) met with acceptance ' above what was looked for, and other ' things which I had shifted in scarcity of * Books and conveniences to patch up ' among them, were received with written ' encomiums, which the Itahan is not for- ' ward to bestow on Men of this side the ' Alps, I began thus far to assent both to ' them and divers of my friends here at * home ; and not less to an inward prompt- ' ing which now grew daily upon me, that ' by labour and intent Study, (which I take ' to be my portion in this Life) joined with ; ' the strong propensity of Nature, I might ' perhaps leave something so written to after- | ^ times, as they should not willingly let it { ' die*." Sufficient has been said in these preceding remarks to satisfy all who read them, that in taking on him for the Speech before us * Prefatory Section to the second Book on " the Reason " of Church Government urged against Prelaty." C XVlll PREFATORY REMARKS BY the office of an Athenian Rhetor, he was acting consistently. Not contented to rest in speculation, he was experimentally illus- trating his recommendation, " to call Anti- " quity from the old schools of Greece/' In this way making manifest his own readiness to contribute a full contingent toward intro- ducing into his native land customs and in- stitutions, which might contest the superiority with those of Athens in her golden age of liberal Arts and Science, of Philosophy, Elo- cution, and Poetry. For those whom he de- scribes in the work under review, " as the *' Men who professed the study of Wisdom *' and Eloquence" in that city, the 'Frjropeg, seem to have been of two orders. The larger number, as Pericles and Demosthenes^ with his enlightened Co-rival, mixed per- sonally in the Debates of the assembled Ci- tizens : others, declining any share in the administration of the Commonwealth, neither filled any employment of public trust, nor spoke in the pubhc Meetings. Like Iso- crates and Anstides the Sophist, and others, instead of being practically eloquent, they discussed the interests of the State in writing, and so offered their advice to their fellow- THE PRESENT EDITOR. XIX citizens on measures of importance, and sometimes by the same means counselled foreign Potentates and foreign Nations. It was to designate Dio Chrysostom as belong- ing to the class of Politicians who abstracted themselves from active business and from of- ficial eminence, or state-dignities, that in this Speech our Authour styles him " a ^'private Oratour.^^ His mind was tenacious of this youthful attachment to Greece : it betrays itself continually. With all his fond- ness for Grecian Philosophy and Literature, Cicero has nowhere given a more emphatic testimony of grateful acknowlegement to- ward Athens, as the preceptress in civiliza^. tion, than Milton's commendation, that it was she who had humanized the western world : ''to her polite Wisdom and Letters " we owe that we are not yet Goths and " Jutlanders,'' is his forcible phrase. It can- not, indeed, but be evident to the most in- attentive observer, how constantly he che- rished the memory of her departed oeco- nomy while drawing out a prospectus for the right Education of ingenuous youth. This would have been clear, though we did not know that he had told his Athenian Friend c 2 XX PREFATORY REMAKRS BY Philaras, that his acquisitions in classic Learn- ing, such as they were, he ascribed chiefly to a sedulous cultivation of the Greek Writers in the early part of life*. He even sighed for the expulsion of the Turks, and the in- dependence of Greece, with the re-establish- ment of Grecian Liberty ; wherefore in the same Letter he breathes this earnest wish— *' Quod si mihi tanta vis dicendi accepta ab " illis et quasi transfusa inesset, ut exercitus " nostros et classes ad Uberandam ah Ottornannico " tyranno Grceciam^ EloquenticB patriam^ excitare " possem^ ad quod facinus egregium nostras " opes pene implorare videris, facerem pro- •' fecto id quo nihil mihi antiquius aut in vo- " tis prius esset. Quid enim vel fortissimi " olim Viri, vel eloquentissimi gloriosius aut " se dignius esse duxerunt, quam vel sua- " dendo vel fortiter faciendo IxsuSepoup xou au- To vojoou^ TToisia-Qai robg ^'Ex^Tji^a^ ? Verum et (C * " Qua ex urbe cum tot Viri disertissimi prodierint, eorum " potissimum scriptis ab adolescentlA pervolvendis, didicisse " me libons fateor quicquid ego in Literis profeci." — And of the praise this Correspondent had given to his first Defensio, he says, " et ipsa Grfecia, ipsse Aihenae Atticije, quasi jam « redivivcB, nobilissimi alumni sui Pliilarae voce, applau- "sere."— Pn fT. II. 341, ed. 1738. THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXI " aliud quiddam praeterea tentandum est, " mea quidem sententia longe maximum, ut " quis antiquam in animis Graecorum virtu- " tern, industriam, laborum tolerantiam, an- " tiqua ilia studia dicendo, suscitare atque " accendere possit/' — {Epist, Fam.) In Iconoclastes, he glanced at this desired re- suscitation of the Greeks once more. Charles^ he complains, had demanded and the Par- liament had granted him a larger sum of mo- ney than would have " bought the Turk out " of Morea, and set free all the Greeks/' {Sect. 10) — Without any doubt, both Letters and Poetry sustained no slight loss by the sudden termination to his travels before he had visited Greece and Sicily. The primordial seeds of Paradise Lost are still in existence as the elements of a Tra- gedy, which he once projected to have wrought up with the machinery of the Athe- nian Stage. In the same rude and indi- gested mass, " Moses wpoT^oyi^si.'' From an- other of these disjecti membra Poetce^ we find that he purposed to introduce the Christian Virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, for su- pernatural agents ; on the authority, as I suppose, of JEschylusj who impersonated XXll PREFATORY REMARKS BY Force and Strength in his scene. The part of the Chorus was to have been suppUed by Angels. Recollections of antient Greece seem to have been rarely absent from his thoughts. In the long list he left behind him of incidents gathered from our early Anna- lists, singular and eventful enough to furnish arguments for dramatic story, there is the subsequent memorandum for a close parallel with Homers Hero in the Odyssey : " A He- " roicall Poem may be founded somewhere in " Alfred's reigne, especially at his issuing out *^ of Edilingsey on the Danes, whose actions ^' are well like those of Ulysses,'' The same im- pulse gave birth in after life to Samson Ago- mstes. This production of his riper years he moulded professedly and punctiliously to Grecian proportions : whence any Man un- acquainted with the language of his originals, may, as it has been remarked by one well qualified to judge*, form to himself a much juster idea of the beauties and perfections pf the Greek Tragedians than from Transla^ tion. We ought to regard him in this rhetorical exercise as scarely less studious of these f;^- * Gilbert TFest, THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXlll vourite standards of excellence. In a copy which he presented of this together with se- veral of his minor pieces in prose and verse to the Bodleian Library, where the volume still remains, he with his own hand entitled it " Areopagitica, sive de Liber tate Typo- " graphicB Oratio/* He revived this title for his written Speech, that it might carry on its exteriour a conspicuous token of its lineage. It was to announce technically the specific style of Athenian Oratoury which he now imi- tated, or rather emulated ; and who will con- trovert his success in this deUberative species j)f Elocution, as distinguished from those ha- rangues which were entirely for popular ef- fect? or who will deny, that he has borne himself with the mien of a Pleader before the Judges of Areopagus ? " Sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora gerebat." Few, I conceive, will refuse this performance the praise of a strong adumbration of the senatorial diction at Athens. If my situation as its Editor have not warped my judgment, this composition is by no means inferior to its immediate copy, in force and perspicuity ; neither can I perceive in Isocrates the same XXIV PREFATORY REMARKS BY warmth and vigour of Thought, which per- vades and animates the EngUsh Oration. ^* Cela ne s'apelle pas imiter, c'est jouter " contre son Original* ;'' as Gray in the Bard, and Campbell in LochieVs Warnings with Ho- races Prophecy of Nereiis. To say nothing of the important matter it contains, we shall unquestionably risk little chance of contra- diction if we aver, that he has transfused into his native idiom the dignified forms and phraseology of Attic Oratoury, and has given us the most authentic and happy exemplar of its grave energy that our own or any modern language has to boast. These strictures will serve to place in a primary and unobserved point of view one among his inducements for ^vriting this Iso- cratic " Discourse.'' When enumerating the labours for which he intermitted more con- genial and pleasing studies ; labours to which he had tasked himself in the service of Truth and Liberty ; he states, that he had it in con- templation to exhibit in an Enghsh dress a true specimen of the Areopagitic style. " Postrem6 de Typographic liberanda, ne *' veri et falsi arbitrium, quid edendum, * Boileau, THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXV " quid premendum,penfes paucosesset, eosque ** ferh mdoctos, et vulgaris judicii homines^ " librorum inspectioni praepositos, per quos " nemini ferfe quicquam quod supra vulgus *' sapiat, in lucem emittere, aut licet aut " libet, adjiistce orationis modum Areopagiticam " scripsir (Pr. TV. II. 353, ed. 1738.) — For purposes not dissimilar, the admirable Sir William Jones sketched after one of Plato's Dialogues the outline for his own celebrated and prosecuted Dialogue, an analysis of the eternal principles of free Government, ac- commodated to unlettered minds by simple and familiar illustrations. It might perhaps be received as a funda- mental axiom in this science, that no well- policied State can tolerate the confusion of the legislative with the judicial or executive functions. With our illustrious Hne of coun- trj^men, to whose Wisdom, Firmness, and Virtue we are indebted for the Liberties of England, the praise lies of being the first who held out to other Nations the pattern of a poUtical organization, which for the most part kept these authorities asunder, and which they distributed and adjusted so hap- pily in a Constitution of three Estates, as to XXVI PREFATORY REMARKS BY render them wholesome restraints to mode- rate or over-rule the exorbitancies of each other. The accumulation of various and dis- cordant Powers in the same Body, as well as the right of the Citizens to exercise a legis- lative voice personally in public assemblies, instead of delegating their power to a selected part in a full and free Representative, pro- perly so called, were among the capital er- rors which destroyed the Republics of ancient times. In this respect, the policy of the great Athenian Law-giver was radically vitious, when he re-estabUsbed, if he did not erect, the national Council of Areopagus. For, while in its ordinary course of procedure par- taking more, I apprehend, of a judicial than of any other denomination of magistracy, the AreopagitcB seem to have been also the depositaries of a transcendental jurisdiction over the highest departments of State. There appears to have been lodged with them a plenitude of authority extending so far that it must have bordered on absolute Power, if it had not been liable to be instantly coun- tervailed by the Decrees of the Citizens; but whose active and direct interposition in THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXVll their aggregate capacity was uncertain in the issue, and sometimes hazardous. In ad- dition to the management of the pubUc Trea- sure, to the charge of the estabhshed Re- ligion, to their juridical and censorial Du- ties, and to their Prerogative of pardoning Offences, and dispensing Honours and Re- wards, it should seem as if the Council of Areopagus had been entrusted with a Do- minium eminens over the integral parts which constituted Solon s Polity. The antient Ex- positor whom H. Stephens cites is expressly of this opinion in the extract I have given from one of his Diatribes on Isocratesy in a pre- liminary Note on the meaning which Mil- ton annexed to Areopagitica. But the effort of this Rhetor to " persuade the Par- " lament of Athens to change the form of) " Democratie" is in itself convincing evi-* dence, that an eminent dominion, a sort of visitorial power, in this particular was com- mitted to their care. We need not look further. An Athenian Citizen, we may be reasonably assured, would have directed his " Discourse'' on the expediency of a re- novated order of things in their Common- wealth to the Men of Athens^ and not to these XXVlll PREFATORY REMARKS BY Aixaa-TOii, had it not been within their ac- knowleged, if not exclusive province, to take cognizance of and to rectify the dis- orders which time and abuses might conspire to introduce into the subsisting Government. Yet I do not recollect to have seen that these elevated Functionaries were to act as a Senate of Revision for the amendment of the forms which composed their constitu- tional compact adverted to by any of the Writers on the Republican Legislatures of Greece. Neither does Meursius^ who has an express and elaborate work De Senatu Areo- pagitico, take notice that any authority of this kind was vested in them*. He barely * While writing these Remarks, I have been unable to procure Sigonius or PosteL Tlie late Sir William Young, and the learned Sir William Drumi)io)id, are silent on this head, in their Treatises. In the Recherches sur UAreopage, par M. TAbbe de Canaye, it is said, " L'Areopage, humilie par Dracon, reprit " sous Solon toute son ancienne splendeur; il luy rendit le " premier rang, et pour le venger, ce semble do Tinjustice ** de Dracon, il luy coiifia V inspection g4nirale des Loix : " dit Pollux ; et selon Plutarque, rr^v avou /3ouAijv sirKncoTtov ** leavrwy kou (pvXaxa, rwv yo/^wv iTiA^io'iv,** -^ jy[emoires de Litterature-, VII. ISO. THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXIX and casually intimates their extensive powers, but I cannot find that he vouches any precedent of such an exercise of them. The main scope of Isocrates Areopagitic Speech was to demonstrate the wisdom of re- storing his fellow Citizens to their proper Rights by superseding the tyrannical Oligar- chy who then exercised an usurped dominion over Attica, in order to reinstate the more democratical system which Solon instituted, and Clisthenes restored, after the expulsion of the Pisistratidse, and at the same time gave by various regulations additional weight to the collective body of Citizens. Strenuous on the one hand, that these grievances should be redressed, the Patriot Sage was watchful on the other, lest the constitutional Democracy should degenerate into the misrule of a licentious Populace. He proceeds therefore to recommend an en- largement of the functions of these supreme Guardians of the State, whom he conjures to exert their tutelary inspection as the ap- pointed Custodes Morum of the whole Com- munity. Above all things, he urges, that the irisin|; generation should be habitually trained XXX PREFATORY REMARKS BY up to Virtue, and exhorted to a generous de- votion to the common weal. Accordingly, the venerable Reformer entreats this con- sistory of Censors, the Fathers of the Coun* try, to exert their vigilance in correcting the depravity then but too prevalent among the Youth of Athens, through the neglect into which the antient and severer discipline had fallen. Well we know, that Milton was neither insensible to the melodious flow of the Greek Rhetorician, nor regardless of the polished perfection of his style. What however, we may safely conclude, most endeared to him the Writings of "the old Man eloquent'' (so he is called in the Poet's Xth Sonnet) were /the sentiments he advanced in support of U free, equal, and popular Government, based on the broad and only stable foundation, a general integrity of Morals :) truths which are carefully inculcated in this encomium on Athenian manners during earlier and better days of the Republic. This was enough to give it a high value in the estimation of one through whose breast the ardours of Liberty glowed with no common fervency. It bears so strongly on the present subject. THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXXI that it would be a culpable omission to pass over entirely in silence the well judged choice which Milton manifested in his discrimi- nated use of " the Attic Masters of moral " Wisdom and Eloquence/' to take an ex- pression from his own pen. Ever true to the principles which actuated the ParHament in their opposition to the King's violations of the Law and the Constitution, he indus- triously avoided all such matters as might ap- pear derogatory to their signal deserts, or which might loosen the hold that they pos- sessed on the public affections : therefore %vhile he deemed this particular measure highly exceptionable, by agreeing to it they did not forfeit his confidence. Still less would he induce others to regard them with alienated or distrustful looks. Consistently with this disposition toward them, it was his endeavour to win the favour of the two Houses of Parliament to the Press ; — to ex- postulate with them amicably, not to offend them by any sullen remonstrance, while he was deprecating the mischievous effects which must ensue to Learning and to Free- dom, if they did not revoke the Ordinance XXXll PREFATORY REMARKS BY which they had improvidently issued*. To this end he proposed to himself to colour his work after a finished piece of the rhetorical art by a celebrated " Master ;'' whose proper praise is refined Elocution and dispassionate Discussion. In consequence, an urbanity, * All his counsels to them are in the same conciliatory tone of respect. Of this, the conclusion of the Address to the Parliament and the Assembly of Divines, which he pre- fixed to his first work concerning Divorce, is another ex- ample : " I seek not Xo seduce the simple and illiterate ; my *' errand is to find out the choicest and the learnedest, who <« have this high gift of Wisdom to answer solidly, or to be " convinced. I crave it from the Piety, the Learning, and *« the Prudence which is housed in this place. It might per- " haps more fitly have been written in another tongue ; and *^ I had done so, but that the esteem I have of my Countries " judgment, and the love I bear to my native language to «' serve it first with what I endeavour, made me speak it thus, " ere I assay the verdict of outlandish Readers. And perhaps " also here I might have ended nameless, but that the address " of these lines chiefly to the Parlament of England might " have seem'd ingrateful not to acknowledge by whose re^ « ligious Care, unwearied Watchfulness, couragious and ** heroick Resolutions, I enjoy the peace and studious leisure " to remain, " The Honourer and Attendant of ** their noble Worth and Virtues, " John Milton." THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXXIU both in thought and expression, graces his Areopagitica. There is _m it nothing ^imperative, nothing criminatory ; not a page .^ is disfigured by asperity of sentiment, or even harshness of diction. Where his argu- ment exacted from him animadversion in the exposure of their inconsistency, and of the ^intriguing practices to which the enemies to an open Press had recourse to afford some ostensible pretence for this parhamentary ^revival of the Star-chamber's Imprimatur, he introduced it obhquely. The Uttle is equally indirect, that there is of reproof or reproach of personal assailants ; some of whom, after he had been their soHcited and very valuable assistant against mitred Epis- copacy, were recently transformed into his persecutors. Isocrates, said Philip of Macedon, in a well chosen and significant metaphor, fences with a foil — Demosthenes fights with a sword. To Demosthenes, therefore, the Antagonist of Salmasius and his coadjutors recurred for aid, when their exacerbations had sharpened the edge of debate to a keen encounter, and, heated with emotion at the outrages which he and the popular Party had endured, he d XXXIV PREFATORY REMARKS BY gave free vent to his ebullitions of resent- ment. It may be too freely, though he was repelling clamorous and foul invective against himself and his Compatriots. Yet it is not for us who contemplate with Epicurean calmness the tempestuous commotion of pas- sions and interests, public and private, in which the part Milton bore among the "Master-spirits of the age was of no ordinary kind ; it is not^ I say, for us to be forward to exclaim, would that he had given these Calumniators their rebuke in terms of less vehemence ! True it is, that had he done so, he would better have consulted his own dig- nity, as well as that of the Cause which he maintained ; but in reality it is matter for regret rather than for surprise, that such scurrilous upbraidings, such envenomed maledictions, should have chafed him, and that he at times talked the imbittered lan- guage which anger dictates*. Toland relates of him, that he " studied " Plaittus the better to rail at Salmasius." * Take the following by way of specimen of the gross •scandals heaped on him. It is by P. du Moulin, who made his court by it, and was afterward appointed one of the THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXXV {Vifidicius Liberius, &c. p. 8.) The correctness of this assertion is greatly to be questioned, if we were to understand by it any thing further than that he looked over the collo- quies of altercation in that Comedian as a nomenclature, whence he could cull out a competent stock of opprobious epithets in Chaplains to Charles II., and Prebendary of Canterbury. In impurissimum Nehulonem Johannem Miltonum Par- ricidarum et Parricidii Advocatum. ' " Talem modo pati6re Salmasi manum, " Corripere nl te foetidum et totum luem " Abominetur ; turn levitate nubild " Fortasse validum nebulo fallas impetum. *' Quid faciat ingens te vacuo Sahnasius " Tenebrione, tam minuta, tam nihil, " Quern prensat incassum ultio, nuspiam invenit. " Ten* sterquilinium, ten' cucurbitae caput, " Ausum Monarchas rodere, ten' Salmasios f " Nunc mus elephantum, rana pardum verberet, " Opicus leonis vellicet sorex jubas, " Insultet urso simia, musca milvio, " Sacrum scarabsei concacent avem Jovi, *' Ipsumque merdis inquinent albis Jovem." &c. &c. Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Cceliim, ad- versus Parricidas Anglicanos ; p, 17^» HagcB Comitum, I2mo. 1652. What wonder, that in the fulness of his indignation he shoHld have lashed the demerits of his adversaries with an unsparing hand ? d2 XXXVl PREFATORY REMARKS BY legitimate Latinity. That he furnished him- self with his most formidable weapons of offence from a very different armoury could be put beyond controversy. No man (as Dryden has also observed) has more copiously translated Homers Grecisms than the Authour of Paradise Lost, and of a like critical attention to his metrical modes a modern Writer has remarked, that none conversant with both Poets can read either without being reminded of the other. The breaks and pauses, which thus decided Cowper^ to pronounce the varied versifica- tion of Milton's " rhyme-unfettered'" verse to be Homeric collocations, are not, I think, more apparent than that when about to vin- dicate the Commonwealth's-men he shaped his course and regulated his method after the great Prototj^pes of Eloquence ; the first in rank as the first in order of time. To write as they would have spoken or composed in corresponding situations was his anxious am- * And see a remarkable instance confirmatory of this opinion in Auditor Benson's Letters concerning Poetical Translations and VirgiVs and Milton's Arts of Verse, jo. 47. 8i?o, 1739. — Bentley said that Milton had Homer by heart. THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXXvii bition. Sir Philip Sydney^ had declared his dislike to the literal copyists of phrases and figures from Demosthenes and Tidly^ suggest- ing that a free and liberal plan of Imitation which would preserve their characteristics and complexion should be attempted : that which he had in idea and in wish, Mil- ton Avas the earliest among us to reduce into practice. For, while engaged on the Areopagitica and the Defensioiies, he set before him the eloquenceof classic erudition, and reflected its image as in a faithful mirrour. Not quite so avowedly in the latter instances as in the first ; neither, as in Samson Ago- nistesy taking the entire design; and in no piece following the turns of thought, or of phrase, or the structure of sentence, with a servile or pedantic adherence. Without treading often in the footsteps of his guides, he pressed forward after them in the same track; ** And when he would like them appear " Their garb but not their cloaths did wear." The fashion and texture the same, though of a different material. Imitative counterparts * Defence of Poesie. XXXVm PREPATOIIY REMARKS pY on a general principle, such as these, are not unlike Drydens emulous trial of skill, in the angry parley and reconciliation of Dora.v and Sebastian ; in which he ventured to mea- sure his strength with Shakspeare^ and has ac- quitted himself so ably, that we could hardly hesitate to assign them an equal portion of praise had the wordy contest between Brutus and Cassius not the further merit of priority of production : for if Dryden, I venture to add, must here give way, he gives way only because he was the junior to Shakspeare by birth. The justification of the People of England was to MiLTOisr a spirit-stirring theme ; while with the diffusive means of mental inter- course afforded by the art (I had almost said the divine art) of Printing he figured to him- self Europe for his auditory. The exordium of his reply to Mores^ or speaking more cor- rectly, to du Moulin^ the Son's, bitter attack of his first Defensio gives no obscure intima- tion of the cast of his Elocution when a political Controvertist writing in a clas- sical tongue. He there yields the place t^ the primitive Fathers of Rhetoric ; but challenges a high precedency over their sub- THE PRESENT EDITOR. XXXIX jects of Discussion for the cause of the Par- liament. Let him speak for himself in his own lofty tone*. " Devoted from an early age to " the study of polite Learning, and conscious " that I was always less remarkable for strength " of Constitution than for vigour of Intellect, *' I left to others the fatigues of a Camp, in " which the robust frame of a private Soldier " would enable him easily to excel me, and " entered on pursuits in which I might ex- " ert myself with a fairer promise of success ; " that instead of offering the weakest part of *^ my nature to the disposal of my Country, *^ and the promotion of this excellent Cause, " I might bring to them all the weight in my '' power by the exercise of what in me is '' best, and, so that I used it wisely, most ^' avaihng. This then was the conclusion I *' formed; if God have been pleased to en- " trust to some the achievement of such no- * "Namcumabadolescentulohumanloribus essem studiis, ut qui maxime deditus, et ingenio semper quam corpora validior, posthabit^ castrensi operd, qu^ me gregarius quilibet robustior facile super^sset, ad ea me contull, quibus plus potui ; ut parte met meliore ac potiore, si saperem, non de- teriore, ad rationes patriae, causamque banc praestantissimam, quantum maxime possem momentum accederem. Sic itaque ' exist! mabam, si illos Deus res gerere tam praeclaras voluit. Xl PREFATORY REMARKS BY " ble actions, it must likewise have been his " will that others should record them in lan- " guage which might become their dignity, *' and that Reason (our only just and natural " safeguard) should be summoned to the de- " fence of that Truth which had been first " defended by arms. Whence it arises, that " I could look with admiration upon the " Men who have stood invincible in battle, " and yet utter no complaint that a different " province has been assigned to me : nay, I *' feel proud of the distinction, and, more- " over, offer up repeated thanks to the Di- " vine Disposer of bounties, that I sustain " a part in these events which is more likely " to raise the envy of others than to occasion " in me the slightest repining. Unwilling to " boast of myself, I would not indeed hazard " a comparison with the least distinguished esse itidem alios a quibus gestas dici pro dignitate atque or- nari, et defensam armis veritatem, ratione etiam, (quod unicum est praesidium vere ac proprie humanum) defendi voluerit. Unde est, ut dum illos invictos acie viros admiror, de me^ interim provinci^ non querar; immo mihi gratuler, et gratias insuper largitori munerum ccelesti iterum summas agam obtigisse talcm, ut aliis invidenda multo magis, quam ixiihi ullo modo pcenitenda videatur. Et me quidem nemini vel infimo libens confero j nee verbura de me ullum insolent THE PRESENT EDITOR. xli ii " among them. Yet as often as I recollect " that I am the advocate of a Cause in itself " the most noble, as well as universal in its interest ; and at the same time that I have " been called by the voice and judgment of " the People to the highly honourable task " of defendins: those who have vindicated " themselves, I cannot but feel an irresistible " impulse to a bolder and more elevated " language than the opening of a question *' may justify, and aspire to an Eloquence " worthy the grandeur of the occasion. For " in proportion, that I am unquestionably in- ^* feriour to the illustrious Oratours of An- " tiquity, not in the energies of speech ^' alone, but in the very powers of expression " (having to complain of the unavoidable " disadvantage of employing a foreign ^^ tongue) in the same proportion do I sur- tius facio: ad causam ver5 omnium nobilissimam, ac cele- berrimam, et hoc simul defensores ipsos defendendi munus ornatissimum ipsorum mihi sufFragiis attributum atque ju- diciis quoties animum refero, fateor me mihi vix temperare, quin ahius atque audentiiis quam pro exordii ratione insur- gam; et grandius quiddam, quod eloqui possim, quseram : quandoquidem oratores illos antiques et insignes, quantum ego ab illis non dicendi solum sed et loquendi facultate, (in extranet prsesertim, qu^ utor necessario, lingu^, et persaepe XlU PREFATORY REMARKS BY " pass every Writer of every age in the pe- '' culiar dignity of the subject. Such indeed " has been the expectation it has raised, and " so far has its fame travelled, that I feel " myself at this instant, not in the Rostrum " or in the Forum, at Rome or at Athens, " surrounded merely by one People, but as it *' were in the presence of nearly all Europe, " seated in attentive judgement before me, *' again addressing this like my former De- " fence to every public Assembly where the *' wisest Men meet together to deliberate " on the affairs of Cities and of Nations. " Methinks I seem to journey over tracts " of continent and wide-extended regions, " beholding numberless and unknown faces *' that bear the impression of sympathy and mihi nequaquam satisfacio) baud dubie vincor, tantum omnes omnium aetatum, materiae nobilitate et argumento vincara. Quod et rei tantum expectationem ac celebritatem adjecit, ut jam ipse me sentiam non in foro aut rostris, uno duntaxat populo, vel Romano, vel Atheniensi circumfusum; sed at- tent^, et confidente quasi tota pene Europfi, et judicium ferente, ad universes quacunque gravissimorum hominum, urbium, gentium, consessus atque conventus, et priore defensione, dixisse, et hac rursus dicturum. Jam vi- deor mihi, ingressus iter, transmarinos tractus et porrectas late regiones, sublimis perlustrare; vultus innumeros atque THE PRESENT EDITOR, xUu " favour ; on one hand, the hardy strength " of the German, who detests slavery, on ** the other, the hvely and ingenuous Frank, ^* open in disposition as in name ; here, the ^' stedfast valour of the Spaniard ; there, the " firm and discreet magnanimity of the ^' ItaHan — pass in review before me. " Wherever, in fine, free, generous, and " high-minded spirits prudently conceal or " openly avow themselves, there I look for " the silent approbation of some, and the " undisguised welcome of others ; there " some will meet me with easierness and " applause, while others, subdued by Truth, " surrender themselves at length to its " power. Surrounded by such a force, " collected from the extremity of Spain to ^' the remotest confines of India, I seem to ignotos, animi sensus mecum conjuctissimos. Hinc Ger- manorum virile et infestum servituti robur,.inde Francoruni yividi dignique nomine liberales impetus, hinc Hispanorum consulta virtus, Italorum inde sedata suique compos magna- nimitas ob oculos versatur. Quicquid uspiam liberorum pectorum quicquid ingenui, quicquid magnanimi aut pru- dens latet aut se palam profitetur, alii tacite favere, alii aperte suffragari, accurrere alii et plausu accipere, alii tandem vero victij dedititios se tradcre. Videor jam mihi, tantis circum- geptus copiis, ab Herculeis usque columnis ad extremes Li- xliv PREFATORY REMARKS BY " lead back, as if from a vast distance, Li- " berty, long a fugitive and an exile, to her " home among the Nations/' With Milton's facilities of access to the originals of Greece, it was natural for him to profit of the bold and cogent style by which they communicated to popular Meetings the persuasion of their minds*. To assist him in conveying a forceful meaning at this im- portant crisis, Athens would have had strong attractions for him, if his early bias had not drawn him, as usual, to his favourite resorts. Whither could he have gone for assistance better suited to the nature and end of these labours ? It may still be allowed, that it is possible he might have run his eye over Plautus in quest of such angry and scornful appel- lations as Curculioy Balatro perditissimus, and beri Patris terminos, Libertatem diu pulsam atque exulem, longo intervallo domum ubique gentium reducere." Defensio Secunda, * " I cannot say, that I am utterly untrained in those " rules which best Rhetoricians have given, or unacquainted *' with those examples which the prime Authours of Elo- " quence have written in any learned tongue/* Apology for SmectymnuuSy Sect, 11. THE PRESENT EDITOR. xlv too many beside, to hurl back on his ad- versary, whom he accuses of having gleaned from the self-same Play-writer the choicest morsels of scurrility in the Hegii Sanguinis Clamor: " Hie Salmasii carnifex quasi sit, " Syri Damae filius, Lorarios invocat et " Cadmum ; veratro deinde ebrius, totam, " quicquid, ubique est, Servulorum et Bal- " lionum sentinam, ex Lidice Plant ino evo- « mit '/' &c. {Pr, W. II. S^6. ed. 1738.) Hence a fair presumption arises, that Toland misre- membered this passage, and was inaccurate as to its import. At any rate, I take this to be the extent of our Authour's obligation to the Roman Comedian. I cannot discern a solitary sentence in the Defences of the English People which should incline any one to assent to more. Without this explanation the depreciating- tendency of this relation must work a pre- judice in the public estimation against these controversial productions much to their dis- favour, as if they contained nothing beyond verbal argumentation, and the contradictory asseverations, the vituperative declamation, and the endless recriminations of political contention. Such misrepresentation by lowering them in general apprehension to xlvi PREFATORY REMARKS BY a mere tissue of polemic, disgustful, and re- pulsive acrimony, must have contributed to deter very many from opening them. There can be little hesitation, but that this was through carelessness of expression. An able Scholar, he himself the Writer of a Latin Philippic, and a zealous friend to the Liber- ties of England, Toland would not have ac- quiesced in the injurious impression which his incautious statement must create while unexplained. Hobbes was devoted to ab- solute Government, and held alike in aver- sion the religious tenets of Salmasius and Milton ; yet he possessed too much Learn- ing himself to deny their respective writings the praise of superiour compositions. They are, he took occasion to observe, very good Latin both, and hardly to be judged which is the better*. I forbear to substantiate the fact by bring- ing parallelisms immediately under view» as they would swell this part of these prelimi- nary strictures to a disproportionate size. At the same time, it is proper to state that, were this the fit place for such comparisons, they would afford lucid proof that his orato- rical compositions in Latin are no tame nor * In his Behemoth, THE PRESENT EDITOR. xlvii doubtful representations of the Eloquence which " shook the arsenal and fulmin'd over " Greece/' They display the same fervid imagination invigorated by an internal sen- timent of sincere conviction, that Justice w^as on the side which he had taken in the national quarrel. The Conqueror of JEsch'mes in their far- famed contest concerning the golden Crown decreed to him by the Senate, on the pro- posal of Ctesipho, has scarcely thrown the tomahawk of indignant invective with more desperate skill. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that they might be considered as a medium through which a Reader whose acquirements in the antient Languages have not extended beyond the Latin, might gain no very inadequate idea of the pointed in- terrogation, the impetuous sallies, the vollied sarcasms, by which Demosthenes struck down and crushed his Competitor for Popularity and the palm of Eloquence. Sure I am that a recent perusal of them brought out vividly in my mind passages in the Greek whose vestiges had nearly faded away. Yet how many who have hung with admiration over the volumes of the " Oratours renown'd xlviii PREFATORY REMARKS BY " in Athens and free Rome'' would refuse to look at Milton's politico-classical pages ! But to the Areopagitica. In August 1644, his " Doctrine and Dis- cipline of Divorce," then newly published, had been inveighed against from the Pulpit by a fanatical Preacher before the Parlia- ment, who exhorted the two Houses to vote their reprobation of it ; and the Assembly, or Convocation of non-conforming Divines, procured the Authour to be summoned be- fore the House of Lords : that House dis- missed him however without its suppression. Attacks on the Freedom of Discussion like these, and in his own case, must have been additional incentives for him to comply with alacrity when importuned to stand forward the Champion of intellectual Liberty. The Tract before us appeared in the November following ; and certain passages should be regarded as levelled at these petulant adver- saries. But throughout this address to the Lords and Commons, he is evidently anxious to be understood to controvert this Ordi- nance under an entire confidence, that they would hearken to the voice of Truth, and had been surprised into this ill-advised pro- THE PRESENT EDITOR* xllX cedure, thus adroitly showing that he had no desire to impute to them motives which might shake the pubHc confidence reposed in their integrity and good intentions, Dryden impeached the Defence of the Enghsh People as having been in part pur- loined from Buchanans Dialogue dc Jure Regni apud Scotos. Whether this accusation be well grounded, or whether Dryden was willing to mistake for plagiarism the natural, and, it is most likely, unavoidable coincidence of sentiment between two masterly Writers, discussing the grounds and reasons of free Government under predilections similar, and equally strong, it would be foreign to my undertaking to collate their respective works for the purpose of ascertaining. Here it will be sufficient to remark, that no such charge can be preferred against our Authour for the ensuing pages. / In proclaiming the doctrine that no Writing ought to be subjected to cen- "sure previous to publication, Milton ap- pears, at least so far as my enquiries have reached, to have the merit of being the ear- liest in any country who formally asserted the Rights of the Press against the usurpa- tion of a Licenser : a proud, an illustrious 1 PREFATORY REMARKS BY distinction which the breath of Calumnjr can ne\rer tarnish. Not adverting to this circumstance, a late Poet Laureate hastily imputed that as a fault in this Oration which such a situation pre- scribed. He therefore qualified the liberal praise he bestowed on it by excepting some " tedious historical digressions.'' I have never met with an Editor, who, for throwing his mind back to the Authour's time, and reading a work in the full spirit in which it was written, can be set in competition with Mr. TVarton, Consequently, it is an occur- rence extremely rare to discover in the very miscellaneous matter of his Annotations a confused or imperfect perception of the pas- sage which he is considering, through in- attention to the existing circumstances of the Writer's day. These " historical di- gressions" are, I agree with him, dilated : that they would be superfluous in a Publica- tion in the decline of the eighteenth century is Hkewise allowed. " The date is out of such prolixity." But the tasteful Critic happened to overlook, that the informed class of the community was at that time much less numerous than it is at present ; and that the THE PRESENT EDITOR. U Liberty of the Press was to Milton and to his contemporaries a topic of discussion al- together new. It followed, that it was in- cumbent on him to open it considerably more in detail than would at this time be requisite. Then how was he to develope the reasoning satisfactorily without some pre- lusive strictures of historical investigation ? In regard to their political Education, the Public, we should remember, were still in their infancy, and it was indispensable to initiate them in the rudiments. Without something of this nature they could not have understood, or would not have acknowleged, the principle. It is somewhere remarked by Lord Bacon of Luthei\ that finding " his own " solitude,'' and in no ways aided by con- temporary opinion, the Father of religious Reformation was forced to awaken all Anti- quity, that he might call it to his succour and '' make a party against his own time/' For a like reason, Milton began with showing, that " no Nation or well-instituted State, if " they valued Books at all, did ever use this *' way of Licensing." The darkness then prevalent, that is compa- ratively with the brighter days, and the wider e 2 lii PIlErATORY RIIMARKS BY spread of intellectual light which we en- joy, induced Writers of every description to be full and circumstantial, and to exercise little discrimination in selecting. Our Poets were slow in learning the art to blot; and not unfrequently lost themselves in expansion. Few Prose-writers had any fear, that they could oppress their subject, or weary their Readers. Most of them heaped together all they could amass; like Burton and HahenilL Of this rambUng manner and of the protracted digressions of the age. Water- housy in his Commentary on Fortescue de Lau- dibus Legum Anglice affords many a tedious specimen, and TVhitelock's " Notes uppon " theKing's Writt for choosing Members of " Parlement,'' are full as desultory and try- ing to the patience. Not only so, parallels drawn from the Greek and Roman Writers then passed for precedents, from which ar- guments of great force might be deduced. Now the case is greatly altered. They would inevitably disparage any modern production, as an idle and ambitious vanity to display that sort of reading, of which it would at this day be an affront to suppose any man above the common level, ignorant. Even the THE PRESENT EDITOR. lui Courts of Law did not reject them. Sir Ed- %vard Coke had as Uttle suspicion that he was wandering from his object while illuminating, as he fancied, the pages of his Institutes with loose quotations from Virgil^ Tacitus, and Tulli/, as he had in the extraneous paragraph to show the existence of Parliaments among the Israelites, in his Chapter which treats on our high Court of Pariiament. A similar inadvertency to the ruliog per- suasion would have raised a smile in this perspicacious Commentator, where Milton vouches seriously the quotations of St. Paul from the Heathen Poets to justify himself for his studies in Pagan Learning. But with a fanaticism equivalent to that of the Ma- hometans, who believe their Koran to be also ordained as a complete moral and civil code for the regulation of human affairs, our Scripture was at that time taken by mul- titudes for the direction of conduct, and for the government of life in all its various re- lations, as well secular as religious. The motive for this appeal is therefore easy to be understood. The appeal was powerful when every doubtful case was to be resolved by the application of a text from holy writ. liv PREFATORY REMARKS BY Men in those days were so familiarized to walk by this sacred rule, that Waller, the Poet, in objection to the Bill to enforce the burial of the Dead in woollen shrouds, cited to the House of Commons the Evangelist who has recorded that Christ was buried in linen. Since the Areopagitica was written off on the spur of a present occasion, and, as well as unpremeditated, was on a topic where none had gone before him, it is clearly certain, that Milton could only have drawn from the stores of Knowlege he had already accumulated. Felix tanto argumento ingeniiim^ feliv tanto ingenio argumentum. Accidentally called forth, he was more fortunate in his subject than Somers, Locke, and Hoadley were in their refutations of the claim arro- gated by our Scottish Dynasty to uncon- ditional submission on the part of the Peo- ple, and to their own immunity from human jurisdiction. To hinder our Forefathers from embracing the "bowstring maxim'' of Passive Obedi- ence, these powerful Vindicators of revo- lutionary principles entered the lists against Filmer and his disciples, and we must never THE PRESENT EDITOR. Iv refuse them the honour eminently their due for having overthrown and brought into lasting contempt the favourite doctrine of James that " Prayers and Tears'' were all that God permitted Subjects to interpose to the will and pleasure of any one whose brow was encircled with an hereditary Crown. Now that the question of a divine Right of Suc- cession to the Throne is, by the recognition of the Compact between our King and the People, no longer a problem with us, the writings for and against the patriarchal hy- pothesis have outlived their importance, and remain on the shelf with their dust undis- turbed, but by him, who in an abundance of leisure is curious to learn what pleas could have been set up on behalf of this enormous folly. Milton's defence of unrestricted Publication may confidently lay claim to a duration of practical utility far more ex- tended. It can never cease to have its value on political considerations, till this natural and constitutional* Right ceases to be an * I say natural and constitutional after Bishop Hayter, who reasons thus ; " the Liberty of the Press is connected ** with natural Liberty. " The Liberty of the Subject being now generally ad- Ivi PREFATORY REMARKS BY object of jealousy or hatred with those who may bear rule over us. A political millenium, the signs and prognostics of the times in which we live forbid us to believe fast ap- proaching. ** mitted to be founded in the Reservations made in that *' Compact, which originally cemented Society, supposeth *' the use of Speech. " The Men who first gave up their natural Rights for the " benefits of Society, must have stickled hard for the faculty, " which promoted and facilitated the conjunction ; and most " certainly, they never entered into a compact, that, if at " any time the gift of Speech should be grossly abused by " any number of Men, a whole Nation would submit to be ** deprived of the use of it. " Wliatever they cannot be supposed to have given up re- ** mains a natural Right, and is a part of those Rights, which " constitute the Liberty of the Subject. ** British Liberty consists in the power of assening, by Re- ** presentatives, those natural Rights which were reserved as " the Liberty of the Subject, at the first insthution of So- " ciety. It would be an act of sedition, as well as an ab- " surdity, to insinuate that this power is ever likely to be " perverted, to the destruction of any natural Right thus re- " served : so close is the alliance between the Liberty of the " Press and the Liberty of a British Subject. " We may judge, from this view of the case, how greatly " those learned Men are mistaken, who deny the constitu- " tional existence of the Liberty of the Press, because the " Press is not co-eval with Magna Charta. The Use and ** Liberty of Speech were antecedent to that great Charter of THE PRESENT EDITOR. Ivii Succeeding advocates for the Freedom of Printing have copied not unfrequently as well as largely from this Oration. Among others, Mathew Tindal writing in 1698 against Mr. Fulteimjs Bill to provide, with other restrictions on the Press, that no un- licenced Newspaper should be in circula- tion*, transcribed from it without scruple, with little alteration and without acknow- legement. It is not unlikely he was appre- hensive, that the name of Milton would have been detrimental to the cause for which he was ably and anxiously contending ! for the first Edition of the Prose-works in a col- lected form, which came out in the same year, bears in the title-page that it was printed at Amsterdam. It was, we must infer from this air of concealment, a Re-pubhca- tion too obnoxious for a London Bookseller " British Liberties ; and Printing is only a more extensive " and improved kind of Speech/' An Essay on the Liberty of the Press, chiefly as it respects personal Slander ; p. (». 1754. Hayter was, I believe, one of the present King's Preceptors, and was translated from Norwich to London in 1761 . * TindaVs Continuation of Bapin: I. 350. — Ralph: 11.717. Iviii PREFATORY REMARKS BV to avow. The same reason constrained Mr. Trenchard about the same time to resort to this precaution in printing his excellent Hhtovjj of Standing Armies : as did the Print- ers of Montesquieu s works in France till the Constituent Assembly met in 1789- Just as the late Mr. Wilkes^ when early in this reign he presented the PubUc from his private Printing Press with a translation oiBoulangers Theologico-political Research into the Origin and Progress of Despotism, deemed it pru- dent to screen himself behind the same sub- terfuge. So dark was the cloud of prejudice which eclipsed the lustre of Milton's name; and that too after the Revolution of 16'88. Hap- pily it has passed away. We begin to make some retribution for slight and neglect : his Prose has at length forced itself so far into notice that it is read, and sometimes quoted. Siium cuique decus Posteritas rependet. The gradually accumulating suffrages of suc- ceeding ages are an unerring indication of transcendent merit : as a monument reared by the public voice after the lapse of a cen- tury would be a surer testimony of departed THE PRESENT EDITOR. lix excellence than any erection to commemo- rate the eminent dead immediately following upon their decease. But there have been few, very few, who after their names had been decried hke Milton's ; nay, few whose names had only been in abeyance, as it were, for so long a term of probation who could establish by general consent a claim to posthumous honours. It is gratifying to find that amid the ob- loquy and^ detraction, in which through the turn of times Milton spent his declining years, he consoled himself with a sure and certain hope of ultimate renown. For rea- sons sufficiently obvious. Bacon when looking forward to " a Hfe beyond life'' in the minds of future generations, bequeathed his fame to foreign nations. Milton had only to ap- peal from the temper of the day : " At ultimi nepotes, " Et cordatior setas, " Judicia rebus aequiora forsitan " Adhibebit, integro sinu. " Turn, livore sepulto, " Si quid meremur sana posteritas sclet." A prophetic anticipation'^. Perhaps his * " Such honourable visions bring, " As sooth'd great Milton's injur'd age,- Ix PREFATORY REMARKS BY fortitude drew additional vigour from the depression he then experienced. He could not but know, that a hasty reputation, springing from contemporaneous praise was often a forced and sickly product : in not a few instances, little better than an artificial flower, and of as short and fleeting a date. While he must have been equally sensible that Fame when of tardier growth and well- ripened reserves itself in store for a late posterity. " Our monarch Oak, the patriarch of Trees, " Shoots rising up and spreads by slow degrees : " whereas tropical vegetation, under the rays of a vertical sun, is as transitory as it is rapid. The inclination which has started up, and is visibly gaining ground among us, to cul- tivate a general acquaintance with the elder Authours of our own Nation is highly credit- able to the reigning pursuits in Literature. AVe should vainly search the Continent in quest of Writings more deserving a dihgent " Wlien in prophetic dreams he saw " The race unborn with pious awe ** Imbibe each Virtue from his heavenly page." Akenside, THE PRESENT EDITOR. Ixi perusal than some we have to boast as dig- nifying our Island toward the close of the sixteenth and through the next century. In confirmation of this opinion, I might exhibit a long scroll of no vulgar names : I will enumerate no more than Raleigh, Bacon, Selden, and Milton. Where can we receive fuller lessons on the grand examples and lights which History holds forth for the con- duct of Nations than are to be found in the volume of Raleigh and his learned As- sistants ? And Bacon, who deposed the Stagyrite after his prescriptive sway over the Schools, now has his eminent services to- ward the advancement of true Philosophy acknowleged at home and abroad by the warmest votaries to the Writers of classical Antiquity. While Selden, for scholarship only not universal, and for his indefatigable researches into the original constitutions of the State, must be consulted and venerated as a Sage, to whom Learning and the Li- berties of England are alike and largely in- debted. Neither will Milton, in scope and reach of Thought, nor in wide extent of Knowlege, and least of all in a devoted at- tachment to the supreme interests of the Ixli PREFATORY REMARKS BY human race, be found second to any who could be named, though he be estimated without regard to the deathless offspring of his Muse. Beside that several of his pieces are on the cardinal principles of our na- tional policy in Church and State, and "written at an epocha the most momentous of any in the annals of Britain, the energies of his unwearied intellect, his vast and various acquisitions, his disinterested and fearless search after Truth; — all combine with his elevation of sentiment, and uniform recti- tude of intention, to give a deep and live- ly interest to every disquisition to which he applied himself. So that it is inexcusa- ble in an English Gentleman, who feels it to be due to his station to attain a competent proficiency in the History and in the Lite- rature of his native Country, to allow any portion of so great a Writer's works to be unknown to him : " Quce etiam si Orator non " 5Z5, et sis ingenuus Civis Komanus^ tamen ne- " cessaria est/' No circumstance can contribute to make this path to liberal and useful information more attractive and consequently more fre- quented than to clear away those obstrug- THE PRESENT EDITOR. Ixiil tions to a Reader^s easy progress which have grown up in a series of years and overspread many places once sufficiently obvious. To remove, for so much, these discouragements is the Editor's hope in the present Repub- lication. Occasional explanation of uncom- mon words and phrases, and of allusions to particular circumstances which through the intermediate distance of time are become obscure, and will seldom be understood without a key ; as well as notices on per? sonal touches, which have lost their point from age, must be always convenient. Perhaps there is no English Authour of the same standing who demands glossarial and explanatory comment more frequently than Milton. He was of " amplitude of "mind to greatest deeds:'' while with him Genius and Industry, by a rare felicity, walked hand in hand. Blessed with this character of mind he was never remiss when he beheved, that it might be con- ducive to the general welfare to exercise his thoughts and his pen on temporary topics; and if, as in this defence of an unlicensed Press, the theme were of per- manent and vital importance, he was a spec- Ixiv PREFATORY REMARKS. tator of the striking and extraordinary scenes continually passing before him, of a com- plexion much too ardent for his thoughts to escape all tinge from them, which now darkening his sense renders elucidation ac- ceptable. Exclusive, moreover, of phraseo- logy which the mutations of language have made obsolete, he dehghted in recondite meanings and in far-sought illustration. Sometimes, it may be, in ostentation of the intellectual wealth he possessed ; " His was the treasure of two thousand years :" sometimes possibly forgetting how few have arisen so intimately conversant with Letters, sacred and profane, as himself, or to whom the whole range of human Science was equally familiar. " He knew each lane, and every alley green, " Dingle or bushy dell of this wide wood, " And every bosky bourne from side to side, " His daily walks, and ancient neighbourhood." THOMSON^S PREFACE. There is no need of a Preface to recommend this admirable Defence of the best of human Rights, to any one who has ever heard of the divine Mil- ton; and it is impossible to produce better Argu- ments, or to set them in a more convincing, awakening Light. Is it possible that any free-bom Briton, who is capable of thinking, can ever lose all sense of Religion and Virtue, and of the dignity of human Nature to such a degree, as to wish for that uni- versal Ignorance, Darkness, and Barbarity, against which the absolute Freedom of the Press is the only preservative ? For what else spreads Light, or diffuses Knowlege through the World ? But it seems, as a sense of the value of Health is some- times lost in the midst of its full enjoyment ; so Men, through a habit of Liberty, may become in- sensible of its inestimable worth : otherwise would not f Ixvi Thomson's preface. every one awake, rouse himself, and say, when the most dear and valuable of all the Privileges, that Government is designed to protect, is menaced, that he will sooner part with Life itself, than with that Liberty, without which Life is not worth the having: that he will sooner suffer his eyes to be put out, than his Understanding to be extinguished. We are told in History, of a^ Peo- ple, that after they had been inured to Slavery, were in a panicle fear, when their Liberty was offered to them. And this terrible effect of Slavery ought to make every Lover of Mankind tremble at the Thoughts of any steps or approaches toward the diminution of Liberty. " For without it," as Homer has told us, " Men soon cease to be Men : *' they soon cease to be rational Creatures*/* * We are told in History of a People, ^c] The Cappadocians ; see Strabo; p. S\5.fol. Amstel. 1707. * For without it, as Homer has told us, Men soon cease to he Men: they soon cease to be rational creatures."] Thomson, we must conjecture, intended a paraphrase on the following couplet, *HjW,/(ru ydp r* dp£TTJ$ dtooclvvrai evpvoTrci Zsug Odyss. XVII. S22, At kast he approaches nearer to this than to any other passage Thomson's preface. Ixvii Now without the absolute unbounded Freedom! of Writing and Publishing, there is no Liberty; no^ shadow of it : it is an empty sound. For what can Liberty mean, if it does not mean, the Liberty of exercising, improving and informing our Under- standings ? "A People have Liberty," said a truly good King of England, " when they are free as " Thought is free^" " What is it that makes a City, which my mind recurs to in Homer ; who, contrary to the prac- tice of the dramatic Poets of Greece, scattered his yvw^a.i, or sententious thoughts, with a sparing hand. This generous distich, for the important truth it inculcates, has been cited by a succession of Writers from Plato to Frank" lin ; so often that, compressed into a single line, it has almost become a proverbial adage. * A Peopk have Liberty, said a truly good King of England, when they are free as thought is free.] A lofty sentiment, which resembles so strongly the style of a popular Oratour in our own day, that we should never expect to meet with it ia the Will of an Anglo-Saxon King. To Alfred, it has, however, been ascribed by most of his Biographers, and has passed on Tyrrelf Hume, and others of our national Historians as authentic. I find it to originate in the misconception, or perhaps in the license, of the Translator of this curious record into Latin ; see App. II. of Wise*s Edition of Sir J. Spelman*s Latin Life of Alfred: or Asserts Life of Alfred: " Et mecum tota nobilitas " West Saxonicse gentis pro recto jure consentiunt ; quod me " oportet dimiltere eos ita liberos, sicut in homine cogitatio ipsius " consistit," p, 80. 8vo. 1722. Oxon. According to Tyrrell {Hist, of England; L 310. fol. 1698.) this Translation was made by Asser Menevensis. Whoever was f2 Ixviii Thomson's preface. " (said the good Jlcaus^, a Poet, whose Muse " was always sacred and faithful to the best of the Translator, the original text affords no colour for this flash of eloquence. In an edition of this antient document printed at the Clarendon Press, under the care of Sir Herbert Croft, the passage stands thus: 3 ic bibbe on jobej- naman. 3 on hii* habgpa. f mmjia maja nan. ne ypjrepeajiba ne gefpence nan. nsenig cypelijr J>apa \>e ic ppejealb. 