,,areopagitica   ,a ,,speech ,,for ,,the
 ,,liberty ,,of ,,unlicensed ,,printing 
,,to ,,the ,,parliament ,,of ,,england  
,this is true liberty1 when free-born   
men1      ,having to advise the public1 
may speak free1      ,which he who can1 
and will1 deserves high praise2         
,who neither can1 nor will1 may hold his
 peace3      ,what can be juster in a   
state than this8       ,euripid4        
,hicetid4   ,they1 who to states and    
governors of the ,commonwealth direct   
their speech1 ,high ,court of           
,parliament1 or1 wanting such access in 
a private condition1 write that which   
they foresee may advance the public     
good2 ,i suppose them1 as at the        
beginning of no mean endeavour1 not a   
little altered and moved inwardly in    
their minds3 some with doubt of what    
will be the success1 others with fear of
 what will be the censure2 some with    
hope1 others with confidence of what    
they have to speak4 ,and me perhaps each
 of these dispositions1 as the subject  

was whereon ,i entered1 may have at     
other times variously affected2 and     
likely might in these foremost          
expressions now also disclose which of  
them swayed most1 but that the very     
attempt of this address thus made1 and  
the thought of whom it hath recourse to1
 hath got the power within me to a      
passion1 far more welcome than          
incidental to a preface4  ,which though 
,i stay not to confess ere any ask1 ,i  
shall be blameless1 if it be no other   
than the joy and gratulation which it   
brings to all who wish and promote their
 country's liberty2 whereof this whole  
discourse proposed will be a certain    
testimony1 if not a trophy4 ,for this is
 not the liberty which we can hope1 that
 no grievance ever should arise in the  
,commonwealth--that let no man in this  
world expect2 but when complaints are   
freely heard1 deeply considered and     
speedily reformed1 then is the utmost   
bound of civil liberty attained that    
wise men look for4 ,to which if ,i now  

manifest by the very sound of this which
 ,i shall utter1 that we are already in 
good part arrived1 and yet from such a  
steep disadvantage of tyranny and       
superstition grounded into our          
principles as was beyond the manhood of 
a ,roman recovery1 it will be attributed
 first1 as is most due1 to the strong   
assistance of ,god our deliverer1 next  
to your faithful guidance and undaunted 
wisdom1 ,lords and ,commons of ,england4
 ,neither is it in ,god's esteem the    
diminution of his glory1 when honourable
 things are spoken of good men and      
worthy magistrates2 which if ,i now     
first should begin to do1 after so fair 
a progress of your laudable deeds1 and  
such a long obligement upon the whole   
realm to your indefatigable virtues1 ,i 
might be justly reckoned among the      
tardiest1 and the unwillingest of them  
that praise ye4  ,nevertheless there    
being three principal things1 without   
which all praising is but courtship and 
flattery3 ,first1 when that only is     

praised which is solidly worth praise3  
next1 when greatest likelihoods are     
brought that such things are truly and  
really in those persons to whom they are
 ascribed3 the other1 when he who       
praises1 by showing that such his actual
 persuasion is of whom he writes1 can   
demonstrate that he flatters not2 the   
former two of these ,i have heretofore  
endeavoured1 rescuing the employment    
from him who went about to impair your  
merits with a trivial and malignant     
encomium2 the latter as belonging       
chiefly to mine own acquittal1 that whom
 ,i so extolled ,i did not flatter1 hath
 been reserved opportunely to this      
occasion4  ,for he who freely magnifies 
what hath been nobly done1 and fears not
 to declare as freely what might be done
 better1 gives ye the best covenant of  
his fidelity2 and that his loyalest     
affection and his hope waits on your    
proceedings4 ,his highest praising is   
not flattery1 and his plainest advice is
 a kind of praising4 ,for though ,i     

should affirm and hold by argument1 that
 it would fare better with truth1 with  
learning and the ,commonwealth1 if one  
of your published ,orders1 which ,i     
should name1 were called in2 yet at the 
same time it could not but much redound 
to the lustre of your mild and equal    
government1 whenas private persons are  
hereby animated to think ye better      
pleased with public advice1 than other  
statists have been delighted heretofore 
with public flattery4 ,and men will then
 see what difference there is between   
the magnanimity of a triennial          
,parliament1 and that jealous           
haughtiness of prelates and cabin       
counsellors that usurped of late1 whenas
 they shall observe ye in the midst of  
your victories and successes more gently
 brooking written exceptions against a  
voted ,order than other courts1 which   
had produced nothing worth memory but   
the weak ostentation of wealth1 would   
have endured the least signified dislike
 at any sudden proclamation4  ,if ,i    

should thus far presume upon the meek   
demeanour of your civil and gentle      
greatness1 ,lords and ,commons1 as what 
your published ,order hath directly     
said1 that to gainsay1 ,i might defend  
myself with ease1 if any should accuse  
me of being new or insolent1 did they   
but know how much better ,i find ye     
esteem it to imitate the old and elegant
 humanity of ,greece1 than the barbaric 
pride of a ,hunnish and ,norwegian      
stateliness4 ,and out of those ages1 to 
whose polite wisdom and letters we owe  
that we are not yet ,goths and          
,jutlanders1 ,i could name him who from 
his private house wrote that discourse  
to the ,parliament of ,athens1 that     
persuades them to change the form of    
democracy which was then established4   
,such honour was done in those days to  
men who professed the study of wisdom   
and eloquence1 not only in their own    
country1 but in other lands1 that cities
 and signiories heard them gladly1 and  
with great respect1 if they had aught in

 public to admonish the state4 ,thus did
 ,dion ,prusaeus1 a stranger and a      
private orator1 counsel the ,rhodians   
against a former edict2 and ,i abound   
with other like examples1 which to set  
here would be superfluous4  ,but if from
 the industry of a life wholly dedicated
 to studious labours1 and those natural 
endowments haply not the worst for two  
and fifty degrees of northern latitude1 
so much must be derogated1 as to count  
me not equal to any of those who had    
this privilege1 ,i would obtain to be   
thought not so inferior1 as yourselves  
are superior to the most of them who    
received their counsel3 and how far you 
excel them1 be assured1 ,lords and      
,commons1 there can no greater testimony
 appear1 than when your prudent spirit  
acknowledges and obeys the voice of     
reason from what quarter soever it be   
heard speaking2 and renders ye as       
willing to repeal any ,act of your own  
setting forth1 as any set forth by your 
predecessors4  ,if ye be thus resolved1 

as it were injury to think ye were not1 
,i know not what should withhold me from
 presenting ye with a fit instance      
wherein to show both that love of truth 
which ye eminently profess1 and that    
uprightness of your judgment which is   
not wont to be partial to yourselves2 by
 judging over again that ,order which ye
 have ordained to regulate              
printing3--that no book1 pamphlet1 or   
paper shall be henceforth printed1      
unless the same be first approved and   
licensed by such1 or at least one of    
such1 as shall be thereto appointed4    
,for that part which preserves justly   
every man's copy to himself1 or provides
 for the poor1 ,i touch not1 only wish  
they be not made pretences to abuse and 
persecute honest and painful men1 who   
offend not in either of these           
particulars4 ,but that other clause of  
licensing books1 which we thought had   
died with his brother quadragesimal and 
matrimonial when the prelates expired1  
,i shall now attend with such a homily1 

as shall lay before ye1 first the       
inventors of it to be those whom ye will
 be loath to own2 next what is to be    
thought in general of reading1 whatever 
sort the books be2 and that this ,order 
avails nothing to the suppressing of    
scandalous1 seditious1 and libellous    
books1 which were mainly intended to be 
suppressed4 ,last1 that it will be      
primely to the discouragement of all    
learning1 and the stop of truth1 not    
only by disexercising and blunting our  
abilities in what we know already1 but  
by hindering and cropping the discovery 
that might be yet further made both in  
religious and civil wisdom4  ,i deny    
not1 but that it is of greatest         
concernment in the ,church and          
,commonwealth1 to have a vigilant eye   
how books demean themselves as well as  
men2 and thereafter to confine1         
imprison1 and do sharpest justice on    
them as malefactors4 ,for books are not 
absolutely dead things1 but do contain a
 potency of life in them to be as active

 as that soul was whose progeny they    
are2 nay1 they do preserve as in a vial 
the purest efficacy and extraction of   
that living intellect that bred them4 ,i
 know they are as lively1 and as        
vigorously productive1 as those fabulous
 dragon's teeth2 and being sown up and  
down1 may chance to spring up armed men4
 ,and yet1 on the other hand1 unless    
wariness be used1 as good almost kill a 
man as kill a good book4 ,who kills a   
man kills a reasonable creature1 ,god's 
image2 but he who destroys a good book1 
kills reason itself1 kills the image of 
,god1 as it were in the eye4 ,many a man
 lives a burden to the earth2 but a good
 book is the precious life-blood of a   
master spirit1 embalmed and treasured up
 on purpose to a life beyond life4 ',tis
 true1 no age can restore a life1       
whereof perhaps there is no great loss2 
and revolutions of ages do not oft      
recover the loss of a rejected truth1   
for the want of which whole nations fare
 the worse4  ,we should be wary         

therefore what persecution we raise     
against the living labours of public    
men1 how we spill that seasoned life of 
man1 preserved and stored up in books2  
since we see a kind of homicide may be  
thus committed1 sometimes a martyrdom1  
and if it extend to the whole           
impression1 a kind of massacre2 whereof 
the execution ends not in the slaying of
 an elemental life1 but strikes at that 
ethereal and fifth essence1 the breath  
of reason itself1 slays an immortality  
rather than a life4 ,but lest ,i should 
be condemned of introducing license1    
while ,i oppose licensing1 ,i refuse not
 the pains to be so much historical1 as 
will serve to show what hath been done  
by ancient and famous commonwealths     
against this disorder1 till the very    
time that this project of licensing     
crept out of the ,inquisition1 was      
catched up by our prelates1 and hath    
caught some of our presbyters4  ,in     
,athens1 where books and wits were ever 
busier than in any other part of        

,greece1 ,i find but only two sorts of  
writings which the magistrate cared to  
take notice of2 those either blasphemous
 and atheistical1 or libellous4 ,thus   
the books of ,protagoras were by the    
judges of ,areopagus commanded to be    
burnt1 and himself banished the         
territory for a discourse begun with his
 confessing not to know ,,whether       
,,there ,,were ,,gods1 ,,or ,,whether   
,,not4 ,and against defaming1 it was    
decreed that none should be traduced by 
name1 as was the manner of ,vetus       
,comoedia1 whereby we may guess how they
 censured libelling4 ,and this course   
was quick enough1 as ,cicero writes1 to 
quell both the desperate wits of other  
atheists1 and the open way of defaming1 
as the event showed4 ,of other sects and
 opinions1 though tending to            
voluptuousness1 and the denying of      
divine ,providence1 they took no heed4  
,therefore we do not read that either   
,epicurus1 or that libertine school of  
,cyrene1 or what the ,cynic impudence   

uttered1 was ever questioned by the     
laws4 ,neither is it recorded that the  
writings of those old comedians were    
suppressed1 though the acting of them   
were forbid2 and that ,plato commended  
the reading of ,aristophanes1 the       
loosest of them all1 to his royal       
scholar ,dionysius1 is commonly known1  
and may be excused1 if holy ,chrysostom1
 as is reported1 nightly studied so much
 the same author and had the art to     
cleanse a scurrilous vehemence into the 
style of a rousing sermon4  ,that other 
leading city of ,greece1 ,lacedaemon1   
considering that ,lycurgus their        
lawgiver was so addicted to elegant     
learning1 as to have been the first that
 brought out of ,ionia the scattered    
works of ,homer1 and sent the poet      
,thales from ,crete to prepare and      
mollify the ,spartan surliness with his 
smooth songs and odes1 the better to    
plant among them law and civility1 it is
 to be wondered how museless and        
unbookish they were1 minding nought but 

the feats of war4 ,there needed no      
licensing of books among them1 for they 
disliked all but their own laconic      
apophthegms1 and took a slight occasion 
to chase ,archilochus out of their city1
 perhaps for composing in a higher      
strain than their own soldierly ballads 
and roundels could reach to4 ,or if it  
were for his broad verses1 they were not
 therein so cautious but they were as   
dissolute in their promiscuous          
conversing2 whence ,euripides affirms in
 ,andromache1 that their women were all 
unchaste4 ,thus much may give us light  
after what sort of books were prohibited
 among the ,greeks4  ,the ,romans also1 
for many ages trained up only to a      
military roughness resembling most the  
,lacedaemonian guise1 knew of learning  
little but what their twelve ,tables1   
and the ,pontific ,college with their   
augurs and flamens taught them in       
religion and law2 so unacquainted with  
other learning1 that when ,carneades and
 ,critolaus1 with the ,stoic ,diogenes1 

