CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 The Estate Of 
 Eugene M. Kaufmann, Jr. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 3569.L82 
 
 Selected essays :Of education, Areopagit 
 
 3 1924 012 537 084 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 2537084 
 
< SELECTED ESSAYS 
 
 OF EDUCATION, AREOPAGITICA 
 THE COMMONWEALTH 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN MILTON 
 
 "WITH EARLY BIOGRAPHIES OF MILTON 
 INTRODUCTION, AND NOTES 
 
 EDITED BT 
 
 LAURA E. LOCKWOOD, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of English literature and Language^ Wdlesley College 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON NEW rOBK CHICAGO SAN FBANCISCO 
 
COPYRIGHT, igil, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPAM^ 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVRD 
 
 
 CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
 PKINTBD IK THE U.S.* 
 
 u 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction vii 
 
 Biographies op Milton 
 
 I. The Earliest Life of Milton xxiii 
 
 3'I. Collections for the Life of Milton. By John 
 
 Aubrey, F.R.S xxxvii 
 
 III. Fasti Oxoniensis, A Selection from. By Anthony 
 Wood xliv 
 
 IV. The Life of Milton. By Edward Philips . . . Ivi 
 
 Some Important Dates in the Life of Milton . Ixxxii 
 
 The Principal Works of Milton in the Order of 
 Publication Ixxxiii 
 
 A Partial List op Books quoted or referred to Ixxxiv 
 
 Abbreviations used in the Notes .... Ixxxvi 
 
 Op Education 1 
 
 Areopagitica 31 
 
 The Commonwealth 142 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 This book has been prepared primarily for the use of 
 my students of Milton, but it will, I trust, be helpful to 
 all those who care to know more of a great poet and 
 teacher of men. A part of Milton's prose is hardly worth 
 the labor of reading to-day, because it deals with ques- 
 tions pertaining solely to the seventeenth century, and 
 because it is weighted with the mannerisms of his age in 
 violence of language and in involved method of argument. 
 Some of his prose all students of literature should know, 
 in order to see and feel its relation to his poetry ; they 
 should feel the large rise and swell of the prose periods, 
 the richness of imagination, the fervor of feeling, the wide 
 learning, and the nice, discriminating choice of words. 
 Tliey should read it, moreover, to compare Milton's mode 
 of thought and expression with that of the present time. 
 Most students are, in reality, trained in eye and ear by 
 the reading of newspapers and magazines. Their concep- 
 tion of the use of English words, of the English sentence 
 and paragraph, is largely formed from such sources. The 
 reading of the best of Milton's noble and dignified prose is, 
 therefore, illuminating and salutary. 
 
 I have chosen the three pamphlets given because they 
 discuss problems which are still of living interest to us. 
 There is no more vital question, nor one upon which there 
 is more disagreement of opinion, than upon the right 
 method of educating our youth. The freedom of printing 
 is to-day practically settled, but so profound is the influ- 
 ence of the press that we are concerned to know the steps 
 by which it attained its freedom and power. All countries 
 have either formed republics or are moving in that direc- 
 tion, and Milton's theorizing on this most difficult ques- 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 tion has interest, especially for us in the United States, 
 because it seeks to put in shape some fundamentals of the 
 scheme we later wrought out. 
 
 These essays differ very much in literary value. The 
 first is an abstract, condensed in form and seeking merely 
 clearness of statement; the second is an elaborate and 
 highly finished composition, written in all confidence and 
 buoyancy of hope ; the third is a hastily composed piece 
 of persuasion, thrown off in a mood of despondency and 
 utter hopelessness that colors its every sentence. Because 
 they present different methods and reveal different mental 
 attitudes on the part of the writer, these three essays make 
 an excellent study of Milton, as he expresses himself in 
 the prose form. 
 
 In the preparation of the notes to the pamphlets, I wish 
 to acknowledge my very great indebtedness to Masson's 
 Life, which must be a constant companion to every serious 
 student of Milton, to Hale's scholarly edition of the Are- 
 opagitica, and to Gardner and Firth for the historical 
 background. I have, moreover, to thank Professor Parsons 
 for his edition of Biography I, and likewise for most of the 
 notes I have used in connection with it. 
 
 II 
 
 The biographies of Milton are legion, from Masson's six 
 volumes to the two or three page summary prefixed to al- 
 most every edition of any one of the poet's works. How- 
 ever, there need not be, I believe, any justification for in- 
 cluding in this volume four seventeenth-century accounts of 
 Milton's life. These, with certain autobiographic passages 
 from Milton's writings, have been the source of all later 
 biographies, and yet it is very difficult for the student 
 himself to use these sources, because the books are Jong 
 ago out of print and practically unobtainable. Most good 
 libraries have single copies, but numbers of students cannot 
 to any advantage work with one book. 
 
 I regret that the size of this volume does not permit me 
 to include also the longest and most important of the auto- 
 biographic passages from Milton's prose writings. This is 
 
INTRODUCTION k 
 
 the consecutive account of his life up to 1654, which forms 
 a part of The Second Defence of the People of England. 
 He penned this clear statement regarding his parentage, 
 boyhood, and early manhood to answer the attacks of a 
 scurrilous enemy, who sought to slander his character ; he 
 wrote, as he says, to prove that he never "disgraced beauty 
 of sentiment by deformity of conduct, or the maxims of a 
 freeman by the actions of a slave." ^ For the century in 
 which he lived the account is fairly intimate and revealing. 
 It covers little more than the first half of his life, but it is 
 fuller in detail than the four I have included, and what is 
 of most significance, it discloses more clearly than they the 
 purposes and motives leading to decision and action. For 
 practical reasons, however, the - inclusion of this story of 
 Milton's life is less important than is that of any one of the 
 other four, because Milton's autobiography is easily obtain- 
 able in many old editions of his prose works, and in the 
 excellent modern edition of the Bohn Library. 
 
 These four stories were written by men contemporary 
 with the poet. As Wood draws liberally from the data given 
 by the author of Biography I, and indeed often employs 
 his exact phrasing, we know this first account must have 
 been written between 1674, the date of Milton's death, 
 and 1691, the year Wood published his Athentp. Oxoniensis. 
 Aubrey compiled his notes in 1681, and Philips's account 
 was published in 1694. They give, then, the impression 
 he made upon, those about him as he lived and acted. 
 They are, moreover, from very different points of view, 
 and by men with very different qualifications for the 
 task of biographer. Philips wrote to present to the pub- 
 lic the life of the uncle whom he honored, to whom 
 he was indebted for his high mental and moral training, 
 but somewhat influenced, we cannot help feeling, by a 
 keen sense of family pride ; the author of Biography I, 
 less "learned and less skilful with his pen than Philips, 
 seems to have written out of full sympathy for a man whom 
 be greatly admired, and whom he considered it well-nigh 
 his duty to hold up as a model of noble purpose and lofty 
 I P. W. 1, 254. 
 
X mXRODUCTION 
 
 attainment ; Aubrey was merely the ■writer of lives of lit- 
 erary men, and he took notes quite impartially and with- 
 out prejudice ; Wood was a royalist, and rumor many times 
 accused him of being at heart a Catholic. However that 
 may be, he certainly dealt sternly with those who had least 
 love for Catholicism. He regarded Milton, therefore, as 
 a man seeking by reprehensible means to overthrow his 
 cherished form of government, and to bring reproach upon 
 a religion he honored ; as a man of great mental power, but 
 of very questionable principles. The truth lies somewhere 
 among these various accounts, and the search for the truth 
 is ever the delightful task of the student. 
 
 There is, in presenting these biographies, necessarily a 
 good deal of repetition of fact, but the very vital estimates 
 of character and work could not be given without print- 
 ing the lives as a whole. These stories do not, however, 
 always agree in their statements of fact, and the explana- 
 tion of this disagreement is, again, a problem for the truth 
 seeker. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Milton was, for several reasons, especially fitted to 
 speak upon the subject of education. He was himself one 
 of the best educated men of his day. He had had, as a 
 student in preparatory school and college, practical ac- 
 quaintance with the English system from St. Paul's through 
 the university even to the Master's degree ; he knew by 
 experience the methods of the English schools, and what 
 they were trying to accomplish. And the more he saw, the 
 more he found to criticize in the training of the youth of 
 his country. Again, he himself had been for about five 
 years a teacher of boys, and had, we are sure, undertaken 
 to experiment toward a better form of education than that 
 which he had received. Besides, he had studied the history 
 of education and the theories of the ancients and moderns 
 wherever he might find them set forth with any origi- 
 nality or power. He was possessed, then, of theory, prac- 
 tice, and experience. These, joined with breadth of view 
 and independence of judgment, qualified him, perhaps better 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 than any other Englishman of his time, to outline the argu- 
 ment imposed upon him hy Hartlih. This pamphlet, there- 
 fore, embodies the results of years of meditation upon the 
 value of right mental and moral training, and upon the 
 surest means of obtaining real and lasting results ; but it 
 grew into a definite plan under the stimulus of discussion 
 with another mind ; and it was written down because 
 Hartlib pressed upon him the public need and the possible 
 opportunity of starting a reform. Milton had taken up the 
 prose pen in the cause of reform, and he would not neg- 
 lect this occasion. 
 
 Everybody knew Hartlib,^ and everybody seems to have 
 respected him. He was a man who actually accomplished 
 little himself, but who made it his business to keep the 
 public interested ia those who had thought out definite 
 social reforms, and were eager to have them accepted. He 
 was concerned for all that promised good to the whole 
 community, and ready to sacrifice time, energy, and money 
 to aid in bettering the social life of England. We are now 
 familiar with this type, but such a man was, in the seven, 
 teenth century, extremely rare ; indeed Hartlib is almost 
 the first of the " friends of progress." He was, moreover, 
 interesting for his wide acquaintance and correspondence 
 with the most noted men of his time in all the countries of 
 Europe. Few men, not holding high government positions, 
 have been in touch with so many prominent thinkers and 
 workers of their age. He acted for them as news-agent and 
 literary critic, sending thena by letter an account of what 
 was taking place in literary circles and in the world of 
 afl'airs. His letters to Doctor John Worthington are enter- 
 taining reading to-day ; there is a delightful mixture of 
 news about men and nations, of criticism of books fresh 
 from the press, reports of those soon to appear, of gossip 
 about ghosts recently seen, of requests for medical pre- 
 scriptions, of accounts of the fire, and of many other 
 things which bring him and his life before the reader. 
 This reporter's work he did partly as a means of earning a 
 livelihood; partly because he loved the sense of being in 
 
 1 Masson, iii, 193. 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 touch with both the thinker and the actor, the one who 
 wanted to know and the one who was seeking to shape the 
 current of national and artistic life; and lastly because 
 writing letters of news and criticism gave him an opportu- 
 nity to forward his pet hobbies. 
 
 Chief among these hobbies was the cause of John Du- 
 rie, whose great scheme for the good of mankind was a 
 reconciliation of Calvinists and Lutherans, and a union of 
 all the protestant churches of Europe. Later, he ardently 
 espoused and preached the cause of Comenius, the famous 
 educational reformer of Moravia. Indeed, the great plan 
 of Comenius seems to have been brought before the English 
 public chiefly by Hartlib, whom Comenius calls "the 
 most intimate of my friends." ^ The third cause promoted 
 by Hartlib was a reform in the methods of agriculture, 
 and on this subject he wrote the larger number of his 
 pamphlets. 
 
 When Milton and Hartlib became friends is not known. 
 They lived for a time in the same street ; both were much 
 in the public eye, and concerned about some of the same 
 questions of reform. Hence acquaintance and friendship 
 might easily arise. Probably Hartlib tried to convert Mil- 
 ton to the educational ideas of Comenius, and, Milton not 
 agreeing with him, many arguments ensued ; until at last 
 Hartlib begged to have Milton's views of education writ- 
 ten down as an organized scheme. 
 
 The questions discussed in the pamphlet have, after al- 
 most three centuries, by no means been satisfactorily set- 
 tled ; we still complain that too much time is wasted on use- 
 less subjects; that words instead of things are taught ; and 
 not even yet do we always proceed from the easy to the more 
 difficult. We horde our students together in such numbers 
 that the individual receives little personal guidance, and 
 seldom has the stimulating experience of intellectual inter- 
 course with his instructor; and we very rarely, if ever, so ap- 
 portion the hours of the day that the physical, mental, and 
 moral shall each have its due share of training. We are 
 still seeking the right way of teaching our youth to be bravo 
 1 Masson, in, 202. 
 
INTRODUCTION xui 
 
 men and -women, and worthy patriots, dear to God, and 
 famous to all ages. 
 
 In the light of our failures, Milton's discussion of the 
 principles and methods of a sound education are now, as 
 then, worthy of careful study. 
 
 IV 
 
 Milton has briefly sketched, in the Areopaffitica, the his- 
 tory of press censorship outside of his own country. In 
 England, the earliest crusades were directed against books 
 of a religious character, as was that in 1400 which prohibited 
 any book contrary to the Catholic faith. Not until the reign 
 of Mary were political books banned, and after that the 
 formula ran "books filled with heresy, sedition, and trea- 
 son." There was much restraint of printing, but perhaps in 
 a less organized and exacting form than on the Continent. 
 This was largely because the Inquisition never gained power 
 in England. At the separation of the church from Rome, 
 the censorship of the press passed to the crown, and the kings 
 usually appointed their own censors. The Parliament con- 
 cerned itself little with this matter. Cases of trial and pun- 
 ishment came before the Court of Star Chamber. Selden 
 said in 1629, " There is no law to prevent the printing of 
 any book in England, but only a decree of the Star Cham- 
 ber " ; and Milton concludes, " nor by any statute left us 
 by our ancestors." ^ 
 
 The punishment of offenders — always those who had 
 written slander of king, church, or state — had, indeed, 
 rested with this court, or had been the personal concern of 
 the monarch. Elizabeth, for example, seldom exercised direct 
 censorship, but constantly thwarted the press ; she forbade 
 the importation of foreign books, and any English author 
 had, in writing of nation or church, to take his chances of 
 arousing her ire. This rather uncertain and spasmodic super- 
 vision could not, however, continue, as books multiplied 
 and the knowledge of their capacity for causing harm in- 
 creased. Hence in 1637 the famous decree of the Star Cham- 
 ber was passed. It begins : — 
 
 1 See p. 58. 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 In Camera Stellata coram Concilio ibidem, vndeoimo die 
 lulii, Anno decimo tertio Caroli Regis 
 
 Imprimis, That no person or persons whatsoever shall pre- 
 sume to print, or cause to bee printed, either in the parts be- 
 yond the Seas, or in this Realme, or other his Maiesties Do- 
 minions, any seditious, soismaticall, or offensive Bookes or 
 Pamphlets, to the scandall of Religion, or the Church, or the 
 Government, or Governours of the Church or State, or Com- 
 monwealth, or of any Corporation, or particular person or per- 
 sons whatsoeuer, nor shall import any such Booke or Bookes, 
 nor sell or dispose of them, or any of them, nor cause any such 
 to be bound, stitched, or sowed, vpon paine that he or they so 
 offending, shall loose all such Bookes and Pamphlets, and also 
 haue, and suffer such correction, and severe punishment, either 
 by Fine, imprisonment, or other corporall punishment, or 
 otherwise, as by this Court, or by His Maiesties Commissioners 
 for causes Ecelesiasticall in the high Commission Court, re- 
 spectiuely, as the several courses shall require, shall be thought 
 fit to be inflicted upon him, or them, for such their offence 
 and contempt. 
 
 II. Item, That no person or persons whatsoeuer, shall at any 
 time print, or cause to be imprinted, any Booke or Pamphlet 
 whatsoever vnlesse the same Booke or Pamphlet, and also all 
 and euery the Titles, Epistles, Prefaces, Proems, Preamblesi, 
 Introductions, Tables, Dedications, and other matters and 
 things whatsoeuer thereunto annexed, or therewith imprinted, 
 shall be first lawfully licenced and authorized onely by such 
 person and persons as are hereafter expressed, and by no other, 
 and shall be also first entred into the Registers Booke of ihe 
 Company of Stationers ; vpon paine that every Printer offend- 
 ing therein, shall be for euer hereafter disabled to use or exer- 
 cise the Art or Mysterie of Printing, and receiue such further 
 punishment, as by this Court or the high Commission Court 
 respectiuely, as the severall causes shall require, shall be 
 thought fitting. 
 
 It further proceeds to declare, among other things, that all 
 imported books must be examined; that all authors must 
 affix their names to their books ; that no one except the 
 Stationers' Company may sell books in London, and each 
 member of this Company must have passed a seven years' ap- 
 prenticeship ; that there may be twenty printers in London 
 and no more, and the number of presses and apprentices 
 each of these may have is specified ; that there may be only 
 four founders who are permitted to make type, with the 
 number of apprentices allowed to each. This rigid super- 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 vision and this surrender of the whole occupation into the 
 hands of the Stationers, shows how the rulers considered 
 public danger to lie in the business of book-making. 
 
 But when the Star Chamber ceased to overawe the peo^ 
 pie, these strict regulations could no longer hold men in 
 silence. " From the beginning of the Long Parliament, as we 
 know sufficiently by this time, there had been a relaxation, 
 or rather a total break-down, of the former laws for the 
 regulation of the Press. In the newly-found liberty of the 
 nation to think and to speak, all bonds of censorship were 
 burst, and books of all kinds, but especially pamphlets on 
 the current questions, were sent forth by their authors very 
 much at their own discretion." ' But the flood of pro-roy- 
 alist pamphlets made the Parliament also fearful of books, 
 and, during 1641 and 1642, there occur several orders on the 
 Journals of the House, showing that the Commons warned 
 the Stationers' Company to be increasingly vigilant about 
 registering pamphlets. In January, 1642, the printers were 
 ordered to print no book without the name of the author, 
 and in March, 1643, the House instructed the Committee 
 for Examinations to search any suspected house for hidden 
 presses, to seize the books and presses if such were found, 
 and to commit the offenders to prison. Finally, the Parlia- 
 ment felt obliged further to protect itself and the public 
 by passing, on June 14, 1643, the following order : — 
 
 An Order of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parlia- 
 ment, for the Kegulating of Printing, and for suppressing the 
 great late abuses and frequent disorders in Printing many 
 false, Scandalous, Seditious, Libellous, and unlicensed Pam- 
 phlets, to the great defamation of Religion and Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Also, authorizing the Masters & Wardens of the Company 
 of Stationers to make diligent search, seize and carry away all 
 such Books as they shall finds Printed, or reprinted by any 
 man having no lawful interest in them, being entred into the 
 Hall Book to any other man as his proper Copies. 
 
 Die Mefcurii. 14 June. 1643. — Ordered by the Lords and 
 Commons assembled in Parliament that this Order shall be forth- 
 with printed and published. — J. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum : 
 Hen. Elsing Cler. De Com. 
 
 1 MaeEon, ill, 266. 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 Die Mercurii, 14 Junii. 1643. 
 
 Whereas divers good Orders have bin lately made by both 
 Houses of Parliament, for suppressing the great late abuses 
 and frequent disorders in Printing many false, forged, scandal- 
 ous, seditious, libellous, and unlicensed Papers, Pamphlets, 
 and Books to the great defamation of Religion and govern- 
 ment. Which orders (notwithstanding the diligence of the 
 Company of Stationers, to put them in full execution) having 
 taken little or no effect: By reason the bill in preparation, 
 for redresse of the said disorders, hath hitherto bin retarded 
 through the present distractions, and very many, as well Sta- 
 tioners and Printers, as others of sundry other professions not 
 free of the Stationers Company, have taken upon them to set 
 up sundry private Printing Presses in corners, and to print, 
 vend, publish and disperse Books, pamphlets and papers, in 
 such multitudes, that no industry could be sufficient to dis- 
 cover or bring to punishment, all the severall abounding de- 
 linquents : And by reason that divers of the Stationers Com- 
 pany and others being Delinquents (contrary to former orders 
 and the constant custome used among the said Company) 
 have taken liberty to Print, Vend and publish, the most profit- 
 able vendible Copies of Books, belonging to the Company and 
 other Stationers, especially of such Agents as are imployed in 
 putting the said Orders in Execution, and that by way of re- 
 venge for giveing information against them to the Houses for 
 their Delinquences in Printing, to the great prejudice of the 
 said Company of Stationers and Agents, and to their discour- 
 agement in this publik service. 
 
 It is therefore Ordered by the Lords and Commons in Par- 
 liament, That no Order or Declaration of both, or either House 
 of Parliament shall be printed by any, but by order of one or 
 both the said Houses : Nor other Book, Pamphlet, paper, nor 
 part of any such Book, Pamphlet, or paper, shall from hence- 
 forth be printed, bound, stitched or put to sale by any person 
 or persons whatsoever, unlesse the same be first approved of 
 and licensed under the hands of such person or persons as both, 
 or either of the said Houses shall appoint for the licensing of 
 the same, and entred in the Register Book of the Company of 
 Stationers, according to Ancient custom, and the Printer thereof 
 to put his name thereto. And that no person or persons shall 
 hereafter print, or cause to be reprinted any Book, or Books 
 or part of Book, or Books heretofore allowed of and granted 
 to the said Company of Stationers for their relief and mainte- 
 nance of their poore, without the licence or consent of the Mas- 
 ter, Wardens, and Assistants of the said Company ; Nor any 
 Book or Books lawfully licenced and entred in the Register 
 of the said Company for any particular member thereof, with- 
 out the licence and consent of the owner or owners thereof. 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 Nor yet import any such Book or Books, or part of Book or 
 Books formerly Printed here, from beyond the Seas, upon 
 paine of forfeiting the same to the Owner, or Owners of the 
 Copies of the said Books, and such further punishment as shall 
 be thought fit. 
 
 Milton, at that time a loyal Parliamentarian, had so far 
 paid no heed to ordinances. In defiance of this and pre- 
 vious orders he published, unlicensed and unregistered, his 
 anti-Episcopal pamphlets. In August, 1643, appeared his 
 Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce in the same unlawful 
 manner. He did not, however, withhold his name ; he was 
 quite willing the public should know that he was the author 
 who was thus issuing books in violation of law. On August 
 14, this divorce pamphlet was referred to in a sermon be- ' 
 fore the Houses of Parliament as follows : " A wicked book 
 is abroad and uncensured, though deserving to be burnt, 
 whose author hath been so impudent as to set his name to 
 it and dedicate it to yourselves." ' On August 24, doubt- 
 less as the result of this sermon, there was a petition to 
 Parliament by the Stationers relating to this illegal issuing 
 of pamphlets, and consequently, the Commons appointed 
 additional members to the Committee of Printing, with the 
 charge to investigate this matter and to revise the Ordi- 
 nance of 1643. The Committee did nothing with Milton 
 for his illegal acts, but the danger aroused him to wage 
 battle against the iniquity of checking the freedom of 
 printing, and it was probably at this time that the Areo- 
 pagitica was begun. On December 28, the wardens of 
 the Stationers' Company again appeared before the Com- 
 mons, " and further complained of the frequent printing 
 of scandalous Books by divers, as Hezekiah Woodward 
 and Jo. Milton." ^ But once more Milton was allowed to 
 go unpunished. 
 
 His works did not, however, always escape the licenser 
 and the executioner. There is a tradition that Paradise 
 Lost barely escaped, because lines 594-99 of book i ap- 
 peared to Thomas Torakyns, the licenser, imaginary trea- 
 son. And in August, 1660, a royal proclamation was 
 1 Masson, m, 263. ^ Masson, in, 293-. 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 printed in the London newspapers to the effect that all cop- 
 ies of John Milton's Eikonoclastes and Defeneeofthe Eng- 
 lish People were to be delivered to the public officers, and 
 these officers were to see that the books were burned by 
 the common hangman ; and that no man hereafter was to 
 "presume to print, sell, or disperse any of the aforesaid 
 Books." ^ Curiously enough, Milton was himself, in 1648- 
 49, asked to take a hand at licensing," and according to 
 his own statements there were, indeed, certain classes of 
 books he would have enjoyed suppressing.* 
 
 Such was Milton's connection with the press. The at- 
 tempts to silence him, the bitter attacks upon his morality 
 and integrity for his words regarding freedom in church 
 and home, aroused in him a flaming indignation and a 
 passion for a third form of freedom. He says he wrote his 
 Areopagitica " to deliver the press from the restraints 
 with which it was encumbered " ; * and certainly the dig- 
 nity, breadth, and fervor of the argument show clearly that, 
 however strong may have been his feeling of personal in- 
 jury, he had a purpose as far-reaching as this. The pamphlet 
 undoubtedly influenced public opinion, but he himself was 
 not to see any change in the attitude of the law-makers, 
 for it took England fifty years longer to reach and accept 
 Milton's point of view. It was not until 1694 that the 
 Parliament refused to enact further laws restraining the 
 freedom of the press, and that for which Milton so elo- 
 quently and so hopefully pleads was accomplished in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 V 
 
 During the eighteen months from the passing of Crom- 
 well to the writs for a new Parliament, the political cur- 
 tain in England rises and falls so rapidly on the shifting 
 scenes of government that it is with difficulty the onlooker 
 can follow the evolution of the plot. The reader has con- 
 stantly the giddy feeling of walking on the edge of a preci- 
 pice. And this, indeed, was the condition of England and her 
 
 1 Masson, vi, 182. S See p. 134, 
 
 2 See p, 90, n. 1. * P. W. I. 259. 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 would-be rulers. Ruin was imminent, because of the sel- 
 fishness of some, the disagreements of others, and the 
 weakness of most. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell died September 3, 1658 ; Richard suc- 
 ceeded quietly and without opposition to the protectorship. 
 On November 29 of the same year, it was voted in the 
 Council of State to call a new Parliament. But before this 
 body could meet, there had arisen about Richard two 
 parties: the Court Party, which was loyal to the Pro- 
 tector, and wished to carry out as far as possible the policy 
 his father Oliver had left ; and the Army Party, which 
 desired the army to be independent of the control of Rich- 
 ard, and its commander-in-chief to have coordinate power 
 with that of the Protector. This demand Richard refused 
 to countenance. The new Parliament, the members of 
 which had been chosen on the old constituencies as they 
 had existed under Charles I, and not on the reformed con- 
 stituencies of Oliver Cromwell, met on January 27, 1659. 
 It supported the action of Richard regarding the army. 
 But the officers of the army, angered at the position taken 
 by the House, held a convention in London, brought to- 
 gether their forces, and on April 22 compelled the disso- 
 lution of the Parliament. On May 25, Richard abdicated, 
 but already on May 7, at the invitation of the army, forty- 
 two members of the Rump Parliament, which had been 
 dissolved by Cromwell on April 20, 1653, undertook to 
 resume the power of governing. This restored Rump Par- 
 liament also failed to meet the demands of the army, and 
 on October 13 it, too, was forcibly dissolved. On October 
 26, the authority of the state was vested in a Committee 
 of Safety, a committee consisting of twenty-three persons 
 chosen by the officers of the army. By December 15, this 
 body had, in a measure, determined on a form of govern- 
 ment, had proclaimed a new Parliament to meet in Feb- 
 ruary, and) had set about issuing the writs for an election. 
 But Monk, who commanded the army in Scotland, did not 
 support this Committee in its acts. The officers, more- 
 over, could not agree in their demands for the army, and 
 6 second time, on December 26, the Rump Parliament was 
 
sre mXRODUCTION 
 
 recalled and reinstated by the army. On February 3, 1660, 
 Monk with his forces marched into London. The Rump 
 had been debating the question of the future of the gov- 
 erning body, and had finally come to the conclusion to 
 continue sitting itself, but to enlarge itself by an election 
 according to the 'writs issued in 1663. This plan, how- 
 ever, did not meet the wishes of the City of London, and 
 Monk compelled the Rump on February 21, to recall the 
 Presbyterian members shut out of the House by Colonel 
 Pride's Purge on December 6, 1648. The Parliament was 
 now, therefore, the re-collected Long Parliament, which 
 had first assembled on November 3, 1640. Monk remained 
 at hand with the army to see that the members carried 
 out their promise to him, that they would do their work 
 speedily and then disband. The Long Parliament, accord- 
 ingly, having issued writs for a new, "full and free" Par- 
 liament, dissolved itself on March 16, 1660. 
 
 Milton published his Commonwealth at the end of 
 February or the beginning of March, after the excluded 
 members had been recalled, and the Parliament had be- 
 come once more the body in which he had formerly ex- 
 pressed such faith and pride. With this first edition he 
 sent the letter to Monk, doubtless merely to call the Gen- 
 eral's attention to the tract, which might otherwise have 
 escaped his notice. A month later Milton had revised his 
 pamphlet, had stricken out certain references to religion, 
 had changed many places and added several sentences ; the 
 changes and additions being chiefly to focus the mind of 
 the reader on the evils of kingship, and the dangers to the 
 nation that lay in recalling the Stuarts. He published the 
 second edition some time in April, after he felt reasonably 
 certain a new Parliament would at last be elected. Every 
 act of the House after February 21 had prepared the way 
 for the return to kingship, and would make it easy, if the 
 new Parliament should so vote, to recall Charles. 
 
 Milton still nominally held his secretaryship, and was 
 carefully informed of what was taking place. T?hen why 
 did he write the ComTnonwealth? Doubtless for the same 
 reason that the standard-bearer sometimes rushes forward 
 
INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 and plants the colors in the very face of the advancing 
 enemy, although he knows his own forces are in full re- 
 treat. Milton had only the faintest shadow of a hope that 
 he would win any one to accept or further his plan, but 
 he would at least show his own unabated loyalty to the 
 good, old cause of a republican form of government. 
 
 The pamphlet proposes an impossible republic, which 
 is, indeed, hardly a republic at all, since at the centre of 
 the whole stands an assembly chosen by a few voters and 
 holding office for life, with no possible check on its acts. 
 Milton was a democrat in theory, but in temperament and 
 feeling a iirm adherent to an aristocracy of intellect and 
 morals. His twenty years of public service had weakened 
 his faith in men, and increased his belief that only the 
 best few should be intrusted with power. His experience 
 had led him to long above everything for a settled state 
 of the kingdom. So great was his distrust and longing, that 
 he would allow office to only the wisest and most upright; 
 and, having found them, he would keep them without 
 change in the place of supreme authority. As a possible 
 corrective for what he saw clearly to be the weakness of 
 his scheme for a republic, he enthusiastically proposes, on 
 the one side, local self-government ; and on the other side 
 hesitatingly and grudgingly offers rotation in office. The 
 separate ideas of the pamphlet were not original with 
 Milton, but he combined them in a new way and pre- 
 sented a scheme novel as a whole. 
 
 The publication of the Common'mealth was the most 
 daring thing Milton had ever done ; in all his free speak- 
 ing he had never so put his life in jeopardy. Charles was 
 at this very time making his preliminary arrangements 
 for a return to power, yet Milton publicly portrays with 
 great vividness the iniquity of his house, the evils his 
 father had brought on England, and the cruelty, de- 
 bauchery, and suffering which the country may expect on 
 the return of the Stuarts. Why Milton was exempted from 
 death when the list for execution was made up by the 
 Parliament at the request of the King, remains a mystery 
 never satisfactorily explained. Every one expected him to 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 be hanged, but his name not once appears in any of the 
 catalogues of proscribed persons. 
 
 The pamphlet created a greater sensation than an}'thing 
 he had before written, — not even excepting the Defence 
 of the English People. This is evidenced by the number 
 of replies that soon appeared in the book-stalls, some bit- 
 terly abusive, some humorous, and others serious in tone. 
 On March 17, Milton is characterized in a printed pam- 
 phlet as follows : " An ingenious person hath observed 
 that Scott is the Rump's man Thomas. . . . But John 
 Milton is their goose-quill champion ; who had need of a 
 help-meet to establish anything, for he has a ram's head 
 and is good only at batteries, — an old heretic both in re- 
 ligion and manners, that by his will would shake off his 
 governors as he doth his wives, four in a fortnight. The 
 sunbeams of his scandalous papers against the late King's 
 Book is [sic] the parent that begot his late New Common- 
 wealth ; and, because he, like a parasite as he is, by flat- 
 tering the then tyrannical power, hath run himself into 
 the briers, the man will be angry if the rest of the nation 
 will not bear him company, and suffer themselves to be 
 decoyed into the same condition. He is so much of an 
 enemy to usual practices that I believe, when he is con- 
 demned to travel to Tyburn in a cart, he will petition for 
 the favor to be the first man that ever was driven thither 
 in a wheelbarrow." • This was the most common opinion ; 
 that any man who was so foolish as, at this time, to ex- 
 press publicly such plans and sentiments as Milton had 
 published, was merely ridiculous, and should be made the 
 butt of the wits, until the law brought him to his de- 
 served punishment. Because of the writing of this pam- 
 phlet, Masson thinks, he lost his secretaryship, and doubt- 
 less it was chiefly for this reason that he had to spend 
 three months in hiding.' 
 
 I Masson, v, 659. a See p. Ixxxvi. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES OF MILTON 
 
 I 
 The Earliest Life op Milton.' 
 
 To write the lives of single persons is then a com- 
 mendable undertaking, when by it some moral benefit is 
 designed to mankind. He who has that in aim, will not 
 employ his time or pen to record the history of bad men, 
 how successful or great soever they may have been ; un- 
 less by relating their tragical ends (which, through the 
 just judgment of the Almighty, most commonly overtakes 
 them) or by discriminating, with a due note of infamy, 
 whatever is criminal in their actions, he warn the reader 
 to flee their example. 
 
 But to celebrate, whether the gifts or graces, the natural 
 endowments, or acquired laudable habits of persons emir 
 nent in their generations, while it gives glory to God, th* 
 bestower of all good things, and (by furnishing a model) 
 tends to the edification of our brethren, is little less than 
 the duty of every Christian ; which seems acknowledged by 
 the late supervisors of our Common Prayer * when they 
 added to the Collect for the church militant, a clause com- 
 memorating the Saints and /Servants of God departed 
 this life in his Fear. 
 
 That he who is the subject of this discourse, made it 
 his endeavor to be thought worthy of that high character, 
 will, I make no doubt, appear to the impartial reader from 
 the particulars, which I shall with all sincerity relate of 
 his life and works. 
 
 The le^^rned Mr. John Milton, born about the year six- 
 teen hundred and eight, is said to be descended from an 
 
 1 This lite of Milton was found in 1889 by Rev. Andrew Clark, LL.D., 
 in a volume of Anthony Wood's papers in the Bodleian Library. It was 
 edited by Professor Edward Parsons, 1903. 
 
 3 Bevision of 1661-62. 
 
xxiv BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 ancient knightly family in Buckinghamshire, that gave 
 name to the chief place of their abode. However that be, 
 his father was entitled to a true nobility in the Apostle 
 Paul's Heraldry ; having been disinherited about the be- 
 ginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign by his father a Ro- 
 manist, who had an estate of five hundred pound a year at 
 Staiiiton St. John in Oxfordshire, for reading the Bible. 
 Upon this occasion he came young to London, and being 
 taken care of by a relation of his, a scrivener, he became 
 free of that profession ; and was so prosperous in it, and 
 the consorship of a prudent, virtuous wife, as to be able 
 to breed up in a liberal manner, and provide a competency 
 for two sons and a daughter. After which, out of a moder- 
 ation not usual with such as have tasted the sweets of 
 gain, and perhaps naturally inclined rather to a retired life 
 h'y his addiction to music (for his skill in which he stands 
 registered among the composers of his time), he gave over 
 his trade, and went to live in the country. 
 
 This his eldest son had his institution to learning both 
 under public and private masters ; under whom, through 
 the pregnancy of his parts and his indefatigable industry 
 (sitting up constantly at his study till midnight), he profited 
 exceedingly ; and early in that time wrote several grave 
 and religious poems, and paraphrased some of David's 
 Psalms. 
 
 At about eighteen years of age he went to Christ's Col- 
 lege in Cambridge ; where for his diligent study, his 
 performance of public exercises, and for choice verses, 
 written on the occasions usually solemnized by the uni- 
 versities, as well for his virtuous and sober life, he was in 
 high esteem with the best of his time. 
 
 After taking his degree of Master of Arts he left the 
 university, and, having no design to take upon him any of 
 the particular learned professions, applied himself for five 
 years, at his father's house in the country, to the diligent 
 reading of the best classic authors, both divine and human; 
 sometimes repairing to London, from which he was not 
 far distant, for learning music and the mathematics. 
 
 Being now become master of what useful knowledge 
 
BIOGRAPfflES X3EV 
 
 was to be had in books, and competently skilled amongst 
 others, in the Italian language, he made choice of that 
 country to travel into, in order to polish his conversation, 
 and learn to know men. And having received instructions 
 how to demean himself with that wise, observing nation, 
 as well as how to shape his journey, from Sir Henry 
 Wotton,i whose esteem of him appears in an elegant letter 
 to him upon that subject, he took his way through France. 
 In this kingdom, the manners and genius of which he had 
 in no admiration, he made small stay, nor contracted any 
 acquaintance ; save that, with the recommendation of Lord 
 Scudamore, our King's Ambassador at Paris, he waited on 
 Hugo Grotius,^ who was there under that character from 
 the Crown of Sweden. 
 
 Hasting to Italy by the way of N"ice, and passing through 
 Genoa, Leghorn, and Pisa he arrived at Florence. Here he 
 lived two months in familiar and elegant conversation with 
 the choice wits of that city, and was admitted by them to 
 their private academies ; an economy much practised among 
 the virtuosi of those parts, for the communication of polite 
 literature, as well as for the cementing of friendships. The 
 reputation he had with them they expressed in several com- 
 mendatory verses, which are extant in his book of poems. 
 From Florence he went to Eome, where, as in all places, 
 he spent his time in the choicest company ; and amongst 
 others there, in that of Lucas Holstein.* 
 
 At Kaples, which was his next remove, he became ac- 
 quainted with Marquis Manso, a learned person, and so 
 aged as to have been contemporary and intimate with 
 Torquato Tasso, the famous Italian heroic. This noble- 
 
 1 Sir Henry Wotton, 1568-1639, the English diplomatist and author, 
 was Provost of Eton when he wrote the letter. It is quoted by Masson, 
 I, 578-80. 
 
 2 Hugo Grotius, 1583-1645, the Dutch jurist, statesman, and poet. 
 His most famous work is De Jure Belli et Pads ; he wrote a Latin tragedy 
 Adamui Exulf on the model of Seneca, which Milton undoubtedlj' knew 
 before writing Paradise Lost. It was printed at Leyden in 1601. 
 
 8 Lucas Holstein, 1596-1661, was born at Hamburg, but lived the most 
 of his life at Rome. He was the secretary of Cardinal Barberini and one 
 of the librarians of the Vatican, and was famous chiefly for his learning 
 in Greek literature. 
 
xxvi BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 man obliged him by very particular civilities, accompany, 
 ing him to see the rarities of the place, and paying him 
 visits at his lodging ; also sent him the testimony of a 
 great esteem in this distich : 
 
 Ut Mens, Forma, Decor Facies, Mos, si Pietas sic, 
 Non Anglus, verum herclfe Angelas ipse fores. 
 
 Yet excused himself at parting for not having been able 
 to do him more honor by reason of his resolute owning 
 his religion. This he did whensoever by any one's en- 
 quiry occasion was offered ; not otherwise forward to en- 
 ter upon discourses of that nature. Nor did he decline its 
 
 , defense in the like circumstances even in Rome itself on 
 his return thither ; though he had been advised by letters 
 
 . from some friends to Naples, that the English Jesuits de- 
 signed to do him mischief on that account. Before his 
 leaving Naples he returned the Marquis an acknowledg- 
 ment of his great favors in an elegant copy of verses en- 
 titled Mansus, >\rhich is extant amongst his other Latin 
 poems. 
 
 From Rome he revisited Florence for the sake of his 
 charming friends there ; and then proceeded to Venice, 
 where he shipped what books he had bought, and through 
 the delicious country of Lombardy, and over the Alps 
 to Geneva, where he lived in familiar conversation with 
 the famous Diodati.* Thence through France he returned 
 
 . home, having, with no ill management of his time, spent 
 about fifteen months abroad. 
 
 He had by this time laid in a large stock of knowledge, 
 ■which as he designed not for the purchase of wealth, so 
 neither intended he it, as a miser's hoard, to lie useless. 
 Having therefore taken a house, to be at full ease and 
 quiet, and gotten his books about him, he set himself 
 upon compositions, tending either to the public benefit of 
 mankind, and especially his countrymen, or to the ad- 
 vancement of the Commonwealth of Learning. And his 
 first labors were very happily dedicated to what had the 
 
 1 John Diodati, 1576-1649, a Swiss Protestant theologian; he trans- 
 lated the Bible into Italian in 1607. 
 
BIOGRAPHIEH xxvii 
 
 chiefest place in his affections, and had been no small 
 part of his study, the service of religion. 
 
 It was now the year 1640, and the nation was much 
 divided upon the controversies about church government, 
 between the Prelatical party, and the Dissenters, or, 
 as they were commonly then called, Puritans. He had 
 studied religion in the Bible and the best authors, had 
 strictly lived up to its rules, and had no temporal con- 
 cern depending upon any hierarchy to render him sus- 
 pected, either to himself or others, as one that writ for 
 interest ; and, therefore, with great boldness and zeal of- 
 fered his judgment, first in two Books of Reformation 
 by way of address to a friend, and then, in answer to a 
 bishop, he writ of Prelatical Episcopacy and The Reason 
 of Church Government. After that. Animadversions 
 upon the Remonstrants defence (the work of Bishop 
 Hall) against Smectymnuus and Apology for those Ani- 
 madversions. 
 
 In this while, his manner of settlement fitting him for 
 the reception of a wife, he in a month's time (according to 
 his practice of not wasting that precious talent) courted, 
 married, and brought home from Forresthall,^ near Ox- 
 ford, a daughter of Mr. Powell. But she, that was very 
 young, and had been bred in a family of plenty and free- 
 dom, being not well pleased with his reserved manner of 
 life, within a few days left him, and went back into the 
 country with her mother. Nor though he sent several 
 pressing invitations could he prevail with her to return, 
 till about four years after, when Oxford was surrendered 
 (the nighness of her father's house to that garrison having 
 for the most part of the meantime hindered any communi- 
 cation between them), she of her own accord came, and 
 submitted to him, pleading that her mother had been the 
 inciter of her to that frowardness. He, in the interval, 
 who had *> entered into that state for the end designed by 
 God and nature, and was then in the full vigor of his 
 
 1 " An error for Torest-hill; a mistake, as Mr. F. Madan of the Bodleian 
 Library suggests, not likely to have been made by an Oxford man." — 
 E.P. 
 
xxviii BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 manhood, could ill bear the disappointment he met with 
 by her obstiuats absenting ; and, therefore, thought upon a 
 divorce, that he might be free to marry another ; concern- 
 ing which he also was in treaty. The lawfulness and ex- 
 pedience of this, duly regulate in order to all those 
 purposes for which marriage was at first instituted, had 
 upon full consideration and reading good authors been 
 formerly his opinion ; and the necessity of justifying him- 
 self now concurring with the opportunity, acceptable to 
 him, of instructing others in a point of so great concern 
 to the peace and preservation of families, and so likelj' to 
 prevent temptations as well as mischiefs, he first writ The 
 Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, then Colasterion, 
 and after Tetrachordon. In these he taught the right use 
 and design of marriage ; then the original and practice of 
 divorces amongst the Jews, and showed that our Saviour, 
 in those four places of the Evangelists,^ meant not the 
 abrogating but rectifying the abuses of it; rendering to 
 that purpose another sense of the word fornication (and 
 which is also the opinion amongst others of Mr. Selden 
 in his Uxor Hebraea) tlian what is commonly received. 
 Martin Bucer's Judgment in this matter he likewise trans- 
 lated into English. The Assembly of Divines then sitting 
 at Westminster, though formerly obliged by his learned 
 pen in the defense of Smectymnuus, and other their con- 
 troversies with the bishops, now impatient of having the 
 clergies' jurisdii^tion, as they reckoned it, invaded, instead 
 of answering, or disproving what those books had asserted, 
 caused him to be summoned for them before the Lords. 
 But that house, whether approving the doctrine, or not 
 favoring his accusers, soon dismissed him. 
 
 This was the mending of a decay in the superstructure, 
 and had for object only the well-being of private persons, or 
 at most of families. His small treatise of Education, ad- 
 dressed to Mr. Hartlib, was the laying a foundation also 
 
 1 " It is not likely that a clergyman would be ignorant that three of 
 the 'four places' were outside the Evangelists. Milton discusses (1| 
 Genesis i, 27, 28, with II, 18, 23, 2-t; (2) Deut. xxiv, 1, 2; (3) Matt, v, 
 31, 32, with XIX, 3-11; (4) 1 Cor. vii, 10-16." — E. P. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES xxix 
 
 of public weal. In it he prescribed an easy and delight- 
 ful method for training up gentry in such a manner to all 
 sorts of 'literature, as that they might at the same time by 
 like degrees advance in virtue and abilities to serve their 
 country, subjoining directions for their attaining other ne- 
 cessary or ornamental accomplishments; and it seemed he 
 designed in some measure to put this in practise. He had, 
 from his first settling, taken care of instructing his two 
 nephews by his sister Phillips, and, as it happened, the 
 son of some friend. Now he took a large house, where 
 the Earle of Barrimore, sent by his aunt the Lady Eana- 
 lagh,^ Sir Thomas Gardiner of Essex, and others were un- 
 der his tuition. But whether it were that the tempers of 
 our gentry would not bear the strictness of his discipline, or 
 for what other reason, he continued that course but a while. 
 
 His next public woik, and which seemed to be his par- 
 ticular province, who was so jealous in promoting know- 
 ledge, was Areopagitica, written in manner of an oration, 
 to vindicate the freedom of the press from the tyranny of 
 licensers ; who either enslaved to the dictates of those that 
 put them into office, or prejudiced by their own ignorance, 
 are wont to hinder the coming out of any thing which is 
 not consonant to the common received opinions, and by 
 that means deprive the public of the benefit of many use- 
 ful labors. 
 
 Hitherto all his writings had for subject the propaga- 
 tion of religion or learning, or the bettering some more 
 private concerns of mankind. In political matters he had 
 published nothing. And it was now the time of the King's 
 coming upon his trial, when some of the Presbyterian 
 ministers, out of malignity to the Independent party, who 
 had supplanted them, more than from any principles of 
 loyalty, asserted clamorously in their sermons and writings 
 the privilege of kings from all accountableness. Or (to 
 speak i* the language of this ^ time) non-resistance and 
 
 1 Lady Ranalagh was the sister of Robert Boyle, the chemist, and 
 was noted for her " vast reach both of knowledge and apprehension." 
 See Masson, iii, 659. 
 
 3 "Wood changes the word 'this' to 'that,' perhaps because the doc- 
 trine became antiquated with the Revolution of 1688. The manuscript is 
 
XXX BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 passive obedience to be the doctrine of all the Eeformed 
 Churches. This general thesis, which encouraged all man- 
 ner of tyranny, he opposed by good arguments, and the 
 authorities of several eminently learned protestants in a 
 book titled The Tenure of Kings, but without any par- 
 ticular application, to the dispute then on foot in this 
 nation. 
 
 Upon the change of government which succeeded the 
 King's death he was, without any seeking of his, by the 
 means of a private acquaintance, who was a member of the 
 new Council of State, chosen Latin Secretary. In this pub- 
 lic station his abilities and the acuteness of his parts, which 
 had lain hid in his privacy, were soon taken notice of, and 
 he was pitched upon to elude the artifice of Eikwv BacriXiKiJ. 
 This he had no sooner performed answerably to the expec- 
 tation from his wit and pen, in EtKovoKXdo-TT/s, but another 
 adventure expected him. 
 
 Salmasius, a professor in Holland, who had in a large 
 treatise, not long before, maintained the parity of church 
 governors against Episcopacy, put out Defensio Caroli 
 Regis, and in it, amongst other absurdities, justified (as 
 indeed it was unavoidable in the defense of that cause, 
 which was styled Bellum JEpiscopale) to the contradiction 
 of his former book, the pretensions of the bishops. Him 
 Mr. Milton, by the order of his masters, answered in De- 
 fensio pro populo Anglicano, both in more correct Latin, 
 to the shame of the other's grammarship, and by much, 
 better reasoning. For Salmasius being a foreigner, and 
 grossly ignorant of our laws and constitution (which in all 
 nations are the respective distinguishing principles of 
 government), either brought no arguments from thence, or 
 such only (and by him not seldom mistaken or misapplied) 
 as were partially suggested to him by those whose cause 
 he had undertaken ; and which, having during the many 
 years of our divisions been often ventilated, received an 
 easy solution. Nor had he given proof of deeper learning 
 
 certainly accurate for the time it is written, aa the doctrine was most 
 prominent during the latter part of the reign of Charles II and during 
 the reign of James II." — E. P. 
 
BIOGRAPHIKS xxxi 
 
 in that which is properly called politics, while he made use 
 of trite instances, as that of the government of hees, and 
 Biich like to prove the preeminency of monarchy ; and all 
 along so confounded it with tyranny (as also he did the 
 Episcopal with the Papal government), that he might bet- 
 ter have passed for a defender 6i the grand Signer, and 
 the Council of Trent, than of a lawful king and a re- 
 formed church. For this and reneging' his former principles 
 he was by Mr. Milton facetiously exposed ; nor did he ever 
 reply, though he lived three years after. ^ 
 
 But what he wisely declined, the further provoking such 
 an adversary, or persisting to defend a cause he so ill un- 
 derstood, was attempted in Clamor Regii Sanguinis, etc., 
 in which Salmasius was hugely extolled, and Mr. Milton as 
 falsely defamed. The anonymous author,' Mr. Milton, who 
 had by his last book gained great esteem and many friends 
 among the learned abroad, by whom, and by the public 
 ministers coming hither he was often visited, soon discov- 
 ered to be Morus, formerly a professor and minister at 
 Geneva, then living in Holland. Him, in Secunda Defen- 
 sio pro populo Anglicano, he rendered ridiculous for his 
 trivial and weak treatise under so tragical a title, contain- 
 ing little of argument, which had not before suffered with 
 Salmasius. And because it consisted most of railing and false 
 reproaches, he, in no unpleasant mnnner, from very good 
 testimonies retorted upon him the true history of his no- 
 torious impurities, both at Geneva and Leyden. Himself he 
 also, by giving a particular ingenuous account of his whole 
 life, vindicated from those scurrilous aspersions, with which 
 that book had endeavored to blemish him ; adding per- 
 haps thereby also reputation to the cause he defended, at 
 
 1 Reneging : denying. 
 
 2 "A postliumous reply by Salmasius appeared in 1660, seven years 
 after his death." — E. P. 
 
 ' This pamphlet was written by Peter du Moulin, Rector of Wheldrake, 
 B stanch royalist ; but his authorship was not known until 1670 (see 
 Masson, v, 216-25). Alexander More, Professor of Sacred History at 
 Amsterdam, wrote a dedicator}' epistle to the book, edited it, and was 
 active in furtherinff its sale. Milton, on the best authority, believed More 
 to be tlie author, and hence answered his charges. See an abstract of th« 
 book in Masson, iv, 4S3-58. 
 
xxxii BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 least with impartial readers, when they should reflect upoii 
 the different qualifications of the respective champions. 
 And when Morus afterwards strove to clear himself of 
 being the author,' and to represent Mr. Milton as an in- 
 jurious defamer in that particular, he in Defensio pro se 
 by very good testimonies, and other circumstantial proofs 
 justified his having fixed it there, and made good sport of 
 the other's shallow evasions. 
 
 While he was thus employed his eyesight totally failed 
 him; not through any immediate or sudden judgment, as 
 his adversaries insultingly affirmed, but from a weakness 
 which his hard, nightly study in his youth had first oc- 
 casioned, and which by degrees had for some time before 
 deprived him of the use of one eye. And the issues and 
 seatous, made use of to save or retrieve that, were thought 
 by drawing away the spirits, which should have supplied 
 the optic vessels, to have hastened the loss of the other. 
 He was, indeed, advised by his physicians of the danger, in 
 his condition, attending so great intentness as that work 
 required. But he, who was resolute in going through with 
 what upon good consideration he at any time designed, and 
 to whom the love of truth and his country was dearer then 
 all things, would not for any danger decline their defense. 
 
 Nor did his darkness discourage or disable him from pros- 
 ecuting, with the help of amanuenses, the former design 
 of his calmer studies. And he had now more leisure, being 
 dispensed with by having a substitute allowed him, and 
 sometimes instructions sent home to him, from attending 
 in his office of secretary. 
 
 It was now that he began that laborious work of amassing 
 out of all the classic authors, both in prose and verse, a 
 Latin Thesaurus to the emendation of that done by Ste- 
 phanus ; also the composing Paradise Lost, and the framing 
 a body of divinity out of the Bible. All which, notwith- 
 standing the several calamities befalling him in his fortunes, 
 he finished after the Restoration : as also the British His- 
 tory down to the Conquest, Paradise Regained, Samson 
 
 1 This sentence was either ivvitten before 1670, or the writer had Dot 
 ■eeu the book in which Du Moulin acl^nowledged the authorship. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES xxxin 
 
 Agonistes, a tragedy, Logica and Accedence, commenced 
 Grammar and had begun a Greek Thesaurus ; having 
 Bcarce left any part of learning unimproved by him, as in 
 Paradise Lost and Regained he more especially taught 
 all virtue. 
 
 In these ■works, and the instruction of some youth or 
 other at the intreaty of his friends, he in great serenity 
 spent his time and expired no less calmly in the year 
 1674. 
 
 He had naturally a sharp wit, and steady judgment; 
 ■which helps to^ward attaining learning he improved by an 
 indefatigable atteiition to his study ; and was supported 
 in that by a temperance, always observed by him, but in 
 his youth even with great nicety. Yet did he not reckon 
 this talent but as entrusted with him ; and therefore dedi- 
 cated all his labors to the glory of God and some public 
 good ; neither binding himself to any of the gainful pro- 
 fessions, nor having any worldly interest for aim in what he 
 taught. He made no address or court for that employ- 
 ment of Latin secretary, though his eminent fitness for it 
 appears by his printed letters of that time.' And he was 
 so far from being concerned in the corrupt designs of his 
 masters,^ that whilst in his first and second Defensio jjro 
 populo Anglicdno he was an advocate for liberty against 
 tyranny and oppression (vvhich to him seemed the case, as 
 well by the public declarations on the one side [and be 
 •was a stranger to their private counsels 3], as by the ar- 
 guments on the other side, which run mainly upon the 
 justifying of exorbitant and lawless power), he took care 
 all along strictly to define and persuade to true liberty, 
 and especially in very solemn perorations at the close of 
 those books ; where he also, little less than prophetically, 
 
 1 " Probably a reference to a pirated edition of Milton's State Lettert, 
 printed in 1676 ; or perhaps to the volume of Familiar Letters {Epiito- 
 laram Familiarum Liber llnus), printed in 1674." — E. P. 
 
 2 "There'is evident sympathy here with the attitude which Milton 
 took towards the puritan government in its later days, with the mood 
 in which he wrote A Heady and Easy Way to establish a Free Common- 
 wealth." — E. P. 
 
 ' "An explicit statement of Milton's exclusion from the inner circle 
 of the puritan government." — E. P. 
 
xxxiv BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 denounced the punishments due to the abusers of that 
 specious name. And as he was not linked to one party 
 by self interest, so neither was he divided from the other 
 by animosity ; but was forward to do any of them good 
 offices, when their particular cases afforded him ground to 
 appear on their behalf. And especially, if on the score of 
 wit or learning, they could lay claim to his peculiar pat- 
 ronage. Of which were instances, among others the grand- 
 child of the famous Spencer,' a papist suffering in his 
 concerns in Ireland, and Sir William Davenant when taken 
 prisoner,^ for both whom he procured relief. 
 
 This his sincerity, and disentanglement of any private 
 ends with his sentiments relating to the public, proceeded 
 no doubt from a higher principle, but was in great part 
 supported, and temptations to the contrary avoided by his 
 constant frugality; which enabled him at first to live 
 within compass of the moderate patrimony his father left 
 him, and afterwards to bear with patience, and no dis- 
 composure of his way of living, the great losses which be- 
 fell him in his fortunes. Yet be was not sparing to buy 
 good books, of which he left a fair collection ; and was 
 generous in relieving the wants of his friends. Of his gen- 
 tleness and humanity he likewise gave signal proof in receiv- 
 ing home, and living in good accord till her death with, his 
 first wife, after she had so obstinately absented from him. 
 During which time, as neither in any other scene of his 
 life, was he blemished with the least unchastity. 
 
 From so Christian a life, so great learning, and so unbi- 
 assed a search after truth it is not probable any errors in 
 doctrine should spring. And, therefore, his judgment in his 
 
 1 " A fact not mentioned elsewhere." — E. P. 
 
 ' "An interesting confirmation of the tradition related by Jonathan 
 Richardson (Explanatory Notes on *^ Paradise Lost," pp. Ixxxix-xc). 
 Richardson says he received the information from Thomas Betterton, 
 through Alexander Pope, that at the Restoration, when Milton was in 
 danger of losing his life, ' 't was Sir William Davenant obtained his re- 
 mission, in return for his own life procured by Milton's interest when 
 himself was under condemnation, anno 1650, A life was owing to Milton 
 (Davenant's), and 't was paid nobly, Milton's for Davenant's at Daven- 
 ant's intercession.' "— E. P. This was Davenant, the poet and dramatist, 
 1605-68. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES xxxv 
 
 body of divinity concerning some speculative points, differ- 
 ing perhaps from that commonly received, (and which is 
 thought to be the reason that never was printed) neither 
 ought rashly to be condemned, and however himself not to be 
 uncharitably censured ; who, by being a constant champion 
 for the liberty of opinion, expressed much candor towards 
 others. But that this age is insensible of the great obliga- 
 tions it has to him, is too apparent in that he has no better 
 a pen to celebrate his memory. 
 
 He was of a moderate stature, and well proportioned, 
 of a ruddy complexion, light brown hair, and handsome 
 features ; save that his eyes were none of the quickest. 
 But his blindness, which proceeded from a gutta serena,' 
 added no further blemish to them. His deportment was 
 sweet and affable ; and his gate erect and manly, bespeak- 
 ing courage and undauntedness (or a nil conscire), on 
 which account he wore a sword while he had his sight, 
 and was skilled in using it. He had an excellent ear, and 
 could bear a part both in vocal and instrumental music. 
 His moderate estate left him by his father was, through 
 his good economy, sufficient to maintain him. Out of his 
 secretary's salary he had saved two thousand pounds, 
 which, being lodged in the excise, and that bank failing 
 upon the Restoration, he utterly lost. Besides which, and 
 the ceasing of his employment, he had no damage by that 
 change of affairs. For he early sued out his pardon ; and 
 by means of that, when the Sergeant of the house of 
 Commons had officiously seized him, was quickly set at 
 liberty. He had, too, at the first return of the Court in 
 good manners left his house in Petty France, which had 
 a door into the park ; ^ and in all other things demeaning 
 himself peaceable, was so far from being reckoned disaf- 
 fected, that he was visited at his house on Bunhill by a 
 chief officer of state, and desired to employ his pen on 
 their behalf. And when the subject of divorce was under 
 consideration with the Lords, upon the account of the Lord 
 
 1 See P. L. m, 25. 
 
 3 " The omission of the name of the park suggests that the writer was 
 a Londoner." — E. P. 
 
xxxvi BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 Ross, he was consulted by an eminent member of that 
 house. By the great fire in 1666 he had a house in Bread 
 Street burnt, which was all the real estate he had. 
 
 He rendered his studies and various works more easy 
 and pleasant by allotting them their several portions of the 
 day. Of these the time friendly to the Muses fell to his 
 poetry ; and he, waking early, (as is the use of temperate 
 men) had commonly a good stock of verses ready against 
 his amanuensis came ; which if it happened to be later 
 then ordinary, he would complain, saying he wanted to 
 be milked.^ The evenings he likewise spent in reading 
 some choice poets, by way of refreshment after the days 
 toil, and to store his fancy against morning. Besides his 
 ordinary lectures out of the Bible and the best commenta- 
 tors on the week day, that was his sole subject on Sun- 
 days. And David's Psalms were in esteem with him above 
 all poetry. The youths that he instructed from time to 
 time served him often as amanuenses,' and some elderly 
 persons were glad for the benefit of his learned conversa- 
 tion, to perform that office. His first wife died a while 
 after his blindness seized him, leaving him three daugh- 
 ters, that lived to be women. He married two more, 
 whereof one survived him. He died in a fit of the gout, 
 but with so little pain or emotion, that the time of his 
 expiring was not perceived by those in the room. And 
 though he had been long troubled with that disease, inso- 
 much that his knuckles were all callous, yet was he not 
 ever observed to be very impatient. He had this elegy in 
 common with the patriarchs and kings of Israel, that he 
 was gathered to his people ; for he happened to be buried 
 in Cripplegate, where about thirty years before he had by 
 chance also interred his father. 
 
 1 " A remark of Milton not found elsewhere." — E. P. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES xxxvii 
 
 II 
 
 COLLECTIONS FOR THE LIFE OF MILTON 
 
 By John Aubrey, F.R.S. 
 
 MR. JOHK MILTON" 
 
 Was of an Oxfordshire family : his grandfather . . . 
 [a Rom. Cath.] of Holten, in Oxfordshire, near Shotover. 
 His father was brought up in the University of Oxon, at 
 Christ Church, [his mother was a Bradshaw, Chpr. Milton 
 (his brother, the Inner Temple) barrister], and his gr. 
 father disinherited him because he kept not to the Catho- 
 lic religion [He found a Bible, in English, in his cham- 
 ber] ; so thereupon be came to London, and became a 
 scrivener (brought up' by a friend of his, was not an ap- 
 prentice). He was an ingenious man, delighted in music, 
 composed many songs now in print, especially that of 
 Oriana,' and got a plentiful estate by it, and left it off 
 many years before he died. 
 
