Vc MILTON, ^ AREOPAGITICA. A Speech to the Parliament of England for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. With Introduction, Full Text, Not^-.s and ArPENiJix, BY C. W. CROOK, B.A., B.So. HEAD SIASTER OF THE HIGHER GRADE SCHOOL, WOOD GREEN, N. ', EDITOR 0? MILTON'S "SONNETS," SHAKESPEARE'S "HENRY V." SHAKESPEARE'S "RICHARD II." RALPH, HOLLAND & CO TEMPLE CHAMBERS. E.G. 1906. GENEfiAl \ /*FifiST Edition, October, 1904. ^., . Repeinteb, Febeuaey, 1905. ' iE,KPfeikr"Er), •September, 1905. Reprinted, October, 1905. Reprinted, January. 1906. Reprinted, December, 1906. CONTENTS. »o>>J^oo Preface Introductory Chapter — Life of Milton Cause and Effect of " Areopagitica " The Star Chamber Decree ... Ordinance for Begulating the Abuses of the Press Style and Argument Analysis of " Areopagitica " ... Pecuharities of Grammar and Spelling Specimen page of Arber's Eeprint Text and Notes Appendix — Historical Notes Index ... vu. xiii. xvi. xviii. xxi. xxvii. xxix. xxxil. i 86 94 19256? PREFACE. In preparing this edition of Milton's Areopagitica, every care has been taken to provide help for the young student whose experience of the masterpieces of English Literature has yet to ripen. For this reason references to illustrative passages from other writers have been as limited as possible, and such only are quoted as the student may reasonably be expected to have met. The numerous references to classical writers, particularly to those of Greece, have caused the addition of a brief resume of the history of Greek philosophy, which should prove a useful addition. The text has been carefully modernised in spelling and in punctuation from Arber's Eeprint, of which a page has been reproduced, in order that the student may form some acquaintance with the spelling of the time, Advantage has been taken of the work of many previous editors, and acknowledgment is given in the notes. The almost century-old ei^Hion of Holt-White has been specially valuable. G. W. 0. ^ OF THE UNIVERSITY OF iNTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, Life of Milton. From 1608 to 1674, during sixty-six of the most stormy years of England's history, during the great struggle for civil and religious liberty, the life of John Milton extended, and the storm and struggle are deeply graven on the record of his work. Like the poet Spenser, whom he loved, and to whose FaeHe Queen he refers in the Areoyagitica, he was a Londoner, born in Bread Street, almost within touch of Bow Church, in the very centre of "this vast city, a city of refuge, the mansion house of liberty " (Areopagitica). Parentage and Early Education. — His father, a scrivener or law writer, who had been disinherited for turning Protestant, had determined that his son should receive every educational advantage, with a view to entering the Church. His earliest tutor was Thomas Young, who afterwards became an eminent Nonconformist divine, while from his father he gained that love of music which he afterwards "married to immortal verse." Of his mother but little is known, except that from her Milton probably inherited that weakness of the eyes which finally developed into blindness. School and College.— In 1620, at the age of twelve, he entered St. Paul's School, and here laid the foundation of that profound classical education which is reflected in every line of his work, whether prose or poetry. Greek, Latin, Syriac, Hebrew, French and Itahan we're amongst the subjects he studied, and studied deeply, while his later references to : — " Sweetest Shakspere, fancy's child." {U Allegro.) and to •' Jonson's learned sock." (L' Allegro,) Viil. ABEOPAGITICA. show that his love of English literature was not confined to the poet Spenser, and that he never forgot amid his classical studies that : — *' English is the language of men ever famous and foremost in the achievements of liberty." [Areo'pagitica.) After five years at St. Paul's Schools, where he initiated himself into the craft of poets by paraphasing Psalms cxiv. and cxxxvi., he entered Chrisfs College, Cambridge in 1625 as a pensioner. Here he seems to have indulged in none of those noisy revels, so pardonable in the young, but rather, by his quiet manner and studious disposition, to have merited the nickname, " Our lady of Christ's," which was soon bestowed upon him. He left Cambridge in 1632, with his M.A. degree, after a seven years' stay, admired by all for his profound learning, and with the reputation of having " Scorned delights, and lived laborious days." (Lycidas.) The Hymn to Christ's Nativity, a few odes and epitaphs (one to Shakespeare), and his first sonnet are the poetic results of these seven years. FiYe Years' Happiness at Horton.— The next five years of Milton's life were spent in the peace of the rural village of Horton, in Buckinghamshire. The quiet Cambridge student kept himself aloof from the busy world, and continued his academic studies in the pleasant country lanes and fields of John Hampden's county. The dawn of the great struggle seems to have passed by him almost unheeded, and the delightful poems L' Allegro and H Penseroso and the Masque of Camus, are the natural consequences of such a life. His monody, Lycidas, written in 1637, shows the first signs of the flame which was to burn so hot within him, and sooner and with greater effect than he thought, he was to aid in the fulfilment of his menace against the corrupt ilergy of — " That two-handed engine at the door " which '• Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more," INTRODUCTION. Ix. Foreign Travel, 1638-1639.— A short stay in France and a longer stay in Italy, where he made the acquaintance of Grotius and Galileo, was ended abruptly by the state of affairs in England. He thought it base to be travelling for hia pleasure abroad while his countrymen were contending for their liberty at home, and he returned to England, not, as Dr. Johnson unkindly remarks, to take an active part in the fight, but to keep a school. Keeping School. — If, however, Milton did not at once plunge into the vortex of the civil strife, he took two steps which were well calculated to prepare him for active warfare. In 1639, he commenced a small private school, in which he taught his nephews and the children of a few friends, and in 1643 he married Mary Powell, the daughter of a Buckinghamshire friend, a marriage which proved unhappy. After a separation of two years they were reconciled in 1645, and lived together until her death, which 6ccurre(^ in 1652. Twenty Years of Prose.— These were, however, but the preludes, the pauses before the leap; and in 1641, impelled by his great desire for liberty of thoaght, Milton plunged into the battle of pamphlets : — "There are three species of liberty which are essential to the happiness of social life — religious, domestic and civil ; and as I had already written concerning the first, and the magistrates were strenuously active in obtaining the third, I determined to turn my attention to the second, or the domestic species," — Milton's Second Defence of the People of England. His pamphlets on reformation and episcopacy appeared in 1641, and in 1644 he published his two Tractates on Divorce, a Tractate on Education, and the Areojpagiiica, the two first following naturally on his own development, the last compelled from him by his love of liberty. From this year until the Restoration, from the bright aspirations and hopes of the man of thirty-six to the calmer philosophy of age, through the home troubles which were probably only the X, AREOPAGITICA. result of his own natural disposition, in spite of the blindness which fell upon him in 1652 — " bating not one jot of heart or hope"— at the age of forty-four, Milton fought for liberty with a pen that was much mightier than his sword could ever have been, in English or in Latin, but always " with his left hand," as he called his prose. In 1649, he became Latin Secretary to Cromwell, and wrote his Eilionoklastes, 01? Image-breaker, a reply to EiJwit Basililce, or The Kingly Image, a pamphlet written in defence of Charles I. His principal works from that time to 1660 were his two books ^^ Defensio pro Fojndo Anglicano,^' published in 1651 and 1654 respectively. During these twenty years, the poet in him was almost suppressed, occasional sonnets alone breaking the long line of controversial pamphlets, but even in these last appear " purple patches." The fire of poetic genius was only smouldering, for surely such a passage as the eulogy of England in the Areopagitica is poetry bursting the chain of prose : — "Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation, rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam, purging and unsealing her long abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance, while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms." A Poet Again, 1660-1871.— Blind, saddened by the loss of his second wife, Catherine Woodcock, in 1658, and by the unfilial conduct of his daughters, with all his efforts for civil and religious liberty apparently rendered vain by the Eestoration, Milton turned once more to poetry, and in"hiar epics Paradise Lost (1666), Paradise Begained (1671), and Samson Agonistes (1671) gave to the world : — '• The magnificence of Spenser with the severity of Calvin." —(Tain.) INTRODUCTION. 3d. His last years, brightened by the happy and cheerful company of his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, whom he had married in 1664, were spent in Bunhill Fields, and peacefully, "of the gout struck inwards," he passed away on Sunday, November 8th, 1674. In the chancel of St. Giles^ Cripplegate, where he was buried, there is no 'mark of the exact spot where he rests. Milton's Contemporaries. — Milton was born at the time when the brilliant light of the Elizabethan literature was at its height. The poet Spensee, whom he loved, mme a a ^^^ whom he quotes in Areopagitica, had Predecessors. ^ -^ ^ died eight years before, Shakespeare was just about to lay down his pen, Ben Jonson and Beaumont and Fletcher were to write a few j^ears longer, and the long list of minor Elizabethan dramatists was to fade away to extinction during his youth. Of prose writers, Bacon had still some of his most im- portant work to do — he is quoted in the Areopagitica — and finished his most important work. Novum Organum, in 1620. The Contemporaries of Milton in the literary world were neither numerous nor in general worthy of remembrance. Eeligious writers abounded, and Jeremy Contemporaries. Taylor, the writer of Holy Living and Holy Dying, is the best remembered of them. The poets Geo. Herbert {The Temple), Herrick (Hesperides), and Waller alone are still read. Political thought and controversy ran deep and strong, and Hobbes (De Give and Leviatlian) and Milton were at the head. John Selden is probably better remembered by the general reader for his Table TalTiihajo. for his erudite works on law. Sir Thomas Browne (Religio Medico), John Bunyan {Pilgrim's Progress), the satirist Butler {Hudibras), and Izaak Walton {The Compleat Angler) are famous through all time. A crowd of younger writers, of a newer school and of different type, was beginning to work its way through the zii. AREOPAQITICA. frivolous follies of the Restoration during the last years of Milton's life, and the names of Dryden, Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, and Pepys are amongst the best known of these. Of foreign writers Salmasius, who engaged him in con- troversy, " the famous Galileo grown old," and Grotius, famed for his works on international law, are most connected with the life of Milton. In France, the dramatist Corneillb was writing his tragedies. Summary of the Chief Incidents of the Life, oJ><«€ The Star Chamber Decree against unlicensed printing was issued on July 11th, 1637, and consists of 33 clauses. A brief summary of them is given below : 1. Seditious, schismatic, or offensive books or pamphlets not allowed in the realm under pain of fine, imprison- ment, or other corporal punishment. 2 and 3. All books and pamphlets to be licensed ; the licensers being : For law works : The Lord Chief Justices and the Lord Chief Baron. For state affairs : The Secretaries of State. For heraldry : The Earl Marshal. For all others: The Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishops of London. The Universities to license their own. 4. The licensing officer to print his imprimatur on the books allowed. 6 and 6. Books are not to be smuggled in from abroad. 7. The copyright of the Stationers' Company to be main- tained. 8. Names of printers and authors to appear on the book, 11 and 12. English books not to be printed on the Continent. 15. Twenty printing presses to be allowed, in addition ifi His Majesty's Press and the University Presses. ,',! INTRODUCTION. XVU. 18. Eeprinted works to be re-licensed. ^^* Uj^a,llowed pr inters to be set in the pillorj aiid jvbipped^ through the City. 25 and 26. The Masters and Wardens of the Stationers* Company, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London to have power to search for and. seize unHcensed presses. 27. Four founders of type allowed. 31. Offenders to be bound by sureties not to re -transgress. 32. Books to be imported into London only. 33. The Bodleian library to have a copy of every book published. The clauses not mentioned deal with the number of apprentices and journeymen allowed to each printer or founder, and regulate their relations to each other. ABEOPAGITICA. Ordinance. FOE COEEECTING AND EEGULATING THE ABUSES OP THE PEESS.* Die Mercuriit l^ die Junii. 1643. Whereas divers good Orders have been lately made by both Houfes of Parliament, for fuppreffing the great late Abufes and frequent Diforders in printing many, falfe forged, fcandalous, feditious, libellous, and unlicenfed Papers, Pamphlets, and Books to the great Defamation of EeHgion and Government ; which Orders (notwithftanding the Dili- gence of the Company of Stationers, to put them in full Execution) have taken little or no Effect ; by reafon of the Bill in Preparation, for Eedref s of the faid Diforders, having hitherto been retarded through the pref ent Diftractions ; and very many, as well Stationers and Prin^ers, as others of fundry other Profeffions not free of the Stationers Company, have taken upon them to fet up fundry private Printing Preffes in Corners, and to print, vend, pu'blifh and difperfe Books, Pamphlets and Papers, in fuch Multitudes that no Induftry could be fufficient to difcover or bring to Punifhment all the feverall abounding Delinquents; and, by reafon that divers of the Stationers Company and others, being Delinquents (contrary to former Orders and the conftant Cuftom ufed among the faid Company) have taken Liberty to print, vend and publifh, the moft profitable vendible Copies of Books, belonging to the faid Company and other Stationers, efpecially cvf inch Agents as are employed in putting the faid Orders in Execr tion, and that by Way of Eevenge for giving Information againf t them to the Houfes for their Delinquency in Printing, • Reprinted from the Journals of the House of Lords. INTRODUCTION. xix. to the great prejudice of the faid Company of Stationers and Agents, and to their difcouragement in this Public Service: It is therefore ORDEEED, by the Lords and Commons in Parliament, That no Order or Declaration of both, or either Houfe of Parliament fhall be printed by any, but by Order of One or both the faid Houfes : nor other Book, Pamphlet, or Paper, fhall from henceforth be printed, bound, ftitched or put to fale by any Perfon or Perfons whatfoever, unlefs the fame be firft approved of, and licenfed under the Hands of fucb" Perfon or Perfons as both, or either of the faid Houfes fhal _ appoint for the Licenfing of the fame, and entered in the Regifter Book of the Company of Stationers, according to ancient Cuftom, and the Printer thereof to put his name thereto ; and that no Perfon or Perfons fhall hereafter print, or caufe to be re-printed any Book or Books, or Part of Book or Books heretofore allowed of and granted to the faid Company of Stationers for their Relief and Maintenance of their Poor, without the Licence or Confent of the Mafter, Wardens and Affiftants of the faid Com- pany ; Nor any Book or Books lawfully licenfed and entered in the Regifter of the faid Company for any particular Member thereof, without the Licence and Confent of the Owner or Owners thereof; nor j^et import any fuch Book or Books, or part of Book or Books formerly printed Here, from beyond the Seas, upon Pain of forfeiting the fame to the refpective Owner or Owners of the Copies of the faid Books, and fuch further Punifhment as fhall be thought fit : And the Mafter and Wardens of the faid Company, the Gentleman Ufher of the Houfe of Peers, the Serjeant of the Commons Houfe and their Deputies, together with the Perfons formerly appointed by the Committee of the Houfe of Commons for Examinations, are hereby Authorized and required, from Time to Time, to make diligent Search in all Places where they fhall think meet, for all unlicenfed Printing Preffes, and all Preffes any Way employed in the Printing of / AREOPAGITICA. fcandalous or^uidicjnfed^ Papers, T Books, or any Copies of Books, belonging to the faid Company, or any Member thereof, without their Approbation and Confents; and to feizejin^d^ carry; aAvay fuch Printing Preffes, Letters, together^jvith^the Nut, Spindle, and other Materials of every fuch irregular Printer, which they find fo mif employed, unto the Common Hall of the faid Company, there to be defaced and made unferviceable according to ancient Cuftom ; and likewife to make diligent Search in all fufpected Printing- houfes, Warehoufes, Shops and other Places for fuch fcandalous and unlicenfed Books, Papers, Pamphlets, and all other Books, not entered, nor figned with the Printer's name as aforefaid, being printed or reprinted by fuch as have no lawful Intereft in them, or any Way contrary to this Order, and the fame to feize and carry away to the faid Common Hall, there to remain till both or either Houfe of Parliament fhall difpofe thereof, And likewife to apprehend all Authors, printers, and other perfons whatfoever employed in compilhig, printing, ftitching, binding, publifhing and difperfing, of the faid fcandalous, unlicenfed, and unwarrantable Papers, Books and Pamphlets, as aforefaid, and all thofe who fhall refift the faid Parties in fearching after them; and to bring them before either of the Houfes, or the Comnaittee of Examinations, that fo they may receive fuch further Punifhments as their Offences fhall demerit ; and not to be releafed until they have given Satiffaction to the Parties employed in their Apprehenfion for their Pains and Charges, and given fufficient Caution not to offend in like fort for the future ; and all Juftices of the Peace, Captains, Conftables and other Officers, are hereby ORDERED and Required to be aiding and affifting to the aforefaid Perfons, in the due Execution of all and fingular the Premifes, in the Apprehenfion of all Offenders againft the fame ; and in cafe of Opppfition to break open Doors and Locks : And it is further ordered, that this Order be forthwith printed and pubUfhed, to the End that Notice may be taken thereof, »nd «11 Contemners of it left inexcuf cable. INTEODUCTION. XXi. Style and Argument, Classic model. — Milton himself acknowledges that the form of his pamphlet was inspired by the Oration of Isokrates to the Great Council of Athens, called the Areopagus, an oration written about the year 400 b.c. The objects of the two orations, however, are entirely dissimilar, that of Isokrates being to induce the Areopagus to open its doors only to men of worth and dignity, and to restore the democratic institution of Solon. The Areopagitica is therefore a written speech, and is, in^ consequence, in the first person, giving it thus a more direct path to the readers it wished to influence. Like its classic model, too, it is divided into Exordium, or Opening Sratement, Argument, and Peroration or Close. An analysis of these follows this chapter. Criticisms. — The following are among the criticisms which have been levelled against the work : — " Some tedious historical digressions, and some little sophistr}'.'* (WaFuTON.) -.-^^^^.^..^-^ " Our language sank under him." (Addison.) "Through all his greater works there prevails a uniform peculiarity of diction, a mode and cast of expression which bears little resemblance to that of any former writer ; and which is so far removed from common use that an unlearned reader, when he first opens his book, finds himself surprised by a new language. ... He had formed his style by a perverse and pedantic principle. He was desirous to use English words with a foreign idiom. ... He wrote noi language, but formed a Babylonish dialect in itself harsh \^ and barbarous, but made by exalted genius and extensive XXil. AREOPAGITlCA. learning, the vehicle of so much instruction and so much pleasure, that, like other lovers, we find grace in its deformity." (Dr. Johnson.) *• Milton was a very bad prose-writer. He remained poor and without glory." (Voltaire.) *' He has transformed into his native idiom the dignified forms and phraseology of Attic oratory," (Holt White.) " It is to be regretted that the prose writings of Milton should, in our time, be so little read. As compositions, they deserve the attention of every man who wishes to become acquainted with the full power of the English language. They abound with passages compared with which the finest decla- mations of Burke sink into insignificance. They are a perfect field of cloth of gold. The style is stiff with gorgeous embroidery." (Macaulay.) "The polemical v/ritings of Milton, which chiefly fall within this period, contain several bursts of his splendid imagina- tion and grandeur of soul. They are, however, much in- ferior to the Areopagitica, or Plea for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. Many passages in this famous tract J are admirably eloquent; an intense love of liberty and truth glows through it, the majestic soul of Milton breathes such high thoughts as had not been uttered before ; yet even here he frequently sinks in a single instant from his highest flights to the ground; his intermixture of familiar with learned phraseology is unpleasing, his structure is affectedly elaborate, and he seldom reached any harmony. If he turns to invective, as sometimes in this treatise, it is mere ribaldrous vulgarity blended with pedantry ; his wit is always poor and without ease. An absence of idiomatic grace, and an use of harsh inversions violating the rules of the language, distinguish, in general, the writings of Milton, and require, in order to compensate them, such high beauties as will sometimes occur." (Hallam.) "Even in his finest passages he never seems to know or care how a period is going to end. He piles clause on clause, links conjunction to conjunction, regardless of breath, or sense, or the most ordinary laws of grammar. In his very highest flights he will drop to grotesque and bathos. ... A harsh and sometimes both needless and tasteless adaptation of Latin words .... a rugged and grandiose vocabulary." (Saintsbury.) 