3 me pep-j^eaxena ])itan to jiihte gepehcon jjaet ic hi moc laetan j-pa ppeo j-pa ])eope j-pa^ep ic pille. ac 10 pp gobej- lujran. ^ pop minjie paple Jjeappe. pylle ^ by fyn heopa pjieolpep pyp^e. 3 bypa cypep. 3 ic on gobep lipenbep naman beobe j)aet hy nan man ne bpocie. ne mib peop manunje. ne mib naenijum j^msum. f by ne motan ceopan ppylcne mann ppylce by pyllan: (/>. 24. 4to. 1788.) Manning rendered this closely as follows : " And I beseech, in God's nanae, and in his *' Saints', that of my Relations none, nor of my Heirs none do " obstruct, none of the freedom of those that I have redeemed. " And for me the West Saxon Nobles as lawful have pro- " nounced that I them may leave either free or bond whether " I will. But I, for GoD*s love, and for my Soul's advantage, *' will that they be of their freedom masters, and of their will, *' and I, in God the living's name intreat that them no Man do *' not disturb, neither by money-exactions, nor by no manner " of means, that they may not choose such Man as they will." I have collated this extract with the original MS. in Saxon, which belonged to the late Mr. Astle, and I found it to be cor- rect. We therefore ought to construe this humane direction in the Will of our venerated Lawgiver to mean that he had ob- tained a license from the Nobles for the manumission of his Bondmen; without which it could not by the Laws of the Saxons have been valid. The reason of which, as it is assigned by Bishop Squire, was, that *' though their Lords, without " doubt, might give up their private claim to them, as their Thomson's preface. Ixix " causes) it is not walls and buildings ; no, it is " being inhabited by Men : by Men, who know *' Slaves ; yet none but the public, i. e. the voice of the whole " nation, could admit them to the privileges of the native " Freemen." An Enquiry into the Foundation of the English Constitution; Sec. p. 120. (n.) edit. 1753. By a Law of William the Conqueror a Villein was to be emancipated with much ceremony in full County Court : " Et " prohibemus ut nullus vendat hominem extra patriam : Si qui " vero velit servum suum liberum facere, tradat eum Vicecomiti " per manum dextram in pleno comitatu, quietum ilium cla- " mare debet a jugo servitutis suae per manumissionem, et os- ** tendat ei liberas vias, et portas, et tradat illi libera arma, '' scilicet, lanceam, et gladium deinde liber homo efficitur." Leges Anglo-Saxonica: ; by Wilkins ; p. 229. ^ol. 1721. Neither under the feudal system could the manumission of his immediate Owner set a Villein completely free : it was required to be ratified by the superiour Lord. It is well worthy of remark, that our Patriot King and Presi- dent Washington were embarrassed alike by legal difficulties in the testamentary enfranchizement of their Slaves. Ten centu- ries divided them. Tendimus in Latium. Yet how tardy in some respects has been the advance of human institutions to- ward Liberty and Justice. " Alas ! how faint, " How slow, the dawn of Beauty and of Truth ** Breaks the reluctant shades of Gothic night " Which yet involve the Nations ! " * Said the good Alcaeus, &c.] This fragment of the Lesbian Bard has come down to us in an Oration by Aristides : see v, 2. /). 207. o{Jebh*s edit. 4to. 1722. It is also preserved, as a literary Friend pointed out to me* Ixx Thomson's preface. '* themselves to be Men, and have suitable notions " of the dignity of human nature : by Men, who " know what it is alone that exalts them above the *' Brutes." Can we be either virtuous or religious, without the free use of our Reason ; without the means of Knowlege ? And can we have Know- lege, if Men dare not freely study, and as freely communicate the fruits of their studies ? What is it that distinguishes human Society from a brutish herd, but the flourishing of the Arts and Sciences ; the free Exercise of Wit and Reason ? What can \ Government mean, intend, or produce, that is \ worthy of Man, or beneficial to him, as he is a rational creature, besides Wisdom, Knowlege, Virtue and Science ? Is it merely indeed that we may eat, drink, sleep, sing and dance with secu- by a Scholiast on Sophocles; CEdip. Tj/rann, v» 56. This swelling sentiment appears indeed to have been a favourite topic for Oratours when addressing the Athenian Citizens : see Thuci/dides; p. 462. Hudson's edit.: TJiemistocles* hortatory Speech when Xerxes invaded Attica ; CotTi, Nep. Vit, Themist : and see likewise Plutarch ; Rualdi Edit. I. 52. A talent for Poetry was, I think, not one of the most emi- nent endowments of the late Sir William Joness gifted and admirably-cultivated mind ; yet elevated by a congenial spirit he has happily caught " Alcceus' manly rage'* in a paraphrastic imitation of the foregoing relic; over which the public eye could never tire ; and, had the limits of the page allowed me room, I should gladly have inserted it. THOMSON^S PREFACE. IxXl r\iy that we choose Governours, subject our selves to their administration, and pay taxes ? Take away the Arts, ReHgion, Knowlege, Virtue, (all | of which must flourish, or sink together) and in the Name of Goodness, what is left to us that is \\ worth enjoying or protecting ? Yet take away the Liberty of the Press, and we are all at once stript of the use of our noblest Faculties : our Souls them- selves are imprisoned in a dark dungeon : we may breathe, but we cannot be said to live. If the end of Governours and Government is not to diffuse with a liberal unsparing equal hand, true rational happiness; but to make the bulk of Man- kind beasts of burden, that a few may wallow in brutish pleasures ; then it is consistent PoHticks, to root out the desire and love of Light and Know- lege. Certain Scythian Slaves, that they might work the harder, had only their eyes destroyed. But to extinguish human Understanding, and esta- blish a kingdom of darkness, is just so far more barbarous than even that monstrous cruelty, as the Mind excels the Body ; or as Understanding and Reason are superior to Sense. Cardinal Richlieu says^ in his Political Testament, " That Subjects * Cardinal 'KxchW^w says f &c.] This is, I suppose, a very loose translation, probably from memory, of the beginning of this State*- Ixxii Thomson's preface. " with Knowlege, Sense and Reason, are as mon- " strous as a Beast with hundreds of eyes would " be ; and that such a Beast will never bear its " burden peaceably. Whence he infers, it is im- ** possible to promote despotic Power, while Learn- " ing is encouraged and extended. The People ** must be hood- winked, or rather blinded, if one man's Section du Peuple. " Tous les Politiques sont d'accord que " si les Peuples etoient trop a leur aise, il seroit impossible de " les contenir dans les Regies de leur Devoir ; leur Fondement " est qu'ayant moins de connoissance que les autres ordres de " TEtat beaucoup plus cultivez, ou plus instruits, s'ils n'etoient " retenus par quelque necessite, difficilement demeuroient-ils dans " les Regies qui leur sont prescrites par laRaisonetpar lesLoix. " La Raison ne permet pas de les exempter de loutes " Charges, parce qu'en perdant en tel cas la marque de leur *' Sujetion, ils perdroient aussi la memoire de leur Condition, et " que s'ils etoient libres de Tributs, ils penseroient I'etre de *' rObeissance. // lesfaut comparer aux Mulcts qui etant accoU' " tumez a la Charge, se gdtent par un long repos plus que par le " travail; mais ainsi que ce travail doit etre modere, et qu*il ** faut que la charge de ces Animaux soit proportionnee a leurs *' forces:" &c. Toin. 1. p. 185. 8vo. 1740. Certainly, the Cardinal may claim the merit of speaking out as to the rule of action with all arbitrary Governments. — The authenticity of this Testament has been a subject of contro- versy between Voltaire and other French writers; a ques- tion of little moment. We may be assured that Richlieu, in common with other Ministers of despotic Kings, acted on these principles, whether he had the honesty or the effrontery to avow them. Thomson's preface. Ixxiii " would have them tame and patient drudges. In ** short, you must treat them every way like Pack- " horses or Mules, not excepting the bells about ** their necks, which by their perpetual jingling, " may be of use to drown their cares.'* Now this is plain dealing, and consistent Politicks. But to talk of Liberty and free Government, publick Good and rational Happiness, as requiring limitations on the Press, and Licensers of Books, is as absurd, as to speak of Liberty in a dungeon, with chains on every limb. Hohhes too was consistent with him- self, and advises those, who aim at absolute domi- nion, to destroy all the antient Greek and Latin Authours^; because if those are read, principles of * Hobbes too was consistent with himself, ond advises those who aim at absolute dominion, to destroy all the antient Greek and Latin Authors ; ^c."] Subtle as this Metaphysician was he may on this head be " confronted with self comparisons." Both the Authour of Oceana and Diyden have preserved his well-founded apophthegm, that " a Man was always against Reason, if '* Reason was against him" And when Hobbes (p. 140. Works; fol. 1651.) doubts not " but if it had been a thing con- *' trary to any Man^s right of Dominion, or to the interest of '* men that have Dominion, that the three Angles of a Triangle " should be equal to two Angles of a Square; that Doctrine '' should have been, if not disputed, j'et by the burning of all " books of Geometry, suppressed, as far as he whom it concerned ''was able:" — he incautiously discloses why he breathed a Ixxiv Thomson's preface. Liberty, and just sentiments of the Dignity and Rights of Mankind must be imbibed. But can there be more glaring bare-faced nonsense than to wish for the extermination of antient Learning. Prcepandere lumina Mentis is a Motto which never could be borne by the Writer of the Leviathan. Had Milton not deviated from the established opinions i» Church and State, should we not ere now have seen the hue and lineaments of his character drawn in contrast with those of his celebrated Contemporary ? The fervent Piety which dis- tinguished by far the most sublime of Christian Poets^ was directly opposite to the skepticism of Hohhes. Their contra- riety in many other features was not less striking : in their lives and in their opinions they were as unlike as Boyle to l^Glinghroke. When the rising troubles at home prognosticated the approach of civil War, Milton then travelling over classic ground, and bending his course toward Greece with all her strong attractions for a Scholar and a Poet, abruptly hastened back to England, thinking no sacrifice too great for the suppjort of his Country's Liberty : " In Siciliam quoque et Grceciam trajicere volentem "me, tristis ex Anglia belli civilis nuntius revocavit : Turpe " enim existimabam, dum mei cives domi de Libertate dimica- *' rent, me animi causa otiose peregrinari.*' Pr, W. H. 332. €d» 1738. And he laid out the better part of his Life in vin- dicating it. The Philosopher of Malmesbury deserted his country and fled to Paris that he might live in safety. " His whole Life " (as his Biographer relates) was governed by his fears ; " of the Clergy more especially, whom the latitude of his specula-, tions had raised up against him. Milton's manly spirit Thomson's i»reface. Ixxv say, " That the very support of a free Constitution " requires the extinction of the Press;" that is, the extinction of the only means of knowing what we set him above all such apprehensions. Having given offence while at Rome by his open profession of the Protestant Faith, though warned that the English Jesuits were plotting against him in case he should return to that City, yet not at all daunted, he went thither the second time with a determina- tion not to begin any discourse about Religion ; at the same time, when attacked he defended his own at the Papal See as freely as before. *' I never (says he) shrunk from the " avowal of my tenets." ibid, p. 332. Hobhes must have laughed at such inflexible Probity ; for he inculcated that every one should profess the religion of the Magistrate. Not so Milton : who refused to enter into the Church because it was his belief that " he who took Orders must subscribe •* Slave." ibid. I. 62. Again; Milton in office under Cromwell gave him open and uncourtly counsel, and after the Protector had engrossed the powers of the State, he exhorted him never to desert the principles which he had professed, laying before him the ag- gravated enormity of his crime, if he should become a Tyrant, and betray the cause he had defended in Parliament and in the field ; (see the close of the 2nd Def.). But Hohbcs, like Spinoza, as if there was no distinction between Force and Jus- tice, accounted Right to be the consequence of Power, and j held that whatever a man can do, it is lawful for him to do. ! Hobbes at Paris therefore wrote in support of CromiveWs usurpation. This hardened advocate for despotism and Pensioner of Charles H, strove to degrade Mankind in their very nature to a Ixxvi Thomson's preface. are as Men and Christians : what our Natures are capable of: what is our just happiness, and how we ought to be treated by our Governours : that is, by those whom we have entrusted with the manage- ment of our interests and concerns. I hope it will never be this Nation's misfortune to fall into the hands of an Administration, that do not from their Souls abhor any thing that has but the remotest tendency toward the erection of a new and arbitrary jurisdiction over the Press: or level with the beasts of the field : for no other reason (said Clarendon truly) than that they might be fit to wear the chains he had provided for them. How repugnant this to Milton's Doctrine j who makes the Angel Raphael say authoritatively to Adain> " Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part ; " Do thou but thine, and be not diffident *' Of Wisdom, she deserts thee not, if thou " Dismiss not her. P. L. VIII. 561. And who after the Restoration, filled with indignant sorrow, lamented, that " when God hath decreed Servitude on a sinful " Nation, fitted by their own vices for no condition but ser- *' vile, all estates of Government are alike unable to avoid <* it." {Hist, of Britain, b. v. c. I.) In a word, Milton's name was a horrour at the Court of Charles II. and the portrait oi Hobbes was in his cabinet. Thomson's preface. Ixxvii can otherwise look upon any attempt that way, than as the greatest impiety, the cruellest, the wickedest, the most irreligious thing that can he imagined. Would it not be sacrilegiously robbing God of the only worship he delights in, the wor- ship of the Heart and Understanding ? Can there be Religion or Virtue without Reason, Thought, and Choice r Or can Reason, Thinking, Know- lege and Choice, subsist without the only con- ceivable means of making Men wise and under- standing, rational, and virtuous ? What is the Kingdom of Christ? Doth not our Saviour de- light in calling it Light, and a Kingdom of Light? And what did he come to destroy but the King- dom of Darkness ? And can there be a Kingdom of Light, without the Liberty, the unconstrained Liberty of diffusing Light and Knowlege ? What is the Reformation, or what does it mean but the Liberty, the absolute and perfect Liberty, of cor- recting and refuting errors, and of undeceiving Mankind ? What is it that we call Protest- antism, but a resolution stedfastly and undaunt- edly to oppose all encroachments upon rational Liberty, the Liberty of the Judgment and Under- standing; and to maintain it as our most valuable Ixxviii Thomson's preface. treasure, our greatest and noblest Privilege, in comparison of which, all other Rights are mean ^nd trifling, and hardly deserve the name of bles- sings and advantages ? A free Protestant Country, without the Liberty of the Press, is a contradiction in terms ; it is free Slavery, or inchained Liberty. Light and Darkness are not mcye opposite than Liberty and the deprivation of the means of being rational. Who, that loves Mankind, is not sorry, that any thing is ever published tending to confound Men's Understanding, mislead their Judgments, or de- prave their Morals ? But is there any more likely method for Sense to prevail against absurdities, than leaving her at full liberty to paint them in their native colours ? Can Truth be better armed against Error than with the mighty blade of uncontrouled Reason ? Or Virtue more surely triumph over Immorality, than by the vigorous execution of the truly wholesome Laws purposely framed for her support ? I hate all Calumny and Defamation, as I hate the corruption of heart, from which alone it can proceed ; and do with the utmost zeal detest those profaners of Liberty, who pretending to be friends THOMSON^S PREFACE. IxXlX to it, have recourse to such black diabolical me- thods. But I take the Laws already in force awiong us, to be a more than sufficient preservative (at least as far as human Prudence is able to pro- vide) against all the abusive overt-acts, I am now expressing my abhorrence of: And as such we liave reason to esteem them very valuable securi- ties of our Liberties and Reputations. But be- <:ause wicked things are published, must there be no publishing ? I know it is objected that there is a medium between an absolute Liberty of the Press, and an absolute suppression of it. Which I admit; but yet aver the medium (by which either Licensing, or nothing at all is meant) is far worse on all accounts, than either extreme. For though we are indeed told, that Licensers would serve us with wholesome goods, feed us with food convenient for us, and only prevent the distribu- tion of poison ; sure such cant was never meant to impose on any, but those who are asleep, and cannot see one inch before them. Let no true Briton therefore be deceived by such fallacious speeches, but consider the necessary consequences which must follow, and he will soon find that it is as the flattering language of the strange Woman Ixxx THOMSON S PREFACE. [in the Book of Proverbs] who with her fair smooth tongue, beguileth the simple, and leadeth them as an ox to the slaughter. That plausible and deceitful language leadeth indeed into the chambers of Darkness and Death. But this subject is fully handled in the excellent Treatise subjoin'd. I will only propose to the consideration of all Lovers of Religion, Virtue, Science, and Mankind, the few following Queries ; and every one ought methinks to propose them to himself every day of his Life, as making a fundamental Cate- chism. For if the Truths, which these con- tain, are not fundamental, Man is not a Man, but a beast; Religion and Virtue are empty names. 1. What is our most valuable part, or what is it that maketh us capable of Religion, Virtue, and rational Happiness ? Is it not our Reason or Un- derstanding ? 2. What then is the noblest Privilege that be- longs to Man ? Is it not the free exercise of his Understanding, the full use of all the means of advancing in Virtue, and Knowlege ? Thomson's preface. Ixxxi 3. What is it then that is, and must be, the chief end of Government to encourage and pro- mote ? Is it not Knowlege, Virtue, and Religion ? 4. And can Knowlege, Virtue, or Religion be promoted, if the only means of promoting them are taken away ? For what are the means of pro- moting them, but the Liberty of Writing and Pub- lishing, without running any risque but that of being refuted or ridiculed, where any thing ad- vanced chances to labour under the just imputation of Falshood or Absurdity ? THOMSON. CURSORY OBSERVATIONS, BV THE PRESENT EDITOR, ON THE INVENTION OF THE ART OF PRINTING. In the meagre Life of Thomson prefixed by Murdoch to his Edition of this Poet's Works, it is unnoticed that Thomson was an Editor of the Areopagitica. A fact we may con- clude from their silence to have been equally unknown to the Earl of Buchan^ and to his other Biographers; who appear to have been also ignorant, that the Translation into En- glish of " the Commentaries of the Emperor " Marcus Antoninus^ by James Tho7nson, " Gent/' 8vo. 1747, was by the hand of the Poet; as my Informant was told by Mi- Floyer Sydenham. In 1738, a translation of CromweWs Mani- festo against the Spaniards, which was drawn g2 Ixxxiv ON THE INVENTION OF PRINTING, up in Latin by Milton, and first printed in 1655, was published by Millar, who was Thomsons PubHsher. To this Pamphlet, his Britannia was appended. As I conjecture, he rendered this State-Paper into English, and republished this poetical invective with a hope to assist, like Glover, in exciting a na-^ tional clamour for a Spanish War : then a leading object of the Parliamentary Party in opposition with whom he had associated him- self. Thomsons reprint of this Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing came out not long after the Act had passed requiring all dramatic Writings to be licensed by the Chamberlain of the King's Household, prior to their representation in a Theatre : without any doubt it was this Statute which suggested the propriety of this republication at that juncture. The importance of the subject will always stamp a value on this spirited Preface, while, as an original composition in prose by the Poet of the Seasons it is matter for literarj^ curiosity. Is it not singular that Thomson should no where have touched on the Art of Printing BY THE PRESENT EDITOR, IXXXV in the expanded poem which he entitled Li- berty ? This fell within the scope of that work much more aptly than the episode on Pythagoras and his Philosophy, or than the geographical outline of the Roman Empire. The natural, the necessary, the close alliance between Knowlege and Freedom would have fully justified its introduction. A fair occa- sion offered, which it is surprising an Editor of Milton's Vindication of an open Press should overlook, when after deploring the prostration of the human mind in the dark ages, he sings in animated strains the return of the presiding Goddess of his Poem bring- ing Science and the Arts in her train. This groupe has in some sort reheved the general languor of that piece ; to which a well- fancied transition descriptive of the manifold benefits accruing to Mankind from the un- obstructed enjoyment of this invention might have still further conduced. The expression of Thought by the Voice is in its nature a very limited faculty, and of transient effect ; while oral Narration is so vague that Facts disfigured by colloquial Tradition soon grow obscure, as well as more doubtful in authority at every repeti- kxxvi ON THE INVENTION OP PRINTING^ tion, and should they not degenerate into Fable^ are if once forgotten irretrievably lost. Accordingly, to embody the concep- tions of Mind, and thus to confer on them a material existence with an extension be- yond the power of Speech, is among the first endeavours of Man, as soon as he has raised himself above animal Life. The abori- ginal inhabitants of the northern Continent of America, who are not yet arrived at the pastoral stage in the progress of ameliora- tion, preserve their simple annals by Hie- roglyphics, natural and symbolical, graven on tablets of birch-bark among some tribes; in others, they obtain a short-Uved memory for their transactions by the varied arrange^ ment of beads. The imperfections and the inadequacy of all such rude, yet elaborate, attempts to give the operations of Intellect a tangible habitation and to delineate articu*- lated breath, could not but have been pain- fully felt in the earliest dawnings of the so- cial state. If it had not been for the ex- ception of the Chinese, we should have rashly pronounced, that while ignorant of the secret of Letters, Mankind could never ap- proach the pale of Civilization ; and that an BY THE PRESENT EDITOE. IxXXVU expedient so apt as a literal character to render Thought and Sound visible and per- manent must speedily and inevitably have brought all arbitrary and occult signs into disuse. The ability of describing the images of Sense, and of conveying to the mind of others through the eye, the abstractions of the Understanding by written words, is in- deed a wonderful acquirement* How forci- bly the Polytheists of Egypt and of Greece were struck with the incalculable benefits of alphabetic writing, they showed by venerat- ing the inventor as a Divinity : in acknow- legement, under the names of Thoth and of Hermes^ to that individual who had contri- buted in a larger measure than any other to the well-being of his fellow-creatures- As, through a similar impulse of gratitude for the good received, divine honours were paid in Greece and Italy to the inventress of the Loom and of the Plow, and to those who first taught the use of Grain and the culture of the Vine and Olive*. * It IS rather extraordinary, that they who have thought, that the construction of an Alphabet was above human in- genuity, and that it must have sprung immediately from a IxXXviii ON THE INVENTION OF PRINTING, After the near advances made toward Printing both by the Greeks and Romans, when they stamped Inscriptions on their Coins, branded Letters on Malefactors, and impressed marks on their Cattle, it seems surprising that whole revolutions of ages should have passed away before any similar method was thought of to multiply copies of a Manuscript. The transition from these practices was easy to the compendious pro- cess by which Books are printed, and, now at least, it appears to be very obvious. At divine communication, should not liave adverted to the sin- gle signs which we have taken from the Arabian Scuvans for the purposes of calculation. These numerical ciphers, as simple in their power as boundless in their operation, approach to a universid charac- ter. The Chinese with the Swan Pan are the only excep- tion to their use among civilized Nations. — How did the Commissariate of a Roman Army keep their accounts with Ijetters for numerals ? I once mentioned to the late Mr. Gilbert Tf^akefieldy whom I had the honour to call my friend, and who had published an ingenious Essay in support of the opinion, that we owe verbal Writing to a direct Revelation from the Deity, whe- ther these numerical figures did not militate against his per- suasion ? He put my objection by in the way we all do an ar- gument, which we are unprepared to confute, when started against a favourite hypothesis. BY THE PRESENT EDITOR. Ixxxix last, in an auspicious hour, this want was suppUed by the aid of moveable Types, and the mechanism of a Press ; a contrivance which has encreased the opportunities of Knowlege many thousand fold. — In Christen- dom we shall neither erect Temples, nor raise Altars to the inventor of Typography. But his merit will not be over -rated, if we place him among the foremost in the file of benefactors to the human race. Not long after the revival of Letters, Francis I. having one day called on the Printer, Robert Stephens, as a mean of pro- claiming his fostering care of Literature, would not permit his presence to delay the correction of a Proof Sheet from the Press. The memory of this royal Patron of Scholars deserves to be held in as much estimation to the full for this courteous attention to the interests of Learning, as his Rival Charles V. for the homage he did to the fine Arts in stooping for the Pencil which Titian had let fall. The contrariety of emotion which would have agitated the projectors of the Alembic and of the Printing Press, at the instant their sagacity was rewarded with success, would XC ON THE INVENTION OP PRINTING, present not an incurious contemplation, bad it been possible for them to have foreseen the wide-spread and opposite effects of their respective discoveries. This was eagerly perverted into a perennial spring of liquid fire, which year by year shortens with linger- ing anguish the existence of thousands and of tens of thousands, ill-atoning for this un- ceasing destruction of human Life by the me- dicinal properties it may possess. That \m% proved itself to be the primary organ in pro- moting our nearest interests and most ele- vated pursuits. It undeniably makes one exception, I trust there are many more, to the reflection which sprang from the morbid melancholy of our great Moralist, that human advantages are more susceptible of evil than of good, through the wayward propensities of our nature to misuse them. Of the innumerable illustrations which croud into the recollection, none would mark the kindly influences of the Press more strongly than the uniformity of manners and of customs continued down from the highest antiquity in the eastern quarter of the globe. Strangers to this inestimable acquisition, or where it is known in part an alphabetic cha- BY THE PRESENT EDITOR. XCl racier not being in use, the Asiatics have re- mained nearly stationary from the time our Forefathers ran naked in the woods with painted skins, fed on acorns, and offered human sacrifices to idols. Neither is it, that the Printing Press has so largely contributed to the preeminence of the Nations of the West which alone renders Coster, or Faust, or Guttemberg, or whoever originally suggested the idea, or facilitated the design, an object of lasting gratitude. The Printing House ought supremely to be regarded with rere- Fence as the Officina Libertatis, the laboratory of human Liberty ; the operative means by wfeich Mankind are at length, and now, let Us hope, rapidly gaining a just sense of their Qwn Rights, and of the Duties of their Ru- lers. To enlarge on the indissoluble connexion between Knowlege widely diffiused, and po- litical Freedom, and on their reciprocal de- pendence, would be mis-spending time. Vo- lumes written out by the hand, would of necessity continue so rare and so costly that the wealthy alone could procure them. The Style and the Pen therefore too often failed to preserve the multitudinous appHcations of XCU ON THE INVENTION OF PRINTING, the intellectual principle, and never could generally disseminate them. But this super- lative art brought Books within the reach of almost all the classes in Society, and excited a spirit of ardent enquiry among them. The extended circulation of Knowlege communi- cated a new and vigorous impulse to the public mind. It now felt powers which had hitherto lain dormant ; in exercising them, it gradually shook off the load of rubbish which had overwhelmed it during the co-existing do- mination of Monkery and Feudality. From this epocha, the tide of improvement in hu- man affairs set in with a steady and accele- rated course. So steady as to have now nearly worn away the most formidable ob- structions ; and latterly so accelerated as to induce some who perceive distinctly the ca- pacity for many and great improvements in social Man to aspire after his Perfectability : the hope of a visionary but praiseworthy enthusiasm. But while shut out by the la- bour and expence of transcription from the means of Instruction, a vast proportion of every community must have lived their days in the darkest ignorance. In this benighted state, without the services of Typography BY THE PRESENT EDITOR. XCIU feudal Tyranny might still have attached the mass of the European population to the glebe*, and Superstition still have propa- gated by the fagot the adoration of conse- crated baubles and holy wafers -j^. If there had been only Copyists, Buchanan would have maintained to little purpose, that the ruling passion of Cato Uticensis was the sole foundation of all legitimate Magistracy from the King to the most subordinate Peace- officer:;!:. Locke, unless he could have set the Compositor to work in the stead of Amanuen- * " Non potuit ire allubi." Domesday Book ; Hantesdre ; passim, t *^ Nam, simul ac Ratio . . coepit vociferari ^......... " DifFugiunt Animi terrores; moenia mundi " Discedunt " Nee Tellus obstat, quin omnia despiciantur, *^ Sub pedibus quaequomque infra per inane geruntur/' X " Non sibi, sed toti, genitum se credere, mundo." Pharsalia : 11. 383. If it can ask no higher praise, it is always amusive to trace the tradition of a thought from one mind to another, and to ob- serve the various applications in its progress. Cicero caught this moral sentiment from the Founder of the Academy : " ut ad Archytam scripsit Plato, non sibi se soli natum " [Homo] meminerit, sed Patriae, sed suis, ut perexigua pars XCIV ON THE INVENTION OF PRINTING, ses, would never have become the Preceptor of Nations in the two hemispheres. To small avail comparatively would this Sage have in- culcated the Duty of Toleration to the doc- trines of every religious Communion, or have promulgated the leading axioms in the science of civil Government, as founded on popu- lar Right. That Liberty of Conscience is a natural Right; that the Religion of every Man ought to be left to God and himself: that all Men are born free and with equal Rights : that Society is founded in the consent of the Majority : that the Liberty of Man in Soci- ety is to be under no legislative Power, other than what is established by Consent : that the legislative, being only a fiduciary Power there remains in the People a supreme Power « ipsi relinquatur.— -2 ; \4.de Finib, — And there is a simi- lar thought in Plutarch ; in Vit. Lycurg, This, we see, Lucan afterward took up m drawing the character of his Hero ; then to convey a just idea of the rightful tenure by which all Magistracy is holdeu, Buchanan paraphrased the verse above by—" Reges non sibi sed Populo *' creatos." De Jure Regni apud Scotos; p, 8. Op, Omn, I. 4to. Ruddiman. edit. Is there not in this natural application of a maxim in Mo- rality to the principles of Government an eminent illustration that political science is no more than a branch of Ethics ? A truth of inestimable importance. BY THE PRESENT EDITOR. XCV to remove or alter the legislative when thej act contrary to the Trust reposed in them: — These and other principles scarcely less in- valuable might have amused the leisure and warmed the philanthropy of the Speculatist, unassisted by the Printer, they could never have worked their way into the general belief, so as to have become motives of action to numbers any-wise competent to effective purposes. Neither, when oppressions past endurance had driven a Nation to arms, and they were victorious in this appeal to Heaven in a Trial by Battel, did there exist, before the era of Printing, a safe and sure means of registering for public inspection any instru- ment of covenanted Liberties ; nor of trans- mitting such evidence of common Right for a late posterity to have in their remem- brance. A transcript of the Charter from Henry I. to the People of England was repo- sited, as a precaution against the danger of spoliation, among the muniments of the prin- cipal Monasteries of the realm. Yet at the re-affirmance and enlargement of our consti- tutional Freedom by the national Convention at Runningmede, Cardinal Langton thought himself fortunate to have recovered a solitary XCVl ON THE INVENTION ON PRINTING. copy of this venerable roll. Very little more than a century had elapsed when all the other records of these stipulated Rights had dis- appeared. Who can doubt that these docu- ments had been wilfully destroyed? The numerous and well- stored Libraries of later times form safer archives. From these con- servatories of Knowlege the memorials of History are, with the seeds of every Science, dispersed over an immeasurable tract, and put beyond the power of human extirpation. Their diffusion can only be compared to the infinite progression of high numbers ; a dif- fusion which ensures their endless duration : by the same means that we may observe in the order of Nature, whose economy it is to regard the increase and multiplication of the species for its preservation rather than to attend to the fate of the individuals who compose it. PREFACE TO EDITION IN 1772*. There is a period in the progress of human de- signs, which, as it is regarded with negligence or with policy, will ensure their destruction or their success^ The Lion is endued by Nature with * This Edition with the Dedication and the Preface I have heard ascribed to Archdeacon Blackburne ; but I have not been able to learn that there is any authority for this opinion. If he were the Editor, his Family are ignorant of the circumstance. — Was it the Rev. Richard Baron, who reprinted Milton's en- larged Edition of the 'EocovoHAaa-rTj^, and who assisted in the 4to. Edition of the Prose Works ? It is far from unlikely that Baron, if then living, was the Editor; or that if it were not he, some one else was employed by Mr. Hollis for this purpose; as I find the Areopagitica enumerated in a list of Books for the use of the Swedes published in this year, 1772, by this Gentle- dan on occasion of the royal Revolution which had recently taken place in that Country {Mem. of T. Hollis, p. 659); who says (p. 656), " let the brave worthy Swedes read the Areopa- " ciTiCA, and get franker." h XCVlll PREFACti TO THE the means of mischief — weapons of dreadful execa- tion ; but deprive him, while he is yet young, of his teeth and his nails — disarm him while he is within your reach — and he will never rise to be the terror of the forest, or the tyrant of the field. Impressed with a conscious sense of this pro- position, I now take up the pen in the cause of my Country. The season of danger ought to be the season of alarm ; and when a secret blow i& aimed at the State by the cunning or the ambi- tious, no honest individual, who is aware of it, will be idle. On the present occasion, therefore, be it my business, as it is my duty, to unveil the foes of Public Freedom, and drag them to the pub- lie altar. It is apprehended, and with good reason, that a design is now ripening to restrain the Liberty of the Press, The character of our present Ministry- makes the existence of such a design probable, but their conduct carries it almost beyond a doubt. So daring an fattempt is indeed worthy of that en- terprising spirit which has already controverted Elections, and ridiculed the complaints of twelve millions of Subjects. It is well known that this ^.Ditioi^ IN 1773* xcix scheme has been long adopted, but adopted only in prospect ; the execution of it was reserved for this season and this P — — t : accordingly hints have been given, inuendoes thrown out, and whis- pers circulated, that the Press is grown luxuriant and wanton, and requires cropping. This laudable business has been ushered into the world by a Publication, which may be considered as the prologue to the tragedy which is intended to follow. On Thursday the 30th day of January last (as if Freedom was doomed to bleed on th6 same day with Virtue*) a Pamphlet was published, entitled, " Reasons against the intended Bill for •• lading some restraint upon the Liberty of the Press ^ ** wherein all the arguments yet advanced by the " promoters of it are unanswerably answered J^ The tendency of this Pamphlet is obvious to the most superficial observer. It is written in a strain of continued irony; and, while it y^^m^ to be the keen foe of the errours of Administration, it is in truth their warmest advocate. It is replete with that oblique and uncouth raillery which is always aim- ing at humour, but never reaches it ; and though ^ The day on which the Royal Martyr suffered. h 2 e PREFACE TO THB it is neither satirical nor witty, it well serves to show that Dullness can sometimes be as malicious as Wit. Such is its tendency, and such its character. However, the powers of this masked battery are too circumscribed and feeble to annoy the palla- dium of Freedom, by playing against it : if it pos- sesses any importance, it is acquired only by its being in disguise. The keenness of its ridicule or the force of its reasoning could never give it con- sequence sufficient to merit a reply, were it not shielded under very powerful protection ; for from very good authority I inform the Public, That it was published under the immediate patronage of C, J w, Esq. Tliis Gentleman — the flower of the Cabinet, and the epitome of the Treasury- Bench — ever able, ever willing to lend a good hand to a bad purpose ^ — this Gentleman (I say) kindly gave his parental bosom to foster, nourish, and warm this bantling into life. A destructive measure cannot be too early crushed — a task worthy of the Areopagitica of Milton. This exalted Genius, when an ill-advised Parliament, in times of political rage and civil dis- sention, had imposed an illicit restraint upon the EDITION IN 1772. Ci Press, drew forth his Eloquence and his Pen in the cause of Freedom — and conquered. The im- portance of this triumph was the best panegyric on the powers which effected it; but when Liberty is the prize, what will not Genius encounter and surmount? I will not promise myself such a signaK victory in our days. Parliaments, which in former times were but novices in the mystery of political in- trigue, are now become familiar with the tricks of State, and can laugh at Justice as unconcernedly as the Lawyers in Westminster- Hall. Corruption is a thriving weed ; and has often found the warm- est hotbed in a Senator's heart. However, the Areopacitica is an admired per- formance, and has been always esteemed by learned men a master-piece of argument as well as of com- position. It is indeed connected with that close argumentation which chains the attention always to the subject, and is diversified with sbch agree- able and happy observations on Men and Books as Genius and Taste only could produce. The suc- cess of this piece was admirable. The men who were wounded by its doctrines became converts to its truth. There is a remarkable instance of this. Cll PREFACE TO THE Soon after the first publication of the Areopagitica, one Mabbot, a Licenser of the Press, was so sen- sibly struck by the force of its arguments, that he applied to the Council of State to move the House of Commons that he might be discharged from his office. He gave the following reasons : I. " Because many thousand of scandalous and " malignant Pamphlets have been published with " his name thereunto, as if he had licensed the *' same (though he never saw them) on purpose (as " he conceives) to prejudice him in his reputation " among the honest party of this nation. II. " Because that employment (as he con- " ceives) is unjust and illegall, as to the ends of its " first institution, viz. to stop the Presse for pub- " lishing any thing that might discover the cor- *« ruption of Church and State in the time of " Poprry, Episcopacy, and Tyranny; the better " to keep the People in ignorance, and carry on " their popish, factious, and tyrannical designs, for " the enslaving and destruction both of the Bodies " and Souls of all the free People of this nation. III. " Because Licensing is as great a mo- " nopoly as ever was in this nation, in that all " men's judgments, reasons, &c. are to be bound kta EDITION IN 1772. cm ** up in the Licenser's (as to Licensing) : for if the " Author of any Sheete, Booke, or Treatise, writ " not to please the fancy and come within the *' compass of the Licenser's judgment, then he is " not to receive any stamp of authority for pub- *' lishing thereof." A Committee of the Council of State being sa- tisfied with these and other reasons of M. Mabbot, concerning Licensing, the Council of State reports to the House ; upon which the House ordered, " That the said M. Mabbot should be discharged " of licensing Books for the future*.** But though the Areopagitica breathes through- out that noble spirit of free Enquiry and civil Liberty which is entirely worthy of the mighty mind of Milton, I am aware that a change of time, of politics, and even of manners, may make some part of it not appear so applicable to this as it was to the last century. We know that the aspect of the times is always varying; and that re- volving ages carry along with them fashions in Literature as well as in dress : Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes. Tenets with Books, and principles with times. * Parliamentaiy Register, 164<9. CIV PREFACE TO THE The quaint and formal Literature of Elizabeth! s days has been known to be despised by the graver and more uncouth scholastic Learning of the first Charles's reign ; which again, in its turn, has been treated with the utmost contempt by the airy and classical wits of Charles the Second*s Court. But though part of Milton's reasoning may appear obsolete, and part unnecessary, still enough will remain behind to convince the unprejudiced and impartial Reader. However, as some new reasons have been offered by the advocates of the Impri- matur in favour of it, and lest even a cranny should be left for a Minister to escape through, I beg the Reader's attention for a few moments longer, whilst I cursorily examine the reasons they have urged in defence of so despotic a measure. " First (say they), this unrestrained Liberty of " the Press is dangerous to Religion." Indeed ! my Lords of the Treasury ! — But this conscientious obstacle comes with a double grace from the op- posers of the Clerical Petition. Are ye at last be- come the gracious guardians of those principles which in your hearts ye despise ? or has the Spirit at length beamed in light upon Souls where light never shone before ? ■■ For shame! my Lords j EDITION IN 1772. CV Avill ye never forsake inconsistence ? Daemons have trembled, and Jews have been converted ; but when the cause of Religion is echoed from the Treasury-Bench, Perfidy is at hand, and we ought to look about us. But, seriously, wherein is the danger to Religion ? Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Conscience have always gone hand in hand; and while these tw© blessings remain free and unrestrained. Religion will never withdraw her beams, or diminish in her lustre. We have heard indeed — our ancestors felt it, and one half of Europe still feels it — We have heard, that in countries where every new Book must be stamped with an Imprhnatury the severest despotism and the darkest ignorance unite to involve the wretched inhabitants in slavery and error ; but it is a doc- trine equally strange as new, that liberal sentiment and free enquiry should check Devotion, or ex- tinguish the flame of Religion and Virtue. This argument is important and extensive enough to fill many pages with a discussion of it ; but as Mil- ton has treated of it with the true spirit of histo- rical disquisition, I refer the Reader to his obser- vations, which he will find in their proper place. '* Secondly, it is dangerous to Government." — ^Vl PRBFACE TQ THE There is a nakedness in this assertion which detects Itself. It is not dangerous to Government. On the contrary, an unlicensed Press is the guardian of Freedom and of the Constitution. I appeal to the opinions of Legislators, to the page of History, to the experience of ages. It will not avail them to adduce the continual dissatisfaction of the People with the servants of Government, as a proof of the evil tendency of unlicensed Printing: this, indeed, is the only security of the State. The British Government, established with wonderful judgment on the basis of two opposing systems, the Republican and the Monarchical, must always derive the security of its existence from an equal exertion of these powers for the good of the whole. There is an equality, a precision, a watchfulness, which must be preserved between them, on which the public safety entirely depends. They must be always jealous of each other, or they are undone. Hence it is, that they live in continual opposition ; hence, that civil dissention is the faithful guardian of civil Liberty ; hence, that the Constitution of Britain, like the boisterous element that surrounds the Isle, must live in tempest, or not live at all. But the kingly branch of the State, having all the EDITION IN 1772. evil executive power in their own hands, have the most frequent, the most easy opportunities of encroaching on the Republican ; which they in their turn must check. Now, how is this to be done ? The former, commodiously seated within the circumference of a single room, whether in Council or in Cabinet, can consult in a firm and undivided body how to extend the interests of Tyranny, or to do the business of Corruption : but the case is otherwise with the People. — Dispersed over all the kingdom, as their property or their interest leads them ; and separated from consulting each other by unsurmountable ob- stacles, when a blow is aimed at their Laws, or an insult at their Liberties, what means of information or redress have they ? None, but the Press. This, and this only, is the bright star of the People. This is the great national trumpet, which rouzes the kingdom from end to end, from side to side. This is the mighty thunderbolt of the People,* i which hurls its fury on a Minister's head, or can make a guilty throne tremble to the centre. —But I am imprudent in my zeal. While I am writing the panegyric of the Free Press, I am in fact re- citing those advantages which make it obnoxious to its enemies. When the public interest is bet/'ayed by crafty CVUl PREFACE TO THE or wicked men, the Press can and ought to sound the alarm, and point out to the People their danger : but this Liberty can never operate against 1 Government, so as to produce any violent efFects, without very violent causes. A great and admired Philosopher, whose opinion is always respectable when he does not treat of Religion, speaks here to the purpose. " This Liberty of the Press," says he, " is attended with so few inconveniencies, that " it may be claimed as the common Right of Man- " kind, and ought to be indulged them in almost " every Government. We need not dread from " this Liberty any such ill consequences as fol- " lowed from the harangues of the popular Dema- " gogues of Athens and Tribunes of Rome. A " man reads a Book or Pamphlet alone and coolly. " There is none present from whom he can catch " the passion by contagion. He is not hurried *.' away by the force and energy of action; and " should he be wrought up to ever so seditious " a humour, there is no violent resolution pre- " sented to him by which he can immediatly vent " his passion. The Liberty of the Press, therefore, 'f however abused, can scarce ever excite popular " tumults or rebellion. And as to those murmurs " or secret discontents it may occasion, it is better EDITION IN 1772. Cix " they should get vent in words, that they may " come to the knowledge of the Magistrate before " it be too late, in order to his providing a remedy *' against them. Mankind, it is true, have always " a greater propension to believe what is said to " the disadvantage of their Governors, than the ^' contrary : but this inclination is inseparable from *' them, whether they have Liberty or not. A ** whisper may fly as quick, and be as pernicious " as a Pamphlet : nay it will be more pernicious, " where men are not accustomed to think freely, " or distinguish between Truth and Falshood*." But, thirdly, the great hinge on which these Reformers of the Press turn their favourite scheme is, " the publication of Scandal." If by the sup- pression of Scandal they mean the suppression of Satire, whether pointed at private or public vices, they are aiming at a point which they never will, never can effect. If there are culprits in morality, there will be correctors too : and while Wit can brandish his pen, or Satire her lash, let Folly ex- pect no quarter. But here the point they aim at is impracticable. Supposing^ that they lock up the babbling tongue * Hume's Essays, Vol. I. p, 13, 8vo. edit. tX t>REFACt to THE of the Press, can they lock up the tongues of in- dividuals ? Satire, confined in the narrow chan* nel of private ridicule, cuts through every thing in its course ; and, like the pestilential air pent up in close recesses, will rage with collected force, and burst with a louder explosion. How ineffectual the most rigorous Licensing, in the most despotic States, is to stop the tongue of Scandal, let Pas^ quin and Marforio witness at Rome ; and let the lampoons of Versailles, and the epigrams of Paris, bear testimony in France. How much less equal then to this task would be the boasted reformation in Britain, where Freedom of Speech is deemed the brightest jewel in the Constitution ; and where every man is accustomed to speak what he thinks, and to think what he pleases! — Ridiculous policy 1 "When Folly plays her anticks in a grave masque, the scene is doubly laughable. I do not indeed deny, that Defamation is often, very often, ill-directed, and then always becomes a real grievance. I am no advocate for the satire that wounds the virtuous, the helpless, or the in- nocent. I know, too, with how much tenderness, respect, and even veneration, characters of exalted trust both in Church and State ought to be treated : :fiDitioN IN 1772. cxi these are obligations which ought always to be binding on Society : but an infringement of all these obligations at once will not be sufficient to justify a restraint on the Freedom of the Press. These abuses have their ample remedies. If in- dividuals are injured by the Press, the Courts of Law are open to their complaints, and willing to redress them. The Laws in force against Libel- ling and Defamation are replete with all the rigour which Justice or Severity could exact, and are within every one's reach. Why then should the Press be restricted to obviate abuses which the Law is already amply authorized to remedy ? — , I repeat it, I have a respect for private reputation, and I hold public characters sacred : but if any false reverences for Power and Authority should exempt the conduct of those intrusted with them from being canvassed by the Public, or scrutinized by any member of the community, adieu to that boasted Constitution which has existed, for ages, the envy and admiration of the whole world. " Fourthly (say our Licensers), in Elizabeth's *' time the Press was not so wanton of its power, ** nor so liberal of its abuse, and yet the Govern- CXU I>REFACE TO THE " ment was both happy and flourishing, nor did " the People murmur : Why might it not be so " now?" — For very obvious reasons, my Lords — Cecil is not at the Treasury-board, Coke is not in the Court of King's Bench, nor is Elizabeth on the throne. In truth, this argument could furnish a very extensive field for disputation j and the discussion of it would be a keen and continued satire on modern Ministers and modern Legislation. In these days, my Lords, in these happy days, the Queen of England was at once the sovereign of her People, and the guardian of their Laws. The public money was expended solely in public uses, and the offices of State were not set up to sale. Parliaments were sincere, and Elections were held sacred: There was but one instance of Bribery in the whole reign, when a candidate gave Four Pounds to be returned to Parliament*, for which he was * This was taken from Sir Edward Coke. His words are re- markable : " Thomas Long gave the Maior of Westbury four *' pound to be elected Burgesse, who thereupon was elected. " This matter was examined and aHjudged in the House of Com- ** mons, secundum legem et consueiudinem Parliamenii, and the *' Maior fined and imprisoned, and Long removed : for this cor- *' rupt dealing was to poyson the very fountain itself." 4 InsU 23. EDITION IN 1772. Cxiii fined, expelled, and doomed to eternal shame. Honesty was the best recommendation to abilities, and abilities to office j places of trust were not held in reversion, and the public honour was not converted into a public jest. Her subjects gave her their hearts, and she freely gave her's in return. Hence she soon made them happy at home, and dreadful abroad. She never patched up a Convention, and she always presided at public treaties. In these blessed times, what cause had the Press to complain ? If the Queen ever played the tyrant, it always terminated in thd good of her subjects. She treated them as at Parent does her Children, and chastised them only to make them more happy. Ye see then, to have murmured against this reign would be to have murmured against Happiness. To have complained when there was no cause of com- plaint, would have argued a weakness and a wantonness for which Englishmen are not remark^ able. — Let our Reformers now step home, and compare the picture of the sixteenth century with our own time : the contrast is rather striking, and may soften even the unfeeling heart of a Minister. CXIV PREFACE TO THE These are the chief of their arguments — But lest these should be found insufficient to carry their favourite Imprimatur into a Law, they have prudently provided a corps de reserve, which, if necessary, may be played upon the enemy as an after-game. It is the interest of tyrannic men to be cunning too, and they are in the right : but it shall not avail them in the present instance. *' Nb man (say they) ought to write what he "would be ashamed to own; therefore no man "ought to write what he would be ashamed "to subscribe. If ye will make us no other " concessions, let every Author put his name " to his Book, Pamphlet, or Paper, and we are " satisfied." There is an air of candour in this argument which renders it deceitful, and the plausibility with which it bespeaks the attention^ makes it the more dangerous. Whether we view it re- specting the effect it would necessarily have on polite or on political Learning, it is despotic and dangerous, and subversive of Truth and Ingenuity, of Enquiry and Freedom. Will the timid and youthful Genius, whose modesty is yet unwou»ded> and whose fears are usually EDITION IN 1772* CXV numerous in proportion as his abilities are great, venture his name, his reputation, his pride, in a fickle and unfriendly world, whose mercy he has never felt, and whose good nature he has never experienced ? Will he lean his fond expectations on that faithless prop, which has often proved deceitful to Genius unsheltered and unpatronized ? Un- doubtedly he will not. He will rather retreat from that world which he dreads, and languish away his life in obscurity and silence. It is thus that NczotoUy the father of new Sys- tems and Worlds, would have pined away in obscurity, and left the world in darkness; and had not one of his friends, more bold than himself, given his discoveries to the world, he would never have set his name to that divine Philosophy, which has since done honour to human nature, and crowned himself with im- mortality. But in politics, the mischief of such a man- date would be unbounded. It would be at once gagging the mouth of Truth and fair investigation. Books, Pamphlets, Letters, Essays CXVl I>REFACE TO THE — all must come forth curbed, bound, and* fettered, and guarded with all the caution and quaintness of a lease or a deed of settlement. If an obnoxious truth is to be told to the Public concerning a Minister, and the Authour is obliged to subscribe it, will not this Minis- ter, assuming all the surly port and pride of power, point his thunder at the unprotected Authour, let slip his dogs of war, and hunt him down through all the quirks and laby- rinths of court-law, and state intrigue ? What is it, in fact, but showing the Minister where to aim his fury, and giving him a lash where- with to scourge the obnoxious and the inno- cent? Will a man for his own sake; or, if he has friends, family, and endearing connec- tions in life, still more for their sake ; venture to expose his interest, his property, and per- haps his life, to the mercy of a powerful and revengeful Minister, who probably has all the treasure and laws of the nation in his own gripe ? He will not, if he is prudent. Mercy indeed, we are told, is sometimes seen at Court; but she never extends her hand to any but culprits EDITION IN 1772. CXvii of consummate guilt, the felons, the robbers, and murderers, of Newgate. But what more is necessary to be said ? Milton will finish what I have begun. I en- treat the Reader's candour for detaining him so long from the arguments of so enlarged a jnind ; and it is my excuse, while it is my pride, that I only fight under the shield of so great a name. Let us hear no more, then, of these illiberal innovations, which would disgrace the ignorance and barbarous rage of the middle ages. If our Ministers have not resolved to reduce us once ^more to a level with the savages of the North, or with the slaves of the South of Europe, let them never attempt to establish Laws which would shackle every generous power of the Soul, and give the last blow to Learning and Freedom. Shall Britons, nurtured in the soil of Liberty, bred under her wings, our bosoms glowing with all the brilliant principles of her unshackled nature, pre- pared alike to deeds of Virtue or of Danger; shall we stoop to truckle at a Licenser's levee, and be tamely robbed of those immunities which elevate us above the other nations of the world ? — Forbid CXVlll i^REFACE TO THE it Freedom, Virtue, public Spirit ! and if such an attempt is made, I warn the heedless abettors of it to beware of the consequences. A similar measure was proposed to Parliament in the reign of king William^ but they wisely rejected it. Should it be revived in the present reign, if our Parliament bear any respect to free- speaking, free-writing, to themselves — they will reject it too. " It is a very comfortable reflection to the " lovers of Liberty, that this peculiar privilege *^ of Britain is of a kind that cannot easily " be wrested from us, but must last as long " as our Government remains, in any degree, " free and independent. It is seldom, that " Liberty of any kind is lost all at once. ** Slavery has so frightful an aspect to men *' accustomed to Freedom, that it must steal " upon them by degrees, and must disguise it- " self in a thousand shapes, in order to be re- " ceived. But, if the Liberty of the Press ever ** be lost, it must be lost at once. The general " Laws against Sedition and Libelling are at pre- ** sent as strong as they possibly can be made. " Nothing can impose a farther restraint, but EDITION IN 1772. CXIX ** either the clapping an Imprimatur upon the ** Press, or the giving to the Court very large *' discretionary powers to punish whatever dis- " pleases them. But these concessions would be *' such a hare- faced violation of Liberty, that they " will probably be the last efforts of a despotic " Government. We may conclude, that the ** Liberty of Britain is gone for ever when these " attempts shall succeed*." * Hunb's Etsays, Vol. I. p. H. 8vo. edit. LIST OF THE EDITIONS OF THE AREOPAGITICA, KNOWN TO THE EDITOR, totit^ fiSL\it teen yutlid^^^lr sepatatels FROM MILTON'S PROSE-WORKS. Small duarto, Lo?id. 1644; original Edition. Octavo, Lo?id. 1738; Thomson's Edition. Octavo, Lojid. 