 His son John was horn in Bread Street, in London, at 
 the (Rose, erased,') ^ Spread Eagle, which was his house (he 
 had also in that street another house, the Rose, and other 
 houses in other places). He was home Anno Domini . . . 
 the . . . day of . . . about ... a clock in the . . . 
 He went to school to old Mr. Gill, at Paul's school ; 
 went, at his own charge only, to Christ College in Cambr. 
 (very young, sc. about thirteen was the most, erased,) [at 
 fifteen], where he stayed eight years at least ; then he 
 travelled into France and Italy. At Geneva he contracted 
 a great friendship with the learned Dr. Deodati, of Geneva 
 (vide his poems). [Had Sir H. Wotton's commendatory 
 letters]. He was acquainted (beyond sea, erased,) with 
 
 1 A book entitled The Triumphs of Oriana, composed of twenty-five 
 madrigaLs in honor of Queen Elizrheth.' 
 
 '■i Aubrey has cancelled in his MS. the words in parentheses followed 
 by erased. 
 
xxxviii BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 Sir Henry Wotton, who delighted in his company, Ambas- 
 sador at Venice. He was several years [yw. How many ? 
 £,esp. Two years] beyond sea, and returned to England 
 ■just upon the breaking out of the civil wars. He was La- 
 tin Secretary to (Oliver Or. erased,) the Parliament. 
 
 Anno Domini 1619 he was ten years old, as by his pic- 
 ture, and was then a poet. His school-master then was a 
 Puritan, in Essex, who cut his hair short. 
 
 He married his first wife . . . Powell, of Fost-hill, at 
 Shotover, in Oxonshire. She was a zealous royalist, and 
 went without her husband's consent to her mother in the 
 King's quarters. [She went from him to her mother's at . . . 
 in the King's quarters, near Oxford.] She died Anno 
 Domini . . . 
 
 Anno Domini . . . [sic] by whom he had 4 children. 
 Hath two daughters living; Deborah was his amanuensis; 
 he taught her Latin, and to read Greek (and Hebrew, qu. 
 erased,') to him when he lost his eyesight, which was 
 Anno Domini . . . 
 
 He was scarce so tall as I am [ Qu. quot feet I am high ? 
 Resp. Of middle stature]. He had light brown [auburn] 
 hair. His complexion exceeding fair [he was so fair that 
 they called him the Lady of Christ College]. Oval face, 
 his eye a dark gray. His widow has his picture drawn 
 (very well and like) when a Cambridge scholar. She has 
 his picture when a Cambridge scholar, which ought to be 
 engraven ; for the pictures before his books are not at all 
 like him. 
 
 He married his 2d wife. Mistress Eliz. MinshuU, Anno 
 . . . (the year before the sickness), a gentle person, a 
 peaceful and agreeable humor. 
 
 After he was blind, he wrote these following books, viz. 
 Paradise Lost, 
 Paradise Kegained, 
 Grammar, 
 
 Dictionary, imperfect. 
 He was a spare man. 
 
 He was an early riser, sc. at 4 o'clock mane, yea, 
 after he lost his sight. He had a man read to him. The 
 
BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 XXXIX 
 
 first thing he read was the Hebrew Bible, and that 
 was at 4A. mane | h.^sic'] + then he contemplated. At 
 7 his man came to him again, and then read to him and 
 wrote till dinner ; the writing was as much as the reading. 
 His 2d daughter, Deborah, could read to him Latin, Ital. 
 and French, and Greek. She married in Dublin to one Mr. 
 Clarke (a mercer, sells silk) ; very like her father. The 
 other sister is Mary, more like her mother. After dinner 
 he used to walk 3 or 4 hours at a time (he always had a 
 garden where he lived) : went to bed about 9. Temperate, 
 rarely drank between meals. Extreme pleasant in his con- 
 versation, and at dinner, supper, &c. but satirical. 
 
 He pronounced the letter R very hard \_Litera canina, A 
 certain sign of a satirical wit. From Jo. Dryden]. 
 
 He had a delicate, tuneable voice, and had good skill. 
 His father instructed him. He had an organ in his house ; 
 he played on that most. His exercise was chieily walk- 
 ing. 
 
 He was visited much, by learned, more than he did de- 
 sire. 
 
 He was mightily importuned to go intoFr. and Italy (for- 
 eigners came much to see him), and much admired him, 
 and offered to him great preferments to come over to them, 
 and the only inducement of several foreigners that came 
 over into England, was chiefly to see 0. Protector, and 
 Mr. J. Milton ; and would see the house and chamber 
 where he was born. He was much more admired abroad 
 than at home. 
 
 His familiar learned acquaintance were Mr. Andrew 
 Marvell, Mr. Skinner, Dr. Paget, M.D.' 
 
 Mr. Skinner, who was his disciple. 
 
 Jo. Dryden, Esq., Poet Laureate, who very much ad- 
 mired him, and went to him to have leave to put his 
 Paradise Lost into a drama in rhyme. Mr. Milton received 
 
 1 Andrew Marvell, 1621-78, the poet and satirist, was Milton's assist- 
 ant in the Latin secretarj-ship from 1657-59. 
 
 Skinner : see Sonnets, 21, 22, and Masson, iv, 622-25. 
 
 Doctor Nathan Paget, a physician of some reputation in London, 
 holding official positions under the Commonwealth. Masson, vi, 454- 
 56. 
 
xl BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 him civilly, and told him he would give him leave to tag 
 his verses. 
 
 His widow assures me that Mr. Hobbs was not one of 
 his acquaintance, that her husband did not like him at all, 
 hut he would acknowledge him to be a man of great parts, 
 and a learned man. 'J'heir interests and tenets were dia- 
 metrically opposite [did run counter to each other, j 
 
 From his bro. Chr. Milton : — 
 
 When he went to school, when he was very young, he 
 studied very hard, and sat up very late ; commonly till 12 
 or one o'clock at night, and his father ordered the maid 
 to sit up for him, and in those years (10) composed many 
 copies of verses, which might well become a riper age. 
 And was a very hard student in the university, and per- 
 formed all his exercises there with very good applaiise. 
 His 1st tutor there was Mr. Chapell, from whom receiv- 
 ing some unkindness [whipped him], he was afterwards 
 (though it seemed opposite to the rules of the college), 
 transferred to the tuition of one Mr. Tovell, who died 
 parson of Lutterworth. 
 
 I have been told that the father composed a song of 
 fourscore parts for the Landgrave of Hesse for which high- 
 ness sent a medal of gold or a noble present. He died, (in 
 that year that the army marched through the city, erased,) 
 about 1647, buried in Cripplegate ch. from his house in 
 the Barbican. 
 
 u. Mr. Chr. Milton to see the date of his bro. birth. 
 
 1. Of Reformation. ) Qu. whether two 
 Against Prelatical Episcopacy, j books. 
 
 2. The Reason of Church Government. 
 
 3. A Defence of Smectymnuus. 
 
 4. The Doctrine and Discipline of^ 
 
 Divorce. All these in pro- 
 
 5. Colasterion. > secution of the 
 
 6. The Judgment of Martin Bucer. same subject. 
 
 7. Tetrachordon (pi Divorce). 
 
 Areopagitica, viz., for the Liberty of the Press. 
 
 Of Education. 
 
 Iconoclastes. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES jdi 
 
 Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. 
 Defensio Populi Anglicani. 
 Defensio Seounda contra Morum. His Logic. 
 Defensio Tertia. 
 
 Of the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Ecclesi- 
 astical Affairs. 
 Against Hirelings (against Tithes). 
 Of a Commonwealth. 
 Against Dr. Griffith. 
 Of Toleration, Heresy, and Schism. 
 
 He went to travel about the year 1638, and was abroad 
 about a year's space, chiefly in Italy : immediately after 
 his return he took a lodging at Mr. Russell's, a tailor, in 
 St. Bride's Church-yard, and took into his tuition his 
 sister's two sons, Edw. and John Philips, the first 10, the 
 other 9 years of age : and in a year's time made them, ca- 
 pable of interpreting a Latin author at sight, &c. and within 
 3 years they went through the best of Latin and Greek 
 poets : Lucretius and Manilius (and with him the use of 
 the globes, and some rudiments of arithra. and geom.) 
 of the Latins ; Hesiod, Aratus, Dionysius Afer, Oppian, 
 Apollonii Argonautica, and Quintus Calaber. Cato, Varro, 
 and Columella de Re Rustica were the very first authors 
 they learned.' 
 
 As he was severe on one hand, so he was most familiar 
 and free in his conversation to those to whom most sour 
 in his way of education. N. B. He made his nephews 
 songsters, and sing from the time they were with him. 
 
 John Milton was born the 9th of December, 1608, die 
 Veneris, half an hour after 6 in the morning. 
 
 From Mr. E. Philips : — " His invention was much more 
 free and easy in the equinoxes than in the solstices ; as he 
 more particularly found in writing his Paradise Lost. Mr. 
 Edw. Philips (his nephew and then amanuensis hath, 
 erased.") All the time of writing his Paradise Lost, his 
 vein began at the autumnal equinoctial, and ceased at the 
 vernal, or thereabouts (I believe about May), and this was 
 ^ Compare this list witli tliat on p. Ixv. 
 
xln BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 4 or 5 years of his doing it. He began about 2 years be- 
 fore the K. came in, and finished about 3 years after the 
 K.'s restoration. 
 
 Qu. Mr. J. Playford pro Wilby's Set of Orianas. 
 
 In the (2nd or 3rd, erased,') [4th] book of Paradise Lost 
 there are about 6 verses of Satan's exclamation to tlie sun, 
 ■which Mr. E. Philips remembers about 15 or 16 years before 
 ever his Poem was thought of ; which verses were intended 
 for the beginning of a tragedy, which he had designed, 
 but was diverted from it by other business. 
 
 Whatever he wrote against monarchy was out of no ani- 
 mosity to the King's person, or out of any faction or in- 
 terest, but out of a pure zeal to the liberty of mankind, 
 which he thought would be greater under a free state than 
 under a monarchial government. His being so conversant 
 in Livy and the Roman authors, and the greatness he saw 
 done by the Roman commonwealth, and the virtue of their 
 great commanders [captains] induced him to. 
 
 His first wife (Mrs. Powell, a royalist) was brought up 
 and lived where there was a great deal of company and 
 merriment, dancing, &c. And when she came to live with 
 her husband at Mr. Russell's, in St. Bride's ch. yard, 
 she found it very solitary ; no company came to her, 
 oftentimes heard his nephews beaten and cry. This life 
 was irksome to her, and so she went to her parents at 
 Foste-hill. He sent for her (after some time), and I think 
 his servant was evilly entreated, but as for wronging his 
 bed, I never heard the least suspicions, nor had he of that 
 any jealousy. 
 
 From Mr. Abr. Hill : — Memorand. His sharp writ- 
 ing against Alexander More, of Holland, upon a mistake 
 notwithstanding he had given him by the ambassador \_Qu. 
 the ambassador's name of Mr. Hill ? Resp. Newport, the 
 Dutch ambassador] all satisfaction to the contrary : viz. 
 that the book called "Clamor" was writ by Peter du 
 Moulin.' Well, that was all one; he having writ it, it 
 should go into the world ; one of them was as bad as the 
 other. 
 
 1 See p. xxxi, u. 3. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES xliij 
 
 Qu. Mr. Allam, of Edm. Hall, Oxon, of Mr. J. Milton's 
 Life, writ by himself, vid. pagg. 
 
 His sight began to fail him at first upon his writing 
 against Salmasius, and before 'twas fully completed, one eye 
 absolutely failed. Upon the writing of other books after 
 that, his other eye decayed. 
 
 Write his name in red letters on his picture with his 
 widow to preserve. 
 
 (" He married Eliz. 2d wife, Anno Domini 16 . . . 
 erased") 
 
 [Different rell.J Two opinions do not well on the 
 same bolster. She was a . . . royalist, and went to her 
 mother near Oxford [the K's quarters]. I have so much 
 charity for her that she might not wrong his bed, but 
 ■what man (especially contemplative) would like to have a 
 young wife environed [and stormed] by the sons of Mars, 
 and those of the enemy party. 
 
 He lived in several places, e. g. Holborn near K's gate. 
 He died in Bunhill opposite the Artillery-gardenwall. 
 
 His harmonical and ingenious soul did lodge [dwelt] in 
 a beautiful and well-proportioned body. 
 
 In ioto nusquam corpore mendafuit. 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 He had (an extraordinary, erased^ a very good memory ; 
 but I believe that his excellent method of thinking and 
 disposing did much help his memory. 
 
 I heard that after he was blind, that he was writing, in 
 the heads, a [Latin] dictionary, vidua affirmat. She gave 
 all his papers (among which this dictionary imperfect) to 
 his nephew, that he brought up, a sister's son, . . . 
 Philips, who lives near the Maypole in the Strand. She 
 has a great many letters by her from learned men of his 
 acquaintance, both of England, and beyond sea. 
 
 His eye-sight was decaying about 20 years before his 
 death. Qu. when quite [stark] blind ? His father read 
 without spectacles at 84. His mother had very weak eyes, 
 and used spectacles presently after she was thirty years 
 old. 
 
div BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 Of a very cheerful humor. 
 
 Seldom took any physic, only sometimes he took 
 manna. 
 
 He was very healthy, and free from all diseases, only 
 toward his later end, he was visited with the gout, spring 
 and fall. He would be cheerful even in his gout-fits, and 
 sing. 
 
 He died of (a fever at his house in Jewin Street about 
 the 64th year of his age, erased,) the gout struck in, the 
 9th or 10th of November, 1674, as appears by his apothe- 
 cary's book. 
 
 He lies buried in St. Giles, Cripplegate, [upper end of] 
 chancel at the right hand. Qu. his (stone, grave-stone, 
 erased.) Mdm. his stone is now removed ; for about 2 
 years since (now 1681) the two steps to the communion- 
 table were raised. I guess Jo. Speed and he lie together. 
 
 Qu. His nephew, Mr. Edw. Philips, for a perfect cat- 
 alogue of his writings. Mdm. he wrote a little tract of 
 Education. 
 
 Mdm. Mr. Theodore Haak, E.S.S. hath translated half 
 his Paradise Lost into High Dutch, in such blank verse, 
 which is very well liked of by Germans. Fabricius, pro- 
 fessor at Heidelberg, who sent to Mr. Haak a letter upon 
 this translation. Incredible est quantum nos omnes af- 
 fecerit gravitas styli, et copia lectissimorum verborum, 
 Clu • • • 
 
 III 
 
 A SELECTION FROM FASTI OXONIENSIS 
 
 BY AifTHONT Wood, undee Date of 1635 
 
 This year was incorporated Master of Arts John Milton, 
 not that it appears so in the register, for the reason I have 
 told you in the incorporations, 1629,' but from his own 
 
 1 Under this date Wood adds a note : " This year John French, M. A. 
 and Fellow of Merton College, was elected Scribe or Eepistrary of the 
 University, who being a careless man (though a good scholar) and 
 
BIOGRAPHIES xlv 
 
 mouth to my friend,' who was well acquainted with, and 
 had from him, and from his relations after his death, 
 most of this account of his life and writings following. 
 (1) That he was born in Breadstreet within the City of 
 London, between six and seven o'clock in the morning 
 of the ninth of Deceinb. an. 1608. (2) That his father, 
 John Milton, who was a scrivener living at the Spread 
 Eagle in the said street, was a native of Halton in 
 Oxfordshire, and his mother, named Sarah, was of the 
 ancient family of the Bradshaws. (3) That his grand- 
 father Milton, whose Christian name was John, as 
 he thinks, was an under-ranger or keeper of the 
 forest of Shotover, near to the said town of Halton, 
 but descended from those of his name who have lived be- 
 yond all record at Milton near Halton and Thame in 
 Oxfordshire. "Which grandfather being a zealous papist, 
 did put away, or, as some say, disinherit, his son, because 
 he was a protestant, which made him retire to London, to 
 seek, in a manner, his fortune. (4) That he, the said John 
 Milton, the author, was educated mostly in Paul's School 
 under Alex. Gill, senior, and thence at fifteen years of 
 age was sent to Christ's Coll. in Cambridge, where he 
 •was put under the tuition of Will. Chappell, afterwards 
 Bishop of Ross in Ireland ; and there, as at school for three 
 years before, 'twas usual with him to sit up till midnight 
 at his book, which was the first thing that brought his 
 eyes into the danger of blindness. By this his indefatigable 
 study he profited exceedingly, wrote then several poems, 
 paraphrased some of David's Psalms, performed the col- 
 legiate and academical exercise to the admiration of all, 
 and was esteemed to be a virtuous and sober person, yet 
 not to be ignorant of his own parts. (5) That after he 
 had taken the degrees in Arts, he left the university of 
 his own accord, and was not expelled for misdemeanors, 
 as his adversaries have said. Whereupon, retiring to his 
 
 more fit for another, than thnt, employment, hath omitted throngh- 
 out all his time the incorporations of the Cantabrigians." Then Wood 
 gives the names of those he remembers. 
 
 ' It is uncertain to whom he refers, possibly to Aubrey or to the writer 
 of Biography II; note how he takes material from both these authors. 
 
xlvi BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 father's house in the country, he spent some time in turn- 
 ing over Latin and Greek authors, and now and then 
 tnade excursions into the great city to buy books, to the 
 end that he might be instructed in mathematics and 
 music ; in which last he became excellent, and by the 
 help of his mathematics could compose a song or lesson. 
 (6) That after five years being thus spent, and his mother 
 (who was very charitable to the poor) dead, he did design 
 to travel, so that obtaining the rudiments of the Ital. 
 tongue, and instructions how to demean himself from Sir 
 Htn. Wotton, who delighted in his company, and gave 
 him letters of commendation to certain persons living at 
 Venice, he travelled into Italy, an. 1638. (7) That in his 
 way thither, he touched at Paris, where Joh. Scudamore, 
 Viscount Slego, Ambassador from K. Ch. I. to the French 
 King, received him kindly, and by his means became known 
 to Hugo Grotius, then and there Ambassador from the Qu. 
 of Sweden ; but the manners and genius of that place being 
 not agreeable to his mind, he soon left it. (8) That thence 
 by Geneva and other places of note, he went into Italy, 
 and through Leghorn, Pisa, &c. he went to Florence, 
 where continuing two months, he became acquainted with 
 several learned men, and familiar with the choicest wits 
 of that great city, who introduced and admitted him into 
 their private academies, whereby he saw and learned their 
 fashions of literature. (9) That from thence he went to 
 Siena and Rome, in both which places he spent his time 
 among the most learned there, Lucas Holsteinius being 
 one ; and from thence he journeyed to Naples, where he 
 was introduced into the acquaintance of Joh. Bapt. Mansus, 
 an Italian Marquis (to whom Torquatus Tassus, an Ital- 
 ian poet, wrote his book De Amiciticu) who showed great 
 civilities to him, accompanied him to see the rarities of 
 that place, visited him at his lodgings, and sent to, the 
 testimony of his great esteem for, him, in this distich, 
 
 Ut mens, forma, decor, fades, mos, si pieias sic, 
 JVon Anglus, verum hercule Angelus ipse fores. 
 
 And excused himself at parting for not having been able 
 
BIOGRAPHIES xlvii 
 
 to do him more honor, by reason of his resolute owning 
 his (protestant) religion ; which resoluteness he using at 
 Rome, many there were that dared not to express their 
 civilities towards him, which otherwise they would have 
 done. And I have heard, it confidently related, that for 
 his said resolutions, which out of policy and for his own 
 safety, might have been then spared, the English priests 
 at Rome were highly disgusted, and it was questioned, 
 whether the Jesuits, his countrymen there, did not design 
 to do him mischief. Before he left Naples he returned the 
 Marquis an acknowledgment of his great favors in an 
 elegant copy of verses entitled Mansus, which is among 
 the Latin poems. (10) That from thence (Naples) he 
 thought to have gone into Sicily and Greece, but upon 
 second thoughts he continued in Italy, and went to Lucca, 
 Bononia, Ferrara, andat length to Venice ; where continuing 
 a month, he went and visited Verona and Milan, (ll) 
 That after he had shipped the books and other goods 
 which he had bought in his travels, he returned through 
 Lombardy, and over the Alps to Geneva, where spending 
 some time, he became familiar with the famous Joh. 
 Deodati, CD. Thence, going through France, he returned 
 home, well fraught with knowledge and manners, after he 
 had been absent one year and three months. (12) That 
 soon after he settled in an house in St. Bride's Church- 
 yard near Fleet Street in London, where he instructed in 
 the Lat. tongue two youths named John and Edw. Philips, 
 the sons of his sister Anne by her husband Edward Philips : 
 both which were afterwards writers, and the eldest princi- 
 pled as his uncle. But the times soon after changing, and 
 the rebellion thereupon breaking forth, Milton sided with 
 the faction, and being a man of parts, was therefore more 
 capable than another of doing mischief, especially by his 
 pen, as by those books which I shall anon mention, will 
 appear. (IS) That at first we find him a Presbyterian and a 
 most sharp and violent opposer of prelacy, the established 
 ecclesiastical discipline and the orthodox clergy. (14) 
 That shortly after he did set on foot and maintained very 
 odd and novel positions concerning divorce, and then taking 
 
xlviii BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 part -with the Independents, he became a great anti- 
 monarchist, a bitter enemy to K. Ch. I., and at length 
 arrived to that monstrous and unparalleled height of 
 profligate impudence, as in print to justify the most execrable 
 murder of him the best of kings, as I shall anon tell you. 
 Afterwards, being made Latin secretary to the Parliament, 
 we find him a Commonwealth's man, a hater of all things 
 that looked towards a single person, a great reproacher of 
 the universities, scholastical degrees, decency and uniform- 
 ity in the church. (15) That when Oliver ascended the 
 throne, he became the Latin secretary, and proved to 
 him very serviceable when employed in business of weight 
 and moment, and did great matters to obtain a name and 
 wealth. To conclude, he was a person of wonderful parts, 
 of a very sharp, biting, and satirical wit. He was a good 
 philosopher and historian, an excellent poet, Latinist, 
 Grecian and Hebritian, a good mathematician and musi- 
 cian, and so rarely endowed by nature, that had he been 
 but honestly principled, he might have been highly useful 
 to that party, against which he all along appeared with 
 much malice and bitterness. As for the things which he 
 hath published, are these : (1) Of Reformation, touching 
 Church Discipline in England, and the causes that 
 hitherto have hindered it, &c. Lond. 1641. qu. At which 
 time, as before, the nation was much divided upon the 
 controversies about church government between the prelat- 
 ical party, and Puritans, and therefore Milton did with 
 great boldness and zeal offer his judgment as to those mat- 
 ters in his said book of Eeformation. (2) Animadversions 
 upon the Remonstrant's defence against Smectymnuus. 
 Lond. 1641. qu. Which Rem. Defence was written (as 'tis 
 said) by Dr. Jos. Hall,i Bishop of Exeter. (3) Apology 
 against the humhle Remonstrant. This was written in 
 yinA.ia&i\onoi\\\& Animadversions. (4) Against Prelatical 
 Episcopacy. This I have not yet seen. (5) The Reason 
 of Chtorch Government ; noi this. (6) The Doctrine and 
 Discipline of Divorce, &c. in two books. Lond. 1644—45, 
 qu. To which is added in some copies a translation of 
 1 See note, p. 35, n. 3. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES xlix 
 
 The Judgment of Mart. Bucer concerning Divorce, &c. 
 It must be now known, that after his settlement, upon 
 his return from his travels, he in a month's time courted, 
 married, and brought home to his house in London, a 
 ■wife from Forsthill, lying between Halton and Oxford, 
 named Mary, the daughter of Mr. . . . Powell of that 
 place, Gent. But she, who was very young, and had been bred 
 in a family of plenty and freedom, being not well pleased 
 with her husband's retired manner of life, did shortly 
 after leave him and went back in the country with her 
 mother. Whereupon, though he sent divers pressing invi- 
 tations, yet he could not prevail with her to come back 
 till about 4 years after, when the garrison of Oxen was 
 surrendered (the nighness of her father's house to which 
 having for the most part of the meantime hindered any 
 communication between them), she of her own accord 
 returned and submitted to him, pleading that her mother 
 had been the chief promoter of her frowardness. But he, 
 being not able to bear this abuse, did therefore upon con- 
 sideration, after he had consulted many eminent authors, 
 write the said book of divorce, with intentions to be 
 separated from her, but by the compromising of her rela- 
 tions the matter did not take eifect : so that she continu- 
 ing with him ever after till her death, he had several 
 children by her, of whom Deborah was the third daughter, 
 trained up by the father in Lat. and Greek, and made 
 by him his amanuensis. (7) Tetrachordon : Expositions 
 upon the four chief places in Scripture which treat on 
 marriage, On Gen. i. 27, 28, &c. Lond. 1646. qu. (8) 
 Colasterion : A reply to a nameless answer against the 
 doctrine and discipline of divorce, &c. printed 1645. qu. 
 Upon his publication of the said three books of marriage 
 and divorce, the assembly of divines then sitting at 
 Westminster took special notice of them, and thereupon, 
 though the. author had obliged them by his pen in his 
 defence of Smectymnuus and other their controversies had 
 with the bishops, they, impatient of having the clergy's 
 jurisdiction (as they reckoned it) invaded, did, instead of 
 answering, or disproving what those books had asserted, 
 
1 BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 cause him to be summoned before the House of Lords ; 
 but that House, whether approving the doctrine, or not 
 favoring his accusers, did soon dismiss him. 
 
 To these things I must add, that after his Majesty's 
 restoration, when the subject of divorce was under consid- 
 eration with the Lords upon the account of John, Lord 
 Eos, or Koos, his separation from his wife, Anne Pierpont, 
 eldest daughter to Henry, Marquis of Dorchester, he was 
 consulted by an eminent member of that house, as he was 
 about that time by a chief officer of state, as being the 
 prime person that was knowing in that affair. (9) Of 
 Education, written or addressed to Mr. Sam. Hartlib. 
 In this treatise he prescribed an easy and delightful 
 method for the training up of gentry to all sorts of lit- 
 erature, that they might at the same time by like degrees 
 advance in virtue and abilities to serve their country, 
 subjoining directions for their obtaining other necessary 
 or ornamental accomplishments. And to this end that he 
 might put it in practice, he took a larger house, where the 
 Earl of Barrimore sent by his aunt, the Lady Ranalagh, 
 Sir Thomas Gardner of Essex, to be there with others 
 (besides his two nephews) under his tuition. But whether 
 it were that the tempers of our gentry would not bear the 
 strictness of his discipline, or for what other reasons I 
 cannot tell, he continued that course but a while. (10) 
 Areopagitica : A speech for the liberty of unlicensed 
 printing, to the Parliament of England. Lond. 1644. 
 qu. ; written to vindicate the freedom of the press from 
 the tyranny of licensers, who for several reasons deprive 
 the public of the benefit of many useful authors. ( 11 ) 
 Poemata: quorumpleraque intra annum cetatis vigesimiim, 
 cons'oripsit author, &c. Lond. 1645. oct. (12) A Mask . — 
 printed 1645. oct. (13) Poems, &c. — printed the same 
 year. Hitherto we find him only to have published 
 political things, but when he saw, upon the coming of K. 
 Charles I. to his trial, the Presbyterian ministers clamor- 
 ously to assert in their sermons and writings the privileges 
 of kings from all accountableness, or (to speak in the 
 language of that time) non-resistance and passive obedience 
 
BIOGRAPHIES li 
 
 to be the doctrine of all the reformed churches (which he 
 took to he only their malignity against the Independents 
 who had supplanted them more than for any principles 
 of loyalty) he therefore to oppose that thesis (which as 
 he conceived did encourage all manner of tyranny) did 
 write and publish from divers arguments and authorities. 
 (13) The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates : proving 
 that it is lawful, &c. to call to account a Tyrant or King, 
 and after due conviction to depose and put him to 
 death, &c. Lond. 1649-50. qu. Soon after the king 
 being beheaded to the great astonishment of all the world, 
 and the government thereupon changed, he was, without 
 any seeking of his, by the endeavors of a private acquain- 
 tance who was a member of the new Council of State, 
 chosen Latin secretary, as I have before told you. In 
 this public station his abilities and acuteness of parts, 
 which had been in a manner kept private, were soon taken 
 notice of, and he was pitched upon to elude the artifice 
 (so it was then by the faction called) of Eikon Basilice. 
 Whereupon he soon after published (14) Iconoclastes : in 
 Answer to a book entitled Eikon Basilice, the Portraiture 
 of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings. 
 Lond. 1649-50. qu. ib. 1690, oct. ; which being published 
 to the horror of all sober men, nay even to the Presbyterians 
 themselves, yet by the then dominant party it was es- 
 teemed an excellent piece, and performed answerably to 
 the expectation of his wit and pen. After the return of 
 King Charles II, this book was called in by proclamation, 
 dated 13 Aug. 1660, at which time the author (who a 
 little before had left his house in Petty France, which 
 had a door going into St. James's Park) absconded, for 
 fear of being brought to a legal trial, and so consequently 
 of receiving condign punishment. At the same time also, 
 was called in a book of John Goodwin, then lately a 
 minister in Coleman Street in Lond. entitled The Obstruct- 
 ors of Justice, written in defence of the sentence against 
 his Majesty Charles I. At which time also the said 
 Goodwin absconded to prevent justice. Soon after the 
 publication of Iconoclastes, Salniasius, a professor in 
 
Hi BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 Holland, who had in a large treatise not long before, 
 maintained, as 't is said, the parity of Church Governors 
 against Episcopacy, did publish Defensio Regia, pro 
 Carolo I. Rege Anglice, wherein he justified several 
 matters, as Milton conceived, to the contradiction of his 
 former book. Whereupon he wrote and published (15) 
 Pro Populo Anglicano defensio contra Claudii Anonymi 
 alias Salmasii defensionem regiam. Lond. 1661. fol. ; 
 said to be written in more correct Latin than that of 
 Salmasius. While Milton was writing the said book, his 
 sight began to fail him, and before it was fully completed, 
 one of his eyes did absolutely perish. In the month of 
 June the same year (1661) the said book was burnt at 
 Toulouse by an arrest from the Parliament, under the 
 government of the Duke of Orleans. And in Sept. follow- 
 ing it was the usual practice of Marchm. Needham i a 
 great crony of Milton, to abuse Salmasius in his public 
 Mercury called Politicus, (as Milton had done before in 
 his Defensio) by saying among other things that Christina, 
 Qu. of Sweden had cashiered him her favor, by under- 
 standing that he was a pernicious parasite, and a promoter 
 of tyranny. After his Majesty's restoration, this book also 
 was called in by the same proclamation before mentioned. 
 But so it was, that in 1652, a certain book entitled Regii 
 sanguinis clamor, &c. being published, Salmasius was 
 highly extolled in it, and Milton had his just character 
 given therein. The nameless author of which being for a 
 considerable time sought out, but in vain, by Milton, he 
 at length learned by certain ministers of state sent to 
 the Republic of England, (who would sometimes visit 
 him as a learned man) that it was written by one 
 Alex. More, formerly a professor and minister at Geneva, 
 then living in Holland. Whereupon he published (16) 
 Pro populo Anglicano, defensio secunda, contra infame.m 
 libellnni Anonymum, cui titulus, Regii sanguinis clamor 
 ad caelum adversvs patricidas Anglicanos. Lond. 1664, 
 and at Hag. Com. the same year, in oct. Upon the writing 
 of this book, the author, Milton, lost the other eye ; and 
 » See p. 90, u. 1. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES liii 
 
 though to his charge he used many means, yet he could 
 never recover either of his eyes. This book entitled Begii 
 sanguinis clamor &c. though written by Dr. Peter du 
 Moulin,! Prebendary of Canterbury, as it afterwards well 
 appeared, yet Milton upon the reports before mentioned, 
 could not be convinced to the contrary, but that it was 
 written by the said More, and therefore not only abused 
 him in his answers, but by his friend Needham in his 
 Politicus, whereby the reputation of that learned person 
 ■was severely touched. (17) Pro se defensio contra Alex. 
 Mornum Ecclesiaste libelli famosi, cui titulus, Regii 
 sanguinis clamor, &c. Lond. 1655, oct. In this book he 
 is exceeding bitter against Morus, and pretends to give a 
 true history of his notorious impurities both at Geneva 
 and Leyden, and an account of his own particular life to 
 vindicate himself from what, as he thought, was scurrilously 
 said of him by Morus. At the end of the said book, the 
 author, Milton, added Ad Alex. Mori supplementum re- 
 sponsio. About the time that he had finished these things, he 
 had more leisure and time at command, and being dispensed 
 with by having a substitute allowed him, and sometimes 
 instructions sent home to him from attending his office of 
 secretary, he began that laborious work of amassing out of 
 all the classic authors both in prose and verse a Latin 
 Thesaurus, to the emendation of that done by Stephanus,^ 
 also the composing of Paradise Lost, and of the framing 
 of a Body of Divinity out of the Bible. All which, not- 
 withstanding the several troubles that befell him in his 
 fortunes, he finished after his Majesty's restoration. But 
 to go on with the catalogue of his books according to time, 
 take these as they follow, (18) Treatise of civil power 
 in ecclesiastical causes, &c. Lond. 1659. in tw. (19) 
 Considerations touching the likeliest Tneans to remove 
 Hirelings out of the Church, Lond. 1659. in tw. (20) 
 Ready and easy way to establish a free Commonwealth, 
 and the excellencies thereof com/pared with, &c. Lond. 
 
 1 See p. xxxi, n. 3. 
 
 3 Stcphanus : Rnhert Estipnne 1503-59, the c»lebrated French scholar 
 who compiled a Latin-French dictioriarj-, the Thesaurus lingwB Latirm. 
 
liv BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 1659, in two sheets and an half in qu. This being pub- 
 lished in Feb. the same year, was answered by G. S. in 
 his Dignity of Kingship. (21) Brief notes upon a late 
 sermon titled, The fear of God and the King, &c. Lond. 
 
 1660. qu. See more in Matthew Griffith Among the 
 Writers, an. 1665. (22) Accedence commenced Grammar, 
 &o. pr. 1661. in oct. • (23) Paradise Lost : a Poem in 
 10 books, Lond. 1669. qu. ; pr. in fol. with cuts, an. 1688. 
 (24) Paradise Regained: a Poem in four books, Lond. 
 1670, qu. ; pr. in fol. with cuts, an. 1688. (25) History of 
 Britany from the first traditional beginning, continued 
 to the Norman Conquest. Lond. 1670, qu. This history 
 when it first came abroad, had only the reputation of the 
 putting of our old authors neatly together in a connected 
 story, not abstaining from some lashes at the ignorance, 
 or I know not what, of those times. (26) Artis logicce 
 plenior institutio ad Petri Itami methodum concinnata. 
 Lond. 1672. in tw. (27) Of True Religion, Heresy, 
 Schism, Toleration, and what Lest m,eans may he used 
 against the growth and increase of Pojiery. Lond. 1673, 
 qu. (28) Poems, &c. on several occasions, loth Eng- 
 lish and Latin, &c. composed at several times. Lond. 
 1673—4. Oct. Among these are mixed some of his poems 
 before mentioned, made in his youthful years. (29) 
 Epistolarum, fam.iliarium lib. i. Lond. 1674. oct. (30) 
 Prolusiones quoedam Oratorios in Coll. Christi habit(B, 
 printed with the familiar Epistles. (31) Literoe Pseudo- 
 senatus Anglicani, Cromwellii, reliquorum perdiiellium, 
 nomine ac jussu conscripte, printed in 1676, in tw. (32) 
 Character of the Long Parliament and of the Assem- 
 bly of Divines. Lond. 1681, in 2 sheets in qu. 
 In which book is a notable account of their ignorance, 
 treachery, and hypocrisy. (33) Brief History of Muscovia 
 and of other less known countries, lying eastward of 
 Russia as far as Cathay, &c. Lond. 1682, oct. (34) 
 The Right of the People over Tyrants, printed lately 
 in qu. These, I think, are all the things that he hath yet 
 extant : those that are not, are The Body of Divinity, 
 which my friend calls Idea- Theologies, now, or at leas^ 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Iv 
 
 lately, in the hands of the author's acquaintance called 
 Cyr. Skinner, living in Mark Lane, London, and the 
 Latin Tliesawrus in those of Edw. Philips, his nephew. 
 At length this great scholar and frequent writer dying in 
 his house at Bunhill, near London, in a fit of the gout, but 
 with so little pain, that the time of his expiring was not 
 perceived by those in the room, on the ninth or tenth day 
 of Novemb. 1674, was buried in the grave of his father 
 (who died very aged about 1647), in the chancel of the 
 Church of St. Giles near Cripplegate, London. See more 
 of him in Sir Walter Raleigh Among the Writers, number 
 458. He was of a moderate stature, and well proportioned, 
 of a ruddy complexion, light brown hair, and had hand- 
 some features, yet his eyes were none of the quickest. 
 When he was a student in Cambridge he was so fair and 
 clear, that many called him the Lady of Christ's College. 
 His deportment was affable, and his gait erect and manly, 
 bespeaking courage and undauntedness. On which account 
 he wore a sword while he had his sight, and was skilled 
 in using it. He had a delicate, tuneable voice, an excellent 
 ear, could play on the organ, and bear a part in vocal and 
 instrumental music. The estate which his father left him 
 was but indifferent, yet by his frugality he made it serve 
 him and his. Out of his secretary's salary he saved 2000 S, 
 which being lodged in the excise, and that bank failing 
 upon his Majesty's restoration, he utterly lost that sum. 
 By the great fire which happened in London in the begin- 
 ning of Sept. 1666, he had a house in Bread Street burned, 
 which was all the real estate that he had then left. To 
 conclude, he was more admired abroad and by foreigner.^, 
 than at home ; and was much visited by them when he 
 lived in Petty France, some of whom have out of pure 
 devotion gone to Bread Street to see the house and cham- 
 ber where he was born, &c. 
 
Ivi BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 IV 
 
 THE LIFE OF MILTON 
 By Edward Philips 
 
 Of all the several parts of history, that which sets forth 
 the lives, and commemorates the most remarkahle actions, 
 sayings, or writings of famous and illustrious persons, 
 whether in war or peace, whether many together, or any 
 one in particular, as it is not the least useful in itself, so 
 it is in highest vogue and esteem among the studious and 
 reading part of mankind. 
 
 The most eminent in this way of history were, among 
 the ancients, Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius ; of the Greeks, 
 the first wrote the lives, for the most part, of the most re- 
 nowned heroes and warriors of the Greeks and Romans ; 
 the other, the lives of the ancient Greek Philosophers. And 
 Cornelius Nepos (or as some will have it ^milius Probus) 
 of the Latins, who wrote the lives of the most illustrious 
 Greek and Roman generals. 
 
 Among the moderns, Machiavelli, a noble Florentine, who 
 elegantly wrote the life of Castruccio Castracani, Lord of 
 Lucca. And of our nation. Sir Fulke Greville, who wrote 
 the life of his most intimate friend. Sir Philip Sidney ; Mr. 
 Thomas Stanley of Cumberlo-Green, who made a most elabo- 
 rate improvement to the aforesaid Laertius, by adding to 
 what he found in him, what by diligent search and enquiry 
 he collected from other authors of best authority ; [and] 
 Isaac Walton, who wrote the lives of Sir Henry Wotton, Dr. 
 Donne, and for his divine poems, the admired Mr. George 
 Herbert. Lastly, not to mention several other biographers 
 of considerable note, the great Gassendus of France, the 
 worthy celebrator of two no less worthy subjects of his 
 impartial pen ; viz. the noble philosopher Epicurus, and 
 the most politely learned virtuoso of his age, his country- 
 man. Monsieur Peiresk. 
 
 And pity it is the person whose memory we have here 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ivii 
 
 undertaken to perpetuate by recounting the most memor- 
 able transactions of his life (though his works sufficiently 
 recommend him to the world), finds not a well-informed 
 pen able to set him forth, equal with the best of those 
 here mentioned; for doubtless, had his fame been as much 
 spread through Europe in Thuanus's ' time, as now it is, 
 and hath been for several years, he had justly merited from 
 that great historian, an eulogy not inferior to the highest 
 by him given to all the learned and ingenious that lived 
 within the compass of his history. For we may safely and 
 justly affirm, that take him in all respects, for acumen of 
 wit, quickness of apprehension, sagacity of judgment, depth 
 of argument, and elegancy of style, as well in Latin as 
 English, as well in verse as prose, he is scarce to be par- 
 alleled by any the best of writers our nation hath in any age 
 brought forth. 
 
 He was born in London, in a house in Breadstreet, the 
 lease whereof, as I take it, but for certain it was a house 
 in Breadstreet, became in time part of his estate, in the 
 year of our Lord 1606. His father John Milton, an honest, 
 worthy, and substantial citizen of London, by profession a 
 scrivener ; to which he voluntarily betook himself, by the 
 advice and assistance of an intimate friend of his, eminent 
 in that calling, upon his being cast out by his father, a 
 bigoted Roman Catholic, for embracing, when young, the 
 protestant faith, and abjuring the popish tenets. For he 
 is said to have been descended of an ancient family of the 
 Miltons, of Milton near Abingdon in Oxfordshire ; where 
 they had been a long time seated, as appears by the monu- 
 ments still to be seen in Milton church ; till one of the 
 family having taken the wrong side, in the contest be- 
 tween the Houses of York and Lancaster, was sequestered 
 of all his estate, but what he held by his wife. However, 
 certain it is, that this vocation he followed for many years, 
 at his said house in Breadstreet, with success suitable to 
 his industry and prudent conduct of his affairs. Yet he did 
 not so far quit his own generous and ingenious inclinations, 
 
 1 .lacques Au^nste de Thou, 1553-1617, a French historian, the writer 
 of HisiCficB sui tent'poris. 
 
Iviii BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 as to make himself wholly a slave to the -world ; for he 
 sometimes found vacant hours to the study (which he made 
 his recreation) of the nohle science of music, in which he 
 advanced to that perfection, that as I have heen told, and 
 as I take it hy our author himself, he composed an In Nom- 
 ine of forty parts ; for which he was rewarded with a gold 
 medal and chain hy a Polish prince, to whom he presented 
 it. However, this is a truth not to be denied, that for 
 several songs of his composition, after the way of these 
 times, (three or four of which are still to be seen in Old 
 Wilhy's set of Airs, besides some compositions of his in 
 Ravenscroft's Psalms), he gained the reputation of a con- 
 siderable master in this most charming of all the liberal 
 sciences. Yet all this while, he managed his grand affair of 
 this world with such prudence and diligence, that by the 
 assistance of divine Providence favoring his honest endeav- 
 ors, he gained a competent estate, whereby he was enabled 
 to make a handsome provision both for the education and 
 maintenance of his children ; for three he had, and no 
 more, all by one wife, Sarah, of the family of the Castons, 
 derived originally from Wales, a woman of incomparable 
 virtue and goodness : John the eldest, the subject of our 
 present work ; Christopher ; and an only daughter Ann. 
 
 Christopher being principally designed for the study of 
 the common law of England, was entered young a student 
 of the Inner Temple, of which house he lived to be an an- 
 cient bencher, and keeping close to that study and profession 
 all his life time, except in the time of the civil wars of 
 England ; when being a great favorer and asserter of the 
 King's cause, and obnoxious to the Parliament's side, by 
 acting to his utmost power against them, so long as he 
 kept his station at Reading ; and after that town was taken 
 by the Parliament forces, being forced to quit his house 
 there, he steered his course according to the motion of 
 the King's army. But when the war was ended with victory 
 and success to the Parliament party, by the valor of Gen- 
 eral Fairfax, and the craft and conduct of Cromwell, and 
 his composition made by the help of his brother's interest 
 with the then prevailing power, he betook himself again 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Hx 
 
 to his former study and profession, following chamber- 
 practice every term ; yet came to no advancement in the 
 world in a long time, except some small employ in the 
 town of Ispwicb, where (and near it) he lived all the lat- 
 ter time of his life ; for he was a person of a modest, quiet 
 temper, preferring justice and virtue before all worldly 
 pleasure or grandeur. But in the beginning of the reign of 
 King James the II., for his known integrity and ability 
 in the law, he was by some persons of quality recommended 
 to the King, and at a call of sergeants received the coif,"- 
 and the same day was sworn one of the barons of the Ex- 
 chequer, and soon after made one of the judges of the 
 Common Pleas. But his years and indisposition not well 
 brooking the fatigue of public employment, he continued 
 not long in either of these stations ; but having his quietus 
 est, retired to a country life, his study and devotion. 
 
 Ann, the only daughter of the said John Milton, the 
 elder, had a considerable dowry given her by her father 
 in marriage with Edvi^ard Philips, (the son of Edward 
 Philips of Shrewsbury,) who, coming >ip young to town, 
 was bred up in the crown-office in Chancery, and at length 
 came to be secondary of the office under old Mr. Bembo. 
 By him she had, besides other children that died infants, 
 two sons yet surviving, of whom more hereafter ; and by 
 a second husband, Mr. Thomas Agar (who, upon the death 
 of his intimate friend Mr. Philips, worthily succeeded in 
 the place, which, except some time of exclusion before and 
 during the Interregnum, he held for many years, and left 
 it to Mr. Thomas Milton, the son of the aforementioned 
 Sir Christopher, who at this day executes it with great re- 
 putation and ability), two daughters, Mary who died very 
 young, and Ann yet surviving. 
 
 But to hasten back to our matter in hand. John, our 
 author, who was destined to be the ornament and glory 
 of his cduntry, was sent, together with his brother, to 
 Paul's school, whereof Dr. Gill the elder was then chief 
 master ; where he was entered into the first rudiments of 
 learning, and advanced therein with that admirable suc- 
 
 1 Coif: askull-cap, then commonly worn by the sergeants at law. 
 
k BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 cess, not more by the discipline of the school and good 
 instructions of his masters (for that he had another mas- 
 ter, possibly at his father's house, appears by the Fourth 
 Elegy of his Latin poems written in his 18th year, to 
 Thomas Young, pastor of the English Company of Mer- 
 chants at Hamburg, wherein he owns and styles him his 
 master), than by his own happy genius, prompt wit and 
 apprehension, and insuperable industry : for he generally 
 sat up half the night, as well in voluntary improvements 
 of his own choice, as the exact perfecting of his school 
 exercises. 
 
 So that at the age of 16 he was full ripe for academic 
 learning, and accordingly was sent to the University of 
 Cambridge ; where in Christ's College under the tuition 
 of a very eminent learned man, whose name I cannot call 
 to mind, he studied seven years, and took his degree of 
 Master of Arts ; and for the extraordinary wit and reading 
 he had shown in his performances to attain his degree 
 (some whereof, spoken at a Vacation Exercise in his 19th 
 year of age, are to be yet seen in his Miscellaneous 
 Poems), he was loved and admired by the whole univer- 
 sity, particularly by the fellows and most ingenious per- 
 sons of his house. Among the rest there was a young 
 gentleman, one Mr. King, with whom, for his great learn- 
 ing and parts, he had contracted a particular friendship 
 and intimacy ; whose death (for he was drowned on the 
 Irish seas in his passage from Chester to Ireland) he be- 
 wails in that most excellent monody in his forementinned 
 poems, intituled Lycidas. Never was the loss of friend so 
 elegantly lamented ; and among the rest of his Juvenile 
 Poevis, some he wrote at the age of 16, which contain a 
 poetical genius scarce to be paralleled by any English 
 writer. 
 
 Soon after he had taken his Master's degree, he thought 
 fit to leave the university: not upon any disgust or dis- 
 content for want of preferment, as some ill-willers have 
 reported ; nor upon any cause whatsoever forced to fly, 
 as his detractors maliciously feign ; but from which asper- 
 sjon he sufficiently clears himself in his Second Answer to 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ixi 
 
 Alexander Morus, the author of a book called, Clamor 
 Regii Sanguinis ad Caelum,^ the chief of his calumnia- 
 tors ; in which he plainly makes it out, that after hi? leav- 
 ing the university, to the no small trouble of his fellow- 
 collegiates, who in general regretted his absence, he for 
 the space of five years lived for the most part with his 
 father and -mother at their house at Horton near Cole- 
 brook in Berkshire ; whither his father, having got an es- 
 tate to his content, and left off all business, was retired 
 from the cares and fatigues of the world. 
 
 After the said term of five years, his mother then dy- 
 ing, he was willing to add to his acquired learning the 
 observation of foreign customs, manners, and institutions; 
 and thereupon took a resolution to travel, more especially 
 designing for Italy; and accordingly, with his father's 
 consent and assistance, he put himself into an equipage 
 suitable to such a design ; and so, intending to go by the 
 way of France, he set out for Paris, accompanied only 
 with one man, who attended him through all his travels; 
 for his prudence was his guide, and his learning his in- 
 troduction and presentation to persons of most eminent 
 quality. However, he had also a most civil and obliging 
 letter of direction and advice from Sir Henry Wotton, 
 then Provost of Eton, and formerly resident Ambassador 
 from King James the First to the state of Venice ; which 
 letter is to be seen in the first edition of his Miscellan- 
 eous Poems. 
 
 At Paris, being recommended by the said Sir Henry 
 and other persons of quality, he went first to wait upon 
 my Lord Scudamore, then Ambassador in France from 
 King Charles the First. My Lord received him with won- 
 derful civility; and understanding he had a desire to 
 make a visit to the great Hugo Grotius, he sent several of 
 his attendants to wait upon him, and to present him in 
 his name to that renowned doctor and statesman, who was 
 
 1 See p. xxxii. To defend himself affainst the attack of Milton, More 
 published in 1654 Fides Puhlica, and a supplement to this in 1655. Milton 
 answered these pamphlets by writinfj the Pro Se Defensio in 1665^ 
 which is the Second Answer referred to here. 
 
Ixii BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 at that time Ambassador from Christina, Queen of Sweden, 
 to the French king. Grotius took the visit kindly, and 
 gave him entertainment suitable to his Tvorth, and the 
 high commendations he had heard of him. After a few 
 days, not intending to make the usual tour of France, he 
 took his leave of my Lord, who at his departure from 
 Paris, gave him letters to the English merchants residing 
 in any part through which he was to travel, in which 
 they were requested to show him all the kindness, and do 
 him all the good offices that lay in their power. 
 
 From Paris he hastened on his journey to Nice, where 
 he took shipping, and in a short space arrived at Genoa ; 
 from whence he went to Leghorn, thence to Pisa, and so 
 to Florence. In this city he met with many charming 
 objects, which invited him to stay a longer time than he 
 intended ; the pleasant situation of the place, the noble- 
 ness of the structures, the exact humanity and civility of 
 the inhabitants, the more polite and refined sort of lan- 
 guage there, than elsewhere. During the time of his stay 
 here, which was about two months, he visited all the pri- 
 vate academies of the city, which are places established 
 for the improvement of wit and learning, and maintained 
 a correspondence and perpetual friendship among gentle- 
 men fitly qualified for such an institution ; and such sort 
 of academies there are in all or most of the noted cities in 
 Italy. Visiting these places, he was soon taken notice of 
 by the most learned and ingenious of the nobility, and 
 the grand wits of Florence, who caressed him with all 
 the honors and civilities imaginable ; particularly Jacobo 
 Gaddi, Carolo Dati, Antonio Francini, Frescobaldo, Cultel- 
 lino, Bonmatthei and Clementillo : whereof Gaddi hath a 
 large, elegant Italian canzonet in his praise, [and] Dati, a 
 Latin epistle, both printed before his Latin poems, to- 
 gether with a Latin distich of the Marquis of Villa, and 
 another of Selvaggi, and a Latin tetrastich of Giovanni 
 Salsilli, a Roman. 
 
 From Florence he took his journey to Siena, from 
 thence to Rome; where he was detained much about the 
 same time he had been at Florence ; as well by his desire 
 
BIOGRAPHIES kiu 
 
 of seeing all the rarities and antiqiiities of that most 
 glorious and renowned city, as by the conversation of 
 Lucas Holstenius, and other learned and ingenious men, 
 who highly valued his acquaintance, and treated him with 
 all possible respect. 
 
 From Rome he travelled to Naples, where he was intro- 
 duced by a certain hermit, who accompanied him in his 
 journey from Rome thither, into the knowledge of Gio- 
 vanni Baptista Manso, Marquis of Villa, a Neapolitan by 
 birth, a person of high nobility, virtue, and honor, to 
 whom the famous Italian poet, Torquato Tasso, wrote his 
 treatise De Amicitia ; and moreover mentions him with 
 great honor in that illustrious poem of him, entitled, Gie- 
 rusalemme Liberata. This noble marquis received him 
 with extraordinary respect and civility, and went with 
 him himself to give him a sight of all that was of note 
 and remark in the city, particularly the viceroy's palace, 
 and was often in person to visit him at his lodging. More- 
 over, this noble marquis honored him so far, as to make a 
 Latin distich in his praise, as hath been already mentioned ; 
 which being no less pithy then short, though already in 
 print, it will not be unworth the while here to repeat. 
 
 " Ut mens, forma, decor, fades, [mos,'} si pietas sic 
 Non Anglus, verum hercle Angelus ipseforet." 
 
 In return of this honor, and in gratitude for the many 
 favors and civilities received of him, he presented him at 
 his departure with a large Latin eclogue, intitled Mansus, 
 afterwards published among his Latin Poems. The mar- 
 quis at his taking leave of him, gave him this compli- 
 ment: that he would have done him many more offices 
 of kindness and civility, but was therefore rendered in- 
 capable, in regard he had been over-liberal in his speech 
 against the religion of the country. 
 
 He had entertained some thoughts of passing over into 
 Sicily and Greece, but was diverted by the news he re- 
 ceived from England, that affairs there were tending 
 toward a civil war ; thinking it a thing unworthy in him 
 to be taking his pleasure in foreign parts, while his country- 
 
Ixiv BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 men at home were fighting for their liberty : but first re' 
 solved to see Rome once more ; and though the merchants 
 gave him a caution that the Jesuits were hatching designs 
 against him in case he should return thither, by reason of 
 the freedom he took in all his discourses of religion ; never- 
 theless he ventured to prosecute his resolution, and to 
 Rome the second time he went ; determining with him- 
 self not industriously to begin to fall into any discourse 
 about religion, but, being asked, not to deny or endeavor 
 to conceal his own sentiments. 
 
 Two months he stayed at Rome ; and in all that time 
 never flinched, but was ready to defend the orthodox faith 
 against all opposers; and so well he succeeded therein, 
 that, good Providence guarding him, he went safe from 
 Rome back to Florence, where his return to his friends of 
 that city was welcomed with as much joy and afi"ection, as, 
 had it been to his friends and relations in his own coun- 
 try, he could not have come a more joyful and welcome 
 guest. 
 
 Here, having stayed as long as at his first coming, ex- 
 cepting an excursion of a few days to Lucca, crossing the 
 Apennine, and passing through Bononia and Perrara, he 
 arrived at Venice ; where when he had spent a month's 
 time in viewing of that stately city, and shipped up a 
 parcel of curious and rare books which he had picked up 
 in his travels (particularly a chest or two of choice music- 
 books of the best masters flourishing about that time in 
 Italy, namely, Luca Marenzo, Monte Verde, Horatio 
 Vecchi, Cifa, the Prince of Venosa, and several others), he 
 took his course through Verona, Milan, and the Poeuine 
 Alps, and so by the lake Leman to Geneva; where he 
 stayed for some time, and had daily converse with the 
 most learned Giovanni Deodati, theology professor in that 
 city ; and so returning through France, by the same way 
 he had passed it going to Italy, he, after a peregrination 
 of one complete year and about three months, arrived safe 
 in England, about the time of the King's making his 
 second expedition against the Scots. 
 
 Soon after bis return, and visits paid to his father and 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ixv 
 
 other friends, he took him a lodging in St. Bride's Church- 
 yard, at the house of one Russel, a tailor, where he first 
 undertook the education and instruction of his sister's two 
 sons, the younger whereof had been wholly committed to 
 his charge and care. 
 
 And here by the way, I judge it not impertinent to 
 mention the many authors both of the Latin and Greek, 
 which through his excellent judgment and way of teaching, 
 far above the pedantry of common public schools (where 
 such authors are scarce ever heard of), were run over 
 within no greater compass of time, than from ten to fif- 
 teen or sixteen years of age. Of the Latin, the four grand 
 authors Z)e Re Rustica, Cato, Varro, Columella and Pal- 
 ladius ; Cornelius Celsus, an ancient physician of the 
 Romans ; a great part of Pliny's Natural History ; Vitru- 
 vius his Architecture ; Froiitinus his Stratagems ; with 
 the two egregious poets, Lucretius and Manilius. Of the 
 Greek, Hesiod, a poet equal with Homer ; Aratus his 
 Phaenomena, and Diosemeia ; Dionysius Afer De Situ 
 Orhis ; Oppian's Cynegetics and Halieutics ; Quintus 
 Calaber his Poem of the Trojan War continued from 
 Homer ; Apollonius Rhodius his Argonautins : and in 
 prose, Plutarcli's Placita Philosophorum, and Ilepi 
 IlatSwv 'Ayoyiai [sio'] ; Geminus's Astronom.y ; Xeno- 
 phon's Cyri Institutio, and Anabasis ; Elian's Tactics ; 
 and Polysenus his Warlike Stratagems.^ Thus by teaching, 
 he in some measure increased his own knowledge, having 
 the reading of all these authors as it were by proxy ; and 
 all this might possibly have conduced to the preserving 
 of his eyesight, had he not moreover been perpetually 
 busied in his own laborious undertakings of the bopk and 
 pen. 
 
 ;N"or did the time thus studiously employed in conquer- 
 ing the Greek and Latin tongues, hinder the attaining to 
 the chief oriental languages, viz., the Hebrew, Chaldee, 
 and Syriac, so far as to go through the Pentateuch, or Five 
 Books of Moses in Hebrew, to make a good entrance into 
 the Targum, or Chaldee Paraphrase, and to understand 
 
 1 Compare this last with those on pp. xli and 12, 14, 15, 17. 
 
Ixvi BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 several chapters of St. Matthew in the Syriac Testament : 
 besides an introduction into several arts and sciences, by 
 reading Urstisius his Arithmetic, Biff's Geometry, Pe- 
 tiscus his Trigonometry, Joannes de Sacro Bosco De 
 Sphoera; and into the Italian and French tongues, by 
 reading in Italian Giovan Villani's History of the Trans- 
 actions between several petty States of Italy ; and in 
 French a great part of Pierre Davity, the famous geographer 
 of France in his time. 
 
 The Sunday's work was, for the most part, the reading 
 each day a chapter of the Greek Testament, and hearing 
 his learned exposition upon the same (and how this savored 
 of atheism in him, I leave to the courteous backbiter to 
 judge). The next work after this, was the writing from his 
 own dictation, some part, from time to time, of a tractate 
 which he thought fit to collect from the ablest of divines who 
 had written of that subject : Aniesius, Wollebius, &c., vi&. 
 A Perfect System of Divinity, of which more hereafter. 
 
 Now persons so far manuducted into the highest paths 
 of literature both divine and human, had they received his 
 documents with the same acuteness of wit and apprehen- 
 sion, the same industry, alacrity, and thirst after know- 
 ledge, as the instructor was indued with, what prodigies 
 of wit and learning might they have proved ! The scholars 
 might in some degree have come near to the equalling of the 
 master, or at least have in some sort made good what he 
 seems to predict in the close of an elegy he made in the 
 seventeenth year of his age, upon the death of one of his 
 sister's children (a daughter), wlio died in her infancy : 
 
 " Then thou, the mother of so sweet a child. 
 Her false, imagin'd loss cease to lament, 
 And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild : 
 This if thou do, he will an offspring give. 
 
 That till the world's last end shall make thy name to live." ' 
 
 But to return to the thread of our discourse. He made 
 no long stay in his lodgings in St. Bride's Church-yard ; 
 necessity of having a place to dispose his books in, and other 
 1 See the last stanza of D. F. J. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ixvii 
 
 goods fit for the furnishing of a good, handsome house, 
 hastening him to take one ; and, accordingly, a pretty gar- 
 den-house he took in Aldersgate-street, at the end of an 
 entry, and therefore the fitter for his turn, by the reason 
 of the privacy ; besides that there are few streets in London 
 more free from noise than that. Here first it was that his 
 academic erudition was put in practice, and vigorously 
 proceeded, he himself giving an example to those under 
 him (for it was not long after his taking this house, ere 
 his elder nephew was put to board with him also) of hard 
 study and spare diet ; only this advantage he had, that once 
 in three weeks or a month, he would drop into the society 
 of some young sparks of his acquaintance, the chief whereof 
 were Mr. Alphry, and Mr. Miller, two gentlemen of 
 Gray's Inn, the beaux of those times, but nothing near so 
 bad as those now-a-days; with these gentlemen he would 
 so far made bold with his body, as now and then to keep 
 a gawdy-day. 
 
 In this house he continued several years, in the one or 
 two first whereof, he set out several treatises, vis., that 
 Of Reformation ; that Af/ainst Prelatical Episcopacy ; 
 The Reason of Church-Government ; The Defence of 
 Smectymnuus, at least the greatest part of them, but as I 
 take it, all; and some time after, one sheet Of Education 
 ■which he dedicated to Mr. Samuel Hartlib, he that wrote so 
 much of husbandry (this sheet is printed at the end of the 
 second edition of his Poems), and lastly Areopagitica. 
 
 During the time also of his continuance in this house, 
 there fell out several occasions of the increasing of his 
 family. His father, who till the taking of Reading by the 
 Earl of Essex his forces, had lived with his other son 
 at his house there, was upon that son's dissettlement ne- 
 cessitated to betake himself to this his eldest son, with 
 whom he lived for some years, even to his dying day. In 
 the next place he had an addition of some scholars; to which 
 may be added, his entering into matrimony ; but he had his 
 wife's company so small a time, that he may well be said 
 to have become a single man again soon after. 
 