2NT0DUCTI0N. XXIU. Sentences Long and InvolYed.— FM^urselyeSj^we find the instances of classic form not numerous enough to form a serious blot on the book, the historical digressions interesting and a propos : the chief difficulty to the modem reader springs rather from the inordinate length and careless conjunction of sentences, which is almost a necessary evil with writers in this ^^ periodic " style — a style of which Milton is the last example. Sentence is added to aen JAnp.P, pprind bfl.lfl.nnftd ag ainst period, clauses linked or contrasted until the passa ge becomes a labyrinth, and both writer and reader are Igst. For example, take the two following passages : — "For had an angel been his discipliner, unless it were for dwelling too much upon Ciceronianisms, and had chastised the reading, not the vanity, it had been plainly partial ; first to correct him for grave Cicero, and not for scurril Plautus, whom he professes to have been reading not long before ; next to correct him only, and let so many more ancient fathers wax old in those pleasant and florid studies without the lash of such a tutoring apparition ; insomuch that Basil teaches how some use may be made of Margites, a sportful poem not now extant, writ by Homer ; and why not then of Morgante, an Italian Romance much to the same purpose ? " (1. 406-417.) "Seeing therefore that those books, and those in great abundance which are likeliest to taint both life and doctrine, cannot be suppressed without the fall of learning and of all ability in disputation, and that these books of either sort are most and soonest catching to the learned, from whom to the common people whatever is heretical and dissolute may quickly be conveyed, and that evil manners are so perfectly learnt without books a thousand other ways which cannot be stopped, ■ and evil doctrine not with books can propagate, except a teacher guide, which he might also do without writing, and so beyond prohibiting, I am not able to unfold how this cautelous enterprise of licensing can be exempted from the number of vain and impossible attempts." {II. 578-590.) Loose Constructions. — The following passages are examples of "loose construction": — '"'^^ Those which otherwise caTue forth, if they be found mischievous and libellous, the fire and the executioner wiU be the timeliest and the most efiectual remedy." {1. 1669-1671.) V , XXiV. AEEOPAGITICA. " There is a vision recorded by Eusehius , , , and, besides, has nothing of a fever in it." {I. 418.) " That other leading city of Greece, Lacedcemon, considering that Lycurgus their law-giver was so addicted ... it is to be considered howmuseless and bookish they were." (Z. 191-198.) The student will find it difficult to show in analysis the function of the passages we have marked in italics. Ellipses. — A third evil of style is found in Milton's tendency to ellipses, a tendency fortunately shown less in his prose writings than in his poetry, but even in his prose of sufficient frequency to add to the difficulty of grasping the author'a meaning : •* The books not many which they so dealt with." (Z. 273.) ♦* There be who perpetually complain." {I. 1273.) "Besides yet a greater danger which is in it." {II. 1597, 1598.) " Although I dispraise not the defence of just immunities, yet love peace better." {I. 1471.) *' But now the Bishops abrogated and voided out the church." (Z. 1090.) Language Majestic. — Whatever stress may be laid upon Milton's adherence to classic form, and however much we ma;; censure the length and loose connection of his sentences, we must acknowledge that in the Areojpagitica these faults appear much less frequently thstn in his other prose works, and that, when the sentences are freed from their entanglements, the language is majestic and sonorous, rising at times to the eloquent imagery of the poet, while the argument is put clearly, consecutively, and forcibly. Biblical Illustrations. — The reader will notice that Milton is careful to play upon the fondness of his audience for the Bible, dragging in Moses, Daniel, and St. Paul to form one of the weakest of his arguments, and that he is equally vigorous in playing upon their intense hatred for the Pope and Spain. V OF THE I UNIVERSITY OF Limited Toleration. — Strong as Milton's plea is for liberty and for toleration, he wrote too near the times of religious persecution, and Avas too much imbued with the Puritan spirit to advocate the toleration of the Papist. " This doubtless is more wholesome, more prudent, and more Christian, that many be tolerated rather than all compelled. I mean not tolerated ;popery." (ZZ. 1569-1571.) To use his own adjective, this is a " cloistered " toleration, too narrow in its limits for the modern mind. Personalities. — The Peroration or close of the Speech also is somewhat marred by the personal reflection which the writer makes upon the promoters of the Ordinance. Wordsworth's Sonnets. — In spite of these small blemishes, the book remains a splendid example of Hilton's zeal for liberty,' a zeal which compelled him to write boldly and fearlessly against the side on whose behalf he had but shortly before been equally bold and fearlerss. The circumstances under which the book was written, the objects for which it fights, called forth the eloquent cry of Wordsworth when, one hundred and fifty years later, the face of Europe was dark with gathering gloom : — " Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour, England hath need of thee ; she is a fen Of stagnant waters : altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower. Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men ; Oh 1 raise us up, return to us again. And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart ; Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the s^a ; Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness ; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay." \ XXVi. AREOPAGITIOA. Other Yiews on the Subject. — Many writers since Milton have taken up the subject which he had the honour of being the first to bring forward, and while most have agreed with his argument and conclusion, the agreement had been by no means universal. Those who have written on the subject on the same side have invariably borrowed most of their arguments from Milton, and the great Miraheau of the French Eevolution, pubHshed in 1789 what is almost a translation of the work into French. " The liberty of the Press may be claimed as the common right of mankind," and "we may conclude that the liberty of England is gone for ever when these attempts {i.e. attempts at licensing) shall succeed." (Hume.) " It seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained because writers may be afterwards censured, than it would be to sleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief." (Dr. Johnson.) •* 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- standing seems unable to solve." (Dr. Johnson.) Arguments for Licensing.— The principal arguments adduced on the opposite side are : (a) Unrestrai led printing is dangerous to religion, (&) Unrestrained printing is dangerous to government, (c) Scandal will be published. [d) No man ought to write what he would be ashamed to own. In the England of to-day the_views__Ql__Milton_ have triom^*€d, and a free press exerts its powerful influence generally to the greatest benefit of the people. Where the bounds of decency or of fair comment are overstepped, the law deals with the individual case. The whole press is not muzzled because one printer loses his reason. In the words of the learned Selden, " Above all, Liberty," ot in the phrase attributed to I^ng Alfred, " A people have liberty when they are free as thought is free.". INTRODUCTION. XXIX. Peculiarities of Qrammar and Spelling. In the chapter dealing with Style and Argument mention has already been made of — (a) Long and involved sentences. (h) Loose connec^ian* (c) EllijJses. and illustrations of these are there given. (1.) Latin Forms.— Milton is very much blamed, particularly by Dr. Johnson, for attempting to force the Latin idiom into Engl ish prose. In the Areopagitica, for instance, we find : — 1. Latinised expressions, such as : There be who; e.g., *' There be loho perpetually complain." {I. 1273.) " Tliere he wlw envy and oppose." {l. 1514.) after the Latin idiom " Sunt qui." 2. Absolute expressions ; e.g., ** But now the Bishops abrogated and voided out the Church." [l. 1090.) " After all which done." {I, 876.) in imitation of the Latin ablative absolute. 3. Adaptation of the Latin use of tlie Gerundive implying necessity or obligation; e.g., "U»der pretence of the poor in their company not to be defrauded.'* (II. 1687, 1688.) " Why was he not , . , to be expelled by his own magistrates ? '' {II. 650, 651.) 4. Latin Form of Participle, ; e.g., ** extirpate " for extirpated, in imitation of Latin extirpatus. 5. Abundant Use of Words of Latin Origin. (2.) English of the Period.— Other variations from Modern English which will strike the reader, and which are not the ZXZ. ABEOPAGITICA. result of any peculiarity in Milton's style, but merely the general style of the period, are : — (a) The Freer Use of Inflexions to Express Degree. — These were used both in Milton's time and during the Elizabethan period much more freely than at present, and were added to adjectives, and even adverbs, regardless of the number of their syllables. In Areopagitica occur such forms as ancientest {I. 540), diligentest (1. 894), aocuratest {I. 901), exquisitest {L 941), gladlier (l. 1120). (6) Accurate Use of Conditional Form of Verh. — The careless use of the Indicative so prevalent to-day finds no warrant from the prose of Milton, who uses the Conditional form with accuracy and judgment, e.g. : — ** It had been much more expedient." {I. 481.) " Though he were the most malicious libeller." (I. 655.) "Unless their care were equal." {I. 664.) (c) Peculiar Prepositional phrases. — " There is yet behind of what." {I. 1221.) «' Easy to refutation." (7. 1208.) '' Provided of ." (i. 674.) " We esteem not of." (1. 726.) " Condemned of introducing licence." (Z. 161.) The last is in accordance with the Latin idiom, and all are similar to the French usage, showing the Norman- French influence. {d) Absence of the form ^^ its." — This was only just coming into use in Milton's time, and is used by him only three times, and not once in this book. [e) Use of Past Participles and Past Tenses, such as catched {1. 166), forbid {I. 261), tvrit {II. 549, 811), forgot {I. 575). There seems to have been a dislike for the participial ending "e;i" during this period, and the correct form of the past participle had not yet been fixed. INTRODUCTION. XXXi. (/) Words Used with Different Meaning. — States (Z. 1), fearfulness {L 935), prevent {I. 624), censure {I. 8), remember {I. 1099), conceit {I. 306), painful {I. 119), frustrate {I. 708). let (Z. 1656), vulgar {I. 783), fond (Z. 666) pu;jy (Z. 886), several (Z. 1689), collusion (Z. 1516). {g) Strange or Obsolete Forms. — Whenas {II. 911^ 986, etc.), laic (Z. 997) obligement (Z. 37), cautelous (Z. 589), dispreaderg (Z. 594), inquisiturient (Z. 355), scurril (Z. 410), ding (Z. 911), disinured (Z. 1213), homogeneal (Z. 1283), dividual (Z. 1139), ambushments (Z. 1527), disconformity (Z. 1496). Other peculiarities are pointed out in the Notes. Spelling. — The spelling of the text has been modernised, in order to lessen the difficulty of the student in ^reading it. We reproduce, however, on next page, from Arber's Eeprint of the Areojpagitica^ in Milton's own spelling, a typical page printed in the old style. Milton seems to have varied his spelling from that usual in his period, principally on phonetic principles, and sometimes also for etymological reasons. Thus, he writes : hauty for haughty, liight for height, schoUers for scholar, lerning for learning, dehters for debtors, piatza for piazza, siniories for signories, inountanous for mountainous, parlament for parliament, while sovran for sovereign, sent for scent, eremite for hermit, frontispice for frontispiece, are more nearly correct in etymology. The form voutsafe for vouchsafe seems to be peculiar to Milton, XXXii. AREOPAGITICA. From Arber's Reprint of Areopagitica {p. 68). " Lords and Commons of England, confider what Nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governours : a Nation not flow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious and piercing fpirit, acute to invent, futtle and finewy to difcours, not beneath the reach of any point the higheft that human capacity can foar to. Therefore the ftudies of learning in her deepeft Sciences have bin fo ancient, and fo eminent among us, that Writers of good antiquity, and ableft judgement have bin perfwaded that ev'n the fchool of Pythagoras, and the Perfian wifdom took beginning from the old Philofophy of this Hand. And that wife and civill Roman, Julius Agricola, who govern'd once hero for Ccsfar, preferr'd the naturall wits of Britain, before the labour'd ftudies of the French. Nor is it for nothing that the grave and frugal Tranfilvanian fends out yearly from as farre as the mountanous borders of Ruffia, and beyond the Hercynian wildernes, not their youth, but their ftay'd men, to learn our language, and our theologic arts. Yet that which is above all this, the favour and the love of heav'n we have great argument to think in a peculiar manner propitious and propending towards us. Why elfe was this Nation chos'n before any other, that out of her as out of Sion fhould be proclam'd and founded forth the firft tidings and trumpet of Reformation to all Europ. And had it not bin the obftinat perverfnes of our Prelats againf t the divine and admirable fpirit of Wicklef, to fuppreffe him as a fchifmatic and innovator, perhaps neither the Bohemian Huffe and Jeroniy no nor the name of LiUher, or of Calvin had bin ever known : the glory of reforming all our neighbours had bin compleatly ours. But now, as our obdurat Clergy have with violence demean'd the matter, we are become hitherto the lateft and the backwardcft Schollers, of whom God offer'd to have made us the teachers. Now once again by all con- currence of figns, and by the generall inftinot of holy and devout men, as they daily and folemnly expreffe their thoughts God is decreeing to begin fome new and great period in his Church, ev'n to the reformatioix of Reformation it felf." /H^ i i his 'I AREOPAGITICA. V A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. I The^ >>Hc They,) who to states and governors of the Commpnwealth, direct their speech, High Court of ParHament I or wanting) such access in a (private condition^ write that which they foresee may advance the pubHc good — I suppose them as Areopagitica. Milton copied his title from Isokrates, a Greek orator, who addressed an oration to the '* Areopagus " or Athenian Council about the year 400 b.c. The object of the oration of Isokrates, the " old man elo- quent," as Milton calls him in the Sonnet to Lady Margaret Ley, was to awaken in the minds of the Areopagus a greater sense of their own dignity, and to re-construct the democratic institutions which Solon, the great Greek law- giver, had introduced, and which had been allowed to decay. The " Areopagus " was so named because the Council held its meetings on the hill of Mars^ {^mos^ of Mars, j^'^^uos = the hill). Isokrates called his speech the Areiopagitikos logos. _ Although the subjects of the two speeches are dissimilar, they are alike in form, as Milton has adopted the classic divisions of his matter : — Exordium or opening, State- ment ^ Argument, Peroration ; r^d they are alike also in that is addressed to the great cil of the Realm. A speech. The tract is written in the first person, as though actually delivered to his audience, thus giving the argu- ment greater directness. Milton, therefore, is what he describes later as a "private orator" or writer of speeches. Unlicensed Printing. The Decrees of the Long Parliament on the subject, passed in 1643, and a resume of the Decree of the Star Chamber of 1637, are printed in the appendix. 1. They who. Milton is praised for writing "they" instead of the less correct "those," but the first word of the oration is an example of Milton's carelessness in con- struction, as it is a nominative form in apposition to the objective "them" in I. 4. Such an error is called an anacoluthon. 1. states, powers in the state, ruling men. 2. wanting, lacking. 3. private condition. Milton, not heing a member of Parlia- mclic, but a private individual, has to write what he wishes them to read; 2 AREOPAQITICA. at the beginning of no mean endeavour, not a little alt^ed- and moved inwardly in their minds : some with doubt of what will be the ( success, j others wibh fear of what will be the censure ; some with h6pe, others with confidence of what they have to speak. And me"; perhaps each of these dis- 10 positions, as the subject was whereon I entered, may have at other times variously affected ; and' likely might in these foremost expressions now also (disclose which of them swayed most, but that the very attempt of this address thus made, and the thought of whom it hath recourse to, hath got the power within me to a passi on, far more welcome than incidental to a preface. Which though^,! (stay not to confess ere any ask, I shall be blameless, if it be no other, than the joy and gratulation which it brings to all who wish and 5. altered, disturbed in mind. 7. success, result, whether good or bad. Not as now used only of good results. 8. censure (L. censura=a,n assessing), like success, meant opinion, whether good or bad, but has undergone an inverse change in meaning, success having limited itself to its good meaning, while censure has fol- lowed the more general degra- dation in- meaning, like the words knave, churl, etc. 8. confidence of. The pre- position here has a peculiar use. The meaning is, that others have confidenoo because of what they have to speak, i.e., because they know that their subject is good. 9. me, one of Milton's favourite inversions. 10. as the subject was. Milton's principal previous works in prose were : — >^ Qf Reformation in England,'^ 1641; ** Prelatical Episcopacy," 1641 ; ^'Reasons of Church Govern- ment," 1641; "Tractate on Education," 1644 ; " Tractate on Discipline and Divorce," 1644. 11. likely, possibly. 12. disclose, apparently has no grammatical subject, but " I " is understood. " I might possibly disclose in these open- ing sentences which of these dispositions most affected me, but the very attempt at making this speech, and the knowledge of the persons it addresses, have brought me into a state of enthusiasm more welcome to me, than is natural in a pre- face." Milton means that the thoughts of his subject make impossible any cold analysis of his reasons for writing. 13. address thus made. A Latinised form. See Chapter on Language. 16, 17. stay not to confess, etc. Do not delay my eon- fession till I am askedr Con- fess at once. 18. it, helping in the cause. TEXT AND NOTES. promote their country's liberty; whereof this whole discourse "'• proposed will be a certain testimony, if not a trophy. For 20 this is not the liberty which we can hope, that no grievance . ever should arise in the Commonwealth — that let no man in this world expect; but when complaints are freely heard, deeply considered, and speedily refo^ued, then is the utmost * bound of civil Hberty attained th at wse m aa look for. To which if I now manifest by the very sound of this which I shall utter, that we are already in good part .arrived,) and yet from such a steep disadvantage of tyranny and superstition grounded into our principles as waSybeyond the manhood of a Eoman recovery^ it will be attributed first, as is most 3Q due, to the strong assistance of God our deliverer, next, to your faithful guidance and undaunted wisdom, Lords and Commons of England I Neither is it in God's esteem the diminution of His glory, when honourable things are spoken of good men and worthy . magistrates ; which if I now first should begin to do, after so fair a progress )of your laudable 19. discourse proposed, a Latinism ; cf, I, 13 above. 20. testimony, if not a trophy. A *' trophy " was a pile of captured arms fixed on the trunk of a tree to mark the place where an enemy had turned in flight (Gr. trope = d. turn), and hence was a sign of victory. Milton's book re- mained a testimony of his fight for liberty until 1694, when the withdrawal of the restrictions on printing made it a "trophy." 26. which, i.e., "the utmost bound of civil liberty " men- tioned above. 27. are . . . arrived. Milton uses the verb " to be " instead of " to have " with verbs of motion ; a usage similar to the French ; c/., ils sont ay-rives. The Presbyterians were then in power, and Milton was only just beginning to learn that a Presbyter in power was very like a Priest. 28. tyranny and super- stition; i.e., the sway of the Papist and the Prelate. 29, 30. beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery. The Romans under their Emperors sank into a depth of luxury, vice, and indolence from which they were unable to recover. The English manhood was able to shake off its shackles of tyranny and superstition. 36. so fair a progress. Refers to the various acts of the Long Parliament, particu- larly to the destruction of the Prelates. See Historical Notes. AEEOPAGITICA. deeds, and such a long (obligement ) upon the whole realm to your indefatigable virtues, I might be justly reckoned among the tardiest and the : unwillingest qf them tha t , p raise ye.i 40 Nevertheless there being three principal things, without which all praising is but courtship and flattery, First, when that only is praised which is sohdly worth praise : next, when greatest likelihoods are brought that such things are truly A and really in those persons to whom they are ascribed i tliej — \ other, '^when he who praises, by showing that such his actual/ H)ersuasion is of whom he writes, can demonstrate that he / flatters not: the former two of these I have heretofore ( endeavoured, "j:escuing the employment from^ him^ho ,went "about to j impair your merits with a trivial and', malignant 50 encomiurn; the latter as belonging chiefly to mine own acquittal, that whom I so extolled I did not flatter, hath been reserved opportunely to this occasion. For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best covenant of his fidelity, and that his loyalest affection 37. obligement, in Modern English "obligation." 39. unwillipilest. See Chapter on Language. 39. ye. The word *' ye," used now only in poetry, is generally employed only as a nominative, as it is in Anglo- Saxon, but in the writings of Shakespeare and Milton it is used indifferently. The Eevised Version uses it. It is the correct A.S. nominative. 