1772; with a smart ironical De- dication to C. JenkinsoUy Esqr. the late Earl of Li- verpool. Octavo, Lond. 179^. This was edited by James Losh, Esqr. A sort of an abridgement of the Areopagitica was published in 1693, small 4to, under the title of " Reasons humbly offered for the Liberty of " Unlicensed Printing. To which is subjoined, the CXXii A LIST OP THE EDITIONS, &C. "just and true Character of Edmund Bohun, the " Licenser of the Press. In a Letter from a Gen- " tleman in the Country, to a Member of Parlia- " ment." No other notice is taken of Milton than by subscribing the initials I. M. It was also re- printed with the *• Tractat of Education," at the end of Archdeacon Blackbiirne's Remarks on John- son's Life of Milton; 12mo, 1780; at the ex- pense of the late Mr. Brand Hollis s and again in a Volume of Tracts, edited by Mr. Maseres, in 1809. And the celebrated Miraheau published a Tract, sur la LiberU de la Presse, imitd de V AngloiSy de Milton. It is for the most part a translation from the Areopagitica ; and I have reprinted it at the end of the present Publication. It may be con- ducive to the honour of our Country, by leading Foreigners to a better acquaintance with all the works of the finest character England has pro- duced. I do not say it's noblest Poet : but the truth is, that between him and Shakspeare, it is a question rather of preference than of comparison. COMMENDATORY TESTIMONIES. This Discourse [Areopagitica] was written at the time when the Parliament was passing an Ordonance, that no Book, Pamphlet, or Paper, should be printed, unless the same was first ap- proved and licens*d by such as should be thereto appointed. Upon which Milton argues with his usual strength and boldness; &c. — The Thoughts of a Tory Author concerning the Press -y p, 8, Svo. 1712*. ^ I have a strong persuasion, that this anonymous piece was by Addison. The vein of easy irony which runs through it strikes me as much in his manner ; though it carries palpable marks of a hasty performance, to ansvrer a sudden call. Com- pare likewise what is said, in p. 2, with one of the arguments which he at the same time urged in the Spectator (No. 4!)1) against the restrictions on the Press then recently moved in Parliament: added to which A.Baldwin, the Publisher of the Spectator, also published the Pamphlet in question. It was so very unusual for the Spectator to venture a stricture on the po- litical occurrences of the passing day, that having deviated in this instance from his regular course is of itself a circum- CXXIV COMMENDATORY Our divine Authour speaks like himself in his Areopagitica. I shall with pleasure transcribe two or three passages. Richardson ; Life of Milton. His [Milton's] Apology for the Liberty of the Press is in all respects a Master-piece. Warbur- TON s in a Letter to Birch s M.S. Brit. Mus. In 1644, he [Milton] published his Areopa- gitica, or Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England. It was written at the desire of several learned Men, and is, perhaps, the best vindication, that has been published at any time or in any language, of that Liberty which is the basis and support of all other Liberties, the Liberty of the Press. Bishop New- ton; in the Life prefixed to his Editions of Mil- ton's Poetical Works. This piece, as well as that upon Education, is written with greater purity and less affectation of style, than his first works in Prose, and it is the stance sufficient to indicate that Addison was not slow to op- pose every infringement on the Freedom of the Press. TESTIMONIES. CXXV strongest vindication, that ever appeared in [any] age or language, of the Liberty of the Press, which is the basis of all other. Birch; in Ins revised Life ^Milton, prejixed to the 2tiarto Edition of the Prose- Works. This matchless Speech composed of noblest Learning, Wit, and Argument, was republished in 1738, with an excellent Preface by Thomson j Authour of Liberty, a Poem, and other Works. Thomas Hollis ; M. S. Note to the Areopa- GITICA. All Governments have an aversion to Libels. This Parliament, therefore, did by Ordinance restore the Star-Chamber practice ; they recalled the Licensers, and sent forth again the Messenger. It was against the Ordinance, that Milton wrote that famous Pamphlet called Areopagitica. Lord Camden ; in giving Judgement in Entick v, Car^ rington. In November 1644, Milton published his fa- mous Speech, for the Liberty of unlicensed Print- ing, against this Ordinance: And among the CXXVl COMMENDATORY glosses, which he says were used to colour this Ordinance, and make it pass, he mentions " the "just retaining of each Man his several Copy; " which God forbid should be gain-said." Mr. JuS" ike WiLLES 5 in delivering his Opinion in Millar v. Taybr, Milton addressed his noble Tract, intitled Areopagitica, to an antimonarchical Parliament, from which he expected the reformation of all the errors and encroachments of the late kingly and prelatical Government. He was above the little dirty prejudices or pretences, that they might be trusted with power, only because he approved of the Men, or depended upon their favour to him- self. He had his eye only on the Cause, and when the Presbyterians deserted that, he deserted them, not out of humour, as this rancorous Bio- grapher [Samuel Johnson'] would insinuate ; but because they fainted in the progress of that work to the completion of which, their first avowed principles would have led them. Would Dr. John- son have chosen to have submitted his works to the Licensers appointed by such a Parliament? or would he venture to expostulate with the powers TESTIMONIES. CXXVU in being on any point of literary privilege, wherein he should think them essentially wrong, with that generous and honest Freedom, that Milton ex- hibits in this incomparable Tract ? No, he sneaks away from the question, and leaves it as he found it. Archdeacon Blackburne ; in his Remarks on Johnson's Life ^Milton. The Areopagitica some tedious historical digressions, and some little sophistry excepted, is the most close, conclusive, comprehensive, and decisive vindication of the Liberty of the Press that has yet appeared, on a subject on which it is dif- ficult to decide, between the licentiousness of Skepticism and Sedition, and the arbitrary exer- tions of Authority. Laureate Warton ; in his Edition q/* Milton's Poems on several Occasions, Had the Authour of the Paradise Lost left us no composition but his Areopagitica, he would be still entitled to the affectionate veneration of every Englishman, who exults in that intellectual light, which is the noblest characteristic of his country, and for which England is chiefly indebted to the Liberty of the Press. Our constant advocate for CXXVIU COMMENDATORY Freedom, in every department of life, vindicated this most important Privilege with a mind fully sensible of its value ; he poured all his heart into this vindication, and, to speak of his work in his own energetic language, we may justly call it, what he has defined a good Book to be, " the " precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed '* and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond " life/' His late Biographer, instead of praising Milton- for a service so honourably rendered to Literature, seems rather desirous of annihilating its merit, by directing his sarcastic animosity against the Li- berty of the Press. It seems not more reasoable, says Johnsoiiy to leave the Right of Printing unre- strained, because Writers may be afterward cen- sured, than it would be to sleep with doors un- bolted, because by our Laws we can hang a thief. This is servile sophistry ; the Authour*s illustra- tion of a thief may be turned against himself. To suffer no Book to be published without a License is tyranny as absurd as it would be to suffer no traveller to pass along the highway without pro?i ducing a certificate that he is not a robber. Even TESTIMONIES. CXXIX bad Books may have their use, as Milton observes. Hayley ; in his Life of Milton. Milton, in his most eloquent address to the Parliament, puts the Liberty of the Press on its true and most honourable foundation. Lord Erskine ; in his Defence of Thomas Paine, The Liberty of the Press was about this tim6 [1738] thought to be in danger; and Milton's noble and nervous Discourse on this subject, entitled Areopagitica, was reprinted in an Octavo Pamphlet, with a Preface written by Thomson, the Poet. Dr. Warton ; in his Edition of Pope's Works, Against the apostate Patriots, who betrayed their Cause with the sanctity of prophaned Religion, Milton advanced as the Champion of free Dis- cussion ; and the effect of his zeal, in this instance, for the interests of genuine Liberty, has received the unanimous acclamation of the world. A strong cause was never more powerfully defended, and Truth in the Areopagitica is armed by Reason and by Fancy, with weapons which are effective k CXXX COMMENDATORY with their weight and edge, while they dazzle us with their brightness. This masterly and eloquent composition is opened with the most conciliatory address; and its arguments, which are individually strong, derive so much force from their mutual support, in a close and advantageous array, as to be absolutely irresistible, and imperiously to compel our con- viction. Charles Symmons, D. D, ; in his Life of Milton. Among these the Reader will find the excellent Tract of the celebrated John Milton, on the Li- berty of the Press, entitled Areopagitica. Cur- sitor Baron Maseres ; in the Preface to a Volume of miscellaneous Essays and Tracts which he re- edited. Areopagitica: A Tract the most weighty in matter, and the most flowing in style of all Mil- ton's prose compositions. John Pearson, Esqr, ; in his Review of Lord Selkirk's Objections to a Re- form in the Representation of the People, The subject had been discussed with singular TESTIMONIES. CXXXl energy and eloquence by Milton, in his Areopa- 6ITICA, written against the Presbyterians, who had contended for the Freedom of the Press, when it was under the control of the episcopal Church; but rising afterward into power, they turned apos- tates to their own priciples, and abusing their as- cendency in Parliament, procured an Order to be published, June 13, 1643, for restraining the Press, and placing " this formidable engine under the *^ same control, of which they had lately indignantly "complained*/* But, notwithstanding the ex- cellence and authority of Milton's work, the sub- sequent restraints on the Press, the great object of the Revolution, namely, the security and extension of Liberty, and the particular tenor of the Act of Toleration, rendered the publication of the other Tracts now reviewed seasonable and pointed. And though Licensers and Imprimaturs have been, since that period, confined to Oxford; yet re- peated attempts made to restrain it, and frequent prosecutions of Authours and Publishers, in sub- sequent and recent times, evince the propriety * J)r, Symtnom^s Life of Milton, p. 213, edit. 1806. k2 CXXXU COMMENDATORY and even necessity of often recalling the public attention to the equity, policy, and wisdom of watching the insidious designs, or resisting the more open attacks of Ministers of State against the Liberty of the Press. It should be also con- sidered, whether the arguments which apply against preventing, do not hold good against punishing, the publications of Opinions, that, with or without reason, may be thought per- nicious ? Dr. Johnson^ speaking of MiLtON's Areopa- GITICA, says, *' the danger of such unbounded " Liberty (of unlicensed Printing), and the danger " of bounding it, have produced a problem in the " science of Government, which human under- *' standi?ig seems unable to solve." Let us then have recourse, replies a judicious Writer, to a divine understanding for the solution of it : " Let " both the tares and the wheat grow together till " the harvest, lest while ye gather up the tares, " ye root up also the wheat with them *." Joshua TouLMiN, Z). Z). in an Historical View of * Memoirs of Thomas Hollis, £sqr. vol. II. p, 551, TESTIMONIES. CXXXIU the State of the Protestant Dissenters in England^ from the Revolution to the Accession of Queen Anne. In the latter of these years, he also issued from the Press his Areopagitica, or Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing, the most splendid of his Prose- Works in English. William Godwin j Lives of Edward and John Philipps, GLOSSARIAL INDEX. A. Allowance 82 Anough 190 Antiphonies 41 Afpointed 60, 186 Atlantic 85 Authentic 192 AUTORITY 75, 126 B. Ballatry 83 Barbarick » 9 Bid 87 C. Cabin 7 Canoniz'd 1S7 Cautelous 7.) Chetiv 67 7b Chop 122 Cities .11, 75 ClYlLL,, 8, 150 Coil 163 Combust 145 CONDISCfiND 93 Conduct » 170 Consented 98 Cote 170 Covenants 121 D. Danegelt 170 Demean'd 152 DlVIOUALL 129 Ditulg'd 112 Doctor 102 DORICK ^.... 81 Ducking 40 E. Economicall 147 Elenchs 196 Enchiridion 115 Envy 159 Exactest 169 Excrementall 65 Extirpat , 183 F. Faction..,. ......M....... 30 CXXXVl GLOSSARIAL INDEX. Feature.... 144 FiNENES 124 Fool 159 Formality 182 G. Gentiles 32 Gentle 8 Ghittarrs 82 Glasse {mortal) 142 Glosing 195 Grammercy 87 H. He 88 Hears ill 84 Heretick 127 Homily 15 Humanity , 9 I. Ideas 155 Impal'd 138 Imposition 95 Individual 129 K. Keri«..., 67 L. Laick 114 ]uIMBO,, , 46 M. Maners 184 Melancholy ,.,„ 102 Minorites 47 Motions 88 Municipal 84 Mystery 141 Mysticall ., 120 N. Neither 113 Noise 166 Notions... 155 O. Officials 92 P. Parlament 188 Passion 3 Patriarchal 103 Patron 172 Pertest 162 PlATZA 40 Plates 154 Prevented 75 Professors 128 Protestations 121 Prudence 194 Publicans 131 PuNiE 100 GLOSSARIAL INDEX, CXXXVU R. Rebbeck... 83 Rectors 84- Responsories 41 Ribald 69 EOMANZE 56 Roundels 26 S. To See to 185 Seeking 144 Shape 143 SiNIORIES 11 Sol fa 135 States 1 Statutes Ill Stedfast 110 Syntagma }iS T. Terrible 34 That 69 Them 108 Tickets Ill Topic 135 Tradition 156 Trophey , 4 U, V. Unscaling «. 166 Visitors , 83 Vote 172 W. Whenas 10^ ARGUMENT OP MILTON^S AREOPAGITICA, Exordium. — The Ordinance of Parliament against printing unlicensed Books. The plan and order otthis Discourse. The great influence of Books on all public affairs. The ill consequences of suppressing good ones^ Ar-view of the methods taken by ancient Common- Wealths, to restraiu the publication of pernicious Books: in Athens j in Lacedaemon 5 in Rome. How far, and in what manner, the publication of dangerous Books was restrained, under the Roman Emperors, after they were become Christians. The Popes began to prohibit the reading of Books that they disliked, abe«t 4he year 800. At last, about the time of the Council of Trent, they ordained that no new Book should be printed till it had been approved cxl ARGUMENT OF by a Licenser. The Bishops, in imitation of the Popes, introduced this custom of Licensing into England. Of the effect of reading all sorts of ^ Books, and whether it does most good or harm. The Liberty of choosing what Books to read, as well as that of choosing what meats to feed on, ought to be left to every Man's own discretion. An examination of what Plato says upon this sub- ject in his Book de Repiiblicd, The Ordinance agginst printing Books without a License is not sufficient to prevent the printing of seditious Books, [thougTTthat was the principal reason for making it. To make it effectual, it must be formed completely upon the model of the Licensing Ordinances of the Inquisition. These restraints upon the Liberty of the Press will neither prevent the growth of Sects and Schisms, nor contribute to the amendment of the manners of the People. It is almost impossible to find persons properly qualified to be Licensers, ithat will undertake the Office. The Ordinance 'against printing Books without a License is a great discouragement to Learning and learned Men. This restraint is an indignity offered to the whole People oT^ngland, by supposing them to be so ignorant, weak, and unsteady, as to be in danger of being Milton's areopagitica. cxli led astray, by every new Book that is published. Klsnalso^'dTSgrace to the M4oia^s--by.^^ them not to have so instructed their flocks as to make them proof against the influence of bad Books. The learned Men of Italy lamented the restraints upon the Liberty of the Press which they laboured under, and considered it as the cause of the low state of Learning among them. That the like complaint is now generally made by the learned Men of England. This restraint upon Printing is a species of Tyranny similar to that which the People suffered under the late Bishops. It is owing to the pride and persecuting spirit of some of the Presbyterian Clergy. The^preyenting the Publication of new Opinions is a hindrance^o the knowlege of the Truth, and of the grounds on which it is built. A description of a luxurious rich Man indolently resigning himself in matters of Religion to the direction of a Clergyman. A ge- neral outward conformity, arising from Ignorance and lndo[ence^^jiji}d.jaJ^^ in matters of Reljgion^willJ:),^ th^ this restraint upon the Liberty of the P^^^^ the Laity. And the Clergy will grow ignorant of the true grounds" oTR'eKgKTnTw ought never to Cxlii ARGUMENT OF desist from our inquiries after Truth, from a vain opinion that we have completely attained to it- The English Nation was always remarkable for-- their love of Knowlege, and their diligence in the pursuit of Truth. A description of the zeal and eagerness with which the vast number of people then in London were studying and examining the Doctrines of Religion. Diversity of opinions will arise hence, but ought not to be esteemed an evill The great tranquillity of the People in London, though in a time of war and danger, and their earnest application to the business of Reform^ation7 are proofs of their confidence in their Leaders, the two Houses of Parliament, and a strong presage of a final victory. A fine and just compliment to the Parliament. The late worthy Lord Brook was of opinion that different Sects of Religion ought to be "tolerated. ' It is more particularly fit at this time, while the Beformatioa of Religion is yet in agita- tion and incomplete, to permit Men to publish their Thoughts without restraint. Many Things are in their nature indifferent, and a difference in opinion concerning them ought to be permitted. (Truth is to be discovered, but by slow degrees, by the free communication of the Thoughts of learned -^ nj;>«w ai»MW^BaNaiB«««*»'«***"M«W«»«**>WW»WWrPWii|| |iM > UII W will I WHH > M i i ■ ■.[ ■r n ■■ i i i—i p iii i r>- MILTON^S AREOPAGITICA. Cxliu and industrious Men to the Public. Several of (the Presbyterian Ministers themselves, did eminent service to the Public, at the beginning of this Parliament, by publishing bold, but useful Books, without Licenses, in contempt of the Laws con- cerning Licensing then in being. The Order of Parliament, next before the present one, was the properest Regulation that could be made concern- ing the Liberty of the Press. M A S E R E S. AREOPAGITICA* * This distinctive epithet he adopted from Isocrates, who in- scribed APEIOIIAriTIKOi: Aoyos on one of his Orations. The concluding member of the passage relative to the present work which I have, in the Prefatory Remarks, quoted from Milton's second De/enre — *' ad just£B Orationis moduin Areopagiticam " scripsi" — appears to be decisive of the sense he affixed to Areopagiticaj that he applied it to the level and unvarnished diction which the Pleaders before that high Council were re- stricted to by a standing rule. At the same time it ought not to be dissembled, that this construction differs widely from the interpretation of the latest Editor of Isocrates. M.-/4m^«* de- termines roundly, that it was so called — *' ob nihil aliud quam «' quod ibi multa mentio fit Areopagitici Senatus." Op, Om, II. 88. Parisiis; 1782. The Abbe's intimate acquaintance with this branch of classical Knowlege is, I believe, admitted by Scholars without hesitation. Still, I greatly question whether we have in this the correct ac- ceptation, and suspect that it is but little worthy of attention. In the first place, it is easy for the Reader to ascertain for him- self, that we meet with no such frequent mention of Areopagus in the Greek text as will authorize Auger's assertion, that it thence acquired the title. The name occurs, I think, but twice throughout the Oration. Next, it is contradictory to the explana- tions that gained the sanction of H.Stephens in his third Diatribe on this Writer, which are all far more plausible : " Areopa- ** GiTicA oratio aliud nomen (quod sciam) non habet : sed tan- ** turn apsiOTfayiliTios-^^oyos 2L Grxcis itidem vocatur. Interpres " senatoriam sive censoriara, aut de corrigenda et ordinanda re- " publica, dici posse existimat. Scopus enim ejus, et summa 12 cxlviii " est, ofi ^at tr^v 6x>^0Hparlocv xal dmpxio^v dnXovfOLs f/.tta," " Xoifji^toiysiv SyjiJiOHparlav, Existimatur autem vocata fuisse " Areopagitica haec Oratio, quod ab Isocrate in ipso Areopago " habita fuerit : sed fieri etiam potest (meo quidem judicio) ut " a dignitate et prcBstantia nomen hac consequuta sit : tanquam " digna qucB vel in medio Areopago haberetur. Sic de Oratione " quae Archidamus inscribitur, creditum est a quibusdam, sic *' esse dictara quod Archidamo conveniens esset, ac digna quae " ab eo apud Lacedaemonios haberetur," Fol. 1393. The precise purport of Isocrates' designation seems to be in- volved in a perplexity which it will not be required of an Editor of the English Areopagitica to disentangle : his option is not hard to make. The last exposition of H. Stephens comes the nearest to that which Milton recognizes; who by the Areopagitic mode must have intended to characterize the chastened and argumentative declamation he chose upon this occasion^ because the most decorous modification of style in which to address the " States and Governours of the Common- " wealth;*' especially when he was contending against an Order which they had recently promulgated, and which he was urging them to rescind. That skilful Critic believed the Rhetor to have devised this superscription to apprize the Athenian Public, that his exerci- tation merited for its tenour and its importance to have been delivered before their supreme Tribunal. This seems pre- ferable to the interpretation of Wolfius, which is, that it was thus denominated because read to them ; since it contains no internal proof, and there has not been transmitted down to us any extrinsic evidence that this Oration was actually recited in th^ Senate House. For all that we can infer from the suc- ceeding words of Plutarch, or whoever it was that wrote the Life of Isocratcs, is, that these political prolusions were repealed, some by himself and some by others, in the Atarpi^r^, or gra- cxlix tuitous School for Students in Philosophy and Rhetoric, which he had opened at Athens. Aiarpity^v Ss trvryjo'aiJiEvos, sin ro ^i\ovo. Milton appears to have shunned French terms j therefore it 8 MILTON S they shall observe yee in the midd'st of your victories and successes more gently brooking written excep- tions against a voted Order, then other Courts, which had produc't nothing worth memory but the weake ostentation of wealth", would have endur'd the least signifi'd dislike at any sudden Proclamation. If I should thus farre presume upon the meek de- meanour of your civill and gentle greatnesse. Lords and Commons^! as what your pubhsht Order hath was that he wrote cabin for cabinet here, as in EtKOvoxXaV'rtj;': •' They would not stay perhaps the Spanish demurring, and " putting off such wholesome acts and counsels, as the Po- " litic Cabinet Whitehall had no mind io" p, 30, 8uo. 1690. • Other Courts which had produc't nothing worth memory but the weake ostentation of wealth,~\ This I take to be an allusion to the imposing pomp which the Court of Star-Chamber dis- played on particular days. In *' A Discourse concerning the ** High Court of Star-Chamber," printed in Rushworth, it is observed that, " It was a glorious sight upon a Star-day, when «' the Knights of the Garter appear with the Stars on their Gar- " ments, and the Judges in their Scarlet.*' — Hist. Collect. II. 473. ^ The meek demeanour of your civill and gentle greatnesse. Lords and Conmions /] Civil retains here its Latin idiom : " cum " sic hominis natura generata sit, ut habeat quiddam innatum " quasi civile atque populare, quod Graeci iroXiriycov vocant." Cicero; de Fin. Bon. if Mai: lib. 5, sect, 23. And gentle then meant well-bom, or of no vulgar rank : " Be he ne*er so vile '^ This day shall gentle his condition.** Shakspeare; Hen, V. A. 4. S. 3. Again ; " There is every dayes experience of Gentlemen AREOPAGITICA. Q directly said, that to gainsay, I might defend my selfe 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, then the barbarick pride ^ oi 2LHunnish and Nonoegian statelines. And " born, that are sordid and mean in nature, and of Plebeianf " by birth that are (renteerd in disposition/' — A Commentary on Fortcscue De Laudibm Legum Anglia; bt/ E. Waterhous, Esq, p. 529. fol. 1663. * The old and elegant humanity of Greece, then the barbarick pride, ^c] By humanity we are to understand courtesy, polite^ ness, a Latin sense; the same as in the acknowlegments he ad- dressed in Cromwell's name to the Count of Oldenburgh for a set of German Horses which that Prince had presented to the Pro- tector: — "cum quod essent ipsge singulari erga me humanitate ac benevolentia refertae." — Pr. W. II. 434-. ed. 1738. Humane was to convey a similar sense in Far, Lost, II. 109. " Belial, in act more graceful and humane,** But the Commentators, from P. Hume downward, have passed it over, as if they considered it to stand there in the acceptation now received among us. The Athenians, with a vanity common to every People pre- eminent ill the arts of cultivated life, regarded all nations but the Greeks as strangers to civilization. With them he who was not a Greek was comprehended under the general appellation of barbarian. In this large sense it was that Cato, the Censor, while vehe- ment in his opposition to the introduction of Grecian Literature at Rome, warned his Son, " c|uandocumque ista gens suas litteras f* dabit, omnia corrurapet. Turn etiam magis, si medicos suos " hue mittet. Jurarunt inter se, fettr6aro*necareomnes medicini. f Pt hoc ipsum mercede faciunt, ut fides lis sit, et facile disper- 10 Milton's out of those ages, to whose polite wisdom and letters we ow that we are not yet Gothes and JuU landers, I could name him who from his private house wrote that Discourse to the Parlament of Athens, that perswades them to change the forme of Democraty which was then establisht^ Such ■* dant. Nos quoque dictitant barbaros, et spurcius nos, qnam ** alios opicos, adpellalione foedant." — Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. 39; cap. 7. Milton, then, sets "the elegant humanity of Greece** in oppo- sition to *' barbarick pride" with exact propriety. Of this pro- priety, Warburton, who thought highly of the Areopagitica, and imitated it, seems to have been unaware ; for when copying this passage, he gave these phrases a different construction. This was in his " Enquiry into the Causes of Prodigies and *' Miracles, as related by Historians;" where he remarks, '* We •'justly pride ourselves in imitating the free Manners and elegant •' Humanity of Greece and Rome; rather than the barbarous In- •* quisitorial Spirit of a Spanish or Italic Hierarchy/' — Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian ; p. 96, 8vo. 1789. * I could name him whofro7n his privat house wrote that Dw- course to the Parlament of Athens, that perswades them to change the forme of Democraty which was then establishi.'\ He took this immediately from Dionysius Halicarnasseus; who had said of Isocrates, "R rig ax av ^av^j^dasie rr^v sV/S'oAijy ra ju-craOeo-Oa/ |u,fv trjv tors xa^sruJcrccv SriyyOKpocriocv, wg {j^syoiXsi Xiysir — De Antiquis Oratoribus Commentarii ; p. 83. 1781. Mores^s edit. At the same time he might have also remembered Cicero. " Exstitit igitur jam senibus illis, quos paulo ante '* diximus, Isocrates, cujus domus cunctse Grseciae quasi ludus '* quidam patuit, atque officina dicendi, magnus orator, & per- '* fectus magister, quamquam forensi luce caruit, intraque pa- AREOPAGITICA. 1 1 honour was done in those dayes to men who profest the study of wisdome and eloquence not only in their own Country, but in other lands, that Cities and Siniories heard them gladly, and with great respect^ if they had ought in publick to admonish *' rietes aluit earn gloriam, quam nemo quidem, meo judicio est " poeta consecutus/* — De Clar. Oral. s. 32. Milton forbore to *' name him," lest he should afford opportunity for the invidious remark, that he had made a proud comparison in placing him- self by the side of a Professor of Rhetoric the most consummate that Athens ever saw. We learn from the Oration wherein Isocrates urged Philip to mediate a general peace among the Grecian States, and in con- federacy with them to turn their united arms against the Persian Monarch ; and the same again from one of those he is thought to have composed for recital at a Panathenaic commemoration, that organic impediments, and a stridulous voice, disqualified him for a public speaker: from this cause, instead of assisting personally at their deliberative Assemblies, this renowned Teacher of Eloquence, like some others, gave his counsel to the Athenians in the same mode by which Milton now *' admo- nishes" the Parliament — in the form of a Speech, supposed to have been spoken. ' Cities and Siniories heard them gladly, and with great respect.] What Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and after him Hieronymus Woljius, relate concerning the celebrity of Isocrates and his po- litical writings seems to have afforded the hint for this statement. ^Ey(uiv Jg TtoKKss dvrs Ha< a\X8S Sis^^svai Xoyou^, itpo; itoXeig rs KoCi Su>a,dx: see "OMIAOS, in 5/^5^. Thes. Grac, AREOPAGITICA. 17 Order avails nothing to the suppressing of scandal- ous, seditious, and libellous Books, which were tnainly intended to be supprest. 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 bee yet further made both in religious and civill Wisdome. I deny not, but that it is of greatest concern- ment in the Church and Commonwealth, to have a vigilant eye how Bookes demeane themselves as well as Men i and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors: For Books are not absolutely dead things, but doe contain a potencie of Life in them to be as active as that Soule was whose progeny they are ; nay, they do preserve as in a violl the purest efficacie and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous Dragons teeth ; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet on. the other hand unlesse warinesse be us'd, as good almost kill a Man as; E\ kill a good Book ; who kills a Man kills a reason- y^ able creature, GoDS Image ; but hee who destroyes \ a good Booke, kills Reason it selfe, kills the Image \ of God, as it were in the eye. Many a Man lives a burden to the Earth ; but a good Booke is the C 18 Milton's pretious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalmM and treasur'd up on purpose to a Life beyond Life. 'Tis true, no age can restore a Life, whereof perhaps there is no great losse -, and revolutions of ages doe not oft recover the losse 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 publick men, how we spill that seasoned Life of Man preserved and stored up in Books; since we see a kinde of homicide may be thus committed, sometimes a martyrdome; and if it extend to the whole impression, a kinde of massacre, whereof the execution ends not in the slaying of an elementall Life, but strikes at that ethereall and fift essence, the breath of Reason it selfe, slaies an Immortality rather then a Life^ But ® — if it extend to the whole impression, a kinde of massacre whereof the execution ends not in the slaying of an elementall life, but strikes at that ethereall and fift essence, the breath of Reason itself e; slaies an Immortality rather then a Life.} It is far from unlikely, that this passage tloated on Lord Shaftesbury's mind, while remarking that Hobbes *' acted in the •' spirit of Massacre" by recommending *' the very extinguish- " ing of Letters," and the extirpation of Greek and Roman Literature {Characteristics; I. 50. \2mo.). The noble Authour well subjoins, '* by this reasoning it should follow, that there ** can never be any tumults or deposing of Sovereigns at Con- ♦' stantinople or in Mogul." But the Writer of the Leviathan had witnessed the instructive lessons taught by antient Learning to Neville and Harrington, to Sydney and Milton. This it was that made him desirous of its extermination. As now, so in Par, Lost, our Authour availed himself of AREOPAGITICA. 19 lest I should be condemn'd of introducing licence^ while I oppose licencing^ I refuse not the paines Aristotle*s hypothesis, then very generally received, of four Elements which composed the material World, with a Jifth Es- sence, peculiar to God and to the Soul of Man : " Swift to their several quarters hasted then " The cumbrous Elements, Earth, Flood, Air, Fire, " And this ethereal Quintessence of Heaven " Flew upward,*' — III. 714. The conceit of *' slaying an Immortality rather then a Life^* is quite in the metaphysical style of that day ; and will be eluci- dated by the succeeding extract from Bacon's Advancement of Learning; whence it is highly probable that he derived it. " Some of the Philosophers which were least divine, and most " immersed in the senses, and denied generally the Immortality " of the Soul ; yet came to this point, that whatsoever motions ** the spirit of Man could act and perform without the organs of ** the body, they thought, might remain after Death, which were " only those of the Understanding, and not of the affections, so ** immortal and incorruptible a thing did Knowledge seem unto them " to be.'* Works; I. 35. 4/o. 1765. Donne and Cowley are under obligations to the same rich mine of raetaphoric and philosophical imagery, which, however unfit, as was not unfrequently the case, they pressed into the service of Poetry. ' Lest I should be condemn*d of introducing licence, while t oppose Licencing — ] '* Condemn'd of* was once common. Thus Lylie; " That thou shouldest condemne me of rigor." Euphues: The Anatomie of Wit. Signat D. 2. sm. ^to. 1636. And it was still the language of the time. May writes, " The King •' was not satisfied in conscience to condemne him of High-Trea- •' son." — Hist, of the Parliament, p. 63. 4/o. Of was heretofore used with much laxity; as equivalent to from, an, for, by, with, at, concerning, and among. Sometimes it seems to have been merely expletoryj as hereafter in this Tract — "What some C 2 20 milton's to be so much historicall, as will serve to shew what hath been done by ancient and famous Com- monwealths, against this disorder, till the very time that this project of licencing crept out of the In- quisition^ was catch t up by our Prelates, and hath caught some of our Presbyters. " lament of" — Hurd thought " QuenchM of hope" to be a Grecism. — Works; I. 81-. Svo. This might have been safely predicated if it had been found in Milton. We may be assured that Shakspeare, whose phraseology it is, only availed himself of the licence of his day. . Scholars agree that the idioms of the Greek coalesce more aptly with our Language than with the Latin. In Sonnet XII, Milton says, of some Adversaries, ** That bawl for Freedom in their senseless mood, " And still revolt when Truth would set them free. " Licence they mean when tha/ cry Liberty ; " For who loves that, must first be wise and good." He was fond of this sentiment, and repeats it again and again through his writings. There is a shining sentence of the same tenour in his Treatise Of Reformatio?!, &c. " Well knows every " wise nation that their Liberty consists in manly and honest " labours, in sobriety and rigourous honour to the Marriage " Bed, which in both sexes should be bred up from chast hopes " to loyall Enjoyments; and when the People slacken, and fait " to loosenes and riot, then doe they as much as if they laid " downe their necks for some wily Tyrant to get up and ride." p. 60. ^to. 164-1. And he protests much the same very early in the Defensio secunda — " Quos non legum contemptus aut violatio in efFre- " natam licentiam effudit; non virtutis et glorias falsa species, " aut stulta veterum aemulatio inani nomine Libertatis incendit, •* sed innocentia vitae, morumque sanctitas rectum atque solum *' iter, ad Libertatem veram docuit, legum et religionis justis- *' sima defensio necessario armavit.^' AREOPAGITICA. 21 In Athens, where Books and Wits were ever busier then in any other part of Greece^, I finde but only two sorts of writings which the Magistrate car'd to take notice of; those either blasphemous and athe- isticall, or libellous. Thus the Books of Prota- goras were by the Judges oi Areopagus commanded to be burnt, and himselfe banish*t the territory for a Discourse begun with his confessing not to know whether there were Gods, or whether not f And against defaming, it was decreed that none sjiould be tra- duc'd by name, as was the manner of Vetus Co- masdia^y whereby we may guesse how they censur'd , * In Athens, where Books and Wits were ever busier then in any other part of Greece — ] He might remember the testimony of Velleius Paterculus to the pre-eminent distinction of Athens : " Una urbs Attica pluribus annis eloquentia, quam universa " Grecia, uberiusque floruit; adeo ut corpora gentis illius sepa- *' rata sint in alias civitates, ingenia vero solis Atheniensium ** muris clausa existimes." — Hist. Rom. lib, I. in fine. Athens might not unaptly be described as the punctum saliens in vitello orbis. — Pindar is remarked by the same Historian to have been the only Greek writer of eminence who was not a native of Attica. Of all the Grecian Republics, Athens was the most popular in its forms and in its administration. Such was Florence among the free States of Italy, and the liberal Arts and the Muses adorned that City as their favourite residence, in preference to Venice under an austere and jealous Aristocracy. * The Books of Protagoras were by the Judges of Areopagus cojnmanded to be burnt, and himselfe banisht the territory for a Discourse begun with his confessing not to know, lohetha^ there were Gods, or whether not ? And against defaming it was decreed that 22 Milton's 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 shew'd. Of other sects and opinions though tending to voluptuousnesse, and the deny- ing of divine Providence they tooke no heede. Therefore we do not read that either EpicuruSy or that libertine school of Cyrene, or what the Cynick none should be traduced by name, as was the manner of Vetus Comoedia, &c.] The first part of this passage is a translation from Cicero: " Protagoras — ciim in principio libri sic posuisset, " de Divis neque utsint, neque ut non sint, habeo dicere, Athe- " niensiura jussu urbe atque agro est exterminatus, librique ejus " in concione combusti.'^ &c. De Nat. Deorum: 1. 1. s. 23. " The Judges of Areopagus;'* i. e. of Mars's Hill. Here is one among numberless instances of Milton's scrupulous atten- tion to propriety of phrase : " the Judges of the Areopagus," would have been as solecistical as " the Judges of the Westmin- " ster Hall/' Yet he defended an errour similar to this in the writers of Smectymnuus ; for which he was smartly attacked in a Tract intitled, " A modest Confutation of a slanderous and scur- " rilous Libell/' &c. which was written in reply to one of his vindications of these anti-prelatical Ministers; where his Oppo- nent says, ** As you have censured the Remonstrants Poesie, so *' in like manner you have justified a slip in the Smectymnuans '* Philology ; I mean, so weakly, not so malitiously, they mis- " took a Bench for a Judge; or rather the place for the men : " Areopagi for Areopagitte ; and you make it good :" &c. p. \\, ^to. 1642. By Vetus Comasdia, I conclude him to allude to these lines in Horace : " Successit vetus his Comadia, non sine multa " Laude: sed in vitium libertas excidit, et vim " Pignam lege regi." Epist, ad Pisones : f. 281. AREOPAGITICA. 23 impudence utter'cl^ was ever question'd by the Laws. Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old Comedians were supprest, though the acting of them were forbid; and that Plato com- mended the reading of Aristophanes '^y the loosest of ' That libertine school of Cyrene, or what the Cynick impu- dence utt€r*d.'\ The " Cyrenaicrout," as he somewhere styles them, were the followers of Aristippus, who placed the supreme good in sensual pleasure. — Cynic impudence is from Diogenes Laertius: *' olXXw; ^ev svtovog irpbs (piXoa'0(^ixv, alJ-jjjU-wy SI wg " irpos ryjv KTNIKHN 'ANAISXTNTIAN." p. 164./o/. 1664.. * Tfiat Plato commended the reading of Aristophanes, &c.] This might be taken from Petit, de Vita Sf Scriptis Aristophanis ; who says, " Quod autem magis mirandum, Plato, tantus Socratis " propugnator, Dionysio regi Syracusano, statum reip. Athe- " niensis, ^ linguam ex Optimo autore perdiscere cupienti, AriS' " tophanes Comasdias misit, ut ex iis linguam et ingenium Athe* " niensium simul cognosceret: quibus ille, licet Siculus, tantum " profecit, ut Olympiadis 103 anno primo (qui illi ullimus vitae *' fuit) Tragcediam docuerit Athenis ; qua & victor evasit. Cluin " & Antiochenus ille Johannes, ab oris ubertate Chrysostomus *' cognominatus,Constantinopoleo8 patri^rchz, fertur bonam partem " suce facundice, turn vehementice in corripiendis vitiis, maxime " muliercularum, ex Aristophanis psene quotidiana lectione '* hausisse ; cum ut Alexander olim Homeri poema, sic sanctus " hie vir Aristophanis Comcedias pulvillosubdere solitus fuerit." Milton seems to guard us against considering this anecdota of •' holy Chrysostom' s" fondness for the Plays of Aristophanes to rest on any solid foundation ; and Menage expresses doubts slill stronger. While vindicating himself for having been a reader of Rabelais, he remarks, in the Avis au Ledeur, prefixed to the second part of his Observations sur la Langue Fran^oise, that, " Clement Alexandrin cite a toute heure Anstophane. '* S. Jan Chrysostome le lisoit continuelleiuent, & le mettoit la '' nuit sous son cbevet, si on en croit Aide Manuce dans la Dedi- 24 Milton's them all, to his royall scholler Dionysius, is com- monly known, and may be excus'd, if holy Chry- soslome, as is reported, nightly studied so much the same Author and had the art to cleanse a scurrilous vehemence into the stile of a rousing Sermon. That other leading City of Greece, Lacedamo?iy consi- dering that Lycurgus their Law-giver was so ad- dicted to elegant Learning, as to have been the first that brought out of Ionia the scattered workes of HomeVy and sent the Poet Thales from Creet to prepare and moUifie the Spartan surlinesse with his smooth songs and odes^ the better to plant among " cace des Oeuvres de ce Comique : car je ne say point d'auteur " plus ancien qui ait fait mention de cette amitie de S. Jan Chry- ♦* sostome pour les Comedies d'Aristophane." Path, 1676. We may indeed well suspect this often-repeated story to be but a paraphrase of what Diogenes Laertius relates of Plato using the Mimes of Sophron for a pillow (In Vit. Plat. Segm, 18) with a fresh application to this Father of the Church. To be sure it is whimsical, that such Plays should become the favourite volume of a Saint. But in 1498, the date of the Al- dine Edition of the Greek Comedian, such a circumstance would be regarded as no slight recommendation of the Authour, and was, we may readily conceive, the inducement to its introduc- tion into a dedicatory Epistle* of the Editio princeps of Amto- phanes, * Lycurgus — was so addicted to elegant Learning, as to have been the first that brought out of Ionia the scatter d workes of Honier, and sent the Poet Thales from Creet to prepare and mollifie the Spartan surlinesse with his smooth songs and odes, &c.] This anecdote, so far as it regards Lycurgus and the Poems of Homer, is to be found mMlian; Var. Hist. I. 13. c. 14. But since that Authour is silent as to this mission of the Cretan Poet to Sparta, AREOPAGITICA. 25 them law and civility , it is to be wonder'd how muselesse and unbookish they were, minding we may conclude it to be clear, that it was Plutarch^s Life of the Lacedaemonian Law-giver, that Milton had now in his recol- lection ; the Biographer having related both these facts. 'Eva $£ tujy yOjU-i^o/xEvw/ sy-si coOcdv x,at ifoXitiycouy, yoipi'fi koci . 241 . fol. So too Sir Edward Walker: *' The gaining this place made " the King and his Army terrible." Historical Discourses; p, 128, fol. To Sixtus IV. posterity are indebted, Mr. Roscoe informs us, for the institution of Inquisitors of the Press, without whose License no work was suffered to be printed. (Life of Lorenzo de Medici; IL 22, 8vo.) On which this Gentleman has justly- observed, ** In this indeed, he gave an instance of his prudence; " it being extremely consistent, that those who are conscious of ** their own misconduct should endeavour to stifle the voice *' that publishes and perpetuates it.*' When writing of the patronage afforded by the Popes to the restoration of letters. Lord Bolingbroke remarked, that they *• proved worse politicians than the Muftis : that the Magicians " themselves broke the charm by which they had bound man- ** kind for so many ages." (Letter VI. on the Study of His- *' tory.J This is pointed and brilliant without exaggeration ; and he might have pursued his metaphor to add, but no sooner did the Roman Pontiffs take the alarm that the power of the Papal See would be endangered by the emancipation of the human mind from ignorance, than they sought by the black art of the Li- censer to raise again the charm which they had heedlessly lent their aid to dissolve. The Monks of Paris, as if prescient that general information would bring ruin on their craft, when the first specimens of printed books were exhibited in that Metropolis, pronounced them to be the handywork of the Devil, and caused the Venders to be sent to prison. D 2 36 MILTON S with a violation wors then any could be offer'd to his tomb. Nor did they stay in matters hereticall, but any subject that was not to their palat, they either condemn'd in a prohibition, or had it strait 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 S. Fete?- had bequeathed them the keys of the Presse also, out of Paradise) % * The keys of the Presse also out of Paradise.l^ Out is the genuine reading. In Toland*s edition as well as is substituted; and the successive Editors have continued this alteration impli- citly. I do not see the necessity for any change : beside, also as well as borders closely on tautology. True it is, that there is now some obscurity from the meaning having been expressed too concisely in this parenthesis. But our Authour intended that the Church of Rome took on it to act, as if Peter had " out of ** Paradise" bequeathed to the Popes the keys of the Press; trust- ing to the Reader, from the conjunction " also*' to supply the Power of the keys claimed by the Papal See, then a topic fami- liar to all. In the Doctrine and I>iscipline of Divorce, he ex- presses himself on this mystic symbol of power in the same brief phrase : " Let whoso will now listen, I want neither pall " nor mitre, I stay neither for ordination [n]or induction, but in " the firm faith of a knowing Christian, which is the best and truest •' endowment of the keyes, I pronounce/' &c. (p. 32, 4/o. 164'4). Disputes on the intention of Jesus in this gift of the Keys to St. Peter helped to fill many a volume of the great controversy which agitated Christendom during the conflict between the Popish and Protestant Communions, It is remarkable that any one ver«ed as Toland was in theological enquiries should have failed to discern the sense; if indeed it was he who vitiated the text. In this S' ntence too, gluttonow* has been printed (or glutton; taking *' glutton Friars," 1 suppose, for an omission at the Press ; AREOPAGITICA. 37 unlesse it were approved and licenc't under the hands of 2 or 3 glutton Friers. For example : Let the Chancellor Cinl be pleas'd to see if in this present work be contain'd ought that may withstand the Printing, Vincent Rahatta, Vicar of Florence, I have seen this present work, and finde nothing athwart the Catholic Faith and good manners : In witnesse whereof I have given, &c. Nicolb Ciniy Chancellor of Florence, Attending the precedent relation, it is allowed that this present work of Davanzati, may be Printed, Vincent Rabatta, &c. It may be printed, July 15. Friar Simon Mompel d' Amelia Chancellor of the holy Office in Florence, but erroneously, as the succeeding authority is sufficient to show : " In pleasure some ihoir glutton souls would steep." Dry den; R<1: Laid, Whenever such silent and unauthorized departures from the original text occur, they should be pointed out and reprehended. They often mar the real sense ; and at best, it is their direct and unavoidable tendency, by blending the modes and idioms of different ages, to render it more difficult to trace the historical progress of a Language. Of this I will give an illustration. The quarto edition of Lord Bacon's Works, in 1765, reads — " must be accommodate^/ and palliatec? by diets and medicines." I. 68. Whereas it is printed — " must be accommodate and / 38 Milton's Sure they have a conceit, if He of the bottomlesse pit^ had not long since broke prison, that this *' palliate, &c." — in the Edition o^ the Advancement of Learning , published at Oxford, in 1633, sjn. Ato. see p. 174; as no doubt the Authour wrote it. Ed had not uniformly become the parti- cipial termination in Bacon's time. ^ He of the bottomlesse pit — ] While the fashion continued among the English Literati of assimilating their *' Mother dia- lect" to Greek and Latin constructions. He had often the em- phatic sense given it of avros and ipse. The dogmatic ATT02 f ^a of Pj/thagoras*s disciples is enough known : I need not quote authorities. The succeeding example will establish the peculiar force of ipse : " Alius filio, fratre alius, aut propinquo, " aut amico interfectis, agere grates deis, ornare lauru domum, " genua ipsius advolvi, et dextram osculis fatigare. — Tacit An, '* XV. 71." On which a Commentator observes, (Ernest, edit. L 857.) " Genua ipsius — ] i. e.Neronis: quod non noiassem, nisi " Pichenam ad Deos retulisse viderem. Et est exquisitior ratio " hujus pronominis pro nomine usurpandi cum ex oppositione " intelligi ad quod referatur, potest opponuntur Dii et ipse. Sic " saepe Graece Auctor Homerus Iliad, et init, ^v^as — avrs^, ipsos " i. e. corpora." I will add from VirgiVs Moeris, " Carmina turn melius, cum venerit ipse, canemus;" to which the celebrated Oratour Dr. King gave its full intonation before the University of Oxford, in his Jacobitical application of Ipse. This idiom was early transplanted into the English tongue. Sir T. Smith, with no other intimation that it is St. Paul whom he is quoting, has, " and (as he sayth) what reason hath the Pot «* to say to the Potter, why madest thou me thus?*' — De Repub- lica Anglorum. Tlie maner of Gouemement or Policie of the Bealme of England, p. 11, A^to. 1583. And in Par. Reg. IV. 299. " In corporal pleasure He, and careless ease :" meaning Epicurus, It is of very common recurrence in the AREOPAGITICA. 39 quadruple exorcism would barre him down. I feare their next designe will be to get into their custody the Licencing of that which they say Claudius^ in- tended, but went not through with. Voutsafe to see another of their forms, the Roman stamp : Imprimatur y If it seem good to the reverend Master of the holy Palace, Belcastro, Vicegerent. Imprimatur Friar Nicolb Rodolp/ii, Master of the holy Palace. Sometimes 5 Imprimaturs are seen together dia- logue-wise in the Piatza of one Title page, comple- menting and ducking each to other with their Anatomy of Melancholy. For instance : " They themsclues haue *' all the dainties the world can aftord, ly on downe beds with a " Curtisan in their armes; lieu quantum patimur pro Cfiristo, as " he said/' — p. 698. ed. 1632, where Burton adverts to a profane jest of Pope Leo X.'s— Thus Milton again (Par. Lost, VI. 760), by way of eminence, without any further designation of the Messiah : " Hee ia celestial Panoplie all arm'd," &c. />. 168, o/cd 1674. So too {ib. IX. 130) " And him destroyed, " Or won to what may work his utter loss, " For whom all this was made." i.e. Man ; y.a.'r' s^o^yjv. It was a strange oversight for Beniley to take exception to a classical use of this Pronoun, and offer here an obtrusion on the text. * Claudius — ] Quo veaiam daret flatum crepitumque ventris in convivio emittendi. — Sueton, in Claudia, — Note in the original Edition, 40 Milton's shav'n reverences ^ whether the Author, who stands by in perplexity at the foot of his Epistle, shall to the Presse or to the spunge. These are the prety Re- ' Sometimes five Imprimaturs are seen together dialojyue-wise in the Piatza of one Title-page, complementing and ducking each to other with their shav*n reverences.] According to Blackwell, in his Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, •' A Book in " Spain must pass through six Courts, before it is publihed. I. " It is examined by the Examinador Synodal of the Arch- " bishoprick, commissioned by the Vicario. II. It goes to the '* Recorder of the Kingdom, where it is to be published, Chro- " nista de Costilla, Arragon, Valencia, &c. III. If approved " by them, it is licensed by the Vicario himself, attested by a *' Notario. IV. The Privilege must be had from his Ma/w^y; " and a Secretary countersigns. V. After it is printed, it goes " to the Corrector-General por fu Magestad, who compares it " with the licenced Copy, lest any thing be inserted or altered. " And VI. The Lords of the Council tax it at so much a sheet. " In Portugal, a Book has seven Reviews to pass before publica- '* tion. I have smiled at some of their Title-Pages, bearing for " the greater Security of the Buyer, Com todas aslicengas neces- " sarias/' p. 63, second edit. 1736. Piatza, here signifies an open space; agreeably to its Italian and proper idiom. Harrington has it too in this strict accepta- tion for any area, or broad extent of ground surrounded with buildings. (Works; p. 227. feL 1747.) So has H(ywell-~" the '* Piatza of Saint Mark is the fairest and most spacious markett #' place of all the Townes of Italic, and bears the form of a " Greek T" A Survey of the Signiorie of Venice: p. 36, fol, 1651. And Davenant : "The scene wholly changing, there " appears a square Piazza, resembling that of Venice, and *tis " composed of Pallaces, and lesser Fabricks." Works ; p, 399- fol. 1673. But now with us it has long since lost its native signifi- cation; so long, that Johnson, in his Dictionary, only explained Piazza by " a Walk under a roof supported by pillars." Pro- bably the arcades or " arched walks" in Covent Garden having obtained this name, i/vhicb would properly apply to th^ AREOPAGITICA. 4X sponsories, these are the deare Anti phonies that so bewitcht of late our Prelats and their Chaplaines with the goodly Eccho they made^ ; and besotted compass of ground on which the market is kept, has contributed to give currency to this impropriety. Ducking is tnaking affected obeisance: see T. Wartori's note on " Here be without duck or nod.*' Comut; V. 960. And Noy, in his speech against Prynne : " Who he means by *' his modern innovators in ihe Church, and by cringing and *' ducking to altars, a fit term to bestow upon the Church ; he " learned it of the Canters, being used among them. — State Trials; I. co/. 420. Margrave's edit. We may well imagine to ourselves Milton at Rome, eyeing t\\e\x shavn reverences, with a bent brow and a look full of scorn, while they were exchanging salutes with each other, in the places of public resort. ^ TJiese are the prety Responsories, these are the deare Antipho* nies that so bewitcht of late our Prelats and their Chaplaines with the goodly Eccho they made,'] The parts in the Liturgy of the Church of England, which are recited in reciprocal succession by the Minister and the Congregation, such as the alternations of the Psalms, were called the Responsories. He enlarges on his dislike to them in the Apology for Smecfymnuus; (Pr, W. !• 128. ed. 1738.) The '* goodly eccho** now grated on his ear. I. Philipps, or rather he himself under his Nephew's name, makes again an allusion to them in the Responsio ad Apologiam Anonymi cujusdam Tenebrionis : " Siquid nos Carolum peccasse dicimus; tu •5* verbis totidem, velut amcebcsa canens lyturgica, paria com- " misisse Parlamentum accusas." — Cap, 12. The Antiphonies were the Anthems sung or chaunted by two responsive choirs, as in our Cathedrals : Du Fresne ; Gloss, ad scriptores media ^ infimce GrcRcitatis in v. ANTI*I2NA ; and- Lyndwood's Constitutiones Provinciules, &c. p. 251. note z. fol. 42 Milton's us to the gay imitation of a lordly Imprimatur, one from Lambeth House, another from the west end of Pauls'*', so apishly Romanizing, that the word 1679. — The more rigid of the Protestant Reformers were stren- uously opposed to the continuation of any choral service. By Milton, ** the pealing organ" and the •' full-voic*d duire/' were in earlier life heard with strong emotions of delight. Now, with Church-Musick the recollection rose in his mind of the recent and grievous persecutions by the established Hierarchy of those among their seceding Brethren who withdrew further from the Romish Church than they believed it right to go. * The gay imitation of a lordly Imprimatur, one from Lambeth House, anothtr from the west end of Pauls ;] Pursuant to the Decree of the Star-Chamber in 1637, concerning the Press, all Books of Divinity, Physic, Philosophy, and Poetry, were to be licensed either by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Bishop of London, or by substitutes of their appointment. This docu- ment is in Rushworth ; Hist. Coll. HI. 306. Appendix; and is re- printed in the Memoirs of Thomas Hollis; p. 641. • Before this Decree, according to Rushworth, *' the licensing '* of all new Books was in the power of the Archbishop of Can- •* terbury, and his Substitutes and Dependants, who used that ** strictness, that nothing could pass the Press, without his or ** their approbation, but the Authors, Printers, and Stationers " must run a hazard of ruin.'* He adds, that this Decree was made in the Star-Chamber lest Printers should reprint old Books of Divinity formerly licensed ; and that Fox's Book of Martyrs, the Practice of Piety, with other works hitherto published by authority, were denied new Licences. Hist. Coll. H. 450. And Sir Edwzrd Deej-ing complained to the Parliament in 1640, that *' the most learned labours of our ancient and best •♦ Divines must be now corrected and defaced with a Deleatur, «' by the supercilious Pen of my Lord's young Chaplain, fit •' (perhaps) for the technical arts, but unfit to hold the Chair of " Divinity." ib. Hist. Coll. IV. 55. It should appear however to have been the course for works AftEOPAGITICA. 45 of command still was set downe in Latine ; as if the learned Grammatical! pen that wrote it, would cast no ink without Latine: or perhaps, as they thought, because no vulgar tongue was worthy to expresse the pure conceit of an Imprimatur ; but rather, as I hope, for that our English, the lan- guage of men ever famous, and formost in the atchievements of Liberty, will not easily finde servile letters anow to spell such a dictatorie presumption of an historical nature to be submitted to the Secretary of State for his written sanction, previously to their being sent to the Printer. I find the following authoritative approbation prefixed, as the instrument of Licence, to May's Poem, the victorious Reigneof King Edward the third: " 1 have perused this Booke, " and conceive it very worthy to be published. " lo. Coke, Knight, Principall Secretary of State, Whitehall " 17. of November, 1634.'' Whereas Aleyns metrical Hixtorie of that wise and fortunate Prince, Henrie of tltat name the seventh; {%vo. 1638.) the MS of which work, in compliance with this decree of the Star-Cham- ber, was laid before the Bishop of London's Chaplain, has the word of command set down in Latin. '* Perlegi historicum hoc " poema, dignumque judico quod Typis mandetur. — Tho. ** Wykes R. P. Episc. Lond. Chapell. domest." Under the Licensing Act of the 13th and 14th of Charles IL ch. 33, all Novels, Romances, and Fairy Tales, and all Books on Philosophy, Mathematics, Physic, Divinity, or Love, were to be licenced by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or by the Bishop of London. " The Framers.of this curious Act of Parlia- " ment, (observed the late Earl Stanhope not unhappily) no doubt, ** supposed that these Right Reverend Prelates were, of all tho " Men in the kingdom, the most conversant with all those sub- '' jects."— TAe Rights of Juries defended; p. 65. Svo. 1792. 