coming ambassadors to ,rome1 took       
thereby occasion to give the city a     
taste of their philosophy1 they were    
suspected for seducers by no less a man 
than ,cato the ,censor1 who moved it in 
the ,senate to dismiss them speedily1   
and to banish all such ,attic babblers  
out of ,italy4 ,but ,scipio and others  
of the noblest senators withstood him   
and his old ,sabine austerity2 honoured 
and admired the men2 and the censor     
himself at last1 in his old age1 fell to
 the study of that whereof before he was
 so scrupulous4 ,and yet at the same    
time ,naevius and ,plautus1 the first   
,latin comedians1 had filled the city   
with all the borrowed scenes of         
,menander and ,philemon4 ,then began to 
be considered there also what was to be 
done to libellous books and authors2 for
 ,naevius was quickly cast into prison  
for his unbridled pen1 and released by  
the tribunes upon his recantation2 we   
read also that libels were burnt1 and   
the makers punished by ,augustus4 ,the  

like severity1 no doubt1 was used1 if   
aught were impiously written against    
their esteemed gods4 ,except in these   
two points1 how the world went in books1
 the magistrate kept no reckoning4  ,and
 therefore ,lucretius without           
impeachment versifies his ,epicurism to 
,memmius1 and had the honour to be set  
forth the second time by ,cicero1 so    
great a father of the ,commonwealth2    
although himself disputes against that  
opinion in his own writings4 ,nor was   
the satirical sharpness or naked        
plainness of ,lucilius1 or ,catullus1 or
 ,flaccus1 by any order prohibited4 ,and
 for matters of state1 the story of     
,titus ,livius1 though it extolled that 
part which ,pompey held1 was not        
therefore suppressed by ,octavius       
,caesar of the other faction4 ,but that 
,naso was by him banished in his old    
age1 for the wanton poems of his youth1 
was but a mere covert of state over some
 secret cause3 and besides1 the books   
were neither banished nor called in4    

,from hence we shall meet with little   
else but tyranny in the ,roman empire1  
that we may not marvel1 if not so often 
bad as good books were silenced4 ,i     
shall therefore deem to have been large 
enough1 in producing what among the     
ancients was punishable to write2 save  
only which1 all other arguments were    
free to treat on4  ,by this time the    
emperors were become ,christians1 whose 
discipline in this point ,i do not find 
to have been more severe than what was  
formerly in practice4 ,the books of     
those whom they took to be grand        
heretics were examined1 refuted1 and    
condemned in the general ,councils2 and 
not till then were prohibited1 or burnt1
 by authority of the emperor4 ,as for   
the writings of heathen authors1 unless 
they were plain invectives against      
,christianity1 as those of ,porphyrius  
and ,proclus1 they met with no interdict
 that can be cited1 till about the year 
#djj1 in a ,carthaginian ,council1      
wherein bishops themselves were forbid  

to read the books of ,gentiles1 but     
heresies they might read3 while others  
long before them1 on the contrary1      
scrupled more the books of heretics than
 of ,gentiles4 ,and that the primitive  
,councils and bishops were wont only to 
declare what books were not commendable1
 passing no further1 but leaving it to  
each one's conscience to read or to lay 
by1 till after the year #hjj1 is        
observed already by ,padre ,paolo1 the  
great unmasker of the ,trentine         
,council4  ,after which time the ,popes 
of ,rome1 engrossing what they pleased  
of political rule into their own hands1 
extended their dominion over men's eyes1
 as they had before over their          
judgments1 burning and prohibiting to be
 read what they fancied not2 yet sparing
 in their censures1 and the books not   
many which they so dealt with3 till     
,martin ,v41 by his bull1 not only      
prohibited1 but was the first that      
excommunicated the reading of heretical 
books2 for about that time ,wickliffe   

and ,huss1 growing terrible1 were they  
who first drove the ,papal ,court to a  
stricter policy of prohibiting4 ,which  
course ,leo ,x4 and his successors      
followed1 until the ,council of ,trent  
and the ,spanish ,inquisition           
engendering together brought forth1 or  
perfected1 those ,catalogues and        
expurging ,indexes1 that rake through   
the entrails of many an old good author1
 with a violation worse than any could  
be offered to his tomb4 ,nor did they   
stay in matters heretical1 but any      
subject that was not to their palate1   
they either condemned in a ,prohibition1
 or had it straight into the new        
purgatory of an index4  ,to fill up the 
measure of encroachment1 their last     
invention was to ordain that no book1   
pamphlet1 or paper should be printed 7as
 if ,st4 ,peter had bequeathed them the 
keys of the press also out of ,paradise7
 unless it were approved and licensed   
under the hands of two or three glutton 
friars4 ,for example3       ,let the    

,chancellor ,cini be pleased to see if  
in this present      work be contained  
aught that may withstand the printing4  
,,vincent ,,rabbatta1  ,vicar of        
,florence4        ,i have seen this     
present work1 and find nothing athwart  
the      ,catholic faith and good       
manners3 in witness whereof ,i      have
 given1 etc4       ,,nicolo ,,gini1     
,chancellor of ,florence4               
,attending the precedent relation1 it is
 allowed that this      present work of 
,davanzati may be printed4              
,,vincent ,,rabbatta1  etc4        ,it  
may be printed1 ,july #ae4       ,,friar
 ,,simon ,,mompei ,d',,amelia1          
,chancellor of the ,holy ,office in     
,florence4  ,sure they have a conceit1  
if he of the bottomless pit had not long
 since broke prison1 that this quadruple
 exorcism would bar him down4 ,i fear   
their next design will be to get into   
their custody the licensing of that     
which they say ,claudius intended1 but  
went not through with4 ,vouchsafe to see

 another of their forms1 the ,roman     
stamp3       ,imprimatur1 ,if it seem   
good to the reverend ,master of the     
,holy ,palace4       ,,belcastro1       
,vicegerent4        ,imprimatur1 ,friar 
,nicolo ,rodolphi1 ,master of the ,holy 
,palace4  ,sometimes five ,imprimaturs  
are seen together dialogue-wise in the  
piazza of one title-page1 complimenting 
and ducking each to other with their    
shaven reverences1 whether the author1  
who stands by in perplexity at the foot 
of his epistle1 shall to the press or to
 the sponge4 ,these are the pretty      
responsories1 these are the dear        
antiphonies1 that so bewitched of late  
our prelates and their chaplains with   
the goodly echo they made2 and besotted 
us to the gay imitation of a lordly     
,imprimatur1 one from ,lambeth ,house1  
another from the west end of ,paul's2 so
 apishly ,romanizing1 that the word of  
command still was set down in ,latin2 as
 if the learned grammatical pen that    
wrote it would cast no ink without      

,latin2 or perhaps1 as they thought1    
because no vulgar tongue was worthy to  
express the pure conceit of an          
,imprimatur1 but rather1 as ,i hope1 for
 that our ,english1 the language of men 
ever famous and foremost in the         
achievements of liberty1 will not easily
 find servile letters enow to spell such
 a dictatory presumption ,english4  ,and
 thus ye have the inventors and the     
original of book-licensing ripped up and
 drawn as lineally as any pedigree4 ,we 
have it not1 that can be heard of1 from 
any ancient state1 or polity or church2 
nor by any statute left us by our       
ancestors elder or later2 nor from the  
modern custom of any reformed city or   
church abroad1 but from the most        
anti-christian council and the most     
tyrannous inquisition that ever         
inquired4 ,till then books were ever as 
freely admitted into the world as any   
other birth2 the issue of the brain was 
no more stifled than the issue of the   
womb3 no envious ,juno sat cross-legged 

over the nativity of any man's          
intellectual offspring2 but if it proved
 a monster1 who denies1 but that it was 
justly burnt1 or sunk into the sea8 ,but
 that a book1 in worse condition than a 
peccant soul1 should be to stand before 
a jury ere it be born to the world1 and 
undergo yet in darkness the judgment of 
,radamanth and his colleagues1 ere it   
can pass the ferry backward into light1 
was never heard before1 till that       
mysterious iniquity1 provoked and       
troubled at the first entrance of       
,reformation1 sought out new limbos and 
new hells wherein they might include our
 books also within the number of their  
damned4 ,and this was the rare morsel so
 officiously snatched up1 and so        
ill-favouredly imitated by our          
inquisiturient bishops1 and the         
attendant minorites their chaplains4    
,that ye like not now these most certain
 authors of this licensing order1 and   
that all sinister intention was far     
distant from your thoughts1 when ye were

 importuned the passing it1 all men who 
know the integrity of your actions1 and 
how ye honour truth1 will clear ye      
readily4  ,but some will say1 what      
though the inventors were bad1 the thing
 for all that may be good8 ,it may so2  
yet if that thing be no such deep       
invention1 but obvious1 and easy for any
 man to light on1 and yet best and      
wisest commonwealths through all ages   
and occasions have forborne to use it1  
and falsest seducers and oppressors of  
men were the first who took it up1 and  
to no other purpose but to obstruct and 
hinder the first approach of            
,reformation2 ,i am of those who believe
 it will be a harder alchemy than       
,lullius ever knew1 to sublimate any    
good use out of such an invention4 ,yet 
this only is what ,i request to gain    
from this reason1 that it may be held a 
dangerous and suspicious fruit1 as      
certainly it deserves1 for the tree that
 bore it1 until ,i can dissect one by   
one the properties it has4 ,but ,i have 

first to finish1 as was propounded1 what
 is to be thought in general of reading 
books1 whatever sort they be1 and       
whether be more the benefit or the harm 
that thence proceeds4  ,not to insist   
upon the examples of ,moses1 ,daniel1   
and ,paul1 who were skilful in all the  
learning of the ,egyptians1 ,chaldeans1 
and ,greeks1 which could not probably be
 without reading their books of all     
sorts2 in ,paul especially1 who thought 
it no defilement to insert into ,holy   
,scripture the sentences of three ,greek
 poets1 and one of them a tragedian2 the
 question was notwithstanding sometimes 
controverted among the primitive        
doctors1 but with great odds on that    
side which affirmed it both lawful and  
profitable2 as was then evidently       
perceived1 when ,julian the ,apostate   
and subtlest enemy to our faith made a  
decree forbidding ,christians the study 
of heathen learning3 for1 said he1 they 
wound us with our own weapons1 and with 
our own arts and sciences they overcome 

us4 ,and indeed the ,christians were put
 so to their shifts by this crafty      
means1 and so much in danger to decline 
into all ignorance1 that the two        
,apollinarii were fain1 as a man may    
say1 to coin all the seven liberal      
sciences out of the ,bible1 reducing it 
into divers forms of orations1 poems1   
dialogues1 even to the calculating of a 
new ,christian grammar4 ,but1 saith the 
historian ,socrates1 the providence of  
,god provided better than the industry  
of ,apollinarius and his son1 by taking 
away that illiterate law with the life  
of him who devised it4 ,so great an     
injury they then held it to be deprived 
of ,hellenic learning2 and thought it a 
persecution more undermining1 and       
secretly decaying the ,church1 than the 
open cruelty of ,decius or ,diocletian4 
,and perhaps it was the same politic    
drift that the devil whipped ,st4       
,jerome in a lenten dream1 for reading  
,cicero2 or else it was a phantasm bred 
by the fever which had then seized him4 