 About Whitsuntide it was, or a little after, that he took 
 
Ixviii BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 a journey into the country ; no body about him certainly 
 knowing the reason, or that it was any more than a jour- 
 ney of recreation; after a month's stay, home he returns a 
 married man, that went out a bachelor; his wife being 
 Mary, the eldest daughter of Mr. Eichard Powell, then a 
 justice of peace, of Forresthill, near Shotover in Oxford- 
 shire ; some few of her nearest relations accompanying the 
 bride to her new habitation; which by reason the father 
 nor any body else were yet come, was able to receive them ; 
 where the feasting held for some days in celebration of 
 the nuptials, and for entertainment of the bride's friends. 
 At length they took their leave, and returning to Forest- 
 hill, left the sister behind ; probably not much to her sat- 
 isfaction, as appeared by the sequel. By that time she had 
 for a month or thereabout led a philosophical life (after 
 having been used to a great house, and much company and 
 joviality), her friends, possibly incited by her own desire, 
 made earnest suit by letter, to have her company the 
 remaining part of the summer, which was granted, on 
 condition of her return at the time appointed, Michaelmas, 
 or thereabout. In the meantime came his father, and some 
 of the forementioned disciples. 
 
 And now the studies went on with so much the more 
 vigor, as there were more hands and heads employed ; the old 
 gentleman living wholly retired to his rest and devotion, 
 without the least trouble imaginable. Our author, now as 
 it were a single man again, made it his chief diversion 
 now and then in an evening, to visit the lady Margaret 
 
 Lee, daughter to the Lee, Earl of Marlborough, Lord 
 
 High Treasurer of England, and President of the Privy 
 Council, to King James the First. This lady being a woman 
 of great wit and ingenuity, had a particular honor for him, 
 and took much delight in his company, as likewise her 
 husband Captain Hobson, a very accomplished gentleman ; 
 and what esteem he at the same time had for her, appears 
 by a sonnet he made in praise of her, to be seen among his 
 other Sonnets in his extant Poems. 
 
 Michaelmas being come, and no news of his wife's return, 
 he sent for her by letter; and receiving no answer, sent 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ixix 
 
 several other letters, which were also unanswered ; so that 
 at last he dispatched down a foot messenger with a letter, 
 desiring her return. But the messenger came back not only 
 without an answer, at least a satisfactory one, but to the 
 best of my remembrance, reported that he was dismissed 
 with some sort of contempt. This proceeding, in all proba- 
 bility, was grounded upon no other cause but this, namely, 
 thatthe family being generally addicted to the cavalier party, 
 as they called it, and some of them possibly engaged in 
 the King's service, who by this time had his headquarters 
 at Oxford, and was in some prospect of success, they began 
 to repent them of having matched the eldest daughter of 
 the family to a person so contrary to them in opinion; 
 and thought it would be a blot in their escutcheon, when- 
 ever that court should come to flourish again. 
 
 However, it so incensed our author, that he thought it 
 would be dishonorable ever to receive her again, after such 
 a repulse ; so that he forthwith prepared to fortify himself 
 with arguments for such a resolution, and accordingly wrote 
 two treatises, by whicli he undertook to maintain, that it was 
 against reason, and the enjoinment of it not provable by 
 Scripture, for any married couple disagreeable in humor 
 and temper, or having an aversion to each [other], to be 
 forced to live yoked together all their days. The first was, 
 his Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce ; of which thete 
 was printed a second edition, with some additions. The 
 other in prosecution of the first, was styled Tetrachordon. 
 Then the better to confirm his own opinion by the attesta- 
 tion of others, he set out a piece called The Judgment of 
 Martin Bucer, a protestant minister, being a translation, 
 out of that reverend divine, of some part of his works, ex- 
 actly agreeing with him in sentiment. Lastly, he wrote in 
 answer to a pragmatical clerk, who would needs give him- 
 self the honor of writing against so great a man, his Colas- 
 terion, or Rod of Correction for a Saucy Impertinent. 
 
 Not very long after the setting forth of these treatises, 
 having application made to him by several gentlemen of 
 his acquaintance for the education of their sons, as under- 
 standing haply the progress he had infixed by his first 
 
Ixx BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 undertakings of that nature, he laid out for a larger house, 
 and soon found it out. 
 
 But in the interim hefore he removed, there fell out a 
 passage, which though it altered not the whole course he 
 was going to steer, yet it put a stop or rather an end to a 
 grand affair, which was more than probably thought to be 
 then in agitation ; it was indeed a design of marrying one 
 of Dr. Davis's daughters, a very handsome and witty gentle- 
 woman, but averse, as it is said, to this motion. However, 
 the intelligence hereof, and the then declining state of 
 the King's cause, and consequently of the circumstances 
 of Justice Powell's family, caused them to set all engines 
 on work, to restore the late married woman to the station 
 wherein they a little before had planted her. At last this 
 device was pitched upon. There dwelt in the lane of St. 
 Martin's-le-Grand, which was hard by, a relation of our au- 
 thor's, one Blackborough, whom it was known he often 
 visited, and upon this occasion the visits were the more 
 narrowly observed, and possibly there might be a combina- 
 tion between both parties ; the friends on both sides concen- 
 tring in the same action, though on different behalfs. One 
 time above the rest, he making his usual visit, the wife was 
 ready in another room, and on a sudden he was surprised 
 to see one whom he thought to have never seen more, 
 making submission and begging pardon on her knees be- 
 fore him. He might probably at first make some show of 
 aversion and rejection ; but partly his own generous nature, 
 more inclinable to reconciliation than to perseverance in 
 anger and revenge, and partly the strong intercession of 
 friends on both sides, soon brought him to an act of obliv- 
 ion, and a firm league of peace for the future ; and it was 
 at length concluded, that she shotild remain at a friend's 
 house, till such time as he was settled in his new house at 
 Barbican, and all tilings for her reception in order ; the 
 place agreed on for her present abode, was the widow 
 Webber's house in St. Clement's Church-yard, whose second 
 daughter had been married to the other brother many years 
 before. The first fruits of her return to her husband was a 
 brave girl, born within a year after ; though, whether by 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ixxi 
 
 ill constitution or want of care, she grew more and more 
 decrepit. 
 
 But it was not only by cbildren that she increased the 
 number of the family; for in no very long time after her 
 coming, she had a great resort of her kindred with her in 
 the house, viz. her father and mother, and several of her 
 brothers and sisters, which were in all pretty numerous ; 
 who upon his father's sickening and dying soon after, went 
 away. 
 
 And now the house looked again like a house of the 
 Muses only, though the accession of scholars was not 
 great. Possibly his proceeding thus far in the education of 
 youth may have been the occasion of some of his adversa- 
 ries calling him pedagogue and schoolmaster ; whereas it is 
 well known he never set up for a public school to teach all 
 the young fry of the parish, but only was willing to im- 
 part his learning and knowledge to relations, and the sons 
 of some gentlemen that were his intimate friends ; besides, 
 that neither his converse, nor his writings, nor his manner 
 of teaching ever savored in the least anything of pedantry ; 
 and probably he might have some prospect of putting in 
 practice his academical institution, according to the model 
 laid down in his sheet Of Education. The progress of 
 which design was afterwards diverted by a series of alter- 
 ation in the affairs of state ; for I am much mistaken, if 
 there were not about this time a design in agitation of 
 making him adjutant-general in Sir William Waller's 
 army. But the new modeling of the army soon following, 
 proved an obstruction to that design ; and Sir William, 
 his commission being laid down, began, as the common 
 saying is, to turn cat in pan. ^ 
 
 It was not long after the march of Fairfax and Crom- 
 well through the city of London with the whole army, to 
 quell the insurrections Brown and Massey, now malcon- 
 tents also, were endeavoring to raise in the city agakist the 
 army's proceedings, ere he left his great house in Barbican, 
 and betook himself to a smaller in High Holburn, among 
 those that open backward into Lincoln's Inn Fields. Here 
 1 See the N. E. D. under the word Cat, 12. 
 
Ixxii BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 he lived a private and quiet life, still prosecuting his 
 studies and curious search into knowledge, the grand af- 
 fair perpetually of his life; till such time as, the war be- 
 ing now at an end, with complete victory to the Parlia- 
 ment's side, as the Parliament then stood purged of all 
 its dissenting members, and the King after some treaties 
 with the army re infecta, brought to his trial ; the form 
 of government being now changed into a free state, he 
 was hereupon obliged to write a treatise, called The Ten- 
 ure of Kings and Magistrates. 
 
 After which his thoughts were bent upon retiring 
 again to his own private studies, and falling upon such 
 subjects as his proper genius prompted him to write of, 
 among which was the history of our own nation from the 
 beginning till the Norman Conquest, wherein he had 
 made some progress. When (for this his last treatise, reviv- 
 ing the fame of other things he had formerly published) 
 being more and more taken notice of for his excellency of 
 style, and depth of judgment, he was courted into the 
 service of this new commonwealth, and at last prevailed 
 ■with (for he never hunted after preferment, nor affected 
 the tintamar and hurry of public business) to take upon 
 him the office of Latin secretary to the Council of State, 
 for all their letters to foreign princes and states; for they 
 stuck to this noble and generous resolution, not to write 
 to any, or receive answers from them, but in a language 
 most proper to maintain a correspondence among the 
 learned of all nations in this part of the world ; scorning 
 to carry on their affairs in the wheedling, lisping jargon 
 of the cringing French, especially having a minister of 
 state able to cope with the ablest any prince or state 
 could employ, for the Latin tongue. And so well he ac- 
 quitted himself in this station, that he gained from abroad 
 both reputation to himself, and credit to the state that 
 employed him. 
 
 And it was well the business of his office came not 
 Tery fast upon him ; for he was scarce well warm in his 
 secretaryship before other work flowed in upon him, 
 which took him up for some considerable time. In the 
 
BIOGRAPHIES kxiii 
 
 first place there came out a book said to have been writ- 
 ten by the king, and finished a little before his death, 
 intituled eiKwi/ ^ad-LXiKr], that is, The Royal Image; a book 
 highly cried up for its smooth style, and pathetical com- 
 posure ; wherefore to obviate the impression it was like 
 to make among the many, he was obliged to write an an- 
 swer, which he intituled AKovoKka-trTryi or Image-Breaker. 
 
 And upon the heels of that, out comes in public the 
 great kill-cow of Christendom, with his Defensio Regis 
 contra Populum Anglicanum ; a man so famous and cried 
 up for his Plinian Exercitations, and other pieces of re- 
 puted learning, that there could no where have been 
 found a champion that durst lift up the pen against so 
 formidable an adversary, had not our little English David 
 had the courage to undertake this great French Goliath. 
 To whom he gave such a hit in the forehead, that he 
 presently staggered, and soon after fell. For immediately 
 upon the coming out of the answer, intituled, Defensio 
 Populi Anglicani contra Claudium Anonymum, &c. he 
 that till then had been chief minister and superintendent 
 in the court of the learned Christina, Queen of Sweden, 
 dwindled in esteem to that degree, that he at last vouch- 
 safed to speak to the meanest servant. In short, he was 
 dismissed with so cold and slighting an adieu, that after a 
 faint dying reply, he was glad to have recourse to death, 
 the remedy of evils, and ender of controversies. 
 
 And now I presume our author had some breathing 
 space, but it was not long. For though Salmasius was de- 
 parted, he left some stings behind ; new enemies started 
 up, barkers, though no great biters. Who the first as- 
 serter of Salmasius his cause was, is not certainly known, 
 but variously conjectured at, some supposing it to be one 
 Janus, a lawyer of Gray's Inn, some Dr. Bramhal, made 
 by King Charles the Second, after his restoration. Arch- 
 bishop of Armagh in Ireland ; but whoever the author was, 
 the book was thought fit to be taken into correction ; and 
 our author not thinking it worth his own undertaking, to 
 the disturbing the progress of whatever more chosen work 
 he had then in hands, committed this task to the youngest of 
 
/xxiv BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 his nephews ; but with sach exact emendations before it 
 went to the press, that it might have very well passed for 
 his, but that he was willing the person that took the pains 
 to prepare it for his examination and polishment, should 
 have the name and credit of being the author ; so that it 
 came forth under this title, Joannis Philipid Angli De- 
 fensio pro Populo Anglicano contra, &c. 
 
 During the writing and publishing of this book, he 
 lodged at one Thomson's next door to the Bull-head 
 tavern at Charing-Cross, opening into the Spring-Garden; 
 which seems to have been only a lodging taken till his 
 designed apartment in Scotland- Yard was prepared for 
 him. For hither he soon removed from the aforesaid 
 place; and here his third child, a son, was born, which 
 through the ill usage, or bad constitution, of an ill- 
 chosen nurse, died an infant. 
 
 From this apartment, whether he thought it not 
 healthy, or otherwise convenient for his use, or whatever 
 else was the reason, he soon after took a pretty garden- 
 house in Petty-France in Westminster, next door to the Lord 
 Scudamore's, and opening into St. James's Park. Here he 
 remained no less than eight years, namely, from the year 
 1652, till within a few weeks of King Charles the Second's 
 restoration. 
 
 In this hoiise his first wife dying in childbed, he mar- 
 ried a second, who after a year's time died in child- 
 bed also. This second marriage was about two or 
 three years after his being wholly deprived of sight, 
 which was just going about the time of his answering 
 Salmasius ; whereupon his adversaries gladly take occa- 
 sion of imputing his blindness as a judgment upon him 
 for his answering the King's book, &c. whereas it is most 
 certainly known, that his sight, what with his continual 
 study, his being subject to the headache, and his perpet- 
 ual tampering with physic to preserve it, had been decay- 
 ing for above a dozen years before, and the sight of one 
 for a long time clearly lost. Here he wrote, by his aman- 
 uensis, his two Answers to Alexander More, who upon 
 the last answer quitted the field. 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ixxv 
 
 So that being now quiet from state adversaries and 
 public contests, he had leisure again for his own studies 
 and private designs ; which were his foresaid History of 
 England; and a new Thesaurus Linguae Latince, accord- 
 ing to the manner of Stephanus, a work he had been 
 long since collecting from his own reading, and still went 
 on with it at times, even very near to his dying day ; but 
 the papers after his death were so discomposed and defi- 
 cient that it could not be made fit for the press ; how- 
 ever, what there was of it, was made use of for another 
 dictionary. 
 
 But the height of his noble fancy and invention began 
 now to be seriously and mainly employed in a subject 
 worthy of such a Muse, viz. a heroic poem, entitled, Para- 
 dise Lost ; the noblest in the general esteem of learned and 
 judicious persons, of any yet written by any either ancient 
 or modern. This subject was first designed a tragedy, and 
 in the fourth book of the poem there are six verses, which 
 several years before the poem was begun, were shown to 
 me and some others, as designed for the very beginning of 
 the said tragedy. The verses are these : — 
 
 " O thou that with surpassing glory crown'd ! 
 Look'st from thy sole dominion, like the god 
 Of this new world ; at whose sight all the stars 
 Hide their diminish'd heads ; to thee I call, 
 
 I But with no friendly voice ; and add thy name, 
 
 Sun ! to tell thee how I hate thy beams 
 That bring to my remembrance, from what state 
 
 1 fell, how glorious once above thy sphere ; 
 Till pride and worse ambition threw me down, 
 Warring in Heaven, against Heaven's glorious King." • 
 
 I'here is another very remarkable passage in the com- 
 posure of this poem, which I have a particular occasion to 
 remember ; for whereas I had the perusal of it from the 
 very beginning, for some years, as I went from time to 
 time to visit him, in a parcel of ten, twenty, or thirty 
 verses at a time, which being written by whatever hand 
 eame next, might possibly want correction as to the orthog- 
 1 See P. L. IV, 3^-113. 
 
kxvi BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 raphy and pointing ; having as the summer eam6 on, not 
 having been showed any for a considerable while, and, 
 desiring the reason thereof, was answered : that his vein 
 never happily ilowed but from the autumnal equinoctial 
 to the vernal, and that whatever he attempted [otherwise] 
 was never to his satisfaction, though he courted his fancy 
 never so much, so that in all the years he was about this 
 poem, he may be said to have spent but half his time 
 therein. 
 
 It was but a little before the King's restoration that he 
 wrote and published his book In Defence of a Commonr 
 wealth ; so undaunted he was in declaring his true senti- 
 ments to the world ; and not long before, his Power of the 
 Civil Magistrate in Ecclesiastical Affairs, and his Treat- 
 ise against Hirelings, just upon the King's coming over; 
 having a little before been sequestered from his office of 
 Latin secretary, and the salary thereunto belonging. 
 
 He was forced to leave his house also in Petty-France, 
 where all the time of his abode there, which was eight 
 years, as above-mentioned, he was frequently visited by 
 persons of quality, particularly my Lady Kanalagh, whose 
 sou for some time he instructed ; all learned foreigners of 
 note, who could not part out of the city, without giving a 
 visit to a person so eminent ; and lastly, by particular 
 friends that had a high esteem for him, viz. Mr. Andrew 
 Marvel, young Lawrence (the son of him that was presi- 
 dent of Oliver's council), to whom there is a sonnet among 
 the rest, in his printed Poems ; Mr. Marchamont Need- 
 ham, the writer of Politicus ; but above all, Mr. Cyriac 
 Skinner whom he honored with two sonnets, one long since 
 public among his Poems, the other but newly printed. 
 
 His next removal was, by the advice of those that wished 
 him well, and had a concern for his preservation, into a 
 place of retirement and abscondence, till such time as 
 the current of affairs for the future should instruct him 
 what farther course to take. It was a friend's house in 
 Bartholomew Close, where he lived till the act of oblivion 
 came forth ; which it pleased God, proved as favorable to 
 him as could be hoped or expected, through the intercession 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ixxvu 
 
 of some that stood his friends both in Council and Parlia- 
 ment ; particularly in the House of Commons, Mr. Andrew 
 Marvel, a member for Hull, acted vigorously in his behalf, 
 and made a considerable party for him ; so that, together 
 'with John Goodwin' of Coleman Street, he was only so 
 far excepted as not to bear any office in the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 Soon after appearing again in public, he took a house 
 in Holborn near Red Lyon Fields ; where he stayed not 
 long, before his pardon having passed the seal, he removed 
 to Jewin Street. There he lived when he married his 3d 
 wife, recommended to him by his old Iriend Dr. Paget in 
 Coleman Street. 
 
 But he stayed not long after his new marriage, ere he 
 removed to a house in the Artillery-walk leading to Bun- 
 hill Fields. And this was his last stage in this world, but 
 it was of many years continuance, more perhaps than he 
 had had in any other place besides. 
 
 Here he finished his noble poem, and published it in 
 the year 1666. The first edition was printed in quarto by 
 one Simons, a printer in Aldersgate Street ; the other in a 
 large octavo, by Starky near Temple-Bar, amended, en- 
 larged, and differently disposed as to the number of books 
 by his own hand, that is by his own appointment ; the 
 last set forth, many years since his death, in a large folio, 
 with cuts added, by Jacob Tonson. 
 
 Here it was also that he finished and published his 
 history of our nation till the Conquest, all complete so 
 far as he went, some passages only excepted ; which, being 
 thought too sharp against the clergy, could not pass the 
 hand of the licenser, were in the hands of the late Earl of 
 Anglesey while he lived ; where at present is uncertain. 
 
 It cannot be concluded when he wrote his excellent 
 tragedy entitled Samson Agnnistes, \>\\i sure enough it is 
 that it came forth after his publication of Paradise Lost, 
 together with his other poem called Paradise Regained, 
 
 1 John Goodwill had written The Obstructors of Justice. See p. li, and 
 also the orders of Parliament relating to Milton and Goodwin, Masaon, 
 IV, 174, 181-195. 
 
Ixxviii BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 ■which doubtless was begun and finished and printed after 
 the other was published, and that in a wonderful short 
 space considering the sublimeness of it ; however, it is 
 generally censured to be much inferior to the other, though 
 he could not hear with patience any such thing when 
 related to him. Possibly the subject may not afford such 
 variety of invention ; but it is thought by the most judi- 
 cious to be little or nothing inferior to the other for style 
 and decorum. 
 
 The said Earl of Anglesey, whom he presented with a 
 copy of the unlicensed papers of his history, came often 
 here to visit him, as very much coveting his society and 
 converse ; as likewise others of the nobility, and many 
 persons of eminent quality ; nor were the visits of foreigners 
 ever more frequent than in this place, almost to his dying 
 day. 
 
 His treatise Of True JReliffion, Heresy, Schism and 
 Toleration, &c. was doubtless the last thing of his writing 
 that was published before his death. He had, as I remem- 
 ber, prepared for the press an answer to some little scribing 
 quack in London, who had written a scurrilous libel against 
 him ; but whether by the dissuasion of friends, as think- 
 ing him a fellow not worth his notice, or for what other 
 cause I know not, this answer was never published. 
 
 He died in the year 1673, towards the latter end of the 
 summer, and had a very decent interment according to 
 his quality, in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, being 
 attended from his house to the church by several gentlemen 
 then in town, his principal well-wishers and admirers. 
 
 He had three daughters who survived him many years 
 ■ (and a son) all by his first wife (of whom sufiicient men- 
 tion hath been made) : Anne his eldest as above said, and 
 Mary his second, who were both born at his house in 
 Barbican ; and Deborah the youngest, who is yet living, 
 born at his house in Petty-France, between whom and his 
 second daughter, the son, named John, was born as above- 
 mentioned, at his apartment in Scotland Yard. By his 
 second wife, Catharine, the daughter of captain Woodcock 
 of Hackney, he had only one daughter, of which the 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ixxix 
 
 mother, the first year after her marriage, died in child- 
 bed, and the child also within a month after. By his 
 third wife Elizabeth, the daughter of one Mr. Minshal of 
 Cheshire, (and kinswoman to Dr. Paget), who survived 
 him, and is said to be yet living, he never had any child. 
 
 And those he had by the first he made serviceable to 
 him in that very particular in which he most wanted 
 their service, and supplied his want of eyesight by their 
 eyes and tongue. For though he had daily about him one 
 or other to read to him ; some persons of man's estate, who 
 of their own accord greedily catched at the opportunity of 
 being his readers, that they might as well reap the benefit 
 of what they read to him, as oblige him by the benefit 
 of their reading ; others of younger years sent by their 
 parents to the same end ; yet, excusing only the eldest daugh- 
 ter by reason of her bodily infirmity and difficult utterance 
 of speech (which to say the truth I doubt was the principal 
 cause of excusing her), the other two were condemned to 
 the performance of reading, and exactly pronouncing of all 
 the languages of whatever book he should at (me time or 
 other think fit to peruse ; viz. the Hebrew (and I think 
 the Syriac), the Greek, the Latin, the Italian, Spanish, 
 and French. All which sorts of books to be confined to 
 read, without understanding one word, must needs be a 
 trial of patience almost beyond endurance ; yet it was 
 endured by both for a long time. Yet the irksomeness of 
 this employment could not be always concealed, but broke 
 out more and more into expressions of uneasiness ; so that 
 at length they were all (even the eldest also) sent out to 
 learn some curious and ingenious sorts of manufacture, 
 that are proper for women to learn, particularly embroider- 
 ies in gold or silver. It had been happy indeed, if the 
 daughters of such a person had been made in some 
 measure inheritrixes of their father's learning ; but since 
 fate otherwise decreed, the greatest honor that can be 
 ascribed to this now living (and so would have been to 
 the others, had they lived) is to be daughter to a man of 
 his extraordinary character. 
 
 He is said to have died worth 1500£ in money (a con- 
 
Ixxx BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 siderable estate, all things considered) besides household 
 goods ; for he sustained such losses as might well have 
 broke any person less frugal and temperate than himself ; 
 no less than 2000£ which he had put for security and im- 
 provement into the excise office, but neglecting to recall it 
 in time, could never after get it out, with all the power and 
 interest he had in the great ones of those times ; besides 
 another great sum, by mismanagement and for want of 
 good advice. 
 
 Thus I have reduced into form and order whatever I 
 have been able to rally up, either from the recollection of 
 my own memory of things transacted while I was with 
 him, or the information of others, equally conversant after- 
 wards, or from his own mouth by frequent visits to the 
 last. 
 
 I shall conclude with two material passages, which 
 though they relate not immediately to our author, or his 
 own particular concerns, yet in regard they happened 
 during his public employ, and consequently fell most under 
 his cognizance, it will not be amiss here to subjoin them. 
 The first was this: 
 
 Before the war broke forth between the States of Eng- 
 land and the Dutch, the Hollanders sent over three am- 
 bassadors in order to an accommodation : but they return- 
 ing re infecta, the Dutch sent away a plenipotentiary, to 
 offer peace upon much milder terms, or at least to gain 
 more time. But this plenipotentiary could not make such 
 haste, but that the Parliament had procured a copy of 
 their instructions in Holland, which were delivered by our 
 author to his kinsman that was then with him, to translate 
 for the Council to view, before the said plenipotentiary 
 had taken shipping for England ; [and] an answer to all 
 he had in charge lay ready for him, before he made his 
 public entry into London. 
 
 In the next place there came a person with a very 
 sumptuous train, pretending himself an agent from the 
 prince of Conde, then in arms against Cardinal Mazarin : 
 the Parliament mistrusting him, set their instrument so 
 busily at work, that in four or five days they had pro- 
 
BIOGRAPHIES Ixxxi 
 
 cured intelligence from Paris, that he was a spy from King 
 Charles ; whereupon the very next morning our author's 
 kinsman was sent to him, with an order of Council com- 
 manding him to depart the kingdom within three days, or 
 expect the punishment of a spy. 
 
 By these two remarkable passages, we may clearly dis- 
 cover the industry and good intelligence of those times. 
 
SOME IMPORTANT DATES IN THE LIFE OF 
 MILTON^ 
 
 Born December 9, 1608 
 
 Entered St. Paul's School ... 1S20? 
 
 Admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge February 12, 162.'5 
 Took the B. A. degree .... March 26, 1620 
 
 On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, written December, 1629 
 
 Took the M.A. degree July 3, 16:52 
 
 Lived with his father at Horton . . . 1632-38 
 
 L' Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas . written 1632-38 
 Continental Journey . April, 1638-July or August, 1639 
 Took up residence in London . . . 1639 
 
 Engaged in the teaching of boys . . . 1639-1647 
 
 Married Mary Powell June, 1643 
 
 Appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues March, 1649 
 
 Became completely blind .... 16o2 
 
 Death of Mary Milton . between May and October, 16.o2 
 Married Katherine Woodcock . . . 1657 
 
 Death of his second wife .... March, 16.)8 
 
 Paradise Lost begun leijS 
 
 Discharged from the Secretaryship . . March, 1660 
 
 In hiding May 7, 1660 
 
 Order for his arrest June 16, 1660 
 
 Arrested and in prison August 13-28 ? — December 15, 1660 
 Married Elizabeth MinshuU . . February 24, 1663 
 
 Lived at Chalfont St. Giles, because of the 
 
 plague . . July, 1665 to February or March, 1666 
 Died November 8, 1674 
 
 1 These dates are taken from Masson, and are given here to facilitate 
 comparison with those in the Biographies. 
 
THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF MILTON IN THE 
 ORDER OF PUBLICATION! 
 
 Comus, published by Lawes . . . 1637 
 Lycidas, published in a volume of verse to 
 
 the memory of Edward King . . 1638 
 
 Of ReformaLion touching Church Discipline . May, 1641 
 
 Of Prelatical Episcopacij .... June, 1641 
 
 Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's De- 
 fence against Smectymnuus . . . July, 1641 
 The Reason of Church Government . . February, 1642 
 Apology against a Pamphlet called a Modest 
 
 Confutation of the Animadversions . March, 1642 
 
 The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce . August, 1643 
 
 Education ....... June, 1644 
 
 The Judgment of Martin Bucer concerning 
 
 Divorce July, 1644 
 
 Areopagitica Novembei-, 1644 
 
 Tetrachordon March, 1645 
 
 Colasterion March, 1645 
 
 First edition of the Minor Poems . . 1645 
 
 Tenure of Kings and Magistrates . . . February, 1649 
 
 Eikonoklastes October, 1649 
 
 A Defence of the English People . . . April, 1651 
 
 A Second Defence of the People of England May, 1654 
 
 Defence against Alexander Morus . . 1655 
 A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical 
 
 Causes February, 1659 
 
 Considerations touching the likeliest means to 
 
 remove Hirelings out of the Church . . August, 1659 
 A Free Commonwealth . . . February-April, 1660 
 
 Paradise Lost August ?, 1667 
 
 Accidence Commenced Grammar . . . 1669 
 
 History of Britain 1670 
 
 Paradise Regained 1671 
 
 Samson Agonistes ...... 1671 
 
 Of True Religion, Heresy, Schism . . . 1673 
 
 Second edition of the Minor Poems . . 1673 
 
 1 See note, p. Ixxxii. 
 
A PARTIAL LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 QUOTED OR EEFEERED TO IN THE NOTES 
 
 Abistotle. Polities, translated by B. Jowett. Oxford 
 (Clarendon Press), 1885. 
 Rhetoric, translated by J. E. C. Welldon. Lon- 
 don (The Macmillan Company), 1886. 
 AsHTON, John. Humour, Wit, and Satire of the Seven- 
 teenth Century. London (Chatto & Windus), 1883. 
 Bacon. The Advancement of Learning, edited by William 
 
 Aldis Wright. Oxford (Clarendon Press), 1880. 
 Daties, C. M. The History of Holland and the Dutch 
 
 Nation. London, 1851. 
 Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. London 
 
 (Frederick Warne & Co.). 
 FiKTH, Charles Harding. The Last Years of the Pro- 
 tectorate. London (Longmans, Green & Co.), 1909. 
 Gardiner, S. R. History of England from the Accession 
 of James I to the Outbreak of the 
 Civil War. London (Longmans, Green 
 & Co.), 1895. 
 History of the Chreat Civil War. London 
 (Longmans, Green & Co.), 1893. 
 Hales, John W., Ed. Areopagitica. Oxford (Clarendon 
 
 Press), 1894. 
 Hallam, Henry. Introduction to tlie Literature of Eu- 
 rope. New York (A. C. Armstrong), 1880. 
 Holm, Adolph. The History of Greece. London (The 
 
 Macmillan Company), 1894. 
 Homer. Odyssey, done into English Prose by S. H. Butcher 
 and A. Lang. New York (The Macmillan 
 Company), 1895. 
 Hiad, done into English Prose by A. Lang, W. 
 Leaf, and E. Myers. London (The Macmillan 
 Company), 1893. 
 
A PARTIAL LIST OF BOOKS Ixxxv 
 
 Horace. The Works of Horace, rendered into English 
 Prose by James Lonsdale and Samuel Lee. London 
 (The MacmiUan Company), 1895. 
 
 Hutchinson, Lucy. Memoirs of the Life of Colonel 
 Hutchinson. London (Henry G. Bohn), 1846, 
 
 Jebb, Richabd Claverhouse. Areopagitica ; A Com- 
 mentary. Cambridge, England (Privately printed), 
 1872. 
 
 Masson, David. The Life of John Milton :_ Narrated in 
 Connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Liter- 
 ary History of his Time. London (The MacmiUan Com- 
 pany), 1871-80. 
 
 Mat, Thomas Ekskine. The Constitutional History of 
 England. New York (A. C. Armstrong), 1882. 
 
 Motley, John Lothbop. The Rise of the Dutch Repub- 
 lic. New York (Harper & Brothers), 1883. 
 
 Ovid. Metam,orphoses, translated by Henry T. Riley. Lon- 
 don (George Bell & Sons), 1889. 
 
 Paksons, Edwabd S. The Earliest Life of Milton. Colo- 
 rado Springs (Reprinted from Colorado College Studies, 
 vol. x), 1903. 
 
 Pepvs, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys. London 
 (George Bell & Sons), 1893-99. 
 
 Plato. Dialogues, translated by B. Jowett. New York 
 (Charles Scribner's Sons), 1901. 
 
 Plutarch. Lives, translated by John and William Lang- 
 horne. Cincinnati (H. S. and J. Applegate), 1850. 
 
 Quick, Robert H. Educational Reformers. New York (D. 
 Appleton & Co.), 1891. 
 
 SisMONDi, J. C. L. Historical View of the Literature 
 of the South of Europe. London (Henry G. Bohn), 
 1846. 
 
 Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn. Historical Memorials of 
 Westminster Abbey. London (John Murray), 1882. 
 
 Strutt, Joseph. The Sports and Pastimes of the People 
 of England. London (Chatto & Windus), 1876. 
 
 Symonds, J. A. Renaissance in Italy. New York (Charles 
 Scribner's Sons), 1907. 
 
IxxxvJ A PARTIAL LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 Taswell-Langmead, T. P. English Constitutional His- 
 tory. Boston (Houghton, Mifilin & Company), 1881. 
 
 Thayer, William Roscob. A Short History of Venice. 
 New York (The Macmillan Company), 1905. 
 
 White, Holt, Ed. Areopagitioa. London, 1819. 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES 
 
 F. Q. Spenser's Faerie Queene. 
 
 Li. E. L. Lauva E. Lockwood. Lexicon to the English 
 Poetical Works of John Milton. New York (The Mac- 
 millan Company), 1907. 
 
 N. E. D. A New English Dictionary. Oxford (Claren- 
 don Press). 
 
 O. B. Oscar Browning, ed. Milton's Tractate on Educa- 
 tion. Cambridge (University Press), 1905. 
 
 T. and S. Teuffel's History of Roman Literature, revised 
 and enlarged by Ludwig Schwabe. London (George 
 BeU & Sons), 1891. 
 
 The Works of Milton: 
 
 Ar. Arcades. 
 
 D. F. I. Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough. 
 
 F. of C. Forcers of Conscience. 
 
 n P. H Penseroso. 
 
 L'A. V Allegro. 
 
 Lye. Lycidas. 
 
 N. 0. Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity. 
 
 P. L. Paradise Lost. 
 
 P. B. Paradise Regained. 
 
 Ps. Translation of certain Psalms. 
 
 P. W. The Prose Works of John Milton. London 
 
 (George Bell & Sons), 1890. 
 S. A. Samson Agonistes. 
 
OF EDUCATION! 
 
 TO MASTER SAMUEL HARTLIB' 
 
 Master Hartlih, — 
 
 I am Jong since persuaded that to say or do aught 
 worth memory and imitation, no purpose or respect' 
 should sooner move us than simply the love of God, 
 and of mankind. Nevertheless to write now the 
 reforming of education, though it be one of the 
 greatest and noblest designs that can be thought on, 
 and for the want whereof this nation perishes, I had 
 not yet at this time been induced, but by your 
 earnest entreaties and serious conjurements ; as hav- 
 ing my mind for the present half diverted in the 
 pursuance of some other assertions,* the knowledge 
 
 1 Published June 5, 1644, probably by Milton himself rather 
 than by Hartlib. 
 
 "^ Samuel H. Hartlib (1600 7-1670 ?), born at Elbing in Prussia, 
 was the sou of a Polish father aud au English mother. About 
 1628 he settled as a merchant in London. He is one of the 
 most interesting figures of the seventeenth century, because he 
 constantly occupied himself with questions of public reform ; he 
 was what would now be called a philanthropist. He aided John 
 Durie in a scheme for bringing about the union of all the 
 Protestant churches of Europe; he was a warm friend of Co- 
 menius, with whose educational views he wholly sympathized; 
 and he was concerned in several projects for the improvement 
 of agriculture in England. His own writings consist of essays 
 and prefaces on these three subjects ; and on these questions he 
 had corresponded with, and probably interviewed, most of the 
 influential and learned men of his time. Moreover, he planned a 
 school for the sons of gentlemen, and it was probably in con- 
 nection with this that he asked for Milton's ideas on education. 
 
 " respect : consideration. 
 
 ■* assertions ; statements, arguments. This do\ibtless refers 
 
2 JOHN MILTON 
 
 and the use of which cannot but be a great f utherance 
 both to the enlargement of truth, and honest living 
 with much more peace. ^ Nor should the laws of any 
 private friendship have prevailed with me to divide 
 thus, or transpose my former thoughts, but that I see 
 those aims, those actions, which have won you with 
 me the esteem of a person sent hither by some good 
 providence from a far country to be the occasion and 
 the incitement of great good ^ to this island. 
 
 And, as I hear, you have obtained the same re- 
 pute with men of most approved wisdom, and some of 
 highest authority among us; not to mention the 
 learned correspondence which you hold in foreign 
 parts, and the extraordinary pains and diligence which 
 you have used in this matter, both here and beyond 
 the seas; either by the definite will of God so ruling, 
 or the peculiar sway of nature, which also is God's 
 working.' Neither can I think that, so reputed and 
 so valued as you are, you would, to the forfeit of your 
 own discerning ability, impose upon me an unfit and 
 overponderous argument ; but that the satisfaction 
 which you profess to have received, from those inci- 
 dental discourses ■* which we have wandered into, hath 
 
 to the pamphlets ou Divorce and the Areopagitica ; for the 
 dates of their publication, see p. Isxxiv. 
 ^ peace: household peace, of course. 
 
 ^ Had it not been for the disturbances of the Civil War, 
 these expectations miglit, perhaps, have been fulfilled. Coine- 
 nius had come to England on Hartlib's invitation, but Mil- 
 ton seems to have had more faith in Hartlib than in Come- 
 uius. 
 
 8 " to serve whom God ordains 
 Or Nature; God and Nature bid the same." 
 
 P. L. VI, 175-76 ; see also XI, 49. 
 ' It is not known when the acquaintance between Milton and 
 Hartlib began, nor how close it came to be. 
 
OF EDUCATION 8 
 
 pressed and almost constrained you into a persuasion,^ 
 that what you require from me in this point, I neither 
 ought, nor can in conscience, defer, beyond this time 
 both of so much need at once, and so much opportu- 
 nity to try what God hath determined. 
 
 I will not resist, therefore, whatever it is, either of 
 divine or human obligement, that you lay upon me; 
 but will forthwith set down in writing, as you request 
 me, that voluntary idea, which hath long, in silence, 
 presented itself to me, of a better education, in extent 
 and comprehension far more large, and yet of time far 
 shorter, and of attainment far more certain,^ than 
 hath been yet in practice. Brief I shall endeavor to 
 be; for that which I have to say, assuredly this 
 nation hath extreme need should be done sooner than 
 spoken. 3 To tell you, therefore, what I have benefited 
 herein among old renowned authors, I shall spare; 
 and to search what many modern Januas and Didac- 
 tics,^ more than ever I shall read, have projected, my 
 
 * persuasion : settled eonvietion. 
 
 ^ Note the three points iu which he expects education to gain 
 by the system he proposes. 
 
 ' Milton speaks always with respect of his tutor, Young, and 
 of his instruction at St. Paul's under Doctor Gill; but he is 
 severely critical of the whole University system. Of Cambridge 
 he writes : " Which as in the time of her better liealth, and 
 mine own youuger judgment, I never greatly admired, so now 
 much less." — P. W. iii, 112. 
 
 ^ John Amos Comenius (1592-1671) was born in Moravia 
 and educated in Germany. He devoted his life to writing on 
 subjects of education, and so famous did his books become that 
 they were translated into all the languages of Europe. While 
 he was in London, September, 1641, to August, 1642, the Parlia- 
 ment asked him to become a member of a Commission for the 
 reform of education ; but the approaching war prevented the 
 carrying-ont of this design and hastened his departnre from the 
 country. Sweden then called him to outline a school system for 
 
 oc/ 
 
4 JOHN MILTON 
 
 inclination leads me not. But if you can accept of 
 these few observations which have flowered off, and 
 are as it were the burnishing of many studious and 
 contemplative years, altogether spent in the search of 
 religious and civil knowledge, and such as pleased you 
 so well in the relating, I here give you them to dis- 
 pose of. 
 f The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of 
 our first parents by regaining to know God aright, 
 and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, 
 xpto be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing 
 ' our souls of true virtue, -^hich being united to the "s, 
 /heavenly grace of faith, makes up the highest perfec-M 
 f^tion.i But because our understanding cannot in this 
 body found itself but on sensible things,^ nor arrive so 
 
 the nation; upon which plan he spent many years of his life. 
 The two works referred to here are : Janua Linguarum Resera- 
 ta (pub. 1631), which gives in detail a method of teaching 
 foreign languages in a very short time, and Didactica Magna 
 (Hartlib published an abstract of this in London, 1639), the 
 larger treatise of the two. This last develops an educational 
 scheme divided into four parts, embracing the life of the child 
 from (1) The Infant School, or Mother's own School, through (2) 
 The Vernacular Public School ; (3) The Latin School, or Gymna- 
 sium; and (4) The University (with Travel) ; that is, from one 
 to twenty-five years of age. It is, moreover, to be for all, rich 
 and poor, male and female, in every community, town, and vil- 
 lage ; it is based, in method and order of subjects studied, on 
 ' the laws of nature, and natural inclination in the child; and 
 finally it is to have always in view the useful purpose of fitting 
 the student for the work of life. Milton's own plan leads us to 
 believe that he was influenced by Comenius, although he here 
 appears to speak disparagingly of these books. 
 
 ^ Observe that the end of education is the moral regeneration 
 of man. 
 
 ' The keynote of Milton's teaching is the learning of things 
 through the senses ; the mind should master the particular before 
 it assays the universal. In this he agrees perfectly with Comeuius. 
 
OF EDUCATION 5 
 
 clearly to the knowledge of God and things invisible, 
 as by orderly conning over the visible and inferior 
 creature, the same method is necessarily to be followed 
 in all discreet teaching. And seeing every nation 
 affords not experience and tradition enough for all 
 kinds of learning, therefore we are chiefly taught the 
 languages of those people who have at any time been 
 most industrious after wisdom ; so that lanc ran^c. is 
 but the instrument conveying to us things useful to 
 be known. ^ And though a linguist should pride him- 
 self to have all the tongues that Babel cleft the world 
 into, yet if he have not studied the solid things in 
 them, as well as the words and lexicons, he were 
 nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man ^ as 
 any yeoman or tradesman competently wise in his 
 mother dialect only. 
 
 Hence appear the many mistakes which have made 
 learning generally so unpleasing and so unsuccess- 
 ful ; first, we do amiss to spend seven or eight years 
 merely in scraping together so much miserable 
 Latin and Greek, as might be learned otherwise 
 easily and delightfully in one year. And that which 
 casts our proficiency therein so much behind, is our 
 time lost partly in too oft idle vacancies ' given both 
 
 1 The study of languages has in itself no disciplinary value^ 
 but is desirable for a purely practical purpose. Comenius says : 
 " Languages are acquired, not as a part of learning or wisdom, 
 but as instrumental to the reception and communication of 
 learning. Accordingly, it is not all languages that are to be 
 learnt — but only those that are necessary." — Quoted by 
 Masson, in, 210. 
 
 2 Cf. P. R. IV, 321-30. 
 
 ' vacancies : probably not the regular long vacation periods 
 of the year, but the frequently occurring Saints days, wb^cb 
 were always holidays. 
 
 < 
 
6 JOHN MILTON 
 
 to schools and universities ; partly in a preposterous ' 
 exaction, forcing the empty wits of children to com- 
 pose themes, verses, and orations, which are the acts 
 of ripest judgment, and the final work of a head fiUed 
 by long reading and observing, with elegant maxims 
 and copious invention. ^ These are not matters to be 
 wrung from poor striplings, like blood out of the nose, 
 or the plucking of untimely fruit. Besides the ill 
 habit which they get of wretched barbarizing* against 
 the Latin and Greek idiom, with their untutored * An- 
 glicisms, odious to be read, yet not to be avoided 
 without a well-continued and judicious conversing 
 among ^ pure authors digested, which they scarce 
 taste. Whereas, if after some preparatory grounds of 
 speech by their certain forms got into memory, they 
 were led to the praxis thereof in some chosen short 
 book lessoned thoroughly to them, they might then 
 \ forthwith proceed to learn the substance of good 
 s things, and arts ^ in due order, which would bring the 
 
 ^ preposterous : inverted in order or position. Here the 
 meaning is, having first that which shonld come last. 
 
 ' invention : inventiveness, or, possibly, the ability to see 
 topics for treatment. 
 
 ' barbarizing : writing like a Barbarian, one ignorant of the 
 classic languages. 
 
 * untutored: crude, raw. "My untntored lines" Shake- 
 speare's Dedication to Lucrece ; see also // Henry VI, lii, ii, 213. 
 
 ' conversing among : being familiar with. See P. L.u, 184. 
 
 ' arts : the branches of learning included in a liberal educa- 
 tion ; originally these were the " Seven Liberal Arts " divided 
 into the Trivium : Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, and the Quadri- 
 vium : Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Mvsic. A statute of 
 Elizabeth slightly modified this to : Rhetoric, Logic, Philosophy 
 for the B.A. degree, and Philosophy, Astronomy, Perspective, 
 Greek for the M.A. degree. By Milton's time there was the 
 further change of requiring Greet, Arithmetic, and a little Science 
 during the years leading to the B.A. degree. 
 
H, 
 
 OF EDUCATION 7 
 
 whole language quickly into their power. This I take 
 to be the most rational and most profitable way of 
 learning languages, and whereby we may best hope to 
 give account to God of our youth spent herein. 
 
 And for the usual method of teaching arts, I deem 
 it to be an old error of universities, not yet well re- 
 covered from the scholastic grossness of barbarous 
 ages, that instead of beginning with arts most easy 
 (and those be such as are most obvious to the sense), 
 they present their young unmatriculated ^ novices, at 
 first coming with the most intellective ^ abstractions 
 of logic * and metaphysics ; so that they having but 
 newly left those grammatic flats and shallows, where 
 they stuck unreasonably to learn a few words with 
 lamentable construction, and now on the sudden trans- 
 ported under another climate, to be tossed and tur- ."H. 
 moiled with their unballasted wits in fathomless and 
 unquiet deeps of controversy, do for the most part 
 grow into hatred and contempt of learning, mocked 
 and deluded all this while with ragged * notions and 
 babblements, while they expected worthy and delight- 
 ful knowledge ; till poverty or youthful years ^ call 
 them importunately their several ways, and hasten ^ 
 them, with the sway of friends, either to an ambitious ^ 
 
 and mercenary, or ignorantly zealous divinity : ^ some 
 
 ■1 unmatriculated : probably, immature. 
 ' intellective : apprehensible, not by the senses, but by the 
 intellect alone. 
 
 « logic : dialectic. See the N. E. D. 
 
 * ragged : rugged. 
 
 * youthful years : the restlessness or impatience of yoath. 
 
 * Milton's opinion of the clergy is : " Who style themselves 
 ambassadors of Jesns Christ, and seem to be his tithe-gatherers, 
 though an oEBce of their own setting up to his dishonour, his ex- 
 actors, his publicans rather." P. W. in, 34. " For our religion, 
 where was there a more ignorant, profaue, and vicious clergy, 
 
 ^1 
 
8 JOHN MILTON 
 
 allured to the trade of law, grounding their purposes 
 not on the prudent ■* and heavenly contemplation of 
 justice and equity, which was never taught them, but 
 on the promising and pleasing thoughts of litigious 
 terms, fat contentions, and Rowing fees ; others be- 
 take them to state affairs, with souls so unprincipled 
 in virtue and true generous breeding, that flattery 
 and courtships and tyrranous aphorisms appear to 
 them the higbest points of wisdom; instilling their 
 barren hearts with a conscientious slavery ; ^ if, as I 
 rather think, it be not feigned. Others, lastly, of a 
 more delicious ^ and airy * spirit, retire themselves 
 (knowing no better) to the enjoyments of ease and 
 luxury, living out their days in feast and jollity ; which 
 indeed is the wisest and the safest course* of all these, 
 unless they were with more integrity undertaken. And 
 these are the fruits of misspending our prime youth 
 at the schools and universities as we do, either in 
 learning mere words, or such things chiefly as were 
 better unlearned. 
 
 I shaU detain you no longer in the demonstration 
 of what we should not do, but straight conduct you to 
 a hiUside, where I will point you out the right path 
 of a virtuous and noble education ; laborious indeed 
 at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full 
 
 learned in nothing but the antiquity of their pride, their cov- 
 etoiisness, and superstition ? whose unsincere and leavenous 
 doctrine, corrupting the people, first taught them looseness, then 
 bondage ; loosening them from all sound knowledge and strict- 
 ness of life." — P. W. 1, 382. See also P. W. IV, 460 ; Li/c. 113-31. 
 
 1 prudent : provident, foreseeing. 
 
 2 conscientious slavery : a slavery considered as a duty. 
 ^ delicious : Inxnrious, dainty. 
 
 * airy : merrv, gay. 
 6 See Lye. 67-69. 
 
OF EDUCATION 9 
 
 of goodly prospect, and melodious sounds on every 
 side, that the harp of Orpheus ^ was not more charm- 
 ing. ^ I doubt not but you shall have more ado to drive 
 our dullest and laziest youth, our stocks and stubs,^ 
 from the infinite desire of such a happy nurture, than 
 we have now to hale and drag our choicest and hope- 
 fullest wits to that asinine feast of sow-thistles and 
 brambles,* which is commonly set beforfe them as all 
 the food and entertainment of their tenderest and 
 most docible age. I call, therefore, a complete and 
 generous education, that which fits a man to perform 
 justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the offioes, 
 
 both private and ..pufelig,, of .^peace^ and war^ And 
 
 how all this may be done between twelve and one-and- 
 twenty, less time than is now bestowed in pure tri- 
 fling at grammar andsoghistry, is to be jthus ordered, 
 I'irst, to find out a spacious" house and ground 
 about it fit for an academy, and big enough to lodge 
 
 1 See VA. 145; II P. 105; Shakespeare, Hmry VIII, lii, 
 i, 3 : Merchant of Venice, v, i, 80 ; also p. 16, n. 8. 
 
 ' " How charming is divine Philosophy ! " Comus, 476. 
 
 ' " Aud all about old stookes and stubs of trees," F. Q. I, ix, 34. 
 
 * " their honest and ingenuous natures coming to the univer- 
 sities to store themselves with good and solid learning, and 
 there unfortunately fed with nothing else but the scragged aud 
 thorny lectures of monkish and miserable sophistry, were sent 
 home again with such a scholastic bur in their throats, as liath 
 stopped and hindered all true and generous philosophy from en- 
 teriug." — P. W. ii, 504. 
 
 ' Worthy to be memorized as one of the noblest definitions of 
 education ; observe that the purpose is to render the man more 
 useful in public and iu private. Plato (Laws, I, 643) says educa- 
 tion is that " which makes a man eagerly pursue the ideal per- 
 fection of citizenship, and teaches him how rightly to rule 
 and how to obey." Again {Ibid. 641), " But if you ask what is 
 the good of education in general, the answer is easy ; that edu- 
 cation makes good men, and that good men act nobly." 
 
10 JOHN MILTON 
 
 a hundred and fifty persons, whereof twenty or 
 thereabout may be attendants, all under the govern- 
 ment of one, who shall be thought of desert sufficient, 
 and. ability either to do all, or wisely to direct and 
 oversee it done. This place should be at once both 
 , v: school and university, not needing a remove to any 
 ? t' other house of scholarship, except it be some peculiar 
 ' ■^ college 1 of law, or physic, where they mean to be prac- 
 \ \. titioners ; but as for those general studies which take 
 1^ up all our time from LUy " to the commencing,' as they 
 
 ^term it, master of art, it should be absolute. After 
 this pattern, as many edifices may be converted to 
 ^' this use as shall be needful in every city throughout 
 ^ this land, which would tend much to the increase of 
 ;;, learning and civility * everywhere. This number, less 
 ^>jW more thus collected, to the convenience of a foot 
 y ^ company, or interchangeably two troops of cavalry, 
 ^ should divide their day's work into three parts as it 
 ' : lies orderly : their studies, their exercise, and their 
 \ diet. 
 
 For their studies : first, they should begin with the 
 chief and necessary rules of some good grammar,^ 
 
 1 The technical aud professional schools are not to be a part 
 of the university. 
 
 2 Lily = the Beginning Book in Latin. William Lily (1468 ?- 
 1522) was the first headmaster of St. Paul's School. " Lilly's 
 own Latin grammar — the foundation of all the Latin grammars 
 that have since been used in England — was published iu 1513 
 specially for the scholars of St. Paul's.'' — Masson, I, 48. 
 
 8 commencing : taking the degree of. 
 
 * civility : culture, refinement. See N. E. D. 
 
 ' That is, Latin grammar. There is no provision for the study 
 of English or for any text-books in English ; all knowledge is to 
 be gained through foreign languages. 
 
 Comenius says : " We desire and protest that studies of wis- 
 dom be no longer committed to Latin alone, and kept shut up in 
 
OF EDUCATION 11 
 
 either that now used, or any better ; and while this is 
 doing, their speech is to be fashioned to a distinct and 
 clear pronunciation ; i as near as may be to the Ital- 
 ian, especially in the vowels. TV>r_v tp T<^nglishmen 
 beiny far Tinrt.ViB rly. do not open our mouths in the co ld 
 lir wid fl a nniigh tn grnpo n. snnhhp.rn tong ue : bnt, a.rfi 
 observed bv all other nations to speak exceeding close 
 _a gd inward, so, that to smatter 2 Latin with an Eng- 
 lish mouth, is as ill a hearing as law French. Next, 
 to make them expert in the usefullest points of gram-__ 
 mar, and withal to season ' them and^win them early 
 to the love of virtue and true labor, ere any flattering 
 seducement or vain principle seize them wandering, 
 some easy and delightful book of education would be 
 
 the schools, as has hitherto been done, to the greatest contempt 
 and injury of the people at large and of the popular tongues. 
 Let all things be delivered to each nation in its own speech." — 
 Quoted by Quick, 159. 
 
 " Milton was a. realist who sought the study of reality, in so 
 far as realism entered into his system, in the ancients, whereas 
 Comenius sought for the study of reality as modern science pre- 
 sented it, including the ancients or abridgments of their works, 
 only in so far as they were necessary and accessory." — Ibid. 160. 
 
 1 " At my first sitting to read to him (Milton), observing that 
 I used the English pronunciation, he told me, if I wonld have 
 the benefit of the Latin tongue, not only to read and understand 
 Latin authors, but to converse with foreigners, either abroad or 
 at home, I must learn the foreign pronunciation. To this I con- 
 senting, he instructed me how to sound the vowels ; so different 
 from the common pronunciation used by the English, who speak 
 Angliee their Latin, that — with some few other variations in 
 sounding some consonants in particular cases, as c before e ur i 
 like ch, sc before i like sh, etc. — the Latin thus spoken seemed 
 as different from that which was delivered, as the English gen- 
 erally speak it, as if it were another language." — The History 
 of Thomas Ellwood viritten by Himself, Morley's Universal Li- 
 brary, 134-35. 
 
 ^ smatter : see Skeat, Etymohgical Dictionary. 
 
 ' season : mature, ripen, or perhaps imbue. See P. L. x, 609. 
 
V 
 
 12 JOHN MILTON 
 
 readi to them, whereof the Greeks have store, as 
 Cebes,2 Plutarch,^ and other Socratic discourses. But 
 in Latin we have none of classic authority extant, ex- 
 cept the two or three first books of Quintilian,* and 
 some select pieces elsewhere. 
 
 But here the main skill and groundwork will he, to 
 temper them such lectures and explanations, upon 
 every opportunity, as may lead and draw them in wiU- 
 ing obedience, inflamed with the study of learning 
 and* the admiration of virtue ; stirred up with high 
 ^hopes of living to be brave men, and worthy patriots, 
 ?dear to God, and famous to all ap^es. That they may 
 despise and scorn all their childish and Hi-taught quali- 
 ties, to delight in manly and liberal exercises, which 
 he who hath the art and proper eloquence to catch 
 
 1 Doubtless in Latin translations. 
 
 ' Cebea of Thebes, a disciple of Socrates (see the Phcedo), 
 the author of the Tltva^ (T'aJZe), a popular book in the seventeenth 
 century. It contains a philosophical explanation of an allegori- 
 cal picture or table. This table, expounded by an old man to 
 Bome youths, shows that in a previous existence mau had been 
 given laws to guide his conduct, but the drink of obliviou as he 
 passed to the present state made him forget these wise rules ; 
 now he is tempted to all kinds of vice, and must win virtue and 
 happiness by patience, endurance, and learning. 
 
 ' Plutarch (50 ?-125 ? a.d.) of Chaeronea in Bceotia. His 
 most famous work is the Parallel Lives, authentic biographies, 
 written in pairs, of a Greek and a Roman who have something 
 in common, either in time or political career, permitting them to 
 be considered together. But Milton probably meant some part 
 of the Moral Works ; these are treatises, often in the form of 
 Socratic dialogues, on a large variety of subjects. The first On 
 the Education of Children is perhaps the one recommended for 
 reading. 
 
 * Quintilian (35 ?-95 ? a.d.), a native of Spain ; he was 
 for twenty years head of the foremost school of oratory at 
 Rome. His chief work is Institutio Oratoria, the first two 
 books of which are devoted to setting forth his plan for the ed- 
 ucation of youth. 
 
OF EDUCATION 13 
 
 them with, what with mild and effectual persuasions, 
 and what with the intimation of some fear, if need be, 
 but chiefly by his own example ,i might in a short space 
 gain them to an incredible diligence and courage, in- 
 fusing into their young breasts such an ingenuous and 
 noble ardor, as would not fail to make many of them 
 renowned and matchless men. At the same time, some 
 other hour of the day, might be taught them the rules 
 of arithmetic ; and soon after the elements of geome- 
 try, even playing,^ as the old manner was. After 
 evening repast, till bedtime, their thoughts would be 
 best taken up in the easy grounds of religion, and the 
 story of scripture. 
 
 The next step would be to the authors ^ of agi-icul- 
 
 ^ Note the emphasis upon the personal influence of the teaclier. 
 
 '^ playing : " I have said elsewhere of Roman education (Ed. 
 Theor. p. 21), ' Next to reading and writing came reckoning, 
 the fingers were made great use of, each joint and bend of the 
 finger was made to signify a certain value, and the pupil was 
 expected to follow the twinkling motion of the teacher's hands as 
 he represented number after number. The modern Italian game 
 of Mora is a survival of this capacity.' Plato more than once 
 represents Socrates as giving lessons in Geometry to young 
 Greeks in the Palaestra." O. B. 33. 
 
 ' Cato the Censor (234-149 B.C.). His De Re Rustica is the 
 only work which exists entire ; the first part of it is an exposi- 
 tion of the best means of cultivating the soil ; this is followed 
 by a large number of receipts, rules for housekeeping, formulas 
 for sales and leases, for sacrifices and domestic medicine. 
 
 Varro (116-27 B.C.), a writer of extensive learning and 
 of great versatility. He wrote six hundred and twenty books on 
 poetry, history, oratory, philosophy, and, many other subjects. 
 Three of- these are on Rerum Rusticarum ; the first treats of 
 agriculture, the second of cattle, the third of bird and fish- 
 breeding. Tliey are in the form of dialogues, full of vivid scenes 
 and witty observations. 
 
 Columella (first century A.D.) wrote twelve books, De Re 
 Rustica, which form a sj-stematio treatise on all branches re- 
 
14 JOHN MILTON 
 
 ture, Cato, Varro, and Columella, for the matter is 
 most easy ; and if the language he difficult, so much 
 the better, it is not a difficulty above their years. And 
 here will be an occasion of inciting, and enabling them 
 hereafter to improve the tillage of their country, to 
 recover the bad soil, and to remedy the waste that is 
 made of good ; for this was one of Hercules' praises. 
 Ere half these authors be read (which will soon be 
 with plying hard and daily) they cannot choose but be 
 masters of any ordinary prose. So that it will be then 
 seasonable for them to learn in any modem author 
 the use of the globes, and all the maps, first, with the 
 old names, and then with, the new ; ^ or they might be 
 then capable to read any compendious method of nat- 
 ural philosophy. 
 
 And at the same time might be entering into the 
 Greek tongue, after the same manner as was before 
 prescribed in the Latin ; whereby the difficulties of 
 grammar being soon overcome, all the historical phy- 
 siology of Aristotle ^ and Theophrastus ^ are open be- 
 
 lating to farming, and are classics on the subject. The tenth 
 book, on gardening, is in verse after the manner of Virgil's 
 Georgics. 
 
 1 " This mode of studying geography has since been adopted, 
 particularly at Eton, where, with the help of Arrowsmith's Com- 
 parative Atla^, in which the ancient and modern maps of coun- 
 tries are bound up face to face, n, lad may quickly ac()uire a 
 knowledge of at least the elements of this useful science." 
 P. W. Ill, 469 (note). 
 
 2 Aristotle (384^322 B.C.). The Natural History of Animals 
 is referred to. 
 
 » TheophraBtua (372-287 B.C.), a pupil of Aristotle, and 
 his follower in the leadership of the Peripatetic School. The 
 most important of his numerous works that remain are. On the 
 History of Plants in nine books, and Principles of Vegetable Life 
 in six books. These are the most significant works on botanical 
 SC/ience before modern times. 
 
OF EDUCATION 15 
 
 fore them, and, as I may say, under contribution. The 
 like access will be to Vitruvius ; ^ to Seneca's ^ natural 
 questions, to Mela,^ Celsus,^ Pliny,^ or Solinus.^ And 
 having thus passed the principles of arithmetic, geo- 
 metry, astronomy, and geography with a general com- 
 pact of physics, they may descend in mathematics to 
 the instrumental science of trigonometry, and from 
 thence to fortification, architecture, enginery,^ or navi- 
 gation. And in natural philosophy they may proceed 
 leisurely from the history of meteors, minerals, plants, 
 and living creatures, as far as anatomy. 
 
 Then also in course might be read to them, out of 
 
 1 Vitruvius, who lived in the time of Augustus, wrote ten 
 books, De Archite'ctura. This is the only treatise on the subject 
 remaining from classic ages. It is full of learned and practical 
 knowledge, and from the time of its revival in the early Renais- 
 sance it has had great influence npon architecture. 
 
 ^ Seneca (4 B.C.-65 a.d.), whose Naturalium Questionum, 
 in seven books, deals chiefly with meteorology and astronomy. 
 It was, although merely an unscientific collection of facts from 
 Greeks and Roman authors, used during the Middle Ages as a 
 text-book of science. 
 
 ' Pomponius Mela (first century a.d.) wrote three books De 
 Chorographia J this is the earliest extant account of the ancient 
 world, and the only systematic treatise on geography that re- 
 mains in the Latin language. 
 
 ^ A.Cornelius Celsus (probably first century A.D.) wrote on 
 many subjects, but there remain only the eight books, DeMedi- 
 cina, which give an account of the whole medical system of the 
 time. 
 
 ' Pliny the Elder (23-79 a.d.) wrote Naturalis Hintoria, 
 in thirty-seven books ; it is a compilation of natural science, and 
 also includes the subjects of geography, medicine, and the his- 
 tory of art. 
 