44 Milton's Englisht^ And thus ye have the Inventors and the originall of Book-licencing ript up, and drawn as lineally as any pedigree. We have it not, that can be heard of, from any ancient State, or Politie, * Will not easily Jinde servile letters anotv to spell such a dictato- rie presumption Englisht.] In his Tractat, Of Education, Milton speaks of ** the ill habit which poor striplings get of wretched " barbarizing against the Latin and Greek idiom, with their on- " tutor'd Anglicisms, odious to be read/' He was therefore ambitious of accommodating his English style to the construc- tions of the learned Languages. The adaptation of the Latin inversion which the text exhibits is however a form too succinct for a tongue where Articles are prefixed, as in ours, to supply the want of diversified terminations in the Cases of the Nouns. To say the best, it is unidiomatical and repugnant to the copious fluency of uratorial diction. We tolerate this classical dialect more easily in the scientific structure of blank verse ; yet even there it often causes harshness and obscurity; as in the succeed- ing description : " And now, their mightiest queird, the battle swerv'd, " With many an inroad gor'd; deformed Rout •' Entered, and foul Disorder; all the ground " With shiverM armour strown ;" — P. L. VI. 386. To comprehend this passage rightly, we should bear in mind, that Battle stands here in a sense now disused — for the mnin body of the Satanic Host. Milton* j> spirited remark that the English Language would afford no word to denote the Licenser's passport for the admit- tance of a manuscript to the Printing Office may be extended to Sedition and Libel; neither of which are terms of indigenous growth, and have both been grafted on the native stock of our Law. AREOPAGITICA. 45 or Church, nor by any Statute^ left us by our Ancestors elder or later; nor from the moderne custom of any reformed Citty, or Church abroad ; but from the most Antichristian Councel, 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 stifl'd then the issue of the womb: no envious Juno sate cros-leg'd over the nativity of any mans intellectual! ofF-spring; but if it proved a Monster, who denies, but that it was justly burnt, or sunk into the Sea. But that a Book in wors condition then a peccant soul, should be to stand before a Jury ere it be borne to the World, and undergo yet in darknesse the judgement of Rada- manlJi^ and his CoUegues, ere it can passe the ferry • Nor by any Statute — ] SeUen had said, in the Parliament which Charles called in 1628, " there is no Law to prevent the '* printing of any Books in England, only a Decree in Star- " chamber." The Proceeding and Debates of the House of Com- mons; taken by Sir Thomas Crew, j). 71. l2mo. 1707, Or, Rushworth; Hist, Collect, I. 055. ** The issue of the brain, &c.] No doubt this passage was known to Harrington, and it might suggest to him the whim- sical device by which he prevailed on the Lady Cleypoole to intercede with her Father to restore to him the manuscript of his Oceana which Cromouell had seized while under the Press. — '' Radamanth — ] An observation from SirThomas5»i/M will account for the omission here of the A in Rhadatnanth: " Quidam ** nimium gra^cissantes, h, e literarum tanquam senatu raoverunt, "alii relegerunt, nostra nihil interest: Graeci semper in initio *' & aate yocales solas, habebaot| nisi in p, cui semper fer^ sua 46 MILTON S backward into light, was never heard before, till that mysterious iniquity provokt and troubl'd at the first entrance of Reformation, sought out new Limbo's and new Hells wherein they might include our Books also within the number of their damned*. And this was the rare morsell so officiously snatcht " densum adiungebant spiritum, & rectc quidera in hac parte " graccissant nostri Walli :'* &c. — De recta t^ emendata Lingua Anglicct Scriptione Dialogus ; p. 25. hutetice. 1665. As it is uniformly rime in Milton's prefatory Advertisement to Par, Lost, while it is printed with an A through the Poem, there has been a difterence of opinion among the Annotators, whether he did not by this diversity intend to vary the meaning? But I, for one, entirely agree with Mr. Todd, that this word was there in the same sense spelt both ways. And the omission of this letter in my text, coupled with what Sir T. Smith ob- serves, will show that this Orthography was in adherence to the practice of the Greeks. Hence obviously it was, that Bentley, in his Edition of Par. Lost, dropped the h in rhyme. ^ Sought out new Limbo's and new Hells wherein they might in^ elude our Books also within the number of their da7nned.] The Papists gave the name of Limbo to Purgatory, and to the repo- sitory assigned in their Faith for the Souls of the Just, who lived before the advent of Christ, and to those of Infants who die un- baptized. This receptacle or conservatory for these departed Spirits was located in the centre of the Earth, and on the out- ward confines of Purgatory : in this subterranean region they were to await the day of doom. The reader may learn further particulars, under Limbus, in Du Fresne; Gloss, ad. Script. 3Ied. £f Infiin. Latinitatis, Phaer, in his Torsion of the " fourth Booke of Aeneidos/* renders " Stygioque caput damnaverat Oreo" — by — " Diana damned had her head to lake of Limbo-jpit.*' Signat. G, 4. sm. 4to. 1620. AREOPAGITICA. 4J: up, and so ilfavourdly imitated by our inquisiturient Bishops, and the attendant Minorites their Chap- lains ^ That ye like not now these most certain Authors of this licencing Order, and that all sinister intention was farre distant from your thoughts, when ye were importun'd the passing it, all men who know the integrity of your actions, and how ye honour Truth, will clear yee readily \ ' Our inquisiturient Bishops and the attendant Minorites their Chaplains.'] That is, " our inquisitorial Bishops and their Friar- ** like Chaplains." The Franciscans were called Friar'tninors or Minorites, because it was one of the rules of their Order, says Du Fresne, " Nullus vocetur Prior, sed generaliter omnes vocentur Fra- tres minorea,** — Gloss, torn. 4. col. 792. Benedictine Edit. ' How ye honour Truth, will clear yee readily.'] When I cast my eye over the first Edition of this Oration, with a view to the present Republication, I thought that I discerned an intentional difference between our Authour's use o^ ye and yee; that he doubled the e where he gave this word an emphatical pronun- ciation ; indifferently, whether it were the nominative or aa oblique Case. But on confronting the respective passages, the dis- tinction did not appear to me to be sufficiently preserved to justify particular notice. I am now disposed to believe this to have arisen from the Printer not having adhered with fidelity to the orthography of the Manuscript: having since found that the elder Richardson had drawn a like conclusion, from the same di- versity through Milton's own Editions of Paradise Lost, in the spelling of this and the other pronouns, " He, We, Me, Ye, *' which are (he adds) with a double or a single e, as the Em- " phasis lies upon them, or does not." Life of Milton prefixed to Notes and Remarks on Paradise Lout; p. CXXXI. BfO. 1734. This will appear palpably in the following passage; *' He with his whole posteritie must dye, ** Dye hee or Justice must." Par. Lost. p. dl. Svo.ed, IQ7^ 48 Milton's 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 easie 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 tooke it up, and to no other purpose but to obstruct and hinder the first approach of Re- formation ; I am of those who beleeve, it will be a harder alchymy then Lulliiis ever knew^, to subli- And what will decisively ascertain, thai these variations were not without a meaning, the same Biographer points out in the table of Errata to the first impression of this poem, a correctioQ of the Press expressly to that effect. *' Lib. 2. v. 414, for uc r. ** wee,'* I have not in ray recollection any specimen which would exemplify more clearly the Poet's scheme, to mark em- phasis by varied spelling, than the close of Eve's pathetic sup- plication to Adam to pardon her transgression, and not forsake her, as we find it printed in the only copies of authority : see "B, IX. V, 927. of the original Quartos; and p, 278 of the 8vo. 1674. •' On me exercise not " Thy hatred for this miserie befall'n, " On me alreadie lost, mee then thy self " More miserable ; both have sin'd, but thou " Against God onely, I against God and thee, •' And to the place of judgment will return, " There with my cries importune Heav'n, that all " The sentence from thy head removed may light ** On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe, ** Mee, mee onely just object of his ire." — • A harder alchymy then Lullius ever knew,"] i. e, Raymond Lully, who was an Hermetic Philosopher of high fame in his day, and a great adept in the occult sciences. AREOPAGITICA. 49 mat 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, untill 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 generall of reading Books, what ever sort they be, and whether be more the benefit, or the harm that thence proceeds? Not to insist upon the examples o( Moses, Daniel and Paul, who were skilfuil in all the Learning of the Egyptians, Caldeans, and Greeks, which could not probably be without reading their Books of all sorts 5 in Paul especially, who thought it no de- filement^ to insert into holy Scripture the sentences of three Greek Poets, and one of them a Tragedian ; the question was, notwithstanding sometimes con- troverted among the primitive Doctors, but with great odds on that side which affirmed it both law- full and profitable, as was then evidently perceived, when Julian the Apostat*, and suttlest enemy to * Paul thought it no defilement, &c.] See Illustration, B. * When Julian the Apostat, &c.] See Juliani Opera, p, 192, &c. part 2. 4/0. Paris, 1630. Whether this Imperial edict prohibited to the Christians the study of Pagan Learning altogether? or whether it went no further than to interdict the teaching of it in their seminaries ? were questions which had exercised the pens of Men of Parts in England and in other Countries. There were difficulties on each side of the controversy. Gibbon reconciled the seeming contradictions. " The Christians (he observed) were directly £ 50 Milton's 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 owne 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 liberall Sciences out of the Bible, reducing it into divers forms of Orations, Poems, Dialogues ^ ev'n to the " forbid to teacb^ they were indirectly forbid to learn ; since " they would not frequent the Schools of th*? Pagans." (Hist. ch.23 n. 89.) But the remark originally belonged to Warhurton : see his Discourse of Julian's attempt to rebuild the Ternple ofJerU' sale?n;p, 26. (n.) 8vo, 1750. * The two Apollinarii were fain, as a man may say, to coin all the seven liberall Sciences out of the Bible, reducing it into divers forms of Orations, Poems, Dialogues, &c.] To qualify himself for the defence of the anti-prelatical Party, Milton had been not long before reading the ecclesiastical His- torian Socrates, who furnished him with this anecdote, and he now remembered the following passage : Sfji.vrji/.Qysva'OLiJi.sv, (pays^cvrspov; aitahi^sy uj$ yocp a/A^w ^r^jv iitiq-tr^l^ov&s Kayujv, o jX£v itcirrfp ypoci/^fjiOLtixxv, (TOOmx-uiv h o vio$, ;)^ei5'^0Lvi Pun n'est pas plus une Continuation de Tautre^ que 56 Milton's tale of Jerom to the Nun Eustochium, and besides has nothing of a feavor in it. Dionysius Alexan- drinus ^ was about the year 240, a person of great " votre Henriade est une Continuation de votre Candide : Vous " sauriez cela, si vous aviez lu ces Poeraes, cornme vous pre- *' tendez avoir fait." — Discours sur Shakespeare, et sur Monsieur de Voltaire; p. 146. 8vo. 1777. Non nostrum munus tantas componere lites. But I must not pass it over that Milton called Pulci's work a " Romanze" to distinguish that it was a poetical composition. The name dates its origin from the hybridous dialect in use, of which a large proportion was a corrupted Latin, when the first rude essays at Poetry after the overthrow of the Roman Empire were written. It was the primary signification of Romance through all the Countries where the Latin overpowered the ver- nacular Language. " The Spaniards (Verstegan remarks) call " to this day such verses as they make in their Language, by " the name of Romances: and so did the French also, as may " appear by the title of the Poesie written in French by John " Clopinell alias Meung, by him intituled, Le Romant de la Rose, *' and afterward translated into English by Geff cry Chaucer, with " the title of the " Romant of the Rose.'* A Restitution of decayed Intelligence; /). 200. Mo. 1628. Milton is not singular in the use of Romance in the sense of a narrative Poem. It occurs more than once in Puttenham* s Arte of Poesie; but being then quite new to the Language, he always adds an explanatory phrase ; " Romances or historical rimes." Our Authour, to apprize the Reader that he assigns it the same import as the Italians, retains their z. When he employed this word to denote the chivalrous tales in prose of the dark ages, he wrote it in the way then and still in use among us for this se- condary and adventitious meaning. * Dionysius Alexandrinus, &c.] What is contained in the following Note by Meursius, to his Edition of Helladii Besan" tinoi Chrestomathia, relates, I apprehend, to this Dionysius AleX' andrinus: " Diora/sius Alexandrinus, Christianus: qui scripsit, «* 'Tiroi^vfji^a, ei; rrjv IxxATjciao-r^v ^oKoy^wyra. Suidas, de eo. AREOPAGITICA. 6/ name in the Church for Piety and Lerning, who had wont to avail himself much against Hereticks hy being conversant in their Books 5 untill a certain Presbyter laid it scrupulously to his conscience, how he durst venture himselfe among those defiling volumes. The worthy man loath to give offence fell into a new debate with himselfe, 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 Thes- salonians; Prove all things*, hold fast that which *' Aiovvo'ids* £0 AXs^ay^pelas' ov svpov VTfoix,vrj[/.a, sis '^f{^ iyotXyi' *' o'loca'T'^v ^oXoiLujvrcL, Xiav ev(ppaS£S. Hujus quoque esse puto " Ennnrrationem in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos, quae exstat in " Bibliotheca Augustana. Forte etiam hie ipse, qui Episcopus " posted factus : de quo, atque scriptis ejus, vide Eusebium* " Hist. Eccles. lib. VI. cap. XLIV. XLV. XLVI. & Librum " VII. totum. Item Nicephorum, Hist, item Eccles. lib. VI. " cap. VI."— p. 33. Ultrajecti. 1686. Mo, * Prcwe all things, &c.] " Try all things, hold fast that which " is good, is a divine rule, coming from the Father of Light and " Truth ; and it is hard to know what other way men can come ** at Truth, to lay hold of it, if they do not dig and search for " it as for gold and hid treasure." Locke ; Conduct of the Un^ der standing : S. 3. The Reasons why the Commons could not agree to the Clause which revived the old Printing Act, delivered at a conference with the Lords, 1695; and printed in the Craftsman, No. 281. (VIII. 213) are there said to have been drawn up by Locke. 58 Milton's is good. And he might have added another re- markable saying of the same Author ; To the pure all things are pure^ not only meats and drinks, but all kinde of Knowledge whether of good or evill ; the Knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the Books, if the will and conscience be not defiFd. For Books are as meats and viands are ; some of good, some of evill substance; and yet GoD in that unapocryphall vision, said without exception ; Rise PeteVy kill and eat, leaving the choice to each man's discretion. Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomack. differ little or nothing from unwholesome; and best Books to a naughty mind are not unap- pliable to occasions of Evill. Bad meats will scarce breed good nourishment in the healthiest concoc- tion; but herein the difference is of bad Books, that they to a discreet and judicious Reader serve ID many respects to discover, to confute, to fore- warn, and to illustrate. Whereof what better witnes can ye expect I should produce, then one of your own now sitting in Parlament, the chief of learned Men reputed in this land, Mr. Selden, whose volume of naturall and national Laws proves*, * To the pure all things are pure, &c.] Epistle to Titus ; ch. I, •. 15. — There is a similar thought in Par, Lost. V. 117. *' Evil into the mind of God or Man •* May come and go, so unapproved, and leave " No spot or blame behind.'* * TTte chief of learned Men reputed in this Land, Mr. Selden. AREOPAGITICA. 5^ not only by great autorities brought together, but by exquisite reasons and theorems almost mathe- matically 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 universall diet of man's body, saving ever the rules of Temperance, he then also, as be- fore, left arbitrary the dyeting and repasting of our minds; as wherein every mature man might have to exercise his owne leading capacity ^ How great a vertue is Temperance, how much of moment through the whole life of man? yet GoD committs the managing so great a trust, without particular whose volume of naturall and national Laws proves, &c.] The work referred to was entitled, " De Jure Natural! & Gentium, juxta " disciplinam Hebraeorura. fol. Lond. 1640." He speaks of it again in the 22nd ch. of the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce with very high praise. " Exquisite reasons'* — this is a Cicero- nian phrase : " Philosophoruin vero exquisita qusedam argU" " menta.'* De Divinat. lib. 1.3. ^ When God did enlarge the universall diet of man's body, taving ever the rules of Temperance, he then also, as before, left arbitrary the dyeting and repasting of our minds; as wherein every mature man might have to exercise his owne leading ca- pacity.] " But Knowlege is as food, and needs no lest *' Her Temperance over appetite, to know '* In measure what the mind may well contain ; " Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns *' Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind." Par, Lost. VH. 126. 6o MILTON S law or prescription, wholly to the demeanour of every grown man. And therefore when he himself tabrd the Jews from Heaven, that Omer which was every man's daily portion of Manna, is com- puted to have bin more then might have well suf- ficed the heartiest feeder thrice as many meals. For those actions which enter into a man, rather then issue out of him, and therefore defile not, God uses not to captivat under a perpetuall child- hood 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 hereto- fore were governed only by exhortation. Salomon 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 unlawfull : yet cer- tainly had God thought good to limit us herein, it had bin much more expedient to have told us what was unlawfull, then what was wearisome. As for the burning of those Ephesian Books by St. Pauls converts, 'tis reply'd the Books were magick, the Syriack so renders them. It was a privat act, a voluntary act, and leaves us to a voluntary imitation: the men in remorse burnt those Books which were their own ; the Magistrat by this example is not appointed^: these men practiz'd the Books, another • Tlie Magistrat bytJds example is not appointed.] That is, di- rected. An uncommon sense. It was, however, in use by con- temporary writers. Thus Clarendon : *' He made no haste to AREOPAGITICA. 6l might perhaps have read them in some sort usefully. Good and Evill we know in the field of this world grow up together almost inseparably ''j and the knowledge of Good is so involved and interwoven with the knowledge of Evill, and in so many cun- ning resemblances hardly to be discern'd, that those ** return upon the summons of the House, but sent to the King " to know his pleasure ; who, not thinking matters yet ripe " enough to make any such declaration, appointed him to come «' away.—*' Hist: of the Rebellion; I. 605. 8ro. 1807. And in the Memoirs qf CoL Hutchinson : " He had appointed " his wife, when she went away, to send him the Dutch Anno- " tations on the Bible."— p. 435. 4 ^s~<^«* tLvds t^ EX- Aijvcyy avtolg ^pi^a-aa-^oii 6 ^e UXdtujy xadSs ivx, dtoitou rpiwv A^yjv ociujv yEvop^evcuv vojouoflfirctfy, rdSv ys $-^ yyu)pi^6iJi,^vcav, ApoLKOvhsy xa< avrov rov Hkcirwvos, xa* Jl6\ujvos, rwv y.\v ro7g vofjiois sfLfj^Eveiy rov; 'ssoxiras, rwv B& rov IlXcirujvos xa< mpooT' xoclaysXdv ; ** {Athen. I. XI. Jin.) Nam oportuit, quemadmo- •* dum Lycurgus Lacedaemonios, Solo Athenienses, et Zaleucus " Thurios, ita et eum quoque [Platonem] si utiles fuissent, •' quibusdam Graecorum persuasisse, ut iis uterenter. Ineptum " Platonem inde fuisse constat, quod, cum illustres apud Atheni- •' enses tres Legislatores fuerint, Draco, Solo, et ipse Plato, ** illorum leges Gives observarint, Platonis vero nihil fecerint " atque irriserint." — Elements of the Civil Law ; p. 67, ^to, 3rd edit. Stanley says otherwise, and he particularizes the countries who took him for their Law-giver. — The Hist, of Philosophy; p, no. fol. 1700. " Fed hisfancie" — is VirgiVs " animum pictura pascit inani.*' — By the " genial cups of an Academick night-sitting," he al- ludes to the Syraposiac nocturnal meetings, the festive Conversa^ zioni, of Wits and Philosophers, the Deipnosophists, w^ho resorted to Plato*s Banquets at his retired residence among the olive shades of Academus. AREOPAGITICA. 77 low'd it®; But that Plato meant this Law pe- culiarly to that Commonwealth which he had imagined, and to no other, is evident. Why was * And there also enacts that no Poet should so much as read to ttuy privat man what he had written, untill the Judges and Law- keepers had seen it, and allowM it.'\ The words of Plato are MijJi riva roX|U,av a^siv dSoKii/^ov f^ovtraVf ju,^ Kpivclvtcvv rcSi^ NOMO^TAAKHN, /xr^' av rj^iwv ^ rujv Qay^vpov re koli 'Optpsiooy vfji^vouv, " Nemo igitur audeat Musam, horum judicio non pro- ** batam canere, etiamsi Thamyrae Orpheique sit suavior." Platonis Philosophi 2u(S exstant ; VIII. 399. 800. 1785. Bipon^ tine Edition. *' Scene and allowed** stands as the License for Printiag in the title-page to the first English Edition of Sic Thomas Smj/th*s valuable Tract, *' De Republica Anglorum. The " maner of Gouernment or policie of the Realme of England.*' s?n. 4to. Lond. 1583. — Allowed meant approved: "Use such " speech as the Meanest should well understand, and the Wisest ^ ** best a//oty." Ascham; The Schoolmaster: p, 201. Upton** edit, — After all that has been written upon Style, perhaps the roundest advice is comprised in this sentence.—Agaio iu Fairefux, "he mustred all his Crew, " ReprouM the Cowards, and allow* d the Bould.*' Godfrey of Bulloigne; b. 9. st. 13. fol. 1600. It may, by the way, be observed, that this version of TassQ often reads with all the ease and spirit of an original. Some- times, it must be confessed, at the expence of fidelity. May it not be said of Fairefax, that he is a solitary example of any one gain- ing high and permanent reputation as a Poet, by metrical Trans- lation alone ? At least, I can call no other instance to my mind. I adduce the preceding quotations of allowed in this signifi- cation, because Johnson has not admitted that sense into his Dictionary: on the contrary, he has quoted from the Bible, " the Lord alloweth the righteous,** as an authority for its meaa- iog— " io justify, to maintain as right.'* 7^ Milton's he not else a Law-giver to himself, but a trans- gressor, and to be expell'd by his own Magistrats ; both for the wanton Epigrams and Dialogues which he made, and his perpetual] reading of Sophron > MimuSy and Ar is fophanes, hooks o^ grossest infamy'', '^ Why was he not else a Law-giver to himself, hut a transgressor, and to he expelVd hy his own Magistrats, hothfor the wanton Epi^ grams and Dialogues which he made, and his perpetuall reading of Sophron Mimus, and Aristophanes, hooks of grossest infamy. "^ Before in his verses de Idea Platonica quanadmodum Aristoteles mtellexit, he had apostrophized Plato for this inconsistency: " At tu, perenne ruris Academi decus, ** (Haec monstra si tu primus induxti schoHs) " Jam jam poetas, urbis exules tujB, " Revocabis, ipse fabulator maximus; '* Aut institutor ipse migvabis foras." But any total interdiction of Poetry by Plato has been contested. See Histoire de VAcademie des Inscriptions (torn. II. /). 169.)» ^^^^ ^hc founder of the Academy was not, as is com- monly thought, an enemy to all Poetry without distinction; that he expressed no more than that every poetical work should be submitted to the examination of the Magistrate; so that it might not happen in his State, as daily happens with us (says the Abbe Fraguier after Plato J for the Laws to speak one lan- guage while Poetry speaks another. This learned Frenchman supported his opinion by a deduction of passages from this philo- sophical Law-giver, chiefly taken from the Dialogues de Republica and de Legibus; and his conclusion is — " c[ue Plat on n*excluoit '*' pas plus de sa Republique toute poesie ni toute eloquence, " qu'un prince exclueroit tout or et tout argent de ses estats, parce " qu'il n'y recevroit que de Targent et de Tor tres-epurez." The original Edition of this Speech gives — " Sophron Mi- mus, and Aristophanes," and all the subsequent Editions coo- form to this reading. Should it be printed Sophron* s 3Iimes ? AREOPAGITICA. 79 and also for commending the latter of them, though he were the malicious Libeller of his chief friends, as the succeeding passage from his Apology for Smectymnuus might seem to imply :" Nor yet doth he tell us what a Mime is, " whereof we have no pattern from ancient writers, except *' some fragments, which containe many acute and wise sentences. *' And this we know in Laertius, that the Mifnes of Sophron ** were of such reckoning with Plato, as to take them nightly to " read on, and after make them his Pillow."— Pr. W. I. 107. Edit. 1738. There was no such Greek Writer as Mimus. At the same time the emendation I have just oflfered is not absolutely re- quired. This may be a descriptive addition, i. e. a Writer of Mimes; lest Readers might mistake him for a comic Poet of this name. See Fabric. Biblioth. Grac, I. 788. Hamh. 1718; and Hqfmanni Lexicon Universale; in v. Sophron. — I should men- tion that the words alluded to in Laertius are — roL ^ou(ppOYOs rou Where there are two persons of the same name, it is customary with Milton to designate that which he intended by some discri- minative epithet. Publius Sj/rus for his moral sentences obtained the same appellative. Still, to have identified Sophron, the writer of the Mimes, by the Adjective Syracusan on this occasion would have been preferable to Mimus, which stands aukwardly in the way it is introduced — '' Sophron Mimm, and Aristopha- " nes." And a considerable perplexity will yet remain to be unravelled. How are we to reconcile Milton with himself? What (we have just seen) he had before called the *' acute and *' wise sentences of the Mimes of Sophron/^ in this Oration he classes with the Comedies of Aristophanes, and proceeds to stig- matize them alike " as Books of grossest infamy.'' I would have it considered, whether in the Areopagitica he meant to refer to the Comic Writer before-mentioned, and through inad- vertency wrote Mi?nus? Yet this solution of the difficulty will hardly be thought admissible; since in both of these passages he specifies Plato's predilection for the works o( Sophron. There must be some confusion of the two Sophrons. Or^ did the same 80 MILTON*S to be read by the Tyrant Dionysius, who had little Sophron compose Mimes of both descriptions? I confess my in- ability to unriddle the enigma by the Books within my reach. — Fabricius observes that Suidas has badly described them. It is, however, extremely probable, that nothing satisfactory concerning these points is to be collected from any extant writ- ings of the Antients : for Mr. Twining informs us, that " of ** the Mimes of Sophron we can acquire but a very imperfect " idea, either from what is said of them in antient Authors, or ** from the fragments that are preserved in Athenaeus, Demetrius^ •' and others. It has even been long disputed among the learned, " whether they were prose or verse ; and, at last, it seems to be •' settled, that they were neither ; a kind of compromise com- •* f«r table enough to the disputants on both sides; for if the *' fragments are something between verse and prose, they, who " assert them to be either, are something between right and " wrong." See his Translation of Aristotle* s Treatise on Poetry i p. 161. \to, 1789. And in an additional remark of the same learned and clear-sighted Critic we have perhaps the cause as- signed for Milton's contradiclion of himself; — where he ob- serves, •* that, supposing what is related, of the fondness of «* Plato for the Mimes of Sophron, and of their having been his ** model in the pjctijci^ itpotrontwt of his own Dialogues, to be true, " it may reasonably be inferred, that we ought by no means to '* confound them with the Roman Mimes, or to apply to them, as is *' too often done, all that is said of the latter by Diomedes, and other " writers of that age. Such licentious and obscene trash would '* not, surely, have been found under the pillow of the moral " and reforming Plato ; and that, qXom sifi yrjpao^ ovSou, and, as " some assert, even in the hour of death. In saying this, how- •* ever, I do not forget, that delicacy is not to be sought for even «* in the strictest morality of antient times." ib. p. 162. So that Milton might have here fallen into the same error of confounding for indecency Sophron*s Mimes with those of the Boman Stage. Tyrwhitt, in his Note on Aristotle's mention of the Mimes of Sophron and Xenarchtis, has not entered upon this topic. AllEOPAGITICA. 81 need of such trash ^ to spend his time on? But that he knew this Licencins: of Poems had reference and dependance to many other proviso's there set down in his fancied Republic, which in this world could have no place : and so neither he himself, nor any Magistral or City ever imitated that cours, which tak'n apart from those other collaterall in- junctions must needs be vain and fruitlesse. For if they fell upon one kind of strictnesse, unlesse their care were equall to regulat all other things of like aptnes to corrupt the mind, that single endeavour they knew would be but a fond labour; to shut and fortifie one gate against corruption, and be neces- sitated to leave others round about wide open. If we think to regulat Printing, thereby to rectifie manners, we must regulat all recreations and pas- times, all that is delightfull to Man. No musick must be heard, no song be set or sung, but what is grave and Dorick^, There must be licencing * Dionysius — had little need of such trash, Bfc."] See Illustra- tion, E. * No song be set or sung, but what is grave and Dorick.] i. e solemn. Milton remembered that Plato in his ideal Republic interdicted the Ionic and Lydian Music, as effeminate, and per- mitted the Doric and Phrygian : " AAXa Kiv^vvevei rather than approbation ; which stands in the Variorum Edition of Shakspeare as the gloss on this word in Hamlet's lecture to the Players : " the censure of which one, must, in your allowance, "* o*er-weigh a whole theatre of others." XV. 175. ed. 179*. And again in Coriolanus, " Bastards, and syllables " Of DO allowance** ib. XII. 138. Where I cannot but think thdii Johnson, Steevens, and Malone, rove wide of the Poet's meaning. While to explain allowance by estimation will solve the difficulty of construction in each of these instances. * To examin all the Lutes, the Violins, and Ghittarrs in every house—] Compare Plato, de Repub, 1. 197. Massey's edit, — Ghit* iar, Ghitarra» Ital, AREOPAGITICA, 83 the rebbeck reads ev'n to the ballatry, and the gammuth of every municipal fidler, for these are the Countrymans Arcadia's and his Monte Mayors^, Next, what more nationall corruption, for which ' The villages also must have their Visitors to enquire what Lec« tures the bagpipe and the rebbeck reads ev*n to the ballatry, and the gammuth of every mun'icipz] Jidler, for these are the Countrymans Arcadia's and Aw Monte Mayors.] A Visitor was a presiding inspector. Thus Ben Jonson : — " the superintendent " To all the quainter Traffickers in Town, " He is their Visitor^ and does appoint, " Who lies with whom." The Alchemist; A, 2. 5. S. But Milton employs it here with a contemporaneous allusioa which was not then lost on his readers. According to Sir Ed- ward Walker^ *' some of the Bishops were faulty in permitting " to the bane of all Government, Lectures and weekly Sermons *' in populous Cities and Towns, where the Lecturers to please " the silly Women, and to lead them after them, laden with " divers Lusts, introduced new Forms, or rather no Forms, of "Worship and Doctrine. Historical Discourses; p. 326, fol, 1705. Laud, on the other hand, had annual Visitations to examine narrowly how these Preachers carried themselves in the pulpit. See Htylyn's Life of Laud ; p, 270, 27 1, and 345. fol. 167 1. It is to this circumstance that also bears relation— «^' the villages " also must have their Visitors to enquire what Lectures, &c." but this is too elleiptical for posterity, though sufficiently inteU ligible when it was written. Balladry occurs several times in Marston: see the Metamor- phosis of Pigmalions Image and certain Satyres; p, 198, 199, and 22B. Bowles*s edit, 1764. Bvo, and in ail these places it G 2 84 Milton's England hears ill abroad, then household gluttony; who shall be the rectors of our daily rioting*? and what shall be done to inhibit the multitudes that denotes Voetry of the lighter kind; as it likewise does, I recollect, somewhere in Ben Jonson, " To tax me with their senseless Balladry" But the peculiar spelling " Balladry," may lead us to another interpretation. Unless it was in conformity to the scheme of regulating Orthography by the Pronunciation, I will not say, that Milton, as his manner sometimes is to give words a capricious sense, did not by *' Ballatry" intend dancing: from the Italian, ballare to dance, ballato and hallata ; whence our word BalL So he wrote " midnight ball " Or Serenade"— {Par. Lost, IV. 767.) after Serenata, not Serenac?e, like the French. Bacon mentions — " Tumblers, Funambuloes, Baladynes" &c. — in the Ad- vancanent of Learning: p. 20S. A:to ed. 1633. This construction accords aptly with the context, which is then descriptive of the same rustic revelry as in U Allegro : " When the merry Bells ring round, " And the jocund Rebecks sound " To many a youth and many a maid, " Dancing in the chequer'd shade.'^ V. 93. The Rebeck seems (as Warton there remarked) to have been almost a common name for a fiddle; and municipal meant town. For additional remarks on this passage, on the Arcadia, and on the Diana of George of Montemayor, see Illustration, F. * What more nationall corruption, for which England hears ill abroad, then household gluttony ; who shall be the rectors of our daily rioting .'] Hears ill, meaning as in this place, to be ill AREOPAGITICA. 85 frequent those houses where drunk' nes is sold and harbour'd ? Our garments also should be referred to the Licencing of some more sober work-masters, to see them cut into a lesse wanton garb. Who shall regulat all the mixt conversation of our youth, male and female together, as is the fashion of this country? who shall still appoint what shall be dis- coursed, what presumed, and no furder? Lastly, who shall forbid and separat all idle resort, all evill company ? These things will be, and must be; but how they shall be lest hurtfull, how lest en- ticing, herein consists the grave and governing wis- dom of a State. To sequester out of the world into Atlantick and Eiitopian Polities^ which never can spoken of, is an idiom drawn from a classical source, and once in use among us, as I have shown in a Review of Johnson's Cri- ticism on the Stifle o/* Milton*:* English Prose, p. 33. (n.) Where I have remarked the same of Rector in this Latin sense. — See some historical notices in corroboration of the charge brought here against our Ancestors for " household gluttony " in Illus« TRATION, G. ^ To sequester out of the world into Atlantick and Eutopian Polities, &c.] By '' Atlantick Polities'' he refers to a work left incomplete by Lord Bacon, entitled the nexv Atlantis, after the name of the sunken Continent of which Plato's continuation of Solon's unfinished story has preserved the memory. Milton now treats such imaginary Commonwealths as little better than romances. He spoke both of this, and of Plato's political insti- tute, as well as of Sir T. More*s, with greater respect in an Apo- logy for Smectynmuus : " That grave and noble invention which " the greatest and sublimest wits in sundry ages, Plato in Cri- " tias, and our two famous countrymen, the one in his Vtopia, " the other in his new Atlantis chose, 1 may not say as a field, " but as a mighty Continent wherein to display the largenesse sis MILTON*S be drawn into use, will not mend our condition ; but to ordain wisely as in this world of Evill, in the midd'st whereof GoD hath placet us unavoidably. Nor is it Plato's Licencing of Books will doe this, which necessarily pulls along with it so many other kinds of Licencing, as will make us all both ridicu- lous and weary, and yet frustrate but those un- writt'n, or at least unconstraining laws of vertuous Education, religious and civill 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 Licencing will be easily eluded. Impunity and re- xnissenes for certain are the bane of a Common- •' of their spirits by teaching this our wotld better and exacter •' things, then were yet known, or us*d." p. 10. Ato. 1642. Why in the text there should be a deviation from the ordinary mode of spelling L^topia, 1 know not. The pronunciation is the same. Would he by this signify that he favoured the compo* sition of this factitious Name from £u and roiro; rather than from •V r^ftos ^ — It is perhaps to be regretted, that Bacon had not given to the world his idea of a perfect model of Government. But he shrunk, it may be suspected, from that part of his undertaking, for fear he might by giving offence at Court throw any obstacle in the way of his professional advancement. That he did not fulfil his intention, I>r. Raw I ej/, the Editor of this and others of his posthumous pieces, attributes to his foreseeing that it would prove a long work, and that his desire of collecting ** the natu- " ral History" diverted him from pursuing it. Yet I cannot but think Bacon was aware that this was tender ground, on which he did not like to venture. • Nurture.} Sec Illustration, H. AREOPAGITICA. 9if, wealth ; but here the great art lyes, to discern ia what the Law is to bid restraint*^ and punishment, and in what things perswasion only is to work. If every action which is good or evill in man at ripe years, were to be under pittance, and prescription, and compulsion, what were Vertue but a name% what praise could be then due to well-doing, what grammercy to be sober % just or continent? many there be that complain of divin Providence for suf- "^ In tvhat the Law is to bid restraint, &c.] This latinized use of bid is become obsolete : " Tullum — regem populus jussit." Liv. I. 22. A contemporary has this word in the same sense : " Unto him it did belong to hid holy-days, and to provide all " things necessary for publick sacrifices/' — Godwyn*s Roman Antiquities ; p. 53. Ato. 1680. • ffhat iuere Vertue but a name, — ] " Aut Virtus nomen *' inane est."--Jfor. L. 1. Ep. 17. v. 41. The thought was formed from the dying ejaculation of the se- cond Brutus: 'Xi tXr^fj^ov 'Aper-ij, Xoyog dp tJo-Q*, iyui Se cs "its spyov ijo-xoyy* cO 5* dp siouXsua'a,^ /Sia. See Dion Cassius ; xhi'u A9» • What grammercy to be sober, &c.] Johnson passes this term over in his Dictionary as nothing more than " an obsolete ex- «• pression of surprise, contracted from grant me mercy." Here it carries a different sense, and obviously signifies great thanks; literally from the French grand merci. *' This childe is a good " boie, gramercic rodde" — The Rule of Reason, containing the Arte of Logike: by Thomas Wilson. Fol. 36. s?n. 4to. 1567. Again : *' Syr I have thank for the shew that lonys made you *' and daily ^raw^cy, and ye thaire prayer." — Paston Letters ; II. 23S. But their Editor adopted Johnson's erroneous expla* nation. 88 Milton's fering Adam to transgresse: foolish tongues ! when God gave him Reason, he gave him freedom to choose, for Reason is but choosing ; he had bin else a meer artificiall Adam, such an Adam as he is in the Motions^ We our selves 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 creat passions * When God gave him Reason, he gave him freedom to choose, for Reason is but choosing ; he had bin else a meer arti^ jiciall Adam, such an Adam as he is in the Motions.] He trans- ferred this thought into Par. Lost, where he dilates the argu-r n^ent : " Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. '* Not free, what proof could they have given sincere " Of true allegiance, constant faith or love, " Where only what they needs must do appeared, ** Not what they would ? What praise could they receiyc? " What pleasure I from such obedience paid, " When Will and Reason (Reason also is Choice) " Useless and vain, of Freedom both despoiled, " Made passive both, had servM Necessity, " Not me V* III. 102. And he again made Liberty coexistent with Reason : " But God left free the will j for what obeys '* Reason, is free." /^. IX. 351. A Puppet-play was formerly called a Motion: "He com- " passed a Motion of the Prodigal Son,'* says Shakspeare in the Winter's Tale, describing the vagrant life oi Autolycus, AREOPAGITICA. 89 within us, pleasures round about us, but that these rightly tempered are the very ingredients of Vertu? They are not skilfull considerers of human things, who imagin 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 universall thing as Books are ; and when this is done, yet the Sin remains entire. Though ye take from a covet- ous man all his treasure, he has yet onfe jewell left, ye cannot bereave him of his covetousnesse. Banish all objects of lust, shut up all youth into the se- verest discipline that can be exercised in any her- mitage, ye cannot make them chaste, that came not thither so : such great care and wisdom is re- quired to the right managing of this point. Sup- pose we could expell Sin by this means; look how much we thus expell of Sin, so much we expell of Vertue : 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 powrs out before us ev'n to a profusenes all de- sirable things, and gives us minds that can wander beyond all limit and satiety. Why should we then ^ Tliis justifies the high Providence of God.] A pious awe toward the ineffable Being who pervades and sustains the Uni- verse, as well as submissive resignation to his Dispensations were feelings deeply-seated in Milton's mind. They led him go MILTON*S affect a rigor contrary to the manner of GoD and of Nature, by abridging or scanting those means, which Books freely permitted are, both to the triall of Vertue, and the exercise of Truth ? It would be better done to learn that the law must needs be fri- volous which goes to restrain things, uncertainly and yet equally working to Good, and to Evill. And were I the chooser, a dram of well-doing should be preferr'd before many times as much the forcible hindrance of evill-doing^ For GoD sure esteems into this theme whenever the occasion offered. He makes the Chorus reiuinri Sams&n under the misery that had befaliea him, '• Just are the ways of God " And justifiable to Men." V. 293. And in the invocation with which he opens Par, Lost he im* plores the aid of the Divine Spirit, *' That to the hight of this great argument " He may assert Eternal Providence, " And justify the ways of God to Men," ' A dram of well- doing should be pr^err*d h^ore many times as much the forcible hindrance of evill ■doing.'] This sentiment agrees nvith that whix:h is expressed by Horace, in the two following Verses : *' Oderonl peccare boni virtutis amore ; " Tu nihil admittes in te formidine poenae." Maseres. It better agrees, I think, with the succeeding passage in Cicero: ^. 159. /o/. 1682. We still write he hiinseJf, instead of he his self; and they Mcmselves, not their selves. '' To knaw out the choicest periods of exquisitest Books, and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest men after death."] Toland informs us, that the Licenser of Paradise Lost " would needs suppress the whole poensi for " imaginary treason in the following lines : AREOPAGITICA. 10^ belong to that haples race of men, whose misfor- tune it is to have understanding. Henceforth let " As when the Sun new ris'n " Looks through the horizontal misty air " Shorn of his beams, or from behind the Moon *' In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds '* On half the nations, and with fear of change / " Perplexes monarchs." L//c o/ Milton, p. 121. Hollis*s edit. We should felicitate ourselves, that for England's glory, thi« now our eternal possession was not lost to mankind. How ill the immortal Bard could brook any regulator of his text, we may easily conceive. He must have put some restraint on his native independence of spirit, not to have given way to the impulse he could not but have felt to " ding*' the Printer's Copy a " coit's " distance from him" into the flames, when returned to him scored with objections, and a whole Simile excepted to by an Archbishop's Chaplain. The apprehension of a like indignity must have deterred numbers from all commerce with the Press. Through the morbid sensibility so common among Authours, we have all witnessed with what hesitation and reluctance many bring them* selves to submit their thoughts even to critical censure. The fear that his Manuscripts might be garbled, perhaps interpo- lated, in a posthumous publication, prompted Sir Matthew Hale to the resolve that " none of his Writings should be at the mercy of Licensers." Burnet's Life of Hale ; p. 111. \2mo. Let me add a striking instance of the suppression of a choice period in an exquisite Book. Xenophon had put into the mouth of Cj/rus, when making a hortatory speech to his Grecian auxi- liaries, that they should be assured he would prefer Libertj/ before all things he possessed, with the addition of many others. Eu yccp ifrrs on rijv sXsv^spioLv eXoiiJ^fjv av ocvri wv sy^oj irxvfujv >ca.t aX\u)v ifoWairXaoriujy. Where Spelman observes, " whether '* D'Ablancourt found any difficulty in this sentence, or whe- *' ther he was afraid of offending the tender ears of his Monarch " with the harshness of it, I know not; but so it is, that he has 110 Milton's no man care to learn, or care to be more then worldly wise ; for certainly in higher matters to be ignorant and slothfull, to be a common stedfast dunce* will be the only pleasant life, and only in request. " left out every syllable of this period." — See Spelmans Trans- lation of the Anabasis, I. 75. 8j7o. This was under Louis XIV. We may be fully confident that he would never have harangued his Swiss Mercenaries in the same strain, that the Historian re- cords this eastern Despot to have addressed the Ten Thousand ; and perhaps a testimony so favourable to popular Governments would have been objected to by the Syndic; so that D'Ablan- court's version could not have appeared avec Approbation et Pri' velege du Roi, without this mutilation. But where is the ex- tenuation for the respectable Biographer of Sir William Jones, who took on him to strike the following paragraph out of a Letter written by that excellent Man to Dr. Price? " Chriskna-nagur, Sep. l^, 1790. " When I think of the late glorious Revolution in France, I " cannot help applying to my poor infatuated Country, the ** words which Tully formerly applied to Gaul, ex omnibus ter- " ris Britannia sola communi non ardet incendio." — See Me- moirs of Sir William Jones ; bj/ Lord Teignmouth ; p, Sl-l. Aito, that this sentence is there omitted. ® A common stedfast dunce-l i. e. *' a fixed or confirmed ** Dunce." We meet with this Adjective in the same significa- tion in Spenser: F. 2. b,2. c. 2. st. 8. ** Transformed her to a stone from stedfast Virgin's state/' Again in the same book. c. 7. st, 1, a fixed star is called " a *' stedfast star." It bears a kindred sense in il Penseroso; v. 31. ** Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, " Sober, stedfast, and demure.'* And it may be added, that our Poet might have caught these rhymes and this peculiar combination from an antient Ballad quoted by Sir J. Hawkins {Hist, of Music: III. 29.) : " She is proper and pure " Full stedfast, stabill and demurs'* AREOPAGITICA. , 111 And as it is a particular disesteem of every knowing person alive, and most injurious to the writt'n 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 in- vention, the art, the wit, the grave and solid judge- ment which is in England, as that it can be com- prehended in any twenty capacities how good so- ever ; much lesse that it should not passe except their superintendence be over it, except it be sifted and strain'd with their strainers, that it should be uncurrant without their manuall stamp. Truth and Understanding are not such wares as to be mo- nopoliz'd and traded in by Tickets, and Statutes, and Standards^ AVe must not think to make a st:\ple ^ Truth and Understanding are not such wares as to be mono- polized and traded in by Tickets, Statutes, and Standards.] This allusion to the grants of Monopolies by the Crown to favoured individuals under colour of Prerogative is not unlike Cowley's contemporary mention of the same heavy Grievance, in his verses to the Lord Falkland: " How could he answer 't, should the State think fit, " To question a Monopoly of Wit ?" Whoever will look in the Tract intitled Leycester's Common^ wealth {p. Q5. ed. 1641.) at the enumeration of Patents of this nature granted by Elizabeth to that Favourite will be at no loss to conceive the public odium they must have brought on this arbitrary assumption of the Crown. Acknowlegements for goods obtained on credit were then called Tickets, " The Law (says Waterhous in his Commentary upon ** Fortescue) provides that Inns shall have present pay, and men " not run in arrears or take from them on Ticket,'* p. 453. foL 1663. See too Memoirs of Ludlow; p. 325. fol, 1751. And 112 Milton's commodity of all the knowledge in the land, to mark and licence it like our broad cloatb, and our wool! packs. What is it but a servitude like that impos'd by the Philistins, not to be allow'd the sharpning of our own axes and coulters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty licencing forges? Had anyone writt'n and divulged ^ erro- neous things and scandalous to honest life, mis- using and forfeiting the esteem had of his reason among men, if after conviction this only censure were adjudged him, that he should never hence- forth write, but what were first examined by an appointed officer, whose hand should be annext to JTeylin, speaking of the preparations made in 1638, by the Scot- tish Nation to claim their Rights at the point of the sword, re- lates that, they took " up arms and ammunition from the States •' United, with whom they went on ticket, and long days of *' payment, for want of ready money/' — Hist, of the Presby^ terians; p. 4^20.fol. 1672. This explanation clears away an obscurity in Beaumont and Fletcher* s Scornful Lady: " I am but new come over, direct me *' with your ticket to your Taylor, and then I shall be fine." — p. 70. Works; fol, 1679. These passages, indeed, throw reci- procal light on each other; and Qon^tm Johnson* s conjectural etymology of Tick, Statutes are Securities given for debts contracted by the pur- chase of Merchandize, *' The reason of which name is (as *' Blount explains the word) because those Bonds are made ac- " cording to the forms of certain Statutes** — Glossographia ; p, 605. 8vo. A^thedit, * writt'n and divulgM — ] i. e. published, in the technical sense : '* This — was printed and carefully divulged over the kingdom." Clarendon; Hist, qf the Rebellion; I. 1022. Svo. 1S07. AKEOPAGITICA. 113 passe his credit for him, that now he might be safely read, it could not be apprehended lesse then a disgracefull punishment. Whence to include the whole Nation, and those that never yet thus offended, under such a diffident and suspectfull prohibition, may plainly be understood what a dis- paragement it is. So much the more, when as dettors and delinquents may walk abroad without a keeper, but unoffensive Books must not stirre forth without a visible jaylor in thir title. Nor is it to the common people lesse then a reproach ; for if we be so jealous over them, as that we dare not trust them with an English Pamphlet, what doe we but censure them for a giddy, vitious, and un- grounded People ; in such a sick and weak estate of Faith and discretion, as to be able to take no- thing down but through the pipe of a Licencer. That this is care or love of them, we cannot pre- tend, whenas in those Popish places where the Laity are most hated and dispis*d the same strict- nes is us*d over them. Wisdom we cannot call it, because it stops but one breach of licence, nor that neither^ J whenas those corruptions which it seeks • Nor that neither — ] There are sufficient authorities for this Anglicism, though not strictly correct. Malone took excep- tion to a similar use of neither; see his Edition of Drydcn*i Prose Works, III. 260. But the above intensive sense of this word is a relic of the Anglo-Saxon idiom; in which two Nega- tives do not make an Affirmative. Fortescue- Aland, in his Notes to Sir John Fortescuc^s curious Treatise on " the Difler- " ence between an absolute and limited Monarchy; as it more " particularly regards the English Constitution," remarks that, I 114 milton's to prevent, break in faster at other dores which cannot be shut. And in conclusion, it reflects to the disrepute of our Ministers also, of whose labours we should hopfi better, and of the proficiencie which thir flock reaps by them, then that after all this light of the Gospel which is, and is to be, and all this conti- nuall preaching, they should be still frequented with such an unprincipFd, unedify*d, and laick y rabble^ as that the whifle of every new Pamphlet it was a *' mode of the Saxons, as among the Greeks, to have *' two Negatives in their negative proposition as, Ne eom ic na Epijr, / am not the Christ. — Maresc. Evang. Joh. 1. 20. ** In imitation of which Chaucer, has Ine said none ilL Some- " times you will find the Saxons deny by three Negatives, as, " among the Laws of King ^thelstan, nan j-cylb pyphta na lecje " nan jxieapcf felle on j*cylb ; Let no maker of Shields, lay any *' Sheep Skin on my Shield. — Inter Leg. ^thelstan. 15. " Nay, sometimes they have used four Negatives to deny *' more strongly, as, Ne nan ne bojij-t ojr J;am baeje hjne nan " J)m5 mape axijean ; Neither durst any Man from that day ** ask him any more questions, speaking of our Saviour. — Maresc. " Evang. Matth. 32.46. Hickes, Thcs. SS.^'—p. 15. 3d edit. 1724. ^ Laick rabble — ] is precisely the profanum vulgus of Ho- race; the illiterate or " swainish multitude;** our Authour's phrase in another work. In the Latinity of the lower ages, *' Laica Lingua** signified the vulgar tongue. {DuFresne; Gloss, med. Sf infim. Lat. in v. Laica.) ** We have learnt (says Mil- ** TON in another Tract) the scornfull terme of Laick, the con- " secrating of Temples, carpets, and table-clothes, the railing " in of a repugnant and contradictive Mount Sinai in the Gos- ** pell, as if the touch of a lay Christian who is never the lesse ** Gods living Temple, could profane dead Judaisms." Tiic Reason of Church Government; p. 5^. Uo. 1641. The " lay gents" is the term with the old Reporters of ad- judged Cases, for the uninitiated in the mysteries of our Law. AREOPAGITICA. 115 should stagger them out of thir catechism, and Christian walking. This may have much reason to discourage the Ministers when such a low con-» oeit is had of all their exhortations, and the bene- fiting of their hearers, as that they are not thought fit to be turn'd loose to three sheets of paper with- out a Licencer, that all the Sermons, all the Lec- tures preacht, printed, vented in such numbers, and such volumes, as have now well-nigh made all other Books unsalable, should not be armor anough against one single enchiridion^ without the Castle St. Angela of an Imprimatur^ * Not he armor anough against one single enchiridion, withoui the Castle St. Angeio of an Imprimatur.'] Milton must from local knowlege have been well acquainted with the situation of the Castle St. Angeio ; and no doubt he surveyed the Pope's State Prison with emotions that left no momentary impression on his mind. But it is extraordinary, that he should not have bestowed a thought on how few of his Readers would know that this Citadel, whose site was the mole o^ Hadrian, (see Plates 51 and 52 in the Roma Mterna of Schenkius) commanded the main access to Rome. The Historian tells us in his concluding Chap- ter, that " could the Romans have wrested from the Popes the «' Castle of St. Angeio, they had resolved by a public decree to " annihilate that monument of servitude." Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Yet without some such knowlege this far-fetched metaphor presents no determinate idea: to preserve the integrity of which we must moreover carry in mind that there is a double power couched under Enchiridion. Milton delighted in enigmatical meanings. We are to understand it to signify both a Manual and a Dagger; which latter sense it appears by E. Philippss English Dictionary, {The New World of Words, fol. 1706.3 to have I 2 Il6 Milton's And lest som should perswade ye. Lords and Commons ! that these arguments of lerned mens discouragement at this your Order, are meer flou- rishes, 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 lerned men^ for that honor I had, and bin counted happy to be born in such a place of Philo- sophic Freedom, as they supposed England was, while themselvs did nothing but bemoan the ser- vil condition into which Lerning amongst them was brought; that this was it which had dampt the glory of Italian wits; that nothing had bin there writt'n now these many years but flattery and fustian. There it was that I found and visited the famous Galiko grown old, a prisner to the Inquisi- tion^ for thinking in Astronomy otherwise then the still retained from the Greek. — Erasmus sports with this word in the same way : alluding to his work, intilled " Enchiridion Mi- " litis Christiani," he writes — " Dedi Enchiridion— \\\q contra " dedit gladiolum, quo non magis ad hue sum usus quam ille *« libro." Life by Jortin. I. 358. (n.) 8ro. ^ / have sat among their lerned men, &c.] See Illustra- tion, M. ^ Tliere it was that I found and visited the famous Galilee grown old, a prisner to the Inquisition — ] Mr. Hayley, from the interest Grotius appears to have taken in the fate of Galileo, ingeniously conjectures, that Grotius might have warmly re- commended Milton on his departure from Paris for Italy to do every kind office in his power to the illustrious Precursor of Sir Isaac Newton, then suffering under Inquisitorial persecution. In the proportion that we scrutinize Milton's Writings with cri- AREOPAGITICA. 117 Franciscan and Dominican Licencers thought. And though I knew that England then was groan- ing loudest under the Prelaticall yoak, neverthe- lesse I took it as a pledge of future happines, that other Nations were so perswaded 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 for- gott'n 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 lerned men of other parts utter*d against the Inquisition, the same I shou'd hear by as lerned men at home utterd in time of Parlament against an Order of Licencing ; and that so gene- rally, that when I had disclosed my self a compa- nion of their discontent, I might say, if without envy, that He whom an honest Quastorship had in- tical minuteness, the higher we shall set his punctual accuracy. It is the prevalent though an unfounded notion, that this As- tronomer was immured in a dungeon of the Holy Office for im- parting to mankind his discoveries relative to the diurnal revo- lution of our own planetary orh on its axis. To admonish us therefore how vain to its possessor is the superiority of intellec- tual qualiiications, " Galileos end" has been paralleled in mis- fortune with the life of an eminent Scholar who oppressed by want passed many of his days in a prison. Our Authour is strictly accurate. The " Tuscan Artist'* was, it is true, put into circufnscription and confine for his heretical Philosophy ; that is, he was " a prisoner to the Inquisition;" but not actually imprisoned. See Mr. Todd's " Account of the Life and Writ- '* ings of Muton;" p. 31. sec. edit. 118 Milton's dear'd to the Siciliansy was not more by them im- portuned against Verres, then the favourable opi- nion which I had among many who honour ye, and are known and respected by ye, loaded me with entreaties and perswasions'^, 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 Lerning. That this is not therefore the disburdning of a particular fancie, 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 ' I might say, if without envy, that He whofti an honest QuaS' torship had indear*d to the Sicilians, was not more by them impor- tuned against Verres, then the favourable opinion which I had among many who honour ye, and are known and respected by ye, loaded me with entreaties and perswasions, Sfc."] If without envy — after the Latin formulary — ♦' absit invidia verbo." — Recourse was before had to Milton, when the faculties of an energetic and well- in formed advocate were wanting to sustain the Anti- prelatical Party on points of Learning against the defenders of our Hierarchy. Neither would the Commonweallhsraen, had he not stood high among the Writers of his time, have soli- cited the exertions of his pen to counteract the impression made on the public mind by the Icon Basilike; as they would also have sought some other vindicator of the trial and execution of Charles. These repeated applications to Milton for assistance on emergent occasions are unequivocal demonstrations of the powers of his Prose-writings, and that they were not on their first appearance neglected, as Mr. JVarton was far from reluc- tant 10 suggest. Men do not voluntarily trust their cause in hands which are regarded as feeble or inefficient. Tracts, moreover, were ascribed to him which unquestionably were not of his production. This was unlikely to have happened if his name as an Authour had been slighted. AREOPAGITICA, ll^ others to entertain it, thus much nnay satisfie. And in their name I shall for neither friend nor foe con- ceal what the generall murmur is ; that if it come to inquisitioning again, and Licencing, and that we are so timorous of our seivs, and so suspicious of all men^ as to fear each Book, and the shaking of every leaf, before we know what the contents are j if some who but of late were little better then si- lenc*t from preaching, shall come now to silence us from reading, except what they please, it can- not be guest what is intended by som but a second tyranny over Learning: and will soon put it out of controversie that Bishops and Presbyters are the same to us both name and thing ^ That those ® Put it out of controversie that Bishops and Presbyters are the same to us both name and thing.] He had through his Trea- tise " of Prelatical Episcopacy,** maintained it to be " clear in " Scripture, that a Bishop and Presbyter is all one both in Name " and Office.'