,for had an angel been his discipliner1 
unless it were for dwelling too much    
upon ,ciceronianisms1 and had chastised 
the reading1 not the vanity1 it had been
 plainly partial2 first to correct him  
for grave ,cicero1 and not for scurril  
,plautus1 whom he confesses to have been
 reading1 not long before2 next to      
correct him only1 and let so many more  
ancient fathers wax old in those        
pleasant and florid studies without the 
lash of such a tutoring apparition2     
insomuch that ,basil teaches how some   
good use may be made of ,margites1 a    
sportful poem1 not now extant1 writ by  
,homer2 and why not then of ,morgante1  
an ,italian romance much to the same    
purpose8  ,but if it be agreed we shall 
be tried by visions1 there is a vision  
recorded by ,eusebius1 far ancienter    
than this tale of ,jerome1 to the nun   
,eustochium1 and1 besides1 has nothing  
of a fever in it4 ,dionysius            
,alexandrinus was about the year #bdj a 
person of great name in the ,church for 

piety and learning1 who had wont to     
avail himself much against heretics by  
being conversant in their books2 until a
 certain presbyter laid it scrupulously 
to his conscience1 how he durst venture 
himself among those defiling volumes4   
,the worthy man1 loath to give offence1 
fell into a new debate with himself what
 was to be thought2 when suddenly a     
vision sent from ,god 7it is his own    
epistle that so avers it7 confirmed him 
in these words3 ,,read ,,any ,,books    
,,whatever ,,come ,,to ,,thy ,,hands1   
,,for ,,thou ,,art ,,sufficient ,,both  
,,to ,,judge ,,aright ,,and ,,to        
,,examine ,,each ,,matter4 ,to this     
revelation he assented the sooner1 as he
 confesses1 because it was answerable to
 that of the ,apostle to the            
,thessalonians1 ,,prove ,,all ,,things1 
,,hold ,,fast ,,that ,,which ,,is       
,,good4 ,and he might have added another
 remarkable saying of the same author3  
,,to ,,the ,,pure1 ,,all ,,things ,,are 
,,pure2 not only meats and drinks1 but  

all kind of knowledge whether of good or
 evil2 the knowledge cannot defile1 nor 
consequently the books1 if the will and 
conscience be not defiled4  ,for books  
are as meats and viands are2 some of    
good1 some of evil substance2 and yet   
,god1 in that unapocryphal vision1 said 
without exception1 ,,rise1 ,,peter1     
,,kill ,,and ,,eat1 leaving the choice  
to each man's discretion4 ,wholesome    
meats to a vitiated stomach differ      
little or nothing from unwholesome2 and 
best books to a naughty mind are not    
unappliable to occasions of evil4 ,bad  
meats will scarce breed good nourishment
 in the healthiest concoction2 but      
herein the difference is of bad books1  
that they to a discreet and judicious   
reader serve in many respects to        
discover1 to confute1 to forewarn1 and  
to illustrate4 ,whereof what better     
witness can ye expect ,i should produce1
 than one of your own now sitting in    
,parliament1 the chief of learned men   
reputed in this land1 ,mr4 ,selden2     

whose volume of natural and national    
laws proves1 not only by great          
authorities brought together1 but by    
exquisite reasons and theorems almost   
mathematically demonstrative1 that all  
opinions1 yea errors1 known1 read1 and  
collated1 are of main service and       
assistance toward the speedy attainment 
of what is truest4 ,i conceive1         
therefore1 that when ,god did enlarge   
the universal diet of man's body1 saving
 ever the rules of temperance1 he then  
also1 as before1 left arbitrary the     
dieting and repasting of our minds2 as  
wherein every mature man might have to  
exercise his own leading capacity4  ,how
 great a virtue is temperance1 how much 
of moment through the whole life of man6
 ,yet ,god commits the managing so great
 a trust1 without particular law or     
prescription1 wholly to the demeanour of
 every grown man4 ,and therefore when he
 himself tabled the ,jews from heaven1  
that omer1 which was every man's daily  
portion of manna1 is computed to have   

been more than might have well sufficed 
the heartiest feeder thrice as many     
meals4 ,for those actions which enter   
into a man1 rather than issue out of    
him1 and therefore defile not1 ,god uses
 not to captivate under a perpetual     
childhood of prescription1 but trusts   
him with the gift of reason to be his   
own chooser2 there were but little work 
left for preaching1 if law and          
compulsion should grow so fast upon     
those things which heretofore were      
governed only by exhortation4 ,solomon  
informs us1 that much reading is a      
weariness to the flesh2 but neither he  
nor other inspired author tells us that 
such or such reading is unlawful3 yet   
certainly had ,god thought good to limit
 us herein1 it had been much more       
expedient to have told us what was      
unlawful than what was wearisome4 ,as   
for the burning of those ,ephesian books
 by ,st4 ,paul's converts2 'tis replied 
the books were magic1 the ,syriac so    
renders them4 ,it was a private act1 a  

voluntary act1 and leaves us to a       
voluntary imitation3 the men in remorse 
burnt those books which were their own2 
the magistrate by this example is not   
appointed2 these men practised the      
books1 another might perhaps have read  
them in some sort usefully4  ,good and  
evil we know in the field of this world 
grow up together almost inseparably2 and
 the knowledge of good is so involved   
and interwoven with the knowledge of    
evil1 and in so many cunning            
resemblances hardly to be discerned1    
that those confused seeds which were    
imposed upon ,psyche as an incessant    
labour to cull out1 and sort asunder1   
were not more intermixed4 ,it was from  
out the rind of one apple tasted1 that  
the knowledge of good and evil1 as two  
twins cleaving together1 leaped forth   
into the world4 ,and perhaps this is    
that doom which ,adam fell into of      
knowing good and evil1 that is to say of
 knowing good by evil4 ,as therefore the
 state of man now is2 what wisdom can   

there be to choose1 what continence to  
forbear without the knowledge of evil8  
,he that can apprehend and consider vice
 with all her baits and seeming         
pleasures1 and yet abstain1 and yet     
distinguish1 and yet prefer that which  
is truly better1 he is the true         
warfaring ,christian4  ,i cannot praise 
a fugitive and cloistered virtue1       
unexercised and unbreathed1 that never  
sallies out and sees her adversary but  
slinks out of the race1 where that      
immortal garland is to be run for1 not  
without dust and heat4 ,assuredly we    
bring not innocence into the world1 we  
bring impurity much rather2 that which  
purifies us is trial1 and trial is by   
what is contrary4 ,that virtue therefore
 which is but a youngling in the        
contemplation of evil1 and knows not the
 utmost that vice promises to her       
followers1 and rejects it1 is but a     
blank virtue1 not a pure2 her whiteness 
is but an excremental whiteness4 ,which 
was the reason why our sage and serious 

poet ,spenser1 whom ,i dare be known to 
think a better teacher than ,scotus or  
,aquinas1 describing true temperance    
under the person of ,guion1 brings him  
in with his palmer through the cave of  
,mammon1 and the bower of earthly bliss1
 that he might see and know1 and yet    
abstain4 ,since therefore the knowledge 
and survey of vice is in this world so  
necessary to the constituting of human  
virtue1 and the scanning of error to the
 confirmation of truth1 how can we more 
safely1 and with less danger1 scout into
 the regions of sin and falsity than by 
reading all manner of tractates and     
hearing all manner of reason8 ,and this 
is the benefit which may be had of books
 promiscuously read4  ,but of the harm  
that may result hence three kinds are   
usually reckoned4 ,first1 is feared the 
infection that may spread2 but then all 
human learning and controversy in       
religious points must remove out of the 
world1 yea the ,bible itself2 for that  
ofttimes relates blasphemy not nicely1  

it describes the carnal sense of wicked 
men not unelegantly1 it brings in       
holiest men passionately murmuring      
against ,providence through all the     
arguments of ,epicurus3 in other great  
disputes it answers dubiously and darkly
 to the common reader4 ,and ask a       
,talmudist what ails the modesty of his 
marginal ,keri1 that ,moses and all the 
prophets cannot persuade him to         
pronounce the textual ,chetiv4 ,for     
these causes we all know the ,bible     
itself put by the ,papist put by the    
,papist into the first rank of          
prohibited books4 ,the ancientest       
,fathers must be next removed1 as       
,clement of ,alexandria1 and that       
,eusebian book of ,evangelic            
preparation1 transmitting our ears      
through a hoard of heathenish           
obscenities to receive the ,gospel4 ,who
 finds not that ,irenaeus1 ,epiphanius1 
,jerome1 and others discover more       
heresies than they well confute1 and    
that oft for heresy which is the truer  

opinion8  ,nor boots it to say for      
these1 and all the heathen writers of   
greatest infection1 if it must be       
thought so1 with whom is bound up the   
life of human learning1 that they writ  
in an unknown tongue1 so long as we are 
sure those languages are known as well  
to the worst of men1 who are both most  
able and most diligent to instil the    
poison they suck1 first into the courts 
of princes1 acquainting them with the   
choicest delights and criticisms of sin4
 ,as perhaps did that ,petronius whom   
,nero called his ,arbiter1 the master of
 his revels2 and the notorious ribald of
 ,arezzo1 dreaded and yet dear to the   
,italian courtiers4 ,i name not him for 
posterity's sake1 whom ,henry ,,viii4   
named in merriment his vicar of hell4   
,by which compendious way all the       
contagion that foreign books can infuse 
will find a passage to the people far   
easier and shorter than an ,indian      
voyage1 though it could be sailed either
 by the north of ,cataio eastward1 or of

 ,canada westward1 while our ,spanish   
licensing gags the ,english press never 
so severely4  ,but on the other side    
that infection which is from books of   
controversy in religion is more doubtful
 and dangerous to the learned than to   
the ignorant2 and yet those books must  
be permitted untouched by the licenser4 
,it will be hard to instance where any  
ignorant man hath been ever seduced by  
papistical book in ,english1 unless it  
were commended and expounded to him by  
some of that clergy3 and indeed all such
 tractates1 whether false or true1 are  
as the prophecy of ,isaiah was to the   
eunuch1 not to be ,,understood ,,without
 ,a ,,guide4 ,but of our priests and    
doctors how many have been corrupted by 
studying the comments of ,jesuits and   
,sorbonists1 and how fast they could    
transfuse that corruption into the      
people1 our experience is both late and 
sad4 ,it is not forgot1 since the acute 
and distinct ,arminius was perverted    
merely by the perusing of a nameless    

discourse written at ,delft1 which at   
first he took in hand to confute4       
,seeing1 therefore1 that those books1   
and those in great abundance1 which are 
likeliest to taint both life and        
doctrine1 cannot be suppressed without  
the fall of learning and of all ability 
in disputation1 and that these books of 
either sort are most and soonest        
catching to the learned1 from whom to   
the common people whatever is heretical 
or dissolute may quickly be conveyed1   
and that evil manners are as perfectly  
learnt without books a thousand other   
ways which cannot be stopped1 and evil  
doctrine not with books can propagate1  
except a teacher guide1 which he might  
also do without writing1 and so beyond  
prohibiting1 ,i am not able to unfold1  
how this cautelous enterprise of        
licensing can be exempted from the      
number of vain and impossible attempts4 
,and he who were pleasantly disposed    
could not well avoid to liken it to the 
exploit of that gallant man who thought 

to pound up the crows by shutting his   
park gate4  ,besides another            
inconvenience1 if learned men be the    
first receivers out of books and        
dispreaders both of vice and error1 how 
shall the licensers themselves be       
confided in1 unless we can confer upon  
them1 or they assume to themselves above
 all others in the land1 the grace of   
infallibility and uncorruptedness8 ,and 
again1 if it be true that a wise man1   
like a good refiner1 can gather gold out
 of the drossiest volume1 and that a    
fool will be a fool with the best book1 
yea or without book2 there is no reason 
that we should deprive a wise man of any
 advantage to his wisdom1 while we seek 
to restrain from a fool1 that which     
being restrained will be no hindrance to
 his folly4 ,for if there should be so  
much exactness always used to keep that 
from him which is unfit for his reading1
 we should in the judgment of ,aristotle
 not only1 but of ,solomon and of our   
,saviour1 not vouchsafe him good        

precepts1 and by consequence not        
willingly admit him to good books2 as   
being certain that a wise man will make 
better use of an idle pamphlet1 than a  
fool will do of sacred ,scripture4      
',tis next alleged we must not expose   
ourselves to temptations without        
necessity1 and next to that1 not employ 
our time in vain things4 ,to both these 
objections one answer will serve1 out of
 the grounds already laid1 that to all  
men such books are not temptations1 nor 
vanities1 but useful drugs and materials
 wherewith to temper and compose        
effective and strong medicines1 which   
man's life cannot want4 ,the rest1 as   
children and childish men1 who have not 
the art to qualify and prepare these    
working minerals1 well may be exhorted  
to forbear1 but hindered forcibly they  
cannot be by all the licensing that     
,sainted ,inquisition could ever yet    
contrive4 ,which is what ,i promised to 
deliver next3 that this order of        
licensing conduces nothing to the end   

