tifes of civil government, for which we are beholding te the lawlefness of tyrants or ufurpers; witness the incomparable and golden difcourfes of that heroic patron of liberty, ALGERNON SIDNEY. And indeed the best books we have on any subject, are fuch as were oppos'd to the prevalency of the contrary opinion; for as be that was forc'd to pass fom part of his time in the regions of extreme beat or cold, can best value the bleffings of a temperat country; fo none can be fo well furnish'd with arguments for a good caufe, like fuch

were fufferers under a bad one: the writings of unconcern'd and retir'd perfons being either an exercife of their parts, and the amusements of idle time, or, what is worse, pitiful declamations without any force, experience, or vivacity.

ABOUT this time MILTON wrote a fmall piece of education to SAMUEL HARTLIB, looking upon the right inftitution of children to be the nursery of all true liberty or virtue; and of whatsoever in government is good and wife, or in privat practice amiable and worthy.

THE next Book he wrote was his Areopagitica, or an oration to the parlament of England for the liberty of unlicens'd printing; in which he proves that the republics of Greece and Italy never cenfur'd any but immoral, diffamatory, or atheistical pieces. Nor was it by inferences and infinuations they were to judg of atheifm; for they never fuppreft the writings of the Epicureans, nor fuch other books denying even the doctrins of Providence, and the future ftate: but it must have bin a formal doubt or denial of the being of a deity. Yet it is beyond contradiction, that thofe nations maintain'd an excellent government, diftributing

public and privat justice, and abounding in all knowlege and virtue, infinitly above those who have bin ever fince the most rigid purgers, corrupters, or executioners of books. The Roman emperors were tyrants, and none but fuch as would imitat them, fhould quote their examples. The primitive Chriftians obferv'd no uniformity of conduct in this affair. At first they were for reading all the works of the Gentils, but none of thofe they reckon'd heretical among themselves; after this they were only for confuting the books of the heretics, and fuppreffing thofe of the Gentils, even fuch as did not in the least concern religion: for about the year 400, in a Carthaginian council, the very bishops were prohibited the reading of heathen authors. Had this infamous and barbarous refolution bin throly executed (for it bad but too much effect) to what a degree of ignorance and meanness of spirit it would have reduc'd' the world, depriving it of so many inimitable biftorians, orators, philofophers, and poets, the repofitories of inestimable treasure, confifting of warlike and beroic deeds, the best and wifeft arts of government, the most perfect rules and examples of eloquence or politeness, and fuch divine lectures of wisdom and virtue, that the lofs of CICERO's works alone, or thofe of Livy, could not be repair'd by all the fathers of the church. In process of time, when the clergy begun to be exalted even above the fupreme magiftrat himself, they burnt and destroy'd every thing that did not favor their power or fuperftition, and laid a restraint on reading as well as writing, without excepting the very Bible; and thus they proceded till the inquifition reduc'd this abominable practice to the perfection of an art by expurgatory indexes and licenfing. All the conE sequences

fequences of this tyranny, as depriving men of their natural liberty, ftifling their parts, introducing of ignorance, ingroffing all advantages to one party, and the like, were perpetually objected before the civil wars by the prefbyterians to the bishops; but no fooner were they poffeft of the bishops pulpits and power, than they exercis'd the fame authority with more intolerable rigor and feverity. MILTON, after fhewing the origin, progrefs, and mifchief of this cuftom, proves first that we must not read the Bible, the fathers, nor almoft any fort of books, if we regard the reasons ufually alleg'd to forbid the publifhing of others, fuch as the fear of wrefting or mistaking their meaning. Secondly, that the ends propos'd cannot be attain'd after this manner. And, Thirdly, that no man is fit to be a licenser, not in any one fingle faculty, unless he is univerfally learn'd, or a better fcholar than all the authors whofe labors he's to license: and that, granting these things poffible (tho they are not fo) he could neither find ftrength nor time enough for perusing all books; and should he use deputies, he's likeliest to have ignorant, lazy, and mercenary fellows. Then difplaying the difcouragement that must follow hence to all literature and new difcoveries (with the danger of fuppreffing truth, and propagating error, as it happens in popish countries, and the not reprinting of antient authors in any language) he proves licenfing to be both unjuft in it felf, and dishonorable to a free government. "To include "the whole nation, fays he, and thofe that never yet thus offended, under fuch a diffident and fufpectful prohibition, what a disparagement it is

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"C may be plainly understood. So much the more, "fince debtors and delinquents may walk abroad "without a keeper, but inoffenfive books muft not "ftir forth without a vifible jailor in their title. "Nor is it to the common people lefs than a reproach; for if we be so jealous over them, as "that we dare not truft them with an English pamphlet, what do we but cenfure them for a giddy, vitious, and ungrounded people, in fuch a fick and weak state of faith and difcretion, as to be able to take nothing but thro the glifterpipe of a licenser? That this is any care or love. "of them, we cannot pretend, fince in thofe "popish places, where the laity are most hated and

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defpis'd, the fame ftri&tnefs is us'd over them. "Wisdom we cannot call it, because it stops but "one breach of license; nor that neither, feeing "those corruptions, which it feeks to prevent, "break in fafter at other doors which cannot be "fhut.. And it reflects on the reputation of our "minifters alfo, of whofe labors we fhould hope “better, and of the proficiency which their flocks "reap by them, than that after all this light of the gofpel which is, and is to be, and after all this "continual preaching, they fhould be ftill frequented with such an unprincipled, unedify'd, "and laic rabble, as that the whif of every new "pamphlet should stagger them out of their cate"chifm. This may have much reafon to dif 66 courage the minifters, when fuch a low conceit "is had of all their exhortations and the benefiting "of their hearers, that they are not thought fit to "be turn'd loofe to three sheets of paper without

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a licenser." In another place he fays, "A man be a heretic in the truth: and if he believes only because his paftor fays fo, or the affembly "fo determins, without knowing any other rea"fon; tho his belief be true, yet the very truth "he holds becoms his herefy. There is not any "burden that fom would gladlier put off to ano"ther, than the charge and care of their religion. "Who knows not that there be fom proteftants "who live in as arrant an implicit faith as any lay-papift of Loretto? A wealthy man, addicted 66 to his pleasures and his profit, finds religion to "be a traffic fo intangl'd, and of fo many pidling accounts, that of all myfteries he cannot indure to keep a stock going upon that trade. "dos he therfore, but refolves to give over toiling, "and to find out fom factor, to whofe care and "credit he may commit the whole management of "his religious affairs; and that must be fom divine "of note and eftimation. To him he adheres, "refigns the whole warehouse of his religion, with "all the locks and keys, into his cuftody; and "indeed makes the very perfon of that man his "religion, esteems his affociating with him a fuffi"cient evidence and commendation of his own

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piety. So that a man may fay his religion is 66 now no more within himself, but is becom a "dividual movable, and gos and coms near him "according as that good man frequents the house. "He entertains him, gives him gifts, feasts him, lodges him; his religion coms home at night, prays, is liberally fup'd, and fumtuously laid afleep; rifes, is faluted, and (after the malmfy,

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