* Pr. W. I. 37. ed. 1738. And now, while repre- hending the arbitrary tendency of the proceedings of the ruling Faction, he seizes the opportunity of touching with allusive pleasantry on the same doctrine. Milton was never incited to write merely by a desire of de- pressing one set of men or of exalting another. He put himself early and earnestly into the work of ecclesiastical Reformation : no sooner did he find that *' new Presbyter was but old Priest " writ large,*' than he broke off all further commerce with his co- adjutors in the subversion of " Prelaty," and resolutely withstood their encroachments. He concurred with Ludlow's opinion, who complained that *' there was a sort of Men, who were contented *' to sacrifice all civil Liberties to the ambition of the Presbyte- " rian Clergy, and to vest them with a power as great or greater "than that which had been declared intolerable in the Bishops "before." Memoirs', p. 73. fol. 17^51. For the same reason. 120 Milton's evills of Prelaty which before from five or six and twenty Sees were distributivly charg'd 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 Dioces of Books, and yet not remove, but keep his other cure too, a mysticall Pluralist^ He who but of late cry*d down the sole ordination of every novice Batchelor Selden and Whitelock opposed their application to Parliament for the power of Excommunication and of Suspension from the Sa- crament. Both these eminent Laymen, though they favoured this Connection, knew too well the danger of power in a Priest- hood, to lend their support on this occasion. Milton's end was always one and the same. He carried him- self very far above any idle or selfish attachment to the interest of this Sect or of that Party : dedicating his Life to the investi- gation of Truth, he was anxious only for the advancement of the general welfare. The detriment to the People's Cause which ensued greatly through the confined views of the Presbyterian Clergy, when their Party had gained the predominancy, is much to be de- plored. Their conduct estranged the popular Leaders from each other, or set them at variance, to the manifest advantage of their common enemy. These unhappy feuds were the prelude to the unconditional Restoration. The Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson exhibit a genuine and lively picture of the crosses and bickerings which the assertors of the Liberties of England, who did not belong to the prevail- ing Sect had to encounter. — How many while fighting by the side of the Roundheads, must have sighed to have lived in the quarters of the Cavaliers. • A mysticall Pluralist.'] " A covert pluralist." So Claren- don; ** The Earl wrote a Letter,- in which he mystically ex- AREOPAGITICA. 121 of Art, and deny'd sole jurisdiction over the sim- plest Parishioner, shall now at home in his privat chair assume both these over worthiest and excel- lentest Books, and ablest Authors that write them. This is not, Yee Covnants and Protestations that we have made, this is not to put down Prelaty ; this is but to chop an Episcopacy* ; this is but to " pressed some new design to have been set on foot for corrupt- " ing the Army." Hist, of the Rebellion; I. 424. 8vo. And in EiXOvoxXao-rjj;; " He chooses therefore a more mysti' «' cal way, a newer method of Antichristian fraud." p. 155. jirst edit, * This is not, yee Covnants and Protestations that we have made, this is not to put down Prelaty ; this is but to chop an Episcopacy;] If this be an exclamatory adjuration, is it not introduced aukwardly ? It may be (I do not throw it out with much confidence) that yee is an errour of the Press. Possibly, ^c was written in Milton's manuscript for the; and from this abbreviation, now obsolete, the Compositor's mistake in the original Edition, if there be one, might have arisen. Covenants were the engagements which the Commons* House had drawn up for signature the year before, and ordered to be subscribed by the Members of both Houses of Parliament, and by the People. Beside this national test or pledge of fidelity enjoined by the Parliament, there were voluntary Covenants; by which the individuals of particular bodies mutually bound themselves to sustain " the good old Cause," and to be faithful to each other. {Mem. of Col. Hutchinson ; p. 1 4^3. 4^o.) A parochial instrument of this nature may be seen in Lysons's *' Environs of London," extracted from the Parish Register of Wanstead in Essex. To protest was formerly synonymous with to declare: *' I will ** just beg leave io protest my Faith : I am not able to dispute," said Latimer to the Prolocutor at the disputation at Oxford pre* viously to his suffering. A Pro^w^a^fon or Declaration was in 122 Milton's translate the Palace Metropolitan from one kind of dominion into another, this is but an old canonical! 1641 agreed to by the Lords and Commons on behalf of them- selves and the Public; "whereby they obliged themselves to de- •* fend and maintain the Power and Privileges of Parliament, the ** Rights and Liberties of the People, to use their utmost endea- •* vour to bring to condign Punishment all those who should by •' force or otherwise do any thing to the contrary, and to stand •' by and justify all such as should do any thing in prosecution •» of the said Protestation,'* Ludlow's Memoirs ; p. 6. foL To this engagement M ilton refers, with his usual spirit and zeal for the public interest, while vindicating the temperance and re- gularity of his own habits : My *' morning haunts (he rejoins upon ** a slanderous Adversary) are where they should be, at home* " not sleeping, or concocting the surfeits of an irregular feast, ** but up and stirring, in winter often ere the sound of any bell ** awake men to labour, or to devotion; in summer as oft with «* the bird that first rouses, or not much tardier, to read good ** Authors, or cause them to be read, till the attention be weary, •' or memory have its full fraught : then with useful and gene- •* rous labours preserving the Body's health and hardiness; to *' render lightsome, clear, and not lumpish obedience to the *' Mind, to the cause of Religion and our Country's Liberty, ** when it shall require firm hearts in sound Bodies to stand and *' cover their stations, rather than to see the ruin of our Pro- ** testation, and the inforcement of a slavish life." Pr, W. L 109. ed. 1738. To chop was to change; so again in Tetrachordon; " you are ** to limit it to that age, when it was in fashion to chop matrimo- •* nies." p. 67. Jirst edit. Sailors still talk of the wind chopping when it veers tu a new point. I have never seen it observed, that Milton throughout his writings against the established Hierarchy drew a perspicuous line of demarcation between Prelates and Bishops. Episco- pacy, in part spiritual, and in part political, such as obtains with us, he held to be indefensible; and he was disinclined to much of the Ritual^ as well as to much of our Church-Goyern- AREOPAGITICA. 12^ slight of commuting our penance. To startle thus betimes at a meer unlicenc't 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 govern'd 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 disci- pline imitated from the Prelats, and learnt by them from the Inquisition, to shut us up all again into the brest of a Licencer, must needs give cause of doubt and discouragement to all learned and reli- gious men. Who cannot but discern the finenes ment. At the same time he does not, I think, appear to have been an enemy to Bishops, as a higher order of the Christian Priest- hood. If however he approved of an institution of this character with a superiority of jurisdiction for the maintenance of cleri- cal discipline, he fulminates the heaviest censures against " Prc" " lat Lords" Bishops with *' Baronies and stately Preferments ;" in other words, who were invested with secular authority. This distinction may be presumed to have accorded with the disposi* tion then prevalent : for even the Army, the bulk of whom aspired to the establishment of a Commonwealth, expressed their desire to retain an episcopal Government in the Church. They petitioned the Parliament not to abolish the office of Bishop altogether but to take away the " co-ercive power and civil penalties.*' Rushworih; Hist. Col VII. 4. And after the proscriptions of Laud, and the grievous tyranny of the " Prelatical Commis- " sion," he who does not join in their detestation of these mitred Judges must indeed be enamoured of Cruelty in its most dis- gustful shape — cloathed in the mantle of Religion, and indulg- ing its propensities under the much-abused name of Justice, 124 Milton's of this politic drift^ and who are the contrivers? * Who cannot but discern the finenes of this politic drift — ] Tliomsons reprint of the Areopagitica ^ives fnesse. In Ben Jonsons The Devil is an Ass, Ever-ill says, " You'll mar all by ** your fineness/* On which Whalley makes the following ob- servation : *' Mr. Sympson imagines it should be finesse; but *' that word, I believe, came into use since our Authour's days. ** Fineness is the same with shyness or coyness ; and that sense is ♦* not incongruous to the rest of the passage.'* Works; IV. 61. Bvo. 1756. But this word formerly signified crafty ingenuity, politic inveti" tion; as now in this Oration ; and is so applied by Sir W. Ralegh: " This politician studied bow to remove the other two from their " places, and put some creatures of bis own in their rooms. " Against Alexander he went to work the ordinary way, by ca- *• lumniation and privy detraction. But for the supplanting of •' Taurion he used more fineness ; loading him with daily com- " mendations, as a notable man of war, &c. By such art he *' thought to have removed him, as we say out of God's bless- ** ing into a warm sun.'' Hist, of the World; p. 776. fol. 1677. A meaning this which better agrees than coyness or shyness with the name and character of Meercrqft, the Projector, to whom the quotation from Jonson's Play is addressed. Neither is the present the only place where Milton's text has been vitiated to make this identical change : *' This is the ** artificialest peece of jinencM to perswade Men to be Slaves, ^* that the wit of Court could have invented." EkoyoxXaarij; ; p. 35- 4^0. first edit. 1649. It is likewise printed correctly in the 8vo. edit, p. 31. Amsterdam. 1690. and in Toland's Edit, of the Pr. W. II. 458. But in Birch*s edit. I. 316. fol. 1738. it was altered to finesse, and subsequent Editions conform to this cor- ruption. It is but seldom that an Editor is found too tenacious of his Authour's text. Finesse, it is highly probable, had not yet stolen into our Language; or if it had been then naturalized, still Milton would have rejected it. He did not himself de- cline to borrow words occasionally from the Greek, the Latin, and the Italian : very rarely (if ever) did he condescend to draw on the French. AREOPAGITICA. 125 that while Bishops were to be baited down, then all Presses might be open ; it was the Peoples birth- right and priviledge in time of Parlament, 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 Episcopall arts begin to bud again ; the cruse of Truth must run no more oyle; Liberty of Printing must be enthralled again under a Prelaticall Com- mission of twenty ^ j the privilege of the People nul- ^ Liberty of Printinrr must be enthralVd again under a Prelatical Commission of twenty.'\ The following extract from the address to the Reader which Rich. Baiter prefixed to a Treatise on the Nature of Covenants and Faith, it is not unlikely might have been intended for a direct reply to Milton. If not so, it is stili curious to see the sort of reasoning by which the Presbyteriaa Party defended an Imprimatur. At the same time, it stands a lamentable example how far a man eminent for Talents and Probity, he himself a Nonconformist, and an unsubdued con- fessor for conscience-sake, when misled by a factious spirit could desert a principle it was his bounden duty to uphold. Among the impediments to the progress of Know lege, JBax/er states, and without a blush, as the first, that *• Every ignorant, *' empty braine (which usually has the highest esteem of itselfe) '* hath the Liberty of the Presse whereby (through the common itch *' that pride exciteth in men, to seeme somebody in the world) the " number of Bookes is grown so great, that they begin with •* many to grow contemptible ; and a man may bestow a great " many yeares to find out the Authour*s weaknesse, and that '* his Books have nothing in them but common ; and so many " must be tossed over before we find out those few that are ♦' cleare and solid, that much of our lives are spent in the di«- " covery : and yet he is thought to scape well that only loseth 126 Milton's lify'd; and which is wors, the Freedom of Learning must groan again, and to her old fetters : all this the Parlament yet sitting. Although their own late arguments and defences against the Prelats might remember them*, that this obstructing vio- lence 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 enhaimces their autority, saith the Vicount St. Albans^ ; and a forbidden writing is thought to he a certain spark of Truth that flies up in the faces of them who seeke to tread it out. This Order therefore may " his time and labour and gets no more hurt by them. Some ** think the Truth mil not thrive among us, till every man have " leave to speak both in Presse and Pulpit that please: God for' *' bid that we should ever see that day ! If ten men's voyces be " louder than one, then would the noyse of Errour drown the " voyce of Truth : Ignorance is usually clamorous and loud, but •' Truth is modest, though zealous : One orthodox faithfull "Teacher, would scarce be seen or finde room for the crowd of ** seducers: For the godly, compared with the ungodly, are •' not near so few as the men of clear understanding, in corapa- " rison of the ignorant: And they are most forward to speake, '* that know least.*' Caret Tit. l2mo. 1648. * The Prelats might remember them, &c.] See Illustra- tion, N. ^ The punishing of wits enhaunces their autority, sazM the Vi^ count St. Albans."] " Autority" may be in the Latin sense for Re- puiation. — Lord JBacow translated this apophthegm from Tacitus: '* Quo magis socordiam eorum inridere libet, qui praesenti po- *' tentia credunt exstingui posse etiam sequentis aevi raemoriam. *' Nam contra, punitis ingeniis gliscit auctoritas^-^AnnaL /. IV. 35. AREOPAGITICA. 12/^ prove a nursing mother to sects, but I shall easily shew how it will be a step-dame to Truth : and first by disinabling 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 perpetuall progression, they sick'n into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition. A man may be a Heretick in the Truth ; and if he be- leeve things only because his Pastor sayes so, or the Assembly so determins, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very Truth he holds, becomes his Heresies There is not • A man may be a Heretick in the Truth ; and if he heleeoc things only because his Pastor sayes so, or the Assembly so deter- mins without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very Truth he holds, becomes his Heresie.] Before theological Disputants gave it a technical appropriation to what each deemed the pravities of Heterodoxy in his oppo- nent, 'Aipscrig implied the opinion an individual had taken up on any subject; it bore no reference to its Truth nor to its False- hood ; and as little to peculiar, or to perverted notions of reli- gious belief. " In ista ipsa alpe(rsi metuo ne plus nervorum "sit," &c. writes Cicero; Epist. ad Div. I. 15. ep. 16. Our Authour now reverts to this original and absolute im- port; as Ben Jonson had previously: — " are you in that good '* Heresie? I mean opinion** The Sad Shepherd; A.\. S. 5. The drift of this seemingly paradoxical reasoning is in simpler terms — *' Though any man's religious opinions happen to be or- " thodox, still are they heretical when adopted without his own " examination of their proper evidence" Consult further his Treatise "of Civil Power in ecclesiastical Causes/' where Milton 128 Milton's any burden that som would gladlier post off to ano- ther, then the charge and care of their Rehgion. There be, who knows not that there be ? of Protes- tants and Professors'^ who live and dye in as arrant an implicit faith, as any lay Papist of Loretto, A wealthy man addicted to his pleasure and to his draws this distinction a second time, and opens his meaning more dearly : Pr. W. I. 549. ed. 1738. But is not this recurrence to the original acceptation, when it has been superseded by an accidental application, injudicious and faulty ? It looks too much like an ambitious display of Learning. Thus to give a word a twofold signification ; to set it in opposition with itself; now to be understood in its radical, and now in an acquired sense, savours more of conceit than of argument. Surely we should avoid every practice which adds to the instability or to the uncertainty of Language ; and such fluctuations, since they render the meaning of words pre- carious and indefinite, must needs lead to ambiguity. '^ Protestants and Professors.] They who affected a sancti- monious observance of religious duties were then called Pro- fcssors. This the examples following abundantly ascertain : *' A Diocese in which there were as many strict Professors of " Religion {commonly called Puritans) as in any part of Eng- ♦' land." May ; Hist, of the Pari p. 55. ^to. And Fr. Quarks: " There's many Libertines, for one Professour, *' Nor doe Professors all professe aright «' *Mong whom there often lurks a Hypocrite." Divine Poems; p. G7. \2mo, 1630. Again ; it is related in the Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, that his Father left him " at bord in a very religious house, where " new superstitions and pharisaical holiness, straining at gnatts " and swallowing camels, gave him a little disgust, and wa» " awhile a stumbling block in his way of purer /)rq/e55/on, when " he saw ^mon^ prof essors such unsuitable miscarriages." p. 32. 4to. 1806. AREOPAGITICA. 129 profits, finds Religion to be a traffick so entangFcl, and of so many piddling accounts, that of all mys- teries he cannot skill to keep a stock going upon that trade. What should he doe ? fain he would have the name to be religious, fain he would bear up with his neighbours in that. What does he therefore, but resolvs to give over toyling, and to find himself out som factor, to whose care and credit he may commit the whole managing of his religious affairs; som Divine of note and estima- tion that must be. To him he adheres, resigns the whole ware-house of his Religion, with all the locks and keyes into his custody ; and indeed makes the very person of that man his Religion -, esteems his associating with him a sufficient evidence and com- mendatory of his own piety. So that a man may say his Religion is now no more within himself, but is becom a dividuall movable, and goes and comes neer him% according as that good man frequents ® His Religion is now no more within himself, but is becom a dividuall movable, and goes and comes neer him.] Dividual is divisible : ** Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being." Par. L. XII. 85. Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher, X. 24. edit. 1778, — " true love 'tween maid and maid may be " More than in sex dividual.** Here Seward, thinking dividual destroyed the sense, gave indi* vidual; and so made the text spe«k just the reverse of what the dramatic Poets intended. Individual is inseparable, indivisible, as in Tetrachordon : ** His Tautology also of indissoluble and *' individual, is not to be imitated." p. 20. 4/o. 1045. K 130 Milton's the house. He entertains Iiim, gives him gifts* feasts him, lodges him ; his Religion comes home at night, praies, is liberally supt, and sumptuously laid to sleep, rises, is saluted, and after the Malm- sey, or some well spic*t bruage, and better break- fasted^ then He whose morning appetite would have gladly fed on green figs between Bethany and Jeru- salem ; his Religion walks abroad at eight, and leaves his kind entertainer in the shop trading all day without his Religion. ^ After the Malmsey, or some well-spic't bruage, and better breakfasted.'] Ben Jonson had characleriz'd the Puritan Minis- ter, Zealot of the Land Bus/s sumptuous fare at his Patroness's by much the same sort of description : — " fast by the teeth i' '* the cold Turkye-pye i' the Cupboard, with a great white Loaf •* on his left hand, and a Glass of Malmsey on his right." Bartholomew Fair. A. I. S. 6. From Milton's representation of the usual morning repast in a family of staid and sanctimonious manners, w;e may gather the improved habits of life as to Temperance which have taken place since his days. Such beverage if now set at all on the Breakfast Table is only for the Fox-hunter before he goes out to the chase. Spiced Liquors for a long space of time were among the luxu- ries of our Anceslours. Froissart, as I recollect, mentions, that the Black Prince after the Battle of Poitiers, among other courtesies presented his prisoner, the King of France, with a cup of Wine and Spices. And a Poet, our Authour's contem- porary, asks, " What though some have a fraught '* Of Cloves and Nutmegs, and in Cinnamon sail ? " If thou hast wherewithall to spice a draught, " When griefs prevail." Herbert; the Temple, p. 13L \2mo. 1641. AREOPAGITICA. 131 Another sort there be, who when they hear, that all things shall be ordered, all things regulated and settPd ; nothing written but what passes through the custom-house of certain Publicans that have the tunaging and the poundaging of all free spok'n Truth*; will strait give themselvsup into your hands, mak'em and cul'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 delightfull dream ^. What need they torture their heads with * Through the custom house of certain Publicans that have the tunaging and the poundaging of all free spok'n Tmth.] Johnson explains a Publican to be a toll-gatherer. If he had said a col- lector of Taxes, he would have been more correct : " In all " places Men that are grieved with payments to the Public, *' discharge their anger npon the Publicans ; that is to say, Far-^ *' mers, Collectors, and other OJicers of the Public Revenue.**-^ Hobbes; Works; p. 140. fol. 1651. The levying of Tunnage and Poundage on merchandize by royal authority alone was a Grievance which had been con- demned at the moment of their Dissolution by a tumultuary Vote of the House of Commons who sale for a short time in 1629. ' 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 delightfull dreajn."] After the industry with which po- litical enmity has widely propagated that Milton felt no sym- pathy in the affections of social life, it behoves his admirers to remove this aspersion on his memory. The more so, since Johnson has given currency to the persuasion that he was of unamiable manners and a recluse; *' an acrimonious and surly Republican," who was destitute of, the milder virtues. San* K 2 132 Milton's that which others have tak*n so strictly, and so unalterably into their own pourveying ? These are guine, not to say enthusiastic, in his complexional tempera- ment, it is not reasonable to believe that Milton was of an austere or repulsive demeanour; and he possessed by far too much native dignity, to be Pharisaical. With all his eager appetite for Knowlege, and habitudes of severe Study, he did not keep entirely aloof from the festal board. This was no part of his doctrine; neither was it his practice to seques- ter himself altogether from the world. Far otherwise : He taught, " For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains, *' And disapproves that Care, tho' wise in show, " That with superfluous burden loads the day, ** And when God sends a chearful hour refrains." So he says in the Sonnet on his own loss of sight; and this is not the tone of a man who regarded the intercourses of society with sourness or disdain ; nor the language of one who held back from it as incompatible with the close application of a de- voted Scholar. None of his Vindicators have dwelt on this traite of character, which Edward Philipps attests very quaintly : " Once in three " weeks or a month, he would drop into the society of some " young Sparks of his acquaintance, the chief whereof were " Mr. Alphry, and Mr. Miller, two Gentlemen of Grays Inn, ** the Beau's of those times, but nothing near so bad as those ** now-a-days; with these Gentlemen he would so far make bold *' with his Body, as now and then to keep a Gaudy-day." Life prefixed to the Transl. of Letters of State ; p. 20, 1694. By this transient glimpse which his Nephew and Pupil, his. only Biographer who had a personal knowlege of him, affords us of the immortal Bard in his hours of convivial indulgence, we view him in a new and pleasing light; while it makes clear, that the forcible and eloquent language in the text was a sponta- neous and unexaggerated sally, not a feigned effusion to suit the AREOPAGITICA. 133 the fruits which a dull ease and cessation of our knowledge will bring forth among the People. How goodly, and how to be wisht were such an obedient unanimity as this ? what a fine conformity would it starch us all into ? doubtles a stanch and occasion of the argument. — Who among the Lyric Poets has given a warmer colouring to festive delights? At the same time, this passage helps to show that the late T. Warton imputed " a natural severity of mind" to Milton un- justly, if he made use of this phrase in a sense distinct from that of the elder Richardson, who had before observed that the Poet " had a gravity in his temper, not melancholy, or not till «' the latter part of his Life, not sour, morose, or ill-natur*d ; " hut A certain severity of Mind, a Mind not condescending to " little things." Life prefixed to Notes and Remarks on Par, Lost, p. 15. Svo. 1734. — Still I should have preferred in both these instances, because it would have been unequivocal, to have characterized the Authour of Paradise Lost as endowed with an elevation of Thought which could but ill stoop to levities. Milton's self-control and temperate habits enhance his merit in a high degree; as they were the result of a reso- lution, formed soon after he arrived at manhood, to " spend " his years in the search of civil and religious knowlege." — Pr. W. L 135. ed, 1738. '« all his study bent '* To worship God aright, and know his works *' Not hid, nor those things last, which might preserve *' Freedom and Peace to Men." P. Z. XI. 577. Let me add, that he probably shadowed his own regulated forbearance in the closing couplet of another poetical address. He is inviting a Friend to appoint a place where they might sometimes meet and pass a winter's day together in colloquial enjoyment, and elegant festivity, when he concludes, ** He, who of those delights can judge, and spare " To interpose them oft, is not unwise." 134 Milton's solid peece of frame- work, as any January could freeze together^. Nor much better will be the consequence ev*n ' Hoiv goodly, and how to be xvish*t were such an obedient una- nimity as this, what a fine conformity would it starch us all into ? doubtless a stanch and solid peece of frame-work, as any January could freeze together. '^ I wish we could read frost work. It i» ijot easy to explicaie a satisfactory meaning out of ** frame work/' as it stands here. There is in his Tract against '* Prelaty,'* a splendid ampli- ficaion of this reasoning from the dead repose of a forced Con- formity. For nervous imagery and the masculine elegance of its style, it has not often been surpassed. '* Do they [the Pre- *' lates] kerp away Schism ? if to bring a mimb and chill stupidity ** of Soul, an unactive blindness of Mind upon the People by " their leaden Doctrine, or no Doctrine at all ; if to persecute " all knowing and zt-alous Christians by the violence of their " Courts, be to keep away Schism, they keep away Schism " indeed : and by this kind of Discipline all Italy and Spain is " as purely and politically kept from Schism as England hath " been by them. With as good a plea might the dead palsy " boast to a man, 'tis 1 that free you from stitches and pains, " and the troublesome feeling of cold and heat, of wounds and "strokes; if I were gone, all these would molest you. The '• winter might as well vaunt itself against the Spring, I destroy " all noisome and rank weeds, I keep down all pestilent va- '* pours; yes, and all wholesome herbs, and all fresh dews, by " your violent and hide-bound frost : but when the gentle west " winds shall open the fruitful bosom of the Earth, thus over- •' girded by your imprisonment, then the flowers put forth and *' spring* and then the Sun shall scatter the mists, and the " manuring hand of the tiller shall root up all that burdens the " soil without thank to your bondage. But far worse than any ** frozen captivity is the bondage of Prelates ; for that other, if *' it kept down any thing which is good within the Earth, sodotlj " it likewise that which is ill ; but these let out freely the ill, *' and keep down the good, or else keep down the lesser ill, and " let out the greatest." B. I. ck. 6, AREOPAGITICA. 135 among the Clergy themselvs : it is no new thing never heard of before, for a parochiall 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 fuliOy the gatherings and savings of a sober graduatship*, a Harmony and a Catena, treading the constant round of certain common doctrinal! heads, attended with their uses, motives, marks and means j out of which, as out of an alphabet or sol fa^ by forming and transforming, joyning and * To finish his circuit in an English Concordance and a topic folio, the gatherings and savings of a sober graduatship, &c.] A topic folio comprehended more than we now express by a folio Common-place. In his Artis LogiccB plenior institutio, &c. our Authour explains the phrase: " Argumentorum itaque inventio " Topica Graece nominatur; quia roitsg continet, i. e. locos unde " argumenta sumuntur, vidinque docet et rationem argumenta "bene inveniendi, suo nimirura ordine collocata; unde vel ad " genesia expromantur, vel in analyst explorentur, invento- " rumque simul vim atque usum exponit." — Cap. 2. While resident at the University, when only not a boy, he vented a complaint similar to that he is stating above : " Sane " apud nos, quod sciam, vix unus atque alter est, qui non Phi- " lologiae, pariter & Philosophise, prope rudis et profanus, ad " Theologiam devolet implumis; earn quoque leviter admoduna " altingere contentus, quantum forte sufficiat conciunculae quo- ** quo modo conglulinandae, & tanquam tritis aliunde pannis *' consuendaB : adeo ut verendum sit ne sensira ingruat in Clerum " nostrum sacerdotalis ilia superioris saeculi Ignorantia." — Epist. Earn. III. * Sol fa — ] The name of two Notes in the Gammut, which lwas given them by Guido Aretino, the inventor of this musical notation j from the initial Syllables of two verses in a Latin Hymn. Woods. ' y 136 Milton's dis joyning variously a little book-craft, and two hours meditation might furnish him unspeakably to the performance of more than a weekly charge of sermoning : not to reckon up the infmit helps ^ of * Not to reck'n up the infinit helps.] Milton's Orthography gave Pr nuriciaiion the preference over Etymology. He, ac- cordingly, put the apostrophed mark, or wholly sunk the o, where it is inarticulately pronounced, as above in reckon and elsewhere in prisner, &c. And the same with other Vowels, where there is the same failure of an express enunciation; e. gr. medcirit ordnary covenant. A slovenly mode of utterance but too common among us, and which confounds all our Vowels in the same indistinct sound. The spelling of injinit without the supplemental e exemplifies hi'' general scheme; as it also explains why in some instances he added this as a servile Letter to the end of a word. In this Oration injinit is printed like opposit, ohdurat, Senat, Prelat, and many more, as it is spoken. This was the rule likewise pre- scribed to the Printers of his own Editions of Par. Lost, except when in accommodation to the measure the last Syllable is to be produced, then to denote it to be long an e was appended. As, " Be infinitly good, and of his good " As liberal and free as infinite." p. 97. of 8j70. edit, 1674. That these variations were not fortuitous is clear : " Through the infinite Host, nor less for that.** ib,p,\\y " For which to the infinitly Good we owe." ih. p. 175. In these instances, where he placed the accent on the middle Syllable, he subjoined the e. So we find on system an adsciti- tious e to the closing word of the Verse, to show that there ought to be a rest on the last Syllable, that it might, I suppose. AREOPAGITICA. 137 interlinearies, breviaries, synopses ^ and other loiter- ing gear. But as for the multitude of Sermons answer to the final Spondee of Latin Hexameters. Thus, " The bond of Nature drew me to my owne, " My ovm in thee, for what thou art is mine." ib. jp. 242. Again ; " When in orbes " Of circuit inexpressible they stood *' Orb within orbt the Father infinite." ib, p, 13*. The omission of this e was further to " perform the effect" of accentual notation ; and therefore it is that these Editions ex- hibit '* Proserpin" (P. L. IV. 269.), " Nectarin," {ib. 332.) and " Maritim," {ib. XI. 398.), because contrary to the authority of custom, the metre constrains the ictus in these words to be thrown back to the middle Syllable. It is extraordinary, that none of Bentkys antagonists should have urged this laboured exactitude of Spelling in refutation of his hypothesis that there was an Editor of the original Edition of Par. Lost, who beside typographical faults, had foisted in several of his own verses. The phantom must have instantly faded before this objection. Where the e was not subsidiary to the written representation of the vocal breathing, but was entirely surd, he discarded it : for example; judg, fescu, revenu, shon, wors. In such cases to have retained the superfluous Letter might have misled as to the use to which it was applied in other places. S, as interpolated in Island, and the intercalary^ mforeigrtt were retrenched by others as well as by Milton. We see that Chaucer spelt to the sound ; and this seems to have been the rule most attended to by our Forefathers; though it was the opinion of Gz7>&07z, that Languages gradually lose sight of Ety- mology and come to be regulated by Pronunciation. As written words are but the signs of sound. Letters wholly mute should be regarded as a defect. The motive therefore 138 Milton's ready printed and pil'd up, on every text that is not difficult, our London trading St. Thomas in his vestry, and adde to boot St. Martin, and St. Hugh'^, have not within their hallow'd hmits 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 magazin. But if his rear and flanks be not impal'd^ if his back dore be not secured by the rigid Licencer, 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 sentinells with our Authour might have been the benefit of Foreigners ; as ■with the mode of pronouncing Latin and Greek which he wished to have introduced, — The French have so many quiescent Let- ters as to make too much of their Language merely Language to the eye. 7 Our London trading Si. T/iomaa in his vestry, and adde to boot St. Martin, and St. Hugh, &c.] This appears to convey a reflection on some Preachers who had converted the Vestry- room into a warehouse and place of sale for their Sermons. But I am unable to designate the individuals by name. * If his rear and flanks be not impalM — ] He has this last word in Par. Lost. VL 553. " impaVd " On every side with shadowing squadrons deep." i. e. defended or surrounded. But from what follows presently afterward in my Text, I am inclined to think it is there in a different acceptation, and that he would now have the Reader understand him as meaning, guarded with the valli, the stakes or palisadoes, which the Romans made use of to strengthen their entrenchments. AREOPAGITICA. 139 about his receiv'd opinions, to walk the round and counter-round with his lellow inspectors, fearing lest any of his flock be seduc't, who also then would be better instructed, better exercis'd and dis- ciphn*d. And GoD send that the fear of this dih- gence which must then be us*d, doe not make us affect the lazines of a hcencing Church ! For if we be sure we are in the right, and doe not hold the Truth guiltily, which becomes not% if ' If we he sure ue are in the right, and doe not hold the Truth guiltily, which becomes not."] We have a development of what is meant by the expression *' holding the Truth guiltily y^ in the succeeding extract from his latest Publication : " With good and religious Reason, therefore all Protestant "Churches with one consent, and particularly the Church of " England, in her thirty nine Articles (Artie. 6ih, J 9th, 20tb, "21st, and elsewhere), maintain these two points, as the main ** Principles of true Religion ; that the Rule of true Religion i^ *' the word of God only; and that their Faith ought not to he an "implicit Faith, that is, to helieve, though as the Church hc" " lieves, against or without express authority of Scripturei "And if all Protestants as universally as they hold these two " Principles, so attentively and religiously would observe them, "they would avoid and cut off many Debates and Contentions,' "Schisms and Persecutions, which too oft have been among " them, and more firmly unite against the common adversary. '* For hence it directly follows, that no true Protestant can per- " secute or not tolerate his fellow Protestant, though dissenting *' from him in some opinions ; but he must flatly deny and re- " nounce these two his own main Principles, whereon true Re- " ligion is founded; while he compels his Brother from that ** which he believes as the manifest word of God, to an implicit " Faith (which he himself condemns) to the endangering of his ^* Brother's Soul. Whether hy rash belief, or outward confer' *' mity : for whatsoever is noi of Faith, is Sin," Of true Re^ 140 Milton's we our selves condemn not our own weak and fri- volous teaching, and the People for an untaught and irreligious gadding rout ; what can be more fair, then when a man judicious, learned, and of a conscience, for ought 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 urg'd it as wherewith to justifie himself, that he preacht in publick; yet writing is more publick then preaching; and more easie to refutation, if need be, there being so many whose businesse and profession meerly it is, to be the champions of Truth ; which if they neglect, what can be im- puted but their sloth, or unability ? Thus much we are hinder'd and dis-inur'd by this cours of Licencing toward the true knowledge of what we seem to know. For how much it hurts and hinders the Licencers themselves in the calling of their Ministry, more then any secular employ- ment, 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. ligion, Hceresie, Schism, Toleration, and what best 7neans may he us* d against the growth of Popery; p. 4. 4to, 1673. AREOPAGITICA. 141 There is yet behind of what I piirpos'd to lay open, the incredible losse and detriment that this plot of Licencing puts us to, more then if som enemy at sea should stop up all our hav'ns and ports, and creeks ; it hinders and retards the im- portation of our richest marchandize. Truth : nay, it was first establisht and put in practice by Anti- christian malice and mystery^ on set purpose to extinguish, if it were possible, the light of Refor- mation, and to settle falshood ; little differing from that policie wherewith the Turk upholds his Al- coran, by the prohibition of Printing. 'Tis not de- ny*d, but gladly confest, we are to send our thanks and vows to Heav'n, louder then most of Nations, for that great measure of Truth which we enjoy, especially in those main points between us and the Pope, with his appertinences thePrelats: but he * Put in practice by Antichristian malice and mystery — ] Mystery first denoted the associated fraternity of any trade, or handicraft occupation. Afterward, this term shared the fate of the cognate terms, Crqft, and Art, degenerating into an ill sense. It seems now to have expressed wily contrivance, trick- ing management. This may be exemplified from Clarendon : " They found it much easier to transact any thing contrived and •* framed by such a Committee, than originally offered and de- " bated in either House, before the mystery was understood.*' Hist, of the Rebellion; I. 604-. Svo. 1807. Again, in Par, Reg. — " so apt, in regal arts, *' And regal mysteries." III. 248. By which he glanced, we may infer, at the artes 8f instrumenta regni, which James I. facetiously phrased King-craft, 1 42 Milton's who thinks we are to pitch our tent here, and have attain'd the utmost prospect of Reformation, that the mortall glasse wherein we contemplate, can shew us^ till we come to beatific vision, that man ^ The utmost prospect of Reforination, that the mortall glasse wherein we contemplate, can shew us."] Our Authour had not in mind merely St. Paul to the Corinthians {\ Ep. 13. 12.) " For '*' now we see through 2i glass darkly." He thought also of the magical Mirrours which are of not unfrequent recurrence in the fictions of the Romance-writers. Lord Bacon has the same al- lusion : " I do find therefore in this inchanted glass four idols, ** or false appearances of several and distinct sorts.'* Works; I. 388. 4to. 1765. In II Penseroso {v. 113.) he particularizes " the virtuous Ring and Glass" presented to Canace, among the wonders related by Chaucer in the story of Canibuscan : " This Mirrour eke, that I have in min hond, " Hath swiche a might, that Men may in it see, " Whan ther shal falle ony adversitee " Unto your regne, or to yourself also, "And openly, who is your frend or fo. " And over all this, if any lady bright " Hath set hire herte on any maner wight, " If he be false, she shal his treson see, " His newe love, and all his subtiltee "So openly, that ther shal nothing hide." Canterbury Tales; Tyrwhitt's edit. I. 424. Oxford. 1798. That famous adept in the occult arts, Cornelius Agrippa, was a practiser of these fantastic illusions. In a Glass of the same deceptive kind, he set before the Earl of Surrey, while travelling on the Continent, the fair Geraldine, then in England, ill, re- clining on a couch, and reading one of the Sonnets this Noble- man had addressed to her. See Drayton* s England* s Heroicall Epistle^: Poems, p. 226. fol. 1613. More concerning these representations, which vie with the •exliibitions of the German lUuminati, mifjht be gleaned with little pains from our old Poetry, and old Plays. The instances areopagitica; 143 by this very opinion declares, that he is yet farre 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 strait arose a wicked race of deceivers, who as that story goes of the JEgijptian Typhon with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the vir- gin Truth, hewd her lovely form into a thousand peeces, and scatter'd them to the four winds*. I have brought will amply suffice to elucidate the obscurity of Milton's phrase. ^ Truth— was a perfect shape most glorious to look on — ] He is alluding to the Beauty of Virtue. Shape was then synoni- mous to Form. " The Shapes make as though they would re- ** sist, but are all driven in/' was one of the original Stage- directions in Comus. In the text he seems to have had Cicero in his thoughts : ** Habes undique expletam et perfectam, Tor- equate, /ormam Honestatis :" De Fin. Bon. et Mai. II. 15. And he adverts again a little further on to Plato^s ET^JwAov, of which the Roman Philosopher writes to his Son, that it was a Form so lovely, that if it were visible it would be sure to excite affectioh: " Formam quidem ipsam, Marce fill, et tanquam fa- " ciem honesti vides: quae si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amoret *' (ut ait Plato) excitaret sapientiaj.'* — De Off. I. 5. * As that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon with his conspi- rators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the Virgin Truth, hew'd her lovely form into a thousand peeces, and scattered them to the four winds.] See Plutarch's very curious Treatise on Isis Sf Osiris. Milton appears to have caught his. application of this apo- logue from the mystical meaning that Writer elicited out of this fable : 'E\KyjVMOv yap >} l(ng sa-ri, y.%i q Tu^o/y itoXsiwii rij ^ewf. 144 milton's From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such as durst appear, imitating the carefull search that Isis made for the mangFd 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 doe, till her Masters second comming; he shall bring together every joynt and member, and shall mould them into an immortall feature of lovelines and per- fection^ Suffer not these licencing prohibitions to stand at every place of opportunity forbidding and disturbing them that continue seeking ^ that y.OLi Sixyvotocv xa,i atocrriV T£rv(puji;.zvog, xai hoLo-itujv xai a(pa,vi^u}f 'fov ispov >. 23. 4/o. 164.2. After the Council of Trent had decreed that Traditions were of equal authority with the Scripture, this word acquired an ill sound among Pro- testants. Hence it was that Ben Jonscn made Ananias, a zealous Minister, say, " Ana. I hate Traditions : " I do not trust them — Tri. Peace. " Ana» They are Popish, all." The Alchemist; A. 3. 5.2. AREOPAGITICA. 15/ 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 Free- dom, but that he would cry out as Pirrhus 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 cry*d out against for schismaticks and sectaries ; as if, while the Temple of the Lord was building*, some ^ He would cry out as Pirrhus did, adyniring the Roman doci' lity and courage, if such wei'e my Epirots, &c.] " Sed beilo et •* pace, foris et domi, omneni in partem Roinana virtus turn se '* approbavit : nee alia magis quam Tarentina victoria ostendit " populi Romani fortitudinem, senalus sapientiam, ducum nnag- " nanimitatem. Quinara illi fuerunt viri, quos ab elephantis " primo proelio obtritos accepimus? omnium vulnera in pec- •' tore : quidam hostibus suis immortui : omnium in manibus " enses: et relictae in vultibus minae : et in ipsa morte ira vive- " bat Quod adeo Pyrrhus miratus est, ut diceret, qudm fa" " cile erat orbis imperium occupare, aut mihi Romartis militibus, *' aut me rege Romanis!'* — Lucius Annaus Florus; I. 1. c. 18. ^ While the Temple of the Lord was building, &c.] We meet with the same liberal sentiment inculcated by the same scrip- tural metaphor in Sir William Wallers Vindication. " Some "may be intitled Episcopians, some Presbyterians, and some "Independents; and yet all be Israelites indeed, belonging to " the same election of Grace, and (as it is written of the Nova- " tian faction and the orthodoxe Christians of that time) they " may all jointly contribute materials to the building up of our " Temple."— />. 228. There is a marginal reference to Socrat. Hist. I. 2. c. 30. I 158 milton's cutting, some squaring the marble, others hewing the cedars, there should be a sort of irrationall 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 5 neither can every peece of the building be of one form ; nay, rather the per- fection consists in this, that out of many moderat varieties and brotherly dissimilitudes^ that are not vastly disproportionall arises the goodly and the gracefuU symmetry that commends the whole pile and structure. Let us therefore be more consi- derat builders, more wise in spirituall architecture, when great reformation is expected. For now the time seems come, wherein Moses the great Prophet may sit in Heav'n rejoycing to see that memorable and glorious wish of his fulfiird, when not only our sev'nty Elders, but all the Lords People are become Prophets. No marvell then though some men, and some good men too perhaps, but young in do not find the place alluded to in that Chapter. Milton, how- ever, is very likely to have availed himself of some such passage in the Ecclesiastical Historian, a part of whose narrative he has before in this Oration used argumentatively. * Brotherly dissimilitudes — ] i. c. " a sort of family-like- " ness." A parody of Ovid's conceit : — " Facies non omnibus una, ** Nee diversa tamen : qualem decet esse sororum." Met, II. 14. AIIEOPAGITICA. 1 59 goodnesse, as Joshua then was, envy them^ They fret, and out of their own weaknes are in agony, lest these divisions and subdivisions will undoe us. The Adversarie again applauds, and waits the hour, when they have brancht themselves out, saith he, small anough 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 untill he see our small divided ma- niples cutting through at every angle of his ill united and unweildy 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 ^ Some good Men — envy them.'] Here envy means simply — hear ill will: So Bacon; " The King having lasted of the envy *' of the People for bis imprisonment of Edward Plantagenet." Works; III. 20. 4to. 1765. And Burnet; "He had the Legate» *' between him and the Envy or odium of it." — Hist, of Reforma- ium; I,5^.foL 1715. "^ The Adversarie again applauds, and waits the hour, when they have brancht themselves out, saith he, small anough into parties and partitions, then will be our time. Fool ! he sees not, &c.] This Adversary was the Church of Rome; which placed its main reliance on the numerous and discordant Sects into which the Protestants were split. It is remarked by Burnet, " that the "Papists insulted, upon this division among the Protestants; " and said, it was impossible it should be otherwise, till all •* returned, to come under one absolute obedience." — Hist, of the Reformation; part 3. p. 306. fol. 1715. Fool! was then a word of emphasis; but a less odious and unseemly appellation than it has since become. It was an ex- clamatory expression, and imitated from the Nijir/o; of the Greeks. l60 MILTON*S this behalf, but shall laugh in the end, at those malicious applauders of our differences, I have these reasons to perswade me. First, when a City shall be as it were besieged and blockt about, her navigable river infested, in- rodes and incursions round, defiance and battell oft rumor'd to be marching up ev'n to her walls and suburb trenches^j that then the People, or the ' When a City shall be as it were besieged and block' t about, her navigable river infested, inroads and incursions round, defiance and battell oft rumored to be marching up e»'n to her walls and suburb trenches ;] By *' suburb trenches** he refers to the line of communication which the Parliament had recently caused to be made round London and its Suburbs. The recollection that this passage is descriptive of the agitation in London two years before; at the time Charles drew his army from Oxford to pos- sess himself of the Capital and was foiled at Brentford ; heightens its spirit. It was well understood, while the consternation this hostile movement must have occasioned was fresh in every one's memory. The Poet's fine Sonnet " when the Assault was in- " tended to the City," was composed under this imminent ex- pectation of the royal forces sacking London. The Parliament's Historiographer has recorded with much animation, the en- thusiasm of the Inhabitants in throwing up these works of cir- cumvallation in the summer following for the future safe-guard of the Metropolis : *' London was then altogether unfortified, no " Works were raised; nor could they, if their Enemies (who " were then Masters of the field) had come upon them, have op- *' posed any Walls, but such as old Sparta used for their Guard, «' the hearts of courageous Citizens. But at that time London " began her large intrenchments ; which encompassed not onely " the City but the whole Suburbs on every side, containing " about twelve miles in circuit. That great work was by many *' hands compleated in a short time, it being then a custome «' every day to go out by thousands to digge, all Professions, AREOPAGITICA. l6l greater part, more then at other times, wholly tak'n up with the study of highest and most impor- tant matters to be reformed, should be disputing, reasoning, reading, inventing, discoursing, ev*n to a rarity, and admiration, things not before discourst or written of, argues first a singular good will, con- tentednesse and confidence in your prudent fore- ** Trades, and Occupations, taking their turnes ; and not onely " inferiour Tradesmen, but Gentlemen of tiie best quality, '* Knights, and Ladies themselves, for the encouragement of *' others, resorted daily to the Workes, not as Spectators but " assisters in it ; carrying themselves. Spades, Mattoks, and " other instruments of digging, so that it became a pleasing '* sight at London, to see them going out in such order and " numbers, with Drums beating before them; and put life into *' the drooping people (being taken for an happy Omen) that, " in so lov^ a condition, they seemed not to despaire.'' — T/ie History of the Parliament of England ; p. 214. edit. 1812. What Milton proceeds to observe of the reasoning, reading, inventing, discoursing, things not before discourst or written of, I apprehend to have been a complimentary allusion to the regu- lar conferences just set on foot of Persons attached to the pursuit of experimental, or, as it was then called, the new Philosophy. " We did (says Dr. Wallis) by agreement, divers of us, meet. " weekly in London, on a certain day, to treat and discourse of "such affairs Our business was, precluding matters of " Theology and State- aff.iirs, to discourse and consider of Phi- *Mosophical inquiries, and such as related thereunto; as Phy- " sick. Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, Staticks, ** Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and natural Experi- ** roents." See Dr. Wallis's account of some Passages of his own hife, in the Publisher's Appendix to his !*reface to Peter Lung- toft' s Chronicle ; CLXI. &c. Works of T, Hearne : IIJ. 1810. This association for the promotion of physiological and scien- tific enquiries was the germ whence the Royal Society sprang. M l62 Milton's sight, and safe government. Lords and Commons ! and from thence derives it self 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 Hanibal, being in the City, bought that peece of ground at no cheap rate, whereon HanU hal himself encampt his own regiment^ Next, it is a lively and cherfull presage of our happy successe and victory. For as in a Body, when the blood is fresh, the spirits pure and vigorous, not only to vital, but to rationall faculties, and those in the acutest, and the pertest operations of wit and sut- tlety^ it argues in what good plight and constitu- tion the Body is ; so when the cherfulnesse of the People is so sprightly up, as that it has, not only wherewith to guard well its own freedom and ^ Who ivhen Rome was nigh besieg'd bi/ Hanibal, being in the City, bought that peece of ground at no cheap rate, whereon Hani' hal himself encampt his own regiment.'} " Minuere etiani spem ** ejus et aliae, parva magnaque, res : magna ilia, quod, quum «* ipse ad mcenia urbis Romae armatus sederet, milites sub rexil- " lis in supplementum Hispaniae profectos audivit : pa7va autem, ** quod per eos dies eum forte agrum, in quo ipse castra haberet, " venisse, nihil ob id deniinuto pretio, cognitum ex quodam cap- '* tivo est. Id vero adeo superbum atque indignum visum, ejus '* soli, quod ipse bello captutn possideret, haberetque, invenlum " Romae emptorem ; ut, extemplo vocato praecone, tabernas ar- " gentarias, quae circa forum Romanum tunc essent, jusserik " venire/'--L2V. Hist, XXVI. 1 1. * Pertest operations of wit and suttlety.l i. e. " liveliest ope- '* rations, &c. :" *' Trip theper^ Fairies and the dapper Elves."— Coww. AREOPAGITICA. XGS safety, but to spare, and to bestow upon the so- lidest and sublimest points of controversie, and new invention, it betok'ns us not degenerated, nor drooping to a fatall decay, but casting off the old and wrincrd skin of Corruption to outlive these pangs, and wax young again^ entringthe glorious * Casting off the old and wrincVd skin of Corruption to outlive these pangs, and wax young again."] A classical metaphor: " Anguibus exuitur tenui cum pelle vetustas/* is a line I have read in some Roman Poet. Milton probably drew the thought from some Writer who has explained, why among the Antients a Serpent was symbolical of the medical Science ; which had, we may conjecture, its origin from the ▼ulgar error, that the annual process of changing their slough endued these animals with renovated vigour. He might xe- m^mhtx Macrohius: " Ideo ergo simulacris eorum junguntur " figurae draconum ; quia prsBstant ut huraana corpora velut in- '* firmitatis pelle deposita, ad pristinum revirescunt vigorem, ut " virescunt dracones per annos singulos pelle senectutis exula, ** propterea et ad ipsura solem species draconis refertur/* 5a- tum. I. 20. Though he was hardly unmindful of Virgil's com- parison of Pyrrhus and his newly burnished armour to a Snake fresh in his vernal rejuvenescence. {Mn. II. 4-71. &c.) It must be left to opinion, since I am not prepared with an example of the word, in the sense I suggest, to confirm my per- suasion, that where Hamlet in his Soliloquy says, *' When we •* have shuffled off this mortal coil/* i. e. envelope, wrapper, the dramatic Bard had in his mind a metaphor nearly allied to Mil- ton's ; a turn of thought of the same tenour as another in the Merchant of Venice — " while this muddy vesture of decay " Doth grossly close it in." A. 5. S. 1. What is the meaning of coil, if my suggestion be not allowed? Let those who dislike this interpretation supply one more appo- M 2 l64 MILTON S waies of Truth and prosperous Vertue destin'd 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 muing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazl'd eyes^ at the full midday beam ; purging and unsealing her long abused site before they dissent from it. None but a perfunctory Reader will subscribe to WarburtorCs gloss — ** turmoil, bustle.'* Since writing this the succeeding passage has fallen in roy way : " the body of Prince Arthur is said to have been well " coiled and well cered, and conveniently dressed with spices/' —See Miscellaneous Pieces at the end of Leland*s Collectanea, ». 5. p. 37 i. 2d edit, as quoted in Archaeologia ; III. 401. This is all but decisive that my conjecture is well-grounded. * Methinks I see her as an Eagle muing her 7nightt/ youth, and kindling her undazVd eyes, &c.] Warhurton did not refuse sometimes to weave into his own pieces a splen- did patch, which he had silently taken from the looms of others. A conspicuous instance occurs in his " Inquiry into the " Causes of Prodigies, &c." when passing, in the concluding pa- ragraph of that Tract, an eulogium on the University of Oxford. ** Methinks (says he) 1 see her, like the mighty Eagle, renew- " ing her immortal youth, and purging her opening sight, at " the unobstructed beams of our benign meridian sun; which " some pretend to say had been dazzled and abused by an in- *' glorious pestilential meteor ; while the ill-affected birds of " night would, with their envious hootings, prognosticate a " length of darkness and decay.*' — Tracts by Warburton, Sfc» p, 140. Svo. 17S9. The first glance convinces us that this passage was fashioned upon the text above. In the fierce dispute between Bishop Lowth, and the Authour of the Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated, which, to con- fess the plain truth, must have been carried on more to the AREOPAGITICA, l65 sight at the fountain it self of heavenly radiance 5 amusement than to the edification of the by-standers, Lowth fastened on this flourish of his Antagonist's pen, and treats it as nothing short of bombast. He thus roughly addresses him : — " You no sooner touched upon the subject, than you took fire *' at the bright idea : rapt in the spirit of prophetic enthusiasm, " your Musa pedestris immediately got on horseback, and " mounted on her Pegasus away she went in this high prancing "style: " Majorque videri " Nee mortale sonans." Letter to the R. R. Author of the Divine Legation oj Moses; p. 66. Svo. 1766. 3d edit, Lowth then proceeds to cite the quotation I have made from fVarburton, and in order to exhibit it with a burlesque air he has disingenuously printed it, so as to give the appearance of his opponent affecting the inflation of blank verse: *' Tant de fiel entre-t-il dans Tame des Devots ?" The Bishop of Gloucester might have indulged in one of hi biting sarcasms by informing the Writer of the celebrated Pre- lections on Hebrew Poesy that the Authour of Paradise Lost was his pattern, who was himself indebted to Pindar for the original of this impressive imagery. Akenside has likewise inii- taled the self-same passage in his fine Ode on Lyric Poetry. On this trickery in the letter-press, Warburton must have preserved a discreet silence, since he had himself employed the same typographical perversion to excite a smile at the elevated and measured diction in whiqh the Characteristics were com- posed. See Note on v. 488. B. IV. of the Dunciad. Pope's Editor however could not have laid claim to originality in this detractive device. That merit or demerit belongs to Bishop Berkeley^ who had made use of this identical disguise ■with the same design of depreciating Shaftesbury's high and rhe- torical strain of expression : seeAlciphron; \. 