for which it was framed2 and hath almost
 prevented me by being clear already    
while thus much hath been explaining4   
,see the ingenuity of ,truth1 who1 when 
she gets a free and willing hand1 opens 
herself faster than the pace of method  
and discourse can overtake her4  ,it was
 the task which ,i began with1 to show  
that no nation1 or well-instituted      
state1 if they valued books at all1 did 
ever use this way of licensing2 and it  
might be answered1 that this is a piece 
of prudence lately discovered4 ,to which
 ,i return1 that as it was a thing      
slight and obvious to think on1 so if it
 had been difficult to find out1 there  
wanted not among them long since who    
suggested such a course2 which they not 
following1 leave us a pattern of their  
judgment that it was not the rest       
knowing1 but the not approving1 which   
was the cause of their not using it4    
,plato1 a man of high authority1 indeed1
 but least of all for his ,commonwealth1
 in the book of his ,laws1 which no city

 ever yet received1 fed his fancy by    
making many edicts to his airy          
burgomasters1 which they who otherwise  
admire him wish had been rather buried  
and excused in the genial cups of an    
,academic night sitting4 ,by which laws 
he seems to tolerate no kind of learning
 but by unalterable decree1 consisting  
most of practical traditions1 to the    
attainment whereof a library of smaller 
bulk than his own ,dialogues would be   
abundant4 ,and there also enacts1 that  
no poet should so much as read to any   
private man what he had written1 until  
the judges and law-keepers had seen it1 
and allowed it4 ,but that ,plato meant  
this law peculiarly to that commonwealth
 which he had imagined1 and to no other1
 is evident4 ,why was he not else a     
lawgiver to himself1 but a transgressor1
 and to be expelled by his own          
magistrates2 both for the wanton        
epigrams and dialogues which he made1   
and his perpetual reading of ,sophron   
,mimus and ,aristophanes1 books of      

grossest infamy1 and also for commending
 the latter of them1 though he were the 
malicious libeller of his chief friends1
 to be read by the tyrant ,dionysius1   
who had little need of such trash to    
spend his time on8 ,but that he knew    
this licensing of poems had reference   
and dependence to many other provisos   
there set down in his fancied republic1 
which in this world could have no place3
 and so neither he himself1 nor any     
magistrate or city1 ever imitated that  
course1 which1 taken apart from those   
other collateral injunctions1 must needs
 be vain and fruitless4 ,for if they    
fell upon one kind of strictness1 unless
 their care were equal to regulate all  
other things of like aptness to corrupt 
the mind1 that single endeavour they    
knew would be but a fond labour2 to shut
 and fortify one gate against           
corruption1 and be necessitated to leave
 others round about wide open4  ,if we  
think to regulate printing1 thereby to  
rectify manners1 we must regulate all   

recreation and pastimes1 all that is    
delightful to man4 ,no music must be    
heard1 no song be set or sung1 but what 
is grave and ,doric4 ,there must be     
licensing dancers1 that no gesture1     
motion1 or deportment be taught our     
youth but what by their allowance shall 
be thought honest2 for such ,plato was  
provided of4 ,it will ask more than the 
work of twenty licensers to examine all 
the lutes1 the violins1 and the guitars 
in every house2 they must not be        
suffered to prattle as they do1 but must
 be licensed what they may say4 ,and who
 shall silence all the airs and         
madrigals that whisper softness in      
chambers8 ,the windows also1 and the    
balconies must be thought on2 there are 
shrewd books1 with dangerous            
frontispieces1 set to sale2 who shall   
prohibit them1 shall twenty licensers8  
,the villages also must have their      
visitors to inquire what lectures the   
bagpipe and the rebeck reads1 even to   
the ballatry and the gamut of every     

municipal fiddler1 for these are the    
countryman's ,arcadias1 and his ,monte  
,mayors4  ,next1 what more national     
corruption1 for which ,england hears ill
 abroad1 than household gluttony3 who   
shall be the rectors of our daily       
rioting8 ,and what shall be done to     
inhibit the multitudes that frequent    
those houses where drunkenness is sold  
and harboured8 ,our garments also should
 be referred to the licensing of some   
more sober workmasters to see them cut  
into a less wanton garb4 ,who shall     
regulate all the mixed conversation of  
our youth1 male and female together1 as 
is the fashion of this country8 ,who    
shall still appoint what shall be       
discoursed1 what presumed1 and no       
further8 ,lastly1 who shall forbid and  
separate all idle resort1 all evil      
company8 ,these things will be1 and must
 be2 but how they shall be least        
hurtful1 how least enticing1 herein     
consists the grave and governing wisdom 
of a state4  ,to sequester out of the   

world into ,atlantic and ,utopian       
polities1 which never can be drawn into 
use1 will not mend our condition2 but to
 ordain wisely as in this world of evil1
 in the midst whereof ,god hath placed  
us unavoidably4 ,nor is it ,plato's     
licensing of books will do this1 which  
necessarily pulls along with it so many 
other kinds of licensing1 as will make  
us all both ridiculous and weary1 and   
yet frustrate2 but those unwritten1 or  
at least unconstraining1 laws of        
virtuous education1 religious and civil 
nurture1 which ,plato there mentions as 
the bonds and ligaments of the          
commonwealth1 the pillars and the       
sustainers of every written statute2    
these they be which will bear chief sway
 in such matters as these1 when all     
licensing will be easily eluded4        
,impunity and remissness1 for certain1  
are the bane of a commonwealth2 but here
 the great art lies1 to discern in what 
the law is to bid restraint and         
punishment1 and in what things          

persuasion only is to work4  ,if every  
action1 which is good or evil in man at 
ripe years1 were to be under pittance   
and prescription and compulsion1 what   
were virtue but a name1 what praise     
could be then due to well-doing1 what   
gramercy to be sober1 just1 or          
continent8 ,many there be that complain 
of divine ,providence for suffering     
,adam to transgress2 foolish tongues6   
,when ,god gave him reason1 he gave him 
freedom to choose1 for reason is but    
choosing2 he had been else a mere       
artificial ,adam1 such an ,adam as he is
 in the motions4 ,we ourselves esteem   
not of that obedience1 or love1 or gift1
 which is of force3 ,god therefore left 
him free1 set before him a provoking    
object1 ever almost in his eyes2 herein 
consisted his merit1 herein the right of
 his reward1 the praise of his          
abstinence4 ,wherefore did he create    
passions within us1 pleasures round     
about us1 but that these rightly        
tempered are the very ingredients of    

virtue8  ,they are not skilful          
considerers of human things1 who imagine
 to remove sin by removing the matter of
 sin2 for1 besides that it is a huge    
heap increasing under the very act of   
diminishing1 though some part of it may 
for a time be withdrawn from some       
persons1 it cannot from all1 in such a  
universal thing as books are2 and when  
this is done1 yet the sin remains       
entire4 ,though ye take from a covetous 
man all his treasure1 he has yet one    
jewel left1 ye cannot bereave him of his
 covetousness4 ,banish all objects of   
lust1 shut up all youth into the        
severest discipline that can be         
exercised in any hermitage1 ye cannot   
make them chaste1 that came not hither  
so2 such great care and wisdom is       
required to the right managing of this  
point4 ,suppose we could expel sin by   
this means2 look how much we thus expel 
of sin1 so much we expel of virtue3 for 
the matter of them both is the same2    
remove that1 and ye remove them both    

alike4  ,this justifies the high        
providence of ,god1 who1 though he      
command us temperance1 justice1         
continence1 yet pours out before us1    
even to a profuseness1 all desirable    
things1 and gives us minds that can     
wander beyond all limit and satiety4    
,why should we then affect a rigour     
contrary to the manner of ,god and of   
nature1 by abridging or scanting those  
means1 which books freely permitted are1
 both to the trial of virtue and the    
exercise of truth8 ,it would be better  
done1 to learn that the law must needs  
be frivolous1 which goes to restrain    
things1 uncertainly and yet equally     
working to good and to evil4 ,and were  
,i the chooser1 a dream of well-doing   
should be preferred before many times as
 much the forcible hindrance of         
evil-doing4 ,for ,god sure esteems the  
growth and completing of one virtuous   
person more than the restraint of ten   
vicious4  ,and albeit whatever thing we 
hear or see1 sitting1 walking1          

travelling1 or conversing1 may be fitly 
called our book1 and is of the same     
effect that writings are1 yet grant the 
thing to be prohibited were only books1 
it appears that this ,order hitherto is 
far insufficient to the end which it    
intends4 ,do we not see1 not once or    
oftener1 but weekly1 that continued     
court-libel against the ,parliament and 
,city1 printed1 as the wet sheets can   
witness1 and dispersed among us1 for all
 that licensing can do8 ,yet this is the
 prime service a man would think1       
wherein this ,order should give proof of
 itself4 ,if it were executed1 you'll   
say4 ,but certain1 if execution be      
remiss or blindfold now1 and in this    
particular1 what will it be hereafter   
and in other books8 ,if then the ,order 
shall not be vain and frustrate1 behold 
a new labour1 ,lords and ,commons1 ye   
must repeal and proscribe all scandalous
 and unlicensed books already printed   
and divulged2 after ye have drawn them  
up into a list1 that all may know which 

are condemned1 and which not2 and ordain
 that no foreign books be delivered out 
of custody1 till they have been read    
over4 ,this office will require the     
whole time of not a few overseers1 and  
those no vulgar men4 ,there be also     
books which are partly useful and       
excellent1 partly culpable and          
pernicious2 this work will ask as many  
more officials1 to make expurgations and
 expunctions1 that the commonwealth of  
learning be not damnified4 ,in fine1    
when the multitude of books increase    
upon their hands1 ye must be fain to    
catalogue all those printers who are    
found frequently offending1 and forbid  
the importation of their whole suspected
 typography4 ,in a word1 that this your 
,order may be exact and not deficient1  
ye must reform it perfectly according to
 the model of ,trent and ,seville1 which
 ,i know ye abhor to do4  ,yet though ye
 should condescend to this1 which ,god  
forbid1 the ,order still would be but   
fruitless and defective to that end     

whereto ye meant it4 ,if to prevent     
sects and schisms1 who is so unread or  
so uncatechized in story1 that hath not 
heard of many sects refusing books as a 
hindrance1 and preserving their doctrine
 unmixed for many ages1 only by         
unwritten traditions8 ,the ,christian   
faith1 for that was once a schism1 is   
not unknown to have spread all over     
,asia1 ere any ,gospel or ,epistle was  
seen in writing4 ,if the amendment of   
manners be aimed at1 look into ,italy   
and ,spain1 whether those places be one 
scruple the better1 the honester1 the   
wiser1 the chaster1 since all the       
inquisitional rigour that hath been     
executed upon books4  ,another reason1  
whereby to make it plain that this      
,order will miss the end it seeks1      
consider by the quality which ought to  
be in every licenser4 ,it cannot be     
denied but that he who is made judge to 
sit upon the birth or death of books1   
whether they may be wafted into this    
world or not1 had need to be a man above

 the common measure1 both studious1     
learned1 and judicious2 there may be    
else no mean mistakes in the censure of 
what is passable or not2 which is also  
no mean injury4 ,if he be of such worth 
as behooves him1 there cannot be a more 
tedious and unpleasing journey-work1 a  
greater loss of time levied upon his    
head1 than to be made the perpetual     
reader of unchosen books and pamphlets1 
ofttimes huge volumes4 ,there is no book
 that is acceptable unless at certain   
seasons2 but to be enjoined the reading 
of that at all times1 and in a hand     
scarce legible1 whereof three pages     
would not down at any time in the       
fairest print1 is an imposition which ,i
 cannot believe how he that values time 
and his own studies1 or is but of a     
sensible nostril1 should be able to     
endure4 ,in this one thing ,i crave     
leave of the present licensers to be    
pardoned for so thinking2 who doubtless 
took this office up1 looking on it      
through their obedience to the          