 8 Solinus (probably first half, of third century a.d.) wrote 
 Collecteana Rerum Memorahilium, which consists chiefly of selec- 
 tions from Pliny, amplified and arranged from a geographical 
 point of view. 
 
 ' enginery : engineering. 
 
16 JOHN MILTON 
 
 some not tedious ■writer, the institution of physic,^ 
 that they may know the tempers, the humors, ^ the 
 seasons,' and how to manage a crudity ; ^ which he 
 who can wisely and timely do, is not only a great 
 physician to himself and to his friends, but also may, 
 at some time or other, save an army by this frugal and 
 expenseless means only ; and not let the healthy and 
 stout bodies of young men rot away under him for 
 want of this discipline ; which is a great pity, and no 
 less a shame to the commander. To set forward all 
 these proceedings* in nature and mathematics, what 
 hinders but that they may procure, as often as shall 
 be needful, the helpful experiences ^ of hunters, fowlers, 
 fishermen, shepherds, gardeners, apothecaries ; and in 
 the other sciences, architects, engineers, mariners, an- 
 atomists ; who doubtless would be ready, some for re- 
 ward, and some to favor such a hopeful seminary. And 
 this will give them such a real tincture of natural 
 knowledge,^ as they shall never forget, but daily aug- 
 ment with delight. Then also those poets * which are 
 
 1 institution of physic : elements or first priuciples of medi- 
 cine. 
 
 2 humors : the physiology of. the Middle Ages taught that 
 there were four fluids or humors in the body : blood, phlegm, 
 choler, and melancholy or bliick bile ; and the relative propor- 
 tion of each determined the disposition or temperament {temper) 
 of the person. See Comiui, 810 ; S. A. 600. 
 
 * seasons : the way in which the different seasons aSect 
 the health of the body. 
 
 * crudity : indigestion. 
 
 ^ proceedings : goings forward, steps in advance. 
 
 ' We are now, in our universities, beginning to ask the aid of 
 those who have had practical experience. 
 
 ' natural kncwledge ; the knowledge of nature. 
 
 ' Orpheus, a mythic poet of Thrace, to whom have been at- 
 tributed the Argonautica, an epic poem relating the story of the 
 Argonauts ; over eighty Hymns of the Neo-Platonie school : 
 
OF EDUCATION 17 
 
 now counted most hard, will be both facile and pleas- 
 ant, Orpheus, Hesiod, Theocritus, Aratus, Nicander, 
 Oppiau, Dionysius ; and in Latin, Lucretius, Mani- 
 lius, and the rural part of Virgil. 
 
 the Lithica,a, poem in hexameters telling the properties of stones 
 and how to use them in divination ; and fragments of a 
 Theogony. It is doubtless the third of these that Milton here 
 refers to. 
 
 Hesiod (about 735 B.C.), one of the earliest poets of 
 Greece. The chief poems said to have been written by him are 
 the Works and Days, which consist of ethical precepts about 
 honest labor, of rules for farming, and of a calendar for the 
 mouths, with the days lucky for the farmer indicated ; aud a 
 Theogony, containing the story of creation aud of the birth of 
 the gods. 
 
 Theocritus (first half of third century B.C.), the pastoral 
 poet of Syracuse. Of his poems there remain tweuty-uiue of the 
 Idyls, and a few Epigrams. 
 
 Aratus (al)oiit 270 B.C.), the author of two astronoinicfil 
 poems. Phenomena and Prognoslica. It is from the former that 
 St. Paul quotes in Acts xvii, 28. 
 
 Nicander (probably second ceutury B.C.); of his writings 
 there are left only two poems, Theriaca, whicli treats of venom- 
 ous animals and the wounds inflicted by them; and Alexiphar- 
 maca, giving a list of poisons and their antidotes. 
 
 Oppian (latter part of second and begiuniug of third 
 century A.D.); in Milton's time considered the author of two 
 poems Haliutica, setting forth the joys of fishing ; and Cynege- 
 tica, in praise of hunting. The poems have been, since the eigh- 
 teenth century, attributed to two different hands. 
 
 Dionysius (probably fourth century A.D.), the writer of 
 Periegesis, a poem describing the whole earth as then known. 
 
 Lucretius (96?-55 B.C.), the author of the famous poem 
 in six books, De Rerum Natura. The avowed purpose of the 
 writer is didactic, to free the human mind from a superstitious 
 belief in the gods. 
 
 Manilius (probably last century B.C.), the so-called author 
 of Astronomica, a poem, of which five books remain, treating more 
 of astrology than of astronomy. 
 
 Virgil, the " rural part " would be the Ecloga and Gear' 
 gicon. 
 
18 JOHN MILTON 
 
 By this time,i years and good general precepts will 
 have furnished them more distinctly with that act of 
 reason which in ethics is called Proairesis,* that they 
 may with some judgment contemplate upon moral 
 good and evil. Then will be required a special rein- 
 forcement of constant and sound indoctrinating, to 
 set them right and firm, instructing them more amply 
 in the knowledge of virtue and the hatred of vice ; 
 while their young and pliant affections are led through 
 all the moral works' of Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, 
 Plutarch, Laertius, and those Locrian remnants ; but 
 still to be reduced ■* in their nightward studies where- 
 with they close the day's work, under the determinate ^ 
 sentence of David or Solomon, or the evangels ^ and 
 apostolic scriptures. Being perfect in the knowledge 
 of person al duty, thev m a v then be "-i n the study of 
 economics.' And either now or before this, they may 
 
 * The student is now about fifteen or sixteen years old. Re- 
 view what he has accomplished in subjects and authors in these 
 three or four years. His moral nature is next to be the object of 
 training. 
 
 ^ Froairesis : the deliberate choice between right and wrong. 
 
 ' Plato, Xenophon, Cicero : what works of these authors 
 does he refer to, as books fitted for moral instruction ? 
 
 Plutarch : now to be read in Greek. See p. 12, n. 3. 
 
 Diogenes Laertius (probably second century A.D.), the au- 
 thor of a History of Philosophy; this has, for a long time, been 
 the foundation of most modern histories of ancient philosophy. 
 
 Timseus of Locri was the reputed teacher of Plato and author 
 of a work On the Soul of the World. It has now been shown that 
 this could not have been written earlier than the first century 
 A.D. 
 
 ^ reduced : led back. 
 
 ' determinate : definitive, final. Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 
 n, iv, 176. 
 
 ' evangels : the Gospels. 
 
 ' economics : the student is now to study his duty to others. 
 
OF EDUCATIOM 19 
 
 have easily learned, at any odd hour, th ^Italian tongue. 
 And soon after, but with wariness and good antidote, 
 it would be wholesome enough to let them taste some 
 choice comedies, Greek, Latin, or Italian ; those trage- 
 dies, also, that treat of household matters, as Trachi- 
 nise,i Alcestis, and the like. 
 
 The next remove must be to the study of poli- 
 tics ; 2 to know the beginning, end, and reasons of 
 political societies; that they may not, in a dangerous 
 fit of the commonwealth, be such poor, shaken, un- 
 certain reeds, of such a tottering conscience, as 
 many of our great counsellors ^ have lately shewn 
 themselves, but steadfast pillars of the state. After 
 this, they are to dive into the grounds of law, and 
 legal justice ; delivered first and with best warrant 
 by Moses ; and as far as human prudence can be trusted, 
 in those extolled remains of Grecian lawgivers,'* 
 Lycurgus, Solon, Zaleucus, Charondas, and thence 
 to all the Koman edicts * and tables^ with their Jjjs- 
 
 ' ' ^ Trachiniae of Sophoclea ; the Alcestis of Euripides. Both 
 plays present the sufiering and sacrifice of a faithful wife for her 
 husband. 
 
 ' The third step is the studj of the student's relation to the 
 state. 
 
 * The war between King and Parliament had begnn two years 
 before, and there must liave been many instances of a change of 
 sides among counsellors. 
 
 * Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta ; Solon of Athens ; 
 Zaleucus (middle of eighth century B.C.) gave laws to the 
 Locrians, who had settled in the extreme southwestern part of 
 Italy; Charondas (494-476? b.c.) was the lawgiver of Ca- 
 tana, his own city in Sicily, and of other cities of Sicily and Italy. 
 
 ' Roman edicts : the rules by which a praetor declared he 
 would be guided during his term of office ; these rules renewed 
 year by year gradually came to form a large part of the body 
 of Koman law. 
 
 A tables : the Twelve Tables containing the laws of Rome ; 
 
20 JOHN MILTON 
 
 tinian : i and so down to the Saxon and common laws 
 of England, and the statutes. 
 
 Sundays also and every evening may be now under- 
 standingly spent in the highest matters of theology, 
 and church history,^ ancient and modern ; and ere this 
 time the Hebrew tongue at a set hour ^ might have 
 been gained, that the ScrijDtures may be now read in 
 their own original ; whereto it would be no impossibil- 
 ity to add the Chaldee and the Syrian dialect.* When 
 all these employments are well conquered, then will 
 the choice histories, heroic poems, and Attic tragedies 
 of stateliest and most regal argument, with all the 
 
 these laws were engraved (about 450 B.C.) on bronze, and 
 "until the time of Cicero they were learnt by heart in the 
 schools." — T. and S. i, 115. 
 
 ^ Justinian the Great (483-565 A.D.), the Emperor of Rome 
 and the codifier of the Koman law ; his two great collections 
 of laws are the Institutes and the Digest. 
 
 ^ The speculations of theology and the history of the organ- 
 ization of the church, are to accompany the study of politics and 
 law. 
 
 ^ at a set hotir : iu contrast with the way Italian is to be 
 acquired. 
 
 * the Chaldee and the Syrian dialect : Aramaic (some- 
 times called Chaldee) was the dialect of Syria and Mesopota- 
 mia, the commercial language of the East, aud the common 
 speech of Palestine in the time of Christ. Hebrew had ceased 
 to exist as a spoken language about the fifth century B.C., and 
 the Hebrews, after the return from captivity in Babylon, used 
 Aramaic as their vernacular ; this change was doubtless facili- 
 tated by the fact that they had become familiar with a dialect 
 of Aramaic (called Chaldee in the Old Testament, Dan. I, 4) 
 spoken in that country. Syriac, often called Christian Aramaic, 
 was a dialect of Aramaic in use in the city of Edessa, the centre 
 of early Christianity. The Church adopted this language, and 
 in Syriac were written the earliest known manuscripts of the 
 New Testament. See E. C. Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual 
 Criticism of the New Testament, 126 ; also A. H. Sayce, Intro- 
 duction to the Science of Language, 171. 
 
OF EDUCATION 21 
 
 famous political orations, offer themselves ; ^ which if 
 they were not only read, but some of them got by 
 memory, and solemnly pronounced with right accent 
 and grace, as might be taught, would endue them 
 even with the spirit and vigor of Demosthenes or 
 Cicero, Euripides or Sophocles. 
 
 And now, lastly,^ will be the time to read with them 
 those organic 5 arts, which enable men to discourse 
 and write perspicuously, elegantly, and according to 
 the fittest style, of lofty, mean,^ or lowly. Logic,^ 
 therefore, so much as is useful, is to be referred" Lu't'lll'S 
 due place with all her well-couched heads and topics, 
 untU it be time to open her contracted palm into a 
 graceful and ornate rhetoric, taught out of the rule ^ 
 
 ^ Doubtless the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides; the 
 heroic poems are of course the Iliad, Odyssey, and the JEyieid ; 
 the Attic tragedies are probably the Trilogy of ^sohylus and 
 the CEdipus plays of Sophocles ; the orations of Demosthenes 
 and Cieero. 
 
 ' lastly : composition and elocution or public-speaking are to 
 come last. 
 
 ' organic : serving as a means to an end. 
 
 * mean : medium. 
 
 ^ Iiogic : note the limitation on the study of logic; it, too, must 
 be under the ruling principle of usefulness. " Logic was com- 
 pared by Aristotle and others to a close fist, rhetoric to an open 
 palm. Cicero, De Finibus, il, 6." — O. B. 
 
 ° Plato discusses the question of rhetoric in the latter part of 
 the Phcedrus. Aristotle, the Rhetoric. 
 
 Demetrius Phalereus (345-283 B.C.), the last of the popular 
 orators of Athens. The only one of his many works remaining 
 is that on Elocution ; it is now believed to be by a later hand. 
 
 Cicero, Rhelorica. 
 
 Hermogenes (second half of second century A.D.), the Greek 
 rhetorician ; his five remaining works, containing a system of 
 rhetoric, were for a long time used as manuals in the schools. 
 
 Longinus (213-273), the famous Greek critic and philoso- 
 pher to whom the treatise On the Sublime has been attributed. 
 
22 JOHN MILTON 
 
 of Plato, Aristotle, Phalereus, Cicero, Hermogenes, 
 Longinus. To which poetry would be made subse- 
 quent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less subtle 
 and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate.^ 
 I mean not here the prosody of a verse, which they 
 could not but have hit on before among the rudiments 
 of grammar ; but that sublime art which in Aristotle's 
 poetics, in Horace,^ and the Italian commentaries ' of 
 Castelvetro, Tasso, Mazzoni, and others, teaches what 
 the laws of a true epic poem, what of a dramatic, 
 what of a lyric, what decorum ^ is, which is the grand 
 masterpiece ^ to observe. This would make them soon 
 perceive what despicable creatures our common rhym- 
 ers and play-writers be ; * and show them what relig- 
 ious, what glorious and magnificent use might be made 
 of poetry, both in divine and human things. 
 
 From hence, and not till now, will be the right 
 season of forming them to be able writers and com- 
 
 ^ Observe that this oft-quoted definition of poetry is not really 
 a definition, but rather a comparison between poetry and rhe- 
 toric. 
 
 ^ Horace : Ars Poetica. 
 
 ' Ludovico Castelvetro (1505-71) published at Vienna in 
 1570 an Italian translation of Aristotle's Poetics acconipauiedby 
 a critical Exposition. Hallani (Literature of Europe, u, 296) 
 says, " It may justly claim respect, not only as the earliest expo- 
 sition of the theory of criticism, but for its acuteness, erudition, 
 and independence of reasoning." But see Symonds, Menaissance 
 in Italy, v. 250. 
 
 Tasso set forth his opinions and theories regarding poetry in 
 a prose treatise of six books, entitled Discourses on JEpic Poetry. 
 
 Jacobo Mazzoui (1548-98), a friend of Tasso's, is best known 
 by his Defence of the Divina Commedia of Dante; his book was 
 widely known and influential in its time. 
 
 ■* decorum : fitness in writing. 
 
 ^ grand masterpiece : the chief point. 
 
 * What play-writers is he here condemning ? 
 
OF EDUCATION 23 
 
 posers in every excellent matter, when they shall be 
 thus fraught with an universal insight into things. Or_/ 
 whether they be to speak in parliament or council, 
 honor and attention would be waiting on their lips. 
 There would then also appear in pulpits other visage, 
 other gestures, and stuff otherwise wrought than what 
 we now sit under,i ofttimes to as great a trial of our 
 patience as any other that they preach to us. These 
 are the studies wherein our noble and our gentle youth 
 ought to bestow their time, in a disciplinary way, from ^/ ^• 
 twelve to one-and-twenty : unless they rely more upon^ 
 their ancestors dead, than upon themselves living. Inf 
 which methodical course it is so supposed they must 
 proceed by the steady pace of learning onward, as at 
 convenient times, for memory's sake, to retire back 
 into the middle ward, 2- and sometimes into the rear of 
 what they have been taught, until they have confirmed 
 and solidly united the whole body of their perfected 
 knowledge, like the embattling^ of a Roman legion. 
 Now will be worth the seeing, what exercises and recrea, 
 tions may best agree, and become these studies. 
 
 The course of study hitherto briefly described is, 
 what I can guess by reading, likest to those ancient 
 and famous schools * of Pythagoras, Plato, Isocrates, 
 
 1 'we new sit under : " that men should sit all their life 
 long at the feet of a pulpited divine ... a loUard indeed over 
 his elbow cushion . . . teaching here and there at random out 
 of this or that text, as his ease or fancy, and ofttimes as his 
 stealth guides him." — P. W. in, 24. 
 
 2 ward = guard ; compare vanguard, rearguard. See Skeat, 
 Etymologicdi Dictionary. 
 
 ' embattling : see P. L. VI, 16 ; xil, 213. 
 
 * famous schools: the group of disciples whom Pythagoras 
 (529 B.C.) gathered about him at Cotrona in southeastern Italy, 
 and to whom he taught his philosophy ; the famous Academy 
 founded by Plato at Athens 387 B.C.; Isocrates, whom Cicero 
 
24 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Aristotle, and such others, out of which were bred such 
 a number of renowned philosophers, orators, historians, 
 poets, and princes all over Greece, Italy, and Asia, be- 
 sides the flourishing studies ^ of Cyrene and Alexan- 
 dria. But herein it shall exceed them, and supply 
 a defect as great as that which Plato noted in the com- 
 
 jTnonwealth of Sparta,^ whereas that city trained up 
 their youth most for war, and these in their academies 
 and Lyceum all for the gown,^ this institution of breed- 
 ing which I here delineate shall be equally good both 
 for peace and war. Therefore about an hour and a 
 
 'naif ere they eat at noon should be allowed them for 
 exercise, and due rest afterwards ; but the time for 
 this may be enlarged at pleasure according as their 
 rising in the morning shall be early. 
 
 The exercise which I commend first, is the exact use 
 
 calls the father of eloquence {De Oral, n, 3, and 22) established 
 about 392 B.C. a school of rhetoric at Athens ; the school in the 
 Lyceum at Atliens where Aristotle (about 335 B.C.) walked 
 up and down the avenues of shade-trees and taught his philoso- 
 phy to his pupils. 
 
 1 studies: Cyrene was noted for a school of medicine, and 
 for its keen intellectual life. Alexandria was famous throughout 
 the world from 396-30 B.C. as the home of literature and sci- 
 ence, the former characterized by profound learning and untir- 
 ing research, but by little originality. After the cultivation of 
 literature had passed to Rome, there arose in Alexandria (about 
 30 B.C.) the well-known Neo-Platonic school of philosophy, 
 which until abont 640 a.d. made the city the centre of philoso- 
 phic thought. The Greek poets mentioned after Hesiod on page 
 17 all belonged to the Alexandrine school of literature. 
 
 2 Plato, Laws, I, 626, 633, 636. Also Aristotle, Politics, vn, 
 2, 9. " In Lacedsemon and Crete the system of education and 
 the greater part of the laws are framed with a view to war." 
 And VIII, 4, 1, " The Laeedseraoniana . . . brutalize their chil- 
 dren by laborious exercises which they think will make them 
 courageous." 
 
 ° gcwn: the Roman toga, hence the symbol of peace. 
 
OF EDUCATION 2S 
 
 of their weapon, ^ to guard, and to strike safely with 
 edge or point; this will keep them healthy, nimble, 
 strong, and well in breath; is also the likeliest means 
 to make them grow large and tall, and to inspire them 
 with a gallant and fearless courage, which being tem^ 
 pered with seasonable lectures and precepts to them 
 of true fortitude and patience, will turn into a native 
 and heroic valor and make them hate the cowardice 
 of doing wrong. 2 They must be also practiced in all 
 the locks and gripes of wrestling ' wherein English- 
 men were wont to excel, as need may often be in fight 
 to tug, to grapple, and to close. And this perhaps will be 
 enough, wherein to prove and heat their single strength. 
 The interim of unsweating * themselves regularly, 
 and convenient rest before meat, may, both with profit 
 and delight, be taken up in recreating and composing 
 their travailed spirits with the solemn and divine har- 
 monies of music, heard or learned ; ^ either whilst the 
 skillful organist plies his grave and fancied descant * 
 
 1 use of their weapon: fencing. See p. xxxvii. 
 
 2 That is, tlie training of the body aids in forming moral 
 standards. See Plato, Laws, Vii, 791. 
 
 ' ■w^restling : Milton would revive this almost f oi-gotten sport. 
 " The citizens of London, in times past, are said to have been 
 expert in the art of wrestling, and annually upon St. James's 
 day they were accustomed to make a public trial of their skill. 
 . . . From the time that wrestling became unfashionable and 
 was rarely practised by persons of opulence, it declined also 
 among the populace, but by slower degrees; and at present is 
 seldom seen except at wakes and fairs, where it still continues 
 to be partially exhibited." — Strutt, Sports and Bastimes of the 
 People of England, 146. / 
 
 * unsvireating: cooling off after exercise. ; 
 
 * learned: probablyhe means that the studentwill find the act- 
 ual practice upon some musical instrument a rest during this in- 
 terim. 
 
 ' descant: " An instrumental prelude, consisting of variations 
 on a given theme." — N. E. D. 
 
26 JOHN MILTON 
 
 in lofty fugues,! or the whole symphony with artftil 
 and unimaginable touches adorn and grace the well- 
 studied chords of some choice composer ; sometimes 
 the lute or soft organ-stop waiting on elegant voices, 
 either to religious, martial, or civil ditties ; ^ which, if 
 wise men ' and prophets be not extremely out, have a 
 great power over dispositions and manners, to smooth 
 and make them gentle from rustic harshness and dis- 
 tempered passions. The like also would not be inexpe- 
 dient after meat, to assist and cherish nature in her 
 first concoction,* and send their minds back to study 
 in good tune and satisfaction. Where having followed 
 it close under vigilant eyes, till about two hours before 
 supper,^ they are, by a sudden alarum or watchword, 
 to be called out to their military motions, under sky 
 or covert, according to the season, as was the Roman 
 wont ; first on foot, then, as their age permits, on 
 horseback, to aU the art of cavalry ; that having in 
 sport, but with much exactness and daily muster, served 
 out the rudiments of their soldiership, in all the skill 
 of embattling, marching, encamping, fortifying, besieg- 
 ing, and battering, with all the helps of ancient and 
 modern stratagems, tactics, and warlike maxims, they 
 may as it were out of a long war come forth renowned 
 
 ^ fugues: "a polyphonic ooicposition, in wliich one or more 
 themes iutroduced by one part are repeated and developed by 
 others in succession." — L. E. L. 
 
 " ditties: songs. 
 
 8 Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, bk. i, ckap. 10, musters a long 
 roll of wise men who have testified to the educational value of 
 music. See P. X. xi,563, and Solemn Music ; also Plato's Republic, 
 III, 399; Shakespeare: Tempest, I, ii, 391-93 ; Measure for Meas- 
 ure, IV, i, 14, 15; Merchant of Venice, v, i, 70-85; Taming oftht 
 Shrew, iii, i, 10-12. 
 
 * concoction: digestion. See P. L. v, 437. 
 
 " supper was usually between seven and eight o'clock. 
 
OF EDUCATION 27 
 
 and perfect commanders in the service of their coun- 
 try.i They would not then,^ if they were trusted with 
 fair and hopeful armies, suffer them, for want of just 
 and wise discipline, to shed away from about them 
 like sick feathers, though they be never so oft supplied ; 
 they would not suffer their empty and unrecruitable ^ 
 colonels of twenty men in a company, to quaff out 
 or convey into secret hoards, the wages of a delusive 
 list,* and a miserable remnant ; yet in the meanwhile 
 to be overmastered with a score or two of drunkards, 
 the only soldiery left about them, or else to comply 
 with all rapines and violences. No, certainly, if they 
 knew aught of that knowledge that belongs to good 
 men or good governors, they would not suffer these 
 things. 
 
 But to turn to our own institute : besides these con - 
 stant ex e rcises at home., there is another opportunity 
 of gaining experience to be won •''^^rn pl"?°"^" itip^^ 
 abroad : in those vernal seasons ^ of the ypar wl^^.n tha 
 air is calm and pleasant ^ If, were an inj ury and sul- 
 lenn ess against nature, not to go out and see her riches, 
 
 1 Milton's college is then to include the training of a military 
 academy. 
 
 2 They ■wrould not then: "The constant diminution of his 
 [Essex] array through 1643 from sickness and desertion was a 
 constant subject of complaint, and there was information giren 
 to Parliament in the end of that year of companies with only 
 twenty men in them near London amongst those serving under 
 Essex." — Quoted from S. R. Gardiner by O. B. 
 
 ' unrecruitable: probably, not able to obtain recruits. 
 
 ^ delusive list: a list that existed only on paper ; aud the 
 men actually in service were only a miserable remnant. 
 
 6 This method of instruction is gradually coming into use in 
 educational cruises, which generally extend over several months; 
 and in botanical, zoological, or geological excursions of profes- 
 sors and students. These last are, however, chiefly undertaken, 
 not in the spring, but in the long summer vacations. 
 
«8 JOHN MILTON 
 
 and partake in her reioicing with h^n.vpri pf\\\ p.nvi-h. 
 I should not therefore be a persuader to them of study- 
 ing much then, after two or three years that they have 
 well laid their grounds, but to ride out in companies, 
 with prudent and staid guides, to all the quarters of 
 the land : learning and observing all places of strength, 
 all commodities ^ of building and of soil, for towns and 
 tillage, harbors and ports for trade. Sometimes taMng 
 sea as far as to our navy, to learn there also what they 
 can in the practical knowledge of sailing and of sea- 
 fight. 
 
 These ways would try all their peculiar gifts of 
 nature ; and if there were any secret excellence among 
 them would fetch it out, and give it fair opportuni- 
 ties to advance itself by, which could not but mightily 
 redound to the good of this nation, and bring into 
 fashion again those old admired virtues and excel- 
 lencies, with far more advantage now in this purity of 
 Christian knowledge. Nor shall we then need the 
 monsieurs of Paris to take our hopeful youth into their 
 slight and prodigal ^ custodies, and send them over, 
 back again, transformed into mimics, apes, and kick- 
 shaws.' But if they desire to see other countries at 
 three or four and twenty years of age,* not to learn 
 principles, but to enlarge experience, and make wise 
 observation, they vnll by that time be such as shall 
 deserve the regard and honor of all men where 
 they pass, and the society and friendship of those in 
 
 1 oommodities : suitability, fitting utility. 
 
 ° slight and prodigal: worthless or frivolous and wastefiilly 
 lavish. See Shakespeare: Julius Ccesar, iv, i, 12; Love's Labour 't 
 Lost, V, ii, 463. 
 
 ' kickshaws: fantastic or frivolous persons. 
 
 * Miltou himself was almost thirty before he went abroad. 
 
OF EDUCATION 29 
 
 all places who are best and most eminent. And, 
 perhaps, then other nations will be glad to visit us 
 for their breeding, or else to imitate us in their own 
 country. 
 
 Now, lastly, for their diet there cannot be much to 
 say, save only that it would be best in the same house ; 
 for much time else would be lost abroad, and many ill 
 habits got; and that it should be plain, healthful, and 
 moderate,! I suppose is out of controversy. Thus, Mr. 
 Hartlib, you have a general view in writing, as your 
 desire was, of that which at several times I had dis- 
 coursed with you concerning the best and noblest way 
 of education ; not beginning, as some have done, from 
 the cradle, which yet might be worth many considera- 
 tions, if brevity had not been my scope ; many other cir- 
 cumstances also I could have mentioned, but this, to 
 such as have the worth in them to make trial, for light 
 and direction may be enough. Only I believe that this 
 is not a bow for every man to shoot in,^ that counts 
 himself a teacher ; but will require sinews almost equal 
 to those which Homer gave Ulysses ; * yet I am withal 
 persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the 
 assay,* than it now seems at distance, and much more 
 
 1 Of Milton's own practice, see p. Izis. 
 
 ^ in : with. 
 
 ' Ulysses : Penelope says to the wooers, "I will set forth for 
 you the great bow of divine Odysseus, and whoso shall most 
 easily string the bow in his hands, and shoot through all the 
 twelve axes, with him will I go and forsake this house." The 
 wooers try one by one to draw the bow, but each in turn fails, 
 then the disguised Odysseus " caught up a swift arrow which 
 lay by his table . . . and laid it on the bridge of the bow, and 
 held the notch and drew the string, even from the settle whereon 
 he sat, and with straight aim shot the shaft and missed not one 
 of the axes." — Odyssey, bk. xxr. 
 
 * assay: attempt, experiment. 
 
80 JOHN MILTON 
 
 illustrious ; howbeit, not more difficult thau I imagine, 
 and that imagination presents me with nothing but 
 very happy, and very possible according to best wishes ; 
 if God have so decreed, and this age have spirit and 
 capacity enough to apprehend. 
 
AEEOPAGITICA i 
 
 A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENSED 
 PRINTING, TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND 
 
 This is true liberty, when free-bom men, 
 Having to advise the public, may epealc free, 
 'Which he who can, and will, deeervee high praise ; 
 Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace ; 
 What can be juster in a State than this? 
 
 Edbifides, The Suppliants. 
 
 They who to states ^ and governors of the Common- 
 wealth direct their speech, High Court of Parliament, 
 or, wanting ' such access in a private condition, write 
 
 » Published November 24, 1644. 
 
 Milton chose this title because of the classic precedent in 
 the speech of Isoorates to the Areopagus at Athens, 355 B.C. 
 Isocrates, the celebrated orator and rhetorician, was by nature 
 too timid and had too weak a body to endure the strain of speak- 
 ing in public; therefore, he composed his orations tj be! read, 
 some of them as if addressed directly to an audience. They were, 
 then, what this of Milton's is, reading speeches. Isocrates. like 
 Milton, was a lover of lib erty, and in his 'Kiyos ApcoiraylriK6s, 
 (<AreCpagitic Discourse) Jhg_jioujgMjoJ[nfluenoe_^^ 
 by an appeal to high ideals of conduct. The Areopagus, which 
 he ad3^3se"d7waSTh'e"liigh court or Athens; it had the jurisdic- 
 tion in certain cases of murder, and the direction of religion. It 
 had previously had the supervision of the law courts, the control 
 of the education of the young, and the censorship of public morals. 
 It had once been composed of men of age, integrity, and experi- 
 ence, who had been patterns of right conduct in themselves as 
 ■well as judges of evil action in others. But weaker and baser 
 men had gained place, and the great moral influence of the 
 
 2 states: heads of states. Cf. P. L. ir, 387; Ps. Lxxxil, 2. 
 " wanting: desiring, but being without such access because 
 of their private position. 
 
32 JOHN MILTON 
 
 that whicli they foresee may advance the public good; ^ 
 I suppose them, as at the beginning of no mean en- 
 deavor, not a little altered ^ and moved inwardly in 
 their minds : some with doubt of what will be the suc- 
 cess,^ others with fear of what will be the censure ; ^ 
 some with hope, others with confidence of ^ what they 
 have to speak. And me perhaps each of these disposi- 
 
 Areopagus was gone. Isocrates urged the city to restore to it 
 this lost control, especially in education and morals. He decried 
 the excesses of the wealthy and the poverty of the poor, the lack 
 of modesty and sobriety in the young, and the general indiffer- 
 ence to public welfare; this state of things he compared to the 
 uprightness of the time of Solon and Kleithenes, and he implored 
 his city to return to the simplicity and patriotism of the former 
 age. In like manner and with as noble an intent, Milton addressed 
 the High Court of Parliament. There is, then, a similarity in 
 general structure and purpose. And there is also some likeness 
 in-styfe7t6f Jabb sa y s nt Tsnf.rntPH lAm^ Omiirrx, 11 7-Sr ) , 
 ' .'.He was the first Greek who gave a really artistic finish to 
 literar y rhetorical prose." T he distinctive teatiire in the compo- 
 BJtion of Is ocrates is his u se nf.-.the^ej3"fii''~^j Ttgirciir.~ Tlrj[gB 
 flhiri. p. K '2) "a cer tain luxuriant amplitude ... it rejoices in 
 rich diffusiveness — it unrolls itself like a clear river, luring the 
 hearer on from bend to bend through the soft beauties of its 
 winding course." For an abstract of the speech see Ibid. 
 II, 206 ff. See Plato's estimate of Isocrates in the Phcedrus, 
 279 A; also Alilton's Sonnet, x, 8. 
 
 ^ Grammatically this phrase is incomplete. The Greek rhetori- 
 cians called the figure anacoluthia, a want of sequence, and justi- 
 fied its use in impassioned discourse. Is it justified here; is the 
 sense clear ? See Romeo and Juliet, iv, iii, 35-50. 
 
 2 altered: disturbed. " Then began the bitter Fate of Jove to 
 alter us uuhappie." — Chapman's tr. of the Odyssey, ix, 96. 
 
 ° success ; the termination of an enterprise, issue, result. — 
 P. L. II, 9; " ill successes " : P. L. IV, 932; " bad success " : P. R- 
 IV, 1. 
 
 * censure: judgment, opinion. " Your name is great in mouths 
 of wisest censure ": — Othello, 11, iii, 193; " How blest am I in my 
 just censure, iu my true opinion 1 " — Winter's Tale, n, i, 37. 
 
 ' of: based upon. 
 
AEEOPAGITICA S3 
 
 tionsi as the subject was whereon I entered,^ may 
 have at other times variously affected ; and likely might 
 in these foremost expressions now also disclose which 
 of them swayed most, but that the very attempt of this 
 address vthus made, and the thought of whom it hath 
 recourse to, hath got the power within me to a passion,* 
 far more welcome than incidental to a preface. 
 
 Which ' though I stay not ^ to confess, ere any ask, 
 I shall be blameless, if it be no other than the joy and 
 g^atulation which it brings to all who wish and pro- 
 mote their country's liberty ; whereof this whole dis- 
 course proposed wiU be a certain testimony, if not a 
 trophy.8 For this is not the liberty which we can hope, 
 that no grievance ever should arise in the Common- 
 wealth — that let no man in this world expect ; but 
 when complaints are freely heard, deeply considered, 
 and speedily reformed,^ then is the utmost bound of 
 civil liberty attained, that wise men look for. To which, 
 if 1 now manifest by the very sound of this which I 
 shall utter, that we are already in good part arrived," 
 
 * Milton bad published in prose before this date five pam- 
 phlets on church reform; he had also written Education and two 
 of his Divorce Pamphlets. For the titles and dates of all these 
 see p. Ixxxiii. 
 
 ' passion: intense emotion or enthusiasm. Cf. P. L. IX, 667. 
 " What is the construction of whicll, and to what does it re- 
 fer ? Also it in the next line ? 
 ^ stay not : hasten. 
 
 * trophy : if not a memorial of victory for the freedom of 
 the press, this discourse will be at least a testimony of my atti- 
 tude toward liberty of speech. 
 
 ' Observe the three points, especially the skill with which the 
 adverbs are chosen. 
 
 ' arrived : " Milton had not yet perhaps fully discovered the 
 disheartening fact that the Presbyterian party when in power 
 was to show itself as little capable of an enlightened tolerance 
 as the Episcopalians whom they had overthrown." — Hales. 
 
34 JOHN MILTON 
 
 and yet from such a steep ^ disadvantage of tjTanny 
 and superstition grounded into our principles {as was 
 beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery ; ^ itjwill be 
 attributed first, as is most due, to the strong assistance 
 of God our deliverer, next to your faithful ^idance 
 and undaunted wisdom, Lords and Common^ of Eng- 
 land.3 j 
 
 Neither is it, in God's esteem, the diijSinution of 
 his glory, when honorable things are spc*:en of good 
 men and worthy magistrates ; which if I now first 
 should begin to do,* after so fair a progress of your 
 laudable deeds, and such a long obligement ^ upon the 
 whole realm to ^ your indefatigable virtues, I might 
 be justly reckoned among the tardiest and the unwill- 
 ingest of them that praise ye. 
 
 Nevertheless, there being three principal things, 
 
 1 steep : see tlie use of this adjective in P. L. vi, 324 ; Ps, 
 VII, 60. 
 
 ' a Roman recovery : the debased condition of England 
 under the Stuarts was equal to that of Rome under the Emper- 
 ors ; we in England have had manhood enough to recover from 
 this condition, which they in Rome showed themselves incapable 
 of doing. 
 
 ' Mark, and at the end of the essay, read together all the 
 passages expressing Milton's respect for, and confideuee in, the 
 Parliament. Compare these with similar passages iu the Free 
 Commonwealth. 
 
 * In his Church Reform pamphlets he had frequently before 
 this spoken honorable things of the Parliament. See especially 
 /■". W. Ill, 144-150, the climax of which begins : "And, indeed, 
 if we consider the general concourse of suppliants, the free and 
 ready admittance, the willing speedy redress in what is possi- 
 ble, it will not seem much otherwise, than as if some divine 
 commission from heaven were descended to take into hearing 
 and consideration the long and remediless afflictions of this 
 kingdom." 
 
 ' obligement : moral obligation. 
 
 8 to ■ for. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 85 
 
 without which all praising is but courtship i and flat- 
 tery : first, when that only is praised which is solidly 
 worth praise ; next, when greatest likelihoods are 
 bro ught "^Hat such things are t ruly and really in those 
 persons to whom _t hey; are ascribe d ; the other,* when 
 t^ JS^- P^a'is^s-^.hY showing that suohhisactual pe r- 
 suasion is of whom h&writieSj_canj^ mo nitrate that he 
 flatters no^ ; the former two of these I have heretofore 
 endeavored, rescuing the employment from him ' who 
 went about to * impair your merits with a trivial and 
 
 ^ courtship: the practice of the arts of a courtier. 
 
 2 the other : the third. 
 
 ' him: Joseph Hall (1574-1656), Bishop of Exeter and later 
 of Norwich, is best known as the writer of Contemplations upon 
 the New Testament, of Christian Meditations, and of Satires. He 
 was in favor with James, whom he accompanied into Scotland, 
 and who appointed him chaplain to Prince Henry. Although a 
 loyal churchman, he was suspected by Laud of Calvinistio lean- 
 ings, and three times had to appear on his knees before the king 
 to plead not guilty of these charges. He justified himself, and 
 was requested by Laud to write, in 1640, Episcopacy hy Divine 
 Right Asserted. This was especially an answer to Scotland, which 
 had gone over entirely to Calvinism. In 1G41 when " Limited Epis- 
 copacy " and " Root and Branch Reform " were the subjects of hot 
 debate in the Parliament, Hall wrote his Humble Remonstrance 
 to the High Court of Parliament. This was the pamphlet that 
 started the famous controversy with Smectymnuus, the name 
 being formed from the initials of the five Puritan divines who 
 composed the answer to this pamphlet of Hall's. Milton wrote two 
 of the replies to the various tracts that passed between Hall and his 
 opponents (see p. Ixxxiii). In A Short Answer to the Tedious Vin- 
 dication of Smectymnuus, Hall had attacked Milton personally with 
 open scurrility. See Masson, II, 390 ff. Milton thought Hall's 
 praise of Parliament was trivial because it was commonplace, 
 and malignant, that is disloyal, because it assumed that the 
 Parliament was inseparable from the Crown. 
 
 * went about to: frequently in Shakespeare; "if he go about 
 to erpound this dream." — Midsummer Night's Dream, IV, i, 
 212. 
 
36 JOHN MILTON 
 
 l aalignant encomium ; the latter,^ as belonging chiefly 
 to mine own acquittal, that whom I so extolled I did not 
 flatter, hath been reserved opportunely to this occasion. 
 For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly 
 done, and fears not to declare as freely what might 
 be done better, gives ye ^ the best covenant of his 
 fidelity ; and that his loyalest affection and his hope 
 waits ^ on your proceedings. His highest praising is 
 not flattery, and his plainest advice is a kind of prais- 
 ing ; for though I should affirm and hold by argument, 
 that it would fare better with truth, with learning, and 
 the Commonwealth, if one of your published orders, 
 which I should name, were called in ; yet at the same 
 time it could not but much redound to the lustre of 
 your mild and equal government, whenas private per- 
 sons are hereby animated to think ye better pleased 
 with public advice, than other statists * have been de- 
 lighted heretofore with public flattery. And men will 
 then see what difference there is between the magna- 
 nimity of a triennial ^ Parliament, and that jealous 
 
 ^ the latter: the third point. 
 
 ^ ye: in old English ye (ge) was nominative only, you (Bow) 
 was accusative and dative. " This distinction, however, though 
 observed in our version of the Bible, was disregarded by Eliza- 
 bethan anthers, and ye seems to be generally used in questions, 
 entreaties, and rhetorical appeals." — Abbott, Shakespearian 
 Grammar, 159. What is Milton's use tliroughout these essays? 
 Compare his use in P. L. I, 318; vi, 564-65; Comus, 814-15. 
 
 ^ waits : What is the subject of this verb? Compare Lye, 
 6, 7; P. X. viii, 222-23; P. R. iv, 386-87. 
 
 * statists : statesmen. See P. R. rv. 364, and Cymheline, n, 
 iv, 16; Hamlet, v, ii, 33. 
 
 * An act was passed Feb. 15, 1641, to provide that Parliament 
 should meet at least once in three years. Charles I had ruled 
 from 1629 to 1640 without any meeting of Parliament, and this 
 law was enacted to provide against the pos^bUity of any other 
 such long intermission of Parliament. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 37 
 
 hau^ htiness of prelates and Cabin Counsellors ^ that 
 usiir ig&'oi late, whenas they shall observe ye in the 
 midst of your victories and successes ^ more gently 
 brooking ^ written exceptions against a voted order 
 than other courts, which had produced nothing worth 
 memory but the weak ostentation of wealth, would 
 have endured the least signified dislike at any sudden 
 proclamation. 
 
 If I should thus far presume upon the meek de- 
 meanor of your civil * and gentle greatness, Lords and 
 Commons, as what your published order hath directly 
 said, that to gainsay, I might defend myself with ease, 
 if any should accuse me of being new or insolent,^ 
 did they but know how much better I find ye esteem 
 it to imitate the old and elegant humanity of Greece,^ 
 than the barbaric pride of a Hunnish and Norwegian 
 stateliness. And out of those ages, to whose polite'^ 
 
 * He refers to the Court of Star Chamber, to the Court of 
 High Commission, and especially to the Cabinet Council. " Busi- 
 ness of weight was settled with a select number of favorites in 
 the King's private apartment, — the Cabinet Council, as it was 
 beginning to be called." — Gardiner, History of England, x, 292. 
 These were the bodies through which Charles secured a revenue 
 and maintained his power over the people. Elsewhere Milton says 
 "to vindicate and restore the rights of parliament invaded by 
 cabin councils," and " the politic cabinet at Whitehall." — P. W. 
 I, 404 and 347. 
 
 * What victories and successes had Parliament won before 
 this date ? 
 
 3 brooking: See P. L. vr, 274; ix, 676; S. A. 1344. 
 
 * civil : refined, polite. " War seemed a civil game to this up- 
 roar " : P. L. VI, 667; " civility of manners " : P. R. iv, 83. 
 
 ^ Of doing anything new or presumptuous (or unusual). 
 
 « Milton's devotion to Greek literature and his admiration of 
 Greek culture are known to every reader of his poems. What 
 does humanity mean in this passage? 
 
 ' polite: polished, reflned. We still sa,y polite literature. 
 
38 JOHN MILTON 
 
 wisdom and letters we owe that we are not yet i (^oths 
 and Jutlanders, I could name him ^ who from his pri- 
 vate house wrote that discourse to the Parliament of 
 Athens, that persuades ' them to change the form of 
 demoeraty which was then established. Such honor 
 was done in those days to men * who professed the 
 study of wisdom and eloquence, not only in their own 
 country, but in other lands, that cities and seignories ^ 
 heard them gladly, and with great respect, if they had 
 aught in public to admonish the state. Thus did Dion ^ 
 Prusaeus, a stranger and a private orator, counsel the 
 Rhodians against a former edict ; and I abound with 
 other like examples, which to set here would be super- 
 fluous. But if from the industry of a life wholly dedi- 
 cated to studious labors,' and those natural endow- 
 
 1 yet: still, the same use in P. L. I, 153; rv, 534. 
 
 " Isoorates. See pp. 31, 32. 
 
 ' persuades : seeks to persuade. 
 
 * The orators and rhetoricians; possibly referring to the Soph- 
 ists, who were teachers of general culture, and proposed espe- 
 cially to fit the student for civic life. But Plutarch says (^Li/e of 
 Themistocles): "a professor of what was then called wisdom, 
 which consisted in a knowledge of the arts of government, and 
 the practical part of political prudence. This was a sect formed 
 upon the principles of Solon, and descending in succession from 
 him ; but when the science of government came to be mixed with 
 forensic arts, and passed from action to mere words, its profess- 
 ors, instead of sages, were called sophists." 
 
 ' cities : self-governingcities (L. ciwitas), or states with their de- 
 pendencies. (SeeN.E.D.) seignories: principalities, provinces. 
 
 8 Bion, called Chrysostomus (the golden-mouthed) because 
 of his eloquence as an orator, was born at Prusa in Bithynia about 
 60 B.C. There are remaining eighty of his orations or political 
 discourses; the oue referred to, is that in which he sought to 
 persuade the Rhodians to desist from the custom of changing 
 their old statnes, i.e., of erasing the old names and of inscribing 
 instead the names of those men then in power. 
 
 7 studious labors : " It is uiy way to suffer no impediment, no 
 
AREOPAGITICA 39 
 
 ments haply not the worst for two and fifty degrees 
 of northern latitude,^ so much must be derogated,^ 
 as to count me not equal to any of those who had this 
 privilege, I would obtain to ^ be thought not so in- 
 ferior,~as yourselves are superior to the most of them 
 who received their counsel : and how far you excel 
 them, be assured, Lords and Commons, there can no 
 greater testimony appear, than when your prudent 
 spirit acknowledges and obeys the voice of reason from 
 what quarter soever it be heard speaking ; and renders 
 ye as willing to repeal any act of your own setting 
 forth, as any set forth by your predecessors.* 
 
 If ye be thus resolved, as iTwere injury to think ye 
 were not, I know not what should withhold me from 
 presenting ye with a fit instance wherein to show both 
 that love of truth which ye eminently profess, and 
 that uprightness of your judgment which is not wont to 
 be partial to yourselves ; by judging over again that 
 Order ^ which ye have ordained " to regulate Printing : 
 
 love of ease, no avocation whatever, to ehill the ardour, to break 
 the continuity, or divert the completion of my literary pursuits." 
 — P. W. m, 492. 
 
 1 Milton frequently expresses his opinion that a cold climate 
 is not conducive to literary production. In the poem to Mansus 
 he speaks of hia Muse as, " nourished scantily in the icy north " ; 
 again in P. W. V, 240, " the sun, which we want, ripens wits as 
 well as fruit." See P. L. ix, 41 ff. 
 
 ^ derogated: taken away. 
 
 ° See instances of this construction in the N. E. T). 
 
 * This closes what Aristotle calls the Exordium ; the next par- 
 agraph begins the Exposition, the statement of what he intends to 
 prove. " It,appears then that the only indispensable parts of a 
 speech are the statement of the case and the proof. These are the 
 only proper or characteristic parts: but if more are added, tliay 
 must not exceed four, viz., exordium, exposition, proof and per- 
 oration." — Aristotle, Rhetoric, bk. ill, chap. 13. 
 
 * See the Introduction. 
 
40 JOHN MILTON 
 
 that no book, pamphlet, or paper shall be henceforth 
 printed, unless the same be first approved and licensed 
 by such," or at least one of such as shall be thereto 
 appointed. For that part which preserves justly every 
 man's copy i to himself, or provides for the poor, I 
 touch not, only wish they be not made pretences to 
 abuse and persecute honest and painful ^ men, who 
 offend not in either of these particulars. But that other 
 clause ' of Licensing Books, which we thought had 
 died with his ■* brother quadragesimal ^ and matrimo- 
 nial * when the prelates expired,^ I shall now attend * 
 with such a homily,^ as shall lay before ye, first the 
 
 1 copy: copyright. 
 
 ' painful : painstaking. 
 
 ' See p. xvi, beginning;, "It is therefore ordered." 
 
 * his : the word its was just coming into good nse. It occurs 
 in Milton's poetry three times. How often is it found in Shake- 
 speare and the Bible ? How was it originally written ? 
 
 ^ quadragesimal : Lenten. Milton here refers to the regu- 
 lation regarding the eating of food during Lent. Certain days 
 were appointed for " flsh-days," f or the non-observance of which 
 "licenses" were granted. "Queen Elizabeth used to say that 
 She would never eat Flesh in Lent, vrithout obtaining a License 
 from her little black Husband — Archbishop Whitgift." Wal- 
 ton's Life of Hooker. See also II Henry IV, n, iv, 370-76. Quoted 
 by Hales. 
 
 ' matrimonial: pertaining to licenses for marriage. Milton 
 considered marriage as wholly a civil contract with which the 
 church should have no concernment. " As for marriage, that min- 
 isters should meddle with tliem, as not sanctified or legitimate 
 without their celebration, I find no ground in scripture either of 
 precept or example." — P. IV. Ill, 21. "They dare not affirm 
 that marriage is either a sacrament or a mystery." — Ibid. 212. 
 
 ' expired : tlie bill for the Exclusion of Bishops from Parlia- 
 ment final ly passed Feb. 5, 1642 ; Episcopacy was not legally abol 
 ished until 1646, but this bill deprived the prelates of their power 
 
 8 attend : present myself. 
 
 ° homily: discourse. " What tedious homily of love have you 
 wearied your parishioners withal." — As You Like It, m, ii, 164 
 
AREOPAGITICA 41 
 
 inventors of it, to be those whom ye will be loth to 
 ftwn ; next what is to be thought in general of reading, 
 whatever sort the books be ; and that this Order avails 
 nothing to the suppressing of scandalous, seditious, 
 and libellous books, which were mainly intended to 
 be suppressed. Last,i that it will be primely to the 
 discouragement of all learning, and the stop ^ of truth, 
 not only by the disexercising ^ and blunting our abili- 
 ties in what we know already, but by hindering and 
 cropping the discovery that might be yet further made 
 both in religious and civil wisdom, 
 
 I deny not ^ but that * it is of greatest concernment 
 in the Church and Commonwealth, to have a vigilant 
 eye how books demean themselves as well as men ; 
 and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest 
 justice on them as malefactors. For books are not ab- 
 solutely dead things, but do contain ^ a potency of life 
 in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny 
 
 ^ Note the clear statement of the four points to be proved. 
 
 " stop : see Comus, 552. 
 
 ' disexercising : the N. E. D. gives no other occurrence of 
 this word. See in L. the long list of words beginning vrith dis., 
 showing Milton's fondness for the compound. Compare Shake- 
 speare's practice. 
 
 * Here begins the proof of proposition I. 
 
 6 but that : (L. non duUto quin.) What is the present use ? 
 
 * but do contain : Cf. Bacon's Advancement of Learning, 
 p. 72, ed. Aldis Wright : " It is not possible to have the true pic- 
 tures or statues of Cyrus, Alexander, Csesar, no nor of the 
 kings or great personages of much later years ; for the origi- 
 nals cannot last, and the copies cannot but leese of the life and 
 truth. But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in 
 books, exempted from the wrong of time and capable of per- 
 petual renovation. Neither are they iitly to be called images, 
 because they generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of 
 others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in 
 succeeding ages." — Quoted by Hales. 
 
42 JOHN MILTON 
 
 they are ; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest 
 efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred 
 them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously pro- 
 ductive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth ; ^ and being 
 sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed 
 men. And yet, on the other hand, unless wariness be 
 used, as good almost kiU a man as kill a good book : 
 who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's 
 image ; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason 
 itself, kiUs the image of God, as it were, in the eye.^ 
 Many a man lives a burden to the earth ; but a good 
 book is the precious life-blood ^ of a master spirit, 
 embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life be- 
 yond life. 'T is true, no age can restore a life, whereof 
 perhaps there is no great loss ; and revolutions of ages 
 do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for 
 the want of which whole nations fare the worse.* We 
 should be wary, therefore, what persecution we raise 
 against the living labors of public men, how we spill ^ 
 that seasoned life of man, preserved and stored up in 
 books ; since we see a kind of homicide may be thus 
 committed, sometimes a martyrdom ; and if it extend 
 
 1 dragon's teeth : the story of the sowing of the dragon's 
 teeth is told of both Cadmus and Jason. How does the story of 
 Deucalion differ? See Ovid, Metamorphoses, vn, 121. What mod- 
 ern poet retells this story ? 
 
 ^ in the eye : possibly in the eye of the world, before the 
 whole world ; or perhaps, in the seat of intelligence, in the rea- 
 son. See p. 44, n. 2. 
 
 ' life-blood : " all the most sacred and life-blood laws " — 
 P. W. II, 404 ; " The very life-blood of our enterprise." — 
 I Henry IV, IV, i, 29. 
 
 * What is in history the best illustration of this ? 
 
 ' spill : destroy. See Lear, m, ii, 8 ; and " So full of artless 
 jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt." — Hami" 
 to,iv, V, 20. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 43 
 
 to the whole impression, a kind of massacre, whereof 
 the execution ends not in the slaying of an elemental 
 life,i but strikes at that ethereal and fifth essence, ^ 
 the breath of reason itself, slays an immortality rather 
 than a life. But lest I should be condemned of intro- 
 ducing licence, while I oppose licensing, I refuse not the 
 pains to be so much historical, as will serve to show 
 what hath been done by ancient and famous common- 
 wealths against this disorder, till the very time that 
 this project of licensing crept out of the Inquisition,* 
 
 1 elemental life : see Milton's theory of life in P. L. v, 
 472-89. The contrast is here between that life springing from 
 the ybur elements and that from the ffth. 
 
 " fifth essence : "The cumbrous elements — Earth, Flood, 
 Air, Fire ; And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven Flew up- 
 ward . . . and turned to stars " — P. L. iii, 715-18 ; " Light Ethe- 
 real, first of things, quintessence pure " — P. L. vii, 243-44. 
 Both passages refer to Aristotle's theory of a fifth element, ether 
 (extending from the heaven of the fixed stars to the moon), 
 which was finer and subtler, and had a different motion from the 
 four elements known to the senses. 
 
 ' Inquisition : the idea that the church has the right and 
 power to inquire into and stamp out all disbelief goes far back 
 into its history; from Constantine down there are records of 
 edicts and visitations, of correction and confiscation. Through 
 the early centuries the idea developed steadily under Papal en- 
 couragement. At the Council of Tours in 1163 the word, with 
 something of its modern sense, was first used ; in this same cen- 
 tury and the beginning of the next, the claim of the cluircli to 
 uproot heresy was the ground upon which the Waldensians and 
 Albigensians were so cruelly dealt with. But the real organiz- 
 ation of these efforts was slight until the Council of Toulouse 
 in 1229 gave definite sanction and system to the inquisitions of 
 bishops ; and until Dominie proposed, and Innocent III ap- 
 proved, the order called The Familiars of the Holy Office, a body 
 of laymen who acted as spies and informers. From Toulouse, the 
 Order spread into France and Italy. In Spain, where it was 
 introduced by Gregory IX in 1232, it was at first ineffective, 
 but finally attained its fullest power. Encouraged by Ferdiuaud 
 
44 JOHN MILTON 
 
 was caught up by our prelates, and hath caught some 
 of our presbyters. 1 
 
 In Athens .^ where books and wits were ever busier 
 than in any other part of Greece, I find but only two 
 sorts of writings which the magist r ate cared to take 
 . ^notice of; those either blasphemous^ ind^at^fiifitiip''^ 'V 
 ■JibeUou a^ Thus the books of Protagoras ^ were by the 
 judges of Areopagus commanded to be burnt, and 
 himself banished the territory for a discourse begun 
 with his confessing not to know " wliether there were 
 gods, or whether not." And against defaming, it was 
 
 and Isabella, in 1480, a tribunal was established at Seville, and 
 began its bloody work by burning 298 the first year. Torquc- 
 tuada, the prior of the Dominican convent of Segovia, made the 
 first Grand Inquisitor, opened a regular court at Seville in 1481. 
 One of the sources of the power of the Inquisition was its con- 
 trol of printing. Hansser says (T'Ae Period of the Reformation, 
 chap, xx) : " An Index in my possession shows how systematically 
 the heretical literature of that day was attacked. The literary 
 productions of fifteen years are comprised within five sheets, 
 and everything of importance that bad appeared in theology, 
 philosophy, history, antiquarian researches, and natural history, 
 is condemned. Thus almost all literature was forbidden, with 
 the exception of that which had arisen in the Roman Catholic 
 Church or among her orders ... a large portion of Europe was 
 as good as closed against all literary progress." 
 
 1 That is, the Presbyterians now in power. 
 
 ' Athens: 
 
 " Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts 
 And eloquence, native to famous wits 
 Or hospital, in her sweet recess, 
 City or suburban, studious walks and shades." 
 
 P. R. IV, 240; also the same thought in P. W. I, 278. 
 
 ' Protagoras of Abdera (about 490 B.C.), in Thrace, was one 
 of the first Sophists and a teacher of rhetoric. He was accused, 
 in 411, by Puthodorus of atheism, because in his treatise Con- 
 cerning the Gods, he said that the subject was too obscure and 
 life too short for man to know; the result is here given. See 
 Plato's Protagoras. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 45 
 
 agreed that none should be traduced by name, as was 
 the manner of Vetus Comoedia,! whereby we may 
 guess how they censured libelling ; and this course was 
 quick 2 enough, as Cicero writes,^ to quell ^ both the 
 desperate wits of other atheists, and the open way 
 of defaming, as the event * showed. Of other sects 
 and opinions, though tending to voluptuousness, and 
 the denying of divine Providence, they took no heed. 
 Therefore we do not read that either Epicurus, ^ or 
 that libertine school of Cyrene,^ or what the Cynic 
 impudence * uttered, was ever questioned by the laws. 
 
 1 Vetus Comcedia: the Old Attic Comedy, which originated 
 with Cratinus, and was carried to its height by Aristophanes. 
 "We are told that at first the comedians were distinctly li- 
 censed by the law to make personal attacks." — Mahaffy, Greek 
 Literature, I, part ii, 200. 
 
 * quick : alive, powerful. " Both quick and dead," P. L. xii, 
 460 ; " For the word of God is quick and powerful," Heb. iv, 12. 
 
 ' Cicero, in the De Natura Deorum i, 23, tells the story of 
 Protagoras and then adds : "This punishment, I think, hindered 
 many from professing their disbelief in the gods ; since even the 
 doubt was punished." 
 
 * quell : put to an end, suppress. See P. L. v, 740 ; Comus, 
 613. 
 
 ' event : result, outcome. 
 
 " Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) was the founder of the Epicurean 
 school of philosophy at Athens, which held that happiness, that 
 is pleasure, is the highest good of life. Epicurus taught that a 
 man to be happy must be virtuous, yet among his followers there 
 were many who had no scruples about the means they used ia 
 attaining this desired end. 
 
 ' Aristippus (435 ?-399 ? B.C.) founded, about 370, a school of 
 philosophy at Cyrene, which made pleasure the end of life. To 
 enjoy the present was the aim of existence. 
 
 * Antistfieues (b. 444 B.C.), a friend and pupil of Socrates, 
 taught at Athens in the gymnasium called Cynosarges, whence 
 possibly the name of the Cynic school arose. The Cynics held 
 that virtue is the only good, but in seeking it they despised cul- 
 ture and organized society; man must return to a natural state. 
 
46 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old 
 comedians were suppressed, though the acting of them 
 were forbid ; and that Plato commended the reading 
 of Aristophanes, the loosest ^ of them all, to his royal 
 scholar Dionysius,^ is commonly known, and may be 
 excused, if holy Chrysostom,^ as is reported, nightly 
 studied so much the same author, and had the art 
 to cleanse a scurrilous vehemence into the style of a 
 rousing sermon. 
 
 That other leading city of Greece, Lacedsemon, con- 
 sidering that Lycurgus * their lawgiver was so addicted 
 to elegant learning, as to have been the first that 
 brought out of Ionia the scattered works of Homer,* 
 
 Antisthenes is less well known than his famous pupil, Diogenes 
 of Sinope. " Milton means by ' the Cynic impudence,' that inso- 
 lence of manner and of language, that rude and unqualified con- 
 tempt of humanity, that especially characterized the philosopher 
 of the tub." — Hales. 
 
 ^ loosest : most plain spoken in his ridicule of weakness and 
 folly in others. See his plays in Frere's translation, Eceryman't 
 Library. 
 
 2 Dionysiusthe Elder (about 430-367 B.C.), Tyrant of Syra- 
 cuse, who invited Plato to his court. 
 
 » John (347-407 a.d.), the Saint of the Greek Church, called 
 Chrysostom (golden-mouthed) because of his eloquence, was 
 Archbishop of Antioeh from 397 to 405. He was driven into 
 exile because of his preaching against the iniquity of the court 
 and the church. 
 
 ^ Lycurgus : see p. 19, n. 4. 
 
 ^ Plutarch says (Life of Lycurgus) : "There [in Ionia] also, 
 probably, he met with Homer's poems, which were preserved by 
 the posterity of Cleophylus. Observing that many moral sen- 
 tences, and much political knowledge were intermixed with his 
 stories, which had an irresistible charm, he collected them into 
 one body, and transcribed them with pleasure, in order to take 
 them home with him. For his glorious poetry was not yet fully 
 known in Greece ; only some particular pieces were in a few 
 hands, as they happened to be dispersed. Lycurgus was the first 
 that made them generally known." 
 
AREOPAGITICA 47 
 
 and sent the poet Thales ^ from Crete to prepare and 
 mollify the Spartan surliness with his smooth songs 
 and odes, the better to plant among them law and 
 civility, it is to be wondered how museless and unbook- 
 ish they were, minding nought but the feats of war.^ 
 There needed no licensing of books among them, for 
 they disliked all but their own laconic apothegms,^ 
 and took a slight occasion to chase Archilochus * out oE 
 their city, perhaps for composing in a higher strain 
 than their own soldierly ballads and roundels could 
 reach to ; or if it were for his broad verses, they were 
 not therein so cautious, but they were as dissolute in 
 
 1 Thales, a native of Crete, was the celebrated musician and 
 lyric poet wlio founded the second of the musical schools of 
 Sparta. "Among the friends he [Lyciirgus] gained in Crete, 
 was Thales, with whom he liad interest enough to persuade him 
 to go and settle at Sparta. Thales was famed for his wisdom 
 and political abilities. . . . For his odes were so many persua- 
 sives to obedience and unanimity, as by means of melody and 
 numbers they had great grace and power, they softened insen- 
 sibly the manners of the andience, drew them oft from the ani- 
 mosities which then prevailed, and united them in zeal for excel- 
 lence and virtue." — Plutarch, ibid. 
 