315. Svo. 1732. The artifice was unworthy o these eminent men; but alas! how few embroiled in Controversy can preserve temper or fair-, dealing ! l66 Milton's while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazM at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticat a year of sects and schisms*. * Purging and unsealing her long abused sight at tJie fountain itself of heavnly 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 prognosticat a year of sects and schisms."] In the narrative of St. PauVs Conversion, it is recorded, that ** there fell from " his eyes as it had been scales, and he received sight forth- " with." Acts\ ch.9, r. 18. — It has been thought that the touches of Milton's band are visible in the Preface to E. Phi- lipps's Theatrum Poetarum, ]2mo. 1675; the following passage is perhaps some confirmation of this opinion : ** the scales and " dross of his barbarity purging ofF by degrees,'* p. 11. Emendatory Criiicism is always perilous. Had not unsealing been authorized, and perhaps suggested, by this scriptural use> would it not have looked like a specious conjecture, that it was a misprint for unsealing? a word current in a similar sense among the writers of that age. And with the greater semblance of probability, since muing, another term in Falconry, imme- diately precedes it. To this reading the quotations that follow would have given a considerable degree of plausibility. " Are your Eyes yet unseaVd ?" Ben Jonson; Works; p. 240. fol. 1692. that is, unclosed. And Shakespeare; Ant. and Cleop. A,S,S.\i, " But when we in our viciousness grow hard, " (O misery on't !) the wise Gods seal our eyes,** •' A noise of Musicians anciently signified a concert or company '* of them.*'— {See the Variorum Shakspeare; IX. 74. ed. 1793.) Our Authour employs the phrase whole noise with much the- same import as Horace* s ** Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus." AREOPAGITICA. l6f What should ye doe then ? should ye suppresse all this flowry crop of Knowledge and new ligat sprung up and yet springing daily in this City? should ye set an Oligarchy of twenty ingrossers over it, to hring a famin upon our minds again, when we shall know nothing but what is measur'd to us by their busheP? Beleeve it. Lords and Com* I must not forget, that in this flight of Eloquence, Milton kept in view a Simile in Pindar^s second Olympiad: — tatem, cum fluctus nonduni resederunt, statum il- " lum rerum op'abilem atque perfectum, ipse non admittat." — Pr. W. II. 347. ed. 1738. The whole strain of this address is excellent, as well for its matter as its style, and of itself decisive that he never bent a courtier's knee to the Protector, as Johnson more than insi- nuated. * Liberty which is the nurse of all great wits ; &C.3 Literally from Longinus: ** ©PE^AI re yapt (pr^a-iy, lycavrj roc (ppovr^^ocrx «• rwv MErAAO^PONUN ri EAET0EPIA, v.CLi sitEAirKrai kou *' aaa ^tuj^eiv ro itpo^v^ov 7'7)s itpog aXXijAou^ spih^ kou rijf ** irspi roc TfpLcreioc (piXoninocs" — Hspi T*0T2 ; p. 1 44. 4/o. 1722. Pearce, AREOPAGITICA. I69 pursuing of the Truth, unlesse ye first make your selves, that made us so, lesse the lovers, lesse the founders of our true Liberty. We can grow igno- rant again, brutish, formal), and slavish, as ye found US; but you then must first become that which ye cannot be, oppressive, arbitrary, and ty- rannous, as they were from whom ye have free'd us. Tiiat our hearts are now more capacious, our thoughts more erected to the search and expecta- tion of greatest and exactest things'^, is the issue of your owne Vertu propagated in us ; ye cannot sup- presse that, unlesse ye reinforce an abrogated and mercilesse 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 ' Our thoughts more erected to the search and expectation of greatest and exactest ihings."] Erected is elevated, animated, elated. '* Tali oratione graviora metuentes composuit, erexzVque.'' ^Tacit. Hist. IV. 74. So in the Memoirs of Sir John Berkley, " what with the encou- *' raging messages which his Majesty had from the Presbyterian " Party and the City of London, his Majesty seemed very much " erected." — Maseres*s select Tracts relating to the Civil Wars, Sfc. p. 368. 1815. Did it require support, these examples of erected might be brought in aid of Mr. Home Tooke*s happy derivation of a/eri from erigere. The gradations of which cor- ruption are most ingeniously and undeniably traced out in the Diversions of Pur ley. II. 24-. To arrive at this Etymology was a process in which there are few Philologers who would not have despaired of success. Exact is also after the Latin, and signifies-pe)/ biilton's «p armes for Cote and Conduct, and his four nobles of Danegelt^ Although I dispraise not the defence ^ Not he who takes up armes for Cote and Conduct, and his four nobles o/Danegelt.] The raising of pecuniary aids by County assessments under the pretext of clothing new levies of Men, and for conducting and subsisting them on the march till they bad joined the Corps to which they were attached, was one of the dormant exactions which Charles revived a short time after ^is accession ; as he did Ship-money and commutations for Knighthood; and as he issued Privy Seals for extortions under the name of Benevolences. We learn from Clarendon, that Peti- tions were presented to the Long Parliament, soon after it met " against Lords Lieutenants of Counties, and their Deputy- ** Lieutenants, for having levied money upon the country, for *' conducting and clothing of soldiers/' — Hist, of the Rebellion; L 279. 8rf>. And that Conduct imports what I have just suggested, the (succeeding extract from the Northumberland Household Book clearly establishes : " Here begyn the ordure how the per- ** sones shall be ordured and raj/ted for tlieir condeth money, " which shall goe forwardes with my Lord to the warre at any •' tyme that the Kynge co'mandeth his Lordship from the places " they come froo to the place where my Lord shall abide/* See the Antiquarian Repertory; IV. 351. 1809. We learn from Puttenham, that Conduct came early into our. language: "Ye have also this worde Conduict, a French word, •* but well allowed of vs, and long since vsuall, it soundes •' somewhat more than this word (leading) for it is applied onely " to the leading of a Captaine, and not as a little boy shouldc ** leade a blinde man, therefore more proper to the case when *' he saide, conduict of whole armies." — The Arte of English Poesie; p. 122. edit. 1811. The military adventurers, like Sir J ohn Hawkewond {Movant's *' Hist, and Antiq. of Essex;" IL 288), who in the 15th and 16th centuries hired out their bands of followers to the different States of Italy, must, I imagine, have derived their name of Condottieri, from the same root. Mat. Bacon affords all the further information that is requisite AREOPAGITICA. 171 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. for duly comprehending the allusion to this antiquated and un- constitutional mode of Taxation : " All plunder or spoil com- " mitted by the Soldiers in the Conduct was to be satisfied by the *' Conductor or Commander that received their Pay, or Charges «« for their Conduct, And although the Charges for Conduct had *' formerly de facto been defrayed sometimes by the County by *' virtue of Commissions that issued forth, both for the raising •* and conducting of them ; yet this was no rule, nor did Ed- •' ward the Third claim any such duty, but disclaimed it; and «' ordained by Act of Parliament, That both the Pay and Con- " ductmonei/ should be disbursed by the King, from the time of •' their departure from their several Counties/' — Discourse of the Laws and Government of England; part 2. p. 59. foL Bohun*s edit. Danegelt was a Tax assessed on every Hide or Plow-land throughout England, to equip and maintain a naval force, able to keep the British Seas and Isles secure from the Danes. Too lucrative to expire with the occasion, the irregular practice af- terward in early periods of issuing Writs to levy Ship-Money by colour of the regal Prerogative grew out of this ancient im- position. When Charles attempted to raise money under these Writs, the Counsel on the part of the Crown in Hampden*s Case relied on it as a precedent: the Solicitor General {Littleton) sagely and seriously arguing, that " after the Conquest, Dane- ** gelt is supposed to be released by the Conqueror, because he ** dreamed he saw the Devil dancing upon the Danegelt ; but the •• Black Book saith it was paid in the Conquerors time." — State Trials; III. 931. ^vo. edit. Would that the Tax-masters of modern times were as easily conscience-struck as the Norman Invader ! It was therefore to the recent opposition to the payment of Ship-Money that Milton adverted by the mention of this obso- lete but analogous burden on the Land- Owners — Danegelt, 172 Milton's What would be best advis'd then, if it be found so hurtfull and so unequall to suppresse opinions for the newnes, or the unsutablenes to a customary- acceptance, will not be my task to say; I only shall repeat what I have learnt from one of your own honourable number, a right noble and pious Lord, who had he not sacrificed liis life and for- tunes to the Church and Commonwealth, we had not now mist and bewayTd a worthy and un- doubted patron of this argument^ Ye know him, I am sure ; yet I for honours sake, and may it be eternall to him, shall name him, the Lord Brook, He, writing of Episcopacy, and by the way treat- ing of sects and schisms, left ye his vote, or rather now the last words of his dying charge ^ which I ^ Patron ofthiis argument.'] An Advocate, in the signification of Paironvs; as in ttie opening paragraph of the Dialogue on Ora- tours which is ascribed to Tacitus : " horum autem temporum '* diserti, caussidici, et advocati, et patroni, et quidvis potuit, " quam oratores vocantur." And accordingly our Authour; *' turn quidem in illo viro, vel facundiam vel constantiam nemo " desideret, non patronum, non anaicura, vel idoneum, magis et " intrepidum, vel diseriionem alium quisquam sibi optet/' I quote these sentences because Mr. Hayley in translating the last of them erroneously rendered patronum, 2i Patron; conceiving, I conclude, that it ought to be interpreted in the acceptation that woid now bears among us, and not an Advocate or Plea^ of Causes in Courts of Justice, which was liradshawe's profession, whom Milton is commending. See Pr. W. II. 337. ed. 1738. It is far from unfrequent in this Latin import with our Writers of that age. ^ His vote, or rather now the last words of his dying charge."] " His fervent wish, or aspiration ;" " Nee Vespasiano adversui AREOPAGITICA. 173 know will ever be of dear and honour'd regard with ye, so full of meeknes 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 peacefull. He there exhorts us to hear with pa- tience and humility those, however they be mis- caird, that desire to live purely, in such a use of Gods Ordinances, as the best guidance of their Conscience gives them, and to tolerat them, though in some disconformity to our selves. The Book it self will tell us more at large ^ being publisht to the " G&\h^m votum, aut animus." — Tacit. Hist. I. \. s. 10. James Howell intitled an adulatory copy of Verses, " The Vote, or a ** Poem Royal, presented to his Majesty for a New- year's Gift ; " by way of Discourse, 'twixt the Poet and his Muse : 164-1." And the word occurs with this acceptation in Ben Jonson, and in Beaumont and Fletcher, * The Book it self will tell us more at large — ] This work was intitled " a Discourse opening the nature of that Episcopacie, " which is exercised in England. By the Right Honourable " Robert Lord Brooke: ^to. 16 H. Lond." Milton was happy to commemorate in his pages the virtues of a Nobleman who had lain down his life for the public Cause; and who was (says the Historian of the Civil War) " a Man as " much lamented by the Parliament as any that ever fell on " that side, and as much honoured for his Piety, Valour, and ^Fidelity." — May; Hist, of the Parliament: p. 210. 4to. The sentiments favourable to religious Liberty which gave particular occasion for this high-wrought panegyric are to be found in the second Section, Chapters six and seven. In 1661, another Edition of Lord Brooke's tract was published in duo- decimo, without the name of the Authour, and the Dedication to the Parliament omitted. — Horace Walpole, who I suspect not 174 Milton's world, and dedicated to the Parlament by him who both for his life and for his death deserves, that what advice he left be not laid by without perusall. And now the time in speciall is, by priviledge to write and speak what may help to the furder discussing of matters in agitation. The Temple of Janus, with his two controversal faces, might now not unsignificantly be set open^ And though all to have seen either Edition, remarks of these animadversions on Episcopacy, that *' Antony Wood says his Lordship was assisted *' therein by some Puritanical Ministers. Milton, a better " judge, commends it for breathing the spirit of Toleration — " which was not the spirit of the Puritans." — Lord Orford's Works. L 358. If by Puritans Mr. Walpole meant the Presby- terian Persuasion, he was correct. Croinwell and the Inde* pendents allowed a perfect freedom as to religious opinions. There is an original Portrait of Lord Brooke, in Warwick Castle. ^ And now the time in speciall, is by priviledge to write and speak what may help to the furder discussing of matters in agitation. The Temple of Janus, with his two controversal faces, might now not unsignificantly be set open."] Heylyn, speaking of th© censure passed by the House of Commons on Mountague^s work, for its leaning toward Popery, says that " this gave great ani- " raation to the opposite Party ;" who would " not lose the op- *' portunity of a Parliament- time (when the Press is open to all " comers) for publishing their Books against him." — Life of jMud; p. U8. /o/. 1671. " His two controversal faces ;" Jani hifrontis imago. But Milton by controversal, I am afraid, at the same time in- dulged in one of his conceits. — It is worthy of remark, that Gih- bon has raised a serious doubt, whether there ever was in fact a ** Temple of Janus" at Rome. The accomplished Historian sup- poses the Porta triumphalis to have been what, through the ob- scurity of the iatervening distance of time. Scholars have mis- AREOPAGITICA. IfS the windes of doctrin were let, loose to play upoa the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuri- ously by Licencing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falshood grapple ; who ever knew Truth put to the wors, 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 GeJieva^ fram*d and fabric* t 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 taken for a Temple. The reasons which he assigns to show that this is a vulgar error, carry, it must be allowed, a considerable degree of weight. After a luminous statement of objections to the received opinion, he proceeds, ** Je connois trop le danger •' des propositions exclusives, pour assurer que Texpression, *' Temple de Janus, n'est point en usage parmi les ecrivains des '* bons slides; mais Je vois que Tite Live, Horace, Suetone et *' Pline, le designent toujours par la denomination simple et " propre de Janus Geminus, ou de Janus Quirini, ou QuirinuSi " Virgile, qui decrit tous les anciens usages avec le feu d'un *' poete, et la precision d'un antiquaire, a introduit parmi ses " Latins cette ancienne institution. II n'y employe jamais le ** mot temple, dans le tems qu'il decrit ces portes de la guerre. ♦' (iEneid, VIL 60S.y'—Mcscell. Works. II. 392. 4io. The solu- tion this Aulhour gives to the meaning of Numa's institution — that the gates of Janus were to be kept open during War, and to be closed in time of Peace, is, if not absolutely con- vincing, at least ingenious and extremely plausible. ib.lL^QQ, 176 Milton's use diligence, to seek for Wisdom as for hidd'n trca^ sures early and late, that another Order shall enjoyn us to know nothing but by statute? When a man hath bin labouring the hardest labour in the deep mines of Knowledge, hath furnisht out his findings in all their equipage, drawn forth his reasons as it were a battell raung'd, 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 sculk, to lay ambushments, to keep a narrow bridge of Licencing where the challenger should passe*, though it be valour anough in souldiership, is but weaknes and cowardise in the wars of Truth. For who Knows not that Truth is strong next to the * The advantage of wind and sun — narrow bridge of Licensing where the challenger should passe^ &c.] On the morning of the Battle of Lulzen, Gustavus Adolphus thanked God that he had both Wind and Sun to favour him. But Milton owed this train of imagery to the lasting impression made on his warm fancy by his youthful reading in the Romances of Knight Errantry. Thus, in the Chronicle of the Cid: " The judges placed them ** fairly, each in his place, so that neither should have the sun in " his eyes." {p. 11. 4to. 1808.) Where a Note by Mr. Southey, on Partieronles el sol, informs us, that " The phrai»e is remark- *' able, and may best be rendered by explaining it. Many ** battles, in what the Spaniards call the da\ s of the Suield and ** Lance have been lost because the conquer'd army had their " faces toward the Sun. Equally without favour distributed ** to them the Sun, is the way which Antony Munday expresses *' this." Ariosio notes particularly the narrowness of the Bridge buill AREOPAGITICA. 177 Almighty? she needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licencings 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 by Rodomonte; his description of which I will give mHarring- tmCs version. " But makes a Bridge where Men to row are wont, " And though the same were strong, and of great length, *' Yet might two horses hardly meet a front, " Nor had the sides a raile or any strength, " Who comes this way he meanes shall bide a bront, " Except he have both corage good and strength, " For with the armes of all that this way come, " He means to bewtifie faire Isbel's toome." Orl. Fur. b. 29. st. 37. foL 1607. * Proteus — spake Oracles only when he was caught and hound, &c.] We now know from himself, that in the desultory and multifarious studies of his early years, Warhurton was a diligent reader of the publications which appeared during the period of the civil War. His curiosity led him in course to an eager pe- rusal of MiLTON*s prose Writings; and this passage in my text evidently hung on his mind when later in life he said of Aris- totle, — " By his Categories, he not only conquered Nature, but *' kept her in tenfold chains: Not, as Dulness kept the Muses " in the Dunciad, to silence them ; but as Aristaeus held Pr6- " tens in Virgil, to deliver Oracles." See his Note on v. Q5^, of Popes Essay on Criticism. The Bishop's strong expression '* the Hall-mark of Orthodoxy" was but a concentration of a former sentence in this Speech: ** we must not think to make ** a staple commodity of all the Knowlege in the land, to mark *' and licence it like our broad cloth and wool packs." And it is an apposite example of the definition he has himself given of N 178 Milton's herself into all shapes, except her own, and per- haps tunes her voice according to the time, as Mi- Wit, which he thought " to consist in using strong metaphoric '* images in uncommon yet apt allusions." Divine Legation of Moses: B. 4. S. 4. — Perhaps this comes nearer to the truth than either Drydens, or Addison*s, or Pope*s Definition. In his ** Enquiry into the Causes of Prodigies and Mira- cles/' beside other palpable imitations I have pointed out> he embraced our Authour's opinion of the influences of Climate on Genius; and in the Preface to his Edition of Shakspeare, we can readily track impressions which the piece in our hand had left on his recollection. But Warburton caught from it something still better than particular turns of thought, or its nervous and masterly strain of expression. He who re- members his manly Dedication of the Divine Legation of Moses to the Free-thinkers, will readily agree that it was impreg- nated by Milton's spirit ; and that in its complexion it bears an indisputable resemblance to the principles of the Areopagitica. For the Bishop of Gloucester's attestations to the justice and importance of allowing the widest scope to Dis- cussion are of a description the most enlarged and liberal. With a full and just confidence in his own qualifications and in the competency of Truth to maintain itself, he there exclaims in a passage well worthy of transcription, " but let me not be " misunderstood ; here are no insinuations intended against " Liberty : for surely, whatever be the cause of this epidemic " folly, it would be unjust to ascribe it to the Freedom of the *' Press, which wise men have ever held one of the most pre- «« cious branches of national Liberty. What, though it mid- »*.wifes, as it were, these brain-sick births ; yet, at the same <' time that it facilitates the delivery, it lends a forming hand to ♦* the mishapen issue: for, as in natural bodies, become dis- «* torted by suffering in the conception, or by too strait impri- '» sonment in the womb, a free unrestrained exposition of the *f parts may, in time, reduce them nearer to their natural recti- " tude ; so crude and rickety notions, enfeebled by restraint, •* when permitted to be drawn out and examined, may, by the AREOPAGinCA. l79 caiah did before Ahahy untill she be adjur'd into her own likenes. Yet is it not impossible that she may have more shapes then one. What else is all that rank of things indifferent, wherein Truth may be on this side, or on the other, without being unlike her self? What but a vain shadow else is the abo- lition of those ordinances, that hand writing nay I'd to the crosse^} what great purchase is this Christian " reform of their obliquities, and the correction of their viru- " lency, at length acquire iiealth and proportion. Nor less " friendly is this Liberty to the generous advocate of Religion : *• for how could such a one, when in earnest convinced by the " evidence of his cause, desire an adversary whom the Laws " had before disarmed ; or value a victory, where the Magis- ** trate must triumph with him ? Even I, the meanest in this " controversy, should have been ashamed of projecting the de- *' fence of the great Jewish Lawgiver, did not I know that the " same Liberty of Thinking was impartially indulged to all."— To see Warburton with his athletic powers of Mind step out of his proper sphere of action, the dusty fields of theological Con- troversy, to arrange Popes exquisite Versification anew, calls up to one's Fancy the image of a hard-handed Chairman adjust- ing the folds of an elegant Woman's drapery. With the same elevated and consistent sentiments, Miltoi* entreated the States of Holland to rescind their prohibition of Saltnasius's Defensio Regia : " Idque ego ab Illustrissimis Hol- *' landiae Ordinibus peterem, ut eam e fisco protinus dimissam, " (neque enim Thesaurus est,) pervagari, quo velit, sinant." Def. pro Populo Anglicano; Prof. Erasmus was not gifted with such equanimity. He hesitated a wish for a Law to restrain the Press: see his Life by Jortin; L 286. 8ro. ^ The abolition of those ordinances, that hand-writing nayTd to the Crosse.] " Blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances *' that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it ** out of the way, nailing it to his cross,*' — Paul to the Colossians; ch. 2. V, 14, N2 180 Milton's 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 doe 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 strong hold of our hypocrisie 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 linnen decency yet haunts us''. We stumble and are impatient at the least dividing of one visible congregation from ano- ■^ Hie ghost of a linnen decency j/c^ haunts us."] In his work of Reformation touching Church Discipline he writes of our hie- rarchical establishment — " they bedeckt it, not in robes of pure " innocency, but of pure Linnen/' &c. p. 3. 164-1. ^to. and presently afterward — "terming the py-bald frippery and osten- *' tation of Ceremony's decency/' This quaint expression was therefore to imply that the Pres- byterian Party, now they were become powerful and prevailing, carried themselves as inconsistently as if they should desire to adopt the Surplice and Clerical vestments retained at the Refor- mation by the Episcopal Church ; not without pertinacious op- position from that as well as from many other of the reformed Persuasions ; whose zeal could not endure that a remnant of the paraphernalia of Popery should be employed in the service of Christian Worship. Burton has described this antipathy to papistical habiliments, by a whimsical figure : " No, not so much as degrees some of " them will tollerate, or Vniuersities, all humane learning, " hoods, habits, cap, and surplesse, such as are things indiffe- *' rent in themselves, and wholy for ornament, decency, or dis- •« tinction sake, they abhorre, hate, and snuffe at, as a stone- " horse when he meets a Beare." — The An,atojny of Melancholy ; jp. 677. cd, 1632. AREOPAGITICA. 181 ther, though it be not in fundamentalls ; and through our forwardnes to suppresse, and our back- wardnes to recover any enthrall'd peece of Truth out of the gripe of Custom ^ we care not to keep ® Our hackwardnes to recover any enthrall'd peece of Truth out ofthegripeofCusto7H.'] He opens his Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, which he addressed to the Parliament and the As- sembly of Divines, with a well-written and animated expansion of this thought : •* If it were seriously ask*d, and it would be *' no untimely Question, renowned Parlament, select Assem- " bly, who of ail Teachers and Masters that have ever taught, ** hath drawn the most Disciples after him, both in Religion and " in Manners? it might be not untruly answered. Custom. *' Though Vertue be commended for the most perswasive in her " Theory, and Conscience in the plain demonstration of the " Spirit finds most evincing ; yet whether it be the secret of " Divine Will, or the original Blindness we are born in, so it " happens for the most part, that Custom still is silently received " for the best instructor. Except it be, because the method is " so glib and easy, in some manner like to that Vision of Eze- •' kiel, rowling up her sudden book of implicite Knowledge, for " him that will, to take and swallow down at pleasure; which '* proving but of bad nourishment in the concoction, as it was *' heedless in the devouring, puffs up unhealthily a certain big ** face of pretended Learning, mistaken among credulous Men " for the wholesome habit of soundness and good constitution, " but is indeed no other than that swoln visage of counterfeit •' Knowledge and Literature, which not only in private mars *' our Education, but also in public is the common climber into " every Chair, where either Religion is preach'd, or Law re- ** ported, filling each estate of Life and Profession with abject ** and servile principles, depressing the high and heav'n-born " spirit of Man, far beneath the condition wherein either God " created him, or Sin hath sunk him. To pursue the Allegory, " Custom being but a meer face, as Echo is a meer voice, rests " not in her unaccomplishment, until by secret inclination she " accorporate herself with Error, who being a blind and ser- 182 Milton's Truth separated from Truth, which is the fiercest rent and disunion of all. We doe not see that while we still aifect by all means a rigid externall for- mality^, we may as soon fall again into a grosse conforming stupidity, a stark and dead congeal- ment of wood and hay and stubble forc't and frozen together, which is more to the sudden degenerating 6f a Church then many sub dichotomies of petty schisms. Not that I can think well of every light separation ; or that all in a Church is to be ex- pected gold and silver and pretious stones : it is not possible for man to sever the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the other frie ; that must be the " pentlne body without a head, willingly accepts what he wants, " and supplies what her incompleatness went seeking. Hence *' it is, that Error supports Custom, Custom countenances Error: " and these two between them would persecute and chase away " all Truth and solid Wisdom out of human Life, were it not " that God, rather than Man once in many ages, calls together " the prudent and religious Counsels of Men, deputed to re- '* press the incroachments, and to work off the inveterate blots *' and obscurities wrought upon our minds by the subtle insinu- *' ating of Error and Custom; who with the numerous and vul- " gar train of their Followers, make it their chief design to *' envy and cry down the industry of free Reasoning, under the " terms of Humour and Innovation ; as if the womb of teeming " Truth were to be closM up, if she presume to bring forth " aught that sorts not with their unchew'd notions and supposi- « tions." ^ A rigid externall formality.] " An outward pharisaical at- " tention to ceremonies.^' He has rightly warned the Parlia- ment just before that the People will *' grow ignorant, brutish, " 2ind formal" — addicted to forms, if they become *' oppressive, " arbitrary, and tyrannous.'* AREOPAGITICA. 183 Angels Ministery at the end of mortall things. Yet if all cannot be of one mind, as who looks they should be ? this doubtles is more wholsome, more prudent, and more Christian that many be tole- rated, rather then all compelFd. I mean not tole- rated Popery, and open superstition, which as it extirpats all religions and civill supremacies, so it self should be extirpat*, provided first that all cha- * So itself should be extirpat — ] i. e. *' extirpatec?.** An ab- scission strong to confirm Milton's curious observance of Euphony in this Oration, in order to preserve its Isocratic cha- racter. £xtirpat£^ followed by provid^^^ would have been a chiming iteration that must hurt a nicely critical ear ; he there- fore dropped the regular termination of this Participle. In like manner, to avoid a displeasing sameness of sound in the final Syllables, he wrote " scurril (not scurriloMs) Plautw*'* as I have before noted. He worked up this piece with the miniature touches of a poetical composition. For the same reason, he has cut off the last syllable of adorn d, " Made so adorn for thy delight the more." P. L, VIII. 576. And in B. II, a similar retrenchment occurs, for the conve- nience of the measure : " In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high." V. 558. So too he has in Par, Reg. instruct and suspect, for instructed and suspected. We ought not however with some of the Annotators to treat these amputations as his own arbitrary licence. Such abbre- viations of the Participle passive once were by no means unfre- quent; alike in Poets and Prose- Writers : " Hath so exasperate the King, that he." Macbeth; A. 3. S. 6. And, *' Than now the English bottoms have waft p*er.'* King John; A. 11. S. I. But the use of such truncated Participles was now gradually 184 Milton's ritable and compassionat means be us'd to win and regain the weak and the misled : that also which is impious or evil absolutely either against Faith or Maners^ no law can possibly permit, that intends not to unlaw it self: but those neighboring differ- ences, 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 in- terrupt the unity of Spirit, if we could but find wearing away. I can recollect but a single instance in Waller, It is in one of his earlier Poems, and for the sake of a rhyme : ** So fresh the wound is, and the grief so vast, " That all our art and power of speech is wast." Poems, &c. ; p. Ill, l2mo. 1645. In regarding our Authour's use of extirpate, elevate, instruct, &c. as a detraction of the termination of our Participle in ed, I have deferred to the opinion of Cowper and Dunster ; at the same time, it would, I think, be more accurate to consider him as ad- hering to the antient mode of speech, before the Verb, to dis- tinguish its Participle, had acquired this additional syllable. He adhered to it in this instance for the sake of Euphony ; just as I have elsewhere shown the more probable motive for Mil- ton's revival in his Poetry of antiquated words to have been for metrical accommodation. ^ Faith or Maners — ] Through this Speech he uniformly employs il/«/mer6' where at this day we should say Morals, So in the scriptural translation of the Grecian Apophthegm quoted by St. Paul; *' Evil communications corrupt good manners:" (^9r^}. 1 Cor. 15. 33. William of Wi/keham's motto, " Manners makyth Man/' is not understood by all who repeat it. 3 Those neighboring diffei-ences, or rather indifferences, are what J speak of.'\ See Illustration, P. AREOPAGITrCA. 185 among us the bond of peace. In the mean while, if any one would write, and bring his helpfull hand to the slow-moving Reformation which we labour under, if Truth have spok'n to him* before others, or but seem'd at least to speak, who hath so be- jesuited us that we should trouble that man with asking licence to doe so worthy a deed? and not consider this, that if it come^ to prohibiting, there is not ought more likely to be prohibited then Truth it self; whose first appearance to our eyes, blear'd and dimm*d with prejudice and custom, is more unsightly and unplausible then many errors ; ev'n as the person is of many a great man slight and contemptible to see to^ And what doe 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 doe so much abound, and true Knowledge is kept at dis- * If Truth have spoken to him.'\ " The Scribes- that were of *' the Pharisees part arose and strove, saying, we find no evil *' in this man : but if a Spirit or an Angel hath spoken to him, " let us not fight against God." — The Acts; ch, 23. v. 9. * If it come — ] See Illustration, Q, ^ To see as in the earliest genuine Edition of Waller s Poems of the same year, to have been ** printed and published according to Order.'' If the Areopagitica came out clandestinely, it no doubt issued from some obscure printing House, which circumstance would account for incorrectness in the letter-press. The same omis- sion of an Imprimatur is observable in the different Tracts our Authour wrote on the Liberty of Divorce. A doctrine against which the Men who now took the lead in public affairs were very vociferous in their hostility. Here was "fruit for thos6 " holy Parrots to peck at." They made it their business to impede even discussion upon this topic, and his having pro- fessed and diffused opinions on it adverse to theirs, exposed him to detraction. Of this detraction Clement Walker af- fords a pertinent specimen : " There is lately come forth jt " Booke of John Meltons (a Libertine that thinketh his ** Wife a Manacle, and his very Garters to be Shackles " and Fetters to him : one that {after the Independent fa- *' shon) will be tied by no obligation to God or Mani *' wherein he undertaketh to prove," &c. — Anarchia An- 192 Milton's come forth, if they be found mischievous and libel- lous, the fire and the executioner will be the time- liest and the most effectuall remedy, that mans prevention can use. For this authentic Spanish po- licy* of licencing Books, if I have said ought, will glicana : or the History of Independency. By TJieodorus Verax. p. 196. 4/0. 1649. These malevolent aspersions were to usher in some pungent strictures upon Milton's treatise on *' the " Tenure of Kings and Magistrates." Walker and his Associates had not very long before undergone the mortification of having the reins of Power snatched from their grasp by the Indepen- dents, the Sect whom Milton fayoured. This and the bitterness of these remarks corroborate the sus- picion that this Writer was eager to stigmatize his publications on tl^ subject of Divorce, in invidiam; not from having formed any well considered opinions on the question itself. A question perhaps the most problematical of any in the science of Legis- lation. The object we may conclude to have been rather to raise public scandal, against Milton, because, after their dere- liction of principle, he would no longer hold converse with the Ministers of the Presbyterian Connection. His just and open reclamations against their political ambition, their inconsistency in respect to Pluralities, and their intolerant temper, in course exposed him to much of their ill-will, and to many calumnies. * Authentic Spanish policy."] Authentic— proper to, peculiarly belonging to : as in Par. Lost. IV. 719. — " him who had stole Jove's authentick fire." Again, by Danyel, " Let others sing of Knights and Palladines, '* In aged accents, and vntimely words : " Paint shadowes in imaginary lines, <* Which well the reach of their high wits records) " But I must sing of thee and those faire eyes, ' Autentique shall my verse in time to come, AREOPAGITICA. I93 prove the most unlicenc't Book it self within a short while; and was the immediat 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 fall'n from the Starres with Lucifer^. Whereby ye may guesse " When yet th* vnborn shall say, loe where she lyes, '* Whose beadlie made him speake that els was dombe. *' These are the Arkes, the Tropheis I erect, " That fortifie thv name against old age, "And these thy sacred vertues must protect, " Against the Darke and times consuming rage. " Though th* error of my youth they shall discouer, ** Suffice they shew I liuM and was thy louer." Delia: Contaj/ninge certayne Sonnets: with the complaint of Rosamond ; Signat. G. 3. sm. 4to. 1592. The poetical Reader will thank me for inserting the whole. How superior on the comparison with Shakspeare's are the Sonnets of this Poet. * Those very times when that Court did the rest of those her pious works, for which she is nowfaWn from the starres with Lucifer.'] Lord Somers, speaking of the Star-Chamber, said that "it was set " up in the third of Henry VH in very soft words. To punish " great Riots, to restrain offenders too big for ordinary Justice, *' or, in the modern phrase to preserve the public Peace; but " in a little time it made this Nation tremble, England would " never agree with those Courts, that are mixed of State and " Justice; Policy soon gets the better of Justice.*' — Minutes of Lord Somers*s Speech in the House of Lords on the Bill for abo- lishing the Privy Council of Scotland. — Hardwicke State Papers ; as quoted in Hardy^s Life of Lord Charlemont; p. 404-. 4/o. The opprobrious Sentences of the Star-Chamber in the cases of Prynne, Leighton, and Bastwick, are notorious. But after there had been strong manifestations of popular indignation the records of its judgements were purposely destroyed : it is not therefore so generally known that the punishments on other oc- O 194 Milton's what kinde of State Prudence ^ what love of the People, what care of Religion, or good Manners there was at the contriving; although with singular casions were equally merciless. The terror they had struck through the country is shown in an anecdote of himself related by Ben Jonson during his visit to Drummond of Hawthornden. " He was accused by Sir James Murray to the King, for writing " something against the Scots in a Play called Eastward Hoc, " and voluntarily imprisoned himself with Chapman and 3far5- " ton» who had written it among them : it was reported, that " they should have their Ears and Noses cut. After their Deli- ** very he entertained all his Friends, there were present Cam- " den, Selden, and others. In the middle of the Feast his old " Mother drank to him, and shewed him a Paper, which she " designed (if the Sentence had past) to have mixed among his i" drink, and it was strong and lusty Poison, and, that she was ** no Churl, she told she designed first to have drunk it herself." '—Works of Drutnmond; p. 224. fol. 1711. This tribunal was in 1641 suppressed by the Parliament in a single day. But its heinous barbarities, especially after Laud gained the ascendancy, had sown the seeds of bitterness ; and ul- timately turned Cathedrals into Stables. If we overcharge we ought to expect a recoil. However, it redounds highly to the credit of the national character that the reaction for such flagi- tious cruelties did not extend further than to Laud and Strafford, Milton in the latter part of this passage is an echo to Isaiah ; ch. 14. V. 12. " How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, "son of the Morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, *' which didst weaken the Nations!" ^ State Prudence — ] means as before (p. 75.) policy or po- litical science ; after the Latin. Harrington has a Chapter on " antient and modern Prudence,'* in which he apprizes the Reader, that " by antient Prudence he understands the po- " licy of a Commonwealth, and by modern Prudence that of " King, Lords and Commons."— p. 237. fol. Toland's edit. And Waller, complimenting Charles II. on his improvements in AREOPAGITICA. igS hypocrisie 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 beleeve those men whose profession gives them cause to enquire most, it may be doubted there was in it the fraud of some old Patentees and Monopolizers in the trade of book-selling ; who under pretence of the Poor in their Company not to be defrauded, and the just retaining of each man his severall copy, (which GoD forbid should be gainsaid), brought divers glosing'^ colours to the St. James's Park, with a courtly allusion, as I suppose, to the States of Holland : " Of antient Prudence here he niminates, " Of rising Kingdoms, and of falling States." Works; p, 212. Mo» Compare too in the Dialogue in Marvell between Britannia and Raldghf ** With her the Prudence of the Antients read." Works; III. 320. Thompson's edit, ' Closing — ] Thomson and Baron misunderstood this word, and printed "glossing;" but " glosing," or " glozing" is, with an exuberance of authority, proved to have signified de- ceitful, in T. Warton's Note on — "words ofglozing courtesy".^ Comus ; v. 161. Some of Homer's Commentators have complained, that his sense has suffered by a vitiated Orthography. We in like man- ner have to state, that the accentual combinations of our own Epic Bard have been injured by the modernized Spelling# To comprehend fully the rhythmus of his blank Verse, the Reader should have it restored to its primitive integrity. Beside, the original Orthography is at times a guide to the correct accepta- tion of his meaning. A reprint therefore of Milton's revised O 2 igS TmLTON's House, which were indeed but colours, and serving to no end except it be to exercise a superiority over their neighbours : men who doe not therefore la- bour in an honest profession to which Learning is indetted, that they should be made other mens vassalls. Another end is thought was aym*d 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 shews. But of these Sophisms and Elenchs^ of marchandize Edition of Paradise Lost, which should exhibit his Text unimpaired by orthographical variations is a desirable publication. To exemplify this, I will show the eftectof one failure in the literal observance of the authentic copies : — " the sport and prey " Of racking whirlwinds." II. 182. Thus it is given in the original Quartos, and in his last Edition; p. 33. Bvo. 1674. So Shakspeare has, " the racking clouds;" which Steevem rightly interprets by " the clouds in rapid tumul- " tuary motion" X. 251. edit. 1793. But in the recent Editions of Par. Lost it is printed t:;racking, and this interpolation of the mute Letter w conveys another idea to the mind ; and so mate- rially changed as to have misled Johnson to explain the word by ** to rock, to shake ;** and to cite this corruption as an authority in his Dictionary, under " to wuack.*' For this and other philological notices as minute I may se- curely take shelter under Mr. Parson's remark, who once ob- served to me, that the objectors to verbal Criticism were men content to think, that they could understand a sentence without knowing the sense of %Ji the words in it. • Procuring bj/ petition this Order.'^ See Illustration, S. 9 These Sophisms and Elenchs — ] Johnson has not given a correct explanation of this latter word. Aji Elench \eXsyx^) AREOPAGITICA. 197 I skill not : This I know, that errors in a good Go- vernment and in a bad are equally almost incident; for what Magistrate may not be mis-inform'd, and much the sooner, if Liberty of Printing be reduc't into the power of a few ? but to redresse willingly and speedily what hath bin err'd, and in highest autority to esteem a plain advertisement more then others have done a sumptuous bribe, is a vertue (honoured Lords and Commons !) answerable to your highest actions, and whereof none can parti- cipat but greatest and wisest men, signified in the Schools, a fallacious answer to a sophistical posi' tion. It was previously in our language. " The more subtle " forms of Sophisms and Illaqueations, with their Redarguations, ", which is that which is termed Elenchs.'* — Bacon; Of the Ad- vancement of Learning, p. 200. Ho. 1633. From some passages in the early part of this Oration, incurious Readers might be led to conclude hastily, that there were topics on which Milton conceived Discus- sion ought not to take an unrestrained course. It is incumbent on us therefore to bear in our recollection, that in this series of persuasive argument to convince the 198 Parliament, that they should not have re- duced the intellect of the Public to the standard of an individual's judgment, he ex- hibits the skill of an Advocate by no means indisposed to avail himself of the privi- leges annexed to that situation. We are also to recollect, that he was the first who wrote in behalf of unlicensed Printing ; a circum- stance which will plainly account for all such admissions. He anticipated what would be objected to him, if he were to contend for a scope more extended : he yielded a Pawn to gain a Queen. To contest the prevention of all publication of Opinions not allowed by a Licenser was his meritorious task : living in the nineteenth century, it should be ours to consider, whether it be in any case advisable to punish Opi- nions ? The opposers of all judicial inquisition on the productions of Mind may now employ at London or Philadelphia arguments, which would effectually injure any efforts to un- shackle the Presses of Madrid or Moscow. For the narrations of History too often warn the practical friends to the enlargement of Liberty, that premature struggles to elevate 199 a nation above the pitch for which it is prepared endangers the portion of pubUc good which might otherwise be obtained. " Nos autem, quoniam leges damns hberis *^ populis ; accomodabimus hoc tem^ " pore leges ad ilium, quern probamus, civi- tatis statum/' (Cicero,) It would have been, therefore, highly injudicious in his day to have done full justice to the principle. In a more enlightened aera he would have lain claim to a larger measure of Freedom. But he viewed Man as he then was in Society, and would not pursue objects^ which were in his time unattainable. JMiLTON accounted Reason the noblest gift of God to Man, and was far, far in- deed, from a slavish Thinker ; nor on any subject did he ever seek the suppression of Truth. His own speculations were as hardy as his range of research was extensive. This unreserved utterance of sentiment he practised fearlessly as the occasion called him out, on political, religious, and do- mestic questions alike ; neither need it be doubted, that the Authour of the Areopa- GiTiCA would have lent a willing hand to- 200 ward removing every impediment which retarded the march of Knowlege, and have been well satisfied, that this right should be guaranteed to all in its amplest extent. '* Pessimfc enim vel Natura vel Legibus '* comparatum foret, si arguta Servitus, Libertas muta esset ; et haberent Tyranni ' qui pro se dicerent, non haberent qui Ty- •' rannos debellare possunt. Miserum esset, '•' si haec ipsa Ratio, quo utimur Dei mu- ■' nere, non multo plura ad homines conser- '' vandos, liberandos, et, quantum Natura '' fert, inter se aequandos, quam ad oppri- '' mendos et sub unius imperio malfe per- '' dendos argumenta suppeditaret/' De- f €71810 pro Populo Anglicano. I Not only so, but acknowleging the liability of Truth to support itself, he con- sistently contended, that Opinion ought Xo be left at large. *' Though all the winds of " doctrine (he exclaims with sincere and " fervid Eloquence) were let loose to play " upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, " we do injuriously by licensing and prohi- " biting to misdoubt her strength. Let her ^^ and Falsehood grapple; whoever, knew 201 ** Truth put to the worse in a free and open "encounter? Her confuting is the best " and surest suppressing/' He then surely saw, that though Opinions may be pemi«- cious, the Discussion of them can never be mischievous to the community; and there- fore, that Actions alone ought to be under the direction and control of the Magistrate. While he draws, as we have just seen, to his conclusion with a vindication of free Inquiry on every circumstance of reforma- tion in the acts of the constituted autho- rities ; because he knew well that to keep the body-politic in a healthful and vigorous state, there must be an unobstructed circu- lation of Thought ; — ^the life-blood to all social existence. So much was requisite to set Milton above all suspicion, that he would have cramped the stretch of the human brain, or have had the exertions of Reason circumscribed. In truth, he rather deserves our praise and admiration for mental powers, which could perceive and develop principles highly liberal for those times, and so far before the prevailing temper of the age. A Writer of the same date with himself, certainly no timid Rea- 202 soner, and living in a Republic, did not contend for a wider latitude*. . It was once my purpose to have carried on these observations to show, that for a Press to hefree^ it is not sufficient that it be open; as Blackstone and others after him have stated. My various notices on this Defence of unrestricted Publication having however, after all my expunctions, accu- mulated to a number that threatens it with the fate of the Vestal Virgin, whom the Gauls overlaid by the presents which they heaped on her, I shall now only add, that the surest criterion of the nature and cha^ jracter of a Government will always be found in the degree of Freedom in Discussion tolerated under it. They who claim obedi- ence by no other obligation than fear can never be favourable to the Press. But a well-constituted and therefore a well-admi- ministered Government invites a rigorous scrutiny into its conduct; a bad Govern- * Spinoza; see his Tractatus Theologico-politicus ; or Theological and Political Discourses, to prove that the Liberty of Philosophizing may be allowed without any pre- judice to Piety, or to the Peace of the Commonwealth j particularly cA, 20. 203 ment invariably represses or eludes inves- tigation. It was not without a meaning, that the most judicious of Poets, after dis- playing with the illuminations of his Genius, the heroic deeds of this world, and the bliss and splendour of Heaven, before he un- folded the horrours of the infernal Shades, soHcits an Imprimatur from the Powers of Darkness : '* Dt, quibus imperium est animarum, Umbraeque silentes, *^ Et Chaos, et Phlegethon, loca nocte taceutia late, '* Sit mihi fas audita loqui." ILLUSTRATIONS. ILLUSTRATION, A. (Eefered to in p. 7.) The magnanimity of a trienniall ParlamentJ] Triennial — not in the modern appropriation to a Parliament's duration ; but with a reference to the Act passed in 1641, to enforce the sitting of a Parliament at the least once in every three years. The declaratory Statutes of Edward III. for hold- ing Parliaments annually, or oftener, if need were, had fallen into desuetude, or rather had by Court- Lawyers been explained away in early times from the palpable enactment, in order to leave their meeting wholly in the breast of the King. By these means, Charles did not for twelve years toge- ther suffer a Parliament to assemble, and when, through his illegal exactions, his arbitrary impress- ments and commitments by the Council, with other tyrannical practices, the general voice rose high against the Dissolution of the Parliament which met in the fourth year of his reign, he issued a Proclamation, denouncing it as criminal for any person so much as to speak of calling another. 206 IJLLUSTRATIONS. No empty threat, while the enormous censures of the Star-Chamber subsisted in full activity. Such extravagant stretches of the regal Prero- gative of course incited the Parliamentary Leaders of the People's Party in England to insist on a legislative provision that their meetings in future might not be precarious, nor so un frequent. In 1640 a young nobleman, the Lord Dighy^ intro- duced and carried a Bill that a Parliament should never again be intermitted above three years at furthest, after the example of the Scottish Patriots, who according to Mr. Laing (see his valuable Hist of Scotland; I, 173, 8vo. 1800.) had recently wrung from Charles his assent to a Law to pre- vent the discontinuance of their Parliaments for a longer term. Yet Clarendon is express to the con- trary. His words are : " the King at his last " being in Scotland had, according to the precedent " he had made here, granted an Act for triennial " Parliaments in that kingdom." Hist, of the Rebel- lion, (I omitted to note down the Volume and Page.) Public business did not yet require a regular Session annually. — As one measure to reconcile the country to his usurpation, Cromwell promised a convocation of Parliament once every three years. ILLUSTRATION, B. {Referred to in p, 49.) Paul — thought it no defilement to insert into fioly Scripture the sentences of three Greek Poets y and one of them a Tragedian,'] The Apostle cited the ILLUSTRATIONS. 207 Cretan EpimenideSy in his Epistle to Titus ^ 1, 12: an hemistic from Aratus in ActSy 17, 28 : and in 1 Cor. 15, 3S, an apophthegm to be found in the fragments of Euripides; the passage referred to more particularly in the text : from which Writer, by the word " Tragedian'* it is to be inferred that our Authour believed it to have been taken. But surely evil communications corrupt good manners is a proverbial sentiment likely to float in popular con- versation. Grotius, and the best Commentators, however, think that Saint Paid borrowed it from Menander, as Newton has observed in a Note on Milton's prelusive strictures to apologize to his contemporaries for having thrown the story of Samson into a dramatic form. There, after pleading nearly in the words above of my text, the example of this Saint's quoting from a dramatic Poet, he presently proceeds, " This is mentioned " to vindicate Tragedy from the small esteem, or ** rather infamy, which in the account of many it •* undergoes at this day, with other common Inter- " iudes." So indiscriminate was the horrour of the Puritans at the sinfulness of Stage-Plays, how- ever moralized ! they were not (we see) to be tolerated in any shape. Our poetical Antiquaries in addition accuse them of having, through their fanatic contempt for profane Learning, destroyed whatever fell into their hands of the early Poetry of their native tongue. It is not unlikely. Zealots of every persuasion are much the same at all times. 208 ILLUSTRATIONS. and in all places. Laud was guilty of similar spoliation. This keen Curator of the Press is known to have consigned to the flames, whole impressions of English Poems. The M.S.S. of the Poets of ancient Greece found as little favour with the Greek Priests at Constantinople. Possessed with the same preposterous detestation of polite Letters, these " holy Vandals'* were eager to burn all they could procure. We have to thank this bigotry for the destruction of the inestimable remains oi Philemon^ Sappho, Bion, Alcaus, with others, and above all of Menander, This I learn from the succeeding extract — ex Petri Alcyonii libro priore de Exiiw ; which I give as Baxter exhibits it among the Prolegomena to his Edition of Anacreon, " Audiebam etiam puer " exDemetrio Chalcocondyla, Graecarum rerum pe- I" ritissimo, sacerdotes Graecos tanta floruisse aucto- •** ritate apud Caesares Byzantanos (ut integr^ ** eorum gratia) complura de veteribus Graecis " Poemata combusserint, imprimisq; ea ubi " Amores, turpes Lusus et Nequitiae Amantum " continebantur ; atque ita Menandri, Diphili, *' ApoUodori, Philemonis, Alexis fabellas, et Sap- " ph^s, Erinnae, Anacreontis, Mimnermi, Bionis, " Alcmanis, Alcaei carmina intercidisse : tum pro " his substituta Nazianzeni nostri Poemata, quae " etsl excitant animos nostrorum hominum ad " flagrantiorem Religionis cultum, non tamen ,«« verborum Atticorum Proprietatem et Graecae ILLUSTRATIONS. 209 ** Linguae Elegantiam edocent : Turpiter quidem " Sacerdotes isti in veteres Graecos malevoli fue- " runt, sed Integritatis, Probitatis, et Religionis *' maximum dedere testimonium." — And see too Fabric, Bibl. Grac. I. 679. Hamb, 1718. We must indignantly regret this irreparable injury to classical Learning ; and may suspect that the motive to such havoc might not have been purely spiritual. Perhaps the vanity of Authourship co-operated in instigating to this irre- trievable loss. Gregory Nazianzen might be desi- rous that no evidence should survive to future times that his Christianized Anacreontics vi^ere imme- diately from the Grecian Lyrics. It is remarkable, that Alcionio himself, having obtained possession of the sole extant copy of Cicero's Treatise de Gloria, should have been taxed w^ith having destroyed the M. S. to conceal his plagiarism, after having trans- cribed largely from it into his. work above quoted concerning Exile. {Bailies au Mot, Alcyonius.) — Aristotle has been suspected of the same fraudu- lent practice, after availing himself of the writings of his predecessors. And the ensuing extract from the very in- genious M. Baynouard's EUments de la Gram- maire de la Langue Bomane avant Van 1000, will show the narrow escape of Livy's mutilated History from perishing totally through Monkish superstition. " Get illustre pontife \Grdgoire I"] ** apprenant que Didier, eveque de Vienne, don- P 210 ILLUSTRATIONS. " nait des le9ons de Tart connu alors sous le nom *^ de grammaire, lui en fit de vifs reproches: " Nous ne pouvons, ^crivait-il, rappeler sans *' honte que votre fraternite explique la grammaire " a quelques personnes ; c'est ce que nous avons " appris avec chagrin, et fortement blam6 .... ** Nous en avons g^mi. Non, la meme bouche *^ ne peut exprimer les louanges de Jupiter et celles " du Christ. Considerez combien, pour un pretre, " il est horrible et criminel d'expliquer en public " des livres dont un laique pieux ne devrait pas se ^^ permettre la lecture. Ne vous appliquez done " plus aux passe-temps et aux lettres du si^cle. ** Le dedain pour la litt^rature latine, qu'exaltait " encore la haine pour le paganisme, porta Gr6- ^' goire-le- Grand a faire bruler tons les exemplaires " de Tite-Live qu'il put d^couvrir. Saint Antonin " raconte cette action comrae honorable a la m6- " moire du pontife romain. " Ce zele, trop ardent sans doute, Tentraina dans " une erreur que j'appellerai celle de son siecle ; " mais quel nom donner au vobu du professeur de " Louvain, Jean Hessels, qui s'ecrie k ce sujet: HeureuXy si Dieu envoy ait beaucoup de Gr^goires !'* p. 14. 8vo. Paris 1816. ILLUSTRATION, C. {Referred to inp, 52.) The Divell whipt St. Jerom in a lenten dream. TLLUSTKATIONS. 211 for reading Cicero ; or else it was a fantasm bred by the feaver which had then seis'd him.'] It was to deter the high descended Eiistochiiim from reading the writers of pagan Rome, as a sinful occupation, that St. Jerome related to his favourite Disciple this dream of his sick bed. After asking her, *' Quid " facit cum Psalterio Horatius ? cum Evangeliis *' Maro ? cum Apostolo Cicero ? " he proceeds, " Referam tibi meae infelicitatis historiam. Quum ** ante annos plurimos domo, parentibus, sorore, " cognatis, et quod his difficilius est, consuetu- " dine lautioris cibi, propter coelorum me regna " castrassem, et Jerosolymam militaturus pergerem, ** Bibliotheca, qiiam mihi Romae summo studio ac " labore confeceram, carere non poteram. Itaque " miser ego lecturus Tuliium, jejunabam. Post " noctium crebras vigilias, post lachrymas, quas ** mihi praeteritorum recordatio peccatorum ex " imis visceribus eruebat, Plautus sumebatur in " manus. Si quando in memet reversus, Prophetas " legere ccepissem, sermo horrebat incultus. Et " quia lumen csecis oculis non videbam, non " oculorum putabam culpam esse, sed solis. Dum " ita me antiquus serpens illuderet, in media ferme " quadragesima medullis infusa febris, corpus in- " vasit exhaustum : et sine ulla requie (quod dictu " quoque incredibile sit) sic infelicia membra " depasta est, ut ossibus vix hfererem. Interim ** parantur exequiae, et vitalis animae calor, toto *^ frigescente jam corpore, in solo tantum tepente P 2 212 ILLUSTRATIONS. ** pectusculo palpitabat : quum subito raptus in " spiritu, ad tribunal judicis pertrahor; ubi tantum " luminis, et tantum erat ex circumstantium clari- " tate fulgoris, ut projectus in terram, sursum *' aspicere non auderem. Interrogatus de condi- " tione, Christianum me esse respond!. Et ille qui " prsesidebat : Mentiris, ait, Ciceronianus es, non " Christianus. Ubi enim thesaurus tuus, ibi et " cor tuum. Illico obmutui, et inter verbera (nam " caedi me jusserat) conscientiae magis igne tor- " quebar, ilium mecum versiculum reputans : In in- " ferno autem quis confitebitur tibi ? Clamare autem " coepietejulansdieere: Miserere mei,Domine,mi- " serere mei. Hsec vox inter flagella resonabat. Tan- " demad prsesidentis genua provoluti qui astiterant, " precabantur ut veniam tribueret adolescentiae, et " errori locum poenitentise commodaret; exacturus ** deinde cruciatum, si Gentilium litterarum libros " aliquando legissem. Ego qui in tanto constrictus " articulo, vellem etiam majora promittere, deje- " rare coepi, et nomen ejus, obtestans, dicere : " Domine, si umquam habuero codices sseculares, ** si legero, te negavi. In haec sacramenti verba " dimissus, revertor ad superos ; et mirantibus " cunctis, oculos aperio, tanto lachrymarum imbre " perfusos, ut etiam incredulis fidem facerem ex " dolore. Nee vero sopor ille fuerat, aut vana *^ somnia, quibus ssepe deludimur. Testis est " tribunal illud, ante quod jacui j testis judicium *' triste, quod timui : ita mihi numquam contingat ILLUSTRATIONS. 