,parliament1 whose command perhaps made 
all things seem easy and unlaborious to 
them2 but that this short trial hath    
wearied them out already1 their own     
expressions and excuses to them who make
 so many journeys to solicit their      
licence are testimony enough4 ,seeing   
therefore those who now possess the     
employment by all evident signs wish    
themselves well rid of it2 and that no  
man of worth1 none that is not a plain  
unthrift of his own hours1 is ever      
likely to succeed them1 except he mean  
to put himself to the salary of a press 
corrector2 we may easily foresee what   
kind of licensers we are to expect      
hereafter1 either ignorant1 imperious1  
and remiss1 or basely pecuniary4 ,this  
is what ,i had to show1 wherein this    
,order cannot conduce to that end       
whereof it bears the intention4  ,i     
lastly proceed from the no good it can  
do1 to the manifest hurt it causes1 in  
being first the greatest discouragement 
and affront that can be offered to      

learning1 and to learned men4  ,it was  
the complaint and lamentation of        
prelates1 upon every least breath of a  
motion to remove pluralities1 and       
distribute more equally ,church         
revenues1 that then all learning would  
be for ever dashed and discouraged4 ,but
 as for that opinion1 ,i never found    
cause to think that the tenth part of   
learning stood or fell with the clergy3 
nor could ,i ever but hold it for a     
sordid and unworthy speech of any       
churchman who had a competency left him4
 ,if therefore ye be loath to dishearten
 utterly and discontent1 not the        
mercenary crew of false pretenders to   
learning1 but the free and ingenuous    
sort of such as evidently were born to  
study1 and love learning for itself1 not
 for lucre or any other end but the     
service of ,god and of truth1 and       
perhaps that lasting fame and perpetuity
 of praise which ,god and good men have 
consented shall be the reward of those  
whose published labours advance the good

 of mankind2 then know that1 so far to  
distrust the judgment and the honesty of
 one who hath but a common repute in    
learning1 and never yet offended1 as not
 to count him fit to print his mind     
without a tutor and examiner1 lest he   
should drop a schism1 or something of   
corruption1 is the greatest displeasure 
and indignity to a free and knowing     
spirit that can be put upon him4  ,what 
advantage is it to be a man1 over it is 
to be a boy at school1 if we have only  
escaped the ferula to come under the    
fescue of an ,imprimatur2 if serious and
 elaborate writings1 as if they were no 
more than the theme of a grammar-lad    
under his pedagogue1 must not be uttered
 without the cursory eyes of a          
temporizing and extemporizing licenser8 
,he who is not trusted with his own     
actions1 his drift not being known to be
 evil1 and standing to the hazard of law
 and penalty1 has no great argument to  
think himself reputed in the            
,commonwealth wherein he was born for   

other than a fool or a foreigner4 ,when 
a man writes to the world1 he summons up
 all his reason and deliberation to     
assist him2 he searches1 meditates1 is  
industrious1 and likely consults and    
confers with his judicious friends2     
after all which done he takes himself to
 be informed in what he writes1 as well 
as any that writ before him4 ,if1 in    
this the most consummate act of his     
fidelity and ripeness1 no years1 no     
industry1 no former proof of his        
abilities can bring him to that state of
 maturity1 as not to be still mistrusted
 and suspected1 unless he carry all his 
considerate diligence1 all his midnight 
watchings and expense of ,palladian oil1
 to the hasty view of an unleisured     
licenser1 perhaps much his younger1     
perhaps his inferior in judgment1       
perhaps one who never knew the labour of
 bookwriting1 and if he be not repulsed 
or slighted1 must appear in print like a
 puny with his guardian1 and his        
censor's hand on the back of his title  

to be his bail and surety that he is no 
idiot or seducer1 it cannot be but a    
dishonour and derogation to the author1 
to the book1 to the privilege and       
dignity of learning4  ,and what if the  
author shall be one so copious of fancy1
 as to have many things well worth the  
adding come into his mind after         
licensing1 while the book is yet under  
the press1 which not seldom happens to  
the best and diligentest writers2 and   
that perhaps a dozen times in one book8 
,the printer dares not go beyond his    
licensed copy2 so often then must the   
author trudge to his leave-giver1 that  
those his new insertions may be viewed2 
and many a jaunt will be made1 ere that 
licenser1 for it must be the same man1  
can either be found1 or found at        
leisure2 meanwhile either the press must
 stand still1 which is no small damage1 
or the author lose his accuratest       
thoughts1 and send the book forth worse 
than he had made it1 which to a diligent
 writer is the greatest melancholy and  

vexation that can befall4  ,and how can 
a man teach with authority1 which is the
 life of teaching2 how can he be a      
doctor in his book as he ought to be1 or
 else had better be silent1 whenas all  
he teaches1 all he delivers1 is but     
under the tuition1 under the correction 
of his patriarchal licenser to blot or  
alter what precisely accords not with   
the hidebound humour which he calls his 
judgment8 ,when every acute reader1 upon
 the first sight of a pedantic licence1 
will be ready with these like words to  
ding the book a quoit's distance from   
him3 ,i hate a pupil teacher1 ,i endure 
not an instructor that comes to me under
 the wardship of an overseeing fist4 ,i 
know nothing of the licenser1 but that  
,i have his own hand here for his       
arrogance2 who shall warrant me his     
judgment8 ,the ,state1 sir1 replies the 
stationer1 but has a quick return3 ,the 
,state shall be my governors1 but not my
 critics2 they may be mistaken in the   
choice of a licenser1 as easily as this 

licenser may be mistaken in an author2  
this is some common stuff2 and he might 
add from ,sir ,francis ,bacon1 ,,that   
,,such ,,authorized ,,books ,,are ,,but 
,,the ,,language ,,of ,,the ,,times4    
,for though a licenser should happen to 
be judicious more than ordinary1 which  
will be a great jeopardy of the next    
succession1 yet his very office and his 
commission enjoins him to let pass      
nothing but what is vulgarly received   
already4  ,nay1 which is more           
lamentable1 if the work of any deceased 
author1 though never so famous in his   
lifetime and even to this day1 come to  
their hands for licence to be printed1  
or reprinted1 if there be found in his  
book one sentence of a venturous edge1  
uttered in the height of zeal 7and who  
knows whether it might not be the       
dictate of a divine spirit87 yet not    
suiting with every low decrepit humour  
of their own1 though it were ,knox      
himself1 the reformer of a kingdom1 that
 spake it1 they will not pardon him     

their dash3 the sense of that great man 
shall to all posterity be lost1 for the 
fearfulness or the presumptuous rashness
 of a perfunctory licenser4 ,and to what
 an author this violence hath been      
lately done1 and in what book of        
greatest consequence to be faithfully   
published1 ,i could now instance1 but   
shall forbear till a more convenient    
season4  ,yet if these things be not    
resented seriously and timely by them   
who have the remedy in their power1 but 
that such iron-moulds as these shall    
have authority to gnaw out the choicest 
periods of exquisitest books1 and to    
commit such a treacherous fraud against 
the orphan remainders of worthiest men  
after death1 the more sorrow will belong
 to that hapless race of men1 whose     
misfortune it is to have understanding4 
,henceforth let no man care to learn1 or
 care to be more than worldly-wise2 for 
certainly in higher matters to be       
ignorant and slothful1 to be a common   
steadfast dunce1 will be the only       

pleasant life1 and only in request4     
,and it is a particular disesteem of    
every knowing person alive1 and most    
injurious to the written labours and    
monuments of the dead1 so to me it seems
 an undervaluing and vilifying of the   
whole nation4 ,i cannot set so light by 
all the invention1 the art1 the wit1 the
 grave and solid judgment which is in   
,england1 as that it can be comprehended
 in any twenty capacities how good      
soever1 much less that it should not    
pass except their superintendence be    
over it1 except it be sifted and        
strained with their strainers1 that it  
should be uncurrent without their manual
 stamp4 ,truth and understanding are not
 such wares as to be monopolized and    
traded in by tickets and statutes and   
standards4 ,we must not think to make a 
staple commodity of all the knowledge in
 the land1 to mark and licence it like  
our broadcloth and our woolpacks4 ,what 
is it but a servitude like that imposed 
by the ,philistines1 not to be allowed  

the sharpening of our own axes and      
coulters1 but we must repair from all   
quarters to twenty licensing forges8    
,had anyone written and divulged        
erroneous things and scandalous to      
honest life1 misusing and forfeiting the
 esteem had of his reason among men1 if 
after conviction this only censure were 
adjudged him that he should never       
henceforth write but what were first    
examined by an appointed officer1 whose 
hand should be annexed to pass his      
credit for him that now he might be     
safely read2 it could not be apprehended
 less than a disgraceful punishment4    
,whence to include the whole nation1 and
 those that never yet thus offended1    
under such a diffident and suspectful   
prohibition1 may plainly be understood  
what a disparagement it is4 ,so much the
 more1 whenas debtors and delinquents   
may walk abroad without a keeper1 but   
unoffensive books must not stir forth   
without a visible jailer in their title4
  ,nor is it to the common people less  

than a reproach2 for if we be so jealous
 over them1 as that we dare not trust   
them with an ,english pamphlet1 what do 
we but censure them for a giddy1        
vicious1 and ungrounded people2 in such 
a sick and weak state of faith and      
discretion1 as to be able to take       
nothing down but through the pipe of a  
licenser8 ,that this is care or love of 
them1 we cannot pretend1 whenas1 in     
those popish places where the laity are 
most hated and despised1 the same       
strictness is used over them4 ,wisdom we
 cannot call it1 because it stops but   
one breach of licence1 nor that neither3
 whenas those corruptions1 which it     
seeks to prevent1 break in faster at    
other doors which cannot be shut4  ,and 
in conclusion it reflects to the        
disrepute of our ministers also1 of     
whose labours we should hope better1 and
 of the proficiency which their flock   
reaps by them1 than that after all this 
light of the ,gospel which is1 and is to
 be1 and all this continual preaching1  

they should still be frequented with    
such an unprincipled1 unedified and laic
 rabble1 as that the whiff of every new 
pamphlet should stagger them out of     
their catechism and ,christian walking4 
,this may have much reason to discourage
 the ministers when such a low conceit  
is had of all their exhortations1 and   
the benefiting of their hearers1 as that
 they are not thought fit to be turned  
loose to three sheets of paper without a
 licenser2 that all the sermons1 all the
 lectures preached1 printed1 vented in  
such numbers1 and such volumes1 as have 
now well nigh made all other books      
unsaleable1 should not be armour enough 
against one single ,enchiridion1 without
 the castle of ,st4 ,angelo of an       
,imprimatur4  ,and lest some should     
persuade ye1 ,lords and ,commons1 that  
these arguments of learned men's        
discouragement at this your ,order are  
mere flourishes1 and not real1 ,i could 
recount what ,i have seen and heard in  
other countries1 where this kind of     

inquisition tyrannizes2 when ,i have sat
 among their learned men1 for that      
honour ,i had1 and been counted happy to
 be born in such a place of philosophic 
freedom1 as they supposed ,england was1 
while themselves did nothing but bemoan 
the servile condition into which        
learning amongst them was brought2 that 
this was it which had damped the glory  
of ,italian wits2 that nothing had been 
there written now these many years but  
flattery and fustian4 ,there it was that
 ,i found and visited the famous        
,galileo1 grown old1 a prisoner to the  
,inquisition1 for thinking in astronomy 
otherwise than the ,franciscan and      
,dominican licensers thought4 ,and      
though ,i knew that ,england then was   
groaning loudest under the prelatical   
yoke1 nevertheless ,i took it as a      
pledge of future happiness1 that other  
nations were so persuaded of her        
liberty4 ,yet was it beyond my hope that
 those worthies were then breathing in  
her air1 who should be her leaders to   

such a deliverance1 as shall never be   
forgotten by any revolution of time that
 this world hath to finish4 ,when that  
was once begun1 it was as little in my  
fear that what words of complaint ,i    
heard among learned men of other parts  
uttered against the ,inquisition1 the   
same ,i should hear by as learned men at
 home1 uttered in time of ,parliament   
against an order of licensing2 and that 
so generally that1 when ,i had disclosed
 myself a companion of their discontent1
 ,i might say1 if without envy1 that he 
whom an honest quaestorship had endeared
 to the ,sicilians was not more by them 
importuned against ,verres1 than the    
favourable opinion which ,i had among   
many who honour ye1 and are known and   
respected by ye1 loaded me with         
entreaties and persuasions1 that ,i     
would not despair to lay together that  
which just reason should bring into my  
mind1 toward the removal of an          
undeserved thraldom upon learning4 ,that
 this is not therefore the disburdening 

of a particular fancy1 but the common   
grievance of all those who had prepared 
their minds and studies above the vulgar
 pitch to advance truth in others1 and  
from others to entertain it1 thus much  
may satisfy4  ,and in their name ,i     
shall for neither friend nor foe conceal
 what the general murmur is2 that if it 
come to inquisitioning again and        
licensing1 and that we are so timorous  
of ourselves1 and so suspicious of all  
men1 as to fear each book and the       
shaking of every leaf1 before we know   
what the contents are2 if some who but  
of late were little better than silenced
 from preaching shall come now to       
silence us from reading1 except what    
they please1 it cannot be guessed what  
is intended by some but a second tyranny
 over learning3 and will soon put it out
 of controversy1 that bishops and       
presbyters are the same to us1 both name
 and thing4 ,that those evils of        
prelaty1 which before from five or six  
and twenty sees were distributively     