44, 45. the other. We should say now " the third." Otlier, of course, correctly means the second of two. 48. endeavoured essayed, endeavoured to carry out. 48. him. Hall, Bishop of Norwich, who had given very cold praise to the Parliament in his ** Defence of the Humble Eemonstrance against the Frivolous and False Excep- tions of Smectymnuus," pub- lished 1641. This reply led him into a controversy with Milton, who blamed him for overlooking the higher virtues of Parliament and giving praise to trivial matters. 48, 49. went about to, tried to find ways to. 49. malignant, seeking to behttle the power and influence of Parliament. The term was usually applied by the Puritans to the Royalists. 51. whom, (those) whom. One of Milton's ellipses. See Chapter on Language. 55. loyalest, cf. unwillingest, Z. 39. \ 4' '■ O^^JC -^r : ./ TEXT AND NOTES. iO and his hope waits on your proceedings. His highest praising _ is not flattery, and his plainest advice is a Idnd of praising Pj '^ for though I should affirm and hold by argument, that it would fare better with truth, with learning, and the Common- wealih, if one of your published Orders,^ which I should name, were called in ; yet at the same time it could not but much redound to the lustre of your mild and equal government, (whenas \ private persons are hereby animated to think ye better j^leased with public advice, than otherf statists have been dehghted heretofore with public flattery. And men will then see what difference there is between the magnanimity of a V triennial Parhament, 1 and that jealous haughtiness of ( prelates^ and ^ Cabin Counsellors that usurped of late, whenas they shall observe ye in the midst of your victories and successes more gently brooking written exceptions against 70 J 56. waits, singular verb with two nominatives connected by '« and." 60. one of your published Orders. The order for licensing printing was published in November, 1643. 63. whenas, that, seeing that. 64. statists, statesmen. 67. triennial Parliament. Not a Parliament lasting three years, but a Parliament to be called at least once in three years. The Long Parliament passed an Act in 1641 to this effect in order to make im- possible the recurrence of another eleven years' interval like that between 1629 and 1640, when Charles ruled alone. The Triennial Bill, passed in 1694, enacted that no Parliament should last more than three years. It was repealed in the year 1716. 68. prelates. The reference is to the Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission, under the control of Laud and his followers. 68. Cabin Counsellors, oi Cabinet. Charles, during the eleven years of no Parliament, had ruled by the advice of some selected favourites, whom he formed into a Committee of Council. The cabinet in its modern sense really began in the reign of William III. 68. of late, i.e., until the strong action of the Long Parliament. 68. whenas, when. The as has a strengthening or intensi- fying effect. At the very time when. 69, 70. victories and suc- cesses. Essex in Cornwall, June, 1644; Marston Moor in July, 1644. 70. brooking written excep- tions, allowing pamphlets to appear, which took exception to their action. 6 AEBOPAGITICA. a voted Order than other Courts, which had produced nothinj worth memory but the weak ostentation of wealth, would have endured the least signified dislike at any sudden Proclamation. If I should thus far presume upon the meek demeanour of your civil and gentle greatness, Lords and Commons,' as what your published Order hath directly said, \ that to gainsay,) I might , defend myself, with ease, if any should accuse me of being new or insolent, did they but know how much better I find ye esteem it to imitate the old and 80 , elegant humanity of Greece, than the barbaric pride of a Hunnish and Norwegian stateliness. And out of those agesj to whose { polite wisdom and letters we owe that we are not yet ', Goths and Jutlanders, I could name him who from his private house wrote that discourse to the Parliament of Athens, that '\ persuades jthem to change the form of democracy which was then estabhshed. Such honour was done in those days to men who professed the study of wisdom and eloquence, not only in their own country, but in other lands, that cities and signiories heard them gladly, and with 90 great respect, if they had aught in public to admonish the 71. other courts, the Star Chamber and Court of High Commission. 75. cIyII, cultivated, polished. The manners of the citizen as contrasted with those of the peasant. See Note to I. 82. 76, 77. as what . . . that to gainsay, to gainsay that which your published order hath directly said. 78. new or insolent, strange or presumptuous. 80. elegant humanity of Greece. ** Humanity " here means "culture," and is still used in this sense in the Scot- tish universities* . Milton was himself, of course, a great admirer of the Greek literature, as the title, language and form of this speech show. 81. Hunnish and Norwegian stateliness. An allusion to the jrougher ceremonies and more barbaric revels of the Scandi- navian and German tribes. 82. polite, polished (Greek, polls = Sb city) . Used like civil (Z. 75. Latin cms = a citizen). 83. Goths and Jutlanders, i.e., uncivilised barbarians, like the Goths, who destroyed tha Eoman power ; or the North- men who overran England and France. 83. him, Isokrates. 85. persuades, endeavours to persuade. 89. signiories. Land ruled by a " signer " or lord, a lord- ship. Milton spells it siniories, in keeping with its Italian pronunciation. TEXT AND NOTES. 7 state. Thus did Dion Pmsseus, a stranger and a private orator, counsel the Rhodians against a former edict : ^ and I abound with other like examples, which to set here would be superfluous. But if from the industry of a life wholly dedicated to studious labours, and those natural endowments, haply not, the worst for two and fifty degrees "of northern latitude, so much must be ■ derogated as to count me not equal to any of those who had this privilege, I would obtain to be thougljt not so inferior as yourselves are superior, to the most of them who received their counsel: and how far you excel them, be assured. Lords and Commons, there can .no greater testimony appear, than when your prudent spii'it acknowledges and obeys the voice of reaso n, from what quarter soevei it be heard speaking ; and renders ye as wilHng to repeal any act of your own setting forth, as any set forth by your predecessors^ 91. Dion Prusaeus. Dion of Prusseus in Bithynia. He was an orator of such eloquence as to be called Chrysostom, or golden-mouthed, and was ex- pelled from Rome by Domitian. He afterwards returned fco Rome and died there in 117 a.d. The discourse referred to is one in which he found fault with the Rhodians for altering the names and inscriptions on their old statues and replacing them by brasses of living favourites. 91, 92. a private orator, a writer of speeches, like Milton himself and Isokrates. 94, 95. wholly dedicated to studious labours. "I must say, therefore, that after I had from my first years, by the ceaseless diligence and «are of my father, whom God cecompense, been exercised to ihe tongues and some sciences, ts my age would suffer, by sundry masters and teachers both at home and in the schools . . . but much latelier in the private academies of Italy ... I might perhaps leave something so written to aftertimes as they should not willingly let it die." — Seasons of Church Governvient. •' As soon as I was able I hired a spacious house in the city, for myself and my books, where I again, with rapture, resumed my literary pursuits." — Defensio Secunda. 96. two and fifty degrees, the latitude of London. 96. the worst, as Milton wrote instead of " the worse." 97. derogated, taken from me. 104. it be heard, Milton's accurate use of the subjunctive mood. 106. So far this is the Exordium or opening of the speech, in which Milton has given his reasons for writing, and has prepared his audience to lend him a favourable hear- ing by lauding their past good deeds, and by declaring their willingness to reconsider. We next get the Statement and the Argument. lot AEBOPAQITICA. If ye be thus resolved, as it were injury to think ye wejre^ not, I know not what should withhold me from presenting ye with a fit instance wherein to show both that love of truth 110 which ye eminently profess, and that uprightness of your judgment which is not wont to be partial to yourselves ; by judging over again that Order which ye have ordained " to regulate Printing : — That no booJc, jpamjphlet, or paper shall be henceforth printed, unless the same be first approved and licensed by such,"" or at least one of such as shall be thereto appoiuted^ For that part which preserves justl;^. every man's copy to himself, or provides for the poor, I touch not : only wish they be not made pretences to abuse and persecute honest and painful/'men, who offend not in any of these 120 particulars. B ut that other c^ nnsp '^^ TiiVf ^ npi n g "Rnnkp i , which we thought had died with his brother' quadragesimal and matrimonial when the prelates expired, I shall now attend , with such a homily, as shall lay before ye, First the inventors / of it to be those whom ye will be loth to own ; next, what i s ^ to be thought in general of reading, whatever sort the books be; and that this Order avails nothing to the suppvftsfiing q\ 107. The three subjunctives In this line are worthy of notice. 116. every man's copy, etc. See the second half of the second section of the Order, beginning: "And that no per- son or persons shall hereafter print." Milton, of course, approves respect for copyright. 119. painful, full of pains, painstaking. 120. that other clause. See the first half of the second section. 121. his, its. See Chapter on Language. 121. quadragesimal, Lenten regulations retained by the Reformed Church. 122. matrimonial. Marriage Licenses, against which Milton wrote in his " Tractate on Divorce." 122. when the prelates ex- pired. The prelates were ex- pelled from the House of Lords in 1641, but the Prelacy was actually abolished in 1646, 122, shall now attend, shall now direct my attention to. 123. homily. "The word originally meant (i.) com- munion, intercourse ; (ii.) then especially the association of pupil with master, and so instruction ; and (iii.) lastly, a special form of religious instruc- tion." — Hales. 123 et seq. First etc. The four main divisions of Milton's argument should be learnt. TEXT AND NOTES. jcandalous, seditious, and libellous books, which were mainly intended to be suppressed ; last, that it will be primely to the discouragement ^of all learning, and the stop of truth, not only bj disexercising and blunting our abilities in what we know already, but by hindering and cropping; the discovery that might be yet further made both in rehgious and civil wisdom. , I deny not, but that it is of greatest concernment in the/ Church and Commonwealth, to have a vigilant eye how books ^"^^ demean themselves as well as men ; and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors : "^or books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a ^ potency of hfe in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are ; nay, they do preserve as in a Vial the purest efficacy an^ extraction of that living intellect that bred ^^q them. I know they are as Hvel^, and as vigorously productive, a^those fabulous dragon's teeth ; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet on the other hand, )st kill a man as kill a gooc book :/W^ho kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image : unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good v ^^ but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the ij V^JU^ Image of God, as it wer^ in the eye. Many a man lives a burden \ to the earth : but a good book is the precious hfe-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up~on purpose to a life beyond" ' life. 'Tis true, no age can restore a Hfe, whereof perhaps there is 150 no great loss ; and revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse. We should be wary therefore what persecution we 130. disexercising, throwing out of exercise ; c/., "disinured" (Z. 1213). 131. cropping, cutting away. 139. a vial, a phial or flask. Gr. phiale. 140. extraction, essence. 142. those fabulous dragon's teeth. Cadmus, in Greek mythology, is supposed to have Bown dragon's teeth, from which sprung armed men. A similar story is told of Jason. 145. who, he who. 147. in the eye. The book is man's expression of his reason, his reason as seen by others. The killing of the book takes away the possibility of this sight, makes his reason blind or iii- visible to others, kills his reason, the image of God, in the eye. 10 / AREOPAQITICA. 160 raise against th^ living labours of public men, how w$ spill Jthafc ( seasoned life of man, preserved and stored up in books ; since we see a kind of homicide' may be thus committed, sometimes a_ martyrdom, and if it extend to the whole impression, a kind of massacre, whereof the execution ends not in the slajdng pf an elemental hfe, but strikes at that ethereal and fifth essence; the breath of Reason itself, slays an Immortality rather than a Life^ But lest I should be condemned of Untroducing licence, while I oppose Hcensing, I refuse not the pains to be so much historical as will serve to show what hath been done by ancient and famous commonwealths against this disorder, till the very time that this project of Hcensing crept out of the Inquisition, was 154. living labours, the labours that live through their books. 154. spill, destroy. 155. seasoned life, i.e., life preserved and stored. 156. 157, 158. homicide, martyrdom, massacre, an example of climax. 159. elementallife ; ethereal and fifth essence. The reference is to the theory of Aristotle that the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, comprised the material world, and that a fifth or gwiw^essence was peculiar to God and the soul of man. The ancient philo- sophers, who denied the immor- tality of the soul, yet thought that the fifth or quintessence, which they deemed to be know- ledge, was immortal. Milton means that by destroying a book, not only is a material substance destroyed, but know- ledge, immortality itself, is slain. 161. condemned of. We still say *' accused of," but '♦condemned for." 161. licence. Cf. this with the Vlth Sonnet :— "Licence they mean 'when they cry Lihoity." Licence here is used in its second sense of looseness. 165, 166. Inquisition ; Pre- lates. Introduced wherever possible by Milton as appealing to the feelings of hatred held for these by his hearers. The Inquisition, or Holy Office, was introduced into Italy by Innocent III. to quell the Albigenses about the com- mencement of the 13th cen- tury. It spread into France and Spain, and became most formidable in the latter country under the rule of Torquemada, who became Grand Inquisitor in 1481. From that time the auto da fe (acts of faith), or public burning of heretics, and the most cruel tortures, became common. In the first year alone 2,000 are said to have been publicly burnt. An intense hatred of its objects and methods was felt in all Protestant countries, and particularly by the Puri- tans. Cf. Tennyson's Revenga I ••These inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain," •• The thumbscrew and the stake, for the glory of the Lord." \ TEXT, AND NOTES. 11 I 5atchedJ)up by ibxir Prelates, and hath caught some of our , Presbyters. L n \ ■"■■'^ -^tbens, jwhere books and wits were ever busier than in any other part of Greece, I find but only two sorts of writings which the magistrate cared to take notice of; those either 170 blasphemous and atheistical, or libellous. Thus the books of \Protagora^;were by the judges o^ Areopagus Commanded to be burnt, and himself banished the territory for a discourse begun with liis confessing not to know whether there were gods, or whether not : And against defaming, it was agreed that none should be traduced by name, as was the manner of '.^Vetus Comoedia, whereby we may guess how they(censured hbelhng ; And this course was -quick enough,' as Cicero writes, to'C|uel| both the desperate wits of other atheists, and the open way of defaming, asfthe event -^ho wed. Of other sects and opinions^ 180 165, 166. wascatched; hath caught. These expressions Bhow the looseness which pre- vailed with regard to the use of the past participle. 166. our Prelates. A '■ reference to the Star Chamber decree of 1637. 168. Athens was the most popular of all the Greek Re- publics in its forms and admini- ' stration. Almost all the Greek writers of eminence were f natives of Attica. 172. Protagoras. By the order of the Athenians Pro- tagoras was banished from the city and territory and his books publicly burnt, because he could not say whether the gods existed or not. This is Cicero's state- ment. The book was ^^Peri^ Tlieon," i.e., "Concerning the Gods," and the banishment and burning took place in 411 e.g. 172. Protagoras, a Greek philosopher, about 400 B.C. 172. Areopagus. Note the correct omission of *' the." Areopagus was a place. We do not say Bishop of the London. 176. 177. Yetus Comoedia, or old comedy. The old comedy of Greece, the most famous writer of which was Aristo- phanes, freely introduced the names of living persons. 177. censured, judged. 178. quick enough, powerful enough. Quick, A.S. cwic, meant originally "alive," and is still so used in the Creed — the "quick and the dead." The quick of the nail is the living part. Cf. quicksands, quicken. 178. as Cicero writes ; in his work De Natura Deorum, where he describes the punishment meted out to Protagoras, and points out how stringent the ruling was, since not even a doubt could escape pmiishment. 178. quell, kill; A.S. cwellan=io'k.\A. 180. the CYent, the result. The punishment of Protagoras brought an end to both blas- phemous and libellous writings. 12 AREOPAGITICA. [( 190 though tending to voluptuousness, and the denying of Divine Providence, they took no heed. Therefore we do not read that either Epicurus, or that Hbertine school of Cyrene, or what the Cynic impudence uttered, was ever questioned by the laws. Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old comedians were suppressed, though the acting of them were forbid ; and that Plato commended the reading of Aristophanes, the loosest of them all, to his royal scholar Dionysius, is commonly known, and may be excused, if holy Chrysostom,;as is reported, nightly studied so much the same author and had the art to cleanse a scurrilous vehemence into the style of a rousing sermon. That other leading city of Greece, Lacedaemon, considering that Lycurgus \their lawgiver was so addicted to elegant learning as to have been the first that brought out of Ionia the scattered 183. Epicurus founded a school in Athens about the year 310 B.C., and taught that virtue was the only way to real happi- ness. His followers degraded his principles, and made " hap- piness their being's end and aim." Self-indulgence and Epi- cureanism became, therefore, synonymous, 183. libertine school of Cyrene was founded by Aristippus in 370 B.C. He taugbt that pleasure was the only aim of life. 184. Cynic impudence. The Cynic school was founded about the same time by Antisthenes. J A contempt for externals and a rude brushing away of specious coverings were the charac- teristics of the school, whose I most famous member was I Diogenes, the cynic of the tub. iCynio is from Gr. kyiiikos = log-like. 18G. were forbid, subj. mood. Note forbid for forbidden. 187, 188. Plato, Aristophanes, Dionysius. Plato recommended the comedies of Aristophanes to Dionysius, King of Syracuse, as the writings which would give him the best knowledge of the afiairs and language of Athens. 187, 188. the loosest of them all. Milton repeats the opinion later, when he calls the writings of Aristophanes " books of grossest infamy " {I. 654). 189. Chrysostom. John, called Chrysostom, or " Golden- mouth," was patriarch of Con- stantinople in 397 A.D., and died in exile 407 a.d. 192. Lacedaemon, or Sparta, the chief city of Laconia, in Greece. The Spartans trained themselves to endurance and bravery, and were famous for t heir brevity of speech. Our rnodern word *• laconic" is derived from the name of their country. 193. Lycurgus, King of Sparta, collected the poems of Homer and introduced them to the Spartans. TEXT AND NOTES. 13 works of Homer, and sent the poet Thales from Crete to prepare and mollify the Spartan sm-liness with his smooth songs and odes, the better to plant among them law and vciviUty, it is to be wondered how museless , and mibookish they were» minding nought but the feats of war. There needed no Hcensiag of books among them, for they dishked all but their own; laconic 20(1 apothegms, and took a sHght occasion to chase Archilochus; out of their city, perhaps for composing in a higher strain than their own soldierly ballads an d roundels kmild rfia. ch to : Or if it were for his broad verses, they were not therein so cautious, but they were as dissolute in their promiscuous Cconversiug ;^ whence (Euripides affirms in Andromache that their women were^all unchaste. Thus much may give us Hght' after what sort of 195. Thales, or Thaletas, of Crete, a writer of odes. Muller says he lived two centuries after Lycurgus. 197. ciYility, poHteness. 198. museless, without the taste for the Muses. 200. laconic. See Note above on Lacedaemon. 201. apothegms, Milton's spelling. Gr. apophthengoniai = 1 speak my mind plainly. 201. Archilochus. Lived about the year 700 B.C. " Some writers of antiquity say that the Lacedaemonians banished Archilochus for an unpatriotic sentiment in a poem, wherein he had ventured to tell the citizens of Sparta that it was better for a man to throw away his arms than lose his life ; but others assert it to have been for the indecent licentiousness of his verses that he was expelled the Republic." (Holt White.) 203. ballads. Milton's spel- ling is ballats. C/. ** ballatry," I. 685. 203. roundel. A roundel was originally a song sung to a circle dance. The term was then applied to a song in which the first Hne was repeated again at the end of the verse. Cf, Chaucer's Merciless Beauty :— " Your ey^s two will slay me suddenly. I may the beauty of them not sustain, So woundeth it throughout my hearte kene, And but your word will healen hastily My hearths wounde while that it is green. Your eyes two will slay me suddenly. I may the beauty of them not sustain." 204. broad, licentious. 205. conversing, dealings with each other. 206. Euripides, in his Andro- mache, makes one of his characters, Peleus, bring this grave charge against the Spartan women. Euripides, however, wrote for an Athenian audience, and Sparta and Athens were keen rivals. 207. after, as to, according to. "Neither reward us after our iniquities."