 2 " As for learning, they had just what was absolutely neces- 
 sary. All the rest of their education was calculated to make 
 them subject to command, to endure labor, to fight and conquer." 
 — Plutarch, ibid. See also p. 24, n. 2. 
 
 ' " The Athenian citizen is reputed among all the Hellenes 
 to be a great talker, whereas the Spartan is renowned for brev- 
 ity, and the Cretan is held to be a sagacious, reserved sort of 
 person." — Plato, Laws, I, 641. , 
 
 * Archilochus (about 714-676 B.C.) was one of the earliest 
 lyric poets of Ionia. There are differing accounts of the reason 
 for hid expulsion from Sparta ; that he had said it was better for 
 a man to throw away arms than to lose his life ; that his verses 
 were licentious ; and that in them he had attacked in an inde- 
 cent manner the daughters of Lycambes. See Smith, Diction- 
 ary of Greek and Roman Biography, for a discussion of the sub- 
 ject. 
 
48 JOHN MILTON 
 
 their promiscuous conversing ; ^ whence Euripides af- 
 firms, in Andromache,''' that their women were all 
 unchaste. Thus much may give us light after ^ what 
 sort of books were prohibited among the Greeks. 
 
 The Romans also, for many ages trained up only to 
 a military roughness, resembling ^ most of the Lacedae- 
 monian guise, knew of learning little but what their 
 Twelve Tables,^ and the Pontific CoUege * with their 
 augurs ^ and flamens taught them in religion and law ; 
 so unacquainted with other learning, that when Car- 
 
 1 conversing : associating familiarly. See P. L. vii, 9. 
 
 * Plutarch says that in the days of Lyciirgns the women were 
 commanded to exercise themselves in running and wrestling just 
 as the men, in order to make their bodies strong. " As for the 
 virgins appearing naked, there was notliing disgraceful in it, 
 because everything was conducted with modesty, and without 
 one indecent word or action." But £uripides shows the effects 
 of this practice (^Andromache, 590 ff., tr. by Coleridge). " No I 
 a Spartan maid could not be chaste, e'en if she would, who 
 leaves her home and bares her limbs and lets her robe float free, 
 to share with youths their races and their sports." Aristotle, 
 Politics, II, 9, 5-13, says these women were living " in every sort 
 of intemperance and luxury." 
 
 8 after : as to, regarding. 
 
 < resembling of : bearing the semblance of. 
 
 * Twelve Tables : see p. 19, n. 5. 
 
 ' The Pontific College was the principal college of priests in 
 Rome. Numa is said to have appointed five pontifices, — their 
 original office is uncertain, as well as the meaning of the word, 
 — the chief of whom was the Pontifex Maximus, the highest 
 authority in religion. The number was increased later to fifteen. 
 Under the direction of these were the flamens, priests devoted 
 to the service of some particular deity (see N. O. 194). This 
 college decided in matters of religion, had charge of the calendar, 
 and interpreted certain laws, especially those relating to marriage. 
 
 ' augurs : this college of priests; from two to sixteen in num- 
 ber, foretold future events, particularly interpreting, according 
 to the books, the signs of approval or disapproval sent by Jove 
 on the occasion of any public event. 
 
AREOPAGITICA , 49 
 
 neades ^ and Critolaus,^ with the Stoic Diogenes ^ com- 
 ing ambassadors to Rome, took thereby occasion to 
 give the city a taste of their philosophy, they were 
 suspected for seducers by no less a man thau Cato the 
 Censor,* who moved it ^ in the Senate to dismiss them 
 speedily, and to banish aU such Attic babblers out of 
 Italy. But Scipio ^ and others of the noblest senators 
 withstood him and his old Sabine austerity ; honored 
 and admired the men ; and the censor himself at last, 
 in his old age, fell to the study of that whereof before 
 he was so scrupulous. And yet at the same time, Nse- 
 vius ^ and Plautus,^ the first Latin comedians, had 
 
 ^ Carneades of Cyrene (about 214-129 B.C.), the founder 
 of the third Academic school, was sent, with the others here 
 mentioned, in 155, to Rome to protest against the fine of 500 
 talents which had been imposed on the Athenians for the de- 
 struction of Oropus. Here he delivered two orations on Justice ; 
 in the first he defended justice, but in the second overthrew all 
 the arguments he had established in the first. 
 
 ^ Crltolaus belonged to the Peripatetic school of philosophy. 
 
 8 Diogenes, called the Babylonian from his home in Seleuoia, 
 succeeded Zeno as head of the Stoic school at Athens. 
 
 * Cato Major (234?-149 B.C.), the famous general, was 
 censor of Rome in 184. He was always an upholder of the old 
 Roman simplicity of living, which he began to practice on his 
 Sabine farm, and which he continued throughout his life. He 
 despised Greek until his old age, when he is said to have learned 
 the language. Hales cites Bacon's Advancement of Learning, i, 
 2, 9. See Plutarch's account of this incident in his Life of Cato. 
 
 5 moved it. See L'A, 33. 
 
 " Scipio, the Younger (about 185-129 B. c), the famous gen- 
 eral and conqueror of Carthage, was the adopted son of Scipio 
 Afrioanus. He was an advocate of the stern and simple virtues 
 practiced by Cato ; but likewise a friend of the Greek historian 
 Polybius, and a great lover of Greek culture and Greek learning. 
 
 ' Naevius (about 270-199 B.C.) wrote plays in which he sat- 
 irized the great families, especially that of the Metelli. Only 
 fragments of his work remain to testify of his power as a writer. 
 
 * Flautus : the well-known writer of comedy. 
 
50 JOHN MILTON 
 
 filled the city with all the borrowed scenes of Menan* 
 
 der 1 and Philemon.^ 
 
 I Then began to be considered there also what was 
 /to be done to libellous books ^ and authors ; for Nasvius 
 I was quickly casf^into prison for his unbridled pen, and 
 
 released by the tribunes upon his recantation ; we read 
 valso that libels were burnt,^ and the makers punished 
 jby Augustus. The like severity, no doubt, was used, 
 I if aught were impiously written against their esteemed 
 [gods. Except in these two points, ^ how the world 
 ' went in books, the magistrate kept no reckoning. And 
 ^therefore Lucretius * without impeachment versifies 
 
 ^ IVIenander (342-291 B.C.) was the greatest poet of the 
 New Comedy. He wi-ote more than a hundred plays which were 
 distinguished by sobriety aud elegance, and of which only a few 
 lines remain. Terence was the imitator of Meuander, while 
 Plautus was more indebted to Philemon. 
 
 2 Philemon (about 360-262 B.c ) was the founder of the 
 New Comedy. He presented plays eight years before Menander, 
 over whom be often won the victory, because he was a greater 
 favorite with the people, owing to the coarser, broader quality 
 of his humor. 
 
 * There had before existed in one of the Twelve Tables a law 
 against libel. " So a law was passed, and punishment imposed, 
 to forbid that anyone should be described by malicious verses." 
 Horace, Epistle, li, 1, 152-54. 
 
 * " Augustus was the first who used to take cognizance of 
 libels under pretense of this law (that of treason), incensed by 
 the insolence of Cassius Severus. . . . He also was exasperated 
 by the publication of satirical verses written by unknown authors, 
 exposing his cruelty, his pride, and dissensions with his mother." 
 Tacitus' Annals, i, 72. 
 
 * That is, in the case of libel and blasphemous writings. 
 
 ^ Lucretius; see p. 17. "His poem is a splendid exposition 
 of the doctrines of Epicurus, to whom the poet looked up as to 
 a great deliverer from superstitions. . . . The authority for the 
 statement that Cicero 'set forth' ( = edited) Lucretius' poem is 
 the phrase 'Tulli lima dignissimis,' applied to his verses by Saint 
 Jerome. . . . For Miltou's second time there is no explicit author- 
 
AREOPAGITICA 51 
 
 his Epicurism to Memmius, and had the honor to be 
 set forth the second time by Cicero, so great a father of 
 the commonwealth ; although himself disputes ^ against 
 that opinion in his own writings. Nor was the satir- 
 ical sharpness or naked plainness of Lucilius,^ or 
 Catullus,^ or Flaccus,* by any order prohibited. 
 
 And for matters of state, the story ^ of Titus Li.. 
 vius,^ though it extolled ^ that part which Pompey held, 
 was not therefore suppressed by Octavius Caesar * of 
 the other faction. But that Naso ^ was by him ban- 
 
 ity. Jerome would seem to mean that Cicero first edited the 
 poem. . . . That he edited it at all cannot be pronounced a fact." 
 (Hales.) Lucretius dedicated his poem to Memmius. 
 
 1 lu the first two books o£ De Natura Deorum Cicero argues 
 against Epicurus. 
 
 " Lucilius (180?-103 B.C.) is commonly said to be the first 
 to use that form of satire which Horace and Juvenal perfected. 
 Lucilius " criticized the life of liis contemporaries in its various 
 sides — political, moral, and literary — to a degree never at- 
 tempted either by a comic poet before or a satirist afterwards." 
 
 — T. and S. I. 208. See Horace, Satires, i, 10; ii, 1. 
 
 ' Catullus (87-54 B.C.) whose beautiful poetry is often 
 coarse and sensual. 
 
 * Flaccus, the poet Horace, whose name was Quintns HorSr- 
 tius Flaccus. 
 
 * story: history. See P. R. ii, 307; IV, 334. 
 
 ' Titus Livius (59 B.C.-17 a.d.), the great historian of 
 Home. 
 
 ^ though it extolled: "TimehasdonewhatAngustusdidnot 
 
 — it has ' suppressed ' the passage here referred to. Books cix— 
 cxvi which dealt with the Caesar and Pompey war, are only 
 known to us by extremely meagre epitomes, or rather 'argu- 
 ments.' Milton's authority for the tolerance shown by Augustus 
 is Tacitus; see Annoles, iv, 34, where Cremutius Cordus, prose- 
 cuted for eulogising Brutus and Cassins, in his defence main- 
 tains the right of free speech." — Hales. 
 
 ^ Caius Julius Ceesar Octavlanus was the name of the EuH 
 peror Augustus. 
 
 " Publius Ovidius Naso (43 B.C.-18 a.d.), the poet, whose 
 Amores and Ars Amatoria have passages of such lasciviousness 
 
52 JOHN MILTON 
 
 isbed in his old age, for the wanton poems of his 
 youth, was but a mere covert of state over some secret 
 cause: and besides, the books were neither banished 
 nor called in. From hence i we shall meet with little 
 else but tyranny in the Roman empire, that we may 
 not marvel, if not so often bad as good books were 
 silenced. I shall therefore deem to have been large 
 enough, in producing what among the ancients was 
 punishable to write, save only which, all other argu- 
 ments were free to treat on. 
 
 By this time the emperors ^ were become Christians, 
 whose disciplme in this point I do not find to have 
 been more severe than what was formerly in practice. 
 The books of those whom they took to be grand her- 
 etics were examined, refuted, and condemned in the 
 general councils ; ' and not till then were prohibited, 
 or burnt, by authority of the emperor. As for the 
 writings of heathen authors, unless they were plain 
 
 as might well have bronglit on him from Augustus the sen- 
 tence of banishment. He was exiled when he was 51, at the 
 end of 8 a.d. For the secret cause: " it is highly probable that 
 he (Ovid) witnessed without preventing the guilty act of some 
 member of the Imperial family, perhaps under the erroneous 
 impression that Augustus himself knew of it and connived at 
 it. . . . The whole of Ovid's works were removed from the three 
 public libraries." — T. and S. I, 494. 
 
 ^ From hence: from the time of Augustus. 
 
 ' Constantine reigned from 306-337; he issued the edict of 
 toleration in 313. 
 
 ' " The first Christian emperor and his successors exercised a 
 large measure of control in ecclesiastical affairs. They assumed 
 to fill, on their own authority, the highest episcopal offices. They 
 convoked general councils, and presided over them by their re- 
 presentatives, and published eonciliar decrees as laws of the em- 
 pire." Fisher, History of the Christian Church, 99. Constantine 
 called the first general council in 325 at Nicsea in Bithynia, to 
 decide regarding the Arian heresy. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 53 
 
 invectives against Christianity, as those of Porphyrins ^ 
 and Proclus,^ they met with no interdict that can be 
 cited, till about the year 400, in a Carthaginian Covin- 
 cil, wherein bishops themselves were forbid to read 
 the book s of Gentiles, but heresies thev misfht read: 
 while others lon g before them, on the con trnry, s"t-"- 
 pled" more the books of heretic s than of Gentiles. 
 n3"'{hat the primiKve^ouncils * and bishops were 
 wont only to declare what books were not commend- 
 able, passing ^ no further, but leaving it to each one's 
 conscience to -read or to lay by, till after the year 800, 
 is observed already by Padre Paolo,* the great un- 
 
 1 Porphyrins (233?-304?), a disciple of the Neo-Platonist 
 Plotinus, wrote Against the Christians, a treatise in fifteen books. 
 His works were burned by order of the Emperor Theodosius II 
 ill 435. 
 
 2 Froclus (411-495), ■ the most important of the later Pla- 
 tonists, who taught at Athens, wrote and spoke much against the 
 Christians. "There was one Religion which he could not toler- 
 ate, which he could not interpret — that was Christianity." — 
 Lewis, I, 404. 
 
 ' scrupled: Does this differ from the present use? See P. L. 
 IX, 997 and P. R. u, 331. 
 
 * councils : there were nineteen of these general councils 
 between 325 and 1563. See Appendix to Fisher, History of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 6 passing: going, proceeding. See P. L. in, 498. 
 
 « Padre Paolo (1552-1623), the name taken by Pietro 
 Sarpi when he became a Servite monk. He was, because of his 
 great learning, employed by the Dukes of Mantua, by his own 
 Order, and finally by Venice in its conflict with Paul V for sec- 
 ular as well as religious control. Sarpi desired complete separa- 
 tion from Kome, but this he did not gain. He did gain, however, 
 the points at issue, but was himself compelled to hide froui the 
 assassin who sought his life. He lived, after 1607, in his cloister 
 the life of a student, writing against the abuses of the church; 
 his chief work was a History of the Council of Trent, translated 
 by Nathanael Brent and published in London 1620. The pass- 
 age referred to reads (p. 472) : " After the yeere 800, the Popes 
 
54 JOHN MILTON 
 
 masker of the Trentine Council.^ After which time 
 the Popes of Rome, engrossing ^ what they pleased of 
 political rule into their own hands, extended their do- 
 minion over men's eyes, as they had before over their 
 judgments, burning and prohibiting to be read what 
 they fancied not; yet sparing in their censures, and 
 the books not many which they so dealt with ; tUl 
 Martin V,' by his bull,'* not only prohibited, but was 
 the first that excommunicated ' the reading of hereti 
 cal books ; for about that time Wyclif ^ and Huss " 
 growing terrible, were they who first drove the Papal 
 
 of Rome, as they assumed a great part of the politique govern- 
 ment, 60 tbey caused the bookes, whose authors they did con- 
 demiie, to bee burned, and forbad the reading of them." 
 
 ^ The Council was held at Trent iu the Tyrol from 1545 to 
 1663, there being twenty-five sessions. Among the many things 
 determined, the chief were : it condemned the Reformation ; 
 promised obedience to the Pope ; asserted transubstautiation and 
 the sacrifice of the mass; forbade any one to read the Bible with- 
 out a license, and imposed restrictions on printers of the Bible; and 
 it appointed a committee to examine the whole questiou of heret- 
 ical books, but finally left the decision of this matter to the Pope. 
 
 " engrossing : gaining and keeping possession of. See P. L. 
 V, 775. 
 
 * Martin V, elected by the Council of Constance, was Pope 
 1417-1431. He used every possible means to establish the 
 power and right of the Pope over tlie councils. 
 
 ^ bull: Latin Bulla (q. v.). See also the N. E. D. 
 
 ° What is the common construction? I find uo other instance 
 of this use. 
 
 6 ■Wyclif (1324 ?-1384). Milton says, P. W. m, 92: "For 
 first it may be denied that bishops were our first reformers, for 
 Wickliff was before them, and his egregious labours are not to be 
 neglected." Again P. W. ii, 368: "our Wickliffe's preaching, at 
 which all the succeeding reformers more effectually lighted their 
 tapers, was to his countrymen but a short blaze, soon damped and 
 stifled by the pope and prelates for six or seven kings' reigns." 
 
 ' Hxiss (1369-1415), the Bohemian reformer who, con- 
 demned by the Couucil of Constance, was burned at the stake. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 55 
 
 Court to a stricter policy of prohibiting. Which course 
 Leo X 1 and his successors followed,^ iintil the Coun- 
 cil of Trent and the Spanish Inquisition, engendering 
 together, brought forth, or perfected those catalogues, 
 and expurging indexes, that rake through the entrails 
 of many an old good author, with a violation worse 
 than any could be offered to his tomb. 
 
 Nor did they stay in matters heretical, but any 
 subject that was not to their palate, they either con- 
 demned in a Prohibition,^ or had it straight into the 
 new Purgatory of an Index.* To fill up the measure 
 
 1 Leo X waa Pope 1513-1621. 
 
 ^ " Paul IV also ordayned that an Index should be composed 
 by that office and printed, and so it was in the yeere 1559, in 
 which they did proceed many steps further than formerly they 
 bad done, and laid foundations to maintaine and make great 
 the authority of the Court of Rome, by depriving men of that 
 knowledge, which is necessary to defend them from usurpations. 
 . . . This /nrfea; was divided into three parts. The first conteynetb 
 the names of those all whose works, of what argument soever, 
 though prophane, are forbidden. . . . The second conteyneth the 
 names of the bookes which are particularly condemned, others 
 of the same authours not being condemned. In the third, some 
 bookes are condemned without a name, but onely by a general! 
 rule, that all those are forbidden which beare not the names of 
 the authours, written after the yeere 1519, and many authours 
 and bookes are condemned which for 300, 200 and 100 yeeres 
 have beene commonly read by the learned in the Church of 
 Rome."- — Paolo, History of the Council of Trent, p. 473. 
 
 * Prohibition : The Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the list of 
 books Roman Catholics are forbidden to read. The rules for 
 this list were drawn up by the committee of the Council of 
 Trent, but this Index was first published by Pius IV, in 1564. 
 Clement VIII, 1596, prepared an appendix ; these two, to- 
 gether with the books added each year, form the present Index. 
 
 * Purgatory : The Index Expurgatorius, which contains the 
 passages to be expurgated in those books otherwise permitted 
 to be read. This also was proposed by the committee of the 
 Council of Trent ; it was first published in 1571. 
 
66 JOHN MILTON 
 
 of encroachment, their last invention was to ordain 
 that no book, pamphlet, or paper should be printed 
 (as if St. Peter had bequeathed them the keys of the 
 press also out of Paradise) unless it were approved 
 and licensed under the hands of two or three glutton 
 friars. For example : 
 
 Let the Chancellor Cini be pleased to see if in this 
 present work be contained aught that may with- 
 stand the printing. 
 
 Vincent Rabbatta, Vicar ^ of Florence. 
 I have seen this present work, and find nothing 
 athwart ^ the Catholic faith and good manners: in 
 witness whereof I have given, &c. 
 
 Nicolo Cini, Chancellor of Florence. 
 Attending ' the precedent relation,* it is allowed 
 that this present work of Davanzati ^ may be printed. 
 
 Vincent Eabatta, &c. 
 It may be printed, July 15. 
 
 Friar Simon Mompei d' Amelia, 
 Chancellor of the Holy Office in Florence. 
 Sure they have a conceit, if he of the bottomless 
 pit had not long since broke prison,^ thai} this quad- 
 ruple exorcism would bar him down. I fear their next 
 design will be to get into their custody the licensing 
 
 1 Vicar : »n ecclesiastic who assists a bishop, and who exer- 
 cises authority in his name. 
 
 2 athwart : see P. L. n, 683. 
 
 ' Attending : following upon, as a result of. 
 
 ^ relation : account, report. See P. L, v, 556 ; 5. A. 1595. 
 
 6 Bernardo Davanzati Bostichi of Florence, 1529-1606. The 
 book referred to is Dello Scisma d' InghiUerra, a history of the 
 Church in England from 1501 to the death of Henry VIII. In 
 such a writing there might be much athwart the Catholic faith. 
 
 ' broke prison : «ee P. L. rv, 878 ; " as my Antigonus to 
 break his grave and come again to me." — Winter's 7'ale v, i, 
 42-43. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 57 
 
 of that which they say Claudius intended, but went 
 not through with. Vouchsafe to see another of their 
 forms, the . Roman stamp : 
 
 Imprimatur,! If jj seem good to the reverend Mas- 
 ter of the Holy Palace, 
 
 Belcastro, Vicegerent. 
 Imprimatur, 
 
 Friar Nicolo Eodolphi, 
 Master of the Holy Palace. 
 Sometimes five Imprimaturs are seen together, dia- 
 loguewise, in the piazza of one title-page, compliment- 
 ing and ducking 2 each to other with their shaven 
 reverences, whether the author, who stands by in 
 perplexity at the foot of his epistle, shall to the press 
 or to the sponge.* These are the pretty responsories,^ 
 these are the dear antiphonies,* that so bewitched of 
 late our prelates and their chaplains, with the goodly 
 
 1 Imprimatur : " Let it be printed." The mark of the of- 
 ficial licenser, authorizing the printing of a book. In 1641 Mil- 
 ton had said (P. W. Iil, 47) : " it were hard if the freeborn 
 people of England, with whom the voice of truth for these 
 many years, even against the proverb, hath not been heard but in 
 corners, after all your monkish prohibitions, and expurgatorious 
 indexes, your gags and snaffles, your proud Imprimaturs not to 
 be obtained witliout the shallow surview, but not shallow hand 
 of some mercenary, narrow-souled, and illiterate chaplain . . . 
 if now the concealed, the aggrieved, and long-persecuted truth, 
 could not be suffered to speak." 
 
 ' ducking : see Comus, 960. 
 
 *' These, kind of knaves I know, which in this plainnes 
 Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends 
 Tlian twenty silly ducking observants 
 That stretch their duties nicely." 
 
 LeaVf u, ii, 109. 
 
 * sponge : see P. R. iv, 329. 
 
 * responsories : the psalm, or a portion of it, sung between 
 the readings of the missal. 
 
 ' antiphonies : the answering songs of the two parts of the 
 choir, the one to the other. 
 
58 JOHN MILTON 
 
 echo they made ; and besotted us to the gay imitation 
 of a lordly Imprimatur, one from Lambeth House, '^ 
 another from the west end of Paul's ; ^ so apishly Ro- 
 manising, that the word of command stiU was set 
 down in Latin ; as if the learned grammatical pen 
 that wrote it would cast no ink without Latin ; or 
 perhaps, as they thought, because no vulgar tongue ' 
 was worthy to express the pure conceit * of an Lnpri- 
 matur; but rather, as I hope, for that our English, 
 the language of men, ever famous and foremost in the 
 achievements of liberty, will not easily find servile letters 
 enow to spell such a dictatory presumption English. ^ 
 And thus ye have the inventors and the original of 
 book-licensing ripped up ^ and drawn as lineaUy as any 
 pedigree. We have it not, that can be heard of, from 
 any ancient state, or polity, or church, nor by any 
 statute left us by our ancestors elder or later ; nor from 
 the modern custom of any reformed city or church 
 
 ^ Iiambeth House : the London residence of the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury. " All other Books, whether of Divinitie, Phisicke, 
 Piiilosophie, Poetry, or whatsoever, shall be allowed by the Lord 
 Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, or Bishop oi London for tlie time be 
 ing, or hy their appointment." A Decree of tJie Star-Chamber^ 
 1637, Item in. 
 
 2 Paul's : "With great Honour and Reverence conducted him 
 (King Edward the Fifth) thro' their city to the Bishop of Lon- 
 don's Palace, near St. Paul's Church." — A Complete History of 
 England with the Lives of all the Kings and Queens thereof, I, 
 486. London, 1719. 
 
 * vulgar tongue : that is, one not Latin, the language of the 
 learned. 
 
 * conceit : idea, notion, " The horrible conceit of death and 
 night." — Romeo and Juliet, iv, iii, 37. 
 
 5 The N. E. D. gives only one instance of the word Eng- 
 lish us a quasi-adverb. 
 
 ' ripped up: "to rip up wrong that battell once hath tried," 
 F. Q. IV, ix, 37. 
 
AKIfiOi'AlilTICA 69 
 
 iroad ; but from the most anti-christian council and 
 the most tyrannous inquisition that ever inquired. 
 
 Till then books were ever as freely admitted into 
 the world as any other birth ; ^ the issue of the brain 
 was no more stifled than the issue of the womb ; no 
 envious Juno ^ sat cross-legged over the nativity of any 
 man's intellectual offspring ; but if it proved a mon- 
 ster, who denies but that it was justly burnt, or sunk 
 into the sea. But that a book, in worse condition than 
 a peccant soul, should be to stand before a jury ere it 
 be born to the world, and undergo yet in darkness 
 the judgment of Radamanth ^ and his colleagues, ere it 
 can pass the ferry * backward into light, was never 
 heard before, till that mysterious iniquity,^ provoked 
 and troubled at the first entrance of reformation, 
 sought out new limbos ^ and new hells wherein they 
 
 1 birth: see P. L. IX, 624; xi, 687; P. R. ii, 71. 
 
 2 Juno: Alomena was about to give birth to Heracles, the son 
 of Zeus, when jealous Hera sent to hinder the birth for seven 
 days, that Eurystheus might be born first, and so win the promise 
 of power which Zeus had said should be to the descendant of 
 Perseus born on that day. " She came (the goddess of birth), 
 indeed, but corrupted beforehand, and she had the intention to 
 give my life to the vengeful Juno. And when she heard my groans, 
 she seated herself upon that altar before the door, and pressing 
 her left knee with her right knee, her flngers being joined together 
 in the form of a comb, she retarded my delivery." — Ovid's 
 Metamorphoses, ix, fable m. 
 
 ' Radamanth: a son of Zeus and Europa, who, becanse of 
 his justice, was associated with his brothers, Minos and iEacus, 
 as judges in the lower world. See ^neid, VI, 562 fE. 
 
 ■* the ferry*, read yEneid, vi, 295 ffi., also Dante's description 
 in the Inferno in, 86 fF. 
 
 ^ that mysterious iniquity: the woman of Rev. xvii. "The 
 Church reformers of the sixteenth century confidently identified 
 this woman with the Papacy." — Hales. 
 
 ^ limbos: The meaning of the sentence is: the books of, 
 Italy, like those persons within the church, could be lawfully 
 
60 JOHN MILTON 
 
 might include our books also within the number of their 
 damned. And this was the rare morsel so officiously 
 snatched up, and so ill-favoredly imitated by our 
 inquisiturient ^ bishops, and the attendant minorities,^ 
 their chaplains. That ye like not now these most 
 certain authors of this licensing order, and that all 
 sinister intention was far distant from your thoughts, 
 when ye were importuned the passing it, all men who 
 know the integrity of your actions, and how ye honor 
 truth, will clear ye readily. 
 
 ^ But some will say, what though the inventors were 
 bad, the thing for all that may be good. It may so ; 
 yet if that thing be no such deep invention, but obvi- 
 ous and easy for any man to light on, and yet best 
 and wisest commonwealths through all ages and occa^ 
 sions have forborne to use it, and falsest seducers and 
 oppressors of men were the first who took it up, and 
 to no other purpose but to obstruct and hinder 
 the first approach of reformation ; I am of those 
 who believe, it will be a harder alchymy ^ than Lul- 
 
 judged; the books of otbers, like the patriarchs and the philoso- 
 phers who were born before Christ and like infants imbaptized, 
 must have limbos provided for tbem. The church recognized 
 two limbos sitnated on the borders of hell: the Limiits patrum, 
 the abode of the just who had died before Clirist's coming, and 
 the Limbus puerorum, the place of unbaptized infants. See Dante's 
 Inferno IV. Popular opinion conceived also a Limbus fatuorum, 
 for which see P. L. ni, 495 ff. See also Pope's Rape of the Lock, 
 V, 113 ff. 
 
 1 inquisiturient: eager to play the inquisitor. On what prin- 
 ciple in Latin grammar has Milton coined this word ? 
 
 2 minorities: the Franciscans were called Friars Minor op 
 Minorities. Here the sense seems to be, " Chaplains who resemble 
 monks in the service of the Inquisition.'' — Jebb. 
 
 " This paragraph is a transition to the discussion of the second 
 • proposition, which begins in the next paragraph. 
 ^ alchymy: task or achievement in alchymy. 
 
AEEOPAGITICA 61 
 
 lius ^ ever knew, to sublimate ^ any good use out of such 
 an invention. Yet this only is what I request to gain 
 from this reason, that it may be held a dangerous and 
 suspicious fruit, as certainly it deserves, for the tree that 
 bore it, until I can dissect one by one the properties 
 it has. But I have first to finish, as was propounded, 
 what is to be thought in general of reading books, 
 whatever sort they be, and whether be more the bene- 
 &t or the harm that thence proceeds ? 
 
 Not to insist upon the examples of Moses, Daniel,' 
 and Paul, who were skilful in all the learning of the 
 Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Greeks, which could not 
 probably be without reading their books of all sorts ; 
 in Paul especially, who thought it no defilement to 
 insert into Holy Scripture the sentences* of three 
 Greek poets,* and one of them a tragedian ; the ques- 
 
 1 IiuUius : Raymond LiiUy (1235 7-1315), born at Palma, iu 
 the island of Majorca, was of Italian parentage. He was at one 
 time well-known as an alchemist, but he was most famous as the 
 inventor of a curious system of logic by which, iu a mechanical 
 way, any answer to any question could be obtained. He thought 
 by this to convert the Mohammedans from the error of their 
 belief. He sought to interest all Europe in his scheme, and went 
 himself three times as a missionary to Mphammedan Africa. 
 
 ' sublimate: see P. L. i, 235; v, 483. 
 
 8 See Acts, vu, 22, and Daniel, i, 17. There is no evidence for 
 the learning of Paul outside the New Testament, but coming 
 from Tarsus he would have at least the opportunity of this learn- 
 ing, for Tarsus was " one of the three great university cities of the 
 Mediterranean world. Strabo (14, 5, 13, p. 673) speaks of the 
 Tarsian University as even surpassing in some respects those of 
 Athens and Alexandria.'' — Hasting, Dictionary of the Bible. 
 
 * sentences : sayings, maxims. 
 
 5 The three are : " In him we live and move and have our 
 being," Acts, xvii, 28, from Aratus (see p. 17), or possibly from 
 the Hymn to Zeus of Cleanthes; " the Cretans are always liars, 
 evil beasts, slow bellies," Titus, I, 12, from Epimenides of the 
 sixth century; "evil communications corrupt good uianuers," 
 
62 JOHN MILTON 
 
 tion was notwithstanding sometimes controverted 
 among the primitive doctors, but with great odds on 
 that side which affirmed it both lawful and profitable, 
 as was then evidently perceived, when Julian the 
 Apostate ^ and subtlest enemy to our faith, made a 
 decree forbidding Christians the study of heathen 
 learning ; for, said he, they wound us with our own 
 weapons, and with our own arts and sciences they 
 overcome us. And, indeed, the Christians were put so 
 to their shifts by this crafty means, and so much in 
 danger to decline into all ignorance, that the two 
 ApoUinarii were fain, as a man may say, to coin aU 
 the seven liberal sciences ^ out of the Bible, reducing 
 it into divers forms of orations, poems, dialogues, even 
 to the calculating of a new Christian- grammar. But, 
 saith the historian Socrates,^ the providence of God 
 
 I Cor. XV, 33, from a fragment of Euripides. See Milton's Intro- 
 duction to Samson Affonistes. But Jerome and Grotius, the pub- 
 lishers of Menander, say this last is from the Thais of Menander. 
 Possibly it was a proverbial saying older than either poet. See 
 Todd's Milton, V, 314. 
 
 1 Jalian the Apostate (331-63), a nephew of Constantine 
 the Great, was brought up in the Christian faith, but became a 
 convert to the old Roman gods, and during his short term as 
 Emperor (361-63) sought to bring back that worship. 
 
 2 seven liberal sciences: see p. 6, n. 6. 
 
 ' Socrates Seholasticus (385 ?-440 ?), born and reared in 
 Coustautiuople; his History embraces the period from 306-439. 
 " The law which the Emperor made that the Christians should 
 not be trained up in the liberal sciences, made both the Apolli- 
 nariuses (of whom we spake before) to be of far greater fame. 
 For either of them being skilfull in such arts as direct our stile 
 and orations, the father a Grammarian, the son a Khetorieian, 
 profited very much the Christians, and furthered at that time 
 not a little the Church of God. For the father asa profound Gram- 
 marian, framed the art of humanity unto the furtherance of 
 Christian Religion; he turned the five books of Moses into hero- 
 ical verse, together with other books of the Old Testament which 
 
AEEOPAGITICA 63 
 
 provided better than the industry of Apollinarius and 
 his son, by taking away that illiterate law with the 
 life of him who devised it. 
 
 So great an injury they then held it to be deprived 
 of Hellenic learning; and thought it a persecution 
 more undermining, and secretly decaying the Church, 
 than the open cruelty of Decius ^ or Diocletian. ^ And 
 perhaps it was the same politic drift that the devil 
 whipped St. Jerome ' in a Lenten dream, for reading 
 
 contain histories: partly in hexameter verse, and partly after the 
 form of comedies and tragedies, with the fit application of per- 
 sons : he wrote in all kind of meter, to the end the Christians should 
 not be ignorant and nuskilfiill in any rare gift that excelled among 
 the Gentiles. The son, an elegant Khetorician, brought the writ- 
 ings of the Evangelists, and works of the Apostles into dialogues, 
 as Plato used among the heathen. Although their labour and in- 
 dustry seemed available and greatly to set forth the service of 
 God in so much that therby the lewd drift of the Emperor was 
 stopped from taking effect: yet the providence of God did far 
 exceed their careful studies, and dashed also the Emperors 
 wicked device." The Ecclesiastical History, tr. by Hamner, Lon- 
 don, 1636, pp. 305-6. 
 
 1 Deciua was emperor 249-251; in his reign occurred the 
 first general persecution of the Christian Church. 
 
 ' Diocletian (284-305) sought to stamp out Christianity 
 entirely. 
 
 « St. Jerome (340-420) : " While the old serpent was thus 
 fooling me, about mid-lent a fever entered my marrow and seized 
 on my worn-out body; and without respite so preyed upon my 
 unha,ppy limbs that scarce did I cleave to my bones. Meanwhile 
 my funeral was being made ready; and, as the chill crept over 
 my whole frame, a vital heat now throbbed only in my poor 
 lukewarm breast; — when suddenly, caught up in the spirit, I 
 was dragged before the tribunal of the Judge: where there was 
 so much ilight, such splendour from the brightness of those who 
 stood round about, that I cast myself to the earth and dared not 
 look up. Asked of my state, I answered that I was a Christian. 
 Thou liest, he saith, thou art a Ciceronian, not a Christian. For 
 where thy treasure there will be thy heart also. Straightway I 
 was dumb, and under the lash (for He had commanded me to 
 
64 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Cicero ; or else it was a phantasm bred by the fever 
 which had then seized him. For had an angel been 
 his discipliner, unless it were for dwelling too much 
 upon Ciceronianisms,! and had chastised the reading, 
 not the vanity, it had been plainly partial; first to 
 correct him for grave Cicero, and not for scurril Plautus, 
 whom he confesses to have been reading, not long be- 
 fore ; next to correct him only, and let so many more 
 ancient fathers wax old in those pleasant and florid 
 studies without the lash of such a tutoring apparition ; 
 insomuch that Basil ^ teaches how some good use 
 may be made of Margites,^ a sportful poem, not now 
 extant, writ by Homer ; and why not then of Mor- 
 gante,'' an Italian romance much to the same purpose ? 
 
 be scourged), was tormented yet more by the fire of conscience, 
 thinking over that verse in my heart, Who shall confess to Thee 
 in hell ? Then began I to cry and to wail, Have mercy on me, 
 O Lord, have mercy. Those words resounded amid the blows." 
 — Select Library of the Nicene Fathers, second series, vi, 35. 
 
 ' During the middle of the sixteenth century the writers of 
 Italy strove to attain a pure Latin style, especially that of Cicero. 
 The chief of the Ciceronian school was Bembo, who would not 
 use " a word or phrase which coald not be justified by the prac- 
 tice of what was called the golden age, but even insisted on that 
 of Cicero himself, as the only model." Erasmus wrote his Cice- 
 ronianus to ridicule these purists. — Hallam, Literature of the 
 Middle Ages, i, 327. 
 
 2 Basil was bishop of Csesarea 'u Cappadocia, 370-79. 
 
 ' Margites: this was a humorous poem — only four lines of 
 which remain — named from the hero, a rich, conceited, stupid 
 person, who is made the butt of much fun. The authorship is 
 not certain, but Milton follows Plato, Second Alcibiades, 147, and 
 Aristotle, Poetics, rv, 10 (" His Margites bears the same relation 
 to Comedy that the Iliad and Odyssey do to Tragedy ") in attri- 
 buting it to Homer. 
 
 * Morgante: Luigi Pulci (1431-87) wrote a mock-romance, 
 called Morgante Maggiore, which was published at Venice 1488. 
 He brought ridicule upou romance literature by burlesquing the 
 
AREOPAGITICA 65 
 
 But if it be agreed we shall be tried by visions, 
 there is a vision recorded by Eusebius,i far ancienter 
 than this tale of Jerome to the nun Eustochium, and, 
 besides, has nothing of a fever in it. Dionysius ^ Alex- 
 andrinus was, about the year 240, a person of great 
 name in the church for piety and learning, who had 
 wont to avail himself much against heretics by being 
 conversant in their books ; until a certain presbyter 
 laid it scrupulously to his conscience, how he durst 
 venture himself among those defiling volumes. The 
 worthy man, loth to give offence,^ fell into a new de- 
 bate with himself what was to be thought ; when sud- 
 denly a vision sent from God (it is his own epistle 
 that so avers it) confirmed him in these words : 
 "Read any books whatever come to thy hands, for 
 thou art sufficient both to judge aright, and to ex- 
 amine each matter." To this revelation he assented 
 the sooner, as he confesses, because it was answerable 
 to that of the Apostle to the Thessalonians : " Prove 
 all things, hold fast that which is good." * 
 
 And he might have added another remarkable say- 
 ing of the same author : " To the pure, all things are 
 pure " ; ^ not only meats and drinks, but all kind of 
 knowledge whether of good or evil ; the knowledge 
 
 characters and introducing much that was not relevant. " Bear- 
 ing the same relation to the poetry as Don Quixote to the prose of 
 chivalry." — Jebb. See Sismondi, Literature of Europe, 1, 322-24. 
 
 1 Eusebiua, Bishop of Csesarea from about 314 to the year 
 of his death 340. He is sometimes called the Father of Ecclesi- 
 astical History, as he was the first who sought to write an or- 
 ganized account of the church. 
 
 2 Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, 247-65. 
 
 ' give offence : cause anyone to commit sin. See S. A. 767, 
 1218, also Isaiah, vni, 14. 
 ■» 1 Thess. V, 21. 
 « Titus I, 15. See P. L. v, 117-20. 
 
ee JOHN MILTON 
 
 cannot defile, nor consequently the books, if the will 
 and conscience be not defiled. For books are as meats 
 and viands are ; some of good, some of evil substance ; 
 and yet God in that unapocryphal vision, said without 
 exception, " Rise, Peter, kiU and eat," i leaving the 
 choice to each man's discretion. Wholesome meats to 
 a vitiated stomach differ little or nothing from un- 
 wholesome ; and best books to a naughty " mind are not 
 unappliable to occasions of evil. Bad meats will scarce 
 breed good nourishment in the healthiest concoction ; ^ 
 but herein the difference is of bad books, that they to 
 a discreet and judicious reader serve in many respects 
 to discover, to confute, to forewarn, and to illustrate. 
 Whereof what better witness can ye expect I should 
 produce, than one of your own now sitting in Parlia- 
 ment, the chief of learned men reputed in this land, 
 Mr. Selden ; * whose volume of natural and national 
 laws proves, not only by great authorities brought to- 
 
 1 Acts X, 9-16. 
 
 " naughty : morally bad, wicked. " A naughty person, a 
 ■wicked mau," Proverbs, VI, 12 ; frequently in Shakespeare ; the 
 oft-quoted "so shines a good deed in a uaughty world," Mer- 
 chant of Venice, v, i, 91. 
 
 s concoction : see p. 26, n. 4. 
 
 * Mr. Selden (1584-1654) was, as Milton says, called the 
 most learned man in England. He was a lawyer and member 
 of Parliament, who, when out of favor at court, devoted his 
 hours to writing. Ben Jonson styles him " Monarch in letters " 
 (see his poem to Selden, Underwoods, xxxi). Anthony Wood 
 calls him {Athence Oxoniensis, n, 107, London, 1692) " a prodi- 
 gie in most parts of leamiug." The book referred to is De Jure 
 et Gentium juxta disciplinum Hebroeorum, which Milton again re- 
 fers to (P. W. in, 269) " that noble volume written by our 
 learned Selden, 'Of the Law of Nature and of Nations,' a 
 work more useful and more worthy to be perused by whosoever 
 studies to be a great mau in wisdom, equity, and justice, than 
 all those 'decretals and suniless sums,' which the pontifical 
 clerks have doted on." 
 
AREOPAGITICA 67 
 
 gether, but by exquisite * reasons and theorems ^ al- 
 most mathematically demonstrative, that all opinions, 
 yea errors, known, read, and collated, are of main ser- 
 vice and assistance toward the speedy attainment of 
 what is truest. 
 
 I conceive, therefore, that when God did enlarge 
 the universal diet of man's body, saving ever the rules 
 of temperance,^ he then also, as before, left arbitrary 
 the dieting and repasting •* of our minds ; as wherein 
 every mature man might have to exercise his own 
 leading capacity. How great a virtue is temperance,^ 
 how much of moment through the whole life of man! 
 Yet God commits the managing so great a trust, with- 
 out particular law or prescription, wholly to the de- 
 meanor 5 of every grown man. And, therefore, when 
 he himself tabled the Jews from heaven, that omer,^ 
 •which was every man's daily portion of manna, is 
 computed to have been more than might have well 
 sufficed the heartiest feeder thrice as many meals. 
 For those actions which enter into a man, rather than 
 issue out of him,^ and therefore defile not, God uses 
 not to captivate * under a perpetual childhood of pre- 
 
 1 exquisite : carefully chosen, excellent. See P. R. ii, 346, 
 also Twelfih Night, II, iii, 155. 
 ^ Why does he not use theories ? 
 
 * temperance : " holy dictate of spare Temperance" (Comus, 
 767). Read the following passages in which Milton explains and 
 extols temperance : P. L. vn, 126 ff. ; xi, 530j38 ; xi, 805 ; xii, 
 583. It was one of the four cardinal virtues ; see Dante's Purga- 
 torio, XXIX, 130. 
 
 * repasting : Shakespeare uses this once, Hamlet, iv, v, 147. 
 6 demeanor : management. 
 
 ' omer : see Exodus, xvi, 16-36. 
 ' Matt. XV, 17-20 ; Mark, vii, 15-23. 
 
 ^ captivate : hold captive, subjugate. " Upon their woes 
 whom fortune captivates," /// Henry VI, I, iv, 115. 
 
68 JOHN MILTON 
 
 scription, but trusts him with the gift of reason to be 
 his ovra chooser ; ^ there were but little work left for 
 preaching, if law and compulsion should grow so fast 
 upon those thiugs which heretofore were governed 
 only by exhortation. Solomon informs us, that much 
 reading is a weariness to the flesh ;2 but neither he 
 nor other inspired author tells us that such or such 
 reading is unlawful ; yet certainly had God thought 
 good to limit us herein, it had been much more ex- 
 pedient to have told us what was unlawful, than what 
 was wearisome. 
 
 As for the burning of those Ephesian books by St. 
 Paul's converts ; ' 'tis replied the books were magic, 
 the Syriac so renders them. It was a private act, a 
 voluntary act, and leaves us to a voluntary imitation : 
 the men in remorse burnt those books which were 
 their own ; the magistrate by this example is not ap- 
 pointed ; * these men practised the books, another might 
 perhaps have read them in some sort usefully. 
 
 Good and evil we know in the field of this world 
 grow up together ^ almost inseparably ; and the know- 
 ledge of good is so involved and interwoven with the 
 knowledge of evil, and in so many cunning resem- 
 blances hardly to be discerned, that those confused 
 seeds which were imposed upon Psyche ^ as an inces- 
 
 1 See P. L. m, 97-99, 120-28; v, 235-58. 
 
 * Eccles. XII, 12, also p. 5, n. 2. 
 » Acts, XIX, 19. 
 
 * appointed : decided, determined. See iV. E. D. 
 
 ' " For two urns stand upon the floor of Zeus filled with his 
 evil gifts, and one with blessings. To whomsoever Zeus whose 
 joy is in the lightning dealeth a mingled lot, that man chanceth 
 now upon ill and now again on good." — Iliad, xxrv, 527-30. 
 See Matt, xin, 30. 
 
 ' The story of Cupid and Psyche is told in the Golden Ass of 
 Apuleiiis, bks. iv-vi. Venus, jealoun of Psyche because she was 
 
AREOPAGITICA 69 
 
 sant labor to cull out, and sort asunder, were not more 
 intermixed. It was from out the rind of one apple 
 tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil,^ as two 
 twins 2 cleaving together, leaped forth into the world. 
 And perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into 
 of knowing good and evil, that is to say, of knowing 
 good by evil.i 
 
 As, therefore, the state of man now is ; what wisdom 
 can there be to choose, what continence to forbear 
 without the knowledge of evil ? He that can appre-i 
 hend and consider vice with aU. her baits and seeming 
 
 the beloved of Cupid, set her various tasks, among them that 
 mentioned here : " Then, taking wheat, barley, millet, poppy, 
 vetches, lentils, and beans, and, mixing them altogether in one 
 heap, she said to her : ' Yon seem to me, such an ugly slave 
 as you now are, to be likely to gain lovers in no other way than 
 by diligent drudgery. I will, therefore, myself, for once, make 
 trial of your industrious habits. Take and separate this promis- 
 cuous mass of seeds, and having properly placed each grain 
 in its place, and so sorted the whole, give me a proof of yoar 
 expedition, by finishing the task before evening.' Then liaving 
 delivered over to her the vast heap of seeds, she at once took 
 her departure for the nuptial banquet." 
 
 " But Psyche, astounded at the stupendous task, sat silent 
 and stupefied, and did not move a hand to the confused and in- 
 extricable mass. Just then, a tiny little ant, one of the inhabit- 
 ants of the fields, became aware of this prodigious difficulty. 
 ... it ran busily about and summoned together the whole 
 tribe of ants in the neighborhood, crying to them, ' Take pity 
 on her, ye active children of the all-producing earth ! ' " (Bohn 
 edition, p. 116.) So with the aid of the ants the task was all 
 accomplished within the time specified. Eead the beautiful poem 
 of William Morris, The Story of Cupid and Psyche. 
 
 ' " ye shall be as gods, knowing both good and evil." — Gen. 
 m, 5. 
 
 *' Since our eyes 
 Opened vrb find indeed, and find we know 
 Both good and evil, good lost and evil got.'^ 
 
 P. L. a., 107-72 ; also P. L. it, 232 ; a, 722, 752. 
 
 ' two twins : "two blissful twins are to be born," Camus, 1010. 
 
70 JOHN MILTON 
 
 pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet 
 prefer i that which is truly better, he is the true way- 
 faring Christian. I cannot praise a fugitive and clois- 
 tered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never 
 sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the 
 race, where that immortal garland is to be run for,^ 
 not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not in- 
 nocence into the world ; we bring impurity much rather ; 
 that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is 
 contrary. That virtue, therefore, which is but a young- 
 ling in the contemplation of evil,' and knows not the 
 utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects 
 it, is but a blank ^ virtue, not a pure ; her whiteness 
 is but an excremental * whiteness ; which was the rea- 
 son why our sage and serious poet Spenser,* whom I 
 dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus ^ 
 
 1 Note the choice of these verbs. 
 = Phil. Ill, 14 ; I Cor. ix, 24. 
 
 8 blank : colorless, iuefi'ectual, helpless. See P. L. IX, 890 ; 
 Comus, 452. 
 
 * excremental : superficial. From what Latin word ? The 
 excrement was that which grew out, especially the hair and nails, 
 "dally with my excrement, with my miistachio." — Love's La- 
 bour 's Lost, V. i, 109 ; also Comedy of Errors, a, ii, 79 ; Winter's 
 Tale, IV, iv, 734. 
 
 * Spenser : Dryden iu his Preface to the Fables says, " Mil- 
 ton was the poetical son of Spenser, and Mr. Waller of Fairfax. 
 . . . Milton has acknowledged to me that Spenser was his orig- 
 inal." (Globe edition, p. 494.) See Jl. P. 116-20. In P. W. lii, 
 84, Milton calls Spenser " our admired Spenser," and quotes at 
 some length from the Eclogue for May. 
 
 ' John Duns Scotus (12657-1308), a, Franciscan, and the 
 schoolman who was famous as a teacher both at Oxford and 
 PAris. He was the leader of the Scotists iu opposition to the 
 Thoniists, the followers of Thomas Aquinas. Against them, he 
 defended the doctrine of the Immaonlate Conception, winning 
 by his dialectical skill the title of Doctor Subtilis. In opposition 
 to them, he believed iu predestination ; he held that the will was 
 
AREOPAGITICA 71 
 
 or Aquinas,^ describing true temperance under the 
 person of Guion, brings him in with his palmer through 
 the cave of Mammon,^ and the bower of earthly bliss, 
 that he might see and know, and yet abstain. 
 
 Since, therefore, the knowledge and survey of vice 
 is in this world so necessary to the constituting of hu- 
 man virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirm- 
 ation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less 
 danger, scout ^ into the regions of sin and falsity, than 
 by reading all manner of tractates and hearing all 
 manner of reason ? And this is the benefit which may 
 be had of books promiscuously read. 
 
 But of the harm that may result hence, three kinds 
 are usually reckoned. First, is feared the infection that 
 may spread ; but then all human learning and con- 
 troversy in religious points must remove out of the 
 world, yea the Bible itself ; for that ofttimes relates 
 blasphemy not nicely,* it describes the carnal sense of 
 wicked men not unelegantly, it brings in holiest men 
 passionately murmuring against Providence ^ through 
 all the arguments of Epicurus ; in other great disputes 
 
 free, that revelation was the only source of knowledge, and that 
 the existence of God conid not be pi'oved. 
 
 1 Thomas Aquinas (1225 ?-1274), called the Serafic Doctor, 
 lectured at Paris, Konie, and Bologna. He taught that know- 
 ledge is the supreme end of life, and that there are two sources 
 of knowledge, reason and revelation. His great work Summa 
 TheologicB was an attempt to bring into systematic order and 
 logical relation all revealed doctrines. 
 
 2 Bead Spenser's Faerie. Queen, ii, vii. "The Palmer was not 
 with him in the Cave of Mammon ; see il, viii, 3." — Hales. 
 
 ' scout : see P. L. n, 133 ; also for a similar use of the noun, 
 P. L. HI, 513 ; VI, 629 ; Comus, 138. 
 
 * nicely : fastidiously. " To taste think not I shall be nice," 
 P L. V, 433 ; " a nice and ."subtle happiness," P, L. viil, 399. 
 
 ' Illustrate these three points from the Bible. Epicurus, see 
 p. 45, n. 6. 
 
78 JOHN MILTON 
 
 it answers dubiously and darkly to the common reader ; 
 and asks a Talmudist ^ what ails the modesty of his 
 marginal Keri,^ that Moses and all the prophets can- 
 not persuade him to pronounce the textual Chetiv. 
 For these causes we all know the Bihle itself put 
 by the Papist into the first rank of prohibited 
 books. The ancientest fathers must be next removed, 
 as Clement of Alexandria,^ and that Eusebian 
 book of Evangelic preparation * transmitting our ears 
 through a hoard of heathenish obscenities to receive 
 the Gospel. Who finds not that Irenaeus,^ Epipha- 
 
 1 Talmudist : one believing in the Talmud, the Jewish code 
 gathered from oral tradition, and explaining the written law of 
 the Pentateuch. 
 
 , " Keri, that which is read. Chetiv, that which is written. 
 When a passage in the text seemed unfit to read, a gloss was 
 written in the margin. Milton discusses the question of this 
 paragraph in P. W. in, 131. " Whereas God, who is the author 
 both of purity and eloquence, chose this phrase (which he gives 
 iu the context) as fittest in that vehement character wherein he 
 spake. Otherwise that plain word might have easily been for- 
 borne : which the mazoreths and rabbinical scholiasts, not well 
 intending, have oftpu used to blur the margin with Keri instead 
 of Ketiv, and gave us this insulse rule out of their Talmud, 
 ' That all words which in the law are written obscenely, must 
 be changed to more civil words ' : fools, who would teach men to 
 read more decently than God tho\ight good to write." 
 
 ' Clement of Alexandria (about 200 a.d.), a presbyter in 
 the church of Alexandria, wrote, among other works, a Hortatory 
 Address to the Greeks, in which he songlit to persuade them to 
 give up their religion. With this end in view, he described many 
 of their religious practices — often very obscene — to show the 
 absurdity and futility of these customs. 
 
 ■• Eusebius ; see p. 65, n. 1. The book here referred to is the 
 Preparatio Evangelica, wliich is a collection of quotations from 
 pagan philosophers, intended to prepare the mind of the reader 
 to receive the Christian doctrine. 
 
 " Irenseus (140?-202?) Bishop of Lyons, wrote Against 
 Heresies to combat the heresy of the Gnostics. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 73 
 
 mus,i Jerome,^ and others discover ^ more heresies 
 than they well confute, and that oft for heresy which 
 is the truer opinion ? 
 
 Nor boots it * to say for these, and all the heathen 
 writers of greatest infection, if it must be thought so, 
 with whom is bound up the life of human learning, that 
 they writ in an unknown tongue, so long as we are sure 
 those languages are known as well to the worst of men, 
 who are both most able and most diligent to instil the 
 poison they suck, first into the courts of princes, ac- 
 quainting them with the choicest delights, and criti- 
 cisms 5 of sin. As perhaps did that Petronius ^ whom 
 Nero called his Arbiter, the master of his revels ; ^ and 
 the notorious ribald of Arezzo,^ dreaded and yet dear to 
 the Italian courtiers. I name not him for posterity's 
 sake, whom Henry VIII named in merriment his 
 
 } Epiphanius (315-403) was Bishop of Constantia, the an- 
 cient Salaniis, iu Cyprus. His chief work, Panarion, is a de- 
 scription and refutation of eighty heresies. 
 
 2 Jerome ; see p. 63, n. 3. 
 
 ° discover: uncover, make known. " Law can discover sin," 
 P. L. XII, 290 ; also P. L. xi, 267. 
 
 * boots it : see Lye. 64 ; S. A. 560 ; -' it shall scarce boot me 
 to say ' not guilty,' " Winter's Tale, in, ii, 26. 
 
 ^ dlticisms : the nice points, the subtleties. See quotations 
 in the N. E. D. 
 
 ^ Petronius was called elegantim arbiter because he was a 
 judge in all questions of luxurious and licentious living. Tacitus 
 tells his story in the Annals, xvi, 18, 19. He wrote a novel in 
 twenty books, which from the remains seems to have been, al- 
 though very obscene, written with great art. See T. and S. il, 
 84. 
 
 ^ What did this title mean in Milton's time ? 
 
 8 Pietro Aretino (1492-1557) was banished first from Arezzo 
 and then from Rome for his satirical and obscene writings. Be- 
 ing very poor, he obtained money by writing laudatory verses 
 for the great, who gave to him through fear of having his biting 
 satire directed against themselves. 
 
74 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Vicar of hell.^ By which compendious way all the 
 contagion that foreign books can infuse, will find a 
 passage to the people far easier and shorter than an 
 Indian voyage,^ though it could be sailed either by 
 the north of Cathay eastward, or of Canada westward, 
 while our Spanish licensing gags the English press 
 never so severely. 
 
 But, on the other side, that infection which is from 
 books of controversy in religion, is more doubtful and 
 dangerous to the learned than to the ignorant ; and 
 yet those books must be permitted untouched by the 
 licenser. It wiU be hard to instance where any ignor- 
 ant man hath been ever seduced by papistical book in 
 English, unless it were commended and expounded to 
 him by some of that clergy ; and indeed all such trac- 
 tates, whether false or true, are as the prophecy of 
 Isaiah was to the eunuch,^ " not to be understood with- 
 out a guide." But of our priests and doctors how 
 many have been corrupted by studying the comments 
 of Jesuits and Sorbonists,* and how fast they could 
 
 ^ It is uucertaiu to whom Milton here alludes under a title 
 which is a parody of the Pope's title " Vicar of Christ." Wolsey 
 and Thomas Cromwell have both been suggested. 
 
 ^ The desire in Milton's time was to find a shorter way of 
 reaching India and China than the long overland route ; a north- 
 east, and also a northwest passage, had been proposed. See 
 P. L. X, 289-93. In his History of Muscovia is an interesting 
 description of the imperial city of Cathay; P. W. v, 407. 
 
 8 Acts, viii, 28-35. 
 
 * SorbonistB : Robert de Sorbon founded in 1252 a school 
 for poor students in Paris. This soon became the meeting place 
 for all students of the University of Paris, and finally the name 
 was applied to the whole University. The Sorbonne now sig- 
 nifies the faculties of literature, science, and theology. Milton 
 again gives his opinion in P. W. i, 83 : " Finding yourself [Sal- 
 masius] destitute of any assistance or help from orthodox pro- 
 testaut divines, you have the impudence to betake yourself to 
 
AREOPAGITICA 75 
 
 transfuse that corruption into the people, our experi- 
 ence is both late and sad. It is not forgot, since the 
 acute and distinct Arminiusi was perverted merely by 
 the perusing of a nameless ^ discourse written at Delft, 
 which at first he took in hand to confute. 
 
 Seeing, therefore, that those books, and those in 
 great abundance, which are likeliest to taint both life 
 and doctrine, cannot be suppressed without the fall of 
 learning, and of all ability in disputation ; * and that 
 these books of either sort are most and soonest catch- 
 ing to the learned, from whom to the common people 
 whatever is heretical or dissolute may quickly be con- 
 veyed ; and that evil manners are as perfectly learned 
 without books a thousand other ways which caimot be 
 stopped ; and evil doctrine not with books can propa- 
 gate, except a teacher guide, which he might also do 
 without writing, and so beyond prohibiting: I am not 
 able to unfold, how this cautelous * enterprise of licens- 
 ing can be exempted from the number of vain and im- 
 possible attempts. And he who were pleasantly disposed, 
 could not well avoid to liken it to the exploit of that 
 gallant man, who thought to pound up the crows by 
 shutting his park gate. 
 
 the Sorbonists, whose college you know is devoted to the Rom- 
 ish religion, and consequently but of very weak authority among 
 protestants." 
 
 1 Arminius (1560-1609'), the learned Dutch theologian, was 
 asked to refute certain theses against predestination. In the 
 course of his study, he became convinced himself, and rejected 
 altogether the Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional election. 
 
 - nameless : anonymous. 
 
 ' disputation ; see the part disputation played at that time 
 in the education of the university. Masson, 1, 193. 
 
 * cautelous ; deceitful. " Cautelous baits and practice," Co- 
 riolanus, iv, i, 33 ; " Swear priests and cowards and men caute- 
 lous," Julius Ccesar, ii, i, 129. 
 
76 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Besides another inconvenience, if learned men be the 
 first receivers out of books and dispreaders both of 
 vice and error, how shall the licensers themselves be 
 confided in, imless we can confer upon them, or they 
 assume to themselves above all others in the land, the 
 grace of infallibility and uncorruptedness? And again, 
 if it be true, that a wise man, like a good refiner, can 
 gather gold out of the drossiest volume, and that a 
 fool win be a fool with the best book, yea or without 
 book, there is no reason that we should deprive a wise 
 man of any advantage to his wisdom, while we seek to 
 restrain from a fool that which being restrained wiU 
 be no hindrance to his folly. For if there should be so 
 much exactness always used to keep that from him 
 which is unfit for his reading, we should, in the judg- 
 ment ^ of Aristotle not only, but of Solomon and of 
 our Saviour, not vouchsafe him good precepts, and by 
 consequence not willingly admit him to good books ; 
 as being certain that a wise man will make better use 
 of an idle ^ pamphlet, than a fool vnU do of sacred 
 Scripture. 
 
 3 'T is next alleged we must not expose ourselves to 
 temptations without necessity, and, next to that, not 
 employ our time in vain things. To both these objec- 
 tions one answer will serve, out of the grounds already 
 laid ; that to aU men such books are not temptations 
 nor vanities, but useful drugs and materials wherewith 
 to temper, and compose effective and strong medicines, 
 which man's life cannot want.* The rest, as children 
 
 1 Aristotle, Ethics, I, iii; x, ix. Prov. xvn, 24 ; xxm, 9 ; and 
 for the judgment of our Saviour probably I Cor. i, 18-25. 
 
 ISSle : useless. See P. L. vi, 839 ; vii, 279. 
 
 ' This is a transition paragraph leading to the second point, 
 / the argument for which liegins in the next paragraph. 
 L * vvant : be without. See p. 31, u. 3. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 77 
 
 and childish men, who have not the art to qualify ^ and 
 prepare these working minerals, well may be exhorted 
 to forbear, but hindered forcibly they cannot be by all 
 the licensing that sainted Inquisition could ever yet 
 contrive. Which is what I promised to deliver next: 
 that this order of licensing conduces nothing to the end 
 for which it was framed; and hath almost prevented 
 me 2 by being clear already, while thus much hath been 
 explaining. See the ingenuity ^ of Truth, who, when she 
 gets a free and willing hand, opens herself faster than 
 the pace of method and discourse ^ can overtake her. 
 