charged upon the whole people1 will now 
light wholly upon learning1 is not      
obscure to us3 whenas now the pastor of 
a small unlearned parish on the sudden  
shall be exalted archbishop over a large
 diocese of books1 and yet not remove1  
but keep his other cure too1 a mystical 
pluralist4 ,he who but of late cried    
down the sole ordination of every novice
 ,bachelor of ,art1 and denied sole     
jurisdiction over the simplest          
parishioner1 shall now at home in his   
private chair assume both these over    
worthiest and excellentest books and    
ablest authors that write them4  ,this  
is not1 ye ,covenants and ,protestations
 that we have made6 this is not to put  
down prelaty2 this is but to chop an    
episcopacy2 this is but to translate the
 ,palace ,metropolitan from one kind of 
dominion into another2 this is but an   
old canonical sleight of commuting our  
penance4 ,to startle thus betimes at a  
mere unlicensed pamphlet will after a   
while be afraid of every conventicle1   

and a while after will make a           
conventicle of every ,christian meeting4
 ,but ,i am certain that a ,state       
governed by the rules of justice and    
fortitude1 or a ,church built and       
founded upon the rock of faith and true 
knowledge1 cannot be so pusillanimous4  
,while things are yet not constituted in
 religion1 that freedom of writing      
should be restrained by a discipline    
imitated from the prelates and learnt by
 them from the ,inquisition1 to shut us 
up all again into the breast of a       
licenser1 must needs give cause of doubt
 and discouragement to all learned and  
religious men4  ,who cannot but discern 
the fineness of this politic drift1 and 
who are the contrivers2 that while      
bishops were to be baited down1 then all
 presses might be open2 it was the      
people's birthright and privilege in    
time of ,parliament1 it was the breaking
 forth of light4 ,but now1 the bishops  
abrogated and voided out of the ,church1
 as if our ,reformation sought no more  

but to make room for others into their  
seats under another name1 the episcopal 
arts begin to bud again1 the cruse of   
truth must run no more oil1 liberty of  
printing must be enthralled again under 
a prelatical commission of twenty1 the  
privilege of the people nullified1 and1 
which is worse1 the freedom of learning 
must groan again1 and to her old        
fetters3 all this the ,parliament yet   
sitting4 ,although their own late       
arguments and defences against the      
prelates might remember them1 that this 
obstructing violence meets for the most 
part with an event utterly opposite to  
the end which it drives at3 instead of  
suppressing sects and schisms1 it raises
 them and invests them with a           
reputation4 ,the punishing of wits      
enhances their authority1 saith the     
,viscount ,st4 ,albans2 and a forbidden 
writing is thought to be a certain spark
 of truth that flies up in the faces of 
them who seek to tread it out4 ,this    
,order1 therefore1 may prove a          

nursing-mother to sects1 but ,i shall   
easily show how it will be a step-dame  
to ,truth3 and first by disenabling us  
to the maintenance of what is known     
already4  ,well knows he who uses to    
consider1 that our faith and knowledge  
thrives by exercise1 as well as our     
limbs and complexion4 ,truth is compared
 in ,scripture to a streaming fountain2 
if her waters flow not in a perpetual   
progression1 they sicken into a muddy   
pool of conformity and tradition4 ,a man
 may be a heretic in the truth2 and if  
he believe things only because his      
pastor says so1 or the ,assembly so     
determines1 without knowing other       
reason1 though his belief be true1 yet  
the very truth he holds becomes his     
heresy4  ,there is not any burden that  
some would gladlier post off to another 
than the charge and care of their       
religion4 ,there be--who knows not that 
there be8--of ,protestants and          
professors who live and die in as arrant
 an implicit faith as any lay ,papist of

 ,loretto4 ,a wealthy man1 addicted to  
his pleasure and to his profits1 finds  
religion to be a traffic so entangled1  
and of so many piddling accounts1 that  
of all mysteries he cannot skill to keep
 a stock going upon that trade4 ,what   
should he do8 fain he would have the    
name to be religious1 fain he would bear
 up with his neighbours in that4 ,what  
does he therefore1 but resolves to give 
over toiling1 and to find himself out   
some factor1 to whose care and credit he
 may commit the whole managing of his   
religious affairs2 some divine of note  
and estimation that must be4 ,to him he 
adheres1 resigns the whole warehouse of 
his religion1 with all the locks and    
keys1 into his custody2 and indeed makes
 the very person of that man his        
religion2 esteems his associating with  
him a sufficient evidence and           
commendatory of his own piety4 ,so that 
a man may say his religion is now no    
more within himself1 but is become a    
dividual movable1 and goes and comes    

near him1 according as that good man    
frequents the house4 ,he entertains him1
 gives him gifts1 feasts him1 lodges    
him2 his religion comes home at night1  
prays1 is liberally supped1 and         
sumptuously laid to sleep2 rises1 is    
saluted1 and after the malmsey1 or some 
well-spiced brewage1 and better         
breakfasted than he whose morning       
appetite would have gladly fed on green 
figs between ,bethany and ,jerusalem1   
his religion walks abroad at eight1 and 
leaves his kind entertainer in the shop 
trading all day without his religion4   
,another sort there be who1 when they   
hear that all things shall be ordered1  
all things regulated and settled1       
nothing written but what passes through 
the custom-house of certain publicans   
that have the tonnaging and poundaging  
of all free-spoken truth1 will straight 
give themselves up into your hands1 make
 'em and cut 'em out what religion ye   
please3 there be delights1 there be     
recreations and jolly pastimes that will

 fetch the day about from sun to sun1   
and rock the tedious year as in a       
delightful dream4 ,what need they       
torture their heads with that which     
others have taken so strictly and so    
unalterably into their own purveying8   
,these are the fruits which a dull ease 
and cessation of our knowledge will     
bring forth among the people4 ,how      
goodly and how to be wished were such an
 obedient unanimity as this1 what a fine
 conformity would it starch us all into6
 ,doubtless a staunch and solid piece of
 framework1 as any ,january could freeze
 together4  ,nor much better will be the
 consequence even among the clergy      
themselves4 ,it is no new thing never   
heard of before1 for a parochial        
minister1 who has his reward and is at  
his ,hercules' pillars in a warm        
benefice1 to be easily inclinable1 if he
 have nothing else that may rouse up his
 studies1 to finish his circuit in an   
,english ,concordance and a topic folio1
 the gatherings and savings of a sober  

graduateship1 a ,harmony and a ,catena2 
treading the constant round of certain  
common doctrinal heads1 attended with   
their uses1 motives1 marks1 and means1  
out of which1 as out of an alphabet1 or 
sol-fa1 by forming and transforming1    
joining and disjoining variously1 a     
little bookcraft1 and two hours'        
meditation1 might furnish him           
unspeakably to the performance of more  
than a weekly charge of sermoning3 not  
to reckon up the infinite helps of      
interlinearies1 breviaries1 synopses1   
and other loitering gear4 ,but as for   
the multitude of sermons ready printed  
and piled up1 on every text that is not 
difficult1 our ,london trading ,st4     
,thomas in his vestry1 and add to boot  
,st4 ,martin and ,st4 ,hugh1 have not   
within their hallowed limits more       
vendible ware of all sorts ready made3  
so that penury he never need fear of    
pulpit provision1 having where so       
plenteously to refresh his magazine4    
,but if his rear and flanks be not      

impaled1 if his back door be not secured
 by the rigid licenser1 but that a bold 
book may now and then issue forth and   
give the assault to some of his old     
collections in their trenches1 it will  
concern him then to keep waking1 to     
stand in watch1 to set good guards and  
sentinels about his received opinions1  
to walk the round and counter-round with
 his fellow inspectors1 fearing lest any
 of his flock be seduced1 who also then 
would be better instructed1 better      
exercised and disciplined4 ,and ,god    
send that the fear of this diligence1   
which must then be used1 do not make us 
affect the laziness of a licensing      
,church4  ,for if we be sure we are in  
the right1 and do not hold the truth    
guiltily1 which becomes not1 if we      
ourselves condemn not our own weak and  
frivolous teaching1 and the people for  
an untaught and irreligious gadding     
rout1 what can be more fair than when a 
man judicious1 learned1 and of a        
conscience1 for aught we know1 as good  

as theirs that taught us what we know1  
shall not privily from house to house1  
which is more dangerous1 but openly by  
writing publish to the world what his   
opinion is1 what his reasons1 and       
wherefore that which is now thought     
cannot be sound8 ,christ urged it as    
wherewith to justify himself1 that he   
preached in public2 yet writing is more 
public than preaching2 and more easy to 
refutation1 if need be1 there being so  
many whose business and profession      
merely it is to be the champions of     
truth2 which if they neglect1 what can  
be imputed but their sloth1 or          
unability8  ,thus much we are hindered  
and disinured by this course of         
licensing1 toward the true knowledge of 
what we seem to know4 ,for how much it  
hurts and hinders the licensers         
themselves in the calling of their      
ministry1 more than any secular         
employment1 if they will discharge that 
office as they ought1 so that of        
necessity they must neglect either the  

one duty or the other1 ,i insist not1   
because it is a particular1 but leave it
 to their own conscience1 how they will 
decide it there4  ,there is yet behind  
of what ,i purposed to lay open1 the    
incredible loss and detriment that this 
plot of licensing puts us to2 more than 
if some enemy at sea should stop up all 
our havens and ports and creeks1 it     
hinders and retards the importation of  
our richest merchandise1 truth2 nay1 it 
was first established and put in        
practice by ,antichristian malice and   
mystery on set purpose to extinguish1 if
 it were possible1 the light of         
,reformation1 and to settle falsehood2  
little differing from that policy       
wherewith the ,turk upholds his         
,alcoran1 by the prohibition of         
printing4 ',tis not denied1 but gladly  
confessed1 we are to send our thanks and
 vows to ,heaven louder than most of    
nations1 for that great measure of truth
 which we enjoy1 especially in those    
main points between us and the ,pope1   

with his appurtenances the prelates3 but
 he who thinks we are to pitch our tent 
here1 and have attained the utmost      
prospect of reformation that the mortal 
glass wherein we contemplate can show   
us1 till we come to beatific vision1    
that man by this very opinion declares  
that he is yet far short of truth4      
,truth indeed came once into the world  
with her divine ,master1 and was a      
perfect shape most glorious to look on3 
but when he ascended1 and his ,apostles 
after him were laid asleep1 then        
straight arose a wicked race of         
deceivers1 who1 as that story goes of   
the ,egyptian ,typhon with his          
conspirators1 how they dealt with the   
good ,osiris1 took the virgin ,truth1   
hewed her lovely form into a thousand   
pieces1 and scattered them to the four  
winds4 ,from that time ever since1 the  
sad friends of ,truth1 such as durst    
appear1 imitating the careful search    
that ,isis made for the mangled body of 
,osiris1 went up and down gathering up  

limb by limb1 still as they could find  
them4 ,we have not yet found them all1  
,lords and ,commons1 nor ever shall do1 
till her ,master's second coming2 he    
shall bring together every joint and    
member1 and shall mould them into an    
immortal feature of loveliness and      
perfection4 ,suffer not these licensing 
prohibitions to stand at every place of 
opportunity1 forbidding and disturbing  
them that continue seeking1 that        
continue to do our obsequies to the torn
 body of our martyred saint4  ,we boast 
our light2 but if we look not wisely on 
the sun itself1 it smites us into       
darkness4 ,who can discern those planets
 that are oft combust1 and those stars  
of brightest magnitude that rise and set
 with the sun1 until the opposite motion
 of their orbs bring them to such a     
place in the firmament1 where they may  
be seen evening or morning8 ,the light  
which we have gained was given us1 not  
to be ever staring on1 but by it to     
discover onward things more remote from 

our knowledge4 ,it is not the unfrocking
 of a priest1 the unmitring of a bishop1
 and the removing him from off the      
presbyterian shoulders1 that will make  
us a happy nation4 ,no1 if other things 
as great in the ,church1 and in the rule
 of life both economical and political1 
be not looked into and reformed1 we have
 looked so long upon the blaze that     
,zuinglius and ,calvin hath beaconed up 
to us1 that we are stark blind4 ,there  
be who perpetually complain of schisms  
and sects1 and make it such a calamity  
that any man dissents from their maxims4
 ',tis their own pride and ignorance    
which causes the disturbing1 who neither
 will hear with meekness1 nor can       
convince2 yet all must be suppressed    
which is not found in their ,syntagma4  
,they are the troublers1 they are the   
dividers of unity1 who neglect and      
permit not others to unite those        
dissevered pieces which are yet wanting 
to the body of ,truth4 ,to be still     
searching what we know not by what we   

know1 still closing up truth to truth as
 we find it 7for all her body is        
homogeneal and proportional71 this is   
the golden rule in theology as well as  
in arithmetic1 and makes up the best    
harmony in a ,church2 not the forced and
 outward union of cold1 and neutral1 and
 inwardly divided minds4  ,lords and    
,commons of ,england6 consider what     
nation it is whereof ye are1 and whereof
 ye are the governors3 a nation not slow
 and dull1 but of a quick1 ingenious and
 piercing spirit1 acute to invent1      
subtle and sinewy to discourse1 not     
beneath the reach of any point the      
highest that human capacity can soar to4
 ,therefore the studies of learning in  
her deepest sciences have been so       
ancient and so eminent among us1 that   
writers of good antiquity and ablest    
judgment have been persuaded that even  
the school of ,pythagoras and the       
,persian wisdom took beginning from the 
old philosophy of this island4 ,and that
 wise and civil ,roman1 ,julius         