— Prayer Book. 207. after what sort, as to what way. 14 AREOPAGITICA. books were prohibited among the Greeks. The Komans also for many ages trained up only to a military roughness, 210 resembling most of the Lacedsemonian guise, knew of learning little but what their (twelve tables '^nd thePontific College with theii? augurs and flanaens taught them in religion and law ; so unacquainted with other learning, that when. Carneades and (jGritolaus, with the Stoio Diogenes coming Ambassadors to Eome, took thereby occasion to give the City a taste of their philosoph yj the y were suspected for seducers by no less a man than pato t^e Censor , who moved it in the senate to dismiss them speedily, and to banish all such Attic babblers out of Italy. But ScipL and others of the noblest senators withstood 210. guise, style. A doublet of "wise" or "ways"; O.F. guise from O.H.G. wisa=way. 211. twelYe tables. The twelve tablets drawn up in b.c. 450, by the decemvirs of Eome, and forming the Roman legal code. 211. Pontific College. Ponti- f ex (Pons = a bridge . Facio = I make) literally means a bridge builder. The Pontifices origin- ally had charge of the building of the bridge over the Tiber, and as their studies led them to a knowledge of measures and numbers, they looked after the dates of the festivals and finally took charge of all the religious ceremonies. 212. augurs interpreted future events from the flight of birds. 212. flamens were priests attached to the worship of the various gods. 212,213. so unacquainted; supply "were they." 213. Carneades; d. 129 e.g. While at Rome he gave two lectures on Justice, in the second of which he opposed the arguments of his first, and so roused the ire of Cato, who called it playing with truth. 214. Critolaus belonged to the "Peripatetic" school. 214. Stoic Diogenes, not the cynic. 214, 215. Ambassadors to Rome. This was in 155 B.C. Milton's spelling is embassadors. They were sent to ask for the release of Athens from a fine imposed upon it by Rome, and their lectures to the Romans had great influence in intro- ducing to Rome the Greek philosophies. 217. Cato the Censor, Marcus Portius Cato, or Cato Major. Cato was not Censor at the time of the embassy. He disliked everything Greek as tending to render the Romans efieminate. 217. moYed it, brought forward as a motion. 218. Attic babblers. Athens, thechief city of Attica. Babbler is from Mid. Eng. babelen = to prate. 219. Scipio, the younger-^ Publ'ms Scipio Africamis — the destroyer of Carthage. Scipio favoured the Greek customs, and was thus opposed to Cato. Sooiis ^*"t^^' Jit^AA^ TEXT AND NOTES. 15 him and his old Sabine austerity ; honoured and admired the 220 men ; a nd the censoJ himself at last in his old age. fell to the study of that whereof before he was so scrupulous.; And yet at the same time I Nsevius and Plautus, the first Latin comedians, had filled the city with all the borrowed scenes of "" IMenander and Philemon. ; Then began to be considered there also what was to be done to libellous books and authors ; for Naevius was quickly cast into prison for his unbridled pen, and released by the tribune^j^upoaJiis recantation : We read also that Hbels were burnt, and the makers pu nishedj_by A ugustus. ^ The like severity no doubt was used, if 'aught were impiously 230 written against their esteemed gods. Except in these two points, how the world went in books, the magistrate kept no reckoning. And therefore Lucretius without impeachment versifies his Epicurism to Memmius, and had the honour to b)e set forth the second time by Cicero so great a father to the 220. Sabine. Shortly after the foundation of Rome, the men of Rome attacked the rival and adjacent City of Sabina, and carried oS all their women. The two towns afterwards became friendly. Cato had a farm in the Sabine territory, and frequently went there to avoid the extravagant luxury of Rome. The Sabines had a reputation for homeliness and frugality. 221. in his old age. Cato is said to have begun the study of Greek at the age of 80. 222. scrupulous, scrupled so much agaiust, found so much fault with. 223. Nsevius and Plautus, two writers of Latin comedy; both flourished about the year 200 B.C. The former was im- prisoned for using the same freedom of libel as the early Greek comedians. 225. Menander, Philemon writers of Greek comedy who flourished about 300 B.C. 228. the tribunes were magistrates of Rome elected to watch the interests of the plebeians. They were first elected 494 B.C. 229. Augustus, the flrst Roman Emperor, ruled from 30 B.C. to 14 A.D. 233. Lucretius, the Roman poet. The poem particularly referred to is De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), and in it he follows and expresses the old philosophy of Epicurus, that virtue is the only happiness. 234. Memmius was praetor of Rome in B.C. 58, and the book of Lucretius was dedicated to him. 235. the second time. This does not seem to have been the case. 16 ABEOPAQITICA. commonwealth ; although himself disputes against that opinion in his own writings. Nor was the satirical sharpness or naked plainness of LuciUus, or Catullus, or Flaccus, by any order prohibited. And for matters of state the story of Titus Living^ 240 though it extoUed that part which Pompey held, was not there- fore suppressed by Octavius Caesar of the other faction. / But that Naso was by him banished in his old age for the wanton poems of his youth, was but a mere covert of state over some secret cause : and besides, the books were neither banished nor called in. From hence we shall meet with little else but tyranny in the Eoman empire, that we may not marvel, if no^ so often bad, as good books were silenced. I shall therefore deem to have been large enough in' producing what among the ancients was punishable to write, save only which, all other 250 arguments were free to treat on. ^/)-'^y this time the emperors were become Christians, whose 236. himself, he himself, i.e., Cicero. 237. satirical. Milton spells it satyricall, wrongly supposing it to be derived from the Greek satyros. 237. naked, undisguised. 238. Lucilius, the founder of the classic school of Roman satirists. Died at Naples, 103 B.C. 238. Catullus, a Roman poet, 47 B.C. 238. F lac ens. Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known to us as Horace, the best known of the Latin satirists, wrote during the reign of Augustus. 239. story, history. 239. Titus Livius, died 17 A.D. The well-known Roman historian Livy. 240. Pompey, at first the friend and then the rival of Julius Csesar, who finally defeated him at Pharsalia, 48 B.o. 240. held, took. 241. Octavius Csesar, the Augustus of line 229. His full title was Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus. 241. faction, party, not in the bad sense. 242. Naso, Publius Ovidius Naso, or Ovid, was banished by Augustus to Tomi on the Euxine or Black Sea in a.d. 9, and died there a.d. 18. The reason for the banishment is not known. 242. in his old age. Ovid was 52 when he was banished. 243. covert, pretext. 245. From hence, hence- forward. 248. been large enough, dealt at sufficient length. 248. producing, showing examples. 251. emperors. The first Christian emperor was Constan- tine, who reigned from a.d. 306 to A.D. 337. TEXT AND NOTES. 17 discipline in tbi sjgoint I do not find to have been more severe than what was formerly in practice. The books of those whom they took to be grand heretics were examined, refuted, and condemned in the general Comicils ; and not till then were prohibited, or burnt, by authority of the emperor. As for the writings of heathen authors, unless they were plain invectives ag^inst_ Christian ity, as those of Porphyrius and Proclus, they met with no interdict that can *be cited till about the year 400, in a Carthaginian Council, wherein Joishops themselves were 260 forbid to read the books of Gentiles, but heresies they might read : while others long before them on the contrary scrupled mor^ the books of heretics than of Gentiles. And that the primitive Councils and Bishops were wont only to declare what books were not commendable, passing no further, but leaving it to each one's conscience to read or to lay by, till after the year 800, is observed already by Padre Paolo, the great un masker of the Trentine Council. After which time the Popes of Rome, (engrossing what they pleased of political rule into their own hands, extended their dominion over men's eyes, .as they had 270 256. authority. Milton's spelling is autority. 258. Porphyrius, who flourished about the year a.d. 300, wrote a treatise against the Christian religion, which was publicly burnt by order of the Emperor Constantine. 258. Proclus, died a.d. 485. 259. year 500. The Cartha- ginian Council met in a.d. 398. 260. 261. were forbid ; cf. I. 186. 262, 263. scrupled more, supply "concerning." 264. primitive Councils, the early Church Councils. 265. passing, going. Milton writes /wrcZe;* for "further." 267. Padre Paolo, a Servite monk whose real name was Pietro Sarpi, died a.d. 1623. He defended the secular govern- ment of Venice from papal interference, and wrote a history of the Council of Trent. 268. the Trentine Council; first held in 1545 and finally dissolved in 1563. Trent is in the Austrian Tyrol. 268. After which time, i.e., after the year a.d. 800, when the Popes began to claim more and more secular power. 269. engrossing, taking in gross, seizing hold of all, monopolismg. 270. OYer men's eyes; c/., the phrase "as it were in the eye " {I. 147). They took their dominion by forbidding men to see in books anything to which they objected. The Council of Trent formed two lists of books : those which must not be allowed at all. and those which could 18 A.REOPAGITICA. '^ before over thSir judgments, burning and prohibiting to be read what they fancied not ; yet sparing in their censures, "and" the books not many which they so dealt with : till Martin the yFifth by his bull^not only prohibited, but was the first that /\ excommunicated; the reading of heretical books ; for about that time (Wicklef arid Huss growing terrible were they who first drove the Papal Court to a stricter policy of prohibiting. I Which course Leo the Tenth and his successors followed, until ( the Council of Trent and the Spanish jnp ^uisi tion engendering^! 280 together brought forth or perfected those Catalogues and expurgingi indexes, that rake through the entrails of many an old good author with a violation i worse than any co uld be offered to his tomb. Nor did they stay in matters] heretical, only be allowed after expurga- tion. The first list was called Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the second Index Expurgatorius. 272. censures, judgments, here with a bad sense of fault- finding. L. censeo = l judge. 273. 274. Martin the Fifth was Pope from 1417 to 1431. 274. his bull. The commands of the Pope were called " bulls," from the bulla, or seal, which was attached to them. 275. excommunicated, for- bade, under pain of excommuni- cation. 276. Wicklef and Huss. Wicklef or Wyclifie, the father of Reform, died 1384. The story of his work and of the Lollards whom he directed is part of English History. Wyclifie was favoured by Queen Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II., and it was through her influence ! that the reforming spirit spread Ito Bohemia and to Huss, the leader of the Bohemian Reformers. Huss was burnt tkt the stake in 1415. In England An Act De heretico comburendo. *' Concerning the burning of heretics," was passed in 1401, to suppress the growing Lollard- ism. 278. Leo the Tenth, Pope 1513—1521. Leo's Bull of 1515 required Bishops and Inquisitors to examine aU books before they were printed, and to suppress heretical opinions. 279. Spanish Inquisition. Milton knew that his argument would be more acceptable through these references to the Popes and Spain. It was, how- ever the Italian, and not the Spanish Inquisition which first introduced the Index Expurga- torius. 279. engendering, bringing forth. Old French engendrer, from Latin ingenerare = to generate. 2 SO. Catalogues, the two Indexes mentioned above. 281. e.xpurging, modern fornj expurgating. 282. worse. Milton's spelling is wors, 283. did they stay In, did they limit themselves to. TEXT AND NOTES. 19 but any subject that was not to their palate they either (condemned in a prohibition, or had it straight into the new ' Purgatory of an Index. To fill up the measure of encroach- ment, their last invention was to ordain that no book, pamphlet, or paper should be printed (as if St. Peter had bequeathed them the keys of the press also out of Paradise), unless it were approved and licensed under the hands of two or 290 t hree glutt^ fy^ay^ For example : /y^ Let the Chancellor Cini be pleased to see if in this V present work be contained aught that mayV with- stand the printing. Vincent Babbatta, Vicar of Florence. I have seen this present work, and find nothing athwart the CathoHc faith and good manners : In witness whereof I have given, &c. Nicold Cinif Chancellor of Florence. Attending the precedent relation, it is allowed that this present work of. Davanzati may be printed. Vincent Babbatta^ &c. It may be printed, July 15. Friar Simon Mompei d^ Amelia, Chancellor of the Holy Office in Florence. 285. condemnied in a pro- hibition, i.e., the Lidex Libro7'wn Prohibitorum. 286. Purgatory of an Index, the Index Expurgatorius. 289. keys of the press. Alluding of course to St, Peter as holding the keys of the Gates of Heaven, and to the claim of his successors to have power to pardon the sinner and so admit him into heaven. 291. glutton, gluttonous. 292 Cini. Pronounce c as ch before e and i in Italian words. 293, 294. withstand the printing, should not be printed. 296. athwart, opposed to. Icelandic, um thvert, " on the cross." 297. Catholic, here means Roman Catholic. 297. good manners, good morals. 300. Attending the prece- dent relation, having con- sidered the foregoing statement. 301. Davanzati. The book referred to is one on the Schism of the English Church, published at Florence in 1638, when Milton was in Italy. These courteous bows took place in 1636. 303. It may be printed. In Latin, Imprimatur, a word used by Milton later on. 300 so AREOPAGITICA. 820 Sure they have a conceit,] if he^of the bottomless pit had not long since broke prison, that this b[uadruple exorcism\would bar him down. I fear their next design will be to get into their custody the licensing of that which they say; Claudius intendedT) but went not through with. Vouchsafe to see another of their forms, the Koman stamp : Iinprimatur, If it seem good to the Eeverend Master of the Holy Palace, Belcastro, Viceregent. Imprimatur, Friar Nicolo Eodolphi, Master of the Holy Palace. Sometimes five Imprimaturs are seen together dialogue-wise in the piazza of one title-page, complimenting^nd duckuig^:each to other with their shaven reverences, whether the author, who stands by in perplexity at the foot of his epistle, shall to the 306. conceit, fancy. C/. Note on I. 330, 307. 'quadruple exorcism, this four-fold ordeal. In modern English exorcism means rather to bring the evil spirit out than to bar him down. The literal meaning is " binding by oath." Exorcism is from Gr. ex = away, (yrkos = a,n oath. 309. Claudius intended. The Emperor Claudius at one time proposed to assume the power of allowing certain rude animal noises to be made in company. Milton's suggestion is, of course, a piece of somewhat coarse irony. 310. Youchsafe. Milton's spelling is **voutsafe," and seems to have no warrant. To vouchsafe is to "warrant as Bafe." 311. the Roman stamp, an example of the Roman licensing. The previous example was from Florence. Latin, Imprimatur means •' it may be printed." 317. jBiYe Imprimaturs. Blackwell says that in Spain six were required : those of — i. The Synodal Examiner. ii. The Recorder of the King- dom, iii. The Vicar, attested by a notary. iv. His Majesty, counter- signed by a secretary. V. The Corrector General, vi. The Lords of the Council. 318. piazza. Milton's spelling is piatza, in accordance with the Italian pronunciation. A piazza here means an open place. 318. complimenting. Milton- has complementing, but com- plimenting is the evident sense. 318. ducking, lowering the head as a duck does in water, hence bowing. 319. their shaven reve- rences, an allusion to the monkish tonsure. 320. at the foot, i.e., with hia signature at the end. TKXT AND KOTES. 21 press or to the sponge. These are the pretty responsories,) these are the dear antiphonies, that so bewitched^ of late our Prelates and their Chaplains with the goodly echo they made ; and besotted us to the gay imitation of a lordly Imprimatur, one from Lambeth House, another from the west end of Paul's ;j so apishly romanising, that the word of command stiir was set down in Latin ; as if the leame^ grammatical pen that wrote it (^ would cast no ink without Latin' ; or perhaps, as they thought, because no vulgar tongue was worthy to express the pure (conceit of an Imprimatur ; but rather, aj^I hope^^for thaV our 33c EngKsh, the language of men ever famous and foremost in the achievements of Hberty, will not easily find servile letters enow ^ to spell such a dictatory presumption Enghsh. And thus ye have the inventors and the original of book-licensing ripped up ; and drawn as lineally as any pedigree. We have it not, that can be heard of, from any ancient state, or poUty, or church, nor by any statute left us by our ancestors elder or later ; nor ■X 321. the sponge, i.e., to have passages "sponged out" or expurgated, as Milton himself sufiered later on in his History of Britain. 321. resjponsories, like the responses in the Praj^er Book, spoken alternately by priest and congregation. 322. antiphonies, the full form of the modern word "anthem." Antiphonies were sung by two responsive choirs. Gr. ^w^i = contrary, phone = a, voice. 322. of late, referring to the Star Chamber Decree of 1637. 325. Lambeth House, now called Lambeth Palace, the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 325. west end of Paul's, where the Bishop of London had a palace. These two digni- taries were appointed by the Star Chamber as licensers of t.V. VrvnVc; except those on law, state affairs, or heraldry. An Act of Charles II. 's reign, in 1673, added fairy tales and books of love to their list. 326. word of command, " Imprimatur." 326. still, always. 329. Yulgar, common, as opposed to classical. L. vulgus = the common herd. 330. conceit, opinion; a doublet of concept. 330. for that, because. 332. enov/, used as the plural of " enough," now obsolete. 333. English, in the English manner. 334. ripped up, exposed. 337. any statute. According to Selden, speaking in Parlia- ment in 1628, "there is no law to prevent the printing of any books in England, only a decree in Star Chamber." — ^^ Holt White. 337. ancestors, predecessors, 22 ABEOPAQITIOA. jErom the modern custom of any reformed city or church abroad • n but from the mostjanti-christian council and the most tyrannoua 84(j' inquisition that e\^er inquired. Till then books were ever as freely admitted into the world as any other birth; the issue of the brain was no more stifled than the issue of the womb i no_, envious Juno sat cross-legged over the. nativity of any man's_ intellectual offspring; but if it proved a monster, ^who denies but that it was justly burnt, or sunk into^tlie sea. But that a book, in worse condition than a peccant soul, should be to stand before a jury ere it be born to the world, and undergq yet in darkness 'the judgment of Rhadamanth and his colleagues, ere it can pass the ferry backward into Hght, was never heard 850 before, till that mysterous Iniquity, provoked and troubled at the first entrance of Reformation, sought out new Hmbos^nd new hells wherein they might include our books also within the 339. anti-christian council, the Trentine Council. 339, 340. tyrannous inquisi- tion, the Spanish Inquisition; cf. I. 279: "The Council of Trent and the Spanish Inquisi- tion engendering together." 341. birth, thing born. 342. 343. no envious Juno sat ''rossed-legged. An allusion to ^DlQ story of the birth of Hercules. Alcmena, the mother of Hercules, called for help, but the helper, pledged by Juno to retard, sat cross-legged outside the door muttering spells. 343. nativity, birth. 346. peccant, sinful. 346. should be to, should be compelled to, should have to. 347. 348. yet in darkness, i.e., unpublished. 348. Rhadamanth. Milton's spelling is Radamanth. Accord- ing to the Greek myth, Rhada- manthus was one of the three judges of Hades. His colleagues were Minos and Aiakos. 349. the ferry. The ferry over the Styx, which Charon and his dog Cerberus guarded. 350. that mysterious Iniquity, the Papacy. "Upon her forehead was a name written, mystery, Babylon thfl Great."— Rev. xvii. 5. The Puritan identified the Papacy with the Scarlet Woman of Babylon. — Hales. 351. Reformation. An allusion to the early reformers — WyclifEe and Huss. 351. new limbos. A limbo was the borderland of Hell, and the limbos were supposed to be somewhere near the centre of the earth .^ The schoolmen of the Middle A^es supposed that; besides Hell and Purgatoryj there was (1) a limhus pucrorum for the souls of infants dying unbaptised; (2) limhus patrum for the patriarchs who lived before Christ. Milton compares the two Indexes to these limbos. ../ i TEXT AND NOTES. 23 number of thek da^^^^i^ed. And this was the rare morsel so officiously snatched up, and so ill-favouredly imitated by our inquisiturient \ Bishops and the attendant Minorites — their Chaplains. That ye like not now these most certain author^ of this Hcensing order, and that all sinister intention was far distant from your thoughts, when ye were importuned the passing it, all men who know the integrity of your actions and how ye honom' Truth, will clear ye readily. ^ ts^But some will say, TVhat though the inventors were bad, ) /^^e thing for all that may be good? It may be so; yet it that thing be no such deep invention, but obvious, and easy for any man to light on, and yet best and wisest common- wealths through all ages and occasions have forborne to use it, and falsest seducers and oppressors of men were the first who took it up, and to no other purpose but to obstruct and hinder the first approach of Eeformation ; I am of those who beHeve it will be a harder alchemy than Lulhus ever knew, to sublimate ,any good use out of such an invention. Yet 370 this is only what I request to gain from this reason, that it may be held a dangerous and suspicious fruit, as certainly 354. ill-faYOuredly, unhand- Bomely. 355. inquisiturient. The termination "urient" signifies " greatly desiring," " intensely fond of." 355. Minorites, friars ; strictly apphed to the Franciscan monks only. 356. these most certain authors, i.e., these who were most certainly the authors. 358, 359. impoFtuned the passing, importuned to pass. 364. to light on, to discover easily, to find without efiort. 367. to no other purpose. We now write "/or no other purpose." 368. of those, i.e., one of those. 369. alchemy. The alcha mists claimed to have the powek of changing the baser metals into gold. Readers of Ben Jonson's Alchemist will know their methods. Raymond Lully, or Lullius, a famous writer on chemistry and medicine, and on occult science, was stoned to death in 1315. Arabic aZ = the; Kimia, which is derived from the Greek chemia = chemistry. 370. sublimate. To sublimate is to heat ofi a solid and condense the vapour. This was one of the pri>CoBS9S of the alchemist. 