 It was the task which I began with, to show that 
 no nation, or well instituted state, if they valued books 
 at aU, did ever use this way of licensing ; and it might 
 be answered, that this is a piece of prudence lately 
 discovered. To which I return, that as it was a thing 
 slight and obvious to think on, so if it had been diffi- 
 cult to find out, there wanted not among them long 
 since who suggested such a course ; which they not fol- 
 lowing, leave us a pattern of their judgment tliat it 
 was not the not knowing, but the not approving, which 
 was the cause of their not using it. 
 
 Plato, a man of high authority indeed, but least of 
 all for his commonwealth,^ in the book of his laws, which 
 
 1 qualify : modify the taste or strength of. " I have drunk 
 but one cup to-night, and that was craftily qualified too." 
 — Othello n, iii, 41. 
 
 ' prevented : gone before, outrun. "For thou preventest him 
 with the blessings of goodness," Ps. xxi. 3 ; see also N. O. 24, 
 and the noun, "at this prevention more incensed," P. L. VI, 
 129. 
 
 ° ingenuity : ingenuousness, freedom from reserve. 
 
 * discourse : reasoning. " Either in discourse of thought or 
 actual deed." — Othello iv, ii, 153. 
 
 * In the Republic of Plato, Socrates and a group of friends 
 discuss ideal justice, and in so doing treat many questions re> 
 
78 JOHN MILTON 
 
 no city ever yet received, fed his fancy with making 
 many edicts to his airy burgomasters, which they who 
 otherwise admire him, wish had been rather buried and 
 excused in the genial cups of an Academic ^ night sit- 
 ting. By which laws ^ he seems to tolerate no kind of 
 learning, but by unalterable decree, consisting most 
 of practical traditions, to the attainment whereof a 
 library of smaller bulk than his own dialogues would 
 be abundant. And there also enacts, that no poet should 
 so much as read to any private man ' what he had 
 written, until the judges and law-keepers had seen it, 
 and allowed it; but that Plato meant this law pecu- 
 liarly to that commonwealth which he had imagined, 
 and to no other, is evident. Why was he not else a 
 lawgiver to himself, but a transgressor, and to be ex- 
 pelled by his own magistrates ; ■* both for the wan- 
 ton 5 epigrams and dialogues which he made, and his 
 perpetual reading of Sophron * Mimus, and Aristoph- 
 
 latiug to the state. In the Laws three men, representatives of 
 Athens, Sparta, and Crete, endeavor to formulate the laws for 
 an ideal commonwealth. The lattei is here referred to. 
 
 ' Academic : see p. 23, n. 4, and P. L. IV. 245 and 278. 
 
 2 Bead Plato's discussion of education in the Laws, Vll, 808-812. 
 
 " " Shall we make a law that the poet shall compose nothing 
 contrary to the ideas of the lawful, or just, or beautiful, or good, 
 which are allowed in the state ? nor shall he be permitted to show 
 his compositions to any private individuals, uutil he shall have 
 shown them to the appointed judges, aud the guardians of the law, 
 and they are satisfied with them." Plato, Laws, vn, 801 ; also n, 659. 
 
 * In Milton's Latin poem De Idea Platonica, he says : " Ani 
 you Plato, if you were the first to bring such monsters into the 
 schools, call back the poets whom you exiled from your city, for 
 you are the greatest fabler of them all. firing them in, or else 
 yon, the founder, must go out! " 
 
 ^ " The epithet is certainly too violent and unsparing.'' — Hales. 
 
 • Sophron of Syracuse (fifth century B. c.) was the writer of 
 mimes or mimic dialogues. " The Mimes of Sophron were evi- 
 
AREOPAGITICA 79 
 
 anes,^ books o£ grossest infamy; and also for commend- 
 ing the latter of them, though he were the malicious libel- 
 ler of his chief friends, to be read by .the tyrant Dionysius,^ 
 who had little need of such trash to spend his time on? 
 But that he knew this licensing of poems had refer- 
 ence and dependence to many other provisos there set 
 down in his fancied republic, which in this world could 
 have no place ; and so neither he himself, nor any ma- 
 gistrate, or city ever imitated that course, which, taken 
 apart from those other collateral injunctions, must 
 needs be vain and fruitless. 
 
 For if they fell upon ^ one kind of strictness, unless 
 their care were equal to regulate all other things of 
 like aptness to corrupt the mind, that single endeavor 
 they knew would be but a fond ^ labor ; to shut and 
 fortify one gate against corruption, and be necessi- 
 tated to leave others round about wide open.^ If we 
 
 deutly very coarse . . . and were full of proverbs, and full of 
 humour, often using patnis, which is very rare in Greek litera- 
 ture." (Mahaffy, Greek Classical Literature, i, part II, 185.) " The 
 mime employs cloth-fullers, shoemakers, butchers, poulterers, 
 fish-dealers, and market-gardeners " (Padelford, tr. of Scalig- 
 er's Poetics, 57). " And this we know in Laertes, that the mimes 
 of Sophrou were of such reckoning with Plato, as to take them 
 nightly to read on, and after make them his pillow " (P. W. in, 
 106). Plato is said to have studied him also to give animation to 
 his own dialogues. 
 
 - Aristophanes (see p.45,n. 1) cannot be said to have written 
 books of grossest infamy. There are, indeed, gross passages, but 
 there is much beautiful poetry, and his aim was certainly to teach 
 and to lead the people to right thinking. He did satirize his 
 friends, as Socrates in The Clouds, and Nikias in The Knights. 
 
 * Dionysius : see p. 46, n. 2. 
 
 * fell upon : had recourse to. 
 
 * fond: see P. L. m, 449; S. A. 228, 1682. 
 
 * " What boots it at one gate to make defence, 
 
 And at another to let in the foe, 
 
 Effeminately vanquished ? " S. A. 5C0-62. 
 
80 JOHN MILTON 
 
 think to regulate printing, thereby to rectify man- 
 ners, we must regulate all recreations and pastimes, 
 all that is delightful to man. No music must be heard, 
 no song be set or sung, but what is grave and Doric. ^ 
 There must be licensing dancers, that no gesture, mo- 
 tion! or deportment be taught our youth, but what 
 by their allowance shall be thought honest ; for such 
 Plato was provided of.^ It will ask more than the 
 work of twenty licensers to examine all the lutes,' the 
 violins, and the guitars in every house ; they must not 
 be suffered to prattle as they do, but must be licensed 
 what they may say. And who shall silence all the airs 
 and madrigals that whisper softness in chambers ? 
 The windows also, and the balconies must be thought 
 on ; these are shrewd * books, with dangerous frontis- 
 pieces,^ set to sale ; who shall prohibit them, shall twenty 
 licensers ? The villages also must have their visitors * 
 
 1 Doric : "Of the harmonies I know nothing, but I want to 
 have one warlike (the Dorian), which will sound the word or note 
 which a brave man utters in the honr of danger and stern re- 
 boItb, or when his cause is failing and he is going to wounds op 
 death or is overtaken by some other evil." — Flato, Ripublic,ui, 
 399. See P. L. i, 550. 
 
 " There are many ancient musical compositions and dances 
 which are excellent, and from these the government may freely 
 select what is proper .and suitable ; and they shall choose judges 
 of not less than fifty years of age, who shall make the selection 
 ... in order that they may regulate dancing, music, and all 
 choral strains." — Plato, Lmos, vn, 802. 
 
 ' lutes : see P. L. v, 151; P. 28. See Aristotle's interesting 
 discussion of the place of music in education, and of what he 
 would license ; Politics, viil. See also p. 26, n. 3. 
 
 * shre'wd: evil, mischievous. " When she 's angry, she is keen 
 and shrewd ! " — A Midsummer Night's Dream, iii, ii, 323. 
 
 ' frontispieces : see P. L. m, 506. From med. L. fronti- 
 spicium = looking at the forehead. 
 
 ' visitors : this was an odious word in England, and had been 
 80 for ten years, because of Laud's Metropolitan Visitation. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 81 
 
 to inquire what lectures i the bagpipe ^ and the reheek » 
 reads even to the ballatry,* and the gamut ^ of every 
 municipal fiddler, for these are the countryman's Ar- 
 cadias,^ and his Monte MayorsJ 
 
 "For three years, beginning with 1634, Sir Nathaniel Brent, 
 Laud's Vicar-General, went tlirough the length and breadtli of 
 England south of the Trent, calling the clergy and the Cliurch- 
 wardeus to account, correcting disorders, and, at the worst, 
 ordering the prosecution of the offenders in the Court of High 
 Commission." The same work was, in 1636, undertaken in the 
 Universities. " Laud's triumph was the allowance of his claim 
 to include the Universities in this visitation " (Gardiner's History 
 of England, vill, 108 and 147). When the Parliament came into 
 power Cambridge suffered another visitation, and this was still 
 going on at the time Milton was writing. " The Earl [of Man- 
 chester], going to Cambridge in person in February, 1643—44, 
 . . . had been engaged in the work through the months of 
 March and April, summoning refractory Heads of Colleges and 
 Fellows before him, examining complaints against them, and 
 putting them in most cases to the test of the Covenant. The 
 result, when complete (which was not till 1645), was the ejec- 
 tion, on one ground or another, of about one half of the Fellows 
 of the various Colleges of Cambridge collectively, and of eleven 
 out of the sixteen Heads of Houses." — Masson, m, 92. 
 
 ^ lectures : discourses of the nature of sermons, usually de< 
 livered not at the regular time of church service. 
 
 ^ " the bagpipe, now happily almost confined to the North 
 parts of this island, once pervaded the South also." — Hales. 
 
 ° rebeck : a kind of violin with two strings, " probably the 
 oldest stringed instrument." — Riemann, Diet, of Music. See 
 L'A. 94. 
 
 * ballatry : ballad poetry. 
 
 ' gamut : spelled in the orig. ed. gammuth =: gamma + nt ; 
 this first word was in the Middle Ages the symbol of the first 
 letter of the musical scale ; the second was the syllable used as 
 the name of this letter in the scale. Here the meaning is : the 
 full range of notes the fiddler can command. 
 
 * Sidney's Arcadia, very popular in the seventeenth century, 
 was first published in 1590. What is the story, and what is the 
 appropriateness of citing it here ? 
 
 * IVIonte Mayors ; Jorge de Montemayor (15207-1561) 
 
82 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Next, what more national corruption, for which Eng. 
 land hears ill ^ abroad, than household gluttony? ^ Who 
 shall be the rectors of our daily rioting? And what 
 shall be done to inhibit the multitudes that frequent 
 those houses where drunkenness is sold and har- 
 bored ? ' Our garments also should be referred to the 
 licensing of some more sober workmasters, to see 
 them cut into a less wanton garb.'* Who shall regu- 
 late aU the mixed conversation ^ of our youth, male 
 and female together, as is the fashion of this country ? 
 Who shall still appoint what shall be discoursed, what 
 presumed, and no further? Lastly, who shall forbid 
 and separate all idle resort,^ all evil company ? These 
 things will be, and must be ; but how they shall be 
 least hurtful, how least enticing, herein consists the 
 grave and governing wisdom of a state. 
 
 To sequester out of the world into Atlantic ^ and 
 
 wrote Diana Enamorada, a Spanish prose pastoral, which spread 
 to the other countries of Europe, aud began the popularity of 
 that form of romance. 
 
 ' hears ill : is spoken ill of. This is a Greek idiom kokSs 
 acoifiv ; see F. Q.' l, v, 23. 
 
 " gluttony? . . . rioting : " Intemperance had, in the reign of 
 James I, reached such a point that men of Elizabeth's Court, 
 where there had been indecorum enough, were shocked to see 
 the ladies and gentlemen of James I's Court rolling in a state 
 of intoxication. The secretary of the Venetian ambassador ob- 
 serves that after a royal entertainment, such a rush was made 
 for the supper-table that it was upset aud all the food was scat- 
 tered." — Traill, Social England, iv, 161. See what Hamlet says 
 of Denmark in Hamlet, i, iv, 14-22, which applied also to Eng- 
 land. See P. R. IV, 114 ; Comus, 776. 
 
 « harbored : see P. R. I, 307 ; S. A. 459. 
 
 * garb : manner, fashion. See Lear, n, ii, 103. 
 5 conversation : see p. 48, n. 1. 
 
 * resort : the people frequenting a place. Of. Comus, 379. 
 
 ' Bacon's New Atlantis, in which lie makes the fabled island 
 of Plato's Timceus (21-26) the seat of an ideal commonwealth. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 8S 
 
 Utopian * polities,^ which never can be drawn into use, 
 will not mend our condition ; but to ordain wisely as 
 in this world of evil, in the midst whereof God hath 
 placed us unavoidably. Nor is it Plato's licensing of 
 books will do this, which necessarily pulls along with 
 it so many other kinds of licensing, as will make us 
 all both ridiculous and weary, and yet frustrate ; but 
 those unwritten, or at least unconstraining, laws of 
 virtuous education, religious and civil nurture, which 
 Plato there mentions as the bonds and ligaments of 
 the commonwealth,* the pillars and the sustainers of 
 every written statute ; these they be which will bear 
 chief sway in such matters as these, when all licensing 
 will be easily eluded. Impunity and remissness, for 
 certain, are the bane of a commonwealth ; but here the 
 g^eat art lies, to discern in what the law is to bid 
 restraint and punishment, and in what things persua- 
 sion only is to work. If every action which is good 
 or evil in man at ripe years, were to be under pit- 
 tance * and prescription and compulsion, what were 
 virtue but a name, what praise could be then due to 
 
 1 Utopian : Sir Thomas More describes in his Utopia (Land 
 of Nowhere) another ideal commonwealth. 
 
 ' polities : systems of i^overnment. 
 
 ^ " Also, I said, the State, if once started well, goes on with 
 accumulating force like a wheel. For good nurture and educa^ 
 tion implant good eonstitntions, and these good constitutions 
 having their roots in a good education improve more and more, 
 and this improvement affects the breed in man as in other 
 animals " (Plato, Republic, IV, 424). " We are not speaking 
 of education in this sense of the word, but of that other 
 education in virtue from youth upwards, which makes a man 
 eagerly pnrsne the ideal perfection of citizenship, and teaches 
 him how rightly to rule and how to obey." — Plato, Laws, 
 1,643. 
 
 ^ pittance : a small portion allowed. 
 
84 JOHN MILTON 
 
 well-doing, what gramercy ^ to be sober, just, or con- 
 tinent ? 
 
 Many there be that complain of divine Providence 
 for suffering Adam to transgress. Foolish tongues! 
 when God gave him reason, he gave him freedom to 
 choose, for reason is but choosing ; ^ he had been else 
 a mere artificial * Adam, such an Adam as he is in the 
 motions.^ We ourselves esteem not of that obedience, 
 or love, or gift, which is of force ; God, therefore, left 
 him free, set before him a provoking ^ object, ever al- 
 most in his eyes ; herein consisted his merit, herein 
 the right of his reward, the praise of his abstinence. 
 Wherefore did he create passions within us, pleasures 
 round about us, but that these rightly tempered are 
 
 • gramercy: thanks; originally grant merci, may God re- 
 ward yon greatly. 
 
 ' reason is but choosing : " I made him jnst and right, 
 SnfBcient to have stood though free to fall,"; see P. L. iii, 
 98-108, especially " When Will and Reason (Reason also is 
 choice) " ; also P. L. vn, 506-10 ; ix, 351-53 ; xn, 82-90. 
 
 ' artificial : contrived with art or skill. 
 
 * motions : puppet shows. " O excellent motion ! O exceedi 
 ing puppet ! " Two Gentlemen of Verona, u, i, 103. Strntt, 
 Sports and Pastimes of the English People, 244, qnotes a hand- 
 bill from the Harleian MSS. " At Crawley's Booth, over against 
 the Crown Tavern in Smithfleld, during the time of Bartholo. 
 mew Fair, will be presented a little opera, called the Old Crea.. 
 tion of the World, yet newly revived. . . . The last scene does 
 present Noah and his family coming out of the Ark, with all the 
 beasts two and two, and all the fowls of the air seen in a pro- 
 spect sitting npon trees, likewise over the ark is seen the Sun 
 rising in a most glorious manner : morever, a multitude of 
 Angels will be seen. . . . Likewise Machines descend from 
 above . . . with Dives rising out of Hell, and Lazarus seen in 
 Abraham's bosom, besides several figures dancing jiggs, sara- 
 bands, and country dances, to the admiration of the spectators." 
 
 ^ provoking : provocative, inciting. For the provoking object, 
 Bee P. L. IV, 218-222 ; ee, 659-663. 
 
AEEOPAGITICA 85 
 
 the very ingredients of virtue ? They are not skilful 
 considerers of human things, who imagine to remove 
 sin by removing the matter of sin ; for, besides that it 
 is a huge heap increasing under the very act of dimin- 
 ishing, though some part of it may for a time be with- 
 drawn from some persons, it cannot from all, in such 
 a universal thing as books are ; and when this is done, 
 yet the sin remains entire. Though ye take from a 
 covetous man aU his treasure, he has yet one jewel 
 left, ye cannot bereave him of his covetousness. Ban- 
 ish all objects of lust, shut up all youth into the sever- 
 est discipline that can be exercised in any hermitage, 
 ye cannot make them chaste, that came not thither so : 
 such great care and wisdom is required to the right 
 managing of this point. 
 
 Suppose we could expel sin by this means ; look how 
 much we thus expel of sin, so much we expel of virtue: 
 for the matter of them both is the same ; remove that, 
 and ye remove them both alike. This justifies the high 
 providence of God,"- who, though he commands us 
 temperance, justice, continence, yet pours out before 
 us,2 even to a profuseness, all desirable things, and 
 gives us minds ^ that can wander beyond all limit and 
 satiety. Why should we then affect a rigor contrary 
 
 1 " I may assert Eternal Providence 
 
 And justify the ways of God to men." 
 
 P. L. I, 25-26. 
 " Just are the ways of God 
 Aud justifiable to men." 
 
 S. A. 293-94. 
 * See the same thought in Comus, 762-79. 
 ' minds: " so let extend thy mind o'er all the world in know- 
 ledge," P. R. IV, 223-24 ; also P. L. i, 254 ; viii. 188 ; ix, 603. 
 Kead Hamlet's speech {Hamlet li, ii, 31S) beginning " What a 
 piece of work is a man," and the chorus in Sophocles' Antigone, 
 " Wonders are many, aud none is more wonderful than man." 
 
86 JOHN MILTON 
 
 to the manner of God and of nature, by abridging oi 
 scanting those means, which books freely permitted 
 are, both to the trial of virtue, and the exercise of 
 truth ? 
 
 It would be better done,i to learn that the law must 
 needs be frivolous,^ which goes to restrain things, un- 
 certainly and yet equally working to good and to evU. 
 And were I the chooser, a dram of well doing should 
 be preferred before many times as much the forcible 
 hindrance of evil doing. For God sure esteems the 
 growth and completing of one virtuous person, more 
 than the restraint of ten vicious. And albeit whatever 
 thing we hear or see, sitting, walking, travelling, or 
 conversing, may be fitly called our book,* and is of 
 the same effect that writings are ; yet grant the thing 
 to be prohibited were only books, it appears that this 
 order hitherto is far insufficient to the end which 
 it intends. Do we not see, not once or oftener, but 
 weekly that continued court-libel •* against the Parlia/- 
 ment and City, printed, as the wet sheets can witness, 
 and dispersed among us, for all that licensing can do ? 
 
 ^ done: " Were it not better done." — Lye. 67. 
 ' frivolous : of little importance or significance; see Comus, 
 445. 
 
 ° our book : 
 
 ** And this our life exempt from public haunt 
 Finds tongrues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones and good in eTery thing." 
 
 As You Like It, n, i, 15-17. 
 * court-libel: a weekly newspaper called the Mercurius Aid- 
 icus. Sir John Birkenhead (1616-79) was amanuensis to Laud 
 and fellow of All Souls College. During the time King Charles 
 was at Oxford, Birkenhead was appointed to write and publish 
 weekly the Mercurius, containing the news of the court. It was 
 a " virulent Royalist paper," and attacked the Parliament from 
 every possible point of view. It continued, however, to appear 
 regularly until 1645, and irregularly afterwards, but was finally 
 silenced by the Parliament. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 87 
 
 Yet this is the prime service a man would think, 
 wherein this Order should give proof of itself.^ If it 
 were executed, yoU '11 say. But certain, if execution 
 be remiss or blindfold now, and in this particular, 
 what wUl it be hereafter and in other books? 
 
 If then the Order shall not be vain and frustrate, 
 behold a new labor. Lords and Commons ; ye must 
 repeal and proscribe all scandalous and unlicensed 
 books already printed and divulged;^ after ye have 
 drawn them up into a list, that all may know which 
 are condemned, and which not; and ordain that no 
 foreign books be delivered out of custody, till they 
 have been read over. This office will require the whole 
 time of not a few overseers, and those no vulgar ^ men. 
 There be also books which are partly useful and ex- 
 cellent, partly culpable and pernicious ; this work will 
 ask as many more officials,* to make expurgations and 
 expunctions, that the commonwealth of learning be 
 not damnified.^ In fine, when the multitude of books 
 increase upon their hands, ye must be fain to catalogue 
 
 1 That is, in silencing this worst of all libels. 
 
 * divulged: made publicly known. "When God . . . marksthe 
 jnst man, and divulges him through Heaven." — P. R.ni, 60-62. 
 " Though fame divulge him father of five sons." — S. A. 1248. 
 
 * vulgar: common, ordinary. Cf. P. L. in, 577. 
 
 * ofBcials ; a hated word in Milton's time. " An OfBcial was 
 the name of the Officer in the Ecclesiastical Courts to whom 
 the Bishops deputed the cognizance of spiritual offenses. Laud 
 had let them loose over the country " (Holt White). "To go about 
 circled with a band of rooking officials, with cloak bags full of 
 citations, and processes to be served by the eorporality of gril- 
 fonlike promotors, and apparators." — P. W. n, 375. 
 
 ° damnify : to cause injury or loss to. " 'Very common in 17th. 
 er~N. E.D. 
 
 " Then frealily up arose the doughty knight , , . 
 As if late fight bad nought him damnifyde.*' 
 
 F, Q. X, xi, 52, 
 
88 JOHN MILTON 
 
 all those printers who are found frequently offending, 
 and forbid the importation of their whole suspected 
 typography. In a word, that this your Order may be 
 exact, and not deficient, ye must reform it perfectly 
 according to the model of Trent and Seville, ^ which 
 I know ye abhor to do. 
 
 Yet, though ye should condescend ^ to this, which 
 God forbid, the Order still would be but fruitless and 
 defective to that end whereto ye meant it. If to pre- 
 vent .sects and schisms, who is so unread or so uncate- 
 chized in story,' that hath not heard of many sects 
 refusing books as a hindrance, and preserving their 
 doctrine unmixed for many ages, only by unwritten 
 traditions? The Christian faith, for that was once a 
 schism, is not unknown to have spread all over Asia, 
 ere any Gospel or Epistle * was seen in vn-iting. If 
 the amendment of manners be aimed at, look into Italy 
 and Spain, whether those places be one scruple the 
 better, the honester, the wiser, the chaster, since all the 
 inquisitional rigor that hath been executed upon books. 
 
 Another reason, whereby to make it plain that this 
 Order will miss the, end it seeks, consider by the 
 quality which ought to be in every licenser. It cannot 
 be denied but that he who is made judge to sit upon * 
 the birth or death of books, whether they may be 
 wafted ^ into this world or not, had need to be a man 
 
 1 Trent and Seville; see p. 54, n. 1, and p. 43, ii. 3. 
 
 2 condescend :give one's consent, agree. "The king . . . as 
 nmvilling from time to time condescended to their several acts." 
 — P.W.I, 3i2. See S. ^. 1337. 
 
 ' story: see p. 51, ii. 5. 
 
 * The earliest of the Gospels is supposed to have been vrritten 
 down between 65 and 100 a.d. 
 
 * to sit upon : to decide whether or not they may be. 
 
 " 'Wafted : be allowed to cross the river that separates life 
 from thp,t which is yet to be. See Plato, Phcedo, 113. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 89 
 
 above the common measure, both studious, learned, 
 and judicious ; there may be else no mean mistakes in 
 the censure of what is passable or not ; which is also 
 no mean injury. If he be of such worth as behoves 
 him, there cannot be a more tedious and unpleasing 
 journey- work, 1 a greater loss of time levied upon his 
 head,2 than to be made the perpetual reader of un- 
 chosen books and pamphlets, ofttimes huge volumes. 
 There is no book that is acceptable unless at certain 
 seasons ; but to be enjoined the reading of that at all 
 times, and in a hand ' scarce legible, whereof three 
 pages would not down at any time in the fairest print, 
 is an imposition which I cannot believe how he that 
 values time and his own studies, or is but of a sensible 
 nostril,* should be able to endure. 
 
 In this one thing I crave leave of the present li- 
 censers to be pardoned for so thinking ; who doubtless 
 took this office up, looking on it through their obedi- 
 ence to the Parliament, whose command perhaps made 
 aU things seem easy and unlaborious to theoi ; but 
 that this short trial hath wearied them out already, 
 their own expressions and excuses to them who make 
 
 ^ journey-'work : the work of a journeyman, a mechanic 
 who works by the day for another person. 
 
 * That is, as a poll-tax. 
 
 ' band : see Milton's handwriting in the Facsimile of the 
 Trinity College Manuscript. 
 
 ** I once did hold it, as our statists do, 
 A baseness to write fair and laboured much 
 How to forget that learning, but, sir, now 
 It did me yeoman's service." 
 
 Hamlet, v, ii, 33-37. 
 
 * sensible : sensitive. See P. L. n, 278. nostril : Hales 
 [quotes Cowper's Task, II, 266, — 
 
 " Strew the declc 
 With lavender, and sprinkle liquid sweets, 
 That no rude savour maritime invade 
 ^ The noae of nice nobility." 
 
90 JOHN MILTON 
 
 so many journeys to solicit their license, are testi- 
 mony enough. Seeing, therefore, those who now pos- 
 sess the employment, by all evident signs wish them- 
 selves well rid of it,i and that no man of worth, none 
 that is not a plain unthrift of his own hours is ever 
 likely to succeed them, except he mean to put himself 
 to the salary of a press corrector, we may easily f orsee 
 what kind of licensers we are to expect hereafter, either 
 ignorant, imperious, and remiss, or basely pecuniary. 
 This is what I had to show, wherein this Order can- 
 not conduce to that end, whereof it bears the intention. 
 
 I lastly proceed from the no good it can do, to the 
 manifest hurt it causes, in being first the greatest dis- 
 couragement and affront that can be offered to learn- 
 ing and to learned men. 
 
 It was the complaint ^ and lamentation of prelates, 
 upon every least breath of a motion to remove plural- 
 ities,' and distribute more equally church revenues, 
 
 1 There is one man on record as asking to be relieved of the 
 office of licenser. Mabbott, Deputy Clerk of the House of 
 Commons, seems to have grown so weary of his task that he 
 first licensed anything that came to his baud, and then begged 
 to be released. See Masson, m, 432, and rv, 87, 93. What did 
 Milton himself do when called upon to act in this capacity ? 
 " An extremely curious fact in the history of Milton's Secretary- 
 ship, not hitherto known, is that ihrough the whole of this year 
 1651 he acted as an official Licenser or Censor of the Press." 
 He was associated with Marchamont Needham, as censor, li- 
 censer, and supervising editor of the newspaper called Mercurius 
 Politicus. — Masson, iv, 324-25. 
 
 ^ complaint: " They and their seminaries shame not to pro- 
 fess, to petition, and never leave pealing our ears, that unless we 
 fat them like boars, and cram them as they list with wealth, with 
 deaneries and pluralities, with baronies and stately preferments, 
 all learning and religion will go underfoot." — P. W. II, 504. 
 
 ' pluralities : " I have thus at large examined the usual 
 pretences of hirelings, coloured over most commonly with the 
 
AEEOPAGITICA 91 
 
 that then all learning would be for ever dashed i and 
 discouraged. But as for that opinion, I never found 
 cause to think that the tenth part of learning stood or 
 fell with the clergy ; nor could I ever but hold it for 
 a sordid and unworthy speech of any churchman who 
 had a competency left him. If, therefore, ye be loth 
 to dishearten heartily and discontent,^ not the mercen- 
 ary crew of false pretenders to learning, but the free 
 and ingenuous sort of such as evidently were born to 
 study, and love learning for itself, not for lucre, or 
 any other end, but the service of God and of truth, 
 and perhaps that lasting fame and perpetuity of 
 praise which God and good men have consented shall be 
 the reward of those whose published labors advance the 
 good of mankind ; then know, that so far ^ to distrust 
 the judgment and the honesty of one who hath but a 
 common repute in learning, and never yet offended, as 
 not to count him fit to print his mind, without a tutor 
 and examiner, lest he should drop a schism, or something 
 of corruption, is the greatest displeasure and indignity 
 to a free and knowing spirit that can be put upon him. 
 What advantage is it to be a man over it is to be a 
 
 cause of learning and univeTsities ; as if with divines learning 
 stood and fell. . . . Neither speak I this in contempt of learning, 
 or the ministry, hut hating the common cheats of both . . . their 
 false opinions, their pharisaical leaven, their avarice, and closely 
 their ambition, their pluralities, their nonresidences, their odions 
 fees . . . their legal and popish arguments for tithes " (P. W, 
 HI, 38). " The widowed whore Plurality " {F. of C. 3). 
 
 1 dashed : " to perplex and dash maturest counsels," P. L. 
 n, 114-16 ; "to dash their pride," P. L. x, 577. 
 
 ^ discontent : " So fearful I am of discontenting my wife." 
 — Pepys, Diary, March 14, 1669. 
 
 ' Note the omission of as here and its inclusion in the next 
 phrase. The meaning is : to go so far as to distrust ... so far 
 &s not to count ... is the greatest displeasure. 
 
92 JOHN MILTON 
 
 boy at school, if we have ouly escaped the ferula^ to 
 come under the fescue * of an Imprimatur ; if serious 
 and elaborate writings, as if they were no more than 
 the theme of a grammar-lad under his pedagogue, 
 must not be uttered without the cursory eyes of a tem- 
 porizing and extemporizing licenser? He who is not 
 trusted with his own actions, his drift ' not being 
 known to be evil, and standing to ■* the hazard of law 
 and penalty, has no great argument to think himself 
 reputed, in the commonwealth wherein he was born, 
 for other than a fool or a foreigner. When a man 
 writes to the world, he summons up all his reason and 
 deliberation to assist him ; he searches, meditates, is 
 industrious, and likely consults and confers with his 
 judicious friends ; after all which done he takes him. 
 self to be informed in what he writes, as weU as any 
 that writ before him ; if in this the most consummate 
 act of his fidelity and ripeness, no years, no industry, 
 no former proof of his abilities can bring him to that 
 state of maturity, as not to be still mistrusted and sus- 
 
 ^ The ferula is the giant fennel, in the stock of which Pro- 
 metheus brought fire from heaven. In Roman times it was used 
 as a cane, and hence the word came to be applied to the rod for 
 chastising boys and slaves. " Mr. Skeat sends me a sketch of 
 the thing from an old seal in his possession. It expanded at the 
 end — the end designed for the victim — into a flat round; that 
 is, it was in shape like a hattledoor with the handle lengthened 
 and the bat diminished, and so well adapted for effect on the 
 palm of the hand, which was the part of application." — Hales. 
 
 * The fescue (L. f estnca) meant a small piece of straw or a 
 twig (the mote of Matt, vn, 3), and later, derived from this, the 
 stick or pointer used in pointing out the letters to children who 
 were learning to read. 
 
 ' drift : see P. R. in, 4 ; Sonnet, xvii, 6. 
 
 * standing to : taking the chance of, maintaining one's 
 groimd in. " Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it 
 BO." — Troilus OTid Cressida, i, ii, 142-43. 
 
AEEOPAGITICA 93 
 
 pected, unless he carry all his considerate ^ diligence, 
 all his midnight watchings, and expense of Palladian 
 oil,2 to the hasty view of an unleisured licenser, per- 
 haps much his younger, perhaps far his inferior in 
 judgment, perhaps one who never knew the labor of 
 book- writing ; and if he be not repulsed, or slighted, 
 must appear in print like a puny ^ with his guardian, 
 and his censor's hand on the back of his title to be 
 his bail and surety, that he is no idiot, or seducer ; it 
 cannot be but a dishonor and derogation to the author, 
 to the book, to the privilege and dignity of learning. 
 
 And what if the author shaU be one so copious of 
 fancy, as to have many things well worth the adding, 
 come into his mind after licensing, while the book is 
 yet under the press,* which not seldom happens to 
 the best and dQigentest writers ; and that perhaps 
 a dozen times in one book. The printer dares ^ not go 
 
 1 considerate ; careful, deliberate. 
 
 ** Of dauntless courage, and conBiderate pride 
 Waiting revenge." 
 
 P. L. I, 603-04. 
 ' Palladian oil: pertaining to Pallas, the goddess of wisdom, 
 to whom the olive was sacred. She taught mortals the process 
 of extracting this oil. Milton's thought is : the oil by which men 
 have studied and written and given proof of their abilities is a 
 gift of the goddess of wisdom. Cf. II P. 85-88. 
 
 * puny : a minor. OF. puisne = post natus. " How the puny 
 law can be brought under the wardship and control of lust and 
 will," P. W. II, 391. 
 
 * under the press : note the seventeenth century idiom. 
 
 s dares : this word was without the s in Old English. The 
 
 two forms dare a,nd dares were used indiscriminately in the seveu- 
 
 teenth century ; Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, suggests that 
 
 euphony may have determined the choice, and cites the following : 
 
 *^ Here boldly spread thy hands; no renom'd weed 
 
 Dares blister them ; no slimy snail dare creep.'* 
 
 Faithful Shepherdess^ m, i, 255-56. 
 
 Milton, in his poetry consistently uses dares in this construction ; 
 see P. R. Ill, 57 ; Comus, 780 ; A. 23. 
 
94 JOHN MILTON 
 
 beyond his licensed copy; so often then must the 
 author trudge to his leave-giver, that those his new 
 insertions may be viewed ; and many a jaunt ^ will be 
 made, ere that licenser, for it must be the same man, 
 can either be found, or found at leisure ; meanwhile, 
 either the press must stand still, which is no small 
 damage, or the author lose his accuratest ^ thoughts, 
 and send the book forth worse than he had made it, 
 which to a diligent writer is the greatest melancholy ^ 
 and vexation that can befall. 
 
 And how can a man teach with authority, which is 
 the life of teaching, how can he be a doctor in his 
 book as he ought to be, or else had better be silent, 
 whenas ^ all he teaches, aU he delivers, is but imder 
 the tuition, under the correction of his patriarchal ^ 
 licenser to blot or alter what precisely accords not 
 with the hide-bound humor which he calls his judg- 
 ment ? When every acute reader upon the first sight 
 of a pedantic ^ license, will be ready with these like 
 words to ding ^ the book a quoit's distance from him ; 
 
 1 jaunt : allied to jounce, and meaning a fatigpiing journey. 
 See P. R. IV, 402, and Romeo and Juliet, n, v, 26, 53. 
 
 ' accuratest : most carefully considered. 
 
 ' melancholy : mortiGcation, humiliation. What is the nse 
 of melancholy in II Penseroso f 
 
 * whenas : cf. P. L. ix, 192 ; Time, 9. 
 
 ' patriarchal : probably referring to Land who was accused of 
 desiring to be Patriarch of the English Church. "They both 
 (Wolsey and Laud) favored the See of Rome and respected his 
 holinesse in it ; the Cardinal did professe it publickly, the Arch- 
 bishop did professe it privately. The Cardinal's ambition was 
 to be Pope ; the Arch-bishop strove to be Patriarch." Quoted 
 by Holt White from Somer's Tracts, IV, 434. 
 
 s pedantic : like that of a pedant or schoolmaster. 
 
 ' ding : not an English word. It is probably from the Norse ; 
 the Ice. Z)cn^a= to hammer ; hence to beat, aud then, as here, 
 to throw. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 95 
 
 " I hate a pupil teacher, I endure not an instructor ^ 
 that comes to me under the wardship of an oversee- 
 ing fist.2 I know nothing of the licenser, but that I 
 have his own hand ^ here for his arrogance ; who shall 
 warrant me his judgment ? " 
 
 " The State, sir," replies the stationer,^ but has a 
 quick return : " The State shall be my governors, but 
 not my critics ; they may be mistaken in the choice of 
 a licenser, as easily as this licenser may be mistaken in 
 an author ; this * is some common stuff " ; and he might 
 add from Sir Francis Bacon,^ " That such authorized 
 books are but the language of the times." For though 
 a licenser should happen to be judicious more than 
 ordinary, which will be a great jeopardy of the next 
 succession,* yet his very office, and his commission 
 enjoins him to let pass nothing but what is vulgarly ^ 
 received already. 
 
 Nay, which is more lamentable, if the work of any 
 deceased author, though never so famous in his life- 
 time, and even to this day, come to their hands for li- 
 cence to be printed, or reprinted ; if there be found in 
 his book one sentence of a venturous ^ edge, uttered 
 
 ^ That is, the book that cannot come except as a ward under 
 a guardian. 
 
 ' fist : handwriting. 
 
 '* Loke you on your owne fiat, and I will looke on this 
 And let this man be judge whether I reade amiss." 
 
 UdalVa Roister Boister, ni, t, 43-44. 
 
 ^ stationer : bookseller or publisher. 
 
 * this book before me. 
 
 6 Bacon: see p. 105, n. 2. 
 
 ' Perhaps the meaning is : it will be hard to find good licens- 
 ers in succession, and the next one will seem worse because 
 following one unusually good. 
 
 ' vulgarly : commonly, by people in general. 
 
 8 venturous : bold, daring. " With venturous arm," P. L. v, 
 64, also P. L. II, 205 ; Comus, 609. 
 
96 JOHN MILTON 
 
 in the height of zeal, and who knows whether it might 
 not be the dictate of a divine spirit, yet not suiting 
 with every lojv, decrepit ^ humor of their own, 
 though it were Knox^ himself, the reformer of a 
 kingdom, that spake it, they will not pardon him 
 their dash ; ' the sense of that great man shall to 
 all posterity be lost, for the fearfulness, or the 
 presumptuous rashness, of a perfunctory licenser. 
 And to what an author* this violence hath been 
 lately done, and in what book of greatest conse- 
 quence to be faithfully published, I could now in- 
 stance, but shall forbear till a more convenient 
 season. 
 
 Yet if these things be not resented seriously and 
 timely ^ by them who have the remedy in their power, 
 but that such iron-moulds ^ as these shall have author- 
 ity to gnaw out the choicest periods of exquisite books, 
 and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the 
 orphan remainders of worthiest men after death, the 
 more sorrow will belong to that hapless race of men, 
 whose misfortune it is to have tmderstanding. Hence- 
 forth, let no man care to learn, or care to be more 
 than worldly wise ; for certainly in higher matters to 
 be ignorant and slothful, to be a common steadfast 
 
 > decrepit : weak, sTiallow. 
 
 ' John Knox (1505-72) : " lu tlie year 1564, John Knox, a 
 most famous divine, and the reformer of Scotland to the pres- 
 byterian discipline, at a general assembly maintained openly, 
 in a dispute against Lethington the secretary of state, that 
 subjects might and ought to execute God's judgments upon their 
 king." — P. W.n,25. 
 
 ' dash : a line of the pen drawn through for erasure. 
 
 * an author : it is uncertain to whom Milton here refers. 
 
 6 timely : see P. L. m, 728 ; vn, 74 ; Camus, 970. 
 
 ' iron-mould : a spot caused by iron-rust, but Milton seems 
 to use it here for the rust itself. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 97 
 
 dunce, ^ will be the only pleasant life, and only in re- 
 quest. 
 
 And as it is a particular disesteem- of every know- 
 ing person alive, and most injurious to the written 
 labors and monuments of the dead, so to me it seems 
 an undervaluing and vilifying of the whole nation. I 
 cannot set so light by all the invention,^ the art, the 
 wit, the grave and solid judgment which is in Eng- 
 land, as that it ' can be comprehended in any twenty 
 capacities how good soever ; much less that it should 
 not pass except their superintendence be over it, ex- 
 cept it be sifted and strained with their strainers ; 
 that it should be uneurrent without their manual 
 stamp. Truth and understanding are not such wares 
 as to be monopolised * and traded in by tickets ^ and 
 statutes and standards. We must not think to make 
 a staple commodity of all the knowledge in the land, 
 
 ^ common steadfast dunce : explain the meaning of tliis 
 phrase, especially of steadfast. Cf. 11 P. 32. What is the origin 
 of the word dunce f 
 
 ^ invention : the power of creating with the mind, the crea- 
 tive faculty, imagination. See P- L. vn, 121 ; and " the odor- 
 iferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention," Love's Labour 's 
 Lost, rv, ii, 128-29 ; " indeed my invention Comes from my pate 
 as birdlime does from frize," Othello, n, i, 126-27. 
 
 ' What is the antecedent of it ? 
 
 * monopolised : the act abolishing monopolies — except in 
 the ease of new inventions — was passed in 1624. Elizabeth 
 had granted so many monopolies that the system had become a 
 great source of oppression and a cause of complaint. 
 
 " In truth, the world doth even groan under the burthen of 
 these perpetual patents, which are become so frequent that 
 whereas, at the King's coming in, there were complaints of some 
 eight or nine monopolies then in being, they are now said to be 
 multiplied by so many score." — Quoted by Gardiner, History 
 of England, IV, 1. 
 
 ^ tickets : probably bills or accounts of goods taken out on 
 credit. 
 
98 JOHN MILTON 
 
 to mark and license it like our broadcloth and our 
 woolpacks. What is it but a servitude like that im- 
 posed by the Philistines,^ not to be allowed the 
 sharpening of our own axes and coulters,^ but we 
 must repair from all quarters to twenty licensing 
 forges. 
 
 Had any one written and divulged erroneous things 
 and scandalous to honest life, misusing and forfeiting 
 the esteem ' had of his reason among men ; if, after 
 conviction, this only censure were adjudged him, that 
 he should never henceforth write, but what were first 
 examined by an appointed officer, whose hand should 
 be annexed to pass his credit for him, that now he 
 might be safely read ; it could not be apprehended 
 less than a disgraceful punishment. 
 
 Whence, to include the whole nation, and those that 
 never yet thus offended, under such a diffident * and sus- 
 pectful prohibition, may plainly be understood what a 
 disparagement it is. So much the more, whenas debtors 
 and delinquents may walk abroad without a keeper, 
 but unoffensive books must not stir forth without a 
 visible jailor in their title. Nor is it to the common 
 people less than a reproach ; for if we be so jealous ^ 
 over them, as that we dare not trust them with an 
 English pamphlet, what do we but censure them for 
 a giddy, vicious, and ungrounded people ; in such a 
 sick and weak state of faith and discretion, as to be 
 able to take nothing down but through the pipe ^ of a 
 licenser. That this is care or love of them, we cannot 
 
 1 Philistines : see l Sam. xiii, 19-22. 
 
 ^ coulter : the iron point of the plow. 
 
 8 esteem: estimation. See P.L. IX, 328; II. P. 17. 
 
 * diffident : distrustful. See P. L. vm, 562; ix, 293. 
 
 '' jealous: suspiciously vigilant. See P. L. x, 478; L'A. 6. 
 
 ' pipe: tube for swallowing medicine. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 99 
 
 pretend, whenas in those popish places where the laity 
 are most hated and despised, the same strictness is 
 used over them. Wisdom we cannot call it, because 
 it stops but one breach of licence, nor that neither ; ^ 
 whenas those corruptions which it seeks to prevent, 
 break in faster at other doors which cannot be shut. 
 
 And in conclusion, it reflects to the disrepute of 
 our ministers also, of whose labors we should hope 
 better, and of the proficiency which their flock reaps ^ 
 by them, than that after all this light of the Gospel 
 which is, and is to be, and all this continual preaching, 
 they should be still frequented with such an unprinci- 
 pled, unedified, and laic rabble,* as that the whifif of 
 every new pamphlet should stagger them out of their 
 catechism and Christian walking. This may have much 
 reason to discourage the ministers, when such a low 
 conceit * is had of all their exhortations, and the bene- 
 fiting of their hearers, as that they are not thought fit to be 
 turned loose to three sheets of paper without a licenser ; 
 that aU the sermons, all the lectures preached, printed, 
 vented^ in such numbers, and such volumes, as have 
 now weU-nigh made all other books unsaleable, should 
 not be armor enough against one single enchiridion,* 
 
 1 nor that neither: note the double negative. In Old English 
 two, three, and even four negatives were used to strengthen the 
 negation. Compare the use in Greek. See P. L. 1, 335; IV, 21, 22; 
 vr, 348-49; xi, 396. See Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, 295. 
 
 2 reaps: see P. L. II, 339; in, 67; S. A. 966. 
 
 ° laic rabble: the pro/anum vulgus of Horace, Ode in, i, 1. 
 "To keep off the profane touch of the laics," P. W. Ii, 378. 
 
 * conceit: the primary meaning of the word is conception, 
 idea; the most common sense in Shakespeare. 
 
 6 vented: see P. R. l, 433; ra, 391. 
 
 8 enchiridion: from a Greek word meaning, held in the hand. 
 The substantive meant both a dagger and a hand-book or man- 
 ual; the latter was the common use in the seventeeuth century. 
 
100 JOHN MILTON 
 
 ■without the castle of St. Angelo of an Imprima. 
 tur.i 
 
 And lest some should persuade ye, Lords and Com- 
 mons, that these arguments of learned men's discour- 
 agement at this your Order are mere flourishes, and 
 not real, I could recount what I have seen and heard 
 in other countries, where this kind of inquisition 
 tyrannises ; when I have sat among their learned men,^ 
 for that honor I had, and been counted happy to be 
 bom in such a place of philosophic freedom, as they 
 supposed England was, while themselves did nothing 
 but bemoan the servile condition into which learning 
 amongst them was brought ; that this was it which 
 had damped the glory of Italian wits ; that nothing 
 had been there written now these many years but 
 flattery and fustian. There it was that I found and 
 visited the famous Galileo,^ grown old, a prisoner to 
 
 1 Imprimatur: without the protection of a Papal license. The 
 Castle of St. Angelo was built in 136 A. D. by Hadrian, and used 
 from that time to 217 as the tomb of the Emperors. When the 
 Goths besieged Rome it was turned into a fortress, and in later 
 centuries was nsed by the party in power to overawe the people. 
 From the time of Boniface IX (1389-1404) it was held by the 
 Popes as a stronghold; in Milton's time it was the papal 
 prison. 
 
 ' See pp. Ixiv, Ixv. 
 
 8 Galileo (1564-1642). In 1616 Galileo was called to Rome 
 to defend his attempt to show the possible harmony between 
 the Scriptures and the Copemican Theory of the universe. The 
 church theologians called his assertion, that the sun is the centre 
 of the universe and that the earth moves about it, absurd philo- 
 sophy and expressly contrary to the Holy Scripture. The work 
 of Copernicus was placed on the Index, and Galileo was told 
 that he might accept this doctrine ex hypothesi, but that he must 
 desist from discussing it in writing. For years he wrote nothing. 
 In 1632, sure of his power and fame, he published his great worki 
 Dialogo dei due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo. The result was that 
 he was compelled to appear again in Rome, was convicted of 
 
AREOPAGITICA 101 
 
 the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise 
 than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thousfht. 
 
 o 
 
 And though I knew that England then ^ was groaning 
 loudest under the prelatical yoke, nevertheless I took 
 it as a pledge of future happiness, that other nations 
 were so persuaded of her liberty. 
 
 Yet was it beyond my hope that those worthies were 
 then breathing in her air, who should be her leaders 
 to such a deliverance, as shall never be forgotten by 
 any revolution of time that this world hath to finish. 
 When that was once begun, it was as little in my fear, 
 that what words of complaint I heard among learned 
 men of other parts uttered against the Inquisition, the 
 same I should hear by as learned men at home uttered 
 in time of Parliament ^ against an order of licensing ; 
 and that so generally, that when I had disclosed my- 
 self a companion of their discontent, I might say, if 
 without envy,^ that he whom an honest qusestorship 
 had endeared to the Sicilians, was not more by them 
 importuned against Verres,^ than the favorable opin- 
 ion which I had among many who honor ye, and are 
 known and respected by ye, loaded me with entreaties 
 and persuasions, that 1 would not despair to lay to- 
 gether that which just reason should bring into my 
 mind, toward the removal of an undeserved thraldom 
 upon learning. 
 
 That this is not, therefore, the disburdening of a 
 
 disobedience to the order of 1616, was made to recant, and lived 
 for the rest of his life where Milton found hira — a prisoner to 
 the Inquisition — in the Villa Martellini near Florence. 
 
 ^ then: in 1638, referring of course to the domination of Laud. 
 
 * See pp. xiii and 66. 
 
 * envy: without bringing odium on myself (L. sine invidia). 
 ^ C. Cornelius Verres, notorious for his bad government in 
 
 Sicily, against whom Cicero directed his seven famous orations, 
 
102 JOHN MILTON 
 
 ■particular fancy, but the common grievance of all those 
 who had prepared their minds and studies above the 
 vulgar pitch to advance ^ truth in others, and from 
 others to entertain it, thus much may satisfy. And 
 in their name I shall for neither friend nor foe con- 
 ceal what the general murmur is ; that if it come to 
 inquisitioning again and licensing, and that we are so 
 timorous of ourselves, and so suspicious of all men, as 
 to fear each book, and the shaking of every leaf,^ be- 
 fore we know what the contents are ; if some who but 
 of late were little better than silenced from preaching, 
 shall come now to silence us from reading, except what 
 they please, it cannot be guessed what is intended by 
 some but a second tyranny over learning ; and will 
 soon put it out of controversy, that bishops and pres- 
 byters ^ are the same to us both name and thing. 
 
 That those evils of prelaty which before from five 
 or six and twenty sees were distributively charged 
 upon ■* the whole people, will now light wholly upon 
 learning, is not obscure to us ; whenas now the pastor 
 of a small unlearned parish, on the sudden, shall be 
 exalted archbishop over a large diocese of books, and yet 
 not remove, but keep his other cure too, a mystical ^ 
 
 ' vulgar pitch to advance : the common degree in order to 
 advance. 
 
 * Again Milton's fondness for punning: " the plague of his 
 time." — Hales. See P. L. vi, 558-67; 609-28. 
 
 » " The ordinary ministers of a particular church are Presby- 
 ters and Deacons. Presbyters are otherwise called Bishops," 
 P. W. IV, 453; " through all which book (the Bible) can be no- 
 where, either by plain text or solid reasoning, found any differ- 
 ence between a bishop and a presbyter, save that they be- two 
 names to signify the same order," P. W. u, 421. See F. ofC. 20. 
 
 ^ charged upon: laid as a burden upon. 
 
 " mystical: probably the meaning is, mysterious, unexplainr 
 able, unintelligible. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 103 
 
 pluralist. He who but of late cried down the sole 
 ordination of every novice bachelor of art, and denied 
 sole jurisdiction over the simplest parishioner, shall 
 now at home in his private chair assume both these 
 over worthiest and excellentest books, and ablest au- 
 thors that write them. This is not, ye covenants and 
 protestations ^ that we have made ! This is not to put 
 down prelaty ; this is but to chop ^ an episcopacy ; 
 this is but to translate the palace metropolitan ^ from 
 one kind of dominion into another ; this is but an old 
 canonical sleight * of commuting our penance. To star- 
 tle 5 thus betimes at a mere unlicensed pamphlet will 
 after a while be ^ afraid of every conventicle,^ and a 
 
 1 covenants and protestations : The National Covenant 
 was signed in Scotland in 1638, all good Scots binding themselves 
 thereby to recover the purity and libeHy of the Gospel. The 
 Solemn League and Covenant, the treaty between the Scottish 
 and English nations, was signed in 1643-44. " At the end of this 
 month (Feb. 1644), on the fast day, the national covenant was 
 taken, with a great solemnity." — Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, 
 216. In 1641 when it was believed that the King had a plan 
 for bringing in an army to overawe the Parliament, the Commons 
 drew up a Protestation, which began : " I, in the presence of 
 Almighty God, promise, vow, and protest to maintain and 
 defend, as far as lawfully I may, with my life, power, and 
 estate, the true Reformed Protestant Religion, expressed in 
 the doctrine of the Church of England, against all Popery and 
 Popish innovations, etc." — Gardiner, History of England, IX, 
 364. 
 
 " chop: buy and sell; here the meaning is, to exchange one 
 episcopacy for another. See this word in the N. E. D. 
 
 * palace: see p. 58, n. 1. 
 
 * A trick of exchanging one penance for another, allowed by 
 the Canon Law. 
 
 " What is the construction of the verbs startle and be? 
 
 ^ conventicle: this word, originally meaning an assembly, a 
 meeting, had come to signify in the seventeenth century : a relig- 
 ious meeting, prohibited by law, of Nonconformists, or Dissenters 
 from the Church of England. 
 
104 JOHN MILTON 
 
 while after will make a conventicle of every Christian 
 meeting. 
 
 But I am certain that a state governed by the rules 
 of justice and fortitude, or a church built and founded 
 upon the rock of faith and true knowledge, cannot be 
 so pusillanimous. While things are yet not constituted ^ 
 in religion, that freedom of writing should be re- 
 strained by a discipline imitated from the prelates, 
 and learnt by them from the Inquisition, to shut us up all 
 again into the breast of a licenser, must needs give cause 
 of doubt and discouragement to all learned and religious 
 men. Who cannot but discern the fineness ^ of this politic 
 drift, and who are the contrivers : that while bishops 
 were to be baited down,' then all the presses might be 
 open; it* was the people's birthright and privilege in 
 time of Parliament, it was the breaking forth of light ? 
 
 But now, the bishops abrogated and voided out of 
 the Church, as if our reformation sought no more, 
 but to make room for others into their seats under 
 another name, the episcopal arts begin to bud again ; ^ 
 the cruse of truth must run no more oil ; * liberty of 
 printing must be enthraled again under a prelatical 
 commission of twenty,^ the privilege of the people nul- 
 
 ^ constituted : establisherl, settled. 
 
 ^ fineness : cunning, artifice. 
 
 ' baited dow^n : a figure taken from the sport of baiting 
 bears and bulls with dogs. For a description of this pastime and 
 its poDularity see Strutt, Sports and Pastimes of the English. Peo- 
 ple, 348-352. 
 
 * To what does it refer ? 
 
 ' bud again: see Num. xvn, 6-8. 
 
 • run no more oil: see 1 Kings, xvn, 9-15. 
 
 ' See Introduction, p. xiv. " Any man not of the number of the 
 privileged twenty who ventured to print a book was 'to be set 
 in the pillory and whipped through the City of London.' " — Gar- 
 diner, History of England, vin, 234, — 
 
AREOPAGITICA 105 
 
 lified ; and, wMch is worse, the freedom of learning 
 must groan again, and to her old fetters : all this the 
 Parliament yet sitting. Although their own late ar- 
 guments and defences against the prelates might re- 
 member them,i that this obstructing violence meets 
 for the most part with an event utterly opposite to the 
 end which it drives at ; instead of suppressing sects and 
 schisms, it raises them and invests them with a repu- 
 tation : " The punishing of wits enhances their au- 
 thority," saiththe Viscount St. Albans ; ^ " and a forbid- 
 den writing is thought to be a certain spark of truth 
 that flies up in the faces of them who seek to tread it 
 out." 
 
 This Order, therefore, may prove a nursing mother ^ 
 to sects, but I shall easily show how it will be a step- 
 dame * to Truth ; and first by disenabling us to ^ the 
 maintenance of what is known already. 
 
 Well knows he who uses ^ to consider, that our faith 
 
 1 remember them : cause to remember, remind. See Rich- 
 ard II, I, iii, 269 and in, iv, 14, also the Ust of intransitive 
 verbs used transitively in Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, 
 202. 
 
 " This is from Bacon's tract, An Advertisement touching the Con- 
 troversies of the Church of England, "And indeed we see it ever 
 falleth out that the forbidden writing is always thought to be 
 certain sparks of a truth that fly up in the faces of those that seek 
 to choke it and tread it out; whereas a book authorized is thought 
 to be but 'temporis voces' the language of the time." Quoted 
 by Hales. See also P. W. Iii, 46. 
 
 8 nursing mother: see Numbers, xi, 12; Isa. xlix, 23. " And 
 for the magistrate in person of a nursing father to make thf 
 church his mere ward." — P. W. ni, 29. 
 
 ■* stepdame: see P. L. rv, 279; Comus, 830. Shakespeare 
 gives the general conception of stepmothers in Cymbeline, I, i, 
 71. 
 
 * to : in regard to. 
 
 B uses: is accustomed. 
 
106 JOHN MILTON 
 
 and knowledge thrives by exercise, as well as our limbs 
 and complexion,! Truth ^ is compared in Scripture to 
 a streaming fountain ; if her waters flow not in a per- 
 petual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of 
 conformity and tradition. A man may be a heretic' in 
 the truth ; and if he believe things only because his pastor 
 says so, or the Assembly so determines, without know- 
 ing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very 
 truth he holds becomes his heresy.' There is not any 
 burden that some would gladlier post off to another, than 
 the charge and care of their religion. There be, who 
 knows not that there be, of Protestants and professors * 
 
 ^ completion: physical constitution of the body. In Shake- 
 speare the word never has clearly this meaning. See Measure for 
 Measure, m, i, 24. But in Bacon's Ado. of Learning, p. 12, " Phy- 
 sicians which . . . know neither the causes of deseases, nor the 
 complexions of patients, nor peril of accidents, nor the true 
 methods of cures." And p. 162, " our spirits are included in the 
 caves of our own complexions and customs." 
 
 ^ truth: see Ps. Lxxxv, 11. 
 
 * heretic, heresy ; the Greek word atpea-is means a choosing, 
 a choice of thought or action. " Do you think so ? are you in that 
 good heresy, I mean opinion ? " — Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd, 
 1, 2. It also means those who have chosen, and hence a sect, by which 
 word it is often translated in the authorized version of the New 
 Testament; see Acts V, 17; XV, 5. "Another Greek apparition 
 stands in our way. Heresy and Heretic; in like manner also 
 railed at to the people as in a tongue unknown. They should 
 first interpret to them that heresy, by what it signifies in the 
 language, is no word of evil note, meaning only the choice or 
 following of any opinion, good or bad, in religion, or any other 
 learning " (P. W. II, 527). " He then, who to his best apprehen- 
 sion follows the scripture, though against any point of doctrine 
 by the whole church received, is not tlie heretic; but he who fol- 
 lows the church against his conscience and persuasion grounded 
 on the scripture." — Ibid. 528. 
 
 * orofessors: those who make open profession of religion; 
 generally applied then to Protestants as opposed to Roman 
 Catholics. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 107 
 
 who live and die in as arrant an implicit faith, ^ as 
 any lay Papist of Loreto.^ 
 
 A wealthy man addicted to his pleasure and to his 
 profits, finds religion to be a traffic so entangled, and 
 of so many piddling accounts, that of all mysteries ^ he 
 cannot skill * to keep a stock going upon that trade. 
 What should he do? Fain he would have the name 
 to be religious ; fain he would bear up with his neigh- 
 bors in that. What does he, therefore, but resolves to 
 give over toiling, and to find himself out some fac- 
 tor, to whose care and credit he may commit the whole 
 managing of his religious affairs ; some Divine of note 
 and estimation that must be. To him he adheres, re- 
 
 1 implicit faith : the ecclesiastical Latin _/f<fes implicita, a faitb 
 not due to individual inquiry, but resting on the authority of 
 another — especially that of the church — without doubt or in- 
 quiry. " The rule of true religion is the word of God only ; and 
 that their faith ought not to be an implicit faith, that is, to l>elieve, 
 though as the church believes, against or without express author- 
 ity of scripture." " Sects may be' in a true church as well as in 
 a false, when men follow the doctrine too much for the teacher's 
 sake, whom they think almost infallible; and this becomes, 
 through infirmity, implicit faith." — P. W. II, 510, 511. 
 
 ^ In Xioreto, a town of eastern Italy near Ancona, is one of 
 the most frequented shrines of the Middle Ages, or of modern 
 times. Here inside the cathedral church, is the Casa Sante or 
 Holy House, the legend of which is : the house at Bethlehem in 
 which Mary had been born and brought up, and where she had 
 lived during the childhood of Christ, was converted by the 
 apostles into a church. So it remained until the Turks, in 1291, 
 threatened to destroy it. Then angels carried the house through 
 the air and placed it in Dalmatia; in 1294 they again removed 
 it to a wood near Recanati, and in 1295 to its present position. 
 It has Jseen recognized by successive Popes, and Innocent XII 
 (1691-1700) instituted the Feast of the Translation of the Holy 
 House, Dec. 10; this is still prescribed in the Spani-sh breviary. 
 
 ' mystery: trade, occupation (L. ministerium). See Measure 
 for Measure, rv, ii, 30-44; Timon of Athens, iv, i, 18. 
 
 * skill: have skill enough, manage. 
 
108 JOHN MILTON 
 
 signs the whole warehouse of his religion, with all the 
 locks and keys into his custody ; and indeed makes 
 the very person of that man his religion ; esteems his 
 associating with him a sufficient evidence and commend- 
 atory of his own piety. So that a man may say his re- 
 ligion is now no more within himself, but is become 
 a dividual ^ movable, and goes and comes near him, 
 according as that good man ^ frequents the house. He 
 entertains him, gives him gifts, feasts him, lodges him ; 
 his religion comes home at night, prays, is liberally 
 supped, and sumptuously laid to sleep, rises, is saluted, 
 and after the malmsey,* or some weU-spiced brewage, 
 and better breakfasted than he whose morning appetite 
 ■would have gladly fed on green figs * between Bethany 
 and Jerusalem, his religion walks abroad at eight, 
 and loaves his kind entertainer in the shop trading 
 all day without his religion. 
 
 Another sort there be, who, when they hear that 
 all things shall be ordered, all things regulated and 
 settled, nothing written but what passes through the 
 custom-house of certain publicans ^ that have the ton- 
 naging and poundaging ^ of aU free-spoken truth, will 
 
 1 dividual: that may be separated from him. See P. L. xa, 85. 
 