,agricola1 who governed once here for   
,caesar1 preferred the natural wits of  
,britain before the laboured studies of 
the ,french4 ,nor is it for nothing that
 the grave and frugal ,transylvanian    
sends out yearly from as far as the     
mountainous borders of ,russia1 and     
beyond the ,hercynian wilderness1 not   
their youth1 but their staid men1 to    
learn our language and our theologic    
arts4  ,yet that which is above all     
this1 the favour and the love of        
,heaven1 we have great argument to think
 in a peculiar manner propitious and    
propending towards us4 ,why else was    
this nation chosen before any other1    
that out of her1 as out of ,sion1 should
 be proclaimed and sounded forth the    
first tidings and trumpet of            
,reformation to all ,europe8 ,and had it
 not been the obstinate perverseness of 
our prelates against the divine and     
admirable spirit of ,wickliff1 to       
suppress him as a schismatic and        
innovator1 perhaps neither the ,bohemian

 ,huns and ,jerome1 no nor the name of  
,luther or of ,calvin1 had been ever    
known3 the glory of reforming all our   
neighbours had been completely ours4    
,but now1 as our obdurate clergy have   
with violence demeaned the matter1 we   
are become hitherto the latest and the  
backwardest scholars1 of whom ,god      
offered to have made us the teachers4   
,now once again by all concurrence of   
signs1 and by the general instinct of   
holy and devout men1 as they daily and  
solemnly express their thoughts1 ,god is
 decreeing to begin some new and great  
period in his ,church1 even to the      
reforming of ,reformation itself3 what  
does he then but reveal himself to his  
servants1 and as his manner is1 first to
 his ,englishmen8 ,i say1 as his manner 
is1 first to us1 though we mark not the 
method of his counsels1 and are         
unworthy4  ,behold now this vast city3 a
 city of refuge1 the mansion house of   
liberty1 encompassed and surrounded with
 his protection2 the shop of war hath   

not there more anvils and hammers       
waking1 to fashion out the plates and   
instruments of armed justice in defence 
of beleaguered truth1 than there be pens
 and heads there1 sitting by their      
studious lamps1 musing1 searching1      
revolving new notions and ideas         
wherewith to present1 as with their     
homage and their fealty1 the approaching
 ,reformation3 others as fast reading1  
trying all things1 assenting to the     
force of reason and convincement4 ,what 
could a man require more from a nation  
so pliant and so prone to seek after    
knowledge8 ,what wants there to such a  
towardly and pregnant soil1 but wise and
 faithful labourers1 to make a knowing  
people1 a nation of prophets1 of sages1 
and of worthies8 ,we reckon more than   
five months yet to harvest2 there need  
not be five weeks2 had we but eyes to   
lift up1 the fields are white already4  
,where there is much desire to learn1   
there of necessity will be much arguing1
 much writing1 many opinions2 for       

opinion in good men is but knowledge in 
the making4 ,under these fantastic      
terrors of sect and schism1 we wrong the
 earnest and zealous thirst after       
knowledge and understanding which ,god  
hath stirred up in this city4 ,what some
 lament of1 we rather should rejoice at1
 should rather praise this pious        
forwardness among men1 to reassume the  
ill-deputed care of their religion into 
their own hands again4 ,a little        
generous prudence1 a little forbearance 
of one another1 and some grain of       
charity might win all these diligences  
to join1 and unite in one general and   
brotherly search after truth2 could we  
but forgo this prelatical tradition of  
crowding free consciences and ,christian
 liberties into canons and precepts of  
men4 ,i doubt not1 if some great and    
worthy stranger should come among us1   
wise to discern the mould and temper of 
a people1 and how to govern it1         
observing the high hopes and aims1 the  
diligent alacrity of our extended       

thoughts and reasonings in the pursuance
 of truth and freedom1 but that he would
 cry out as ,pyrrhus did1 admiring the  
,roman docility and courage3 ,if such   
were my ,epirots1 ,i would not despair  
the greatest design that could be       
attempted1 to make a ,church or kingdom 
happy4  ,yet these are the men cried out
 against for schismatics and sectaries2 
as if1 while the temple of the ,lord was
 building1 some cutting1 some squaring  
the marble1 others hewing the cedars1   
there should be a sort of irrational men
 who could not consider there must be   
many schisms and many dissections made  
in the quarry and in the timber1 ere the
 house of ,god can be built4 ,and when  
every stone is laid artfully together1  
it cannot be united into a continuity1  
it can but be contiguous in this world2 
neither can every piece of the building 
be of one form2 nay rather the          
perfection consists in this1 that1 out  
of many moderate varieties and brotherly
 dissimilitudes that are not vastly     

disproportional1 arises the goodly and  
the graceful symmetry that commends the 
whole pile and structure4  ,let us      
therefore be more considerate builders1 
more wise in spiritual architecture1    
when great reformation is expected4 ,for
 now the time seems come1 wherein ,moses
 the great prophet may sit in heaven    
rejoicing to see that memorable and     
glorious wish of his fulfilled1 when not
 only our seventy elders1 but all the   
,lord's people1 are become prophets4 ,no
 marvel then though some men1 and some  
good men too perhaps1 but young in      
goodness1 as ,joshua then was1 envy     
them4 ,they fret1 and out of their own  
weakness are in agony1 lest these       
divisions and subdivisions will undo us4
 ,the adversary again applauds1 and     
waits the hour3 when they have branched 
themselves out1 saith he1 small enough  
into parties and partitions1 then will  
be our time4 ,fool6 he sees not the firm
 root1 out of which we all grow1 though 
into branches3 nor will beware until he 

see our small divided maniples cutting  
through at every angle of his ill-united
 and unwieldy brigade4 ,and that we are 
to hope better of all these supposed    
sects and schisms1 and that we shall not
 need that solicitude1 honest perhaps1  
though over-timorous1 of them that vex  
in this behalf1 but shall laugh in the  
end at those malicious applauders of our
 differences1 ,i have these reasons to  
persuade me4  ,first1 when a city shall 
be as it were besieged and blocked      
about1 her navigable river infested1    
inroads and incursions round1 defiance  
and battle oft rumoured to be marching  
up even to her walls and suburb         
trenches1 that then the people1 or the  
greater part1 more than at other times1 
wholly taken up with the study of       
highest and most important matters to be
 reformed1 should be disputing1         
reasoning1 reading1 inventing1          
discoursing1 even to a rarity and       
admiration1 things not before discoursed
 or written of1 argues first a singular 

goodwill1 contentedness and confidence  
in your prudent foresight and safe      
government1 ,lords and ,commons2 and    
from thence derives itself to a gallant 
bravery and well-grounded contempt of   
their enemies1 as if there were no small
 number of as great spirits among us1 as
 his was1 who when ,rome was nigh       
besieged by ,hannibal1 being in the     
city1 bought that piece of ground at no 
cheap rate1 whereon ,hannibal himself   
encamped his own regiment4  ,next1 it is
 a lively and cheerful presage of our   
happy success and victory4 ,for as in a 
body1 when the blood is fresh1 the      
spirits pure and vigorous1 not only to  
vital but to rational faculties1 and    
those in the acutest and the pertest    
operations of wit and subtlety1 it      
argues in what good plight and          
constitution the body is2 so when the   
cheerfulness of the people is so        
sprightly up1 as that it has not only   
wherewith to guard well its own freedom 
and safety1 but to spare1 and to bestow 

upon the solidest and sublimest points  
of controversy and new invention1 it    
betokens us not degenerated1 nor        
drooping to a fatal decay1 but casting  
off the old and wrinkled skin of        
corruption to outlive these pangs and   
wax young again1 entering the glorious  
ways of truth and prosperous virtue1    
destined to become great and honourable 
in these latter ages4 ,methinks ,i see  
in my mind a noble and puissant nation  
rousing herself like a strong man after 
sleep1 and shaking her invincible locks3
 methinks ,i see her as an eagle mewing 
her mighty youth1 and kindling her      
undazzled eyes at the full midday beam2 
purging and unscaling her long-abused   
sight at the fountain itself of heavenly
 radiance2 while the whole noise of     
timorous and flocking birds1 with those 
also that love the twilight1 flutter    
about1 amazed at what she means1 and in 
their envious gabble would prognosticate
 a year of sects and schisms4  ,what    
would ye do then8 should ye suppress all

 this flowery crop of knowledge and new 
light sprung up and yet springing daily 
in this city8 ,should ye set an         
oligarchy of twenty engrossers over it1 
to bring a famine upon our minds again1 
when we shall know nothing but what is  
measured to us by their bushel8 ,believe
 it1 ,lords and ,commons1 they who      
counsel ye to such a suppressing do as  
good as bid ye suppress yourselves2 and 
,i will soon show how4 ,if it be desired
 to know the immediate cause of all this
 free writing and free speaking1 there  
cannot be assigned a truer than your own
 mild and free and humane government4   
,it is the liberty1 ,lords and ,commons1
 which your own valorous and happy      
counsels have purchased us1 liberty     
which is the nurse of all great wits2   
this is that which hath rarefied and    
enlightened our spirits like the        
influence of heaven2 this is that which 
hath enfranchised1 enlarged and lifted  
up our apprehensions1 degrees above     
themselves4  ,ye cannot make us now less

 capable1 less knowing1 less eagerly    
pursuing of the truth1 unless ye first  
make yourselves1 that made us so1 less  
the lovers1 less the founders of our    
true liberty4 ,we can grow ignorant     
again1 brutish1 formal and slavish1 as  
ye found us2 but you then must first    
become that which ye cannot be1         
oppressive1 arbitrary and tyrannous1 as 
they were from whom ye have freed us4   
,that our hearts are now more capacious1
 our thoughts more erected to the search
 and expectation of greatest and        
exactest things1 is the issue of your   
own virtue propagated in us2 ye cannot  
suppress that1 unless ye reinforce an   
abrogated and merciless law1 that       
fathers may dispatch at will their own  
children4 ,and who shall then stick     
closest to ye1 and excite others8 not he
 who takes up arms for coat and conduct1
 and his four nobles of ,danegelt4      
,although ,i dispraise not the defence  
of just immunities1 yet love my peace   
better1 if that were all4 ,give me the  

liberty to know1 to utter1 and to argue 
freely according to conscience1 above   
all liberties4  ,what would be best     
advised1 then1 if it be found so hurtful
 and so unequal to suppress opinions for
 the newness or the unsuitableness to a 
customary acceptance1 will not be my    
task to say4 ,i only shall repeat what  
,i have learned from one of your own    
honourable number1 a right noble and    
pious lord1 who1 had he not sacrificed  
his life and fortunes to the ,church and
 ,commonwealth1 we had not now missed   
and bewailed a worthy and undoubted     
patron of this argument4 ,ye know him1  
,i am sure2 yet ,i for honour's sake1   
and may it be eternal to him1 shall name
 him1 the ,lord ,brook4 ,he writing of  
episcopacy1 and by the way treating of  
sects and schisms1 left ye his vote1 or 
rather now the last words of his dying  
charge1 which ,i know will ever be of   
dear and honoured regard with ye1 so    
full of meekness and breathing charity1 
that next to his last testament1 who    