3 OM 24 AREOPAGITICA. 880 it deserves, for the tree tliat bore it, until I can dissect one by one the properties it has. But I have first to finish, as was propounded, what is to be thought in general of readin g books, whatever sort they be, and whether be more the benefit or the harm that thence proceeds ? Not to insist upon the examples of Moses, Daniel and *aul, who were skilful in all the learning of the Egyptians,' Chaldeans and Greeks, which could not probably be without reading their books of all sorts— in Paul especially, who thought it no defilement to insert into Holy Scripture the sentences of three Greek poets, and one of them a tragedian — the question was notwithstanding sometimes controverted among the primitive doctors, but with great odds on that side which affirmed it both lawful and profitable, as was then evidently perceived, when Julian the Apostate, and subtlest enemy to our faith, made a decree forbidding Christians the study of heathen learning : for, said he, they wound us with our own 390 weapons, and with our own arts and sciences they overcome - us. And indeed the Christians were put so to their shifts by this crafty means, and so much in danger to dechne into all 373. for the tree. We now write " from the tree." 878. Moses. "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." — Acts vii., 22. 378. Daniel. '* God gave them (the four children) knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom ; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams." — Daniel i. 7. 379. Paul. See note on I. 383. I\Iilton's object in bringing this not very strong argument has been mentioned in the Chapter ^n '< Style and Argument." 383. three Greek poets. These are : — Aratus, or Oleajithes, in Acts xvii. 28. Euripides, in Cor. xv. 33. Epimenides in Titus 1. 12. Grotius, however, thinka that the second comes from Menander. 383. a tragedian, Euripides. 335. primitive doctors, the early Fathers of the Church. 385. odds, advantage. 387. Julian the Apostate. Gibbon says that by Julian's edict the Christians were directly forbidden to teach, and, since they would not frequent the schools of the Pagan, they were indirectly forbidden to learn. The Emperor Julian, who for- sook the Christian tenets, and was hence called the Apostate, died in a.d. 363. 391. to their shifts, to a loss, in difficulties. 392. to decline, modern English " of declining." ^c^^t^ 2. J^<^^C>i^Cr>'--^ -/V z^*' JL<_ jo7 TEXT AND NOTES, ignorance, that tjie two Apollinarii/ were fain, as a man may say, to coin all( the" seven liberal science^ out of the Bible, reducing it into divers forms of orations, poems, dialogues, even to the calculating of a new Christian grammar. But, saith thai historian Socrates : The Providence of God provided better than the industry of ApoUinarius a^nd his son, by taking away that illiterate^ law with the life of_jiim who devised it. So great an injm-y th ey then held it to b e df>priv(;^.d nf TTpllAmV. learning ; and thought it a persecution more undermining, and. s ecretly de caying the Church, than the open cruelty of Deciua or Diocletian. And perhaps it was the same poHtic drift that the devil whipped St. Jerome in a lenten dream for reading Cicero ; or else it was a phantasm bred by the fever which had then seized him. For had an angel been his discipliner, unless 393. the two Apollinarii. Apolhnarius, Bishop of Alex- andria and his father. They produced a sacred history after the style of Homer in 24 books, and imitations of the Greek poets. 393. fain, glad. k.^. fczgen. 394. the seven liberal sciences, the Trivium : — Gram- mar, Dialogue, Rhetoric; the Quadrivium : — Music, Arithme- tic, Geometry, Astronomy. 397. the historian Socrates, not the great Socrates, but the fifth century writer of an Ecclesiastical History. 399. illiterate, because tend- ing to make the Christians illiterate. 399. him, Julian the Apostate. 400. Hellenic, Greek. 400-403. Milton seems here to follow Bacon, who wrote : — " The edict of the Emperor Julian was esteemed and ac- counted a more pernicious engine and machination against the Christian Church than were all the sanguinary prosecutions of his predecessors. "--Bacon's ^dt-ancc- ment of Learning, 402. Decius, Emperor of Rome, A.D. 249—251. 403. Diocletian, Emperor of Rome, A.D. 284—305. Both these Emperors severely perse- cuted the Christians. 403. was the same, was (for) the same. 403. politic drift, poHtio intention. 404 et seq. the deyil, etc. Milton's spelling in this passage is interesting : — Divell, whipt, fantasm, feaver, seis'd. 404. St. Jerome, died a.d. 420. 404. lenten dream. This dream occured to St. Jerome in the middle of Lent, when he was so weak through fasting, frequent vigils, and tears as to be in a state of fear. The "antiquus serpens" approached him and accused him of being a Ciceronian and not a Christian. The dream was described in a letter written in a.d. 3S4 to the nun Eustochium to prevent her from reading the classio authors. 400 1>0^ 26 ABEOPAGITICA. it were for dwelling too much upon Ciceronianisms, jEind had chastised tho reading, not the vanity, it had been plainly partial ; 7?rsi, to correct him for grave Cicero, and not ,fol 410( scurril Plautus, whom he confesses to have been reading noi long before ; next^ to correct him only, and let so many more) ancient fathers wax old in those pleasant and florid studies without the lash of such a tutoring apparition ; insomuch that Basil teaches how some good use may be made of Mai\jites^ a '\, sportful poem, not now extant, writ by Homer; and why not then oi Morgante, &n Italian romance much to the same purpose? But if it be agreed we shall be tried by visions, there is a vision recorded by Eusebius, far ancienter Jthan this tale of Jerome to the^ nun Eustochium, and, besides, has) 420 nothing of a fever in it. Dionysius Alexandrinus /was about 407. dwelling . . . Cice- ronianisms. Studying the beauties and peculiarities of Cicero in order to make more perfect his Latin style. This Milton calls "vanity." 408. had been, conditional mood. 410. scurril Plautus. We should now write " scurrilous," which Milton also uses. The form " scurril " is perhaps used to avoid the repeti^on of the "us." Fdn Plautus, see note to I. 223. 410. 411. not long before. As Jerome confesses in the letter. Plautus sumebatur in manus.=='' Plautus was taken into my hands." 411. so many more. The study of the classic authors was a favourite one with all the Fathers of the Church, e.g., Basil, mentioned in I. 414, and St. Augustine. 412. wax, A.S. wacsian=to grow. 414: BasiljBishopofCaesarea, A.D. 370-379. 414. Margites. Not now extant, is attributed to Homer on doubtful grounds. Pour lines of it are quoted in Plato and Aristotle. 415. sportful, wanton, im- proper. 415. writ, written ; cf. l. 549. 416. Morgante. 11 Morgante Maggiore, a burlesque and satirical poem, was written by Luigi Pulci, in 1488. 418. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, a.d. 315 — 338. He wrote an Ecclesiastical History in ten volumes. 418. ancienter, notice the form. 419. and besides, has, and (which) besides, has. An example of Milton's likings for elliptical expressions. The date of Jerome's dream was A.D. 384. Eusebius died A.D. 338. *' Far ancienter " (Z.418) seems therefore a slight exaggeration. 420. Dionysius Alexandrinus Dionysius was Bishop of Alex- andria, A.D. 247—265. */*• f<^U-ma. ^^ — ~ — y 3 OS'/: ^ i^XT AND KOTES. i. the year 240 a person of greajbf name) in the church for^iety ajid learning, who had wont j to avail himself much against heretio3 by being conversant ' in their books ; ' until a certain presbyter laid it scrupulously to his conscience, how he durst venture Waself among th ose defilind volu mes. The worthy man, loth to give offence, fell into a new debate with himself what was to be thought ; when suddenly a vision sent from God — it is his own (epistle ■ that so avers ip — confirmed him in these words: " Eead any books whatever come to thy ^ hands, f or thou art sufficient both to judge aright and to/ 430 examine each matter." To this revelation he assented the sooner, as he confesses, because it was answerable to that of the Apostle to the Thessalonians : " Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." And he might have added anoth er remarkable saying of the same author l y" To the pure all ^^^^ i things ar e pu re ; " not only meats and drinks, but all kinds J of knowledge whether of good or evil ;^ the knowledge cannot\ [Jefile, nor consequently the books, if the will and conscience J' jb5"not"~defiredr/For books are as meats and viands are ; some hi good, some of evil substance ; and yet God in that 440 \ (unapocryphal vision said without exception, "Kise, Peter,\/ \\ "kill and eat," leaving the choice to each man's discretion. A » Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomach differ Httle oif nothing from unwholesome; and best books to a naughty mind are not unappKcable to occasions of evil. Bad meats 421. name, reputation. 422. had wont, was accus- tomed. Wont from A.S. wunian= to be accustomed. 422. to avail himself, to strengthen his arguments. ' 423. conversant, well versed. 424. presbyter, elder in the Church, priest ; from Greek presbyteros = elder. 424. scrupulously, as a matter of scruple. 432. answerable to, in accord- ance with. 433. Thessalonians* I. Thessalonians v. 21. 433. Prove, try. Cf. "The exception proves (tries) the rule," 435,436. To the pure, etc. Titus I. 15. 439. be not defiled, i.e., be- fore reading. 441. unapocryphal. Acts X. 9-16. 441. without exception, i.e., making no distinction between clean and unclean. ?o7 .6 AREOPAGITICA, will scarce breed good nourisliment in the healthiest 8on- ■ <30ction ; but herein the difference is of bad books, that tliey to a discreet and judicious reader serve in many respects to discover, to confute, to forewarn and to illustrate. 450 Whereof what better witness can ye expect I should produce, than one of your own now sitting in ParHa- ment, the ^ chief of learned men reputed in this land, Mr . Se ldony' whose volume of natural and national lawj proves, not only by great authorities brought together, but by \exquisite - reasons and theorems almost mathematically ^ demonstrative, that all opinions, yea errors, known, read, and ( collated, are of main service and assistance toward the speedy attainment of w hat is>j)ru est. {I conceive, therefore, that when God did enlarge ^EEe~ uui Tersal diet^of man's body, saving ever" 150 the rules of temperance. He then also, as before, left " arbitrary' the dieting and repasting'of our minds; as wherein every mature man might have to exercise his own leading capacity. How great a virtue is temperance I How much of moment through the whole life of man I Yet God commits the managing so great a trust, ^ without particular law or prescription, wholly to the' demeanouij of every grown man. And therefore when He |l 446, 447. concoction. Milton uses the word " concoct " to denote the process of eating. ••Concoction" would therefore seem to be best taken as meaning stomach, or digestion. 453. Mr. Selden sat in the Long Parliament for Oxford. The book referred to is De jure Naturali et Gentium juxta disciplinam Hebrcsoricm. ' ' Of natural law and (che law) of nations according to the methods of the Hebrews." It was published in 1610. 455. exquisite (Lat. ex = out, qu(sro = I search) is used by Milton in its original sense of " carefully sought out." 457. collated, compared with one another. 459. enlarge the universal diet, i.e. , made man omnivorous . " But knowledge is as food, and needs no less Her temperance over appetite." —Paradise Lost, VII. 126. 459. saving ever, reserving always, and therefore restricting by. 460. arbitrary, a matter of judgment ; Lat. arbiter = an umpire. 461. repasting, feeding. "Repast " is only used now as a substantive. 462. leading capacity, i.e., special talent. 466. demeanour, care. ■{ TEXT AND NOTES. !29 Himse]| tabled the Jews from heaven, jthatiomer^ which was every man's daily portion of manna, is'compnted to have been more than might have well sufficed the heartiest feeder thrice as many meaJs. For those actions which enter into a man, rather than issue out of him, and therefore defile not, God uses not to captivate under a perpetual childhood of prescription, but trusts him with the gift of reason to be his own chooser.; djhere were; but Httle work left for preaching, if law and compulsion should grow so fast upon those things which heretofore were governed only by exhortation. (^Solomon informs^us that much reading is a weariness to the flesh ; but neither'^he'nor other ; inspired^ lauthor tells us that such or such reading is "unlawful : yet . certainly had God th onghf. gnnrl io- limit us hprftTTTjjt^hn.fl hp.p.n nnwh-^fn r , r f^ . f > ypprl fm^-tfv4>ft.vA^ told US what wag unln.wfnl, than what w^"^ yyApvigoj-no. As for the burning of those Ephes ian bpg^^sb y St. Paul's converts, 'tis rephed the books were magic, the Syriac so renders them, was a private a ct, a voluntary act, and leaves us to a voluntary imitation :_J}he men in remorse bm-nt those books which were the magistrate by this exampld is not appointed: another might perhaps have Good and evil we know in and 10 f 470 / 480 m their own these men' practised the books, read them in some sort usefully." the field of this world grow up together almost inseparably the knowledge of good is so involved and interwoveiuwith the knowledge of evil, and in so many cunning resemblEJices hardlv 490 467. tabled the Jews, sup- plied the tables of the Jews with food. See Exodus xvi. 467. omer, about three and a half quarts. 470. those actions. Matthew XV. 17-20. 471. issue. Norman-French isszie, from Lat. ea; = out, and itum = to go. Issue and exit are, therefore, doublets. 474. there were, there would be. Notice the conditional use. 476, 477. Solomon informs. See Eccles. xii. 12. 478 . nor other, nor any other. 482. Ephesian books. •' Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men." — Acts xix. 19. 486. is not appointed, i.e., is not directed to deal with it. 487. practised the books, i.e., practised what the bookg taught. / AREOPAGITICA. I to be_discern ed, that those '^nfused seeds vvhich were imposed upon Psyche as an incessant labour to cull out, and\sort asunder,ywere not more intermixed. It was from out the rind of onei^apgle tasted^ that the knowledge of good and evil, asktwo twins ^leaving together, leaped forth into the world. And per- ■/ haps this is that/doom ^hich Adam fell into of knowing good and ^vil, that is to^^y of knowing good by evil. As therefore the te of man now is,.^liaT wisdom can there be to choose, what 5QQ continence to forbear without the knowledge of evil? iHe that ■ can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits anaseeming^ pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that ' which is truly l^etter, he is the true wayfaring ; Christian?/ I j. c annot Tpraise aV fugitive and clm >tfirp.d virf.nf>^ iinp.yfirm'sf^rfn.prt TiT^V>rf>f^,t,ViPrl, f.Vig.f. n P.vP. y sallJeS Op t ^'^d spph bpr nVlvAvpjp,|'Y, Kni; slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland lis to be run 492, 493. those confused seeds . . . Psyche. The refer- ence is to the story of Cupid and Psyche as told by Apuleius in his "Golden Ass." Psyche drew upon herself the wrath of Venus for having won the love of her son Cupid. Venus flew upon her, tore her garments into shreds, pulled out her hair, and shook her by the head ; then took the seeds of wheat, barley, millet, poppy, vetches, lentils and beans, and, mixing them up into one confused heap, ordered Psyche to sort them out before evening. The fable relates that the task was per- formed for her by the friendly aid of some ants. 493. cull out, pick out ; Fr. ciieillir = to gather. 493, 494. sort asunder, ar- range in their proper kinds. 495. apple tasted; one of Milton's inversions. 495, 496. two twins; a pleonasm or redundancy. " Twin " is from A.S. tw(2gen= two. 497. doom, judgment, penalty; A.S. deman=to judge. 499. now is, i.e., under this Licensing Ordinance. 500. continence to forbear, continence in forbearing, 501. her. See chapter on Langiiage, on the absence of "its." 503. wayfaring. The original of 1644 has warfarinq, but this, according to Holt White, was a correction made by the proof reader, and not by Milton, who wrote '* wayfaring," as opposed to "cloistered," in the next line. Faring, A S. faran = to go. 504. fugitive, i.e., fleeing from temptation. 504. cloistered; Fr. cloUre, from L. c/a2is^r«m = a shutting up. 505. sallies; from the Latin saZio = I leap. 506. that immortal garland the crown of immortal life. 3. ! exploit of that gallant man who thought jtc/poiind up\the by shutting his ,pai:k.- gate. Besides another inconveniei learned men be the first receivers out of books and; dispreaders) both of vice and error, how shall the licensers themselvers be confided in, unless we can confer upon them, or they assume to themselves above all others in the land, the grace of infallibihty and(uncorruptedness^ And again, if it be true that a wise man hke a ^ood refiner ^^n gather gold out of the drossies t volume, and that a fool will be a fool with the best book, yea, or without book, there is n\ reason that we should deprive a wise man of any advantagA to his wisdom, while we seek to . restrain from a fool that whi^h being restrained will be no hindrance to his folly. For ^ni^re should be so much exact- ness always used to keep that from him which is unfit for his reading, we should in the judgment of^ Aristotle i not only) but of Solomon and of our Saviour, not vouchsafe him good precepts, and by consequence not willingly admit him to good books, as being certain that a wise man will make better use of an idle 610 .. pamphlet than a fool will do of sacred Scripture. \ 'Tis nex t alleged we must not expose ourselves to tempta- ' y Cions without necessity, and next to that, not employ our time in vain things. To both these objections one answer will serve, out of the grounds already laid, that to all men such books are not temptations, nor vanities, but useTiil ^rugs and rnaterials "wherewith to temper^ and compose effective and strohg medicines, v/hich man's life cannot want. The rest, as children and childish men, who have not the art to quaUfy and 692. pound up; A.S. pyndan = to enclose. 594. dispreaders, spreaders abroad. 598. uncorruptedness. We now correct this hybrid into incorruptibility. 606. Aristotle, the famous logician of the Greeks and the tutor of Alexander the Great. See " Historical Notes." 606. not only, in modern construction would precede "of Aristotle." 616. temper, modify. 617. want, do without.. 618. qualify, to road wUh qualifications, or with judgment^. V. .^C^fUL. ^-c-,>t_ a£yl^ ^^-^-^^rS^ "X— -o—jc:^CJ-*< ^ ha^ ve K ed!-' )]V TEXT AlsD NOTES. 37 prepare these working minerals) well may be exhorted to forbear, but hindered forcibly they cannot be by all the 620 Hcensing that Sainted Inquisition could ever yet contrive k which is what I promised to deliver next : That this order licensing conduces noth ing to the end for which it was framed : and hath almost prevented I me by being clear abeady while 'thus inucii Jiath been explaining.) See the ingenuity of Truth, who, when she gets a free and willing hand, opens herself faster than the pace of method and discourse can overtake her . It was the task which I began with, To show that no nation, or well instituted state, if they valued books at all, did ever use this way of licensing ; and it might be answered, that this is a 630 piece of prudence lately discovered. To which I return, that as it was a thing shght and obvious to think on, so if it had been difificult to find out, there wanted not among them long since, (^vho suggested such a course; which they not following, leave us a pattern of their judgment, that it was not the not knowing, but the not approving, which was, the cause o f their not usin g it. / Plato Jaman of high authority, indeed, but least of all for his Commonwealth,!!! the Book of his Laws, which no city'ever yet received, fed his fancy with making many edicts to his airy tburgomasters, which they who otherwise admire him 640 v/ish had been rather buried and excused in the genial cups of 619. •working minerals; so called, as containing good metal mixed with dross. G24. prevented, preceded, anticipated; Lat. ^Jre = before, venio = l come. Cf. "Thy special grace preventing us." — Prayer Book (Collect for Easter Day). 625. been explaining, been in course of explanation. "Ex- plaining" is a gerund. 625. ingenuity, ingenuous- ness, openness ; not in its modern meaning of " skill." 634. who suggested, who would have suggested. 687 Plato, the famous Greek writer. Author of The Republic, Phaedo, De Lcgibus, etc. The pupil and follower of Socrates. See Historical Notes. 637. high authority, great reputation. 639. ever yet received, ever attempted to follow, i.e., as a guide. 639. with, by. 640. airy, imagined, the creatures of his imagination. 640. burgomasters, mayors, like the German burgomasters. 33 ARBOPAQITICA. 660 ad. Academic jnight sitting. By which laws he seems to toleratt no kind of learning,V^ut by unalterable decree, consisting most of practical traditions, to the attainment whereof a library of smaller bulk than his own dialogues would be abundant. (And there alsoN enacts, that SO^_£0§i should so much as read to dny private man what he had written, until the judges and law- , keepers had seen it an(](^allowedl it : But that Plato meant this ilaw peculiarly to that commonwealth which he had imagined, and /to no other, is evident. '\Y)iy was he nqt else a lawgiver to him- self, but a transgressor, andf to be expelledjby h^ own magistrates, both for the'\ wanton epigrams and dialogues| which he made, and his perpetual reading of; Sophron Mimus \and^AristophanesA books of grossest infamy, and also for commending the latter of them — ^though he were the ma^licious libeller of (his chief friends-4-to be read by the ; tyrant JDionysius, Vho had little need of such trash to spend his time on, but that he knew 642. Academic. TheAcade- mus was one of the famous groves of Athens, where Plato had a residence, and where he feasted the wits and philosophers of Athens. 643. but by, except that fixed by. 645. 646. And there also, and there he also. 648. allowed, approved. 651. to be expelled, deserv- ing of expulsion. A Latinism. 652. wanton epigrams and dialogues. These terms are too strong for any of Plato's dialogues, though the Phcedo is probably meant. Milton's puritanical training makes him severe both on Plato, Sophron and Aristophanes. 653. Sophron Mimus. Soph- ron, the writer of Mirmis, wrote about B.C. 400. " The mimes of Sophron were of Buch reckoning with PJato as to take them nightly to read on, and after make them his pil- low." — Milton's Apulogy for Smectymnuus. Few fragments of these mimes remain, and Milton seems, without foundation, to have classed them with the licentious Roman mimes. 