 ' good man: the Divine mentioned above. 
 
 s malmsey: a strong, sweet wine from the neighborhood of 
 Monemvasia in the Morea. See Richard III, I, iv, 161. 
 
 ^ figs: see Matt, xxi, 18, 19; Mark, XI, 12, 13. 
 
 ' publicans : collectors of taxes. 
 
 ' tonnaging and poundaging : " Ever since the days of Henry 
 VI. the duties on exports and imports known under the name of 
 tonnage and poundage had been granted by Parliament for the 
 lifetime of each successive sovereign in the first session of his 
 reign." — Gardiner, History of England, V, 364. Charles sought 
 to levy these taxes without the consent of Parliament, and the 
 whole question was hotly debated in the Commons. Finally " On 
 the 22ud (1641) the King gave his assent to a Tonnage and 
 
AREOPAGITICA 109 
 
 straight give themselves up into your hands, make 
 'em 1 and cut 'em out what religion ye please ; thet's 
 be delights, there be recreations and jolly pastimes 
 that will fetch ^ the day about from sun to sun, and 
 rock the tedious year as in a delightful dream. What * 
 need they torture their heads with that which others 
 have taken so strictly, and so unalterably into their 
 own purveying? These are the fruits which a dull 
 ease and cessation of our knowledge will bring forth 
 among the people. How goodly, and how to be wished, 
 were such an obedient unanimity as this, what a fine 
 conformity would it starch * us all into ! Doubtless a 
 staunch and solid piece of framework, as any January 
 could freeze together. 
 
 Nor much better will be the consequence even 
 among the clergy themselves ; , it is no new thing 
 never heard of before, for a parochial minister, who 
 has his reward, and is at his Hercules piUars ^ in 
 
 Poundage Bill, conveying those duties to him for a limited time 
 — a time which was to expire as early as July 15. By this Bill 
 Charles surrendered forever his claim to levy customs duties of 
 any kind without a Parliamentary grant." — Ibid, ix, 400. 
 
 1 'em: a reflex use of the pronoun common in Milton's century. 
 See P. L. II, 73; iv, 327; vi, 663; 5. A. 1753. 
 
 ^ fetch . . . about: strictly a nautical term. See King John, 
 IV, ii, 24. 
 
 ' what = for what, why: see P. L. u, 94, 329; Comus, 362; 
 also Cymbeline, iii, iv, 34. 
 
 * " l)o they [the prelates] keep away schism ? If to bring 
 a dumb and chill stupidity of soul, an unactive blindness of miud, 
 upon the people by their leaden doctrine, or no doctrine at all; 
 if to persecute all knowing and zealous Christians by the violence 
 of tlieir 'courts, be to keep away schism, they keep schism away 
 indeed." — P- W. n, 462. 
 
 * Hercules pillars : the rocks on either side of the Strait of 
 Gibraltar, which were supposed by the ancients to have been set 
 up by Hercules and to be the support of the western boundary 
 
110 JOHN MILTON 
 
 a warm benefice, to be easily inclinable, if he have 
 nothing else that may rouse up his studies, to 
 finish his circuit ' in an English concordance and 
 a topic folio,^ the gatherings and savings of a 
 sober graduateship,' a harmony ^ and a catena,^ 
 treading the constant round of certain common doc- 
 trinal heads, attended with their uses, motives, marks, 
 and means ; out of which, as out of an alphabet or 
 sol-fa,^ by forming and transforming, joining and dis- 
 joining variously a little bookcraft, and two hours' 
 meditation, might furnish him unspeakably to ' the 
 performance of more than a weekly charge of ser- 
 moning ; not to veckon up the infinite helps of in- 
 
 of the world. Hence arose the sense : the ultimate limit or goal, 
 aud from that, the meaning which the word bears here, the 
 highest ambition or desire. 
 
 1 circuit, etc. : the course of his studies by consulting a con- 
 cordance. There were several such books before this date. The 
 first was the concordance to the Vulgate Bible, made by Hugo 
 de St. Caro about 1255 ; another was the Hebrew concordance 
 of Rabbi Nathan, published at Venice in 1523, and a more ex- 
 tended edition of this in 1621. There was a Greek concordance 
 of the New Testament by Erasmus Schmidt in 1638. 
 
 ^ topic folio : a common-place book. See that kept by Milton 
 himself. Bacon says (^Adv. of Learning, 164) : "I am not igno- 
 rant of the prejudice imputed to the use of common-place books, 
 as causing a retardation oE reading, aud some sloth or relaxation 
 of memory. But because it is but a counterfeit thing in know- 
 ledges to be forward and pregnant, except a man be deep and 
 full, I hold the entry of common-places to be a matter of great 
 use aud essence in studying, as that which assureth copie of in- 
 vention, and contracteth judgment to a strength." 
 
 * sober graduateship : a sober life at the university. 
 
 * harmony : a work showing how the narratives of the iom 
 Gospels agree in presenting the facts of the life of Christ. 
 
 ^ catena : a series of extracts from the writings of the 
 fathers, arranged in the form of a commentary on the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 ^ sol-fa : scale or gamut. See p. 81, u. 5. ' to : for. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 111 
 
 terlinearies, breviaries, synopses, and other loitering 
 gear.i 
 
 But as for the multitude of sermons ready printed 
 and piled up, on every text that is not difficult, our 
 London trading St. Thomas ^ in his vestry,' and add 
 to boot St. Martin and St. Hugh, have not within 
 their hallovred limits more vendible ware of all sorts 
 ready made ; so that penury he never need fear of 
 pulpit provision, having where so plenteously to re- 
 fresh his magazine. But if his rear and flanks be not 
 impaled,* if his back door^ be not secured by the 
 rigid licenser, but that a bold book may now and then 
 issue forth, and give the assault to some of his old 
 collections in their trenches ; it will concern him then 
 to keep waking, to stand in watch, to set good guards 
 and sentinels about his received opinions, to walk the 
 round and counter-round with his feUow inspectors, 
 
 1 loitering gear : idle stufE or nonsense. Compare Shake- 
 speare's use in : Merchant of Venice, I, i, 110 ; Romeo and Juliet, 
 V, i, 60. 
 
 ' The sense of the passage is clear ; you cannot buy more 
 vrares within the named limits than you can ready-made ser- 
 mons. St. Thomas refers to the Mercers' Chapel in Cheapside, 
 where the mercers had their shops ; which chapel was, before 
 Henry VIII, the College or Hospital of St. Thomas. Milton here 
 uses the old name of the chapel. The neighborhood of St. 
 Martin le Grand was the favorite place for the manufacturers 
 of cheap articles, as beads and lace. St. Hugh is uncertain, 
 as there never was a church in London of that name, but the 
 word may refer to a quarter of the city occupied especially 
 by shoemakers. See the discussion in Hales' Additional Note, 
 p. 153. 
 
 ^ vestry : possibly meaning that which adjoins the church, 
 and also with reference to the Latin vestiarium, a clothes-press 
 or wardrobe. 
 
 * impaled : enclosed with stakes, fenced in. Cf. P. L. n, 
 647 ; VI, 553. 
 
 ° back door : postern. 
 
112 JOHN MILTON 
 
 fearing lest any of his flock be seduced, who also then 
 would be better instructed, better exercised and dis- 
 ciplined. And God fend ^ that the fear of this dili- 
 gence, which must then be used, do not make us affect 
 the laziness of a licensing church. 
 
 For if we be sure we are in the right, and do not 
 hold the truth guiltily, which becomes not, if we our- 
 selves condemn ^ not our own weak and frivolous 
 teaching, and the people for an untaught and irrelig- 
 ious, gadding ' rout, what can be more fair, than 
 ■when a man judicious, learned, and of a conscience, 
 for aught we know, as good as theirs that taught us 
 what we know, shall not privily from house to house, 
 which is more dangerous, but openly by writing, pub- 
 lish to the world what his opinion is, what his reasons, 
 and wherefore that which is now thought cannot be 
 sound ? Christ urged it as wherewith to justify him- 
 self, that he preached in public ; * yet writing is more 
 public than preaching ; and more easy to refutation, if 
 need be, there being so many whose business and pro- 
 fession merely it is, to be the champions of truth ; 
 which if they neglect, what can be imputed but their 
 sloth, or un ability ? 
 
 Thus much we are hindered and disinured ^ by this 
 course of licensing toward the true knowledge of what 
 we seem to know. For how much it hurts and hinders 
 the licensers themselves in the calling of their min- 
 istry, more than any secular employment, if they wiU 
 
 1 fend : defend. 
 
 ' condemn : " Happy is he that conderaneth not himself in 
 that thing which he alloweth." See Rom. xiv, 22, 23. 
 
 " gadding : see Lye. 40 ; for rout see the common rout of 
 S. A . 674-78 ; also 5. ^. 443 ; Ps. in, 16. 
 
 * in public : see John, xviil, 19-21. 
 
 ° disinured : disaccustomed. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 113 
 
 discharge that office as they ought, so that of neces- 
 sity they must neglect either the one duty or the 
 other, I insist not, because it is a particular,^ but leave 
 it to their own conscience, how they will decide it there. 
 There is yet behind of what I purposed to lay 
 open, the incredible loss and detriment that this plot 
 of licensing puts us to. More than if some enemy at 
 sea should stop up all our havens, and ports, and 
 creeks, it hinders and retards the importation of our 
 richest merchandise, truth; ^ nay, it was first estab- 
 lished and put in practice by Antichristian malice and 
 mystery,^ on set purpose to extinguish, if it were pos- 
 sible, the light of reformation, and to settle ^ false- 
 hood ; little differing from that policy wherewith the 
 Turk upholds his Alcoran, by the prohibition of print- 
 ing. 'T is not denied, but gladly confessed, we are to 
 send our thanks and vows to Heaven, louder than 
 most of nations, for that great measure of truth which 
 we enjoy, especially in those main points between us 
 a,nd the Pope, with his appurtenances the prelates; 
 but he who thinks we are to pitch our tent here, and 
 have attained the utmost prospect of reformation,^ 
 
 1 particular : personal matter or concern. See Henry VIII, 
 m, ii, 189 ; Antony and Cleopatra, iv, ix, 20. 
 
 " truth : in this essay under what other figures has he pre- 
 sented truth f See Matt, xiii, 45, 46 ; Prov. vni, 10, 11. 
 
 " mystery : the meaning appears to be, underhand and evil 
 practices. Cf. P. R. in, 249. 
 
 * settle : establish. " My afflicted powers to settle here on 
 earth." P. L. iv, 939^0. 
 
 ^ " For upon the settling hereof mark what nourishing and 
 cordial restoreraents to the state will follow, the ministers of 
 the gospel attending only to the work of salvation, every one 
 within his limited charge ; besides the diffusive blessings of God 
 upon all our actions, the king shall sit without an old disturber, 
 d, daily encroacher and intruder " (P. W. II, 408). Read the 
 wonderful prayer at the end of 0/ Reformation in England. 
 
114 JOHN MILTON 
 
 that the mortal glass ^ wherein we contemplate can show 
 us, till we come to beatific vision, ^ that man by this 
 very opinion declares, that he is yet far short of truth. 
 Truth indeed came once into the world with her di- 
 vine Master, 3 and was a perfect shape most glorious to 
 look on ; but when he ascended, and his apostles after 
 him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race 
 of deceivers,'* who, as that story goes of the Egyptian 
 Typhon ^ with his conspirators, how they dealt with 
 the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, hewed her 
 lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered 
 them to the four winds. From that time ever since, the 
 sad friends of Truth, such as durst a.ppear, imitating 
 the careful ^ search that Isis made for the mangled 
 
 1 glass : mirror. " Now we see through a glass, darkly," I 
 Cor. XIII, 12. But Milton is here probably thinking of the 
 iuagic mirrors of romance. See Chaucer's Squieres Tale, 132- 
 141 ; II Pen. 113 ; and Macbeth, IV, i, 119. 
 
 ' beati&c vision : the beholding uf God face to face. See 
 P. L. Ill, 60-63. 
 
 » See N. O. 141-43. 
 
 * Milton expresses this same thought in P. L. xn, 485-636. 
 
 ^ Typhon . . . Osiris : the former was the god of Evil and 
 the latter the god of Good. When Osiris returned from a jouiv 
 ney round the earth, Typhon carried out the plot he had laid 
 against him. He secretly had the measure of the body of Osiris 
 taken ; then he made a handsome chest, offering to present it to 
 the person who could lie down in it. No one could do this except 
 Osiris. When Osiris had lain down, Typbou and his conspirators 
 closed the lid, fastened it securely, and threw the chest into the 
 river. Isis, the sister and wife of Osiris, searched for and found 
 the chest, and did it reverence. But once when she was away, 
 Typhon came upon it; he tore the body in fourteen pieces and 
 scattered them abroad. See the story in On Isis and Osiris, 
 one of the Moral Essays of Plutarch. 
 
 ' careful : full of care or anxiety. " Careful hours . . . have 
 written strange defeatures iu my face." — Comedy of Errors, v. i, 
 298-99. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 115 
 
 body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb 
 by limb still as they could find them. We have not 
 yet found them all, Lords and Commons, nor ever 
 shall do, tiU her Master's second coming ; i he shall 
 bring together every joint and member, and shall mould 
 them into an immortal feature ^ of loveliness and per- 
 fection. Suffer not these licensing prohibitions to stand 
 at every place of opportunity, forbidding and disturb- 
 ing them that continue seeking,' that continue to do our 
 obsequies * to the torn body of our martyred saint. 
 
 We boast our light ; but if we look not wisely on the 
 sun itself, it smites us into darkness.^ Who can dis- 
 cern those planets that are oft combust,* and those 
 stars of brightest magnitude that rise and set with the 
 sun, until the opposite motion of their orbs bring them 
 to such a place in the firmament,' where they may be 
 seen evening or morning. The light which we have 
 gained, was given us, not to be ever staring on, but by 
 it to discover onward things more remote from our 
 knowledge. It is not the unfrocking * of a priest, the 
 
 1 Matt. XXIV, 30 ; 2 Thess. r, 7. 
 
 2 feature : shape, form (L. factura). See P. L. x, 279. 
 
 * seeking : possibly a reference to a sect known as the Seeh- 
 ers. See p. 116, n. 3. " The true force and propriety of seeking is 
 not perceived by those who are unaware that there then existed 
 a class of Religionists, not inconsiderable in numbers, whose 
 imaginations, bewildered in the mass of theological controversy, 
 were unable to settle in any mode of existing belief, and assumed, 
 oddly enough, for a Christian congregation, a distinctive appel- 
 lation of . . . Seekers." — Holt White, 145. 
 
 * obaequies : acts of worship (L. obsequium). 
 6 See P. L. ra, 380. 
 
 * combust : a planet is combust when within 8° 30' of the 
 body of the sun; its influence is then said to be burnt up or de- 
 stroyed. Venus, Mercury, and Vulcan are those most oft combust. 
 
 ' firmament: See P. L. rv, 604-8 ; vn, 348-49. 
 
 ' unfrocking: the frock was a long gown with large open- 
 
116 JOHN MILTON 
 
 unmitring of a bishop, and the removing him from ofi 
 the Presbyterian shoulders that will make us a happy 
 nation; no, if other things as great in the Church, and 
 in the rule of life both economical and political, be not 
 looked into and reformed, we have looked so long upon 
 the blaze that Zwinglius and Calvin ^ hath beaconed 
 up ^ to us, that we are stark blind. 
 
 There be who perpetually complain of schisms and 
 sects,' and make it such a calamity that any man dis- 
 
 sleeves, the chaTacteristic dress of the monk. Sometimes the 
 word was also used of the cassock of the Anglican clergyman. 
 
 1 Z-winglius (1484-1531), the Swiss reformer. Calvin 
 (1509-1654). Note plural subject and singular verb. 
 
 ' beaconed up : kindled as a beacon. 
 
 8 sects : in vol. iii, pp. 136-159, Masson discusses the Mul- 
 tiplication of Heresies ill 1644. " This matter, of the extraordinary 
 multiplication of Sects and Heresies in England, had been in 
 constant public discussion since the opening of the Long Parlia- 
 ment. It had figured constantly in messages and declarations 
 of the King ; who had first charged the fact of the sudden 
 appearance and boldness of the Sects and Sectaries to the abro- 
 gation of his Kingly prerogative and Episcopal government by 
 the Parliament, and had then attributed the origin of the Civil 
 War to the lawless machinations of these same Sects and Sectary 
 ies." Among the recognized Sects were : Baptists or Anabapt- 
 ists ; Old Brownists ; Antinomians ; Familists ; Millenaries or 
 Chiliasts ; Seekers ; Divorcers ; Anti-Sabbatarians, and Trask- 
 ites ; Soul-Sleepers or Moralists ; Arians, Sociuians, and other 
 Anti-Trinitarians. To show the way in which the public mind 
 was directed to this subject Masson quotes the titles of some 
 books that were published in 1645. " Heresiography ; or, A De- 
 scription of the Hereticks and Sectaries of these later times," by Eph- 
 raim Paget ; " A Fresh Discovery of some Prodigious new Wan- 
 dering-Blazing-Stars and Firebrands, styling themselves New 
 Lights, firing our Church and State into new Comhustitms," by 
 William Prynue ; " Gangroena : or, a Catalogue and Discovery of 
 many of the Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies, and Pernicious Practices 
 of the Sectaries of this Time," by Thomas Edwards. See the carica- 
 tures in Humour, Wit, and Satire of the Seventeenth Century, 
 252. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 117 
 
 sents from their maxims. 'T is their own pride and ig- 
 norance which causes the disturbing, who neither will 
 hear with meekness, nor can convince, yet all must be 
 suppressed which is not found in their syntagma.^ 
 They are the troublers, they are the dividers of unity, 
 who neglect and permit not others to unite those dis- 
 severed pieces which are yet wanting to the body of 
 Truth. To be still searching ^ what we know not, by 
 what we know, still closing up truth to truth as we find 
 it (for all her body is homogeneal and proportional),' 
 this is the golden rule * in theology as well as in arith- 
 metic, and makes up the best harmony in a church ; not 
 the forced and outward union of cold and neutral and 
 inwardly divided minds. 
 
 Lords and Commons of England, consider what 
 nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the 
 governors ; a nation not slow and duU, but of a quick, 
 ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, subtle 
 and sinewy to discourse,^ not beneath the reach of 
 any point the highest that human capacity can soar to. 
 Therefore the studies of learning in her deepest sci- 
 ences have been so ancient, and so eminent among us, 
 that writers of good antiquity, and ablest judgment 
 have been persuaded that even the school of Pytha- 
 goras,8 and the Persian wisdom, took beginning from 
 
 ^ syntagma : a collection or bandboak. 
 
 ' searching : investigating. 
 
 3 All tbe parts are of tbe same kind, and each bears a distinct 
 proportion to tbe whole. 
 
 ^ golden rule : the Rule of Three " on account of its great use 
 and extensive application is often called the ' Golden Kule.' " 
 Quoted by Hales. 
 
 * to discourse: to reason. See P. L. v, 488, and p. 77, n, 4. 
 
 * Pythagoras : " There is au old building at Cambridge tradi- 
 tionally known, from the sixteenth century at least, as ' Pytha- 
 goras school.' According to the opinion Milton here quotes, it 
 
118 JOHN MILTON 
 
 the old philosophy of this island. And that wise and 
 civil Roman,! Julius Agricola, who governed once 
 here for Caesar, preferred the natural wits of Britain, 
 before the labored studies of the French. Nor is it 
 for nothing that the grave and frugal Transylvanian^ 
 sends out yearly from as far as the mountainous bor- 
 ders of Russia, and beyond the Hercynian wilderness,* 
 not their youth, but their staid men, to learn our lan- 
 guage and our theologic arts. 
 
 Yet that which is above all this,* the favor and the 
 love of Heaven, we have great argument to think in 
 a peculiar manner propitious and propending * towards 
 us. Why else was this nation chosen before any other, 
 
 was, one may suppose, the place where that philosopher received 
 not gave, instruction. It is the building known as Merton Hall." 
 — Hales. 
 
 ^ civil Roman: for civil see p. 37, n 4. Julius Agricola was in 
 Britain as consul from 78-85 A.D.,not under Caesar but under the 
 Emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitiau. Tacitus in his Li/e of 
 Agricola says (21), " He was also careful to provide a liberal 
 education for the sons of their chieftaius, preferring the natural 
 genius of the Britons to the attainments of the Gauls; and his 
 attempts were attended with such success, that they who lately 
 disdained to make use of the Roman language, were now ambi- 
 tious to become eloquent." 
 
 2 Transylvania was, from 1536-1688, a sovereign principality 
 but at the latter date was conquered by Austria. It now forms 
 the extreme southern part of Hungary. It was a. Protestant 
 country, and intercourse with England was not nucommon. 
 
 ^ Hercynian ■wilderness : a range of mountains in Germany, 
 variously located by different authors from Aristotle to Pliny. 
 According to Caesar and Strabo, " the Hercynia Silva would be 
 a general name for almost all the mountains of Southern and 
 Central Germany, that is, from the sources of the Danube to 
 Transylvania." — Smith, Dictionary of Greekand Roman Geogra- 
 phy. 
 
 * SeeS.il. 1718-19. 
 
 '' propending: being favorably inclined. See S, A. 455; 
 Troilus and Cressida, ii, ii, 133, 190. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 119 
 
 that out of her as out of Sion should be proclaimed 
 and sounded forth the first tidings and trumpet of 
 reformation i to all Europe ? And had it not been the 
 obstinate perverseness of our prelates against the 
 divine and admirable spirit of Wyelif, to suppi-ess 
 him as a schismatic and innovator, perhaps neither 
 the Bohemian Huss and Jerome, no, nor the name of 
 Luther, or of Calvin, had been ever known ; the glory 
 of reforming all our neighbors had been completely 
 ours. But now, as our obdurate clergy have with vio- 
 lence demeaned ^ the matter, we are become hitherto 
 the latest and backwardest scholars, of whom ^ God 
 offered to have made us the teachers. 
 
 Now once again by all concurrence of signs, and by 
 the general instinct of holy and devout men, as they 
 daily and solemnly express their thoughts, God is de- 
 creeing to begin some new and great period in his 
 Church, even to the reforming of reformation itself. 
 What does he then but reveal himself to his servants, 
 and, as his manner is, first to his Englishmen ; I say, 
 as his manner is, first to us, though we mark not the 
 method of his counsels, and are unworthy. Behold now 
 
 ' " The pleasing pursuit of these thoughts hath ofttimes led me 
 into a serious question and debatement with myself, how it should 
 come to pass that England (having had this grace and honour 
 from God, to be the first that should set up a standard for the 
 recovery of lost truth, and blow the first evangelic trumpet to 
 the nations, holding up, as from a hill, the new lamp of saving 
 light to all Christendom) should now be the last and most un- 
 settled in the enjoyment of that peace, whereof she taught the 
 way to others." — P. W. II, 368. 
 
 2 demeaned: conducted, managed. Often reflexive; Comedy 
 of Errors, iv, iii, 83. See demeanour, P- L. iv, 129; xi, 
 162. 
 
 * '^hom: those whom. Frequently so in Milton's poetry, 
 P. L. I, 197; II, 249. 
 
120 JOHN MILTON 
 
 this vast city, a city of refuge, the mansion house * 
 of liberty, encompassed and surrounded with his pro- 
 tection ; the shop of war hath not there more anvils 
 and hammers waking, to fashion out the plates and 
 instruments 2 of armed justice in defence of beleaguered 
 truth, than there be pens and heads there, sitting by 
 their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving 
 new notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with 
 their homage and their fealty, the approaching reform- 
 ation ; others as fast reading, trying all things, as- 
 senting to the force of reason and convincement. 
 
 What could a man require more from a nation so 
 pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge ? What 
 wants there to such a towardly and pregnant soil, but 
 wise and faithful laborers, to make a knowing peo- 
 ple, a nation of prophets, of sages, and of worthies ? 
 We reckon more than five months yet to harvest ; * 
 there need not be five weeks, had we but eyes to lift 
 up ; the fields are white already. Where there is much 
 desire to learn, there of necessity wiU be much argu- 
 ing, much writing, many opinions ; for opinion in 
 good men is but knowledge in the making.* Under 
 
 ^ mansion house: dwelling-house. " The soliduess of the earth 
 is for the station and mansion of living creatures." Baeou, Adv. 
 of Learning, 119. See N. O. 140; II P. 92. 
 
 '^ plates : breast-plates. See P. L. VI, 368; S. A. 133. instru- 
 ments: Cicero's belli instrumentum el apparatus, Academica, il, i, 
 3. See P. L. vi, 505; P. R. m, 388. 
 
 ^ to harvest : John rv, 35. Milton's hopefnlness rests here, 
 doubtless, on the establishment of Presbyterianism by Parlia- 
 ment, just then being effected; on Cromwell's move for greater tol- 
 eration of " tender consciences "; on the help of the Scotch army ; 
 and on the criticism by Cromwell of the conduct of the war, 
 which looked toward a reorganization of the army. See Masson, 
 m, 166-183. 
 
 ■♦ " All what we affirm or what deny, and call our knowledge 
 or opinion." — P. L. v, 108-109. 
 
AREOPAGITIUA 121 
 
 these fantastic terrors ^ of sect and schism, we wrong 
 the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and 
 understanding which God hath stirred up in this city. 
 What some lament of," we rather should rejoice at, 
 should rather praise this pious forwardness among men, 
 to reassume the ill-deputed care of their religion into 
 their own hands again. A little generous prudence, a 
 little forhearance of one another,* and some grain of 
 charity might win all these diligences* to join and 
 unite in one general and brotherly search after truth ; 
 could we but forego this prelatical tradition ^ of crowd- 
 ing free consciences ^ and Christian liberties into can- 
 ons and precepts of men. I doubt not, if some great 
 and worthy stranger should come among us, wise to 
 discern the mould and temper of a people, and how 
 to govern it, observing the high hopes and aims, the 
 diligent alacrity of our extended ' thoughts and rea- 
 sonings in the pursuance of truth and freedom, but 
 that he would cry out as Pyrrhus * did, admiring the 
 
 * fantastic: imaginary, unreal terrors ! It was of this ter- 
 rible Iiidepeiideney that the Presbyterians had begun to see 
 signs in the Parliamentary army and throughout England. See 
 p. 116, 11. 3, and Milton's discussion of schisms in P. W. II, 511-12. 
 
 ^ of: about, concerning. 
 
 ^ " forbearing one another in love," Epb. IV, 2 ; also Col. m, 
 12-15. 
 
 * diligences: labors, exertions, efforts. See quotations in 
 N. E. D. 
 
 ' Ben Jonson in the Alchemist, lu, ii, makes one of his charac- 
 ters say: "I hate traditions; I do not trust them — They are 
 popish all." Cited by Holt White. 
 
 ' free consciences: see Sonnet, xvi, 13; F. of C. 6. 
 
 ^ extended: see p. 85, n. 3. 
 
 8 Pyrrhus (3187-272 B.C.) was king of Epirus. He defeated 
 the Romans at Heracleia in 280. These words of Pyrrhus oc- 
 cur in Epitome Rerum Romanarum, by Lucius Annseus Florus, 
 1,18. 
 
122 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Eoman docility and courage. " If such were my Epi- 
 rots,i I would not despair ^ the greatest design that 
 could be attempted to make a church or kingdom 
 happy." 
 
 Yet these are the men cried out against for schis- 
 matics and sectaries ; as if, while the temple ^ of the 
 Lord was building,* some cutting, some squaring the 
 marble, others hewing the cedars, there should be a 
 sort * of irrational men who could not consider there 
 must be many schisms and many dissections ^ made 
 in the quarry and in the timber, ere the house of 
 God can be built. And when every stone is laid art- 
 fully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, 
 it can but be contiguous in this world ; neither can 
 every piece of the building be of one form ; nay rather 
 the perfection consists in this, that out of many mod- 
 erate ' varieties and brotherly dissimilitudes that are 
 not vastly disproportional, arises the goodly and the 
 graceful symmetry that commends the whole pile * and 
 structure. 
 
 Let us, therefore, be more considerate builders, more 
 wise in spiritual architecture, when great reformation 
 
 ^ Spirots : natives of Epirus. 
 
 " despair: " though I despair to attain, "P. R. I, 485 j "Peace 
 is despaired," P. L. I, 660. 
 
 a the temple : see 2 Chron. li, 5-9. 
 
 * -was building : compare the modem use. Building is here 
 a verbal substantive, and the a, which originally governed it, is 
 lost. See N. E. D. under Build, 7. 
 
 ^ sort : set, company. " And like a sort of Bees in clusters 
 swarmed," F. Q. v, iv, 36; "Sent from a sort of tinkers to the 
 king." — // Henry VI, m, ii, 277. 
 
 ' Again a play on words. 
 
 ' moderate: not greatly different. Note antithetic words in 
 these phrases, and compare VA. 140. 
 
 8 See P. R. IV, 547. 
 
is expected. For now the time seems come, wherein 
 Moses, the great prophet, may sit in heaven rejoicing 
 to see that memorable and glorious wish ^ of his ful- 
 filled, when not only our seventy elders, but all the 
 Lord's people, are become prophets. No marvel then 
 though some men, and some good men too, perhaps, 
 but young in goodness, as Joshua then was, envy 
 them. 2 They fret, and out of their own weakness are 
 in agony, lest those divisions and subdivisions will un- 
 do us. The adversary ^ again applauds, and waits the 
 hour, when they have branched themselves out, saith 
 he, small enough into parties and partitions, then will 
 be our time. Fool ! he sees not the firm root, out of 
 which we all gxow, though into branches ; nor will be- 
 ware until he see our small divided maniples ^ cutting 
 through at every angle of his ill-united and unwieldy 
 brigade.^ And that we are to hope better of all these 
 supposed sects and schisms, and that we shall not 
 need that solicitude, honest perhaps, though over-tim- 
 orous, of them that vex in this behalf, but shall laugh 
 in the end at those malicious applauders of our differ- 
 ences, I have these reasons to persuade me. 
 
 1 See Num. Xi, 24-29. Verse 29 reads : " Would God that 
 all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put 
 his Spirit upon them I " 
 
 2 envy them : bear them ill will. " Gregorius Magnus, bishop 
 of Rome, who was noted for the extreme envy he bare towards 
 all heathen excellency." — Bacon, Adi'. of Learning, 55. 
 
 ' adversary : he undoubtedly refers to the Church of Kome, 
 which, he believes, rejoiced at the growing divisions and sects in 
 the Church of England. 
 
 * maniples : the word means a handful (L. manipulus). 
 Amofig the ancient Romans the standard was a pole with a hand- 
 ful of hay or straw tied to it ; then the word came to be ap- 
 plied to the whole standard, and finally, as here, to the company 
 of soldiers following the same standard. 
 
 6 brigade : see P. L. i, 675 ; ir, 532. 
 
124 JOHN MILTON 
 
 First, when a city ^ shall be as it were besieged and 
 blocked about, her navigable river infested, inroads 
 and incursions round, defiance ^ and battle oft ru- 
 mored to be marching up even to her walls and sub- 
 urb trenches ; that then the people, or the greater 
 part, more than at other times, wholly taken up with 
 the study of highest and most important matters to be 
 reformed, should be disputing, reasoning, reading, in- 
 venting, discoursing, even to a rarity and admiration,' 
 things not before discoursed or written of,* argues at 
 
 * ■when a city : " In 1642 the King advanced suddenly from 
 Colnbi'ook, took possession of Brentford, and appeared to intend 
 an attack on London. The forces of the Parliament marched out 
 to Turnham Green : and after the two armies had faced each 
 other awhile, the King drew off to Reading. Next summer 
 [1643], in view of this warning, the ' suburb trenches ' were 
 dug. . . . London was then [summer of 1643] altogetlier unforti- 
 fied, no Works were raised, nor could they, if their Enemies (who 
 were then masters of the field) had come upon them, have op- 
 posed any walls but such as old Sparta used for their Guard, the 
 hearts of courageous Citizens. But at that time London be- 
 gan her large entrenchments ; which encompassed not only the 
 City, but the whole Suburbs on every side, containing about 
 twelve miles in circuit. That great work was by many hands 
 corapleated in a short time, it being then a custome every day 
 to go out by thousands to digge, all Professions Trades and Oc- 
 cupations taking their Turnes." — Jebb. See also Gardiner, 
 Hiilnry of the Great Civil War, i, 52, 98. 
 
 2 defiance : see Richard II, in, iii, 130, and 1 Sam. xvii, 10. 
 
 ^ admiration : " Reasoning to admiration," P. L. ix, 872 ; 
 
 " know, and write, and teach to admiration," P. R. iv, 227-28. 
 
 * Perhaps Milton refers here to the meetings of the club for 
 scientific experiment and discussion, which became in 1662 the 
 Royal Society. "There were the most enthusiastic expectations 
 of the effects to be produced by this Invisible College, as it was 
 called, not only in advancing mathematical and experimental 
 science, but also in reforming the universities and the notions 
 and methods of edncation." — Masson, VI, 392. See also Pepys, 
 Jan. 22 and Feb. 21, 1666. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 125 
 
 first a singular goodwill, contentedness and confidence 
 in your prudent foresight, and safe government, Lords 
 and Commons ; and from thence derives itself ^ to a 
 gallant bravery and well grounded contempt of their 
 enemies, as if there were no small number of as great 
 spirits among us, as his ^ was, who, when Rome was 
 nigh besieged by Hannibal, being in the city, bought 
 that piece of ground at no cheap rate whereon Hanni- 
 bal himself encamped his own regiment. 
 
 Next, it is a lively and cheerful presage of our 
 happy success and victory. For as in a body, when the 
 blood is fresh,* the spirits pure and vigorous, not only 
 to vital,^ but to rational faculties, and those in the 
 acutest and the pertest * operations of wit and sub- 
 tlety, it argues in what good plight and constitution 
 the body is ; so when the cheerfulness of the people is 
 so sprightly up,^ as that it has, not only wherewith to 
 guard well its own freedom and safety, but to spare, 
 and to bestow upon the solidest and sublimest points 
 of controversy and new invention,^ it betokens us, not 
 degenerated, nor drooping to a fatal decay, but cast- 
 ing o£f the old and wrinkled skin ^ of corruption to 
 
 1 derives itself : flows, proceeds. 
 
 ' his : see Livy, xxvr, 11. 
 
 ' the blood is fresh : see Comas, 668-70. 
 
 ♦ vital : see P. L. v, 482-85. 
 
 'pertest: lively. "Awake the pert and nimble spirit of 
 mirth," Midsummer Night's Dream, i, i, 13. See also Comus, 118. 
 
 ' sprightly up : up, roused, in activity. " The wonted roar was 
 up amidst the woods." — Comus, 549. 
 
 ^ invention : thought, design, scheme. See P. L. vu, 121, 
 and Lear, i, ii, 20. 
 
 " skin : " as when into the light an adder, fed on poisonous 
 herbs, whom the cold of winter kept swollen under ground, now 
 all new, its slough cast off, and shining in youth, rolls along 
 with breast erect its slimy length." — jEneid, li, 471-76. 
 
126 JOHN MILTON 
 
 outlive these pangs, and wax young again, entering the 
 glorious ways of truth and prosperous virtue, destined 
 to heeome great and honorable in these latter ages. 
 
 Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant 
 nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, 
 and shaking her invincible locks ; ^ methinks I see her 
 as an eagle mewing ^ her mighty youth, and kindling 
 her undazzled eyes at the f uU midday beam ; purging 
 and unsealing ' her long-abused sight at the fountain 
 itself of heavenly radiance ; while the whole noise ■* of 
 timorous and flocking * birds, with those also that love 
 the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, 
 and in their envious ^ gabble ^ would prognosticate a 
 year of sects and schisms. 
 
 What should ye do then, should ye suppress all this 
 flowery crop of knowledge and new light sprung up 
 and yet springing daily in this city ; should ye set an 
 oligarchy of twenty engrossers * over it, to bring a 
 
 1 looks : Judges, xvi, 13, 14, 19, 20 ; also S. A. 1143. Read 
 the long figure in P. W. ii, 506, beginning " I cannot better 
 liken the state and person of a king than to that mighty Naza- 
 rite Samson ; who . . . grows up to a noble strength and per- 
 fection with those his illustrious and sunny locks, the laws, wav- 
 ing and curling about his godlike shoulders." 
 
 ^ mewing : the N. E. D. says, " The precise sense intended 
 (by Milton) is difficult to determine : perhaps ' to renew by the 
 process of moulting ' ; some would render ' exchan^ng her 
 mighty youth for the still mightier strength of full age.' " 
 
 * unsealing : "And immediately there fell from his eyes as 
 it had been scales. " — Acts, ix, 18. 
 
 * noise : company, concert. Cf. N. O. 97. 
 
 * flocking : fearful of being alone and hence going in flocks. 
 ° envious : see p. 123, n. 2. 
 
 ' gabble : the inarticulate noises of the birds. " Choughs' lan- 
 guage, gabble enough, and good enough." All 's Well that Ends 
 Well, IV, i, 22. Cf. P. L. xu, 56. 
 
 ' engrossers : those who buy in large quantities for the pur- 
 pose of controlling trade — the modern T'rust. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 127 
 
 famine upon our minds again, when we shall know 
 nothing but what is measured to us by their bushel ? 
 Believe it, Lords and Commons, they who counsel ye 
 to such a suppressing, do as good as bid ye suppress 
 yourselves ; and I will soon show how. 
 
 If it be desired to know the immediate cause of all 
 this free writing and free speaking, there cannot be 
 assigned a truer than your own mild and free and 
 humane government ; it is the liberty. Lords and Com- 
 mons, which your own valorous and happy counsels 
 have purchased ^ us, liberty which is the nurse of all 
 great wits ; this is that which hath rarefied and en- 
 lightened our spirits like the influence ^ of heaven ; 
 this is that which hath enfranchised, enlarged, and 
 lifted up our apprehensions degrees above themselves. 
 Ye cannot make us now less capable, less knowing, 
 less eagerly pursuing of the truth, unless ye first make 
 yourselves, that made us so, less the lovers, less the 
 founders of our true liberty. We can grow ignorant 
 again, brutish, formal, and slavish, as ye found us ; 
 but you then must first become that which ye cannot 
 be, oppressive, arbitrary, and tyrannous ; as they were 
 from whom ye have freed us. That our hearts are now 
 more capacious, our thoughts more erected ^ to the 
 search and expectation of greatest and exactest things, 
 is the issue of your own virtue propagated in us ; ye 
 cannot suppress that unless ye reinforce an abrogated 
 and merciless law, that fathers may despatch at will 
 
 1 purchased : procured. 
 
 ■^ iuQuence: the astrologers taught that an occult power or 
 virtue streamed from the stars, and acted upon the characters 
 and destinies of men. " I find ray zenith doth depend upon a 
 most auspicious star," Tempest, I, ii, 181-82. Often in Milton's 
 poetry: P. L, VliI, 513 ; x, 662. 
 
 8 erected : see P. L. i, 679; P. R. m, 27. 
 
128 JOHN MILTON 
 
 their own children. ^ And who shall then stick closest 
 to ye,2 and excite others? not he who takes np arms 
 for coat and conduct,^ and his four nobles of Dane- 
 gelt.* Although I dispraise not the defence of just im- 
 munities, yet love my peace better, if that were all.^ 
 Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue 
 freely according to conscience, above all liberties. 
 
 What would be best advised, then, if it be found 
 so hurtful and so unequal ^ to suppress opinions for the 
 newness, or the unsuitableness to a customary accept- 
 ance, will not be my task to say ; I only shall repeat 
 what I have learned from one of your own honorable 
 
 ^ law r this was a Roman law, not formally repealed until 
 318 A.D. However, before the close of the Republic such an act 
 was very unusual and was considered merciless. 
 
 ^ " A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and 
 there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." — Prov. 
 XVill, 24. 
 
 ' coat and conduct: the money levied for the clothing and 
 the transportation of the army. " In many parts of the country 
 the levy of coat-and-conduct money was equally unpopular. 
 Sometimes it was directly denounced as illegal, and where this 
 was not the case, payment was refused on the score of poverty." 
 — Gardiner, History of England, ix, 140. 
 
 * Canegelt : " It can hardly be doubted that the original 
 meaning of the word Danegeld must have been money paid to 
 the Danes to buy them off, a practice of which I need not mul- 
 tiply instances during the reign of .3Ithelred, and which was at 
 least looked on as early as the days of Eadred " (Freeman, 
 Norman Conquest, ii, 403). It was levied after the coming of the 
 Norman kings as a land-tax. A noble was an English coin, cur- 
 rent from the reign of Edward III, of the value of 6s. 8d. 
 
 ' I am willing to fight for exemption from unjust taxation 
 but I prefer peace. Masson (ii, 472-87) discusses the possibil- 
 ity of Milton's having served in the army, and concludes that ho 
 took no part in the fighting. 
 
 ' unequal: unjust, unfair (L. iniquum). "To punish me for 
 what you make me do seems much unequal." — Antony and 
 Cleopatra, li, v, 100-01. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 129 
 
 number, a right noble and pious lord, who, had he not 
 sacrificed his life and fortunes to the Church and Com- 
 monwealth, we had not now missed and bewailed a 
 worthy and undoubted patron of this argument. Ye 
 know him I am sure ; yet I for honor's sake,'^ and may 
 it be eternal to him, shaU name him the Lord Bi'ook.^ 
 He, writing of Episcopacy, and by the way treating of 
 sects and schisms, left ye his vote,^ or rather now the 
 last words of his dying charge, which I know wiU ever 
 be of dear and honored regard with ye, so full of 
 meekness and breathing * charity, that next to his last 
 testament,* who bequeathed love and peace to his dis- 
 ciples, I cannot call to mind where I have read or 
 heard words more mild and peaceful. He there exhorts 
 us to hear with patience and humility those, however 
 they be miscalled, that desire to live purely, in such a 
 use of God's ordinances, as the best guidance of their 
 conscience gives them, and to tolerate them, though 
 in some disconformity to ourselves. The book itself 
 will tell us more at large, being published to the world, 
 and dedicated to the Parliament by him who, both for 
 his life and for his death, deserves that what advice 
 he left be not laid by without perusal. 
 
 1 for honor's sake : see S. A. 372 ; Comus, 864. 
 
 ^ Lord Brooke : Robert Greville, second Lord Brooke, was 
 a staunch supporter of the Parliament, a general of the parlia- 
 mentary forces in the Civil War, and greatly admired and be- 
 loved in England. He was killed in an attack on Lichfield Cathe- 
 dral, March 2, 1643, where the royal forces had retired for de- 
 fence. The book referred to is : ^ discourse opening the nature of that 
 Episcopacie which is exercised in England. Wherein, with all Humil- 
 ity, are represented some Considerations tending to the much desired 
 Peace and long expected Reformation of this our Mother Church. 
 
 * vote: earnest wish or desire (L. votuin). 
 
 * breathing : see P. L. i, 564 ; m, 267. 
 
 * testament : " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give untc 
 you." — John, xiv, 27. 
 
130 JOHN MILTON 
 
 And now the time in special is,* by privilege to write 
 and speak what may help to the further discussing of 
 matters in agitation. The temple of Janus ^ with his two 
 controversal faces might now not unsignificantly be 
 set open. And though all the winds of doctrine were 
 let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the 
 field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting 
 to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood 
 grapple ; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in 
 a free and open encounter. Her ' confuting is the 
 best and surest suppressing. He who hears what pray- 
 ing there is for light and clearer knowledge to be sent 
 down among us, woidd think of other matters to be 
 constituted beyond the discipline of Geneva,* framed 
 and fabriced ^ already to our hands. 
 
 Yet when the new light which we beg for shines in 
 upon us, there be who envy and oppose, if it come not 
 first in at their casements. What a collusion is this, 
 whenas we are exhorted by the wise man to use dili- 
 gence, to seek for wisdom as for hidden treasures * 
 early and late, that another order shall enjoin us to 
 know nothing but by statute ? When a man hath been 
 
 ^ It is especially fitting at this time. 
 
 2 Janus, the Roman god with the two faces. His gate or 
 temple in the Forum, having two doors in opposite directions, 
 was closed in time of peace and open in time of war. See Ver- 
 gil's description of the opening of these gates, ^neid, Vli, 601- 
 628. Also P. L. XI, 129. 
 
 ^ Confutation or disproof by her; her is here the Old English 
 genitive. See P. L. vui, 480, and Macbeth, I, vii, 20. 
 
 * Other matters to be thought out beyond those which seem 
 to the Presbyterians to be final ; discipline : " the system by 
 which the practice of a church, as distinguished from its doc- 
 trine, is regulated " (N. E. D.). Cf. Milton's title The Doctrine 
 and Discipline of Divorce. 
 
 * fabriced : fabricated. 
 
 6 See Prov. vni, 11; xvi, 16; Matt, xiii, 44-46. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 131 
 
 laboring the hardest labor in the deep mines of know- 
 ledge, hath furnished out his findings in all their 
 equipage,! drawn forth his reasons as it were a bat- 
 tle 2 ranged, scattered and defeated all objections in 
 his way, calls out his adversary into the plain, offers 
 him the advantage of wind and sun,^ if he please ; only 
 that he may try the matter by dint of argument, for 
 his opponents then to sculk, to lay ambushments, to 
 keep a narrow bridge of licensing ^ where the challenger 
 should pass, though it be valor enough in soldiership, 
 is but weakness and cowardice in the wars of Truth. 
 For who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the 
 Almighty ; she needs no policies, no stratagems, nor 
 licensings to make her victorious ; those are the shifts ^ 
 and the defences that error uses against her power : 
 give her but room, and do not bind her when she 
 sleeps, for then she speaks not true, as the old Proteus ^ 
 
 ' equipage: "war ... in all her equipage." — Sonnet, 
 XVil, 9. 
 
 ^ battle: army. See the same use in P. L. vi, 216. 
 
 ' In the days of chivalry when the fighting was with lance 
 and shield it was a great disadvantage to have the sun iu the 
 face. "... and the judges placed them fairly, each in his place, 
 so that neither should have the sun in his eyes." — Southey, 
 Chronicle of the Cid i, 10. 
 
 " While to each knight their care assigned 
 Like vantage of the sun and wind.*' 
 
 Lay of the Last Minstrel^ v, 18. 
 
 * bridge of licensing: this is again a memory of the ro- 
 mances, in which one of the devices was the holding of a bridge 
 by a single knight. Hales cites F. Q. v, ii, 4, which reads: 
 
 " But in my way, a little here beyond 
 A cursed cruell Sarazin doth wonne. 
 That keepes a Bridges passage by strong bond, 
 And many errant Knights hath there foredonne ; 
 That makes all men for feare that passage for to shonne." 
 
 » shifts: see P. R. iv, 308; S. A. 1116. 
 
 ° Proteus was the sea-god who tended the flocks of Po- 
 seidon, and who had the power of assuming every possible 
 
138 JOHN MILTON 
 
 did, who spake oracles only when he was caught and 
 bound, but then rather she turns herself into all 
 shapes, except her own, and perhaps tunes her voice 
 according to the time, as Micaiah did before Ahab,* 
 until she be adjured into her own likeness. 
 
 Yet is it not impossible that she may have more 
 shapes than one. What else is aU that rank ^ of things 
 indifferent,^ wherein Truth may be on this side, or on 
 the other, without being unlike herself ? What but a 
 vain shadow else is the abolition of those ordinances,* 
 that hand-writing nailed to the cross ; what great pur- 
 chase * is this Christian liberty which Paul so often 
 boasts of ? ^ His doctrine is, that he who eats, or eats 
 not, regards a day, or regards it not, may do either to 
 the Lord.'' How many other things might be tolerated 
 in peace, and left to conscience, had we but charity, 
 and were it not the chief stronghold of our hypocrisy 
 to be ever judging one another. I fear yet this iron 
 yoke of outward conformity hath left a slavish print 
 upon our necks ; the ghost of a linen decency ^ yet 
 
 shape to avoid the necessity of prophesying, but when finally 
 caught and held by force, he wonld tell truly of the future. See 
 the description of him in Vergil's Georgics, iv, 387 ff., and also 
 Homer's Odyssey, IV, 385 ff. 
 
 1 before Ahab : see 1 Kings, xxn, 1-28. 
 
 2 rank: row, line. See N. O. 114; Ar. 99. 
 
 ' indifferent : of neutral quality, neithei- good nor bad. 
 4 See Eph. n, 15, 16; Col. n, 13, 14. 
 
 * purchase: something won. See p. 127, n. 1. 
 
 * "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of 
 righteousness." — Rom. VI, 18; also Gal. v, 1; i Pet. n, 16. 
 
 ' See Rom. xiv, 5-8. 
 
 ' " They (the prelates) hallowed it (the body), they fumed 
 up, they sprinkled it, they bedecked it, not in robes of pure in- 
 nocency, but of pure linen, with other deformed and fantastic 
 dresses, in palls and mitres, gold, and gewgaws fetched from 
 Aaron's old wardrobe, or the flamins vestry." And again: " They 
 
AREOPAGITICA 133 
 
 haunts us. We stumble and are impatient at the 
 least dividing of one visible congregation from another, 
 though it be not in fundamentals ; and through our 
 forwardness to suppress, and our backwardness to re- 
 cover, any enthralled piece of truth out of the gripe of 
 custom, 1 we care not to keep truth separated from truth, 
 which is the fiercest rent and disunion of all. We do 
 not see that while we still affect by all means a rigid 
 external formality, we may as soon fall again into a 
 gross conforming stupidity, a stark and dead congeal- 
 ment of wood, and hay, and stubble ^ forced and frozen 
 together, which is more to the sudden degenerating 
 of a church than many subdichotomies * of petty 
 schisms. 
 
 Not that I can think well of every light separation, 
 or that all in a church is to be expected gold and 
 silver and precious stones :* it is not possible for man 
 to sever the wheat from the tares,^ the good fish from 
 the other fry ; that must be the angels' ministry at the 
 
 knew not how to hide their slavish approach to God's behesta 
 . . . but by cloaking their servile crouching to all religious pre- 
 sentiments, sometimes lawful, sometimes idolatrous, under the 
 name of humility, and terming the piebald frippery and osten- 
 tation of ceremonies, decency." — P- W. II, 365, 366. 
 
 1 custom : " If it were seriously asked ... who of all teachers 
 and masters, that hath ever taught, hath drawn the most dis- 
 ciples after him, both in religion arid in manners ? it might be not 
 untruly answered, custom ... it happens for the most part that 
 custom is silently received for the best instructor." P. W. iii, 
 171. 
 
 2 " Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, 
 precious stones, wood, hay, stubble." — 1 Cor. m, 12. 
 
 ° subdichotomies: subdivisions. 
 
 ^ precious stones : see Rev. xviii, 12. 
 
 ^ "But he said. Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye 
 root up also the wheat with them." Read Matt, xiii, 24-30; and 
 for the Angels' ministry see verses 37-43. 
 
134 JOHN MILTON 
 
 end of mortal thiiigs. Yet if all cannot be of one mind, 
 — as who looks they should be ? — this doubtless is more 
 wholesome, more prudent, and more Christian, that 
 many be tolerated, rather than all compelled. I mean 
 not tolerated popery ^ and open superstition, which, as 
 it extirpates all religions and civil supremacies, so itself 
 should be extirpate ; provided first that all charitable 
 and compassionate means be used to win and regain the 
 weak and the mislead ; that also which is impious ^ or 
 evil absolutely, either against faith or manners,* no law 
 can possibly permit, that intends not to unlaw itself ; 
 but those neighboring differences, or rather indiffer- 
 ences, are what I speak of, whether in some point of 
 doctrine or of discipline, which though they may be 
 many, yet need not interrupt the unity of spirit, if 
 we could but find among us the bond of peace.* 
 
 In the meanwhile, if any one would write, and 
 bring his helpful hand to the slow-moving * reforma- 
 
 1 tolerated popery : Milton's scheme of religious toleration 
 never included Catholicism. " Let us now inquire whether pop- 
 ery be tolerable or no. Popery is a double thing to deal with, 
 and claims a twofold poiyer, ecclesiastical and political, both 
 usurped, and the one supporting the other." Then at the end of 
 his argument he concludes : " Having shown thus, that popery,' 
 as being idolatrous, is not to be tolerated either in public or in 
 private ; it must be now thought how to remove it." — P. W.ll, 
 513, 514. 
 
 ' impious : lacking veneration for God or bis authority. See 
 P. L. I, 342 ; VI, 831. 
 
 3 manners : conduct as it is moral or immoral. See Words- 
 worth's Sonnet on Milton. 
 
 * " Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
 peace." — Eph. rv, 3. 
 
 ' slow-moving : " We must not run, they say, into sudden 
 extremes. This is a fallacious rule . . . and he that, flying from 
 degenerate and traditional corruption, fears to shoot himself too 
 fai- into the meeting embraces of a divinely warranted reforma- 
 
AREOPAGITICA 135 
 
 tion which we labor under, if truth have spoken to 
 him before others, or but seemed at least to speak, 
 who hath so bejesuited ^ us that we should trouble 
 that man with asking license to do so worthy a deed ? 
 And not consider this, that if it come to prohibiting, 
 there is not aught more likely to be prohibited than 
 truth itself ; whose first appearance to our eyes bleared 
 and dimmed with prejudice and custom, is more un- 
 sightly and unplausible than many errors, even as the 
 person is ^ of many a great man slight and contempt- 
 ible to see to.3 And what do they tell us vainly of 
 new opinions, when this very opinion of theirs, that 
 none must be heard but whom they like, is the worst 
 and newest opinion of aU others ; and is the chief 
 cause why sects and schisms do so much abound, and 
 true knowledge is kept at distance from us; besides 
 yet a greater danger which is in it. For when God shakes 
 a kingdom * with strong and healthful commotions to a 
 general reforming, 't is not untrue that many sectaries 
 
 tion, had better not have run at all . . . certainly we onght to 
 hie us from evil like a torrent, and rid ourselves of corrupt dis- 
 cipline, as we would shake fire out of our bosoms." " But let us 
 not for fear of » scarecrow, or else through hatred to be re- 
 formed, stand hankering and politizing, when God with spread 
 hands testifies to us, and points us out the way to our peace." 
 — P. W. u, 410 and 415. 
 
 1 bejesuited : for the nse of this prefix, see the N. E.' D. 
 under Be, 7. See Milton's use in the poetry : " bedrop," P. L. x, 
 527; "bested," Ji P. 3 ; " bestick," P. L. xu, 536. 
 
 ^ the person of ; Paul says of himself " his bodily presence 
 is weak, and his speech contemptible " (2 Cor. x, 10). See Ba- 
 con's essay On Deformity in which he cites Socrates as of this 
 class. 
 
 8 to see to ; to look on. See Ccrnius, 620. 
 
 ' shakes a kingdom : " And I will shake all nations, and 
 the desire of all nations shall come : and I will fill this house with 
 glory, saith the Lord of hosts." — Haggai, H, 7. 
 
136 JOHN MILTON 
 
 and false teachers are then busiest in seducing ; but 
 yet more true it is, that God then raises to his own 
 work men of rare abilities, and more than common 
 industry, not only to look back, and revise what hath 
 been taught heretofore, but to gain further, and go on 
 some new enlightened ^ steps in the discovery of truth. 
 
 For such is the order of God's enlightening his 
 church, to dispense and deal out by degrees his beam,^ 
 so as our earthly eyes may best sustain it. Neither is 
 God appointed and confined, where and out of what 
 place these his chosen shall be first heard to speak ; 
 for he sees not as man sees, chooses not as man 
 chooses, lest we should devote ourselves again to set 
 places,' and assemblies, and outward callings of men ; * 
 planting our faith one while in the old Convocation 
 house,^ and another while in the Chapel * at West- 
 minster ; when all the faith and religion that shall be 
 there canonized," is not sufficient without plain con- 
 
 ' enlightened : see P. L. xi, 115. 
 
 ^ beam: 
 
 '* Hail, holy Light, offapring of Heaven first-bom ! 
 Or of the Eternal coeterual beam," 
 
 P. L. ra, 1, 2. 
 " first-created beam, and thou great Word." 
 
 5. A. 83. 
 
 ' set places : " To teach thee that God attributes to place 
 no sanctity." — P. L. XI, 836-37. 
 
 * callings of men : " They [the priests] have been iu Eng- 
 land to our souls a sad and doleful succession of illiterate and 
 blind guides." — P. PT. n, 411. 
 
 ' The Convocation, the assembly of the clergy of the Church 
 of England, met in the Chapter House of Westminster Cathe- 
 dral. In June, 1643, the Parliament transferred to the Assembly 
 of Divines of the Presbyterian Church, the powers formerly held 
 by the Convocation, and assigned to it Henry VII's Chapel as a 
 meeting place. 
 
 " canonized : admitted to the canon or body of ecclesiastical 
 laws. " The work expected by the Parliament from the Assembly 
 consisted of : (1) the compilation of a Confession of Faith, or Artv- 
 
AKEOPAGITICA 137 
 
 vincement and the charity of patient instruction, to 
 supple the least bruise of conscience, to edify the 
 meanest Christian who desires to walk in the Spirit,^ 
 and not in the letter of human trust, for all the num- 
 ber of voices that can be there made ; no, though 
 Plarry VII himself there, with all his liege tombs ^ 
 about him, should lend them Yoices from the dead, to 
 swell their number. 
 
 And if the men be erroneous who appear to be the 
 leading schismatics, what withholds us but our sloth, 
 our self-will, and distrust in the right cause, that' we 
 do not give them gentle meetings and gentle dismissions, 
 that we debate not and examine the matter thoroughly 
 with liberal and frequent audience ; if not for their 
 sakes, yet for our own? Seeing no man who hath 
 tasted * learning, but will confess the many ways of 
 profiting by those who, not contented with stale receipts, 
 are able to manage, and set forth new positions to the 
 
 cles of Religion . . . ; (2) the composition of a Catechism . . . ; (3) 
 the devising of a Frame of Discipline or Church-government . . . ; 
 and (4) the preparation of a Directory of Worship." — Masson, 
 lU, 171-172. 
 
 1 walk in the Spirit : see 2 Cor. m, 6 ; Kom. n, 29. 
 
 ^ bis liege tombs : The first grave in the new chapel was 
 that of his wife, Elizabeth of York. Six years after this Henry 
 VII was buried in this wonderful mausoleum he had reared for 
 himself. There were later about him the tombs of his mother, 
 Margaret Beaufort, of Queen Mary, of Queen Elizabeth, of 
 Mary Queen of Scots whose body was brought here in 1612, of 
 Prince Henry, of Anne of Denmark, and of King James I. See 
 Stanley, Memorials of Westminster, 138-58. 
 
 ' that: L. quin. 
 
 * tasted: a common figure in Elizabethan literature. See 
 Shakespeare's use, " And of this book this learning mayst thou 
 taste," Sonnet, LXXVil, 4; "Never to taste the pleasures of the 
 world," King John, IV, iii, 68. Milton uses it, P. R. u, 131; S. A. 
 1091. 
 
138 JOHN MILTON 
 
 world. And were they but as the dust and cinders of 
 our feet, so long as in that notion ^ they may serve to 
 polish and brighten the armory of Truth, even for 
 that respect they were not utterly to be cast away. 
 But if they be of those whom God hath fitted for the 
 special use of these times with eminent and ample 
 gifts, and those perhaps neither among the priests, 
 nor among the pharisees,^ and we in the haste of a pre- 
 cipitant zeal shall make no distinction, but resolve 
 to stop their mouths, because we fear they come with 
 new and dangerous opinions, as we commonly fore- 
 judge them ere we understand them, no less than woe 
 to us,' while thinking thus to defend the Gospel, we 
 are found the persecutors. 
 
 There have been not a few since the beginning of 
 this Parliament, both of the Presbytery and others, 
 who by their unlicensed books, to the contempt of an 
 Imprimatur, first broke that triple ice ^ clung ^ about 
 our hearts, and taught the people to see day ; I hope 
 that none of those were the persuaders to renew upon 
 us this bondage which they themselves have wrought 
 so much good by contemning. But if neither the check 
 that Moses gave to young Joshua,^ nor the counter- 
 mand which our Saviour gave to young John,^ who was 
 
 1 notion: character, function, rSle. 
 
 ^ the priests . . . pharisees: that is, neither amon^ the 
 prelates who administered the rights of the church nor among 
 those skilled in the interpretation of the laws; both were learned 
 but both were open to criticism, because of partizauship either 
 for or against the existing customs. 
 
 ' What is the grammatical construction of this phrase ? 
 
 * triple ice: " Heart of oak and triple brass lay around the 
 breast of him who first to the savage sea entrusted his frail 
 bark." — Horace, Odes, I, 3. 
 
 ' clung: probably a past participle. See P. L. x, 512. 
 
 • See p. 123, n. 1. ' See Luke, ix, 49, 50. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 139 
 
 so ready to prohibit those whom he thought unlicensed, 
 be not enough to admonish our elders i how unaccept- 
 able to God their testy mood of prohibiting is; if 
 neither their own remembrance what evil hath abounded 
 in the church by this let ^ of licensing, and what good 
 they themselves have begun by transgressing it, be 
 not enough, but that they will persuade, and execute the 
 most Domician part of the Inquisition ^ over us, and 
 are already with one foot in the stirrup so active at 
 suppressing, it would be no unequal distribution, in 
 the first place, to suppress the suppressors themselves ; 
 whom the change of their condition hath puffed up, 
 more than their late experience of harder times hath 
 made wise. 
 
 And as for regulating the press, let no man think 
 to have the honor of advising ye better than yourselves 
 have done in that order published next before this,* 
 "that no book be printed, unless the printer's and 
 the author's name, or at least the printer's be regis- 
 tered." Those which otherwise come forth, if they be, 
 found mischievous and libellous, the fire and the exe- 
 cutioner 5 will be the timeliest and the most effectual 
 
 ^ elders: what is the derivation of the word Presbyterian? 
 
 ^ let: from the old English verb lettan, to hinder. " I '11 make 
 a ghost of him that lets me ! " Hamlet i, iv, 85; " what lets it but 
 he would be here ? " Comedy of Errors ll, i, 105. See also Kom. 
 I, 13; 2 Thess. 2, 7. 
 