213 " in talem incidere qugestionem, liventes habuisse ** scapulas, plagas sensisse post somnum, et tanto " dehinc studio divina legisse, quanto non ante " mortal ia lei^eram." Hieron. Op, torn. 4. sec. Pars. p. 42. Benedictine Edit. Erasmus has treated this legend with characte- ristic pleasantry, and his comment on it when con- cluding bears a resemblance to what Milton after- ward remarks: " Postremo si crimen est habere " libros seculares, et si Christum negavit quisquis " hos legit, cur solus vapulavit Hieronymusf cur " hodie in theologorum scholis celebrior est Aris- ** toteles, quam Paulus aut Petrus ? Verum de re " puerili ac ridicula jam pluribus quam sat est. " Ego certe, ut finiam, malim cum Hieronimo " vapulare, quam melle perungi cum istis, quos " adeo scilicet terret Hieronymianum somnium, ut " ab omnibus bonis literis sanctissime temperent : " at non temperantes interim a vitiis eorum, " quorum libros religionis causa non audent attin- " gere.** Appendix to Jor tin's Life of Eras- mus ; N-LX. In his curious Dialogue on our Language, Sir Thomas Smith has explained why Phantasm was formerly written with an F, as now in Milton's text. " QiY. Satis est : ergo ta< c7j; p, 157. Lipsia, 1804. Neither is our Authour's condemnatory opinion less at variance with the delight Cicero took in a successful imita- tion of the Aristophanic manner 5 who writes to his Brother Quintus, *^ Dedit mihi epistolam " legendam tuam, quam paulo ante acceperat, " Arislophaneo modo, valde mehercule et suavem, " et gravem : qua sum admodum delectatus." Ad Frat.lib, 3. Epist, 1. Again; in his Treatise cfe Officiis^ he tells his Son Marcus^ " Duplex omnino " est jocandi genus : unum illiberale, petulans, " flagitiosum, obscoenum ; alterum elegans, urba- " num, ingeniosum, facetum. duo genere non " modo Plautus noster, et Atticorum antiqua, " Comoedia, sed etiam philosophorum Socraticorum " libri ref^rti sunt.'* L. I.e. 29. Milton was, I apprehend, incited to this hasty and undistin- guishing reprobation of these plays alike by their libertinism, and by the scandals cast in the Ng^sXai on the Grecian Oracle of moral Wisdom. ILLUSTRATIONS. 221 The approbation of 2,umtilian more than over- balances these derogatory strictures, and at the same time ratifies the general admiration of Anti- quity for the elder Writers of the Attic Stage. This Critic declared that the elegancies of Atticism are to be found almost exclusively in the antient Comedy ; that after Homer he knew of none so profitable for the study of every Oratour as Aristo- phanesy Eiipolis, and Cratinus : '' Antiqua Comoe- " dia cum sinceram illam sermonis Attici gratiam " prope sola retinet, turn facundissimae libertatis, " etsi est in insectandis vitiis prsecipua, plurimum " tamen virium etiam in ceteris partibus habet. " Nam et grandis, et elegans, et venusta, et nescio " an uUa, post Homerum tamen, quem, ut " Achillem, semper excipi par est, aut similior sit " oratoribus, aut ad oratores faciendos aptior. " Plures ejus auctores : Aristophanes tamen, et " Eupolis Cratinusque prascipui." Inst. Orator. Lib. X. Cap. 1. To this let me subjoin what Sir W. Jones has observed to the praise of Aristo- phanes' remains : " Aristophanis, quoe supersunt, ** Comoediae sunt sane omnium elegantiarum plenae, " et Grsecarum literarum studiosis apprime utiles." Works s II. 640. 4to. What our Authour called a scurrilous vehemence, these Critics would probably have denominated masculine and vigorous Atti- cism. — After such a concurrence of testimony to their merit on a literary consideration, and more of no small weight, if it were needful, might be 222 ILLUSTRATIONS. offered, can we hesitate whether it were not one ground for Plato's choice, that ihey were the best calculated of any works he could select, to bring a Foreigner acquainted with the style culti- vated at Athens? ExXaSo^ ExXa^ A^r^vai. In this he did nothing more than the Italian Ecclesi- astic who sets the licentious Boccacio before a pupil to initiate him in the most approved Tuscan ; or, than the University of Oxford, when they not long ago reprinted Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; commendably disregarding the ribaldry which de- faces too many of his pages, for the sake of the numerous beauties in the Father of English Poetry. " The Prince but studies his companions, '* Like a strange tongue : wherein, to gain the language, " 'Tis needful, that the most immodest word ** Be look'd upon, and learned ; which once attained, " Your Highness knows, comes to no further use, " But to be known, and hated." The Tale of a Tub is unhappily debased with impiety as well as stained with flagrant indecency; yet does it stand so high in reputation that any Englishman who engaged to transmit to a Foreigner a selection of our national works most worthy attention might be justly reproached with not fulfilling his office, if he were to leave out Swift's fine specimen of genuine English, and of politico- religious Satire, The Athenians were not revolted at the " gross ILLUSTRATIONS. 223 "infamy" in the old Comedy. It must degrade in our eyes the Audience who could endure it. But while Women were excluded the Theatre, it were idle to expect, that the Stage would not exhibit Scenes vile in Taste and vitious in Morals. Perhaps the superlative excellence of the Attic style, would of itself have been a sufficient induce- ment; there was, I must further remark, an additional propriety in sending these contemporary Comedies to the King of a neighbouring Country. By their means he placed before his view a picture of the living manners in the Capital of the most eminent among the Grecian Republics ; the acknowleged seat of Grecian Letters and Philosophy. How- ever the rust of time has obscured many places beyond the industry of the Scholiasts of later ages to restore them to their pristine brightness; still, enough is ascertained for us to discern that they are replete with allusions, personal and political, and without any doubt much of the personal cha- racter of individuals was to be gathered from the abusive reflections which abound in these dramatic satires. The OqviQss is interpreted to have been a latent attack on the mal-administrations of the State, while the mimic Cleon in the 'iTrwsTg is known to represent that turbulent Demagogue, and is drawn, we may readily believe, if not truer to the life, not with more aggravated features than the 224 lLLUSTRATIOK$. coarse caricature of Lord Shaftesbiay with which Otway disparaged his noble Tragedy. In commenting on the oversight in my text, I have run into some length. The deference which every thing demands that comes from Milton's pen, rendered it unavoidable. He who enters the lists to maintain a point of scholarship against him ought to bring conclusive evidence, if he be solicitous to shield himself against the charge of presumption. ILLUSTRATION, F. {Referred to in p. 84-.) After all, the last division of the sentence— *' these are the countryman's Arcadias and his " Monte-mayors" — leaves it in doubt, whether our Authour did not through the whole speak of the same strolling minstrelsy which Puttenham describes as " blind harpers or such like Tauerne " minstrels that give a fit of mirth for a groat, and " their matters being for the most part stories of " old time, as the tale of Sir Topas, the reports of " Beuis of Southampton, Guy of Warwicke, Adam " Bell, and Clymme of the Clough, and such other ** old Romances or historicall Rhymes, made pur- *' posely for recreation of the common people at " Christmasse diners and brideals, and in tauernes " and ale-houses and such other places of base ILLUSTRATIONS. 225 " resort." The Arte of English Poesie ; p. 69* ed.-\S\\, The Diana of George of Monte-mayor was ren- dered into English from the Spanish, by Bartho- lomew Yang; \59'S foL : one of the minor Poets of Elizabeth's time. Some of the copies of Verses in it had been translated by Sydney and inserted in the Arcadia. Now the fashion of these pastoral Romances has passed away, we are apt to be astonished at the determined perseverance of Readers who could toil out their way through such wearisome stories ; for which they were repaid by little more than affected sentiments and turgid language ; the mode^ of a feudal Court given to the inmates of a Sheep- cote. Such feigned narratives of chivalrous rusti- city, while they are too far removed from real life to please by any picture of natural manners, are destitute of the marvellous exploits, the perils and enchantments which once excited a high interest in the adventures of the heroes and agents who people the regions of preternatural fiction ; won- ders which have not yet lost all attraction for the imagination. — If elegiac Pastoral deserve the re- probation a great Critic has bestowed on it, be- cause " no just imitation of things really existing," these pastoral stories in gorgeous prose cannot but be thought still more unnatural and reprehensible than Monodies founded, like Lycidas, on bucolic imagery. Q 226 ILLUSTRATIONS. Whether the Diana obtained an extensive re* gard from our Forefathers, as Mr. Warton alleged* I have not ascertained. Shakspeare, it is asserted, has in part traced from it the outline of the plot for his Two Gentleme^i of Verona, In Spain it was a favourite Volume. When Cervantes supposes it to have been found in the Knight of La Mancha's Library he makes the Curate pronounce this to be the best of its kind, and interpose to rescue it from the general conflagration. Yong's Translation of this work was printed a few years after the Arcadia appeared. The fame of Sir Philip Sydney and the applause then given to this whimsical species of romantic fabling were probably the inducements to this publication ; and might lend it a temporary popularity. Not to insist, that till the splendour of the Spanish Monarchy was far gone in its wane, the Writers of that Country were more studied here than those in any other living language, the Italian only excepted : therefore Milton remarks while defending his determination to blank Verse for his epic Poem, that ** some both Italian and " Spanish Poets of prime note have rejected " rime.*' It was, I think, the illusive brilliancy of Louis XIVth*s reign which first drew the attention of Europe to French Literature. And is not the Anglomanie as to English Authours which prevailed in France after our victorious War against the aggres- sions of the Family Compact, attributable to the ILLUSTRATIONS. 227 same source ? In short, before the Writers of any Nation gain a name among Foreigners must it not be great in military achievements ? ILLUSTRATION, G. {Referred to in p, 65.) The accusation against our Forefathers that they were too much addicted to sumptuous living was far from groundless. Chancer made the luxu- ries of the table quite the occupation of the Frank- tin, or affluent Land-owner residing on his own estate. " An housholder and that a grete was be ; " Seint Julian he was in his contree. " His brede, his ale, was alway after on ; •* A better envyned man was no wher non. " Withouten bake mete never was his hous, " Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous, *' It snewed in his hous of mete and drinke, •* Of aile deintees that men coud of thinke, ** After the sondry sesons of the yere, " So changed he his mete and his soupere. *' Ful many a fat partrich hadde he in roewe, •* And many a breme, and many a luce in stewe. " Wo was his coke, but if his sauce were '* Poinant and sharpe, and redy all his gere. " His table dormant in his halle alway " Stode redy covered alle the Ipnge day." Canterbury Tales; 1, 15. 4to. Oxford, 1798. It plainly appears too from Sir Thomas Elyot's remonstrance, that excess in this gratification pre- q2 228 ILI.USTRATIONS. vailed to a great extent in his tinne. He was a Physician to Henry VIIL and laments it in forcible language : " It may seeme to al me that *' have reaso what abuse is here in this Realme " in the cotinuall gourmandise and dayly feeding^ " on sondry meates at one meale. the spirit of " gluttony triumphing among vs in his glorious " chariot called welfare, dryuing vs afore hym, as " his prisoners, into his dungeon of surfet, " where we are tormented wyth catarres, feuers, " goutes, pleuryses, frettynge of the guttes and " many other sicknesses, and finally cruelly put " to death by them, oftentimes in youth or in the *^ most pleasaunte tyme of our lyfe whan we would " most gladly live. For the remedye whereof how " many tymes have there bene deuised ordinaunces " and actes of counsayle." The Castell of Helth ; &ic, fo. 45. 12mo, 1576. These notices on this national opprobrium, which, we find, lowered the English character among Foreigners, concur to show that something more appropriate was intended by Sliakspeare, in MacbetJis taunt on the " English Epicures,'^ than " a natural invective uttered by an inhabitant " of a barren country against those who have more " opportunitities of luxury,'* as Johnson threw out. May corroborates that feasts and banqueting were still a reigning vice : " Luxury in diet, and «• excesse both in meat and drinke, was crept into ILLUSTRATIONS. 229 ^* the kingdome in an high degree, not only in " the quantity, hut in the wanton curiosity." Hist, of the Pari, of England; p, 13. edit, 1812. And Clarendon confirms that this reproach of Epicurism was just. ILLUSTRATION, H. {Referred to in p, 86.) Unconslrauwig Laws of vertuous Education, reli- gious and civill nurture — ] Nurture " is learnings " knoioledge, art, or order** p, 88. of " The " CabiJiet Council: Containing the Chief Arts of "Empire, and Mysteries of State; discabineted *' in Pohiical and Polemical Aphorisms, grounded "on Authority, and Experience: &c. ^y the " Ever-renowned Knight, Sir Walter Raleigh, pub- " lished by John Milton Esq." sm, 8vo. 1658. There has been much confusion about this publi- cation (see Memoirs of T, Mollis s p, 519,), I will therefore add these notices relative to it, The second Edition, according to Oldys, was titled, " The Arts of Empire, and Mysteries of " State discabineted," &c. 8vo. Lond. 1692. (See his Life of Ralegh; p. 395. [n.) 8vo. 1740.) I have a copy entitled, " The Secrets of Govern- " ment, and Misteries of State, plainly laid open, " in all the severt^l Forms of Government in the " Christian world. Published by John Mii roN, 230 ILLUSTRATIONS. " Esq.'* 1697. Probably, the same republication only with a new title page, to drop Ralegh's name. — Toland, confounding Sir Walter's Prince with the Cabinet Council, states erroneously, that Milton printed both these Tracts. — Milton has taken from Horace for a Motto to this latter work, " Quis mortem tunici tectum adamantina Dign^ scripserit ? " perhaps to apologize for not entering into the Authour's character. The following is his address to the Reader as Editor : " Having had the Manu- " script of this Treatise, written by Sir Walter " Ralegh, many years in my hands, and finding ^' it lately by chance among other Books and ** Papers, upon reading thereof, I thought it a " kinde of injury to withhold longer the work of so " eminent an Author from the publick ; it being *^ both answerable in Stile to other Works of his " already extant, as far as the subject would per- " mit, and given me for a true Copy by a learned " Man at his Death, who had collected several *^ such pieces." Algernon Sydney, however, in the succeeding paragraph, strove to invalidate the authority of this and of others of Ralegh's posthumous pieces. He is contending, against Filmer, that the Parliament and the People have the power of making Kings, and he argues that, " This being built upon the '^ steady foundation of Law, History, and Reason, ILLUSTRATIONS. 231 " is not to be removed by any man's opinion ; " especially by one, accompanied with such cir- ** cumstances as Sir Walter Ralegh was in, during ** the last years of his life : and there is something " of baseness, as well as prevarication, in turning " the words of an eminent person, reduced to great ** difficulties, to a sense no way agreeing with his " former actions or writings, and no less tending to " impair his reputation than to deceive others. ** Our author is highly guilty of both, in citing " Sir Walter Ralegh to invalidate the great Charter ** of our Liberties, as begun by usurpation, and " showed to the world by rebellion : whereas no " such thing, nor any thing like it in word or prin- " ciple, can be found in the works that deserve to ** go under his name. The Dialogue in question, " with some other small pieces published after his " death, deserves to be esteemed spurious : or if, ** from a desire of life, when he knew his head lay " under the ax, he was brought to say things no *' way agreeing with what he had formerly pro- " fessed, they ought rather to be buried in oblivion " than produced to blemish his memory. But, " that the public cause may not suffer by his " fault, it is convenient the world should be in- " formed, that though he was a well qualified gen- " tleman, yet his morals were no way exact, as *^ appears by his dealings with the brave Earl of " Essex. And he was so well assisted in his His- f^ tory of the World, that an ordinary man, with 232 ILL rSTRATIONS. " the same helps, might have performed the same " things. Neither ought it to be accounted *' strange, if that which he wrote by himself " had the tincture of another spirit, when he " was deprived of that assistance, though his ** life had not depended upon the will of the <^ prince, and he had never said, that ' the bonds " of subjects to their kings should always be " wrought out of iron, the bonds of kings unto <* subjects but with cobwebs.' ** Discourses con- cerning Government ; p. 440. 4to. edit, 1772. Of the Cabijiet Council^ Sir William Jones writes to John Macpherson, Esq. — " the other day, I laid " my hand on the annexed little book ascribed to <^ Sir Walter Ralegh ; it is, like most posthumous *^ works, incorrect, but contains with some rubbish, " a number of wise aphorisms and pertinent exam- *' pies ; it' is rather the common-place book of " some statesman, than a well digested treatise, *' but it has amused me on a second reading." Memoirs of Sir fV, Jones ; by Lord Teignmouth : p. 263. 4to. ILLUSTRATION, L {Referedto in p. 93.) Ye must reform it perfectly according to the model of Trent and Sevil, which J know ye abhorre to doe,"] More than once in this Oration, our Authour throws on an Imprimatur the odium of a Popish ILLUSTRATIONS. 233 invention, because this was an imputation most likely to startle the Parliament and to prevail on them to rescind their Ordinance. It is with the same view of working on their antipathy and on their fears, he reiterated that the Licensing of Books was a Spanish practice; for that Monarchy was yet apprehended to be the deadly and formidable enemy of Protestant Europe. Wherefore the Speaker of the House of Commons, at the opening of the first Parliament that Charles called, ** made an harangue suitable to the times," says IVhittbck, and among other topics, " inveigh- ^* ing against Popery and the King of Spain" (Memorials, p. 3. fol. 1732.) Again; in his Trea- tise " Of Reformation,'' &c. Milton opprobriously called our Prelates " Spaniolized Bishops," and from the Manifesto against Spain in l6.f>5, which he penned as Latin Secretary to Cromwell, we may distinctly discern, by his appeal therein to this national sensation, that the animosity against the Spanish Government for its attempt to conquer this Island by the Armada was yet far from subsided: ** Quod quidem in Anglorum animis necesse est *' adhuc alt^ residere, neque inde posse facile " evelh.*' Fr. W, II. 609. ed. 1738. So deep had the terror struck of the " dangerous Heptarchy " of Spain,** to borrow Sir Fulk Greville's phrase, that the War waged by Philip and Mary against Henry II. of France to advance the aim of the Em- peror Charles, who panted to become the founder 234 ILLUSTRATIONS. of a fifth Monarchy or Empire of the West, is the only instance, I can recollect, in English History of a French War which at its commencement was disapproved by the Country at large. CromweWs confederacy with France for the pur- pose of depressing the power of Spain was, I think, the most exceptionable of his foreign mea- sures. It is not always that we can fathom the depths of his policy. Perhaps a grateful sense of the countenance shown to the Parliamentary Cause by Richelieu; or, still more probably, the personal court paid to the Protector by Mazarine might co-operate. Be this as it may ; unless we allow him to have inherited so much of this tradi- tional jealousy of Spanish greatness as to give a bias to his political views, after the reason for it had, in great part, ceased, it will not be easy to assign adequate motives for so sharp-sighted a Statesman having fallen into the error of fostering the growing ambition of the House of Bourbon. This aid to the aggrandizement of the French Monarchy was in the sequel a false step for Eng- land ; inasmuch as it conduced to the subsequent preponderance of France in Europe -, and followed, as it was, by Cimrles II. and James selling to houis XIV. their acquiescence in his rising ascen- dancy, may be justly considered to be the pri- mary cause of the series of our continental warfare to retrieve the Balance of Power after our Revo* lution in 1688. ILLUSTRATIONS. 235 ILLUSTRATION, K. {Referred to in p. 96.) When I made the reference for this Illustra- tion, it did not occur to my recollection, that Mabbott's Reasons for resigning the office of Licenser were inserted in the Preface to the Edi- tion of the Areopagitica pubhshed in 1772, and which I have reprinted among the Prolegomena to this Edition. ILLUSTRATION, L. {Referred to in p. 97.) It was the complaint and lamentation of PrelatSy upon every least breath of a motion to remove Pluralities^ and distribute more equally Church revenus, that then all Lerning would be for ever dasKt and discouraged.] The disproportionate distribution of Preferments in our Church was the natural result of a Reformation carried on, like ours, as occasion offered, without any settled views, and as the humour or prejudices of the reigning Sovereign prompted. Bent ley resorts to the same kind of topic for an argument against their equalization. {Rem. on Collins's Disc, of Free Thinking, p. 151. 8vo. 1743.) For one, I side with Milton. Our Authour had in another work poured forth 236 ILLUSTRATIONS. a torrent of vituperative declamation against those vi^ho made use of this excusatory reasoning for the existing inequalities. " Yea (he exclaims), thej •* and their Seminaries shame not to profess, to *' petition, and never lin pealing our ears, that " unless we fat them like Boars, and cram them " as they hst with Wealth, with Deaneries, and " Plurahties, with Baronies and stately Prefer- " ments, all Learning and Religion, will go under " foot. Which is such a shameless, such a bestial " plea, and of that odious impudence in Church- ** men, who should be to us a pattern of tempe- " ranee and frugal mediocrity, who should teach " us to contemn this world, and the gaudy things " thereof, according to the promise which they " themselves require from us in Baptism, that " should the Scripture stand by and be mute, there ** is not that sect of Philosophers among the " Heathen so dissolute, no not Epicurus, nor " Aristippus with all his Cyrenaic rout, but would " shut his school-doors against such greasy Sophis- "ters; not any College of Mountebanks, but " would think scorn to discover in themselves " with such a brazen forehead the outrageous " desire of filthy Lucre." Pr, W. I. 74. edit. 17^8. That this is written with an asj^erity we must wi?h away who shall deny ? At the same time, be it remembered, and the remark, if applied generally to his controversial Writings, holds equaHy true, that the reciprocal bitterness between the ILLUSTRATIONS. 237 contending persuasions in these religious feuds was in a degree which, happily for us, it is now difficult to conceive. At this day, we think it hiughable to see the recommendation of an Vnder-groom to Prince Rupert certifying, in addition to a " good character,'* that he had a " great value for the '« Common Prayer'' [Life and Errors of John Dunton : p. 333.) But does not this anecdote perspicuously mark the height to which the hostile odium between the disciples of the High Church and of the Low had arisen ? We need not require any further evidence, that the animosity which actuated them against each other was in the ex- treme. Let us remember too, the long and close Imprisonments with destructive Fines on those who reflected on our ecclesiastical establishment, and that the wounds from the grievous Mutilations, the Stigmatizings, and other Tortures inflicted by Laud and his Assessours on their victims were still green and smarting. So rigorous was the Persecution of the Non- con- formists that Lord Brooke states the Refugees who were driven from their native country, principally to America, then a desolate wilderness, at so large a number as " ten thousand!' [A Discourse opening the Nature of Episcopacy ; p. 97. 4to. 164L) With these sufferings Milton, and all who had a lively and just sense of such execrable enormities, could not but warmly sympathize. — The honoured In- structor of his youth. Youngs was among those who were constrained to expatriate themselves. 238 ILLUSTRATIONS. ILLUSTRATION, M. {Referred to in p. 116.) / have sat among thir lerned men, for that honor I had, and bin counted happy to be born in such a place of Philosophic Freedom, as they supposed England was, white themselves did nothing but bemoan the servil condition into which Lerning among t/iem was brought : that this was it which had dampt tlie glory of Italian wits ; that nothing had bin there written now these many years but flattery and fustian.'] " At the resurrection o( Literature, ** Italy was the first to cast away the shroud," says the Historian most eloquently. Within these few years we have had some new and brilliant lights thrown upon this epocha in the annals of human Knowlege; an epocha full of interest to every intelligent mind. But I am not aware of any single circumstance more striking to show how greatly this love of polite Learning prevailed among the Italians, than the high consideration Milton received at Rome from Cardinal Fr. Barberini (Pr, W. II. 511, ed. 1738), and the attentions paid to him at Naples by the noble Patron and Biographer of Torquato Tasso, as well as by many other meu of eminence in that Country; ib. II. 332, ubi sup, A Tramontane; of no pretensions from high birth, or a splendid fortune, or conspicuous name ; more than all, an English Heretic — one who within the verge of the Vatican would not keep secret his ILLUSTRATIONS. 239 deep-rooted aversion to Popery : with such impe- diments to a distinguished reception, his most ser- viceable letters of recommendation came from his own pen. What his memory could supply, in addition to the extemporaneous productions of his cultivated Genius, were his credentials to the best classes of Society ; as he relates somewhat more at large, and with a pardonable self-complacency in the Reason of Church Government, During the Nation's lengthened contest with the Stuarts, the English character appears to have been rated high in the estimation of enlightened Foreigners. Beside what we may collect to this purport in the text, Alger- non Sydney writes in 1678-9, " We particularly ^* hope that England will keep up its reputation of *' being, as the Cardinal Pallavacini says, the mo^ ** ther and Nurse of the best Wits in the world." (Letters to H. Saville, p, 4. prefixed to his Works ; 4to. Robertson* s edit.) Milton might have extended to a wider circuit his remark on the baneful influence of arbitrary Government in debasing the public mind in Italy. A Country for a length of ages fer- tile in eminent intellect. He should have intro- duced and contrasted the diversity in the style of addressing the Great, between the Roman Poets before the fall of the Republic and after the eleva- tion of Octavius Casar to the Purple. Independent and erect, Lucretius accosts Memmius, a Patron of Patrician rank, and of highly descended ancestry. 240 ILLUSTRATIONS. with the language of an honest freedom; depre- cating his pubHc avocations for diverting him from the calm pursuits of Philosophy : that Poet wrote in consular Rome. He is said to have died on the same day that Virgil took the manly Gown ; yet so rapid had the degeneracy been, that this fa- vourite of the Muse stooped without a blush to burn incense to Augustus, as to a tutelar Deity. Fulsome praise of the Emperour was to be expected from Horace. For some time the dissolute follower oi Epicurus, with broken fortunes and ruined hopes, his apology would have been, that his happiness was centered in the pleasures with which Rome abounded ; luxuries he could procure only by the wages of adulation. This he had no reserve in acknowleging. (II. EpL 2. 51.) VirgiVs bent of mind run in an opposite direc- tion. His bashful spirit shrunk into the shade of rural life ; and that from his retreats in Campania and Sicily he should have subscribed to his own degradation in " ignominious strains and lying " verse'* affords lamentable proof how widely, as well as quickly, the contagion of servility had spread after the successour to the Triumvirate had drawn to himself all the functions of the State. — How could Gibbon think, that the minds of the Romans were ^till republican ? The change must have begun betoie a Potrt could venture to an- nounce to the Roman Public as a disiinciion, that he sung by command. It was not long ere a ty- ILLUSTRATIONS. 241 rannous Government poisoned the source of ge* nerous sentiment and paralyzed all the nobler fa- culties. "Free Rome'* became worse than ^'mute*' or inglorious. Nothing but flattery and fustian was to be heard. After Seneca and Lucan had been put to death, well might the Romans sigh out, like the relegated Satirist, that the arts of courtly blandishment were only in request : *' Et spes et ratio studiorum in Cesare tantum." Trajan and several of his successours, took under their protection and advanced men of literary en- dowments. Certain it is, with no memorable suc- cess : either the national Mind was gone, or their exertions were misdirected, to unworthy objects* The countenance of Greatness we know cannot reasonably be expected to create Genius ; but it was not unreasonable to hope that the beams of royal favour should have had sufficient influence to call it forth. Yet Martial was confessedly the Virgil of his Imperial Patron ; and whoever reads the licentious Poems o{ Ausoniiis must feel surprise, that he could have recommended himself to the office of Preceptor to the Son of Valentinian, It is a compliment far from merited, as has been re- marked by some one, I forget by whom, to call the age of Livy, Horace, and Virgil, the Augustan Age. What though they flourished while Augustus reigned ; they were equally with Cicero aud Sal- lusty Terence, Catullus, Tibullus, and Ovid, born and R 242 ILLUSTRATIONS. educated under the discipline of the Republic. If the pretensions of Rome to lettered fame were to rest solely on Writers who were bred up under the Imperial Institutions, slender must be the portion we could allot them. The general decay of superiour Talent, as well as the falling off in justness of Taste, becomes very discernible on the usurpation of the Cesars: the deterioration in manners is not more perceptible. At the commencement of his History, Tacitus con- fesses, " Postquam bellatum apud Actium, atque " omnem potentiam ad unum conferri pacis inter- " fuit, magna ilia ingenia cessere.** He, however, touches^ very slightly on the cause. The conclud- ing chapter of Longimis* Treatise compensates for this caution ; and in all ages and in all countries will it be found that the benumbing power of Despotism is a fatal check to the exertions of Genius. A fettered hand can never give the Lyre its fullest tones. ILLUSTRATION, N. {Referred to in p, 126.) The Prelats might remember themy that this obstructing violence meets for the most part with an event utterly opposite to the end ivhich it drives at.'\ To remember was formerly to remind: '* And yet I must remember you, my Lord, *' We were the first and dearest of your Friends." Shakspeare; Hen, IV. ^m Part, A,$, 5. f. ILLUSTRATIONS. 243 Clarendon testifies what Milton here insinuates to have been the effect in the public mind of the hateful and barbarous sentences on Prynne, BasU wick, and Leighton. " There were three persons most notorious for their declared malice against the government of the Church by Bishops, in their several Books and Writings, which they had published to cor- rupt the People, with circumstances very scan- dalous, and in language very scurrilous, and im- pudent; which all Men thought deserved very exemplary punishment : they were of the three several Professions which had the most influence upon the People, a Divine, a common Lawyer, and a Doctor of Physic; none of them of in- terest, or any esteem with the worthy part of their several Professions, having been formerly all looked upon under characters of reproach : yet when they were all sentenced, and for the execution of that ov.^ntence brought out to be punished as common and signal rogues, exposed upon scaffolds to have their ears cut off, and their faces and foreheads branded with hot irons (as the poorest and most mechanic malefactors used to be, when they were not able to redeem themselves by any fine for their trespasses, or to satisfy any damages for the scandals they had raised against the good name and reputation of others). Men begun no more to consider their manners, but the Men ; and each Profession, r2 244 ILLUSTRATIONS. •* with anger and indignation enough, thought " their education, and degrees, and quality^, would " have secured them from such infamous judg- '* ments, and treasured up wrath for the time to " come." Hist, of the Rebellion y I. 146. 8vo. 1807. A memorable and impressive warning to rulers : yet it was thrown away on Charles II. and on James, They, far from profiting by this expe- rience, flew at still larger quarry. I am inclined to think that their bringing Sydney and Russell to the block was a natural effect of their residence within the purlieus of Louis XIV*s Court. There they must have witnessed the abject submission to the Crown into which the French Noblesse fell after Richelieu had put the Duke de Montmorenci to death. This tempted them to hope that by like means of intimidation they should overawe their own Nobility and break the heart of all op- position to their plans of arbitrary power. Happily for this Country the ancient Peerage of England was composed of " sterner stuff.'* The sympathy of the Great with the high-born sufferers, and their detestation of this tyrannical conduct, must have been no slight incitement to those among them who stood forth as champions in arms of the Peo- ple's Rights at the Revolution which was the sequel to the remorseless practices of the royal Brothers ; it would have been no slight incitement, though they had not been well-aware of the systematic ILLUSTRATIONS. 245 depression and debasement of their own order which inevitably takes place under an absolute Monarch, ILLUSTRATION, O. {Referred to in p, 144.) He shall bring together every joynt and member j and shall mould them into an immortall feature of lovelines and perfection.] By Feature, Milton ^ intended form. When he impersonated Death, he denominated him the " grim Feature.'* Par, Lost, X. 279. Feature is from Factura ; Lat. ; in Italian, Fattura. Thus Lord Bacon; " Aristotle hath " very ingeniously and diligently handled the . ^^factures of the body, but not the gestures of the "body." IVorks; L 65. 4to. So that "in *\fact of arms/* and ^^ fiats of arms /* P. Z. II. 124, and 537, may have the same construction. This sense was not yet fallen into disuse. A contemporary, one Severne, in some commenda- tory Verses prefixed to Cartwrighfs Poems (8vo 1651) has it with the same opposition as in the text: '* As when an handsome Feature nigh, " Each Member*s Draught " Agrees in nought " But this, that each a part does take the Eye," Commentators point out in Terence a similar 246 ILLUSTRATIONS. idiom for the whole configuration of the huoian frame in ^' O faciem pulchram." I. Q.S5. Hag, 4to. 1726, ed. Westerhov. And see too Cruquius*s Note on " quali ^' Sit facie, sura, quali pede, dente capillo." Horat L. I. Sat. 6. v. 32. With the foregoing authorities in Milton for this extended signification of Feature in our own language, it is surprising thai the Annotators on S/iakspeare should have so frequently missed its meaning. In As you like it. Touchstone asks Audrey — '* Doth my s\m^\e feature \^forrn\ con- " tent you ?'* To which she replies with a quibble — '' Your features f Lord warrant us! what^a- " tures?'' Variorum Shakspeare, VI. 10i\ ed, 1793. This passage perplexed Farmer, who ven- tures on a conjectural emendation ; and doubts not this should be " your feature ! Lord warrant us! ^^ whafs feature?'' While Steevens, by offering different and discordant explanations, appears to have been dissatisfied with this correction, yet not to have put confidence in either of his own sug- gestions. He thought ^^feat and feature^ perhaps, *' had anciently the same meaning. The Clown " asks, if the features of his face content her, she " takes the word in another sense, i. e, feats, deeds, " and in her reply seems to mean, what feats, i. e, " what have we done yet ? The courtship of Au- " drey and her gallant had not proceeded further. ILL rSTR ATIONS. 247 ** as Sir Wilful Witwood says, than a little mouth- •*glue; but she supposes him to be talking of " something which as yet he had not performed. " Or the jest may turn only on the Clown's pro- " nunciation. In some parts, features might be " pronounced, faitors, which signify rascals, low " wretches.*' Malone contributed some examples of this word gathered from Writers in the reign of Elizabethy and asserts that ^'feature formerly " signified the whole countenance." Not to multiply proofs beyond necessity, I will only refer to them with this observation, that feature in a wider acceptation, as synonymous with shape ov form, better agrees with the context of all the passages collected by this Gentleman. While it unquestionably imports much the same in Lear ; when Albany reproaching Goneril exclaims, " Proper deformity seems not in the fiend *' So horrid, as in woman. *' Be-monster not thy /eaiMrc. . . t* , " Howe'er thou art a fiend, " A woman s shape doth shield thee." On which occasion Malone repeats that " Feature *' in Shakspeare's age meant the general cast of " countenance, and often beauty ; " for which he cites Bullokar's Expositor; iibi sup. XIV. 211. With these expositions Steevens coincides, when Cleopatra gives orders for the messenger to " report " the feature of Octaviaj'' ubi sup. XII. 502. 248 ILLUSTRATIONS. But when this latter Editor added that Spenser uses feature for the whole turn of the body, and brings two apposite quotations from the Fairy Queen in support of this interpretation, he went near to anticipate my explanation ; yet he failed to apply this construction to any of the places in which the word occurs through Shahspeare. That the Poet, however, by no means restricted its meaning to heauty^ or to countenance^ is evident in Cymheline ; where he certainly intended the symmetry of the whole figure ; where too it is con- tra-distinguished from beauty: " For beauty that made barren the swellM boast " Of him that best could speak ; for feature laming '^ The Shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva/' ubi sup, XIII. 220. I remark the same distinction to be preserved by Stoive s of Henry VIITs aversion to Anne of Cleve: " his hatred encreased more and more against her, " not only for her want of beauty and feature^ " whereof at first he took exceptions.'* Annates ; p. 578. foL 1631. This verbal criticism has been drawn out to a considerable length ; but a word which Shahspeare s best Commentators have misexplained repeatedly, required a minute explication : it could only have its doubtful meaning fixed by a deduction of par- ticular examples; which at the same time ascer- tains its sense in Paradise Lost, where it has. hitherto been passed without notice. ILLUSTRATIONS . 249 ILLUSTRATION, P. {Referred to in p. 184.) Those neighbouring differences^ or rather indiffer- encesy are what I speak o/^] Burnet's account of the Controversy about " things indifferent'' will be found illustrative of the general tenour of Milton's reasoning in this part of his Oration. " There " was a great variety of sentiments among our " Reformers on this point ; Whether it was fit, to " retain an External Face of Things, near to *^ what had been practised in the Times of Popery, " or not ? The doing that, made the People come " easily in, to the more real changes that were '* made in the Doctrines, when they saw the out- " ward appearances so little altered : so this Me- ** thod seemed the safer, and the readier way to *' wean the People, from the Fondness they had " for a splendid Face of things, by that which " was still kept up. But on the other hand, it was " said. That this kept up still the Inclination in " the People to the former Practices -, they were " by these made to think, that the Reformed State ** of the Church did not differ much from them; ** and that they imitated them. And they appre- " bended, that this outward resemblance made the " old Root of Popery to live still in their Thoughts; " so that if it made them conform at present more ** easily to the Change that was now made, it 250 ILI USTRATIONS. " would make it still much the easier for them to " fall back to Popery : so, for this very Reason, " they stood upon it ; and thought it better, to put " matters in as great an opposition to the Practices " of Popery, as was possible, or convenient. " The Queen had, in her first Injunctions or- ^* dered the Clergy to wear seemly Garments, and *^ square Caps ; adding, that this was only for ** Decency, and not to ascribe any Worthiness to " the Garments. But when the Act of Uniformity " was settled, whereas in the Liturgy passed in the *• second year of King Edward, Copes and other " Garments were ordered to be used; but in the *^ second Book, passed in the sixth year of that ** King, all was laid aside except the Surphce : yet " the Queen, who loved Magnificence in every <^ thing, returned back to the Rules in King Ed- ^' ward's First Book, till other order should be ^^ taken therein by the Queen. There was like- ^' wise a Clause put in the Act of Uniformity im- *^ powering the Queen to Ordain and Publish such " further Ceremonies and Rites, as might be for ^* the Advancement of God's Glory, the Edifying <' of his Church, and the due Reverence of Christ's ^^ Holy Mysteries and Sacraments. " The Matter being thus settled, there followed <^ a great Diversity in practice : Many conform- <^ ing themselves in all Points to the Law; while '' others did not use either the Surplice or the •* square Caps and Hoods, according to their De- ILLUSTRATIONS. 251 " gree. This visible Difference began to give " great offence, and to state two Parties in the " Church. The People observed it, and run into ** Parties upon it. Many forsook their Churches, ** of both sides : some, because those Habits were " used ; and some, because they were not used." Hist, of the Reformation ; Part III. p, 305. fol, 1715. ILLUSTRATION Q. {Referred to in p. 185.) If it come.] Like R. Ascham, Ben Jonson, King James's Revisors of the authorized Transla- tion of the Bible, HohheSy and other Scholars among our earlier Writers in their native tongue, Milton preserved the grammatical distinction be- tween the indicative and conditional Moods. Be- side the present example, " though he command — " ** if he please — " with others that occur in the pages before us, attest his care in this point. He was as particular in his Poetry : " Lett, by some fair-appearing good surprizM, " She dictate false ; and misinform the will." P. L. IX. 354. This conformity to our regular modes of inflec- tion must have escaped the accomplished Editor of 252 ILLUSTRATIONS. his occasional Poems, otherwise he could never have been perplexed at, " O, if thou have " Hid them in some flow'ry cave." See T. War tons note on Comics, r^. 238. Neither could he have been at all disposed to think it " a seeming inaccuracy for the sake of the rhyme.*' Nor would modern Editors have mis- printed " could'^^" in this passage in Samson Ago- nistes : " If in my flower of youth and strength, when all men " Lov'd, honoured, fear'd me, thou alone could hate me.*' V. 938. I remember another instance of our Authour's curious diligence, which has given rise to much erroneous comment. " Wise men wander in a ** tittle.*' What I advert to is his writing embryon rather than embryo ; — — ." and to battle bring " Their embryon atoms.** P. L. n. 899. This deviation from the mode customary in his own day, made Addison class it among the words of Milton's coinage ; Spectator, No, 285. How- ever Mr. Todd has established that embryon was very common both as a Substantive, and as an Adjective in the Poetry of that age. Bentley's first thoughts were to exert his con- jectural talent ; and he proposed to read " legiorCd " atoms;** he observes, that " sitMpuov is the singu- ILLUSTRATIONS. 253 " lar; the plural is eixSpua: and that therefore c/n- " Inyon joined here to atoms is a violation of " Grammar.'* In contradiction to this learned Critic's remark, that this was an ungrammatical combination, Pearce contended that our Authour " uses emhryon here as an Adjective ; as he does " again in VII. 277. In Milton (he proceeds), " the Substantive is embryo; and the plural em- " bryo^, as in III. 474.'* [Review of the Text of Paradise Lost, p, 73. Svo. 1733.) Whatever em- bryon may be in the quotation from B. II. the passage he himself refers to in the Vllth Book de- monstrates the Bishop's mistake in asserting that it is there used adjectively : " The Earth was form'd, but in the Womb as yet " Of Waters, Emhryon immature involved, « Appeared not." V. 276. But Pearce was misled by Bentleys faulty punc- tuation. If we must look to the Greeks to learn Milton's reason for retaining the final w, I should prefer to surmise that he had their paragogic u in his thoughts. It 19, however, little question with me that the Poet availed himself of this antiquated spelling because in these two instances from Para- dise Lost, the words immediately succeeding begin with a vowel ; so we interpose the same Letter when our indefinite Article is in the same position. Here it would have been doing violence to a pri- 254 ILLUSTRATIONS. mary canon in the art of Versification to have let such vowel sounds meet where he did not intend an elision in the scansion of the verse. He dropped the n in the only remaining example of this word in his Poetry. " Embryo*, and Idiots, Eremites, and Friars." P. L. in. 474. In the Plural this was no longer wanted to pre- vent the open Vowels; he therefore discarded it. The Euphony of our Language is somewhat di- minished by the discontinuing to write mine and ihiney instead of my ^nd thy when these Pronouns were not followed by a Consonant ; as well as by the disuse of none for no, if it precede a vowel : of which rule Puttenham was so observant that he has, in his work on the " Arte of English Poesie," none impeachment, none answer, with similar com- binations as unknown to modern ears. Dr. Watts thought (see preface to his Hor^ Lyrica)y that Milton affected archaisms and ex- oticisms; and *' the oddness (he adds) of an antique " sound gives but a false pleasure to the ear." But neither this Critic, nor Addison [Travels, under Venice\ seem to have paid regard to the frequent advantage this license afforded him on metrical con- siderations. It was not, I suspect, so much to give the cast of Antiquity to his Poetry, that he preferred Eremites to Hermits^ and surcease rather than cease, or marish instead of marsh, &c. In the first instance a trisyllable was called for, and in ILLUSTRATIONS. 25S the latter places dissyllables were wanted. Thus too, for the convenience of his verse, he, like others who preceded him, wrote 'sdeind (P. L. IV. 50), not, as Hume suggested, in imitation of the Italian, for he oftener has disdained, but because a mono- syllable was commodious; as he follows the Greek in Briareo* where the line required a quadrisyllable to complete it ; and revived, as a metrical aug- mentation the obsolete prefix y in "i/- pointed,*' and " 3/-clept." The vitious Comparative " worser'* will hardly be found in his Prose. The " labour of Book writing" was to Milton a labour of love ; and diligence is always minute. Neither was his Knowlegeless exact than extensive. What Augustus said of Horace is to the full as applicable to our own Poet: he also is emendatis^ simus Auctor, So critically scrupulous was he that he commences this Oration with " Thei/ who i* a refinement little attended to by the most puncti- lious of the present age. " Those who*' for the Nominative has obtained all the authority which custom can confer on any departure from gram- matical strictness. In certain expressions not even Addison or Swift, however deserving praise for idiomatical English, were so studiously correct in the grammatical part of their language as some of our Writers of a period much anterior. Since Milton castigavif ad unguem, and held no care unworthy his Genius, who should disre- gard these nicer particularities ? 256 ILLUSTRATIONS. The above are among a thousand scattered proofs of the errour in supposing that he who un- dertook to vindicate the ways of God to Man, would not deign to bestow thought on such shght points of Criticism as Syllables and Sounds. {The Rambler; No, 95.) The Moralist must have forgotten, that not to be apprehensive of abasement, by paying attention to inferiour circumstances, is a privilege of consqious greatness. ILLUSTRATION, R. {Rtferred to in p, 190.) Anough,'] Mr. Todd thinks enough instead of enough ** literally an imitation of tl^e Doric ** Dialect;" and P^cA: says idly, that it is "very *^ pastor el" (Mem, of the Life and poetical Works (2/* Milton; &c. /?. 153. 4to. 1740). And also re- marks of ComiiSy that, ** being of the pastoral sort, " our Authour had many pastoral words in it." ib.p. 136. To prop this conceit, he particularized, among other instances, ivoome for womby hearbs for herbSy and infers the same from the duplication of the o in the first syllable of bosom (p, 142), as well as from this Letter being prefixed to 7igly (p. 150), yet these modes of spelling were not confined to Comns\ neither did Milton propose to throw an air of rusticity over a Masque to be performed before a sort of vice-regal Court ; on the contrary, this dramatic piece is written throughout in a sus- ILLUSTRATIONS. 2Sj tained style. The fact is, that these with many other words are printed in the Edition of his minor Poems in 1645, as they were then sounded. This pronunciation of enough continues in genera] use ; and so does hearb and boc^som to this day among the uneducated in the West of England : as ouglj/ si ill is in the northern part of the Island and in CornwalL Mr. Warton took this to be only the old way of writing ugly; and the rule of Ortho- graphy which our Authour adopted has been variously misconceived. Johnson decides it (Pre/, to his Diet.) to have been " in zeal for ana- " logy," that he dropped the e in height ; while Mr. Capell Lofft fancied sovran for sovereign to be a Poet's licence. But that supposition falls to the ground when we find it equally in the prose- writings. He was as ill understood by Richardson ; who tells the Reader that Milton ejected the c from seent^ because it was not in the French sentir; nor in the Italian sentire ; whence we bor- rowed it. Of this suggestion Bishop Pearce in his Review of Bentleys emendations of Par. Lost declared his approbation. Milton's scheme of Orthography was not how- ever governed by the derivation. He concurred with those, and the practice was then by no means singular, who would make the written represen- s 258 ILLUSTRATIONS. tation of Thought correspond with oral Speech : e. gr. hairjous, lantskip, mountanous, Divell, det- ters, scholler. To the same end, he suppressed the silent Letters in hau^Aty, apoj^Athegm, learn- ing, viscount, si^niory, &c., as well as wrote Chetiy, not Clieti6; and Piazza, in conformity to the Italian utterance of the double z; as Burton did Novi/za, and, if I remember rightly, Harrington Pu/zudi. In the instances apparently in opposition to this observation, where he departs from the customary mode as in frontispfce*, exta^y, rarify, accedence, sceptical, G/2ittar, a^ry, glutinous, &c. ; — though these Orthographies be more etymological, his aim was, we may now discern, a nearer approximation to vocal Language ; to bring the alphabetic cha- racters of Thought in closer affinity to the " arti- culated air** of which these combinations of Let- ters are the visible signs. In pursuance of this principle ** grassy sordy^ 2. e. sryard, is the genuine reading in Par. Lost. (XL 433.) This peculiarity, which Johnson calls a corruption, prompted Fenton to give erroneously sod in the Edition of which he superintended the Publication. The Lexicographer again misap- prehended Milton's object when disposed to think that he intended to preserve the Saxon gpunb, by exhibiting grunsel, {Par, Lost, I. 460.) But I am unaware of any reason to suppose, that the ILLUSTRATIONS. 259 Anglo-Saxon had ever engaged Milton's notice, and he is by no means accustomed to hide his acquirements behind a veil. He was, I believe, scarcely a stranger in any other walk of Learning than the northern. But the time was not come for these studies. He and other literary Men yet occupied their minds with the writers of Rome and Athens, and of modern Italy. The Anglo-Saxon tongue had once, and I think, but once, since the Conquest, obtained the regards of our Forefathers. This was at the aera of the Reformation, for the purpose, as it should seem, ot putting beyond the power of controversy, what' were the heterodox novelties which the Romish Priesthood had subsequently engrafted on the Christianity planted in Britain by its primitive propagators. ILLUSTRATION, S. {Referred to in p. 196.) Tfi procuring by petition this Order,'] Mr. Haf"' grave printed the succeeding document in, " an " Argument in Defence of Literary Property,'* from a M. S. in the possession of the Stationers*' Company ; and it will show who were the first to^ promote the revival of Licensers to the Press/ " The following declaration was signed near two* " years before the ordinance of 1643, by some of S2 260 IJLLUSTRATIONS. " the most favourite Divines of the then prevailing " party in Parliament. " We whose names are subscribed at the re- " quest of certain stationers or printers, do hereby " inform those whom it may concern, that to " the knowlege of divers of us (and as all of " us do believe) that the said stationers or prin- " ters have paid very considerable sums of money " to many authours for the copies of such useful " books as have been imprinted. In regard " whereof we conceive it to be both just and *' very necessary that they should enjoy a pro- " priety for the sole imprinting of their copies. ** And we further declare, that unless they do so " enjoy a propriety, all scholars will utterly be •* deprived of any recompence from the stationers ** or printers for their studies and labours in *' writing or preparing books for the Press. Be- ** sides, if the books that are printed in Eng- *' land be suffered to be imported from beyond " the seas, or any other way reimprinted to the " prejudice of those who bear the charges of " the impressions, the authours and the buyers ** will be abused by vicious impressions, to the " great discouragement of learned men, and " extream damage to all kinds of good learning. *' The plaintures {and other good reasons which " might be named) being considered, we certify " our opinions and desires that fitting and suf- " ficient caution be provided in this behalf- ILLUSTRATIONS. 261 *' Wherein we humbly submit to grave wisdoms *' of those to whom it doth appertain. " CALEBAT DOWNING, LLD. JOHN DOWNINE. "C. OSSPRING. " RICH. COLE. "WILLIAM JEMAT. " HEN. TOWNLEY. "JAM. NORRIS. " JOHN PAYNE. " DANIEL FEATLEY, D.D. "WILL. GOUGE, S.T.P. C. BURGES. GEORGE WALKER. RICHAKD BARNARD. ADONIRAN BYFIELD. EDM. CALAMY. LA. SEAMAN. SAM. ROGERS. N. PRIME." MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OP MI LTON'S AREOPAGITICA. SUR LA LIBER TE DS LA PRESS E, IMITE DE L'ANGLOIS, DE MILTON*. PAR Le Comte DE MIRABEAU, Who kills a Man kills a reasonable creature .... but, he who de- stroys a good Book, kills Reason it self. Tuer un Hommey c*est ditruire unc Creature raisonnable ; mais itouffer un bon Livre, cest tuer la Raison elk-mcme. A LONDRES. MDCCLXXXVIII. * Le titre de ce morceau tr^s singulier, oh j'ai suivi de heaucoyp plus prfes men Auteur que ne voudront le croire ceux qui ne consul- teront pas TOriginal, et ou j'ai plutot retranch6 qu'ajout^; ce titre est; Areopagitica : A Speech for the Liberty of imlicens'd Printing ; To the Parliament of' England. SUR LA LIBERTE DE LA PRESSE* C*EST au moment ou le Roi invite tons les Francois a r^clairer sur la mani^re la plus juste et la plus sage de convoquer la Nation : c'est au moment ou il augmente son Conseil de cent quarante-trois Notables appellds de toutes les Classes, de toutes les Parties du Royaume, pour mieux connoitre le • Miraheau published in 1789, the Theorie dc la Royaute, d'apres la Doctrine dc Milton, to which he prefixed an Essay on him and his works ; aud he concludes by a just reprehen- sion of Voltaire, for his peremptory and perfunctory decision against Milton as a Writer of Prose ; " Maintenant on peut ** apprecier, a leur juste valeur, les assertions que Fo//aire s*est ** permis sur le compte de Milton. S'il faut Ten croire, " Milton, que les Anglois rcgardent aujourd'hui comme un poetc " divin etoit un tres-mauvais ccrivain en prose. II restapauvre et ** sans gloire. '* Un poete, bel esprit et gentilhomme de la chambre, devoit '* etre peu propre sans doute a juger par lui-m^me les ecrits " politiques du republicain — Mais comment ce prodigieux ** Fo/mire. toujours pr^t a expedier un brevet d^immortalite au •' premier avorton du Parnasse qui lui adressoit quelques rimes " adulatrices, a-t-il ete si souverainement injuste envers la plu- '* part des grands hommes, dont il devoit si bien connoitre le i/ secret et defendre Theritage ? '* 268 MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF voeu et Topinion publique : c'est au moment ou la necessiie des affaires, la in^fiance de tous les Corps, de tous les Ordres, de toutes les Provinces ; la diversity des principes, des avis, des pretentions, provoque imp^rieiisement le concours des lumieres et le controle universel ; c'est dans ce moment que, [)ar la plus scandaleuse des inconsequences, on poursuit, au nom du Monarque, la liberie de la Presse, plus severement, avec une inquisition plus active, plus cauleleuse, que ne Ta jamais os^ le despotisme Minist^riel le plus effr^n^. Le Roi demande des recherches et des ^clair- cissemenssur la constitution des Etats-Generaux, et sur le mode de leur convocation, aux Assemblies Provinciales, aux Villes, aux Communauies, aux Corps, aux Savans, aux Gens de Leltres : et ses Ministres arretent Touvrage posthume d*un des Publicistes les plus reputes de la Nation ! Et sou- dain la Police, convaincue de sa propre impuis- sance pour empecher la circulation d*un Livre, effray^e des reclamations qu'un coup d'autorite si extravagant pent exciter; la Police, qui n'influe jamais que par Taction et la reaction de la corrup- tion, paie les exemplaires saisis, vend le droit de contrefaire, de publier ce qu'elle vient de pro- scrire, et ne voit dans ce honteux trafic de tyrannic et de tolerance, que le lucre du privilege exclusif d'un jour! Le Roi a donne des Assembiees a la plupart de ses Provinces, et le precis des proces-verbaux de THE AREOPAGITICA 269 ces Assemblies, ouvrage indispensable, pour en saisir Tensemble, et pour en niettre ies r^sultats k la port^e de tous Ies Citoyens, ce precis, d'abord permis, puis suspendu, puis arrei^*, ne peut franchir Ies barrieres dont la Police, k Tenvi de la Fiscalit^, h^risse chaque Province du Roy- aume, ou Ton semble vouloir mettre en qua- rantaine tous ies Livres pour Ies purifier de la v6r\i6. Le Roi, par cela «ieme qu'il a consult^ tout le monde, a implicitement accords la liberty de la Presse : et Ton redouble toutes Ies genes de la Presse 1 Le Roi veut connoitre le vceu de son Peuple : et Ton ^touffe, avec la plus apre vigilance, Ies Ecrits qui peuvent le manifester 1 Le Roi veut r^unir Ies esprits et Ies coeurs : et la plusodieusedes tyrannies, celle qui pretend asservir la pens^e, aigrit tous Ies esprits, indigne tous Ies ccBurs 1 Le Roi veut appeller Ies Francois k dlire libre- ment des R^pr^sentans, pour connoitre ave€ lui * C'est M. Levraut, Imprimeur de Strasbourg, qui eproare ien ce moment cette iniquite. Cet Artiste, recommandable par ses talens^ et surtout par sa probite delicate, a, independamment de ses principes, trop a perdre pour rien hasarder dans son etat. II n'a done imprime ce tr^s-innocent Recueil, qu'apres avoir rempli toutes Ies formalites qui lui sont prescrites ; et il n'en souflTre pas moins une prohibition absolue, et une perte consi- derable. 