658. Aristophanes. See the note to l. 187 and also the ** Historical Notes." 655, 656. his chief friends ; e.g., Socrates, the friend of Plato, is libelled by Aristo- phanes in his Clouds. 656. tyrant, an absokite ruler, without the modern bad sense. 656. Dionysius was Tyrant of Syracuse. Died B.C. 367. See note to I. 387. Dionysius made Attic Greek the court language of Syracuse, and invited the Attic philosophers to attend his court. Plato was one of those who accepted the invitation. V n^H. V /. " both alikcy' This justifies the high Providence of God, Who,^/^^-^ "^though He commands us temperance, justice, continence, yet .>'--' pours out before us even to a profuseness all desirable things, 750 and gives us minds that can wander beyond all limit and satiety."' Why should we then affect a rigour contrary to the manner of God and of Nature, by abridging ox scanting ^those means, which books freely permitji£jd_^r_e, both tQ_tlifi_,trial of virtue and the exercise of t ruth ? It^ would be better done, to learn that the law must needs be frivolous which goes to restrain things uncertainly ; and yet equally -working to good and to evil. Ajid were I the chooser, a( dram of well-doing should be preferred before many times as much the forcible hindrance of evil doing. (.For God sure esteems 76O 740. bereave, A.S. hereafian =to rob. 745. look, &c. In modern EngHsh we should write, " Ac- cording as we thus expel sin, Bo to the same extent we also expel virtue." The virtue or vice lies in the resisting or yielding. 753. scanting, giving scant measure of. M.E. scanty Ice- landic sA;a7H^ = short. 754. books freely permitted, i.e., unlicensed. 756. that the law, that that law. 757. uncertainly, i.e., at the whim or judgment of a licenser. 758. dram, contracted from the Greek word drachvie — a small coin. 44 AEEOPAGITICA. / the growth and completing of one virtuous person more than I tlie restraint of ten vicious. And albeit whatever tMng' we* hear or see,} sitting, walking, travelling, or conversing, may be fitly called our book, and is of the same effect that writings' are, yet grant the thing to be prohibited were only books it appears that ^Jg QV^^^ bif.})(;>r| Qjg fa,y insuffici ent to the end which it intends. Do we not see, not once or oftener, but weekly, that (continued court-libel /against the Parliament and City, printed, as the wet sheets-'' can witness, and dispersed \ 770 among us for all that licensing can do ? Yet this is the^ ^ prime) service a man would think, wherein this Order should "V give proof of itself. If it were executed, you'll say. But, N certain, if execution be remiss or blindfold now and, f in this particular! what will it be hereafter and in ^ybther books? If then the Order shall not be vain j aiid( frustrate,^ behold a i^ewlabour. Lords -aiuL..CQ]3impns I \ Ye must repeal and proscribe all scandalous and j unlicensed books already printed andydivulged ;< after ye have / drawn them up into a Ust, that all may know which are 780 condemned and which not ; and ordain that no foreign books ^^be deUvered out of custody, till they have been read over. 1 This office will requh*e the whole time of not a few overseers, and those no (yulgar )men. There be also books which are partly useful and excellent, partly culpable and pernicious; 762. albeit, although, not- withstanding that. 762, 763. we hear or see, Cf. the well-known lines in As Tou Like It, II. i. 16-17. ♦• Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 768. continued court-libel, printed on behalf of the King, and called Mercuricus Aulicus; appeared regularly from the beginning of 16i2 to the end of 1645. 771. prime, the service of prime or first importance, 774. in this particular, i.e., in repressing violent Royalist literature. 776. frustrate, useless, as in I. 708. 778. divulged, published, sold. 783. vulgar, unlearned, ig- norant. HJ ,y,. '<. TEXT AND NOTES. V 45 tMs work will ask as many m ore officialsj/to make expurgations and expunctipns, that the Commonwealth of Learning be not damnified. :Tn fine,; when the multitude of books increase upon their hands, ye must be fainjto catalogue all those printers who are found frequently offending, and forbid the importation of their whole suspected typography. In a word, that this your Ordjsr may be exact and not deficient, ye must reform it perfectly according to the model o^ Trent and ^Seville, which I know ye abhor to do. Yet though ye should, condescend]to this, which God fcrbid, the Order still would be but fruitless and defective to that end whereto ye meant it. ^ If to prevent^ sects and schisms, who is so unread or so uncatechised inv story,) that hath not heard of many sects! refusing books' as a hindrance, and preserving their doctrine unmixed for many ages only by unwritten traditions ? The Christian faith, for that was once a schism, is not unknown to have spread all over Asia, ere any Gospel or Epistle was seen in writing. If the amendment of manners be aimed at, look into Italy and Spain, whether those places be one scruple the better, the honester, the wiser, the chaster, since all the inquisitional rigour that hath been executed upon books. -..^ ^ Another reason whereby to make it plam that this Order will miss the end it seeks, consider by th^ qnah'ty ^'^''^'^^^ ought to be in every licenser. It cannot be denied but that he who is made judge to sit upon the birth or death of books whether 792. Seyille ; an allusion to the Spanish Inquisition. 793. condescend here means ** agree." 795. If to prevent, if in- tended to prevent. Notice that " prevent " is here used in its modern meaning. 796. story, history, of which word "story" is an abbrevia- tion. 797. refusing books. As the Druids did, and as Freemasons are also thought to do. 790 800 i 785. officials. At this time a title of great reproach, owing to its connection with Laud. "An official was the name of the officer in the Ecclesiastical Courts to whom the Bishops deputed the cognizance of spi- rituiil offences. Laud had let . them loose on the country."— Milton's Tract o?i Reformation. 787. In fine, finally, in the end. 788. fain, A.S. fcsgn = glSid. 792. Trent refers to the Indexes ordered by the Trentine Council. 46 AEEOPAQITICA. 810 they may he wafted mto this world or not, had need to be man abov^ the common measure both studious, learned, and judicious /there may be else no mean /mistakes in thel censure of what is passable or not ; which is also no mean injury. H he be of such worth as behoves him, there cannot be a more tedious and unpleasing/journey- world a greater loss of timo levied upon his head, than to be made the perpetual reader of /unchosen\books and pamphlets, oft-times huge volumes. There is no book that is acceptable unless at certain seasons ; but to be enjoined the reading of that at all times, and in a hand scarce 82i) legible, whereof three pages (would not dowri at any time in the fairest print, is an' imposition\vhich I cannot believe how he that values time and his own studies, or is but of a^ensible nostril, -should be able to endure. In this one thing I crave leave of the present licensers to be pardoned for so thinking ; who doubtless took this office up, looking on it through their obedience to the Parliament, whose command perhaps made all things seem easy and unlaborious to them ; but that this short trial hath (wearied them out already, their own expressions and excuses to them who rhake so many journeys to solicit their 830 license are testimony enough. Seeing therefore those who 7X377 possess the employjnent by all evident signs wish them- selves well rid of it, and (that no man of worth, none that is not 820. would not down, would not go down. The omission of' the verb of motion before, adverbs of motion was common; 821. imposition, task. 822. 823. sensible nostril, of an acute discriminating taste. Used as we now use the ex- pression ' ' man of delicate taste." Sensible = sensiti\e', nostril is from A.S. nas = nose', tliryl — passage. 828. wearied them. Mabbett, one of the licensers, gave up his office in 1649. See chapter on «• Cause and Effect.* 832. that, seeing that. 812. mean, moderate, small. 812. censure, judgaient. 815. journey-work, journey- man's work, i.e., the work of a day labourer, hence mechanical. Fr. journee ; L. diurnus = daily. 817. unchosen, i.e., by him- self. Not books of his own choice. 817. pamphlets, Skeat favours the derivation of the wofd from Paviphila, a Latin writer of numerous epitomes, who lived in the first century. 810. that, that book. That is used disparagingly, as in 1. 554. ^- 7(A^ HuUX^/W /f<>^^ to ?. (1»(W^ >^^^ ^f^i-*^^ ■T'^f-ijuJ (X^JL^ u-O"*-*^ TEXT AND NOTES. rf L c(plain unthrift of his own hours, is ever Hkely to succeed them, except he mean to put himself to the salary of a press-corrector, we may easily foresee what kind of licensers we are to expect hereafter — either ignorant imperious and remiss, or basely "-^ pecuniary. This is what I had to show, wlierein this Order/ . cannot conduce to that end, whereof it bears the intention. ' ^f^4J. lastly proceed from the no good it can do to the mf^nrffigt ^ hurt it_causes/hi being first the greatest discouragement and' 840 affront that can be offereii to learning and to learned men It was the complaint and^; lamentation of prelates, jupon every least breath of a motion to remove/ pliu-aUtiesj and distribute more equally Church revenues, that t&en all learning would be for ever dashed) and discouraged. But as for that opinion, I never found cause to think that the tenth part of learning stood or fell with the clergy : nor could I ever but hold it for a sordid and unworthy speech of any churchman who had a competency left him. (^If_Jiherefore ye be loth to dishearten utterly and discontent, hot the mercenary crew of false pre- tenders to learning, but the free and ingenuous sort of such as evidently were born to study and love learning for itself, not for lucre or any other end but the service of God and of Truth? and perhaps that lasting fame and perpetuity of praise which God and good men have consented shall be the reward of those whose pubhshed labours advance the good of mankind, then know, that so far to distrust the judgment and the honesty of one who hath but a common repute in learning and i 833. plain unthrift, manifest waster. 834. salary, originally meant salt-money. Latin saZ= salt. • 838. whereof, &c., which it is intended to effect. 842. lamentation of prelates. '• They shame not to profess that unless we fat them like boars, and cram them as they list with wealth, with Deaneries and Pluralities, with Baronies and Stately Preferments, all Learning and Religion will go underfoot." —Milton. These were the arguments used against the Bill of 1641, abolishing Bishops, Deans and Chapters. 843. pluralities, the holding of two or more church appoint- ments. 845. dashed, dashed down. 850. discontent, make dis- contented. \ 850 48 AREOPAGITICA. never yet offended, as not to count him fit to print his nynd 860 without a tutor and examiner, lest he should drop a schism or something of corruption, is the greatest displeasure an^ indignity to a free and knowing gpijit-that can be put upon himj What advantage is it to b^ a man over it is to be a boy at scnool, if we have onl/ scaped the |erular)to come under the ' fescu^f an Imprimatur, if serious and elaborate writings, as^ if they were no more than the( theme; of a grammar-lad under his pedagogue, must ^ not be uttered without the (cursory ? He who ' '-^jes of a (temporisingi and (extemporising) licenser is not trusted with his own actions, his drift not being known to 370 be evil, and( standing id the hazard of law and penalty, has no great argument to think himself reputed in the Commonwealth wherein he was born for other than a fool or a foreigner. When a man writes to the world he summons up all his reason and deliberation to assist him ; he searches, meditates, is ; industrious, and likely consults and confers with his judicious j friends ; after all which donel he takes himself to be informed in what he writes as well as any that writ before him. If in this the most consummate act of his fidelity and ripeness, no ■^ years, no industry, no former proof of his abilities can bring him sdb ^° *^^^ state of matmity as not^to be still mistrusted and ^ suspected, unless he carry all his considerate/ diligence, all his midnight watchings and expense of 'PaUadian oil to the hasty view of an unleisured licenser, perhaps much his younger, 864. scaped, escaped. 864. ferular, a rod with a flattened end, used by school- masters of that time. L. ferula from f 67-10 = 1 strike. 865. fescu, a pointer. 866. theme, subject set for composition. 867. cursory, over-looking, running over. Latin curro, cur sum = 1 run. 868. temporising, studying only the policy of the moment. 868. extemporising, acting withoi]»t serious thought. 870. standing to, ready to risk. 876. after all which done, after the doing of all which. A Latinism. 881. considerate, thoughtful, considering. 882. Palladian oil. PaUas Athene was the Goddess of Learning, and the olive tree was dedicated to her. P 'i T^*^ r^^t^*^ TEXT AND NOTES, ^9 t I perhaps far his inferior in judgment, perhaps one who never J^new the labour of book-writing, and, if he be not repulsed or sHghted, must appear in print like a pimyjwith his guardian and his censor's hand on the back of his title to be his bail and surety, that he is no idiot, or seducer, it cannot be bat a dishonour and derogation to the author, to the book, to the privilege and dignity of Learning. And what if the author shall 890 be one so copious of fancy as to have many things welk"-^ worth the adding come into his mind after licensing, while the I book is yet under the press, which not seldom happens to the "^ best and dihgentesVwriters — and that perhaps a dozen times in one book I The printer dares not go beyond his Hcensed copy ; ^ so often then must the author trudge to his leave-giver, that those his new insertions may be viewed ; and many a jaunt will be made, ere that Licenser, for it must be the same man, can either be found, or found at leisure. Meanwhile either the press must stand still, which is no small damage, or the author 900 lose his accuratest thoughts, and send the book forth worse than he had made it, which to a dihgent writer is the greatest melancholyynd vexation that can befall. And how can a man \ teach, with authority, which is the life of teaching, how can he \ be a doctor in his book, as he ought to be, or else had better be ) silent,; whena$ all he teaches, all he/delivers, p but under the tuition, under the correction of his patriarchal licenser to blot ' i 886. puny, weakling. Literally a posthumous child. Fr. puis-ne ; Lat. 2'os^= after, natuvi = \iirth. 887. title, title-page. 894, diligentest; cf. acutest, accuratest, etc. 897. jaunt, Fr. jancer = to ride a prancing horse. Here used in its modern sense of a purposeless or unnecessary walk. 898. same man. This does not appear in the order of Parliament {q.v.). 901. accuratest. Cf. "dili- gentest," l. 894. 903. melancholy, mortifica- tion of spirit. 905. doctor, a teacher. 906. whenas, when, seeing that. 906. delivers, brings forth. 907. patriarchal; an allu- sion to Laud, who was accused of copying Wolsey in desiring to become Patriarch of the Western Church. 60 AREOPAGITICA. or alter what precisely accords not with the hide-bound nnmoni which he calls his judgment ; when every acute reader upon 910 the first sight of a ^edantio^icence will be ready with these like words to ding the book a quoit's distance from him : — "I hate a pupil teacher^. I endure not an instructor that comes to me under the wardship of an overseeing fist; I know nothing of the licenser, but that I have his own hand here for his arrogance ; who shall warrant me his judgment "? Ji^he State, sir," replies the (^tationer^ but has £(, quick return ;~^The State shall be my governors, but not my critics; they ma y be m inttuknrL in the " choice of a licenser, as easily as this licen sfiv r^Q-y-bp^ mistaken ,in an auth or ; this is some common stuff." And he might add. 920 from Sir Francis Bacon, Th£bi such authorized booh^are but the language of the times^\For though a Hcenser should happen rtcr be judicious more than ordinary, which will 'be a great f jeopardy of the next succession,! yet his very office and his commission enjoins him to let pass nothing but what isVyulgarly / received already. Nay, which is more lamentable, if the work of any deceased author, though never so famous in his lifetime and even to this day, come to their hands for licence to be printed or reprinted, if there be found in his book one •'The little Patriarch frets and fumes to hear How cheap his knacks are sold in Lambeth Fair." — Quoted from Somers' Tracts^ 1641, by Holt White. Milton, in his Tractate oil Beformation, accuses Laud of scrambling for a Patriarchdom. 908. hide-bound, i.e., un- elastic, stereotyped, narrowed. 910. pedantic, schoolmaster- like. 911. ding, fling away angrily. 912. a pupil teacheF, a teacher treated like a pupil. 916. Stationer, publisher. 916. quick return, ready reply. 920. from Sir Francis Bacon. In a tract on Church Controversies, published in 1589. 920, 921. are but the lan- guage of the times, i.e., reflect only the opinions in favour at the time. 922. 923. be a great jeopardy of the next succession, make his RUQcessor's task diflicult. 923. jeopardy, from Fr. jeu parti, Lat. jocus partitus = a divided game ; a game with two sides. 924. vulgarly, commonly. 926. never so famous. C/. I. 5C8. TEXT AND NOTES. 61 eenteuce of a venturous^edge uttered in the height of zeal — and who knows whether it might not be, the dictate of a divine 930 spirit, yet not : suiting witW every low decrepitjhumoiyr of their ^ own — though it were* Knox )himself, the Eeformer of a Kingdom, \ that spake it, they will not pardon him their dash/: the sense of that great man shall to all posterity be lost for the fulness^Tdr Ihe" presum.ptuous rashness of a perfunctory licenser. And to whp.t an author this violence hath been lately done, and in what book of greatest consequence to be faithfully published, I could now instance, but shall forbear till a more convenient season. ^ Yet if these things be not resented seriously and timely by them who have the remedy in their 940 power, but that such iron-moulds as these shall have authority to gnaw out the choicest periods of exqtrisitestx books, and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest men after death, the more sorrow vsdll belong to that hapless race of men, whose misfortune it is to have understanding. Henceforth let no man care to learn, or care to be more than worldly wise ; for certainly in higher matters to be ignorant and slothful, to be a common steadfast dunce, will be the only pleasant life, and only in request. And as it is a particular disesteem of every knowing persom 950 ahve, and most injurious to the written labours and monumentsk of the dead, so to me it seems an undervaluing and vihfying ofl the whole Nation. I cannot set so light by all the invention/ the art, the wit, the grave and solid judgment which is im 929. Yenturous, bold. 931. suiting with, in agree- ment with. 931. decrepit, lit., noise- less, hence feeble. L. decrepitus, 932. Knox, the great Scotch Reformer lived 1515-1572. An sdition of Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland was published in 1644 in a mutilated form. 933. pardon him their dash, .^pntQ him their deleting mark. 934, 935. fearfulness, timidity, fulness of fear. 937. lately done. Holt White thinks this refers to Coke's Institutes, which were published in 1641, seven years after Coke's death. 941. iron-moulds, spoilers by marking. 942. exquisitest. Cf. " accuratest," I. 901, etc. 953. set so light, value so lightly, set so light a value en. wt AREOPAGITICA. England^ as that it can be comprehended in anjii twenty capacities jhow good soever : much less that it should not pass except their superintendence be over it, except it be sifted and strained with their strainers, that it should be uncurrent without their (manual stamp, j Truth and understandipg are 960 Jiot such wares as to be 'monopolised) and traded in bj(ticksts) and statutes^indstandards.) We must not think to make a l^staple commodityjbf all the knowledge in the land, to mark and license it like our broadcloth and our woolpacks. What is it but a servitude like that imposed; by the Philistinesi not to be allowed the sharpening of our own axes and(' coulters,) but we . must(repair)from all quarters to twenty licensing forges ? Had anyone written anuidivulgedjerroneous things and scandalous to honest life, misusing and forfeiting the esteem had of his reason among men; if after conviction this onlV^ censure jwere 970 adjudged him, that he should never henceforth write but what were first examined by an appointed officer, whose hand should be annexed to pass his credit for him, that now he might be 955, 956. twenty capacities, i.e., the twenty licencers. 959. manual stamp, the " Imprimatur " above their signature. 960. monopolised. Mono- polies were one of the hated means by which Charles I. supplied himself with funds. 960. tickets, acknowledg- ments for the receipt of goods on credit. The modern slang expression •' tick, " meaning credit, is derived from it. 961. statutes, securities given to tradesmen for debts con- tracted. 961. standards, the standards for weights and measures. 962. staple commodity, a commodity whose buying and selling is determined by law ; as was the case with wool, wool-fella and hides from the time of the Plantagenets. Certain towns only ' (ten in number) were allowed to export these staples, and at these the King's officers assessed the tax due. The towns were called "Towns of the Staple." 964. by the Philistines, in the time of Saul. See I Samuel xiii, 19-22. "But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines,to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock." 965. coulters. The coulter is the cutting blade of the plough. L. colo = I cultivate. 966. repair, proceed. 967. divulged, made public, published. 969. censure, judgment. ^ I (J^ / / Jo . ^yf TEXT AND NOTES. '3 safely read ; it could not be apprehended less than a disgraceful punishment. Whence to include the whole Nation, and those that never yet thus offended, under such a diffident and suspectful prohibition, may plainly be understood what a disparagement it is. So much the more, whenas debtors and delinquents may walk abroad without a keeper, but unoffensive boolis must not stir forth without a visible jailer in their title. Nor is it to the common people less than a reproach ; fof if we ^80 so jealous over them, as that we dare not trust them with an English pamphlet, what do we but censure them for a giddy, vicious and ungrounded people, in such a sick and weak state of faith and discretion, as to be able to take nothing down but through the pipe of a Ucenser ? That this is care or love of them, we cannot pretend, whenas in those popish places where the laity are most hated and despised the same S strictness is used over them. Wisdom we cannot call it because it stops but one breach of licence/ nor that neither^, whenas those corruptions which it seeks to prevent break in 990 faster at other doors which cannot be shut. 