bequeathed love and peace to his        
disciples1 ,i cannot call to mind where 
,i have read or heard words more mild   
and peaceful4 ,he there exhorts us to   
hear with patience and humility those1  
however they be miscalled1 that desire  
to live purely1 in such a use of ,god's 
ordinances1 as the best guidance of     
their conscience gives them1 and to     
tolerate them1 though in some           
disconformity to ourselves4 ,the book   
itself will tell us more at large1 being
 published to the world1 and dedicated  
to the ,parliament by him who1 both for 
his life and for his death1 deserves    
that what advice he left be not laid by 
without perusal4  ,and now the time in  
special is1 by privilege to write and   
speak what may help to the further      
discussing of matters in agitation4 ,the
 temple of ,janus with his two          
controversial faces might now not       
unsignificantly be set open4 ,and though
 all the winds of doctrine were let     
loose to play upon the earth1 so ,truth 

be in the field1 we do injuriously1 by  
licensing and prohibiting1 to misdoubt  
her strength4 ,let her and ,falsehood   
grapple2 who ever knew ,truth put to the
 worse1 in a free and open encounter8   
,her confuting is the best and surest   
suppressing4 ,he who hears what praying 
there is for light and clearer knowledge
 to be sent down among us1 would think  
of other matters to be constituted      
beyond the discipline of ,geneva1 framed
 and fabricked already to our hands4    
,yet when the new light which we beg for
 shines in upon us1 there be who envy   
and oppose1 if it come not first in at  
their casements4 ,what a collusion is   
this1 whenas we are exhorted by the wise
 man to use diligence1 to seek for      
wisdom as for hidden treasures early and
 late1 that another order shall enjoin  
us to know nothing but by statute8 ,when
 a man hath been labouring the hardest  
labour in the deep mines of knowledge1  
hath furnished out his findings in all  
their equipage3 drawn forth his reasons 

as it were a battle ranged3 scattered   
and defeated all objections in his way2 
calls out his adversary into the plain1 
offers him the advantage of wind and    
sun1 if he please1 only that he may try 
the matter by dint of argument3 for his 
opponents then to skulk1 to lay         
ambushments1 to keep a narrow bridge of 
licensing where the challenger should   
pass1 though it be valour enough in     
soldiership1 is but weakness and        
cowardice in the wars of ,truth4  ,for  
who knows not that ,truth is strong1    
next to the ,almighty8 ,she needs no    
policies1 nor stratagems1 nor licensings
 to make her victorious2 those are the  
shifts and the defences that error uses 
against her power4 ,give her but room1  
and do not bind her when she sleeps1 for
 then she speaks not true1 as the old   
,proteus did1 who spake oracles only    
when he was caught and bound1 but then  
rather she turns herself into all       
shapes1 except her own1 and perhaps     
tunes her voice according to the time1  

as ,micaiah did before ,ahab1 until she 
be adjured into her own likeness4 ,yet  
is it not impossible that she may have  
more shapes than one4 ,what else is all 
that rank of things indifferent1 wherein
 ,truth may be on this side or on the   
other1 without being unlike herself8    
,what but a vain shadow else is the     
abolition of those ordinances1 that     
hand-writing nailed to the cross8 ,what 
great purchase is this ,christian       
liberty which ,paul so often boasts of8 
,his doctrine is1 that he who eats or   
eats not1 regards a day or regards it   
not1 may do either to the ,lord4 ,how   
many other things might be tolerated in 
peace1 and left to conscience1 had we   
but charity1 and were it not the chief  
stronghold of our hypocrisy to be ever  
judging one another8  ,i fear yet this  
iron yoke of outward conformity hath    
left a slavish print upon our necks2 the
 ghost of a linen decency yet haunts us4
 ,we stumble and are impatient at the   
least dividing of one visible           

congregation from another1 though it be 
not in fundamentals2 and through our    
forwardness to suppress1 and our        
backwardness to recover any enthralled  
piece of truth out of the gripe of      
custom1 we care not to keep truth       
separated from truth1 which is the      
fiercest rent and disunion of all4 ,we  
do not see that1 while we still affect  
by all means a rigid external formality1
 we may as soon fall again into a gross 
conforming stupidity1 a stark and dead  
congealment of wood and hay and stubble1
 forced and frozen together1 which is   
more to the sudden degenerating of a    
,church than many subdichotomies of     
petty schisms4  ,not that ,i can think  
well of every light separation1 or that 
all in a ,church is to be expected gold 
and silver and precious stones3 it is   
not possible for man to sever the wheat 
from the tares1 the good fish from the  
other fry2 that must be the ,angels'    
ministry at the end of mortal things4   
,yet if all cannot be of one mind--as   

who looks they should be8--this         
doubtless is more wholesome1 more       
prudent1 and more ,christian1 that many 
be tolerated1 rather than all compelled4
 ,i mean not tolerated popery1 and open 
superstition1 which1 as it extirpates   
all religions and civil supremacies1 so 
itself should be extirpate1 provided    
first that all charitable and           
compassionate means be used to win and  
regain the weak and the misled3 that    
also which is impious or evil absolutely
 either against faith or manners no law 
can possibly permit1 that intends not to
 unlaw itself3 but those neighbouring   
differences1 or rather indifferences1   
are what ,i speak of1 whether in some   
point of doctrine or of discipline1     
which1 though they may be many1 yet need
 not interrupt ,,the ,,unity ,,of       
,,spirit1 if we could but find among us 
,,the ,,bond ,,of ,,peace4  ,in the     
meanwhile if any one would write1 and   
bring his helpful hand to the           
slow-moving ,reformation which we labour

 under1 if ,truth have spoken to him    
before others1 or but seemed at least to
 speak1 who hath so bejesuited us that  
we should trouble that man with asking  
license to do so worthy a deed8 and not 
consider this1 that if it come to       
prohibiting1 there is not aught more    
likely to be prohibited than truth      
itself2 whose first appearance to our   
eyes1 bleared and dimmed with prejudice 
and custom1 is more unsightly and       
unplausible than many errors1 even as   
the person is of many a great man slight
 and contemptuous to see to4 ,and what  
do they tell us vainly of new opinions1 
when this very opinion of theirs1 that  
none must be heard but whom they like1  
is the worst and newest opinion of all  
others2 and is the chief cause why sects
 and schisms do so much abound1 and true
 knowledge is kept at distance from us2 
besides yet a greater danger which is in
 it4  ,for when ,god shakes a kingdom   
with strong and healthful commotions to 
a general reforming1 'tis not untrue    

that many sectaries and false teachers  
are then busiest in seducing2 but yet   
more true it is1 that ,god then raises  
to his own work men of rare abilities1  
and more than common industry1 not only 
to look back and revise what hath been  
taught heretofore1 but to gain further  
and go on some new enlightened steps in 
the discovery of truth4 ,for such is the
 order of ,god's enlightening his       
,church1 to dispense and deal out by    
degrees his beam1 so as our earthly eyes
 may best sustain it4  ,neither is ,god 
appointed and confined1 where and out of
 what place these his chosen shall be   
first heard to speak2 for he sees not as
 man sees1 chooses not as man chooses1  
lest we should devote ourselves again to
 set places1 and assemblies1 and outward
 callings of men2 planting our faith one
 while in the old ,convocation house1   
and another while in the ,chapel at     
,westminster2 when all the faith and    
religion that shall be there canonized  
is not sufficient without plain         

convincement1 and the charity of patient
 instruction to supple the least bruise 
of conscience1 to edify the meanest     
,christian1 who desires to walk in the  
,spirit1 and not in the letter of human 
trust1 for all the number of voices that
 can be there made2 no1 though ,harry   
,,vii himself there1 with all his liege 
tombs about him1 should lend them voices
 from the dead1 to swell their number4  
,and if the men be erroneous who appear 
to be the leading schismatics1 what     
withholds us but our sloth1 our         
self-will1 and distrust in the right    
cause1 that we do not give them gentle  
meetings and gentle dismissions1 that we
 debate not and examine the matter      
thoroughly with liberal and frequent    
audience2 if not for their sakes1 yet   
for our own8 seeing no man who hath     
tasted learning1 but will confess the   
many ways of profiting by those who1 not
 contented with stale receipts1 are able
 to manage and set forth new positions  
to the world4 ,and were they but as the 

dust and cinders of our feet1 so long as
 in that notion they may yet serve to   
polish and brighten the armoury of      
,truth1 even for that respect they were 
not utterly to be cast away4 ,but if    
they be of those whom ,god hath fitted  
for the special use of these times with 
eminent and ample gifts1 and those      
perhaps neither among the priests nor   
among the ,pharisees1 and we in the     
haste of a precipitant zeal shall make  
no distinction1 but resolve to stop     
their mouths1 because we fear they come 
with new and dangerous opinions1 as we  
commonly forejudge them ere we          
understand them2 no less than woe to us1
 while1 thinking thus to defend the     
,gospel1 we are found the persecutors4  
,there have been not a few since the    
beginning of this ,parliament1 both of  
the presbytery and others1 who by their 
unlicensed books1 to the contempt of an 
,imprimatur1 first broke that triple ice
 clung about our hearts1 and taught the 
people to see day3 ,i hope that none of 

those were the persuaders to renew upon 
us this bondage which they themselves   
have wrought so much good by contemning4
 ,but if neither the check that ,moses  
gave to young ,joshua1 nor the          
countermand which our ,saviour gave to  
young ,john1 who was so ready to        
prohibit those whom he thought          
unlicensed1 be not enough to admonish   
our elders how unacceptable to ,god     
their testy mood of prohibiting is2 if  
neither their own remembrance what evil 
hath abounded in the ,church by this set
 of licensing1 and what good they       
themselves have begun by transgressing  
it1 be not enough1 but that they will   
persuade and execute the most ,dominican
 part of the ,inquisition over us1 and  
are already with one foot in the stirrup
 so active at suppressing1 it would be  
no unequal distribution in the first    
place to suppress the suppressors       
themselves3 whom the change of their    
condition hath puffed up1 more than     
their late experience of harder times   

hath made wise4  ,and as for regulating 
the press1 let no man think to have the 
honour of advising ye better than       
yourselves have done in that ,order     
published next before this1 that no book
 be printed1 unless the printer's and   
the author's name1 or at least the      
printer's1 be registered4 ,those which  
otherwise come forth1 if they be found  
mischievous and libellous1 the fire and 
the executioner will be the timeliest   
and the most effectual remedy that man's
 prevention can use4 ,for this authentic
 ,spanish policy of licensing books1 if 
,i have said aught1 will prove the most 
unlicensed book itself within a short   
while2 and was the immediate image of a 
,star ,chamber decree to that purpose   
made in those very times when that      
,court did the rest of those her pious  
works1 for which she is now fallen from 
the stars with ,lucifer4 ,whereby ye may
 guess what kind of state prudence1 what
 love of the people1 what care of       
religion or good manners there was at   

the contriving1 although with singular  
hypocrisy it pretended to bind books to 
their good behaviour4 ,and how it got   
the upper hand of your precedent ,order 
so well constituted before1 if we may   
believe those men whose profession gives
 them cause to inquire most1 it may be  
doubted there was in it the fraud of    
some old patentees and monopolizers in  
the trade of bookselling2 who under     
pretence of the poor in their ,company  
not to be defrauded1 and the just       
retaining of each man his several copy1 
which ,god forbid should be gainsaid1   
brought divers glossing colours to the  
,house1 which were indeed but colours1  
and serving to no end except it be to   
exercise a superiority over their       
neighbours2 men who do not therefore    
labour in an honest profession to which 
learning is indebted1 that they should  
be made other men's vassals4 ,another   
end is thought was aimed at by some of  
them in procuring by petition this      
,order1 that1 having power in their     

hands1 malignant books might the easier 
scape abroad1 as the event shows4  ,but 
of these sophisms and elenchs of        
merchandise ,i skill not4 ,this ,i know1
 that errors in a good government and in
 a bad are equally almost incident2 for 
what magistrate may not be misinformed1 
and much the sooner1 if liberty of      
printing be reduced into the power of a 
few8 ,but to redress willingly and      
speedily what hath been erred1 and in   
highest authority to esteem a plain     
advertisement more than others have done
 a sumptuous bride1 is a virtue         
7honoured ,lords and ,commons7          
answerable to your highest actions1 and 
whereof none can participate but        
greatest and wisest men4