270 MlRABEAU^S IMITATION OF I'^tat de la Nation, et statuer les remedies qu*il iK^cessite: et ses Ministres font tout ce qui est en eux pour que les Fran9ois ne s'entendent pas, pour que les mille divisions dont la nation inconstitu^e est vici^e depuis pl^usieurs si^cles, viennent se heurter sans point de ralliement, sans moyen d'union et de concours ; pour qu'en nn mot TAs- semblde Nationale soit une malhenreuse aogr^ga^- tion de parties ennemies, dont les operations in- coh^rentes, fausses et desastreuses, nous rejettent, par la haine de I'anarchie, sous la verge du des- potisme; et non un Corps de freres, dirig^s par un int^r^t commun, animus de principes semblables, p^n^tr^s du meme voeu, qui fasse naitre un esprit public, fond^ sur Tamour et le respect de? Loixl Certes, ils commettent un grand attentat, ceux qui, dans la situation oil la France se trouve plong^e, arretent Texpensign des lumieres. Ils ^loignent, ils reculent, ils font avorter autant qu*il est en eux le bien public, Tesprit public, la Con- corde publique. Ils n'essaient d'aveugler que parce qu'ils ne peuvent convaincre ; ils ne s*hu- manisent k s^duire que parce qu*ils ne peuvent pas corrompre ; ils ne songent a corrompre que parce qu'ils ne sauroient plus intimideri ils voudroient paralyser, mettre aux fers, ^gor- ger tout ce qu*ils ne pouroient intimider, cor- rompre ni s^duire; ils craignent Toeil du Peu- THE AREOPAGITICA. * 271 pie, ils veulent tromper le Prince : ce sont les ennemis du Prince, ce sont les enneoiis du Peuple*. Mais les ennemis du Prince et ceux du Peuple n'osent oucdir leurs machinations, et tramer leurs complots, que parce qu'il existe des pr4Jug<5s qui leur donnent des auxiliaires parmi ceux-lii meme qui ne sont pas leurs complices. Tel est le plus fatal inconvenient de la gene de la Presse, de ren- dre, par I'ignorance ou par Terreur, des coeurs purs, des hommes timor^s, les satellites du despotisme en m^me temps qu'ils en sont les victimes. Et, par exemple, une foule 'd*honnetes gens, oubliant que le sort des hommes est d'avoir k choisir entre les inconv^niens, seroient sinc^rement allarm^s de la liberty de la Presse 5 graces k la prevention qu'on a su leur donner contre les Ecri- vains qui ont paru les apotres int^ress^s de cette liberie, parce que quelquefois ils en ont abuse. • . • . La liberie de la Presse enfante de mauvais Livres: done il faut la restreindre. Ceux qu'on appelle philosophes invoquent la liberie de la Presse, et souvent ils Tout portee jusqu'a la licence : done il faut se garder de leur doc- trine .... Tel est I'argument favori de ceux qu'on appelle les honnites gens, et dont en-efet la * Get d liTicd est presque litteralement dans les Sluestions d examiner avcmt VAsscmhlee des Etats-Generaux, par M. le Marquis des Casaux, penseur profond, et excellent Citoyen du Monde. 272 MIRABEAU's IMITATION OF morale priv^e, la probity de detail est tres- esti- mable ; mais qui, faute de g6n6raliser leurs id6es, et de saisir Tensemble du systeme social, sont vraiment de dangereux citoyens, et les plus funestes ennemis peut-^tre de l*am6lioration des choses humaines. G'est done k eux surtout qu'il importe de s'adresser: et, comme je leursuposede la bonne foi, meme avec leurs adversaires, j*ai cru qu*il seroit utile de mettre sous leurs yeux une refutation de leur argument, poursuivi dans toutes ses conse- quences morales, par un homme, au-moins dans cette matiere, tres-imbu de leurs principes. II ecrivoit il y a 150 ans, dans un si^cle tout reli- gieux, oh, bien que Ton commen9at a discuter les grands inl^r^ts de cette vie, en concurrence avec ceux de Tautre, les raisons th^ologiques etoient de beaucoup les plus efticaces. On n*a point accus^ cet homme d'etre un philosophe: et, si dans quelques uns de sesEcrits Milton s'est montr^ r^pu- blicain violent*, il n*est dansceluici, ou il s*adresse a la l^y^islature de la Grande- Bretagne, qu'un paisible argumentateur. Je ne pretends pas, milords et messieurs, que l'6glise et le gouvernement n'aient interet k sur- veiller les livresaussi bien que les hommes, afin,s'ils sont coupables, d*exercer sur eux la nieme justice * II appelle, par exemple, Ctiarles premier, Nerone ncronior. THE AREOPAGITICA. 273 que sur des malfaiteurs ; car un livre n*est point une chose absolument inanimee. II est dou^ d'une vie active comme Tame qui le produit ; il con- serve meme cette prerogative de rintelligence vi- vante qui lui a donn^ le jour. Je regarde done les livres, comme des etres aussi vivans et aussi fi^conds que les dents du serpent de la fable; et j'avouerai que, sem^s dans le monde, le hasard pent faire qu*ils y produisent des hommes arm^s. Mais je soutiens que Texistence d*un bon livre ne doit pas plus etre compromise que celle d*un bon citoyen j Tune est aussi respectable que TaUtre ; et Ton doit ^galement craindre d*y attenter. Tuer un homme, c*est d^truire une creature raisonnable ; mais ^touf- fer un bon livre, c*est tuer la raison elle-meme, Quantity dMiommes n*ont qu'une vie purement v^- g^tative, et pesent inutilement sur la terre ; mais un livre est I'essence pure et pr^cieuse d*un esprit sup^rieur; c*est une sorte de preparation que le genie donne a son ame, afin qu*elle puisse lui sur- vivre. La perte de la vie, quoiqu'irr^parable, peat quelquefois n'etre pas un grand mal ; mais il est possible qu*une verity qu*on aura rejet^e, ne se re- pr^sente plus dans la suite des temps, et que sa perte entraine le malheur des nations. Soyons done circonspects dans nos persecutions contre les travaux des hommes publics. Exami- nons si nous avons le droit d*attenter a leur vie in- tellectuelle dans les livres qui en sont les deposl- tairesj car c*est une espece d'homicide, quelque- T 274 MIRABEAU^S IMITATION OF fois un martyre, et toujours un vrai massacre, si la proscription s*^tend sur la liberty de la presse en general. Mais afin qu'on ne m*accuse pas d*introduire line licence pernicieuse en m'opposant k la censure des livres, jVntrerai dans quelques details histo- riques pour montrer quelle fut, a cet ^gard, la con- duite des gouvernemens les plus c^lebres, jusqu'au moment ou l'in€iuisition imagina ce beau projet de censure que nos pr^lats et nos pretres adopt^- rent avec tant d'avidit^. A Ath^nes, ou Ton s'occupoit de livres plus que dans aucune autre partie de la Gr^ce, je ne trouve que deux sortes d'ouvrages qui aient fix^ Tatten- tion des magistrats: les libelles et les Merits blas- pb^matoires. Ainsi les juges de Tar^opage con* damn^rent les livres de Protagoras k ^tre bruMs, et le bannirent lui-m^me, parce qu'k la tete d*un de ses ouvrages, il d^claroit qu'il ne savoit point s*il y avoit des dieuXy ou s'il n'y en avoit pas. Quant aux libelles, il fut arrets qu'on ne nommeroit plus personne sur le th^citre, comme on le faisoit dans Vancienne cornddicy ce qui nous donne une id^e de leur discipline k cet ^gard. Cic^ron pretend que ces mesures suffirent pour empecher la diffamation^ et pour imposer silence aux ath^es. On ne re- cbercha point les autres opinions, ni les autres sectes, quoiqu'elles tendissent k la volupt^, et k la den^gation de la divine providence ; aussi ne vo- yons-nous point qu'on ait jamais cit^ devant les THE AREOPAGITICA* 273 magistrats Epicure, ni T^cole licentieuse de Cy- rcne, ni rimpudence cynique. Nous ne lisons pas non plus qu*on ait imprim^ les anciennes pieces de theatre, quoiqu'il ait ^t^ d^fendu de les jouer. On yoit qu'Aristophane, le plus satyrique de tous les poetes cotniques, faisoit les delices de Platon, et qu'il en recommandoit la lecture k Denis, son royal disciple ; ce qui ne doit pas paroitre extraordinaire, puisque S. Chrysostome passoit les nuits a lire cet auteur, et savoit mettre a profit, dans des sermons, le sel de ses sarcasmes et de sa piquante ironie. Quant a la rivale d*Ath^nes, Lac^d^mone, le gout de I'instruction de put jamais s'y naturaliser : et certes on doit en etre surpris; car elle eut Ly- curgue pour legislateur, et Lycurgue n'dtoit point un barbare : il avoit cuUiv^ les bqlles-lettres; il fut le premier a recueiller dans TYonie les oeuvres ^parses d'Homere ; et meme avant I'^poque ou il donna des loix aux Spartiates, il eat la precau- tion de leur envoyer le poete Thales, afin que par la douceur de ses chants^ il amoilit la fdrocit^ de leurs niQBurs, et les disposat a recevoir les bienfaits de la l^islatioD. Cependant ils negligerent toujours le commerce des Muses pour les jeux sanglans de Mars. Les censeurs de livres ^toient inutiles chez eux, puihqu'ils ne lisoient que leurs apophtegmes laconiqui^s, et que sous le plus l^ger pr^texte, ils chass^rent de leur ville le poete Archiloque, dont tout le crime ^toit peut-etre de s*etre ^lev^ un peu au-dessus de leurs^ chansons guerri^res ; ou si Tob* T 2 276 MIRABEAU^S IMITATION OF scenite de ses vers fut le pr^texte de ce mauvais traitement, on ne doit pas en faire honneur a la continence des Spartiates ; car ils ^toient tr^s-dis- solus dans leur vie priv^e, au point qu*Euripide assure dans son Andromaque que toutes les femmes y 6toient impudiques. VoWk ce que nous savons de la prohibition des livres chez les Grecs. Les Romains pendant long-temps march^rent sur les traces des Spartiates. C'^toit un peuple ab- solument guerrier. Leurs connoissances politiques et religieuses se r^duisoient a la loi des douze tables et aux instructions de leurs pretres, de leurs au- gures, de leurs flamines. lis ^toient si Strangers aux autres sciences, qu*alors que Carneade, Crito- laus, et Diog^ne le stoicien, vinrent en ambassade a Rome et voulurent profiler de cette circonstance pour essayer d'introduire leur philosophie dans cette ville, ils furent regardes com me des subor- neurs ; Caton n'h^sita point a les d^noncer au s6- nat, et a demander qu'on purgeat Tltalie de ces babillards attiques. Mais Scipion et quelques autres s^nateurs s*opposerent k cette proscription ; ils s'empresserent de rendre hommage aux philo- sophes ath^niens ; et Caton lui-meme changea si bien de sentiment par la suite, qu'il se livra tout entier, dans sa vieillesse, k T^tude de ces connois- sances qui d'abord avoient excite son indignation. Cependant vers le meme temps Naevius et Plaute, les premiers comiques romains, offrirent sur le theatre des scenes empruntees de Menandre et de THE AREOPAGITICA. 277 Philemon. Ici, s*ouvre le beau siecle de la litt^- rature latine, ^poque k laquelle les Remains surent enfin allien la gloire des lettres a celle des armes. Etouff(6es par la tyrannic, ces deux moissons re- naisseni sous I'influence de la liberty r^publicaine. Lucrece chanterathdisme ; il le r^duit en systeme, et cherche a rembeliir des charmes de la po^sie; tout le monde applaudit a ses beaux vers : il les d^die a son ami Memmius, sans que personne lui en fasse un crime : on ne persecuta ni I'auteur, ni Touvrage, parce qu'on sait que la liberty publique repose sur la liberty de la pensde : C^sar meme respecta les annales de Tite-Live, quoiqu'on y c^» l^brat le parti de Pomp^e. Oui, malgr^ les proscriptions, le luxe corrupteur et toutes les causes qui se reunirent pour miner le vaste ^(litice de la grandeur romaine j si Rome etit conserve I'iiid^pendance de la pensee, elle ne seroit jamais devenue I'opprobre des nations : jamais elle n'auroit subi le joug des monstres qui Tenchai- n^rent et Tavilirent, si la servitude intellectuelle n'e^t prepare la servitude politique. Aussi lisons- nous que sous Auguste les libelles furent brules, et leurs auteurs pun is, Et cet attentat dtoit si nou- veau, que le magistrat ne s'enqueroit point encore de quelle mani^re un livre arrivoit dans le monde. On n'inquieta pas meme la muse satyrique de Ca- tulle et d 'Horace. Pent etre dira-t-on qu'Ovide, dans un age avanc^, fut exil6 pour, les poesies li- centieuses de sa jeunesse. Mais on sait qu*une^ 278 MIUABEAU'S IMITATI017 OF cause secrete fut le motif de son exil, et ses livre« ne furent ni bannis ni supprim^s. ILnfin, nous arrivons aux si^cles de tyrannic, ou Ton ne doit pas ^tre surpris qu*on ^touffat les bons livres plus souvent que les mauvais. Que dis-je ? il n'^toit plus permis de parler ni d'^crire. Ledes- potisme eut voulu donner des fers h la pens^e meme. Tacite peint en un trait ces temps d^plora- bles : nous eussions perdu, dit-il, la m^moire aveo la voix, s'il ^toit aussi bien au pouvoir de Thomme d'oublier que de se taire*. Quand les Empereurs eurent embrassd le christi- anisme, nous ne trouvons pas qu'ils aient mis de s6\6n\.6 dans leur discipline a regard des produc* tions de Tesprit. Les livres de ceux que Ton re-- gardoit comme de grands h6r^tiques ^toient exa- mines, r^rut^s et condamn6s dans un concile g^n^ral. Jusque 1^ ils n'^toient ni proscrits, ni br^l^s par ordre de Tenipereur. Quant aux livres des paiens« on ne trouve pas d*exemple d*un seul onvrage qui ait 6i6 prohib6 jusque vers Pan 400 au concile de Carthage, ou Ton defend it aux 6veques meme la lecture des livres des gentils ; mais on leur laissa la liberty de consulter ceux des h^r^tiques, tandis que leurs pr^d^cesseurs, long-temps auparavant, se fai- soient moins de scrupule de lire les livres des pa'iens que ceux des hdresiarques. * Memoriam quoque ipsam cum voce perdidissemus si tam \n nostra potestate esse! oblivi'sci quam taccre. THE AREOPAGITICA. 279 Le p^re Paolo, le grand ddmasqueur du concile de Trente, a d^j^ observe que jusqu'apr^s Tan 800, les premiers conciles et les ^veques 6toient dans Tusage de declarer seulement les livres dont on de- voit ^viter la lecture, laissant n^anmoins ^ chacun, la liberie de faire selon sa conscience, ainsi qu'il le jugeroit a propos. Mais les papes, aitirant k eux toute la liberty politique, exerc^rent sur les yeux des hommes le m^me despotisme qu*ils avoi- ent exerc^ sur leurs jugemens; ils br^ll^rent et pro- hib^rent au gre de leur caprice; cependant ils furent d'abord ^conomes de leurs censures, et Ton ne trouve pas beaucoup de livres auxquels ils aient fait cet hooneur jusqu'^ Martin V qui, le premier par sa bulle, non^seulement prohiba les livres des h<^r^tiques, mais encore excommunia tons ceux qui s'aviseroient de les lire. C*est h peu pr^s dans ce temps que les Wicklef et les Huss se rendirent redoubtables, ce qui d^termina la cour papale k renforcer la police des prohibitions. Leon X et ses successeurs suivirent cet exemple. Enfin le concile de Trente et Tinquisition espagnole s'accouplant ensemble, produisirent ou perfectionnerent ces catalogues, ces index expur- gatoires qui, fouillant jusque dans les entrailles des bons auteurs anciens, les outragerent bien plus in- dignement qu'aucune profanation qu*on eut pu se permettre sur leurs tombeaux. Et non-seulement cette operation se faisoit sur les livres des h^rd- tiques^ mais, dans quelque matiere que ce fat. 280 MIRABEAU's IMITATION OF tout ce qui n*agrdoit point k ces r^v^rences ^toit impitoyablement prohib^. En un nnot (comme si Saint Pierre, en leur confiant les clefs du paradis, leur avoit aussi remis celles de Timprimerie!) pour combler la oiesure des prohibitions, leur derni^re invention fut d'ordonner qu*aucun livre, brochure ou papier, ne pourroient etre imprimis sans Tap- probation de deux ou trois fr^res inquisiteurs. Par exennple : " Que le chancelier Cini ait la complaisance d*examiner si le present manuscrit ne contient rien qui puisse en empecher rimpression." " Vincent Rabbata^ vicaire de Florence.^* " J*ai lu le present manuscrit, et je n'y ai rien trouv^ contre la foi catholique, ni centre les bonnes mceurs: en temoignage de quoi j*ai donn^, &c." " Nicolas Ciniy chancelier de Florence** " D'apres le compte rendu ci-dessus, permis d'imprimer le present manuscrit.** " Vincent Rabbata, &c/' " Permis d*imprimer le 15 juillet." « ^f^re Simon Mompei d* Amelia ^ chancelier du saint-office a Florence^* lis ^toient s^rement persuades que si depuis long-temps le malin esprit n'eut pas bris^ sa. prison. THE areopagitica' 281 ce quadruple exorcisme eut ^i6 capable de Vy re- tenir. Veut-on voir une autre formule ? i " Imprimatur, s'il plait au r^v6rend maitre du saint palais." ** BelcastrOy vice-g6rent." " Imprimatury fr^re Nicolo Rodolphe, maitre du saint palais/' Quelquefois k la premiere page du livre, on voit cinq de ces imprimatur qui s'appellent Tun Tautre, se complimentent et ferment entr'eux un dialogue ; tandis que le pauvre auteur, au bas de son ^pitre, attend respectueusement leur decision, et ne sait s'il obtiendra les lionneurs de la presse ou de r^ponge. Telle est Torigine de la coutume d'approuver les livres. Nous ne la trouvons ^tablie par aucun gouvernement ancien,. ni par aucun statut de nos anc^tres : elle est le fruit du concile le plus anti-chr^tien et de Tinquisition la plus tyrannique. Jusqu*a cette ^poque, les livres arrivoient libre- ment dans le monde, comme toutes les autres pro- ductions de la nature. On ne faisoit pas plus avorter I'esprit que les entrailles. Imposer k un livre une condition pire que celle d*une ame peche- resse, et l*obliger, avant d*avoir vu le jour, a pa- roitre devant Radamante et ses collegues, pour subir son jugement dans les t^nebres, c*est une 282 MIRABEAU^S IMITATION OF tyrannic dont on n*avoit pas d'exemple, jusqu'a cette mystdrieuse iniquite qui, troubl^e aux ap» proches de la r^forme, imagina de nouvelles limbes et de nouveaux enfers, pour y renfermer nos livres et leur faire subir le sort des r^prouv^s: sage precaution qui fut admirablement pr6n6e et imit6e par nos ^veques inquisiteurs, aussi bien que par les derniers supports de leur clerge ! Dira-t-on que la chose en elle-meme peut etre bonne, quoique provenant d'une source impure ? Mais si elle est directement contraire aux progres des lumieres, si les gouvernemens les plus sages dans aucun temps ni dans aucun pays, ne I'ont mise en pratique, si elle n*a 6i6 imagin^e que par des charlatans et des oppresseurs, on aura beau la mettre au creuset, il n*en resultera jamais le moin-> dre bien : la connoissance de Tarbre ne peut qu'inspiier de la m6fiance pour le fruit. Cepen- dant, voyons si la liberty illimit^e de la presse, ne produit pas plus de bien que^de mal. Je n*insisterai point sur les exeroples de Moise, de Daniel et de Paul, qui se montr^rent si habiles dans les connoissances des Egyptiens, des Chal- deens et des Grecs, ce qu'ils n'auroient pas fait sans doute, s*ils n'avoient pu lire indistinctement les livres de ces diffi^rentes nations ; Paul, sur-tout, qui ne crut pas souiller I'^criture sainte en y insu- rant quelques passages des poetes grecs. Cepen- dant, cette question fut agit^e parmi les docteurs de la primitive eglise^ mais Tavantage resta dii THE AREOPAGITICA. 283 cot6 de ceux qui soutenoient que la chose ^toit a la fois utile et legitime. On en eut une preuve bien ^vidente, lorsque Tempereur Julien d^fendit aux Chretiens de lire les Uvres des idoiatres, paroe qu'il vouloit plonger ces meme Chretiens dans Tignorance; et en effet, il y seroit parvenu, car les deux Apolinaires furent obliges de chercher dans la bible la connoissance des sept arts lib^raux, et de cr^er une nouvelle grammaire chr^tienne. La Providence, dit Thistorien Socrate, fit plus que toute la sagacity d'Apolinaire et de son fils; elle au6antit cette loi barbare en otant la vie a celui qui Tavoit promulgu^e. Cette defense de s*ins- truire de la litterature des Grecs, parut plus outra* geante et plus pernicieuse k I'^glise que les persecutions les plus cruelles des Di^cius et des Diocl^tien. Mais laissant-lii I'^rudition, les autorit^s, les ex- emples, et remontant k la nature des choses, je dirai : lorsque Dieu permit h Thomme d'user moddr^ment de toutes les productions de la nature, il voulut aussi que Tesprit jouit du meme privilege; et quoique la temperance soit une des plus grandes vertus, Dieu la recommanda simplement aux hommes, sans rien prescrire de particulier a cet egard, afin que chaque individu put la pratiquer a sa mani^re. Le bien et le mal ne croissent point s^parement dans le champ f^cond de la vie; ils germent Tuu k c6i6 de Tautre, et entrelassent leurs branches 284 MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF d'une mani^re inextricable. La connoissance de Tun est done necessairement li^e a celle de Tautre. Renferm^s sous Tenveloppe de la pomme dans laquelle mordit notre premier p^re, ils s*en echap- perent au meme instant; et tels que deux jumeaux, ils entr^rent k la fois dans le nfionde. Peut-etre meme dans r^tat oil nous sommes, ne pouvons-nous parvenir au bien que par la connoissance du mal; car, comment choisira t-on la sagesse ? comment rinnocence pourra-t-elle se preserver des atteintes du vice, si elle n'en a pas quelqu'id^e ? et puisqu*il faut absolument observer la marche des vicieux pour se conduire sagement dans le monde; puis- qu*il faut aussi d^meler Perreur pour arriver a la v^rit^, est il une m^tliode moins dangereuse de parvenir k ce but, que celle d'^couter et de lire toute sorte de traites et de raisonnemens? avantage qu*on ne pent se procurer qu'en lisant indistincte- ment touies sortes de livres. Craindra-t-on qu'avec cette liberty ind^fmie Tesprit ne soit bientot infect^ du venin de Ter- reur ? II faudroit, par la meme consideration an^antir toutes les connoissances humaines, ne plus disputer sur aucune doctrine, sur aucun point de religion, et supprimer m^me les livres sacres ; car souvent on y trouve des blasphemes ; les plaisirs cbarnels des medians y sont decrits sans beaucoup de me- nagemens; les hommes les plus saints y murmu- ent quelquefois contre la Providence, a la maniere THE AREOPAGITICA. 285 d'Epicure; il s'y rencontre une foule de passages ambigus et susceptibles d'etre mal interpr^t^s par des lecteurs vulgaires. Personne n'ignore que c'est k cause de toutes ces raisons que les papistes ont mis la bible au premier rang des livres prohib^s. Nous serions ^galement obliges de d^fendre la lecture des anciens p^res de I'^glise, tels que Cle- ment d*Alexandrie et Eus^be, qui, dans son livre, nous transmet une foule d'obscdnit^s paiennes, pour nous preparer k recevoir T^vangile. Jdrome, &c. d^voilent encore plus d'her^sies qu*i!s n'en r^- futent; que souvent ils confondent Th^resie avec Topinion orthodoxe ? Et qu'on ne dise pas qu*il faut faire grace aux auteurs de Tantiquit^, parce qu'ils ont ^crit dans un langage qu'on ne parle plus ; puisqu'ils sont journellement lus et m^dit^s par des gens qui peuvent en r^pandre le venin dans les soci^t^s, et meme k la cour des princes dont ils font les d^lices; des gens pent- etre, tels que P^- trone, que Neron appelloit son ar'bilre, et qui avoit rintendance des plaisirs nocturnes de cet empe- reur; ou tel que TAr^tin, ce fameux impudique qu*on redoutoit, et qui cependant etoit cher k tous les courtisans de I'ltalie , je ne nommerai point, par respect pour sa post^rit^, celui que Henri VIII appelloit, en plaisantant, son vicahe de Venfer*. Si done il est demontr^ que les livres qui pa- * Cromwel, un des ancetres du protecteur par les femnies. ^86 MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF roissent influer le plus siir nos moeurs et sur nos opinions, ne peuvent etre supprim^s sans entrainer la chute des connoissances humaines, et que lors m§me qu'on parviendroit a les soustraire tous, les moBurs ne laisseroient pas de se corrompre par una infinity d'autres voies- qu'il est impossible de termer ; enfin si, malgr^ les livres, il faut encore Tenseignement pour propager les mauvaises doc- trines; ce qui pourroit avoir tout aussi bien lieUj quoiqu'ils fussent probib^s, on sera forc^ de con- clure qu'envisag^ sous ce point de vue, le systeme insidieux des approbations est du moins parfaite- ment inutile ; et ceux qui le mettent en pra- tique dans un sincere espoir d*elever une barri^re contre le mal, on pourroit les comparer k ce bori homme qui croyoit retenir des corneilles en fermant la porte de son pare. D'ailleurs, comment confier ces livres, dont les hommes instruits tirent eux-memes quelquefois le vice et Terreur pour les r^paudre ensuite chez les autres; comment confier ces livres k des censeurs, H moins qu*on ne leur confi^re, ou qu'ils ne puis- sent se donner a eux-memes le privilege de i'incor- ruption et de Tinfaillibilit^* ? encore, s*il est vrai, qne semblable au bon chymiste, Thomrae sa^e * En France, un censeur qui s'avise de faire la moindre bro- chure, est oblige de la faire approuver par an de ses confreres; mais si le gouverneraent se mefic d'un censeur au point de ne pas lui permettre de publier ses propres ouvrages sans appro* bation, comment peut-il lui confier le droit d'approuver ou de desapprouYer ceux des autres ? THE AREOPAGITICA. 287 peut extraire de Tor d*nn volume rempli d'ordures, tandis que le meilleur livre n'avise point un fou, quelle est done la raison qui feroit priver Thomme «age des avantages de sa sagesse, sans qu'il en r^sulte le moindre bien pour les fous, puisqu*avec des livres ou sans livres, 41s n'en extravagueront pas moins ? Mais pourquoi nous exposer aux tentations sans n^cessit^? pourquoi consacrer notre temps k des choses vaines et inutiles ? Futiles objections ! les livres ne sont pas des ob- jets inutiles ni tentateurs pour tous les homines. Quant aux enfans et aux hommes enfans qui ne savent pas les mettre k profit, on peut leur recom- mander de s*€n abstenir; mais jamais les y forcer, quelque moyen que puisse imaginer la sainte inqui* sition ; et si Ton parvient i\ ddmontrer cette asser- tion, il faudra convenir que le projet de censurer les livres ne sauroit remplir son but. On a d^ja vu qu*aucune nation polic^e n*avoit fait usage de cette m^thode, et que c'^toit une in- vention de la politique moderne* Si les anciens ne Font point imagin^e, ce n'est pas sans doute qu'elle fut bien difficile k d^couvrir (rien n*est plus ais6 que de d^fendre*), mais parce qu'ils ne I'ont point * Les peines et les prohibition* soiA a la portee des esprtts les plus bornes ; on peut les regarder corame le pont aux dnes des politiques. lis les considerent comme une maniere expeditive de remedier a tout. Cependant une longue experience devroit bien leur aroir appri^ qu'elles ne remedient a rien. 288 MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF approuvde. Platon semble bannir les livres de sa repuhlique ; mais on voit bien que ses loix ^toient faites pour iine republique imaginaire, puisque le 1^- gislateur ^toit le premier k les transgresser, et que ses propres magistrats auroient eu le droit de le chasser pour ses dialogues et ses ^pigrammes graveleuses, pour ses lectures journali^res de Sophron, de Mimus et d'Aristophane, livres remplis d'infamies, le dernier sur-tout, et dont cependant Platon recommandoit la lecture k Denys, qui pouvoit employer son temps k tout autre chose. Aussi, ni Platon lui- meme, ni les magistras d'aucun pays, ne s*avis^- rent jamais de faire observer les loix qu*il a tracdes pour sa rdpublique imaginaire. Si nous voulons subordonner la presse a des r^glemens avantageux pour les moeurs, il faudr^t soumettre a la meme inspection les plaisirs et les divert issemens: il faudra des censeurs pour le chant, qui ne permettront que des sons graves et doriqnes; car la musique est encore une source de corruption : il en faudra pour la danse, afin qu'on n*enseigne aucun geste indecent k notre jeunesse, chose k laquelle Platon n*a pas manqu6 de faire attention : vingt censeurs auront assez d*occupation dans chaque maison pour inspecter les guilares, les violons et les clavecins; il ne faudra pas qu'ils permettent qu'on jase comme on fait aujourd'hui, mais qu'ils r^gleni tous les dis- cours qu*on devra tenir. Et comment emp^cher la contrebande des soupirs, des declarations et des THii ARtOPAGlTlCA. 289 madrigaux qui s'^chapperont k voix basse dans les appartemens ? ne seront-ce pas autant de marrons * qui circuleront sous les yeux meme du censeur ? ne faudra-t-il pas ^galement surveiller les fen^tres et les balcons? ne sont-ils pas garnis de livres dont les dangereux frontispices appellent I'acheteur? ou trouver assez de censeurs pour empecher ce commerce ? Cette inquisition ne doit pas se borner k la ville; il faudra d^partir des commissaires dans les cam- pagnes pour inspecter les livres des magistrals et des m^n^triers ; car ils sont les philosophes et les romanciers du village. Et puis, quelle plus grande source de corruption que notre gloutonnerie domes- tique ? ou trouver assez de censeurs pour r^gler nos tables et pour empecher que la multitude ne s'enivre dans les tavernes ? on ne doit pas non plus laisser a chacun la liberty de s*habiller comme il lui plait -y la d^cence veut qu*il y ait des censeurs qui president k la coupe des habits. Enfin, qui pourra prohiber les visites oisives et les mauvaises societ^s ? Tons ces inconv^niens existent, et ils doi- ventexister. Un sage gouvernement ne cherche * On sail que ce mot marron est le terme d'argot en librairie, pour exprimer un livre defendu ou public en contravention aux reglemens, tant il est d'instinct universel chez nous, que les livres et leurs auteurs sont les negres des censeurs. Ces sobri- quets populaires sont en general des indices assez surs de Tetat de situation d'un peuple. En France, on appelle le peuple, c'est-d-dire la plus grande partie de la nation, la canaille. En Angleterre on Tappelle, John Bull, le taureau. U 290 MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF pas k les detriiire ; il n'en a ni le droit, ni le pouvoir; mais a combiner leur action avec le bien g^n^ral de la soci^td. Pour ameliorer notre condition, il ne s'agit point de r^aliser les systemes impraticables de I'Atlantide et de TUtopie, mais de r^gler sagement le monde dans lequel I'Etre supreme nous a places, sans oublier que le mal entre dans ses parties constitutives. Ce n'est point en otant la liberty de la presse, que Ton pourra se flatter de parvenir k cette fin, puisque les moindres objets exigeroient la mdme censure ; et qu*ainsi, par cette m^thode, nous ne ferions que nous donner des entraves ridicules et inutiles. C'est par les loix non ^crites, ou du moins non Torches, d'une bonne Education, que Platon regarde comme le lien des corps politiques, et la base fondamentale des loix positives; c'est sur cette base, dis-je, qu'il faut Clever T^difice des mcsurs, et non sur Tappui deri- soire d*une censure qu'il est si facile d'eluder, et dont les inconv^niens ne sont jamais compens^s par le moindre avantage. La negligence et Timpunit^ ne peuvent qu'etre funestes k tons les gouvernemens : le grand art consiste k savoir les choses que Ton doit prohiber, celles qu'on doit punir,et celles ou il ne faut employer que la persuasion. Si toutes les actions, bonnes ou mauvaises, qui ap'partiennent a Tage mur, pou- voient etre taill^es, prescrites et contraintes, la vertu ne seroit plus qu'un nom. Comment pour- roit-on louer un homme de sa bonne conduite, de THE AREOPAGITICA* 291 sa probite, de sa justice ou de sa temperance ? Q,u*ils sont fous, ceux qui osent blamer la divine Providence, d*avoir souffert que le premier homme tombat dans le crime ! Lorsque Dieu lui donna la raison, il lui donna la liberty de clioisir, car c'est cette faculty qui constitue la raison : autrement, Thomme n*eut ^te qu'une machine. Nous-memes, nous n'estimons I'amour, les bienfaits, la reconnois- sance, qu'autant qu'ils sont volontaires. Di^u done cr^a le premier homme libre j c'^toit le seul moyen de rendre son abstinence m^ritoire ; et pourquoi I'Etre snpreme a-t-il mis le si^ge des pas- sions en nous, et la foule des plaisirs autour de nous, si ce n'est afin que, moderns par nous, ils de* vinssent I'assaisonnement de la vertu ? Ils sont done bien peu versus dans la connois* sance des choses humaines, ceux qui s'imaginent qu'^carter les objets, c'est ^carter le mal 5 car, outre qu'ils se reproduisent toujours, quand on viendroit k bout d*en d^rober passag^rement una partie k quelques personnes, cette precaution ne pourra jamais s'^tendre k runiversalite, sur-tout dans une chose aussi g^n^rale que les livres; et quand on y parviendroit, le mal n'en existeroit pas moins. Vous pouvez enlever son or a un avare, mais il lui reste toujours un bijou, dont il n'est pas en votre pouvoir de le priver , c'est-^-dire son ava- rice. Bannissez tons les objets de convoitise, en- fermez la jeunesse sous des verrous, par cette methode, vous ne rendrez chastes que ceux qui u 2 292 MlRABEAU's IMITATION OF r^toient avant d'etre soumis k votre discipline; tant il faut de soin et de sagesse, pour bien diriger les hommes. Supposons que, par ces moyens, vous puissiez ecarter le mal : autant vous ^cartez de maux, autant vous 6loignez de vertus; car le fonds en est le meme ; ils ont une source commune ; leur existence est proprement relative, et se rapporte k des combinaisons ^trang^res au principe qui les produit. Nous naviguons diversement sur le vaste oc^an de la vie*: la raison en est la boussole, mais la passion en est le vent. Ce n'est pas dans le calme seul que Ton trouve la divinite: Dieu marche sur les flots, et monte sur les vents. Les passions, ainsi que les elemens, quoique nees pour combattre, cependant melees et adoucies, s'unissent dans Touvrage de Dieu ; il n'a point renvers^ les passions ; il n'a fait que les mod^rer, et il les a employees. Que les gouvernemens soient dociles a la nature et a Dieu : il nous recommande U * Nous naviguons diversement sur le vaste ocean de la vie, &c.] Miraheau has deviated but little from his original ; here, however, he has introduced a passage from Pope*s Essay on Man ; but not with any particular aptness of appropriation : " On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, " Reason the card, but Passion is the gale ; " Nor God alone in the still calm we find, " He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. " Passions, like Elements, tho* born to fight, '* Yet, mixM and soften'd, in his work unite : ** These 'tis enough to temper and employ." Ep. II. THE AREOPAGITIGA. 293 temperance, la justice, la continence, et cependant il verse autour de nous les biens avec profusion, et il nous donne des desirs illimit^s. Pourquoi les l^gislateurs des humains, suivroient-ils une marche contraire, Iorsqu*il s*agit de Tinstruclion hunaaine, puisque les livres permis indistinctemeut, peuvent a la fois ^purer les vertus, et contribuer a la d^cou- verte de la v^rit^ ? peut-^tre vaudroit-il mieux ap- prendre que la loi qui prohibe est essentiellement vaine, incertaine, et qu'elle repose sur le bien comme sur le mal. Si j'avois a choisir, la moindre somme de bien me paroitroit preferable k la suite forc^e de la plus grande quantity de mal, car le libre d^veloppement d*un etre vertueux, est sans doute plus agr^able h TEtre supreme que la con- trainte de dix etres-vicieux. Puisque tout ce que nous voyons, ou que nous entendons, soit assis, soit dans les promenades, soit dans les conversations ou dans les voyages, pent s'appeller proprement notre livre, et produit sur nous le meme efFet que les ecrits ; il est Evident que, si Ton ne pent supprimer que les livres, cette prohibition ne parviendra jamais aux fins qu*elle se propose ; si Ton n'envisage que Tint^ret des moeurs, qu'on jette les yeux sur Tltalie et sur TEspagne, ces nations se sont-elles am^lior^es de- puis que Tinquisition a pris a tache d*y proscrire les livres. Et si vous voulez une preuve irrevocable de Tim- possibilite que cette institution puisse jamais r^m- plir son but, consid^rez les qualites qu'exige la 294 MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF place de censeur, Celui qui s*^tablit juge de la naissance ou de la mort d'un livre, qui peut k son gri le faire entrer dans le monde, ou le replonger dans le n^ant, doit, sans doute, Temporter infi- himent sur les autres hommes, par ses lumi^res ou son dquit^: autrement il feroit des injustices ou des m^prises, ce qui ne seroit pas un moindre mal. S'il a le m^rite n6cessaire pour de si importantes fonctions, c*est lui imposer une tache ennuyeuse et fatiguante, c'est vouloir qu*il se consume a lire perp^tuellement le premier manuscrit qui se pre- ' sentera. En v^rit^, pour peu qu'un homme ap- pr^cie son temps et ses Etudes, il ne sauroit se charger d'une pareille tache, mais si Ton ne peut esp^rer que les hommes de merite se Timposent, qui ne pr^voit en quelles mains doit tomber la dig- nit^ de censeur ? Voyons cependant si sous quelque autre rapport il peut r^sulter du bien de la censure. C'est d'abord •un affront et un grand motif de d^couragement pour les lettres et pour ceux qui les cultivent. Sur le moindre bruit d*une motion pour empecher la plu^ ralite des b6n6rices, et distribuer plus Equitable- ment les revenus de T^glise, les prdlats se sont r^cri^s que ce seroit d^courager et eteindre toute espece d'erudition. Mais je n'ai jamais trouv^ de raison de croire que Texistence de connoissances humaines tint a Texistence du clerg6; et j'ai tou- jours regard^ ce propos sordide comme indigne de tout homme d'^glise auquel on laissoit Tabsolu n^cessaire. Si done vous etes destines, milords et THE AREOPAGITICA. 295 messieurs, a d^courager enti^rement, non la troupe mercenaire des faux savans, mais ceux que leur vocation appelle k cultiver les lettres, sans autre motif que de servir Dieu et la v^rit^, peut-etre aussi dans Tattente de cette renomm^e future et des 6loges de la post^rit^, que le eiel et les hommes assignent pour recompense k ceux dont les ouvrages contribuent au bonheur de Thumanit^j s'il faut, dis-je, que vous les d^couragiez absolu- ment, sachez que vous ne pouvez pas leur faire un plus grand outrage que celui de vous m^fier de leur jugement et de leur honnetet^, au point de les soumettre k un tuteur sous lequel ils ne puissent jamais donner I'essor a leur pens^e. Et quelle diff(6rence y aura-t-il entre Thomme de lettres et I'enfant qu*on envoie k Tecole, si, d^livr^ de la ferule, il faut qu'il tombe sous la touche du censeur ? si, semblables aux themes d'un ^colier, des ouvrages travailles avec soin, ne peuvent voir le jour sans la revision prompte ou tardive d'un approbateur? Celui qui, dans sa patrie, se voit priv^ de la liberty de ses actions, n*a-t-il pas lieu de croire qu'on Vy regarde comme un Stranger, ou comme un fou ? Un homme qui ecrit apelle toute sa raison a son secours. Apres avoir pris tous les renseigne- mens possibles sur le sujet qu*il traite, il ne se con- tente pas de ses recherches et de ses meditations -, il consuite encore des amis. Si toutes ces precau- tions dans Tacte le moins Equivoque de la matu- rity de son esprit, si les annees entieres qu'il y em- 296 MIBABEAU'S IMITATION OF ploie et les preuves anterieures de son habilet^, ne peuvent jamais rassurer sur son compte, a moins que le fruit de ses veilles ne passe sous les yeux d*un censeur, quelquefois plus jeune, moins judi- cieux, et peut-etre ignorant absolument ce que c'est que d'6crire ; en un mot, si Tauteur, ^chap- pant h la proscription, ne peut, apres plusieurs d^lais, se presenter a Timpression que comme un inineur accompagne de celui qui le tient sous sa tut^le ; s*il faut enfin, que la signature du cen- seur lui serve de caution et garantisse au public qu'il n'est ni corrupteur, ni imb^cille, c'est avilir, c'est degrader a la fois I'auteur et le livre, et fl^trir en quelque sorte la dignite des lettres. Comment un ^crivain qui craint de voir mutiler ses meilleures pens^es, et d'etre forc^ de publier un ouvrage imparfait, ce qui sans doute est la plus cruelle vexation, comment cet ^crivain osera-t-il donner Tessor ^ son g^nie ? oil trouvera-t-il cette noble assurance qui convient k celui qui enseigne des v^rit^s nouvelles et sans laquelle vaudroit autant qu'il se tut 5 s'il sait que toutes ses phrases seront soumises k Tinspection et k la correction d'un censeur qui peut, au gr^ de son caprice, effacer ou alt^rer ce qui ne s'accordera point avec son humeur r^primante qu'il appelle son jugement? s'il sait qu'a la vue de la p^dantesque approbation, le lecteur malin jettera le volume, en se moquant du docteur qu'on m^ne par les lisieres? Clu'on examine les livres munis d 'approbation. THE AREOPAGITICA. 297 on verra qu'ils ne contiennent que les id^es les plus communes, et par cela meme souvent les plus fausses. En effet, d*apres sa mission, le cen- seur ne pent laisser circuler que les v^rit^s triviales, pour lesquelles ce n'etoit pas la peine d'^crire, ou les erreurs favoris^es. Par un abus encore plus deplorable, quand il s*agit d*imprimer ou de r^im- primer les oeuvres d*un ^crivain mort depuis long- temps, et dont la reputation est consacr^e, s'y trouve-t-il une pensee feconde, ^chappde au zk\e de Tenthousiasme ? il faudra quVlle pdrisse sous le scalpel de la censure. Ainsi, par la timiditd, la prdsomption ou Tincapacit^ d*un censeur, Topinion d*un grand homme sera perdue pour la post^rit^. ^ . . Si ceux qui en ont le pouvoir ne s*empressent pas de rem^dier a cet abus, s'ils permettent qu'on traite aussi indignement les productions orphelines des grands hommes, quelle sera done la condition de ces etres privil^gi^s, qui auront le malheur d'avoir du g^nie ? ne faudra-t-il pas qu*ils cessent d'instruire ou qu'ils apportent le plus grand soin a cacher leurs connoissances, puisque I'ignorance, la paresse, la sotlise, deviendront les qualitds les plus desirables et les seules qui pourront assurer le bonheur et la tranquillity de la vie ? Et comme c'est un m^pris particulier pour chaque auteur vivant, et une indignity plus outra- geante encore pour les morts, n'est-ce pas aussi d^grader et avilir toute la nation ? II m'est im- possible de comprendre par quelle adresse on pour- 298 MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF roit renfermer dans vingt tetes, quelques bonnes qu*on les suppose, le jugement de savoir, Tesprit et r^rudition de tout uii people. Encore moins concevrai-je la n^cessite qu*elles en aient la surin- tendance, quetoutes les id^es passent k leur couloir, et que cette monnoie ne puisse avoir de cours si elle n*est pas frapp^e a leur coin. LMntelligence et la verity ne sont pas des denr^es propres au monopole, ni dont on doive soumettre le commerce k des r^glemens particuliers. Eh quoi 1 pretend- on les emmagasiner et les marquer comme nos draps et nos laines ! Quelle honteuse servitude, s'il faut que vingt censeurs taillent toutes les plumes dont nous voudrons nous servir ! Si Ton vouloit punir un auteur qui, contre sa raison et sa conscience, se seroit permis des ouvrages scandaleux et attentatoires a Thonnetet^ publique, quelle plus grande fl^trissure pourroit-on lui infliger, que d'ordonner qu'a Tavenir toutes ses autres productions seroient r^vis^es et ne paroitroient qu'avec Tattache d'un censeur. E,t c'est toute une nation ! c*est Tuniversalit^ des gens de lettres qu*on reduit a cette condition humiliante ! On laisse des d^biteurs, des coupables meme aller sur leur parole ; et un livre inoffensif ne pourra se pre- senter dans le monde sans qu*on voie son geolier sur le frontispice ? N'est-ce done pas la un affront pour le peuple ? n'est-ce pas supposer toute la classe des lecteurs dans un ^tat d'ineptie ou de perversity qui demande qu'on dirige leurs lectures ? Croit-on que si Ton n'avoit pas cette charity pour THE AREOPAGITICA. 299 eux, lis n'auroient jamais I'esprit de prendre Ja bonne nourriture et de laisser le poison ? En un mot, on ne pent pas regarder la censure des livres comme une methode dictee par la sagesse; car, si c'^toit un moyen sage, il faudroit Tappliquer a tout ; il n'y auroit pas de raison pour qu'on s*en servit pour les livres, plutot que pour toute autre chose J c'est-la sans doute une invincible demons- tration que ce moyen n'est bon k rien. Et de peur, messieurs, qu*on ne vous dise que ce decouragement des gens de lettres sous la ferule des censeurs, n*est qu'une crainte chim^rique, souffrez que je vous rapporte ce que j*ai vu et ce que j*ai entendu dans les pays ou r^gne cette esp^ce de tyrannie. Lorsque je me suis trouv^ parmi les gens de lettres de ces nations, car j*ai eu quelque* fois cet honneur, ils n'ont cess^ de me feliciter d'etre n^ dans un pays qu'ils supposoient libre; tandis qu*eux-memes, ils ne faisoient autre chose que dt^plorer la servile condition k laquelle les gens instruits se trouvoient reduits parmi eux. lis pr^- tendoient qu'ainsi s'^toit perdue la gloire des lettres en Italic, et que depuis plusieurs annees on n*y i^crivoit plus que de plates adulations, de coupables mensonges^ ou d'insipides niaiseries. C*est-la que j'ai visite le c^lebre Galilee, blanchi dans les fers de rinquisition, pour avoir eu sur Tastronomie des opinions differentes de celles des approbateurs franciscaiiis et dominicains. Quoique je fusse fort bien que TAngleterre gemissoit sous le joug de la prelature, je recevois neanmoins comme un gage 300 MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF de son bonheur k venir, la certitude actuelle de sa liberty que je trouvois si bien ^tablie entre toutes les nations. J*ignorois cependant que ma patrie renfermoit alors dans son sein les dignes auteurs de sa d^livrance, qui ne sera jamais oubli^e, quelque revolution que le monde doive subir. Mais, lorsque j*entendois les gens de lettres des autres contr^es g^mir sur Tinquisition qui les asser- vissoit ; je ne croyois pas qu'un projet de censure dikt forcer ceux de mon pays k former de pareilles plaintes contre le parlement. Elles dtoient gen^- rales quand je me suis permis de m*y joindre -, ce n'est point ma cause particuli^re dont j'ai entrepris la defense ; c'est la cause commune de tous ceux qui cultivent les lettres et consacrent leurs veilles a 6clairer les hommes. Que ferez-vous done, messieurs ? Supprimerez- vous cette brillante moisson de lumieres qui, de jour en jour, nous promet une r^colte si heureuse ? la soumettrez-vous k Toligarchie de vingt monopo- leurs pour qu'ils ramenent les temps de dissette et affament entierement nos esprits ? Croyez que ceux qui donnent un semblable conseil ne sont pas moins ennemis de T^tat, que s*ils conseilloient de vous supprimer vous-memes. En efFet, si Ton cherche la cause immediate de la liberty de penser et d'^crire, on ne la trouvera que dans la liberty douce et humaine de votre gouvernement. Cette liberty que nous devons k votre valeur et a votre sagesse fut toujours la m^re du g^nie. C'est elle qui, pareille k I'influ- THE AREOPAGITICA. 301 ence des cieux, est venue tout-k-coup Clever et vivifier nos esprits. Vous ne pouvez maintenant nous rendre nioins ^clair^s, moins avides de la v^rit^, k moins que vous ne connmenciez par le devenir vous-memes ; k moins que vous ne ddtrui- siez votre ouvrage, en renversant de vos propres mains T^difice de la liberty. Nous pouvons encore rentrer dans I'ignorance, dans Tabrutissement, dans la servitude. Mais auparavant, ce qui n*est pas possible, il faut que vous deveniez oppresseurs, despotes, tyrans, comme Tetoient ceux dont vous nous avez affranchis. Et si nous sommes plus intelligens, si nos pens^es ont pris un nouvel essor; enfin, si nous sommes devenus capables de grandes choses, n'est-ce pas une suite de vos propres vertus qui se sont iden- tifi^es en nous ? pouvez- vous les y etouffer sans renouveller et ren forcer cette loi barbare, qui donnoit aux p^res le droit d'^gorger leurs enfans ? Et qui pourra se charger alors de conduire un troupeau d*aveugles ? Otez-moi toutes les autres liberies ; mais laissez-moi celle de parler et d*^crire selon ma conscience. Et quel temps fut jamais plus favorable a la liberty de la presse } le temple de Janus est ferm^; c'est-^-dire, on ne se bat plus pour des mots; ce seroit faire injure k la v6nt6, que de croire qu'elle put etre arrachee par le vent des doctrines con- traires : qu*elles en viennent aux mains, et vous verrez de quel c6i6 restera la victoire. La v6rit^ eut-elle jamais le dessous quand elle fut attaqu^e 302 MIRABEAU^S IMITATION OF a decouvert, et qu*on lui laissa la liberty de se d^fendre? Refuter librement I'erreur est le plu» sxiiT moyen de la <]^truire. Quelle contradiction ne seroit-ce pas, si, tandis que riiomme sage nous exhorteroit a fouiller avidement par-tout pour d^couvrir le tr^sor cach^ de la v^rit^, le gouverne- ment venoit arreter nos recherches et sournettre nos iconnoissances k des loix prohibitives ? Lorsqu'un homme a creuse la profonde mine des connoissances humaines, lorsqu'il en a extrait les d^couvertes qu'il veut mettre au grand jour, il arme ses raisonnemens pour leur defense ; il ^claircit et discute les objections. Ensuite, il appelle son adversaire dans la plaine, et lui olFre Tavantage du lieu, du vent et du soleil. Car se cacher, tendre des embuches, s'etablir sur le pont ^troit de la censure, ou I'agresseur soit n^cessairement oblig^ de passer; quoique toutes ces precautions puissent s'accorder avec la valeur militaire, c'est toujours un signe de foiblesse et de couardise dans la guerre de la v^rite. Qui peut douter de sa force ^ternelle et invincible ? qu*a-t-elle besoin pour triompher de police ni de prohibition ? ne sont-ce pas la les arnies favourites de Terreur ? accordez a la verity un plus libre developpement sous quelque forme qu*elle se pr^sente; et ne vous avisez pas de I'en- chainer tandis qu*elle dort, car elle cesseroit de parler son langage. Le vieux Protee ne rendit des oracles que lorsqu'il ^toit garrot6. Mais la v6rite dans cet 6tat prend toute sorte de figures, excepts la sienne ; peut-etre menae conforme-t- THE aheopagitica. 303 elle sa voix aux temps et aux circonstances, jusqu*^ ce qu*on la somme de redevenir elle^ m^me. Eh ! si nous n'avions que la charity pour guide, de combien de choses ne nous reposerions-nous pas sur la conscience des autres ! La moindre division dans les corps nous trouble et nous alarme, et nous ne prenons, aucun soin de rassembier les membres epars de la verit<$, qui Tor- ment cependant la flots, i^re de toutes les scissions la plus funeste detoutes les ruptures. Est-il quelque chose qui d*abord ressemble plus a Terreur qu'une v^rit^ qui lutte contre des pr^jug^s que le temps a consacr^s ? On peut done affirmer que la censure empechera moins d'erreurs qu*elle ne proscrira de v^rites. Pourquoi nous parler continuellement du danger des nouvelles opinions, puisque Topinion la plus dangereuse est celle des personnes qui veu- lent qu*on ne pense et qu*on ne parle que par leur ordre ou par leur permission ? d*ailleurs, il ne faut pas croire que les erreurs et les fausses doctrines ne soient point n^cessaires k I'^conomie morale du. monde. Si tout-k-coup la v^rit^ se pr^sentoit a nous dans tout son ^clat, elle accableroit notre foiblesse, et nos yeux ne pourroient en soutenir le spectacle. L*erreur est le nuage qui s*interpose entr'elie et nous, et qui, ne se dissipant que par degr^s, nous prepare a recevoir le jour de la v^rit^. Enfin, les erreurs sont presque aussi communes dans les bons gouyernemens que dans les ma«- 304 BIIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF vais. Car, quel est le magistrat dont la religion ne puisse ^tre surprise, sur-tout si Ton met des entraves a la liberty de la presse ? mais redresser prompte- ment et volontairement les erreurs dans lesquelles on est tomb^, et pr^f^rer au triste plaisir d*enchainer les hommes, celui de les ^clairer ; c*est une vertu qui r^pond a la grandeur de vos actions, et k la- quelle seule peuvent pretendre les mortels les plus dignes et les plus sages. Tels sont les raissonemens victorieux auxquels TAngleterre doit peut-etre le bienfait de la liberty de la presse. Voulez-vous savoir k quel point Tex- p^rience y a confirm^ la th^orie, et combien il est vrai que cette inappreciable liberty est nonseule- ment le palladium de toutes les liberies, mais le phare du gouvernement ; ecoutez ces paroles pleines de sens et de sagesse d'un penseur profond, qui a 6tudie ce pays toute sa vie, et donnd en peu de lignes le resultat le plus lumineux que je con- noisse sur les veritables causes de la prospdrit^ britannique. II faut le remettre sous les yeux du lecteur ce fragment vraiment pr^cieux; car son auteur a trop pr6sum6 de nous en croyant qu'il seroit assez remarqu^ au milieu d'une mdta- physique tres-subtile et des calculs n^cessaire- ment un peu arides, par lesquels il a voulu Tappliquer, Ce n'est point Thabilet^, dit M, de Casaux, ce THE AREOPAGITICA. 305 n'est point Tint^grit^ des ministres anglois qui font et qui assurent k jamais la prosp^rit6 de TAngle- terre, puisque TAngleterre eut, comme tous les au- tres pays, beaucoup de ministres fort ordinaires et tr^s-peu d'immacules. Ce n'est point Texistence perp^tuelle d'une op- position d^cid^e, ouverte, sans crainte, int^.ressde k tout disputer aux ministres, puisqu'il est possible que le minist^re et Topposition trouvent un plus grand int^ret a se r^unir, puisque le fait a plus d'une fois constats cette possibility*, et puisqu'il r^sulteroit finalement de cette coalition Toppression du peuple et resclavage du prince, qui suit tou- jours de bien pr^s Toppression du peuple. Ce n*est point la liberty des voix dans les Elections; puisque la tr^s-grande majorit6 des electeurs, sans talens et sans lumi^res, ne connois- sent et ne peuvent connoitre ni le caract^re ni la capacity des candidats; puisquMl est absurde de supposer une vraie liberty avec ce d^faut de con- noissance ; et qu*ainsi, a parler strictement, il n'y a dans les Elections en Angleterre ni voix, ni liberty. Ce n'est point la liberty des suffrages dans les deux chambres, qui cependant r^unissent tant de lumi^res, et qui pourroient cons^quemment r^unir tant de voix ; puisque la tres-grande majority dans une chambre comme dans Tautre, est toujours .pour le ministere, jusqu'k Tinstant qui pr^c^de * Cette etrange amalgame s*y designe par le mot coalition. X 306 MIRABEAU's IMITATION OF celui oil le minist^re va changer, et qu'il est contre nature que le ministre ne se trompe jamais. Ce n'est point la distinction et Tind^pendance respective des communes, des pairs et du roi jointes k la n^cessit^ de leur accord pour former une loi quelconque : on le prouve par trois raisons ddcisives. Premi^rement, dans un Etat ou Ton ne trouve- rolt ni nobles, ni roi, une assemblee unique y seroit n^cessairement compos^e d*hommes egaux, et cependant il suffiroit pour y r^unir tous les avan- tages de la legislation angloise, que cette assemblee d'homraes ^gaux se partageat en trois comit^s, dont le second ne s'occuperoit d'une proposition, qu'apr^s qu*elle auroit ^t^ d^battue et agr^^ dans le premier, et dont le troisieme ne pourroit s'en saisir qu*apr^s qu'elle auroit 6i6 agr^^ par les deux autres, ni lui donner force de loi qu*apres que les deux premiers auroient agr66 les changemens qu*ils jugeroient k propos d'y faire, ou bien qu'ils auroient d^clar^, apres ddibdratioiiy adherer k Tarr^te de deux autres tel qu'ils I'auroient re^u. Maintenant, si chacun des trois comit^s devenoit st son tour le troisieme, si chacun d'eux devenoit k son tour le premier, quel avantage auroit sur cette organisation simple, Torganisation mixte si vant^e de TAngleterre, dont TAm^rique voulut trop, peut- 6tre, se rapprocher. Secondement, en supposant la monarchic la plus absolue, et le ministre le plus d^cid^ a paroitre prononcer sur touty il suffiroit k ce ministre, pour r^unir tous les avantages de la legislation THE AREOPAGITICA. 307 angloise, de r^.unir, n'importante par quel moyen, avant de prononcer sur quoi que ce soii, toutes les connoissances qui existeroient dans 7 a 800 tetes pareilles a celles qui composent le corps I^gislatif de cette fi^re nation. Enfin, on a vu plus d*une fois en Angleterre, le roi, la majority des pairs, et celle des communes se r^unir sur des mesures qui eussent pen k peu et sourdement etabli dans ce pays de la liberie, une aristocratie terrible, finalement aussi funeste au prince qu'elle paroitroit servir, qu'au peuple qui en seroit la premiere victime*. Non, ce n*est point k ces moyens si vant^s que TAngleterre doit cette prosp^ritd qui ^tonne, cette richesse qu*on envie, cette puissance encore capable de tout maintenir, quoiqu'elle eut mal-adroitement tent^ de tout subjuguer. C'est k cette 4p^e de Damocles, par-tout en Angleterre suspendue sur la lete de quiconque m^diteroit dans le secret de son coBur, quelque projet funeste au prince et au peuple; I'^p^e tombe au premier pas qu*il fait pour Tex^cuter. C'est k ce principe inculqu^ dans toutes les tetes angloises, que celle d'un seul homme ne renferme pas toutes les iddes; que le meilleur avis ne pent etre que celui qui resulte de la combinaison de tons 3 qu'il n'a besoin que d*etre * Voyez Taffaire des Wilks,voyez celle de rAmerique, voyez celle de plasieurs bills relatifs a Tlnde, et n'oubliez pas le der- nier acte qui explique, dit-on, ce qui n'avoit jamais ete dit, et declare comme interpretation, le contraire de ce que tout le monde avoit pens^, tout le monde, excepie le ministre qui s'etoit bien garde de le dire. 308 MIRABEAU'S IMITATION OF ddclar^ pour etre senti, et devenir aussi-tot une propri^t^ gen^rale qui constate un droit ^gal k toutes les consequences qui end^rivent; que celui qui craint de soumettre ses id^es k la discussion de ceux dont elles doivent former la propri^t^, si elles sont utiles, est un ennemi public que cliacun doit se hater de d^noncer, et que b^ni doit etre Tinconnu meme qui le dtgnonce par la voie publique de Tim- pression. Enlevez a TAngleterre Tunique moyen de con- server ce principe dans toute son Anergic; enlevez- lui la liberty de la presse; liberty que chaque ministre, en Angleterre comme ailleurs, voudroit an^antir pendant son ministere, et remplacer par un drdre absolu de se prosterner devant toutes ses b^vues; enlevez, dis-je, ^ TAngleterre la liberty de la presse, et malgr^ toutes les ressources de son admirable constitution, les b^vues ministerielles, si rares en Angleterre, s*y succ^deront aussi rapide- ment qa'ailleurs : et meme on y dormira plus tranquillement qu'ailleurs ; d*abord sur les b^vues ministerielles, et ensuite sur tons les attentats des ministres, parce qu*on y sera plus rassurd par Tombre d*une opposition qui ne tardera pas a r^- clamer secretement et obtenir de la meme maniere le part age des ddpoiiilles et du prince et du peuple ; et bientot la Nation la plus florissante ne sera qu*un objet de piti^ pour tons ceux dont elle excita Tenvie et m^rita Tadmiration. Transportez, au contraire, peu a pen la liberty de la presse en Turquiej in- ventez, car il n'existe pas, inventez un moyen d*en THE AREOPAGITICA. 309 fkire parvenir les fruits jusqu'au grand-seigneur par d'autres mains que celles d'un visir, qui pement si aisiment tout corrompre, et bientot nul visir n'osera tromper son maitre ; tout visir consultera la voix du peuple avant de faire tonner la sienne ; et bientot la Turquie, riche de toutes les facult^s de son territoire et de son immense population, sera plus puissante, et non moins respect^e que cette Angleterre si puissante et si respect^e aujourd*hui. . . Combien nous en sommes loin, avec tant de droits d'y pretendre, tant de moyens d'y parvenir ! O vous, qui bient6t repr^senterez les Fran9ois ; vous, qu*on n*e4t jamais assembles, si dans la main des hommes le malheur de semer le d^sordre et la ruine, et de rester sans pouvoir, ne suivoit pas in^- vitablement le funeste pouvoir de tout faire -, vous, qu'on assemble pour tout reg^n^rer, parce que s'il reste encore quelque chose a detruire, il ne reste plus d'hommes cr^dules k tromper; vous, qui repondrez, non pas a la France seule, mais k Thu- manit^ enti^re de tout le bien que vous n'aurez pas procure k votre patrie ! Tremblez, si semblables aux rois, ou plutot k leurs ministres, vous croyez tout savoir ou pouvoir tout ignorer sans honte, parce que vous pourrez tout com- mander avec impunity. Obliges de tout savoir pour decider sur tout, quand TEurope vous ^coute, comment saurezvous tout, si tons ne sont pas ^coutes ? comment saurez-vous tout, si un seul homme ^clair^, le plus 6clair^ peut-etre, mais le plus timide, croit se compromettre s*il ose parler ? . 310 MIRABEAU^S IMITATION OF .... que la premiere de vos loix .... la pre- miere ! sans elle la meilleure (si la meilleure pouvoit exister sans elle) seroit bienlot ^lud^e ou violee, et tot ou tard, elle seule assureroit la pros- p^rit^ de Tern pi re rran9ois .... Que la premiere de vos loix consacre k jamais la liberty de la presse, ]a liberty la plus inviolable, la plus illimit^e : qu'elle imprime le sceau du mepris public sur le front de rignorant qui craindra les abus de cette liberty ; qu*elle d^voue k Tex^cration universelle le sc^l^rat qui feindra de les craindre . . . . le miserable ! il veut encore tout opprimerj il en regrette les moyens ; il rugit dans son cceur de les voir ^chapper ! 4 Decembre 1738. P. S. On imprimoit cette feuille lorsque Tarrete du parlement de Paris, du 5 de ce mois, a paru : et certes, cVst aujourd'hui que les bons citoyens doivent lui rendre grace; car si ce corps judiciaire et non politique est sorli du cercle de sa jurisdic- tion, c*est du moins cette fois au profit de la nation, et la profession de foi qu*il public, veritable pro- gramme de la declaration des droits sur laquelle doit etre fondee la liberty particuliere et publique, est exempte enfin de toute ambiguite. Attachement aux anciennes formes sagement limits. Representation Equitable clairement indiquee. Doctrine des subsides invariablement pos^e. THE AREOPAGITICA. 311 Responsabilit^ des ministres, seule basedeTinvio- lable respect de Tautorit^ royale, nettement ^tablie. Libert^ individuelle des citoyens imperieusement r^clam^e, Pouvoir legislatif reconnu k la nation pr^sid^e par son roi. Liberte' de la presse, garant unique, garant sacr^ de ces beaux droits ; liberte' de la presse, seute ressource prompte et certaine des gens dc Men contre les medians, liberie de la presse <^nergique- ment invoqu^e Voil^, voil^ sans doute un grand bienfait; voil^ le drapeau de ralliement pour la nation ; voil^ le rameau de paix qui doit dissiper toutes les m^fiances et reunir tons les voeux .... qu'ils s'abreuvent de leur propre venin, ceux qui espe- roient, ou int^resser les corps a repousser Tassembl^e Rationale, ou diviser les ordres et incendier les provinces assez pour la rendre impossible: nous aurons une constitution, puisque Tesprit public a fait de tels progr^s, de telles conquetes ; nous aurons une constitution, peut-etre meme sans de grands troubles civils, qui, apr^s tout, valent mieux qu'un mauvais ordre legal ; nous aurons une con- stitution, et la France atteindra enfin au d^veloppe- ment de ses hautes destinies. THE END. CHARLES WOOD, Printer, Poppin's Court, Fleet Street, London. Lately PuUished, Price Zs., by R. Hunter, St. Tauts Churchyard, A REVIEW OP JOHNSON'S CRITICISM ON THE STYLE OF MILTON'S ENGLISH PROSE; WITH STRICTURES ON THE INTRODUCTION OF LATIN IDIOMS INTO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. BY T. HOLT WHITE, ESQ. OuT