'rAjid in conclusion it reflects to the disrepute of our \ Ministers also, of whose labours we should hope better and of the proficiency which their flock reaps by them, than that after all this light of the Gospel which is, and is to be, and alL this continual preaching, they should be still ( frequented with /j such an unprincipled, unedified, andl laic rabble, as that the whiff of every new pamphlet should stagger them out of their catechism and Christian walking. This may have much reason to discourage the Ministers when such a low conceit is 1000 975. diffident, mistrusting, not in the modern sense of bashful. 977,986. whenas, seeing that. 980, 981. if we so jealous, if we be so jealously watchful. 989. nor that neither. A double negative. Frequent in Shakespeare, and in A.S. 996. frequented with, have as their usual congregation. 997. laic, as opposed to cleric, but used here disparagingly. 1000. low conceit, poor opinion. Conceit and concept are doublets. 54 AREOPAGITICA. had of all their exhortations and the benefiting of their hearers, as that they are not thought fit to be turned loose to three sheets of paper without a licenser ; ^that all the sermons, all the lectures preached, printed, (yentedj in such number^ and such volumes as have now well-nigh made all other books tunsaleable, should not be armour enough , against one single { EnchiridionJwithout th/Castle of St. Angelo)of an Imprimatur. And lest some should persuade ye, Lords and Commons, that these arguments of learned men's discouragement at this 1010 your Order are mere' flourishes) and not real, I could recount Iwhat I have seen and heard in otiher countries where this kind of inquisition tyrannises ; when(I have satj among their learned ^^^--^en, for that honour I had, and beeii counted happy to be born\ / in such a place of philosophic f reedom as the y supposed \ England was, while themselves did nothing but bemoan the/ servile condition into which learning amongst them waa brought ; that this was it which had damped the glory of I Italian wits, that nothing had been there written now these"^ ' lEany years but flattery and (fustian,^ There it was that I 1020 found and visited the famous (Galileo Wown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the 1004. vented, published, sent out. 1004. in such numbers. See Historical Notes. Over 30,000 pamphlets were issued between 1640 and 1660, while religious sermons and controversies were of almost daily issue. 1007. Enchiridion. Hand- book. Greek en =m ; cheir= the hand. The word also means a *» dagger, " and the double meaning carries on the metaphor of " armour." 1007. Castle of St. Anrfelo was the prison at Rome used for the Pope's prisoners. The phrase means therefore "with- out the Popish inprisonment of licensing." 1010. flourishes^ empty sounds, like the flourish of trumpets. 1012. I have sat. Refers to his visit to Italy in 1638. 1013. counted, considered. 1019. fustian, is cloth of common material, and is hence applied to any worthless matter. 1020. Galileo died 16 i2, at the ago of 78. He was im- prisoned by the Inquisition for maintaining that the earth moved round the sun. This the clergy of the day thought was contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures. i ^' / TEXT AND NOTES. 55 ( Franciscan) and iDorm'm'can) licensers thought. And though I knew that' England then ) was groaning loudest under the prelatical yoke, nevertheless I took it as a pledge of future happiness, that other nations were so persuaded of her hberty. Yet was it beyond my hope that c^hose worthie^ were then breathing in her air who should be her leaders to such a dehverance as shall never be forgotten by any revolution of time that this world hath to finish. When that was once begun, it was as little in my fear, that what words of complaint 1030 I heard among learned men of other parts uttered against the Inquisition, the same I should hear by as learned men at home uttered (^in time of^ Parliament) against an order of licensing; and that so generally, that when I had disclo^d myself a companion of their discontent, I might say, if without envy, j that( he \vhom an honest quaestorship had endeared to the SiciHans was not more by them importuned against Verres than the favourable opinion (which I had among many who honour ye, and are known and respected by ye, loaded me with entreaties and persuasions, thati would not despair to 1040 lay together that which just reason should bring into my 1022. Franciscan. The Fran- ciscan or Gray Friars were founded in 1210 by St. Francis of Assisi. Like their great rivals, the Dominicans, they were a mendicant order. 1022. Dominican. The Dominican or Black Friars were founded in 1316 by Domingo de Guzman. Tor- quemada, the introducer of the Inquisition into Spain, was a Dominican monk. 1023. then. Laud and the Courts of High Commission and Star Chamber were at that time most active. See •' His- torical Notes " on the Star Chamber for the years 1637, 1638. 1026. those worthies, Pym, Hampden, etc., the leaders of the Long Parliament. 1033. in time of Parliament, while a Parliament was sitting, a reference to the long years of personal government by Charles I., 1629-1640. 1035. without envy, without causing the envy of others. 1036. he. Cicero was quaestor or Boman representative in Sicily, B.C. 75, and prepared there his indictment against the rapacity of Verres, Roman Governor of Sicily, B.C. 73-71. The quaestor was responsible for the public funds. 1038. which I had, which I had gained. 56 AREOPAGITICA, 10£0 mind toward the removal of an undeserved thraldom upon learning. That this is not therefore the disburdening of a particular fancy, but the common grievance of all those who had prepared their minds and studies above the vulgar pitch to advance truth in others, and from others t(^ entertaii^ it, thus much may satisfy. And in their name I shall for neither friend nor foe conceal what the general murmur is ; that if it come to inquisitioning again and licensingi and that yWe are so timorous of ourselves and so suspicious of all men as to fear each book and the shaking of every ,'leaf before we know what the contents are, if some who \ but /\ of late/were little better than silenced from preaching, shall \ come now to silence us from reading, except what they please, it cannot be guessed what is intended by some but a second tyranny over learning : and will soon put it out of controversy, that Bishops and Presbyters are the same to us both name and thing. That those evils of Prelacy which before from five or six and twenty sees were distributively charged upon 1060 the whole people, will now light wholly upon learning, is not obscure to us : whenas now the pastor of a small unlearned parisli on the sudden shall be exalted Archbishop over a large diocese of books and yet not remove, but keep his other i cure] too, a( mystical pluralist.] He who but of late cried down the (sole ordination ^of every novice Bachelor of Art, and denied 1046. entertain it, consider it when advanced by others. 1049, 1050. and that. In modern English we should say •* andif ." The usage is similar to that in modern French, where the conjunction is not repeated but is replaced by " que." *' Si vous avez assez de temps, et qiie vous le voulez, passez chez moi ce soir." 1052, 1053. but of late. Refers to Laud's severities against Puritans. 1056. it, i.e., that Priest and Presbyter were the same. See Sonnet on the " New Forcers of Conscience " : — •• New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large." 1063. cure, care, office. 1064. mystical pluralist, a pluralist of a strange or mystical kind. 1065, 1066. sole ordination, sole jurisdiction, rights claimed by the Bishops. These were the principal points in the Smectymnuus controversy. 1065. Bachelor. Low Lat. haccalarius=dk farm servant. TEXT AND NOTES. 67 sole jurisdiction) over the simplest parishioner, shall now af. home in his private chair assume both these over worthiest And excellentest books and ablest authors that write them. This is not, ye Covenants, and Protestations j that we have made, this is not to put down Prelacy: this is but 1070 to chop "an Episcopacy j^Jthis is but to translate the Palace Metropolitan * from one kind of dominion into another ; this is but an old ['canonical sleight j of commuting our penance/^ To startle thus betimes at a mere unlicensed pamphlet will after a while be afraid )of every conventicle and a while after will make a conventicle of every Christian meeting. But I am certain that a State governed by the rules of justice and fortitude, or a Church built and founded upon the rock of faith and true knowledge, cannot be so pusillanimous. "While things are yet not constituted in 108O religion, that freedom of writing should be restrained by a discipline imitated from the Prelates and learnt by them from the Inquisition, to shut us up all again into the breast hence anyone in an inferior position, and so a student proceeding to the Master's or Doctor's degree. 1068. excellentest. Accu- ratest, diligentest, and many others have already been noted. 1069. Covenants. Refers to the covenant with Scotland, 1638, aud that drawn up by the Commons, 1643. 1069. Protestations. In 1641, on hearing of an attempt by Charles to bring down the army of the North to overawe them, the Long Parliament drew up a Protestation called the Grand Remonstrance, stating their position with regard to the King and Church, and defending themselves from the distortions of their policy. 1071. chop, exchange. A.S. C€a^a7i= to bargain. The word is found in Cheapside, East- cheap, Chapman. 1071, 1072. Palace Metro- politan. The Archbishop of Canterbury's I^alace at Lam- beth. The Metropolitan is the chief or Primate of the Bishops. 1073. canonical sleight, trick allowed by the canons of the Church. 1073, 1074. commuting our penance, changing our penance, generally by avoiding the pen- ance by payment of money. Milton means that we sufier in the same way under a com- muted or changed name. 1075. after a while be afraid, after a while (to) be afraid. 1075. conventicle, the name applied to the meeting places of the nonconformists. L. co?j = together, venio = \ come. 58 ARBOPAGITICA. of a licenser must needs give cause of doubt and discourage- ment to all learned and religious men. Who cannot but discern the fineness/ of this politic drift, and who are the contrivers ; that while Bishops were to bef baited down,\hen all Presses might be open? It was the People's birthright and privilege in time of Parliament, it was the breaking 1090 forth of light. But now, the Bishops/ abrogatedj and U'oided out the Church/) as if our Reformation> sought no more but to make room for others into their seats under another n'^iie; "the episcopal arts begin to bud again, the cruse of trutlT must run no more oil, liberty of printing must be enthralled again under a prelatical commission of twenty ,)the privilege of the people nullified, and which is worse, the freedom of learning must groan again, and\to her old fetters: jail this the Parliament yet sitting. Although their own late arguments and defences against the Prelates might / remember them 1100 that this obstructing violence meets for the" most part with an (event )utterly opposite to the end which it drives at : instead of suppressing sects and schisms, it raises them and invests them with a reputation : Ths^ ^unisliing of wits enhances their authority, saith the (Viscount St. Albans )y''" and a forbidden writing is thought to he a certains^rk of truth that flies up in the faces of them who seeh to 1036. fineness, finesse, clever- ness. 1087. baited down, harassed until they were down, as in the sport of bear-baiting. 1090. abrogated, destroyed. 1090, 1091. voided out the Church; by the Bill of 16 il. The phrase is an imitation of the Latin ablative absolute. Supply "being" before abro- gated. 1095. commission of twenty. Cf. I 955. 1097. to her old fetters, under the same fettering license as was imposed by the Star Chamber. 1097, 1098. all this, etc. another absolute phrase. 1099. remember, remind. The usage was common. 1101. event, result. See tin references to Prelatical vigour against Prynne and the others in the Chapter entitled " Historical Notes." 1101. Viscount St. Albans. Bacon died 1626. The quotation is from his Apophthegms. /■ fOTES. 59 tread it out. This^ Order therefore may prove a nursing mother j to sects,' but I shall easil}' show how it will be a (' stepdame ) to Truth : and first by disenabling us to the maintenance of what is known already. Well knows he who uses to consider, that our faith and thrives by exercise, as well as our Hmbs and 1110 - knowledge \complexion. Truth is compared in Scripturej to a streaming fountain ; if her w aters flow not^ m a perpetual progression, they sicken into a jnuddy pool of conformity and traditioHjj^ A man may be a heretic in the truth ; and if he beHeve things only because his Pastor says so, or the Assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy^ There is not any burden that some would gladlier post off 1120 to another, than the charge and care of their religion. . There be (who knows not that there be?) of Protestants; and ^Professors who live and die in as tarrant an implicit faith as any lay Papist of Loretto. A wealthy man addicted to his 1107, 1108. may proYe a nursing mother. Will not only bring forth but will foster the growth. 1109. stepdame, a step- mother, and therefore, in the popular opinion, unkind. 1109,- 1110. to the main- tenance of, from maintaining. 1111. uses, is in the habit of, is wont. 1113. complexion, then meant constitution or build. L. co?i = together ^Zecto = I weave. 1113. in Scripture. See Psalm Isxxv, 11. " Truth shall spring out of the earth." 1116. heretic in the truth. The next sentence explains what Milton means. " A truth held only by tradition or from authority and not from inward conviction is really a heresy." 1120. gladlier, notice the form. An adverb, comparative degree. 1121, 1122. There be of Pro- testants, there are some among Protestants. A Latinism. 1123. Professors, i.e., of religion, viz., Puritans. 1123. arrant, thorougli. A variation of errant. 1124. lay, not of the Roman clergy, but deeply believing in the Roman faith. 1124. Papist of Loretto, Loretto is on the east coast of Italy. The house in which the Virgin lived before the birth of Christ is stated to have been translated from Palestine to Loretto by angels, and became the object of the fervid adora- tion of crowds of pilgrims. 60 AREOPAQITICA. pleasure and to his profits finds Eeligion to be a traffic so entangled and of so many piddling accounts, that of all mysteries! he cannot skill^o keep a stock going upon that trade. /What should he do ? Fain he would, have the name to be religious, fain he would bear up with: his neighbours in that. 1130 What does he therefore, but resolves to give over toiling and to find himself out some factor to whose care and credit he may commit the whole managing of his reUgious affairs ; some divine of note and estimation that must be ? To him he adheres, resigns the whole warehouse of his religion with all the locks and keys into his custody; and indeed makes the very person of that man his religion ; esteems his associating with him a sufficient evidence and commendatory of his own piety. So that a man may say his religion is now no more within himself, but is become a dividual movable, and goes and 1140 comes near him according as that good man frequents the house. He entertains him, gives him gifts, feasts him, lodges him; his Religion comes home at night, prays, is liberally supped, and sumptuously laid to sleep ; rises, is saluted, and, / after the malmsey, or some well-spiced brewage, and, better (^breakfasted than He whose morning appetite would have gladly fed on green figs between Bethany and Jerusalem, his ReUgion he 1126. piddling accounts, petty details. 1127. he cannot skill, cannot find skill enough. 1129. bgar up with, level withT" 1130. resolves ; indicative where we now use the infinitive " resolve." 1137. commendatory, com- mendation. 1139. dividual movable, divisible and movable, a separate entity. 1144. after the malmsey. Breakfast in its present form was not yet a recognised meal, tea and coffee being late intro- ductions. Malmsey wine de- rives its name from Malvasia, a town in Greece. 1145. breakfasted, a parti- ciple attributive to "Religion" (q.v.). 1145, 1146. have gladly fed. " And seeing a fig ti-ee afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon ; and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves . ' ' — Mabk xi, 13. 1146. his Religion, i.e., the chaplain ; an example of metonymy ; cf. his Majesty, his Holiness, etc. {i ^1 ^'^ '- yith " goad," and meaning literally to wander about blindly as if goaded. Ice. gadda= to goad. 1201. rout, disorderly rabble. 1208. preached in public ; "Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world."— John xviii, 20. 1209. to refutation, of refu- tation, to be refuted. 1210. merely, only, entirely. It originally meant < absolutely.' From L. merits = pure, unmixed. 1213. disinured, unac- customed, losing knowledge for lack of use. 64 AREOPAGITICA. know. For how raucli it hurts and hinders the licensers them' selves in the calling of their ministry more than any secular employment, if they will discharge that office as they ought, 80 that of necessity they must neglect either the one duty or the other, I insist not, because it is a particular, but leave it 1220 ^o their own conscience, how they will decide it there. There is yet behind of what I purposed to lay open, Jhe incredible loss and detriment that this plot of licensing puts us to ; more than if some enemy at sea should stop up all our havens, and ports and creeks, it hinders and retards the importat ion of our richeat merchandise^ Trntb : nay, it was first established and put in practice by Antichristian malice and mystery on set purpose jto extinguish, if it were possible, the light of Eeformation, and to ( settle )falsehood ; httle differing from that policy wherewith the Turk upholds his 1230 Alcoran by the prohibition of printing. 'Tis not denied, but gladly confessed, we are to send our thanks and vows to Heaven, louder than most of nations, for that great measure of triit h which we enjoy, especially in those main points between us and the Pope, with his appm^tenances the Prelates : but he who thinks we are to pitch our tent here, and have attained the utmost prospect of reformation that the mortal glass wherein we contemplate can show us, till we come to Beatific Vision^that man by this very opinion declares, that he is yet far short of Truth. 1240 Truth indeed came c>r\o.f^ into f.bp wnrld wif.Vi ht^v '^']y\w Master, and was a p^ rfp.ct Rhapp. mnah g1r»vi-nn^ f.n look nn : ^ut when He ascended, and His Apostles after Him were laid 1219. a particular, a matter varying with the individual ; a personal matter. 1223. stop up, by blockade. 1227. on set purpose, with the fixed purpose, deliberately. 1228c settle, make falsehood or false doctrine permanent. 1230. Alcoran. ^2=>the, Co?*a7i = reading. The Turkish Bible or Koran. Printing was not allowed in Turkey till 1831. 1235. pitch our tent, remain satisfied. 1238. Beatific Vision, face to face with the Almighty. Cf. — •'For now we see through a glass, darkly; but thea face to face." — I. Coa. xiii. 12, TEXT AND NOTES. 65 «^A^KV-^ asleepi then straight arose a wicked race of deceivers, who (as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon^with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris), took the virgin Truth j hewedLiier lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered tiiem to the four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such aa durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb by limb still as they could 1260 find them. We have not yet found them all. Lords and Commons, nor ever shall do, tiU her Master's second coming ; He shall bring together every joint and member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of loveliness and per- fection.. Suffer not these licensing prohibitions to stand at every place of opportunity -forbidding and disturbing them that continue seeking, that continue to do our obsequies to .''— ■ Jttie torn body of our martyred saint. \We boast our light ; but if_we look not wisely on the Sun itself, it smites us into darkn ess. Who can discern those planets that are oft com- 1260 - bust, and those stars of brightest magnitude that rise and set with the Sun, until the opposite motion of their orbs bring them to such a place in the firmament, where they may be seen evening or morning ? The hght which we have gained was given us, not to be ever staring on, but by it to discover onward things more remote from our knowledge. 1244, et seq. Typhon, Osiris, Isis, Typhon and Osiris are represented in the Egyptian mythology as brothers, symbolic of the evil and good principles respectively. The wicked Typhon cut the body of Osiris in pieces, and Isis, the wife of Osiris, searched for the scattered members till all were found. Then, by the aid of her son, Horus, the Sun God, she over- threw Typhon. Milton applies the fable to the search for Truth. 1248. careful, full of care, anxious. 1257. obsequies, funeral rites of worship. 1260, 1261. combust, a planet near the sun is said to be "com- bust," and cannot, of course, be seen. 1262. opposite motionj differing motion, motion in an opposite direction. 1265. not to be, not for us to be. 1266. onward things, things more advanced 66 AREOPAGITICA. It is not the unfrocking of a priest, the unmitring of a bishop, and the removing him from off the Presbyterian shoulders that will make us a happy nation ; no, if other things as great 1270 ^^ *^® Church and in the rule of life both economical and political be not looked into and reformed, we have looked so long upon the blaze that Zuinglius and Calvin hath beaconed ~"up to us, that we are stark blind. There be who perpetually complam of schisms and sects, and make it such a calamity that any man dissents from their maxims. 'Tis their own pride and ignorance which causes the disturbing, who neither will hear with meekness, nor can convince, yet all must be suppressed which is not found in their syntagma. They are the troublers, they are the dividers of unity, who neglect and 1280 permit not others to unite those dissevered pieces which are yet wanting to the body of Truth, yp be still searching, what we know not by what we know, still closing up truth to truth ' as we find it (for all hef body is homogeneal, and proportional) this is the golden rule in theology as well as in arithmetic, i and makes up the best harmony in a Church ; not the forced I and outward union of cold and' neutral and inwardly divided minds. ^^^ty'"'^—' Lords and Commons of England I consider what Nation it ^^^y^ /^^rvhereof ye are, and wher"feof ye are the governors : a nation 1290 ^°* ^^°"^ ^^^ ^^^' ^^* °^ ^ quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, subtle and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to. Therefore the studies of learning in V^ 1272. Zuinglius (1484—1531) a famous Swiss reformer. 1272. CalYin (1609-1564), the great leader of the Reforma- tion in France. 1272, 1273. beaconed up, lighted up as a beacon. 1273. stark; A.S. stearc = stiff. 1278. syntagma, ooUection of beliefs. 1281. still, always. 1281. searching, examining. 1284. the golden rule, the rule of proportion was so called. 1288 et seq. Lords and Commons, etc. Milton's famous eulogy of the EnglisE people. 1294. so ancient; a reference to the teachings of the Druids. ■\a^ <^^^ > TEXT AND NOTES. 67 her deepestr sciences have been so ancient and so eminent among us, that writers of good antiquity and ablest judgment have been persuaded that even the school ol Pythagoras and the Persian wisdom took beginning from the old philosophy of this island. And that wise and civil Eoman, Julius Agricola, who governed once here for Caesar, preferred the natural wits of Britain before the laboured studies of the French. Nor is 1300 it for nothing that the grave and frugal Transylvanian sends out yearly from as far as the mountainous borders of Eussia, ; and beyond the Hercynian wilderness,, not their youth, but their staid men, to learn our language and our theologic arts. Yet that which is above all this, the favour and the love of Heaven we have great argument to think in a peculiar manner propitious and propending] towards us. Why else was this Nation chosen before any other, that out of her as out of Sion should be proclaimed and sounded forth the first tidings and trumpet of Reformation to all Europe ? And had it not 1310 been the obstinate perverseness of our prelates against the Jgthagoras . the Stoic, taught the doctrine 1296. . of the transmigration of the soul, which Milton here declares he learnt from the Druids. 1297. Persian wisdom. Milton's authority for the statement is a line from Pliny's Natural History. 1298. civil, politic. 1298. Julius Agricola, the famous Roman General who taught the Britons the Roman civilisation. Governor of Britain A.D. 78-85. 1299. preferred. This is on the authority of Agricola's son- in-law, Tacitus, in his Agricola ; et ingenia Britannorum studiis Gallorum antefcrre. (" And to prefer the natural wit of the '^ -itons to the laborious studies ot the Gauls.") 1301. TransylYanian. In the Thirty Years' War (1618- 1648), Transylvania fought well on the Protestant side, and naturally became friendly with England. Cromwell wrote its prince a letter of friendship. There is no direct evidence that many Transylvanian students came to England at that time. 1302. mountainous borders of Russia, the spurs of the Carpathians separating Trans- ylvania from Russia. 1303. Hercynian v/ilderness, a general name applied to the mountains and forests of South Germany^ 1307. propending, inclining. 1311. our prelUtes. See Green's "History of England " for the persecution of the Lollards. 68 ▲BEOPAaiTlCA. divine and admirable spirit of Wicklef, to suppress him as a schismatic and innovator, perhaps neither the Bohemian IIuss and Jerome, no — nor the name of Luther, or of Calvin had been ever known : the glory of reforming all our neighbours had been completely ours. But now, as our obdurate clergy have with violence ^demeaned) the matter, we are become hitherto the latest and backwardest scholars, of whom God offered to have made us the teachers. Now once again by all 1820 concurrence of signs and by the general instinct of holy and devout men, as they daily and solemnly express their thoughts, God is decreeing to begin some new and great period in His Church, even to the reforming of Eeformation itself. What does He then but reveal Himself to His servants, and as \ /' His manner is, first to His Englishmen ? I say " as His manner h is first to us," though we mark not the method of His counsels, / and are unworthy. Behold now this vast City : a city of refuge, the mansion house of Liberty, encompassed and surrounded with His protection ; the shop of war hath not ISSb there more anvils and hammers waking, to fashion out the plates and instruments of armed Justice in defence of 1312. Wicklef. See I. 276. 1313. Hubs. See I. 276. 1314. Jerome of Prague (1365- 141G). The friend and disciple of Huss; not to be confused with the St. Jerome mentioned in I. 404 and I, 544. 1314. Luther (1483-1546). The great leader of the Refor- mation in Germany. 1317. demeaned, carried out, managed. 1318. of whom, of those whom. 1320. general instinct. Milton no doubt refers to the increasing power of the Inde- pendent Party and the coming downfall of Presbyterianism. 1325. first ; as in the case of Wycliffe. Milton, in his Tractate on Divorce, says : — "Who was it but our English Constantine that baptized the Roman Empire? Who but the Northumbrian Willibrode and Winifrede of Devon, with their followers were the first Apostles of Germany? Who but Alcuin and Wiclef our Country men opened the eyes of Europe, the one in Arts, the other in Religion ? Let not England forget her pre- cedence of teaching nations how to live." 1328. mansion house of Liberty, the dwelling of Liberty, the place which Liberty has chosen as best fitted for its mansion. 1330. waking, working night andday. Marston Moor haa Ju"stl)een fought, and Naseby was yet to come. 1331. plates, breastplates, lot defence. n TEXT AND NOTES. 69 beleaguered Truth, than thert? be pp.ns nnrl hp.f^^]^ t'^p.rpi, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty, the approaching Eeformation : others as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of reason and convincement. What could a man require more from a Nation -- so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge ? What wants there to such a towardly and pregnant soil, but wise and faithful labourers, to make a knowing people, a Nation of 1« Prophets,'of Sages, and of Worthies ? We reckon more thani five months yet to harvest ; there need not be five weeks ; had I we but eyes to lift up, the fields are white already. Where I there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; f^r opinion in good _ men is but knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic terrors of sect and schism, we wrong the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding which God hath stirred up in this city. What some lament of, we rather should rejoice at, should rather praise this pious forwardness among li men, to reassume the ill-deputed care , of their religion into their own hands again. A little generous prudence, a little forbearance of one another, and some grain of charity, might win all these diHgences to join and unite in one general and ^brotherly search after Truth, could we but forego this ( prelatical tradition of crowding free consciences and Christian 1335. fealty, a doublet of fidelity. Latin Udelitas = faithfulness. 1336. trying, questioning, submitting to trial. 13il. Prophets. Cf.— "And Moses said unto him, 'Would God that all the people were prophets.' "—Num. xi 29 1341, 1842. more than Ayc months. The Areopagitica was published in November. If Milton meant this literally, it must have been written about April. 1346. fantastic, fanciful. Gr. yhantastikos = i3>ncihi\. 1351. reassume the ill- reputed care. Refers to the removal of the shackles of the Prelates, and to the consequent possibility of thinking for one- self. 1356. prelatical tradition. Both words are used offensively. The Council of Trent decided that traditions were to be of equal authority with Scripture. 70 AREOPAGITICA. libertiej. into canons and precepts of men. I doubt not, if some great and worthy stranger should come among us, wise to discern the mould and temper of a people, and how to 1860 govern it, observing the high hopes and aims, the diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts and reasonings in the pursuance of Truth and Freedom, but that he would cry out as Pyrrhus did, admiring the Eoman docility and courage : " If such were my Epirots,) I would not despair the greatest design that could be attempted to make a Church or Kingdom happy." Yet these are the men cried out against for schismatics and sectaries ; as if, while the Temple of the Lord was building, some cutting, some squaring the marble, others hewing the j cedars, there should be a sort of irrational men who could 1870/ not consider there must be many schisms and many dissectiona- I made in the quarry and in the timber, ere the house of God j can be built. And when every stone is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, it can but be contiguous in this world ; neither can every piece of the building be of one form ; nay, rather the perfection consists in this, that out of many moderate varieties and brotherly dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportional arises the goodly and the graceful symmetry that commends the whole pile and structure. Let us therefore be more considerate builders, more wise in 1380 spiritual architecture, when great reformation is expected. For now the time seems come, wherein Moses the great prophet may sit in Heaven rejoicing to see that memorable 1363. Pyrrhus, b.c. 318-272. The words were used after the battle of Heraclea, B.C. 280. " How easy it would be to seize the empire of the world either to me with the Roman soldiers or to the Romans with me for their king."— Florus. 1364. Epirots, people of Epirus, in Albanian Turkey. 1366. for, as being. 1367. was building. "Build- ing " is a gerund. " Was (a) building " = was being built. 1370. schism. Gr. schizein = to cleave. 1373. continuity . . . con- tiguous, not one solid whole but made up of many portions fitted close together. 1376. brotherly dissimili- tudes, general agreement, with little differences, alike and yet different. TEXT AND NOTES. 71 and glorious wish\ of his fulfilled, when not only our seventy elders, but all the Lord's people, are become prophets. No marvel then though some men, and some good men too perhaps, but young in goodness, as Joshua then was,; envy them. They fret, and out of their own weakness are in agony, lest these divisions and subdivisions will undo us. The adversary again applauds, and waits the hour : " When they have branched themselves out," saith he, " small enough into 1390 parties and partitions, then will be om' time." Fool 1 he sees not the firm root, out of which we all grow, though into branches: nor will beware until he see our small divided maniples cutting through at every angle of his ill-united and imwieldy brigade^ And that we are to hope better of all these supposed sects and schisms, and that we shall not need that sohcitude, honest perhaps though over-timorous, of them that vex in this behalf, but shall laugh in the end, at those mahcious applauders of our differences, I have these reasons topersuade me. 1400 y^ Fhst, when a city shall be as it were besieged and blocked ' about, her navigable river infested, inroads and incursions round, defiance and battle oft rumoured to be marching up even to her walls and suburb trenches, that then the people, 1383. glorious wish. note to I. 1341. 1386. Joshua then Joshua complained to Moses of the prophesying of Eldad and Medad, and received the answer quoted. 1387. fret, eat their strength away by anxiety. Fret, A.S. for- etan= to eat away thoroughly. 1389. adversary, Church of Rome. 1394. maniples. A maniple was the name given to a com- pany of Roman soldiers, num- bering about 60, and having its own standard bearer. 1398. Yex, disturb themselves. 1401. when a city. See Milton's 3rd sonnet, entitled : " Wheji tJie assault was intended to the city." In November, 1642, the King advanced as far as Brentford and threatened London, reach- ing as near as Turnham Green, but fell back when opposed by Essex. 1404. suburb trenches. "At that time (1642) London began her large intrenchments, which encompassed not only the city but the whole suburbs on every side, containing about 12 miles in circuit."— Holt Whitp- 72 AEEOPAQITICA. or the greater part, more than at other times, whoiiy taken up with the study of highest and most important matters to be reformed, should be disputing, reasoning, reading, inventing, discoursing, even to a rarity and admiration, things not before discoursed or written of, argues first a singular 1410 good will, contentedness and confidence in your prudent foresight and safe government. Lords and Commons I And from thence derives itself to a gallant bravery and well grounded contempt of their enemies, as if they were no small number of as great spirits among us, as his was, who, when Rome was nigh besieged by Hannibal, being in the city, bought that piece of ground at no cheap rate, whereon Hannibal himself encamped his own regiment. Next it is a lively and . cheerful presage of our happy success and victory. For as in a body, when the blood is fresh, the spirits pure and vigorous, 1420 not only to vital, but to rational faculties, and those in the acutest and the pertest operations of wit and subtlety, it argues in what good plight and constitution the body is ; so when the cheerfulness of the people is so sprightly up, as that it has not only wherewith to guard well its own freedom and safety, but to spare, and to bestow upon the soUdest and sublimest points of controversy and new invention, it betokens us not degenerated, nor drooping to a fatal decay, but casting off the old and wrinkled skin of corruption to outlive these 1408. to a rarity and admira- tion, both rare and admirable. 1408, 1409. things not before discoursed. The Royal Society is apparently referred to here. The Society had its germ in some meetings of scientific men held about this time. " We did by agreement, divers of us, meet weekly in London on a certain day to treat and dis- course of such affairs as Physics, Anatomy, Geometry. Astronomy, Navigation, Statics, Magnetics, Chymics, Mechanics, and natural experiments."— Xrifeqf Dr. Wallis. 1412. derives itself to, passes on to, flows on to. 1414. as his was. A captive related to Hannibal that the very piece of ground on which his camp was placed had just been sold in Rome at no diminution in price on that account, 215 B.C. 1421. pertest, most active. 1422. argues, shows. 1422. plight. A.S. pUht= risk, danger. 1423. sprightly up, so spiritedly uplifted. k TEXT AND NOTES. 73 pangs and wax young again, entering the glorious ways of Truth and prosperous Virtue destined to become great and honourable in these latter ages. Methinks I see in my mind a noble_^and puissant nation, rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks. 3Iethinks I see ier..as. an eagle mewing. her mighty youth, and kindling her Tindazzled eyes at the full midday beam, purging and unsealing her long abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance, while the whole noise of timorous and flocking bu'ds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and_ schisms. What should ye do then? Should ye suppress all this flowery crop of knowledge and hew light sprung up and yet springing daily in this city ? Should ye set an oHgarchy of twenty engrossers over it, to bring a famine upon our minds again, when we shall know nothing but what is measured to us by their bushel ? (Believe it. Lords and Commons, they who counsel ye to such a suppressing do as gooda sbid ye suppress yourselves ;] and I wil l soon show how. I f it be desired to know the immediate cause of all this free writing and free speaking there cannot be assigned a truer than your own mild her beams. 1437. noise, noisy crowd. An example of metonymy, or of naming the thing by one of its attributes. 1438. flocking birds, like the starlings, which fly in flocks. 1439. gabble. Ice. gabba= to mock. 1443. oligarchy, rule by a few. Gr. oligos=ie\y, archein= to rule. 1444. engrossers, such as take every thing (in gross) to themselves. 1446. bushel. L. L. httssultis = a little box. 14^0. a truer, i.e., cause. 1430 1440 J 1450 1429. wax. A.S. wacsian= to grow. 1431. Methinks. The be- ginning of another splendid passage famous alike for the nobility of its sentiment and its language. 1432. strong man. Samson is in his mind. 1434. mewing, throwing aside. Fr.muer; 'L.mutare = to change. 1435. undazzled eyes. In the old Bestiaries of the INIiddle Ages the eagle is described as making his eye- sight keener by flying near thd sun, and bathing his eyep in 74 ABEOPAQITICA. 'and free and humane government. It is the Hberty, Lords and ^ommons, which your own valorous and happy counsels have irchased "us, Liberty which is the nurse of all great wits ;'; this is that which hath rarefied and enHghtened our spirits like the influence of Heaven ]\ this is that which hath enfranchised, enlarged, and lifted up our apprehensions degrees above them- selves. Ye cannot make us now less capable, less knowing, less eagerly pursuing of the truth, unless ye first make yourselves, that made us so, less the lovers, less the founders 1460 ^^ °^^ ^^^® liberty. We can grow ignorant again, brutish, formal, and slavish, as ye found us ; but you then must first become that which ye cannot be, oppressive, arbitrary, and tyrannous, as they were from whom ye have freed us. That, our hearts are now more capacious, our thoughts more erected to the search and expectation of greatest and exactest things, is the issue of your own virtue propagated in us ; ye cannot suppress that, unless ye reinforce an abrogated and merciless law, that fathers may despatch at will their own children. And who shall then stick closest to ye, and excite others ? Noli he 1470 "^^^ takes up arms for coat and conduct ^nd Jais four nobleg of Danegelt. Although I dispraise not the defence of just immunities, yet love my peace better, if that were all. ^Give_. 1453. purchased, obtained. O.F. purchacer = to pursue eagerly. Chase is from L.L. caciare = to chase. 1455. the influence of HeaYen, a reference to the belief in astrology and to the influence of stars and planets on earthly affairs. 14G4. erect ed, upright, confident. 1467. abrogated. The law gave the Eoman parent power to imprison, chastise, sell as a slave, or put to death, his son. The law was one of the laws of the Twelve Tables, and was abrogated in 318 a.d., but had long before that fallen into disuse. 1468. despatch, kill. Cf. the phrase, " The happy despatch," used of the Chinese method of suicide. 1470. coat and conduct, clothing and passage or journey money for levies. Charles I. laid assessments on the coun- ties for these purposes. 1470. four nobles, a noble was a coin worth 6s. 8d. 1471. Danegelt was a tax laid on every hide of land by the Anglo-Saxons from Ethelred II. to maintain a naval force to oppose the Danes. Charles I. used this as a precedent for the levying of Ship Money, TEXT AND NOTES. 76 me the liberty to know, to utt er, anj tn g yi;g^q lyp^Jy a^^ -nrrlinpr | JiO_cons_aien.ce, above all liberties—— ^Vliat would be best advised then, if it be found so hurtful and so unequal to su^opress opinions for the newness, or the unsuitableness to a customary acceptance, will not be my task to say ; I only shall repeat what I have learned from one of your own honourable number, a right noble and pious lord, who, had he not sacrificed his life / and fortunes to the 1480 Church and Commonwealth, we had not) now missed and bewailed a worthy and undoubted l patron "lof this argument. Ye know him I am sure ; yet I for honour's sake (and may it be eternal to him 1 ) shall name him — the _Lord„^BraQk»_ He, writing of Episcopacy and by the way treating of sects and schisms, left ye his vote, or rather now the last words of his dying charge, which I know will ever be of dear and honoured regard with ye, so full of meekness and breathing charity, that next to VHis last testament. Who bequeathed love and peace to His disciples, 149(1 I cannot call to mind where I have read or heard words more mild and peaceful. He there exhorts us to hear with patience and humihty those, however they be miscalled, that desire tp live purely, in such a use of God's ordinances as the best guidance of their conscience gives them, and to tolerate them, though in some disconformity to ourselves. The book itself will tell us more at large, being pubUshed to the world, and 1475. best advised, most advisable. 1476. unequal, unfair. From L. mcBgMWS = unfair. 1480. sacrificed his life. Eobert Greville, Lord Brooke, was shot in 1643 at Lichfield as he was preparing to assault it with a Parliamentary force. 1480 et seq.t who ... we had not. An anacoluthon. See I. 1 et seq. 1482. patron, supporter. 1486. vote. L. votum=s strong wish. 1489, 1490. His last testa- ment. •' Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you."— Johx xiv. 27. 1490. bequeathed. A.S. cwethan — to say. The prefix "be" has an intensive force, as in bedeck, begirt. 1496. disconformity, dif- ference in mode of worship. 1497. at large, at length. 76 AilEOPAGITICA. /dedicated to the Parliament by him who both for his life and for his death deserves ihat what advice he left be not laid by without perusal. And now the time in special is by privilege to write and speak what may help to the further discussing of matters in agitation. ^1 The' Temple of Janus with his two controversal ' faces might now not unsignificantly be set open. And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple ; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and _ open encounter. Her confuting is the best and surest sup-— 1510 pressing. 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 disciphne of Geneva, framed and fabricked already to our hands. Yet when the new light which we beg for shines in upon us, there be who envy and oppose, if it come not first in at their casements. What a collusion is this, whenas we are exhorted by the wise 1502, 1503. in agitation, in question, under discussion. 1503. Temple of Janus. Janus— a form of Dianus — was the Koman God of •* Com- mencements." He presided over the beginning of every- thing. He was the guardian deity of gates and doors, and so was represented as " two- faced," as doors and gates swing inwards and outwards. In times of war he was sup- posed to go out in aid of the iloman forces, and so his temple was closed. 1503. his. Notice his for its. See chapter on "Language." 1503. controversal, turned in opposite directions. L. contra = opposite, verto = I turn. 1504. set open. The temple was open in time of war and closed in times of peace. 1509. Her confuting, con- futing done by her (i.e., Truth). 1512, 1513. discipline of Geneva, the doctrine as taught by the school of Geneva (Calvin and his followers). 1513. framed and fabricked, drawn up and put together (fabricated). 1515. casements, a shortened form of Fr. enchassement, from L. capsa=2i. box. 1516. collusion, in legal lan- guage was a secret understand- ing between two parties to keep up an appearance of variance and disagreement for the pur- pose of prejudicing the interests of a third party. (A term.) lAft-*^ A t^n^/V lu. Ha,