 ' Inquisition: see p. 43, n. 3. 
 
 * that order published ne3:t before this : there was an 
 order of the Commons Jan. 29, 1642, another March 9, 1643, and a 
 third, the famous order, June 14, 1643. Milton seems to regard 
 the second and third as one and the same, and'in fact the third 
 was merely a fuller statement of the second. The one from which 
 he quotes was that of Jan. 29, 1642. 
 
 * This was the common course of procedure. The executioner 
 was the hangman who executed the order of the Commous, whether 
 
140 JOHN MILTON 
 
 remedy that man's prevention can use. For this authen- 
 tic 1 Spanish policy of licensing books, if I have said 
 aught, will prove the most unlicensed book itself within 
 a short while ; and was the immediate image of a Star 
 Chamber 2 decree to that purpose made in those very 
 times when that Court did the rest of those her pious 
 works, for which she is now fallen from the stars with 
 Lucifer.' Whereby ye may guess what kind of state 
 prudence, what love of the people, what care of religion 
 or good manners there was at the contriving, although 
 with singular hypocrisy it pretended to bind books to 
 their good behavior. And how it got the upper hand 
 of your precedent order so well constituted before, if 
 we may believe those men whose profession gives them 
 cause to inquire most, it may be doubted there was in 
 it the fraud of some old patentees and monopolisers 
 in the trade of bookselling ; who under pretence of the 
 poor in their Company not to be defrauded, and the 
 just retaining of each man his several copy, which God 
 
 that order was the beheading of a person, or the clipping of ears, 
 or the burning of books. Two of Milton's own books later suffered 
 a like fate. See Introduction, p. xviii. 
 
 1 authentic: genuine. Cf. P. L. ni, 656; rv, 719. 
 
 2 Star Chamber : this Court was established by Henry VII 
 in 1487. In the reign of Charles I " Every member of the Court, 
 with the exception of the two Chief Justices, was also a Privy 
 Councillor. The persons who were cited as defendants had in- 
 variably given offence to the Privy Council, and the great major- 
 ity of the members of the Court were therefore in reality parties 
 to the dispute which they were called upon to decide " (Gardi- 
 ner, History of England, vil, 85). " Indeed, the world is now 
 much terrified with the Star Chamber, there being not so little 
 an offence againsfany proclamation but is liable and subject to 
 the censure of that Court." — Quoted by Gardiner, vi, 1. This 
 court was abolished July, 1641. 
 
 ' Lucifer : " How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, 
 Bon of the morning ! " — Isa. xiv, 12. 
 
AREOPAGITICA 141 
 
 forbid should be gainsaid, brought divers glosing^ 
 colors to the House, which were indeed but colors, and 
 serving to no end except it be to exercise a superiority 
 over their neighbors ; men who do not, therefore, labor 
 in an honest profession to which learning is indebted, 
 that they should be made other men's vassals. Another 
 end is thought was aimed at by some of them in pro- 
 curing by petition this Order, that having power in 
 their hands, malignant ^ books might the easier scape 
 abroad, as the event shows. 
 
 But of these sophisms and elenchs ^ of merchandise 
 I skill not. This I know, that errors in a good govern- 
 ment and in a bad <> are equally almost incident; for 
 what magistrate may not be misinformed, and much 
 the sooner, if liberty of printing be reduced into the 
 power of a few ; but to redress willingly and speedily 
 what hath been erred,^ and in highest authority to 
 esteem a plain advertisement ^ "more than others have 
 done a sumptuous bribe, is a virtue, honored Lords 
 and Commons, answerable to your highest actions, and 
 whereof none can participate but greatest and wisest 
 men. 
 
 1 glosing: of. S. A. 948. 
 
 * malignant : this word was " applied between 1641 and 166C 
 1by the supporters of the Parliament and the Commonwealth t( 
 their adversaries." — N. E. D. 
 
 ' elenchs : sophistical arguments. 
 
 * erred : see the construction in P. L. VI, 335. 
 ■■ advertisement : notification, notice. 
 
THE EEADY AND EASY WAY TO ESTAB- 
 LISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH,! 
 
 And the Excellence thereof, compared with 
 THE Inconveniences and Dangers of read- 
 mitting Kingship m this Nation. 
 
 Et DOS 
 
 Consilium dedimus Syllse, demus popula nunc* 
 
 Although, since the writing of this treatise,' the 
 face of things hath had some change, writs for new 
 elections have been recalled, and the members^ at 
 first chosen readmitted from exclusion ; yet not a 
 little rejoicing to hear declared the resolution of those 
 who are in power, tending to the establishment of a 
 free commonwealth,^ and to remove, if it be possi- 
 
 * For date of publication, see Introduction, p. xx. 
 
 ^ This does not appear in the first edition of the pamphlet. 
 By Consilium dedimus Syllce Milton doubtless refers to Monk, and 
 the letter he had sent to him. See p. 202. 
 
 ' Milton "had written the pamphlet while the late Bump 
 was still sitting, while the conjunction between them and Monk 
 was unbroken, and when the last news was that they had issued, 
 or were about to issue, writs for the recruiting of their body by 
 a large number of like-minded additional members " (Masson, 
 V, 645, 646). These writs had been recalled, when this body was 
 dissolved. 
 
 * The members that had been excluded from the Long Parlia- 
 ment on Deo. 6, 1648. 
 
 ^ Monk, famous fur his taciturnity, had spoken no word indi- 
 cating that he favored the recall of the Stuarts. " In the morn- 
 ing (of the 21st of Feb., 1660) I saw many soldiers going towards 
 Westminster Hall, to admit the secluded members again. So I 
 to Westminster Hall, and in Chancery I saw about twenty of 
 them who had been at White Hall with General Monk, who came 
 thither this morning, and made a speech to them, and recom- 
 mended to theui a Commonwealth, and against Charles Stuart." 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 143 
 
 ble, this noxious humor of returning to bondage, in- 
 stilled of late by some deceivers, and nourished from 
 bad principles and false apprehensions among too 
 many of the people,^ I thought best not to suppress 
 what I had written, hoping that it may now be of 
 much more use and concernment to be freely pub- 
 lished, in the midst of our elections to a free Parli- 
 ament, or their sitting to consider freely of the 
 government, whom it behooves to have all things re- 
 presented to them that may direct their judgment 
 therein ; and I never read of any state, scarce of any 
 tyrant, grown so incurable as to refuse counsel from 
 any in a time of public deliberation, much less to be 
 offended. If their absolute determination be to en- 
 thrall us, before so long a Lent of servitude, they may 
 permit us a little shroving-time first, wherein to speak 
 freely and take our leaves of liberty. And because in 
 the former edition, ^ through haste, many faults es- 
 caped and many books were suddenly dispersed, ere 
 the note to mend them could be sent, I took the op- 
 portunity from this occasion to revise and somewhat 
 to enlarge the whole discourse, especially that part 
 which argues for a perpetual senate. The treatise, thus 
 revised and enlarged, is as follows : — 
 
 The Parliament of England, assisted by a great 
 
 1 The desire to return to the old government by a king, as 
 the only escape from the tyranny of the array, had been rapidly 
 growing among the people of England. Many were certain that 
 Monk's intention had all along been to aid Charles in his re- 
 turn. In December Whitelocke had gone to Fleetwood with the 
 proposition that the army should forestall Monk, and invite the 
 king to come back. There were, indeed, plenty of deceivers 
 who were saying that England should return to bondage. 
 
 ^ The sheets had been sent from the press, we infer from 
 these words, without Milton's approval and without corrections 
 which he wished to make. 
 
144 JOHN MILTON 
 
 number i of the people who appeared and stuck to 
 them faithfullest in defence of religion and their civil 
 liberties, judging kingship by long experience a gov- 
 ernment unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous, 
 justly and magnanimously abolished it,^ turning regal 
 bondage into a free commonwealth, to the admiration 
 and terror of our emulous neighbors.^ They took 
 themselves not bound by the light of nature or relig- 
 ion to any former covenant,^ from which the King 
 
 1 History has shown that it was a minority of the people of 
 England who supported the High Court of Justice, appointed 
 by the Parliament, in the trial and condemnation of Charles I. 
 There were never more than sixty-eight of the one hundred and 
 thirty-five judges present at the trial, and it was with the great- 
 est difiSculty that enough signatures could be obtained for the 
 death warrant. The King had to be brought secretly to the 
 court in order to prevent a public demonstration ; the people 
 admitted to the back of the court room cried out, "God save 
 the King." The Presbyterian clergy openly preached in his 
 favor, and the Parliament of Scotland protested against the il- 
 legality of the Court. Milton wrote his Tenure of Kings and 
 Magistrates, proving the Tightness of bringing a tyrannical king 
 to justice, in order to strengthen those who were weakening in 
 purpose. But it was only the iron will of Cromwell that held 
 the Court to its task. See Gardiner, History of the Great Civil 
 War, IV, 290-313. 
 
 2 The king was beheaded on Jan. 30, 1649. On Feb. 7, the 
 House passed the resolution that the office of king is " unneces- 
 sary, burdensome, and dangerous to the liberty, safety, and 
 public interest of the People of this nation, and therefore ought 
 to be abolished." — Masson, rv, 5. 
 
 ^ Thei-e appears now to be little evidence that there was 
 either admiration or terror. " Among foreign powers and po- 
 tentates a mere curious amazement, a feeling that the strange 
 Islanders had gone mad, too mad to be meddled with " (Masson, 
 m, 715). The attitude in Europe was, in general, indifference to 
 the death of the king, but hostility toward the new Republic. 
 
 ^ " They tell us, that the law of nature justifies any man to de- 
 fend himself, even against the king in person : let them show us 
 then, why the same law may not justify much more a state or 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 145 
 
 himself, by many forfeitures of a latter date or dis- 
 covery and our own longer consideration thereon, had 
 more and more unbound us, both to himself and his 
 posterity, as hath been ever the justice and the pru- 
 dence of all wise nations that have ejected tyranny. 
 They covenanted " to preserve the King's person and 
 authority in the preservation of the true religion and 
 our liberties," '^ not in his endeavoring to bring in up- 
 on our consciences a popish religion ; ^ upon our liber- 
 ties, thraldom ; ' upon our lives, destruction : by his 
 occasioning, if not complotting, as was after discov- 
 ered, the Irish massacre, his fomenting and arming 
 the rebellion, his covert leaguing with the rebels 
 against us,* his refusing, more than seven times, pro- 
 whole people, to do juatiee upon him . . . justice done upon a 
 tyrant is no more but the necessary self-defence of a whole com- 
 monwealth " (P. W. II, 44). " If I covenant, not to hurt an 
 enemy . . . and he, after that, shall do me tenfold injury and 
 mischief to what he had done when I so covenanted, and still 
 be plotting what may tend to my destruction, I question not 
 but that his after-actions release me; nor know I covenant so 
 sacred, that withholds me from demanding justice on him." 
 ^Ibid. II, 30. See also P. L. vi, 177-79. 
 
 1 This is almost the exact wording of one phrase in the second 
 clause of the Solemn League and Covenant (see p. 103, n. 1). The 
 second clause begins " That we shall in like manner, without re- 
 spect of persons, endeavour the extirpation of Popery, etc." 
 
 ^ Henrietta Maria, the Queen, was a Catholic and maintained 
 her private chapel and confessors, and had about her always 
 Catholic courtiers. After his marriage, the King could with the 
 greatest difficulty be brought to take any stern measures against 
 the Catholics; moreover, after 1628, Laud was his chief advisor, 
 and Laud was openly accused of seeking to bring in popery. 
 But so direct a charge as Milton here makes cannot be proved. 
 See Masson, I, 248. 
 
 ' Charles had many times sought to enthrall his people by 
 levying illegal taxes, and by imprisoning men without trial. 
 
 * This was the terrible massacre by the Catholics, beginning 
 Oct. 23, 1641, of many thousands of the Protestants in Ireland.^ 
 
146 JOHN MILTON 
 
 positions most just and necessary to the true religion 
 and our liberties, tendered him by the Parliament 
 both of England and Scotland.^ They made not their 
 covenant concerning him with no difference between 
 a king and a God, or promised him, as Job did to the 
 Almighty, " to trust in him though he slay us " ; they 
 understood that the solemn engagement, wherein we 
 all forswore kingship, was no more a breach of the 
 covenant than the covenant was of the protestation ^ 
 before, but a faithful and prudent going on both in 
 words well weighed, and in the true sense of the cov- 
 enant " without respect of persons," ^ when we could 
 not serve two- contrary masters, God and the king, or 
 the king and that more supreme law, sworn in the 
 fii'st place to maintain our safety and our liberty. 
 
 Some of the leaders claimed to be acting under commission 
 from Charles, and this claim was believed by many in Loudon 
 (Massou, II, 311). As early as 1642, the Queen had advised 
 Charles to grant to the L'ish freedom of religion, that he might 
 depend ou an Irish army against the Parliament; from 1643 
 to 1645 the King was constantly planning and intriguing to 
 bring about a peace with the Irish rebels, in order that he 
 might have the services of the army that the Irish had gathered 
 together to defend themselves after the massacre (Gardiner, I, 
 72, 125, 249, 346; n, 156-76). Milton may include the Scots al- 
 so as rebels ; on Dec. 26, 1647, Charles entered into a secret 
 engagement with them to concede certain things, if they would 
 enter England with an army in order to restore him to his 
 throne. 
 
 1 There were so many negotiations with Charles that it is 
 difBcult to know just what Milton may have included in his 
 seven. The principal attempts to agree upon terms were the 
 following: the various negotiations during Nov. 1642; the 
 Treaty of Oxford, Feb. 1643 ; the Trealy of Uxbridge, Jan. and 
 Feb. 1646; the Proposals of the Scots, Feb. and March, 1646; 
 the Nineteen Proposals, July, 1646; the Propositions of April 
 21, 1647; the Treaty of Newport, Sept. and Oct. 1648. 
 
 2 See p. 145, u. 1. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 147 
 
 They knew the people of England to be a free 
 people, themselves the representers of that freedom ; 
 and, although many were excluded,^ and as many fled 
 (so they pretended) from tumults to Oxford, ^ yet 
 they were left a sufficient number to act in Parlia^ 
 ment,2 therefore not bound by any statute of preced- 
 ing parliaments,* but by the law of nature * only, 
 which is the only law of laws truly and properly to all 
 mankind fundamental ; the beginning and the end of 
 all government ; to which no parliament or people 
 that will thoroughly reform but may and must have 
 recourse, as they had, and must yet have, in church 
 reformation ^ (if they thoroughly intend it) to evan- 
 
 ^ There were ninety-six members excluded by Colonel Pride, 
 Dee. 6 and 7, 1648, because they had taken the side of the King 
 in a vote for reconciliation. 
 
 ^ The King established his headquarters at Oxford on Nov. 
 29, 1642. 
 
 ' The full House consisted of about five hundred members. 
 Two thirds of the members had deserted at the opening of the 
 war, and for three years there was a working force of only one 
 hundred. In 1645 and 46 writs had been issued, and two hun- 
 dred and thirty-five new members elected, but the number had, 
 by exclusion and voluntary absence, dwindled to fifty or sixty, 
 and this was the sufficient number which voted to try the 
 King. — Masson, lu, 698, 706. 
 
 * The passing of sentence without the sanction of law, which 
 Milton here commends, was the ^eak point in the prosecution 
 of the King ; the Parliament was but a remnant, and even that 
 not representative of the England of 1660; and, moreover, there 
 was neither statute nor precedent to warrant the trial of a king 
 by a parliament. On this ground Charles took his stand, and 
 the Court had nothing to answer except that they were acting 
 by the authority of the people. The leaders recognized the 
 weakness of their position, but very few admitted openly that 
 the strength of the House lay solely .in the army. 
 
 6 See p. 148, n. 3. 
 
 " The reorganization of the Church of England was perhaps 
 the reform Milton most desired (see his pamphlet OfReforma- 
 
148 JOHN MILTON 
 
 gelic 1 rules; .not to ecclesiastical canons,* though 
 nerer so ancient, so ratified and established in the land 
 by statutes which for the most part are mere positive 
 laws, neither natural nor moral : ^ and so by any par- 
 liament, for just and serious considerations, without 
 scruple to be at any time repealed.* 
 
 If others of their number in these things were under 
 force, they were not, but under free conscience; if 
 others were excluded by a power which they could not 
 
 tion in England). He wanted absolute separation between church 
 and state ; the Bible as the sole guide of conduct ; simplicity 
 and freedom in the form of worship; the suppression of a paid 
 ministry; and the abolition of all tithes for the support of the 
 church. The last point is argued in his The Likeliest Means of 
 Removing Hirelings out of the Church. 
 
 1 evangelic : of the Gospel. See p. 18, n. 6. 
 
 ^ Milton had small respect for ecclesiastical canons, as may 
 be seen by reading any one of his pamphlets dealing with ques- 
 tions of the church. " With good cause, therefore, it is the 
 general consent of all sound protestant writers, that neither 
 traditions, councils, nor canons of any visible church . . . but 
 the scripture only, can be the final judge or rule in matters of 
 religion, and that only in the conscience of every Christian to 
 himself " (P. W. u, 524). Read the outline of law in the church, 
 P. W. rv, 468-575. 
 
 ' This contrast between the laws made iy man and the law 
 implanted in man occurs many times in the Prose Works. The 
 clearest statement is, " The Law of God is either written or un- 
 written. The unwritten law is no other than that law of nature 
 given originally to Adam, and of which a certain remnant, or 
 imperfect illumination, still dwells in the hearts of all man- 
 kind." —P. W. IV, 378. See also P. W. in, 182, and the same 
 idea stated astrologically in P. W. in, 403. 
 
 ^ Charles pleaded, "It is not my case alone; it is the free- 
 dom and liberty of the people of Enlgand; and do you pretend 
 what you will, I stand more for their liberties ; for, if power 
 without law may make laws, may alter the fundamental laws of 
 the kingdom, I do not know what subject he is in England that 
 can be sure of his life, or anything that lie calls his own." — 
 Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War, iv, 301. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 149 
 
 resist, 1 they were not therefore to leave the helm of 
 government in no hands, to discontinue their care of 
 the public peace and safety, to desert the people in an- 
 archy and confusion ; no more than when so many of 
 their members left them as made up in outward for- 
 mality a more legal Parliament of three estates against 
 them.2 The best affected also and best principled of 
 the people stood not numbering or computing on which 
 side were most voices in Parliament, but on which side 
 appeared to them most reason, most safety, when the 
 House divided upon main matters. What was well mo- 
 tioned and advised, they examined not whether fear 
 or persuasion carried it in the vote,^ neither did they 
 measure votes and counsels by the intentions of them 
 that voted, knowing that intentions either are but 
 guessed at or not soon enough known, and, although 
 good, can neither make the deed such nor prevent the. 
 consequence from being bad. Suppose bad intentions 
 in things otherwise well done: what was well done 
 was by them who so thought, not the less obeyed or 
 followed in the state, since in the church who had not 
 rather follow Iscariot or Simon, the magician, though 
 
 1 See p. 147, n. 1. = See p. 147, n. 3. 
 
 ' Milton is doubtless here portraying the state of affairs dur- 
 ing the months of Nov. and Deo. 1648, when the majority in 
 Parliament, chiefly Presbyterians, was wealily and hesitatingly 
 trying to come to terms with Charles, but was constantly in fear 
 of the threatening attitude of the army, which demanded justice 
 on the King. There must have been many who acted through 
 fear and persuasion. The House voted, 136 to 102, disapproval 
 of the action of the army in removing the King, and, 129 to 83, 
 approval of the terms of the King. This majority, forcibly reduced 
 by the army, left the minority which Milton so lauds. He sanc- 
 tions the deeds of the army, but not the ends by which some per- 
 sons were actuated. See the interesting account of these mouths 
 in Massou, ui, 610-620, 692-699. 
 
150 JOHN MILTON 
 
 to covetous ends, preaching, than Saul, though in th» 
 uprightness of his heart persecuting the gospel ? ^ 
 
 Safer they, therefore, judged what they thought the 
 better counsels, though carried on by some perhaps to 
 bad ends, than the worse by others, though endeav- 
 ored with best intentions. And yet they were not to 
 learn that a greater number might be corrupt within 
 the walls of a parliament as well as of a city ; whereof 
 in matters of nearest concernment all men will be 
 judges, 2 nor easily permit that the odds of voices in 
 their greatest council shall more endanger them by 
 corrupt or credulous votes than the odds of enemies by 
 open assaults, judging that most voices ought not al- 
 ways to prevail where main matters are in question. 
 If others, hence, will pretend to disturb all counsels, 
 what is that to them who pretend not, but are in real 
 danger, not they only so judging, but a great, though 
 not the greatest, number of their chosen patriots, who 
 might be more in weight than the ■ others in number, 
 there being in number little virtue, but by weight and 
 measure wisdom working all things, ^ and the dangers 
 on either side they seriously thus weighed. 
 
 ^ Iscariot : Judas Iscariot. Simon : see Acts vm, 9. Saul ; 
 see Phil, m, 6. 
 
 ' The meauing of these clauses seems to be : besides they were 
 not to learn, because they already kuew it, that the greater 
 number iu Parliament as well as in the city might be so corrupt 
 as to desire the return of the king ; of which state of corruption 
 in matters that relate most intimately to personal safety and 
 welfare, all men will be judges, and will act according to their 
 judgment regardless of this corrupt majority. 
 
 ° This is Milton's corner-stone of government, that laws should 
 be made by the wise, and good, and not by the voice of the ma- 
 jority (see also pp. 164, 192). The thought of the passage seems 
 to be : if some people refuse to accept the acts of Parliament 
 because passed by a minority, why should the law-makers care? 
 In saving the country they placed themselves in real danger, 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 151 
 
 From the treaty,^ short fruits of long lahors and 
 seven years' war ; security for twenty years^ if we can 
 hold it ; reformation in the church for three years ; 
 then put to shift again with our vanquished masteiu 
 His justice, his honor, his conscience, declared quite 
 contrary to ours, which would have furnished him with 
 many such evasions, as in a hook entitled " An In- 
 quisition for Blood," 2 soon after were not concealed ; 
 
 and although they had the support of only a small number of 
 the people, yet this number embraced the most loyal. 
 
 ^ This paragraph refers to the last effort, called the Treaty 
 of Newport, to come to an agreement with the King. Parliament 
 demanded the control of the militia for twenty years; Charles 
 conceded it for ten years. It asked the entire abolition of Epis- 
 copacy, and the establishment of the Presbyterian system ; 
 Charles granted Presbyterianism for three years, with toleration 
 for those of other religions. It wanted the confiscation of all 
 lands belonging to bishops ; Charles would not allow the aliena- 
 tion of this land from the church, but he did give way so far as 
 to permit the leasing of it on a ninety-nine years' lease. Charles, 
 further pressed on the church question, finally conceded, that at 
 the end of the three years' Presbyterianism, there should be 
 ordained bishops, yet that this ordination should be with the 
 counsel and assistance of the presbyters, and that the control of 
 episcopal jurisdiction should be in the hands of the Parliament. 
 He asked for an act of oblivion to apply to both parties, and 
 the Lords voted that no more than seven persons should be ex- 
 cepted from pardon. Those who had assisted the King, either 
 directly or indirectly, were called delinquents, and by a vote of 
 March 27, 1643, their property was to be sequestered (Gardiner: 
 History of the Great Civil War, in, 197; iv, 217-18, 222). 
 What the Parliament really desired was that the King should 
 receive and not give laws ; he yielded on every point, and the 
 Lords were willing to accept his concessions, but the Commons 
 had so little faith in his justice, honor, and conscience that it re- 
 jected the whole of his proposal. 
 
 2 The book which called forth, in 1654, Milton's Second De- 
 fence of the People of England, the Latin title of which is : 
 pro Populo Anglicano 
 Defensio Secunda : Contra 
 
152 JOHN MILTON 
 
 bishops not totally removed, but left, as it were, in am- 
 bush, a reserve, with ordination in their sole power ; 
 their lands already sold not to be alienated, but rented, 
 and the sale of them called " sacrilege " ; delinquents, 
 few of many brought to condign punishment ; acces- 
 sories punished, the chief author above pardon, though, 
 after utmost resistance, vanquished ; not to give, but 
 to receive laws ; yet besought, treated with, and to be 
 thanked for his gracious concessions, to be honored, 
 worshipped, glorified. 
 
 If this we swore to do, with what righteousness in 
 the sight of God, with what assurance that we bring 
 not by such an oath the whole sea of blood-guiltiness 
 upon our own heads ? If, on the other side, we prefer a 
 free government, though for the present not obtained, 
 yet aU those suggested fears and difficulties,^ as the 
 event will prove, easily overcome, we remain finally 
 secure from the exasperated regal power and out of 
 snares ; ^ shall retain the best part of our liberty, which 
 is our religion,' and the civil part will be from these 
 
 Jnfamem Lihellum 
 Anonymum cui titulus 
 Regii Sanguinis Clamor 
 ad Cesium adversus 
 Parricidas Anglicanos. 
 ^ The chief fears and difBculties were the control of the 
 House by the Array and the election of a Parliament that 
 should be upon such a basis as to insure representation of the 
 whole country ; that should be able and willing to undertake 
 the government; and especially that would not at once vote to 
 reinstate kingship. Had the years of experiment given Milton 
 any ground for assuming that these difficulties might be easily 
 overcome ? 
 
 ^ Secure from a king desiring vengeance on those who had op- 
 posed him, and free from the underhand plotting of the Stuarts. 
 ' There was more toleration in religion than before the Civil 
 War, but Milton's ideal of absolute religious freedom was never 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 153 
 
 who defer ^ us mucli more easily recovered, being 
 neither so subtle nor so awful as a king reenthroned. 
 Nor were their actions less both at home and abroad 
 than might become the hopes of a glorious rising com- 
 monwealth ; nor were the expressions both of army and 
 people, whether in their public declarations or several 
 writings, other than such as testified a spirit in this 
 nation no less noble and well fitted to the liberty of a 
 commonwealth than in the ancient Greeks or Romans.* 
 Nor was the heroic cause ' unsuccessfully defended to all 
 Christendom against the tongue of a famous and 
 thought-invincible adversary ; nor the constancy and 
 fortitude, that so nobly vindicated our liberty, our 
 victory at once against two the most prevailing usurp- 
 ers over mankind, supersition and tyranny, unpraised 
 or uncelebrated in a written monument,* likely to 
 outlive detraction, as it hath hitherto convinced or 
 silenced not a few of our detractors, especially in parts 
 abroad. 
 
 attained. After the abolition of Episoopaey there were many 
 attempts to found a national church. See Firth, The Last Years 
 of the Protectorate, I, 145-47. 
 
 1 defer: delay, retard. Possibly he means the whole of the 
 protectorate government of Cromwell, as a backward step from 
 the pure republic which he wished to see established. See Masson, 
 V, 600-01. 
 
 2 For his confidence in Parliament see p. 34. 
 
 ° " The good old Cause " was the watchword of those who 
 had stood by the Commonwealth, and who desired to return to 
 that form of government. See p. 201. 
 
 * His own Defence of the People of England. Claudius Sal- 
 masius (1588-1663), a professor at Leyden University, was con- 
 sidered the most learned scholar of his day and virtually the 
 literary dictator of western Europe. He wrote in 1640 his De- 
 fensio Regia pro Carolo I, against which, in 1651, Milton wrote 
 iiis famous pamphlet entitled pro Populo Anglicano Defensio cart- 
 tra Claudii Anonymi, alias Salmasius, Defensionem Regiam. 
 
154 JOHN MILTON 
 
 1 After our liberty and religion thus prosperously 
 fought for, gained, and many years possessed, except 
 in those unhappy interruptions which God hath re- 
 moved ; now that nothing remains but in all reason 
 the certain hopes of a speedy and immediate settlement 
 forever in a firm and free ^ Commonwealth, for this ex- 
 tolled and magnified nation, regardless both of honor 
 won or deliverances vouchsafed from Heaven, to fall 
 back, or rather to creep back so poorly,^ as it seems the 
 multitude would, to their once abjured and detested 
 thraldom of kingship, to be ourselves the slanderers of 
 our own just and religious deeds, though done by some 
 to covetous and ambitious ends, yet not, therefore, to be 
 
 ^ In tbe preceding paragraphs Milton has : (1) stated his 
 reasons for reissuing his pamphlet; (2) outlined the work the 
 House had accomplished; (3) reaffirmed his confidence in the 
 Parliament and the nation. He now begins to set forth the dis- 
 advantages of a return to kingship. 
 
 ' Nothing shows Milton tube the theorist, the man out of touch 
 with public sentiment, more than these opening clauses. The 
 Commonwealth had never been either firm or free, and the cer- 
 tain hopes of such a goverumeut were far less now than they 
 had been at any time before. 
 
 ' By invitations and concessions to Charles II. When the vote 
 to reestablish kingship was finally passed, the Parliament was in 
 such a hurry and confusion that it made no stipulations on the all 
 important question of religion. When the King landed at Dover, 
 and all the way of the progress to London, there was much 
 prostrating of men and women before him, much kissing of tbe 
 hem of his garment, and much vowing of submission. " All de- 
 grees and ages and sexes — rich and poor, as I may say, and 
 men, women, and children — , join in sending up this prayer to 
 Heaven, God bless King Charles ! Long live King Charles .', so as 
 our English air is not susceptible of any other sound, and echoes 
 out nothing else " (quoted by Masson, vi, 3, 4). " Indeed it was 
 a wonder in that day to see the mutability of some, and the 
 hypocrisy of others, and the servile flattery of all." — Memoirs 
 of Col. Hutchinson, 402. See also Evelyn, Diary for May 29tb, 
 1660. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 155 
 
 stained with their infamy, or they, to asperse the integ- 
 rity of others ; and yet these now by revolting from 
 the conscience of deeds well done, both in church and 
 state, to throw away and forsake, or rather to betray, 
 a just and noble cause for the mixture of bad men who 
 have iU-managed and abused it (which had our fathers 
 done heretofore, and on the same pretence deserted 
 true religion, what had long ere this become of our 
 gospel, and all Protestant reformation so much inter- 
 mixed with the avarice and ambition of some reform- 
 ers?) and, by thus relapsing, to verify aU the bitter 
 predictions of our triumphing enemies, who wiU now 
 think they wisely discerned and justly censured both 
 us and all our actions as rash, rebellious, hypocritical, 
 and impious, — not only argues a strange, degenerate 
 contagion suddenly spread among us, fitted and pre- 
 pared for new slavery, but will render us a scorn and 
 derision to all our neighbors.^ 
 
 And what will they at best say of us, and of the 
 whole English name, but scoffingly, as of that foolish 
 builder mentioned by our Saviour, who began to build 
 a tower, and was not able to finish it ? ^ Where is this 
 goodly tower of a commonwealth, which the English 
 boasted they would build to overshadow kings, and be 
 another Eome in the west ? The foundation, indeed, 
 they laid gallantly, but fell into a worse confusion, not 
 of tongues but of factions,^ than those at the tower of 
 
 1 See p. 144, n: 3. " See Luke, xiv, 28-30. 
 
 " Factions sprang up at once, the first being on the signing 
 of the Engagement, which involved the abolition of the House of 
 Lords. At the end of six weeks Cromwell warned the Parlia- 
 ment, " I think there is more cause of danger from disunion 
 among ourselves than by anything from our enemies." There 
 were the Fifth Monarchy advocates, who wanted the church to 
 have full civil authority ; the Levellers, who would have neitlier 
 
156 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Babel ; and have left no memorial of their work be- 
 hind them remaining but in the common laughter of 
 Europe ! Which must needs redound the more to our 
 shame, if we but look on our neighbors, the United 
 Provinces,! to us inferior in all outward advantages, 
 who, notwithstanding, in the midst of greater difficul- 
 ties, courageously, wisely, constantly, went through 
 with the same work, and are settled in all the happy 
 enjoyments of a potent and flourishing republic to this 
 day. 
 
 Besides this, if we return to kingship, and soon re- 
 pent (as undoubtedly we shall, when we begin to find 
 the old encroachments coming on by little and little 
 upon our consciences, which must necessarily proceed 
 from king and bishop united inseparably in one inter- 
 est), ^ we may be forced perhaps to fight over again all 
 
 House of Lords nor a Council of State but the fullest develop- 
 ment of individual liberty ; the mutiny in the army because of 
 its distrust of Parliament; those who believed that Parliament 
 should disband and issue writs for new elections; the various 
 groups formed on the ever-present question of religion; and 
 many other factions. Outside of the House the factions were le- 
 gion, and the Parliament had all it could do to hold these in 
 check. See Gardiner, History of the Commonwealth and the Pro- 
 tectorate, I, 3-5, 28, 32-35, 51, 274r-75, 291. 
 
 1 From 151^11 the provinces of Holland and Zealand had 
 fought to free themselves from the power of Spain, and this 
 was the greater difBculty with which England had not had to 
 cope. By the Union, of Utrecht, in 1579, the seven provinces of 
 Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel, Groningen, 
 and Friesland, had. combined to form the Republic of the 
 United Provinces. 
 
 2 This was the watchword of the throne when the House of 
 Stuart came to England. The motto of James was, " No bishop, 
 no king," and Laud with his clergy became the most powerful of 
 the forces working for the absolute authority of Charles I. James 
 II souglit to use the clergy but was less successful, because, 
 being a Catholic, he could control only a minority of that body. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 157 
 
 chat we have fought, and spend over again all that we 
 have spent, 1 but are never like to attain thus far as 
 we are now advanced to the recovery of our free- 
 dom, never to have it in possession as we now have it, 
 never to be vouchsafed hereafter the like mercies and 
 signal assistances from Heaven in our cause, if by our 
 ingrateful backsliding we make these fruitless ; flying 
 now to regal concessions ^ from his divine condescensions 
 and gracious answers to our once importuning prayers 
 against the tyranny which we then groaned under ; 
 making vain and viler than dirt the blood of so many 
 thousand faithful and valiant Englishmen, who left us 
 in this liberty, bought with their lives ; losing by a 
 strange after-game of folly all the battles we have wouj 
 together with aU Scotland as to our conquest, hereby lost, 
 which never any of our kings could conquer,' all the 
 
 1 This reads like a prophecy of what the nation was to endure be- 
 fore it finally deposed James II, and elected William and Mary 
 in 1689. Civil war was avoided, but only because the dispute be- 
 tween king and people was less complicated by the question of 
 religion, because the people as a whole had the greatest terror 
 of another conflict, and because the moral tone of the men who 
 brought about the revolution could not be compared with the 
 zeal and intrepidity of those who stood by Cromwell. 
 
 ^ The reaction against the shifting, unsteady government since 
 the death of Cromwell caused the election of a Parliament which 
 was servile in its concessions fcoCharles II, grantinghim willingly 
 what had been hardly won from his father by the Civil War : it 
 affirmed the prerogative of the Crown; it repealed the act which 
 called for a triennial parliament, and justified him in the asser- 
 tion that he would not call parliament when it was disadvanta^ 
 geous to the Crown ; and it continued sitting for seventeen years. 
 
 " The early history of Scotland is one long succession of wars 
 with England. The hardy Scots in their isolated position could 
 not be held in submission, and England had always to reckon on 
 their joining the enemy in case of any war. The process of unit- 
 ing the two peoples began when James VI of Scotland beeame, 
 in 1603, James I of England ; it was continued by the taking of thb 
 
158 JOHN MILTON 
 
 treasure we have spent, not that corruptible treasure 
 only, but that far more precious of all our late mirac- 
 ulous deliverances ; treading back cigain with lost la- 
 bor all our happy steps in the progress of reformation, 
 and most pitifully depriving ourselves the instant frui- 
 tion of that free government which we have so dearly 
 purchased, a free commonwealth, not only held by 
 wisest men! in all ages the noblest, the manliest, the 
 equaUest, the justest government, the most agreeable 
 to all due liberty and proportionate equality, both hu- 
 man, civil, and Christian, most cherishing to virtue and 
 true religion, but also (I may say it with greatest prob- 
 ability) plainly commended, or rather enjoined, by our 
 Saviour himself, to aD Christians, not without remark- 
 able disallowance, and the brand of Gentilism upon 
 kingship. 
 
 God in much displeasure gave a king to the Israel- 
 ites, and imputed it a sin to them that they sought 
 one,2 but Christ apparently forbids his disciples to ad- 
 mit of any such heathenish government. " The kings 
 of the Gentiles," saith he, "exercise lordship over 
 them; and they that exercise authority upon them 
 are called Benefactors ; but ye shall not be so : but he 
 
 Solemn League and Covenant in 1643, but was completed only in 
 1707 when the union was accepted by an agreement of the two 
 nations. What Milton fears did not at once come true, as Scot- 
 land was more subservient to Charles II than was England her- 
 self, but the country rebelled on the question of religion, and 
 William had to establish his supremacy with the sword. 
 
 1 The chief of the virisest men who have discussed the theory 
 of a free commonwealth, but advocating differing degrees of indi- 
 vidual freedom, are: Plato in the Republic, Aristotle in the Poli- 
 tics, Plutarch in the Life of Lycurgus, Polybius in tlie History of 
 Rome, Cicero in the Republic, and in modern times, More in the 
 Utopia, and Bacon in the New Atlantis. 
 
 * 1 Sam. vni. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 159 
 
 that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger ; 
 and he that is chief, as he that serveth." i The occasion 
 of these, his words, was the ambitious desire of Zebe- 
 dee's two sons to be exalted above their brethren in 
 his kingdom, which they thought was to be erelong 
 upon earth. That he speaks of civil government is 
 manifest by the former part of the comparison, which 
 infers the other part to be always in the same kind. 
 And what government comes nearer to this precept of 
 Christ than a free commonwealth, wherein they who 
 are the greatest are perpetual servants and drudges to 
 the public at their own cost and charges,^ neglect their 
 own affairs, yet are not elevated above their brethren, 
 live soberly in their families, walk the street as other 
 men, may be spoken to freely, familiarly, friendly, 
 without adoration ? ^ Whereas a king must be adored 
 like a demigod, with a dissolute and haughty court 
 about him, of vast expense and luxury, masks and re- 
 vels,* to the debauching of our prime gentry, both male 
 
 1 This quotation is from Luke, xxn, 25-26, see also Mark, ix, 
 34-35, but the passages relating definitely to Zebedee's children 
 are Matt, xx, 20-27; Mark, x, 36^5. Bead Milton's definition 
 of a king and his duties in P. R. il., 458-80. 
 
 ^ On Aug. 10, 1911, the House of Commons, for the first 
 time, voted that its members should receive salaries. 
 
 ' A good picture of the highest type of public servant is to be 
 found in Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, by his wife. See espe- 
 cially pp. 193-95, 346 fB. This departure from simplicity of living 
 was, doubtless, one of the ways in which Cromwell failed to ful- 
 fil Milton's ideal. For a description of the state he assumed when 
 Protector, read Jbid. 369-70. 
 
 * Masques and revels were the favorite amusements of the 
 court; they cost large suras of money, — Shirley's Triumph of 
 Peace cost £ 21,000 — because of the elaborate scenery and 
 costumes. See the stage-directions prefixed to Ben Jonson's 
 Masques, and a description of the Triumph of Peace in Masson, I, 
 461-66. 
 
160 JOHN MILTON 
 
 and female ; not in their pastimes only, but in earnest, 
 by the loose employments of court service, which will 
 be then thought honorable. There wiU be a queen of 
 no less charge, in most likelihood outlandish and a 
 papist, besides a queen-mother such already ; together 
 iirith both their courts and numerous train ; then a royal 
 issue, and erelong severally their sumptuous courts; 
 to the multiplying of a servile crew, not of servants 
 only, but of nobility and gentry, bred up then to the 
 hopes not of public, but of court offices, to be stewards, 
 chamberlains, ushers, grooms, even of the close-stool ; 
 and the lower their minds debased with court opinions, 
 contrary to all virtue and reformation, the haughtier 
 will be their pride and profuseness. We may well re- 
 member this not long since at home,'^ nor need but look 
 at present into the French court, where enticements 
 and preferments daily draw away and pervert the 
 Protestant nobility. ^ 
 
 1 " The court of this king [James I] was a nnraery of lust and 
 intemperance. . . . The honour, wealth, and glory of the nation, 
 wherein Queen Elizabeth left it, were soon prodigally waited. 
 . . . The generality of the gentry of the land soon learned the 
 court fashion, and every great house in the country became a sty 
 of uncleanness. To keep the people in their deplorable security 
 . . . they were entertained with masks, stage plays, and various 
 sorts of rnder sports. Then began murder, incest, adultery, 
 drunkenness, swearing, fornication, and all sorts of ribaldry, to 
 be no concealed but countenanced vices, because they held such 
 conformity with the court example " {Memoirs of Colonel Hutch- 
 inson, p. 78). The court of Charles I was not so dissolute, at least 
 outwardly, for the king was temperate and chaste, and demanded 
 more decency in his courtiers. But the court of the witty Charles 
 II far surpassed that of James I in its pride and profuseness, in 
 its desire for pleasure and its licentiousness. Read the account 
 given by Pepys in his Diary, April 26, 1667, and the picture of 
 court morals in Memoirs of Count Gramont, 105 ff. 
 
 ^ The magnificence and gayety of the court of Louis XIV, the 
 splendor of the daily fetes, the outward elegance and decorum, 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 161 
 
 As to the burden of expense,* to our cost we shall 
 soon know it ; for any good to us deserving to be termed 
 no better than the vast and lavish price of our subjec- 
 tion, and their debauchery, which we are now so greed- 
 ily cheapening, and would so fain be paying most in- 
 considerately to a single person, who, for anything 
 wherein the public really needs him, will have little 
 else to do but to bestow the eating and drinking of 
 excessive dainties, to set a pompous face upon the su- 
 perficial actings of state, to pageant himself up and 
 down in progress among the perpetual bowings and 
 cringings of an abject people,^ on either side deifying 
 and adoring him for nothing done that can deserve it. 
 For what can he more than another man, who, even in 
 the expression of a late court poet, sits only like a 
 great cipher set to no purpose before a long row of 
 other significant figures ? Nay, it is well and happy for 
 the people, if their king be but a cipher, being oft- 
 times a mischief, a pest, a scourge of the nation, and, 
 which is worse, not to be removed, not to be controlled, 
 much less accused or brought to punishment, without 
 the danger of a common ruin, without the shaking and 
 
 the beauty of the women, the royal love of flattery, the servility 
 of the courtier?, and the many amours of the king, are too well 
 known to need retelling. Count Graraont says the court of Charles 
 II was so like that of France, that it seemed as if he had brought 
 France with him to England. — Memoirs, 111. 
 
 * Milton now turns from the moral effect of recalling the king 
 to the expense which this act will impose upon the people. 
 Which does he present as the stronger reason against kingship ? 
 Johnson, ia his Life of Milton, says the only argument given is 
 that " a popular government was the most frugal." 
 
 2 " The eagerness of men, women, and children, to see his Ma- 
 jesty, and kiss his hands, was so great, that he had scarce leisure 
 to eat for some days, coming as they did from all parts of the 
 Nation." — Evelyn, Diary, June 4, 1660. 
 
162 JOHN MILTON 
 
 almosfc subversion of the whole land, whereas in a free 
 commonwealth any governor or chief counsellor offend- 
 ing may be removed and punished without the least 
 commotion, 1 
 
 Certainly,* then, that people must needs be mad or 
 strangely infatuated that build the chief hope of their 
 common happiness or safety on a single person, who, if 
 he happen to be good, can do no more than another man ; 
 if to be bad, hath in his hands to do more evil without 
 check than millions of other men.' The happiness of a 
 nation must needs be firmest and certainest in full and 
 free council of their own electing, where no single per- 
 son, but reason only, sways. And what madness is it 
 for them who might manage nobly their own affairs 
 themselves, sluggishly and weakly to devolve aU on a 
 single person; and, more like boys under age than 
 men, to commit all to his patronage and disposal, who 
 neither can perform what he undertakes, and yet for* 
 undertaking it, though royally paid, will not be their 
 servant, but their lord ! How unmanly must it needs 
 be to count such a one the breath of our nostrils, to 
 hang all our felicity on him, all our safety, our well- 
 being ; for which, if we were aught else but sluggards 
 or babies, we need depend on none but God and our 
 own counsels, our own active virtue and industry! 
 
 1 Milton makes no proTisioii for this removal and punishment, 
 and the Commonvrealth had not furnished him with examples of 
 how it might be done ttrithout the least commotion. 
 
 2 Here follows an appeal to the sense of individual right and 
 power in the person, the nation, the king. 
 
 ' Why has not a king as much power for good as for evil ? 
 
 * The nor clause, which the reader expects to follow the neither 
 clause, is suppressed, and he passes quickly to the thought, yet if 
 he should undertake it. for is used in the sense, as regards. See 
 P. L. I, 635. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 163 
 
 " Go to the ant, thou sluggard," saith Solomon ; " con- 
 sider her ways, and be wise ; which, having no prince, 
 ruler, or lord, provides her meat in the summer, and 
 gathers her food in the harvest,"^ which evidently shows 
 us that they who think the nation undone without a 
 king, though they look grave or haughty, have not so 
 much true spirit and understanding in them as a pis- 
 mire : neither are these diligent creatures hence con- 
 cluded to live in lawless anarchy, or that commended, 
 but are set the examples to imprudent and ungoverned 
 men, of a frugal and self-governing democracy or com- 
 monwealth, safer and more thriving in the joint prov- 
 idence and counsel of many industrious equals than 
 under the single domination of one imperious lord. 
 
 It may be well wondered that any nation, styling 
 themselves free, can suffer any man to pretend here- 
 ditary right 2 over them as their lord, whenas, by ac- 
 
 ^ Prov. VI, 6. In the King James version, the second phrase 
 reads, " which having no guide, overseer, or ruler." 
 
 ' Milton is here expressing individually the opinion which had 
 in some measure held in the councils of the English nation from 
 the beginning. Th'e course of the inheritance of the crown was 
 never fully defined by statute. The early Anglo-Saxon kings were 
 always elected, although in practice generally chosen from the 
 members of one family. " James I was the twenty-third occu- 
 pant of the English throne since the death of William the Con- 
 queror. Of the number, twelve had succeeded to the throne not 
 being legal heirs of the Conqueror, according to fjRe doctrine of 
 primogenitary succession, and three more, although legal primo- 
 genitary heirs, had not succeeded in the regular course of descent. 
 Edward II and Richard II had been solemnly deposed by Par- 
 liament, and on the latter occasion the throne itself was declared 
 to be vacant. The line of succession had on several occasions been 
 altered, as we have seen, by the authority of Parliament. Yet in 
 the teeth of these facts, the lawyers and divines of the Stuart 
 period laboured to establish the doctrine of an indefeasible 
 hereditary right to the crown." — Taswell-Langmead, £n^ZtsA 
 Constitutional History, 217-18. 
 
164 JOHN MILTON 
 
 knowledging that right, they conclude themselves his 
 servants and his vassals, and so renounce their own 
 freedom. Which how a people and their leaders espe- 
 cially can do, who have fought so gloriously for liberty; 
 how they can change their noble words and actions, 
 heretofore so becoming the majesty of a free people, 
 into the base necessity of court flatteries and prostra- 
 tions, — is not only strange and admirable,^ but lam- 
 entable to think on. That a nation should be so valor- 
 ous and courageous to win their liberty in the field, and, 
 when they have won it, should be so heartless ^ and 
 unwise in their counsels as not to know how to use it, 
 value it, what to do with it or with themselves, but, 
 after ten or twelve years' prosperous war' and con- 
 testation with tyranny, basely and besottedly to run 
 their necks again into the yoke which they have broken, 
 and prostrate all the fruits of their victory for nought 
 at the feet of the vanquished, besides our loss of glory, 
 and such an example as kings or tyrants never yet 
 had the like to boast of, will be an ignominy, if it be- 
 fall us, that never yet befell any nation possessed of 
 their liberty ; worthy indeed themselves, whatsoever 
 they be, to be forever slaves ; but that part of the 
 nation which consents not with them, as I persuade 
 me of a great number, far worthier than by their 
 means to be brought into the same bondage.* 
 
 Considering these things so plain, so rational, I can- 
 not but yet further admire on the other side how any 
 
 1 admirable : causing wonder or surprise. See admire in the 
 beginning of the next paragraph, and P. L. in, 271; vin, 75. 
 
 ^ heartless : without courage, spiritless. 
 
 " The war began August 22, 1642, and closed with the battle 
 of Worcester, September 3, 1651. 
 
 * Observe the lack of sure confidence in the popularity of his 
 cause. For his disbelief in majority rule see pp. 150, 192. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 165 
 
 man, who hath the true principles of justice and relig- 
 ion in him, can presume or take upon him to be a 
 king and lord over his brethren, whom he cannot but 
 know,! whether as men or Christians, to be for the 
 most part every way equal or superior to himself ; how 
 he can display with such vanity and ostentation his 
 regal splendor, so supereminently above other mortal 
 men ; or, being a Christian, can assume such extraor- 
 dinary honor and worship to himself, while the king- 
 dom of Christ, our common king and lord, is hid to 
 this world, and such Gentilish ^ imitation forbid in ex- 
 press words by himself to all his disciples. All pro- 
 testants hold that Christ in his church hath left no 
 vicegerent of his power ; but himself, without deputy, 
 is the only head thereof,' governing it from heaven : 
 how then can any Christian man derive his kingship 
 from Christ, but with worse usurpation than the pope 
 his headship over the church, since Christ not only 
 hath not left the least shadow of a command for any 
 such vicegerence from him in the state as the Pope 
 pretends for his in the church, but hath expressly de- 
 clared that such regal dominion is from the Gentiles, 
 not from him, and hath strictly charged us not to imi- 
 tate them therein? 
 
 * I doubt not but all ingenuous and knowing men 
 
 1 Is not the king's firm conviction of liis own superiority tlie 
 very foundation of his power ? 
 
 2 See quotation, p. 186. 
 
 ' " As Christ is the head of the mystical church, so no one be- 
 sides Christ has the right or power of presiding over the visible 
 church " {P. W. IV, 426). Milton quotes to prove this statement, 
 Matt. XVIII, 20; xxviii, 20; 1 Cor. v, 4; Heb. iii, 6. "Christ 
 hath a government of his own, sufficient of itself to all his ends 
 and purposes in governing his church." — Ibid, il, 533. 
 
 * In this paragraph Milton begins the second topic of his 
 pamphlet, a plea for the Commonwealth, and ausvrers briefly th« 
 
166 JOHN MILTON 
 
 will easily agree with me that a free commonwealth 
 without single person or House of Lords is by far the 
 best government, if it can be had ; but we have all this 
 while, say they, been expecting it, and cannot yet at- 
 tain it. It is true, indeed, when monarchy was dis- 
 solved, the form of a commonwealth should have forth- 
 with been framed, and the practice thereof immediately 
 begun, that the people might have soon been satisfied 
 and delighted with the decent order, ease, and benefit 
 thereof : we had been then by this time firmly rooted 
 past fear of commotions or mutations, and now flour- 
 ishing. This care of timely settling a new government 
 
 charge of his opponents that the Commonwealth had had its op- 
 portunity and had failed to create a stable government. He pre- 
 fixes to his History of England, book third, a full clear statement of 
 the reasons why the Commonwealth had failed (P. W. V. 230-40). 
 See the brief history of events on pp. xix, xx. The impatient 
 or disaffected were chiefly the Levellers who wanted a more tbor- 
 ougli-going democracy ; the ambitious leaders in the array were 
 Fleetwood, Desborough, and Lamberts (see Masson, v, 437 £.). 
 " Not the less is it true that Republicanism was yet tlie general 
 creed of the Army, and that, cuuld a universal vote have been 
 taken through the regiments in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 it would have kept out Ciiarles Stuart. Nay, so ingrained was the 
 Kepublican feeling in the ranks of the soldiery, and so gloomily 
 were they watching Monk, that, could any suitable proportion of 
 them have been brought together, and could any fit leader have 
 been present to hold up his sword for the Commonwealth, they 
 would have rallied round him with acclamations " {Ibid. 562). 
 The officers did, indeed, present to Monk a petition, " To de- 
 clare that the Government of these Three Nations should be a 
 Commonwealth, without Kingship, or any other single person 
 by what Name, or Title, soever dignified or distinguished: And 
 that this present Parliament should be required to pass this into 
 an Act, as a Fundamental Constitution, not to be shaken or 
 questioned by future Parliaments; and that the Army ought, 
 upon no other terms, to maintain their Authority." — The Mystery 
 and Method of his Majesty's Happy Restauration, John Price, 
 1680. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 167 
 
 instead of the old, too much neglected, hath been our 
 mischief. Yet the cause thereof may. be ascribed with 
 most reason to the frequent disturbances, interruptions, 
 and dissolutions which the Parliament hath had, partly 
 from the impatient or disaffected people, partly from 
 some ambitions leaders in the army, much contrary, I 
 believe, to the mind and approbation of the army it- 
 self, and their other commanders, once undeceived, or 
 in their own power. 
 
 Now is the opportunity, now the very season, wherein 
 we may obtain a free commonwealth, and establish it 
 forever in the land, without difficulty or much delay. 
 Writs are sent out for elections, and, which is worth 
 observing, in the name not of any king, but of the 
 keepers of our liberty, ^ to summon a free Parliament, 
 which then only will indeed be free, and deserve the 
 true honor of that supreme title, if they preserve us a 
 free people. Which never parliament was more free to 
 do, being now called not as heretofore, by the summons 
 of a king, but by the voice of liberty. And if the peo- 
 ple, laying aside prejudice and impatience,^ will seri- 
 ously and calmly now consider their own good, both re- 
 ligious and civil, their own liberty, and the only means 
 thereof, as shall be here laid down before them, and 
 will elect their knights and burgesses ^ able men, and 
 
 ^ There was a debate in Parliament on the question, in whose 
 name the writs for the new Parliament should be issued, and it 
 was finally settled " in the name of the Keepers of the Liberties 
 of England." See Pepys, Diary, March 9. 
 
 2 The utter impossibility of realizing this if, as experience had 
 shown, and the fundamental position this hypothesis holds in his 
 scheme, really places the whole plan practically on the same 
 basis as other ideal republics. 
 
 ' knights : representatives from the counties, burgesses : 
 representatives from boroughs, corporate towns, or universi- 
 ties. 
 
168 JOHN MILTON 
 
 according to the just and necessary qualifications 
 (which, for aught I hear, remain yet in force unre- 
 pealed, as they were formerly decreed in parliament),* 
 men not addicted to a single person or House of Lords, 
 the work is done ; at least, the foundation firmly laid 
 of a free commonwealth, and good part also erected of 
 the main structure. For the ground and basis of every 
 just and free government (since men have smarted so 
 oft for committing all to one person), is a general 
 council of ablest men, chosen by the people to con- 
 sult of public affairs from time to time for the com- 
 mon good. In this Grand Council must the sovereignty, 
 not transferred, but delegated only, and as it were de- 
 posited, reside,^ with this caution, they must have the 
 
 1 The qualifications for the first Parliament of the Protecto- 
 rate, in 1654, had been, " All persons who had been engaged in 
 war against the Parliament since Jan. 1641-2, except such as 
 bad given signal testimony since then of their good afiection, 
 were to be disabled from electing or being elected — and all con- 
 cerned in the Irish Rebellion, and all Roman Catholics, were to 
 be disabled forever. Within these limits, any person over the age 
 of twenty one years, and of ' known integrity, fearing God, and 
 of good conversation' was to be eligible, and all persons having 
 real or personal estate worth £200 were to be electors " (Mas- 
 son, IV, 543-44). These had been substantially the qualifications 
 since that time. On March 13-16, 1660, the question was discussed 
 and the wording somewhat changed, making it include a larger 
 number of persons: "All Papists and all who had aided and 
 abetted the Irish Rebellion were to be incapable of being mem- 
 bers, and also all who, or whose fathers, had advised or volun- 
 tarily assisted in any war against the Parliament since Jan. 1, 
 1641-2, unless there had been subsequent manifestation of their 
 good affections." — /iid. v, 551. See Pepys, Feb. 14, 1660. 
 
 ^ There were many heated debates regarding this question of 
 the supreme power, and many others besides Milton were trying 
 to solve it. The Commons Journal of Sept. 8, 1659, records: 
 "At this time the opinions of men were much divided concern- 
 ing a Form of Government to be established amongst us. The 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 169 
 
 forces by sea and land committed to them, for preser- 
 vation of the common peace and liberty ; must raise 
 and manage the public revenue, at least with some in- 
 spectors deputed for satisfaction of the people, how it 
 is employed ; must make or propose, as more expressly 
 shall be said anon, civil laws, treat of commerce, peace, 
 or war with foreign nations ; and, for the carrying on 
 some particular affairs with more secrecy and expedi- 
 tion, must elect, as they have already out of their own 
 number and others, a Council of State. ^ 
 
 great officers of the Army, as I said before, were for a Select 
 Standing Senate, to be joined to the Representative of the Peo- 
 ple. Others laboured to have the supreme authority to consist 
 of an Assembly chosen by the People, and a Council of State to 
 be chosen by that Assembly, to be vested with executive power, 
 and accountable to that which should next succeed, at which time 
 the power of the said Council should determine. Some were de- 
 sirous to have a Representative of the People constantly sitting, 
 but changed by a perpetual rotation. Others proposed that there 
 might be joined to the Popular Assembly a select number of 
 men in the nature of the Lacedsemonian Ephori, who should have 
 a negative in things wherein the essentials of the Government should 
 be concerned, such as the exclusion of a Single Person, touching the 
 Liberty of Conscience, alteration of the Constitution, and other 
 things of the last importance to the State. Some were of opinion 
 that it would be most conducive to the public happiness if there 
 might be two Councils chosen by the People, the one to consist 
 of about 300, and to have the power only of debating and pro- 
 posing laws, the other to be in number about 1000, and to have the 
 power finally to resolve and determine — every year a third part 
 to gu out aud others to be chosen in their places." Quoted by 
 Masson, V, 480-81. 
 
 1 Observe the powers of the Grand Council : they are to con- 
 trol the array and navy; to manage the public revenue; to make 
 or propose laws; and to elect a Council of State. There is to be no 
 executive, but his function is to be filled by the Council of State. 
 During the years of experimentation there was constantly felt 
 in tlie government the need of a smaller body than the House. 
 During the year, 1659-60, of anarchy, each new governing body 
 erected its Council of State. These many Councils exercised 
 
170 JOHN MILTON 
 
 And, although it may seem strange at first hearing, 
 by reason that men's minds are prepossessed with the 
 notion of successive parliaments, I affirm that the Grand 
 or General Council, being well chosen, should be per- 
 petual ; for so their business is or may be, and oft- 
 times urgent, the opportunity of affairs gained or lost 
 in a moment. The day of council cannot be set as the 
 day of a festival, but must be ready always to prevent 
 or answer all occasions. By this continuance they will 
 become every way skilfullest, best provided of intelli- 
 gence from abroad, best acquainted with the people at 
 home, and the people with them. The ship of the 
 Commonwealth is always under saU ; they sit at the 
 stern ; and, if they steer well, what need is there to 
 change them, it being rather dangerous ? Add to this 
 that the Grand Council is both foundation and main 
 pillar of the whole state ; and to move pillars and found- 
 ations, not faulty, cannot be safe for the building. 
 
 I see not, therefore, how we can be advantaged by 
 successive and transitory parliaments : but that they 
 are much likelier continually to unsettle rather than 
 to settle a free government, to breed commotions, 
 changes, novelties, and uncertainties,'^ to bring neglect 
 
 varying degrees of authority; that of the executive, of the ad- 
 visor to the executive, of the Upper House. See Masson in, 41; 
 IV, 11, 127, 222, 309, 354. 
 
 1 Milton's belief in the rule of the best men, and his fear of 
 more commotions and changes than he had recently witnessed, 
 blinded him to the fact that the chief sin of the Long Parlia- 
 ment had been, in the eyes of England, its unwillingness to dis- 
 band itself and allow the election of a more representative body; 
 he seems, indeed, to justify this long term of ofBce by the neces- 
 sity of the times. " The errors also of his government had brought 
 the kingdom to such extremes, as were incapable of all recovery 
 without the absolute continuance of a parliament." — P. W. i, 
 352-53. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 171 
 
 upon present affairs and opportunities, while all minds 
 are in suspense with expectation of a new assembly, and 
 the assembly, for a good space, taken up with the new 
 settling of itself. After which, if they find no great work 
 to do, they will make it by altering or repealing former 
 acts or making and multiplying new, that they may seem 
 to see what their predecessors saw not, and not to have 
 assembled for nothing, till all law be lost in the multi- 
 tude of clashing statutes. But if the ambition of such 
 as think themselves injured that they also partake not 
 of the government, and are impatient till they be 
 chosen, cannot brook the perpetuity of others chosen 
 before them, or if it be feared that long continuance 
 of power may corrupt sincerest men, the known ex- 
 pedient is, and by some lately propounded, that an- 
 nually (or, if the space be longer, so much perhaps 
 the better) the third part of senators may go out ac- 
 cording to the precedence of their election, and the 
 like number be chosen in their places, to prevent their 
 settling of too absolute a power, if it should be per- 
 petual; and this they call "partial rotation." i 
 
 ^ This was the doctrine of the political debating club, called 
 the Rota Club. " In 1659, in the beginning of Michaelmas term, 
 they bad every night a meeting at the then Turk's Head in the 
 New Palace Yard at Westminster (the next house to the stairs 
 where people take water), called Miles's coSee-house — to whicli 
 place their disciples and virtuosi would commonly then repair: 
 and their discourses about Government and of ordering of a Com- 
 monwealth were the most ingenious and smart that ever were 
 heard, for the arguments in the Parliament house were but flat to 
 those" (Anthony Wood, Athenw Oxonienm, n, 438-39, 1692). 
 The Club was founded by James Harrington, the author of The 
 Commonwealth of Oceann, published in 1656; this book contained 
 in the form of a romance liis plan of an ideal republic. He de- 
 picted a full and free Commonwealth based chiefly on two prin- 
 ciples, the balance of property and the election by ballot of 
 representatives to the national council, with the rotation of 
 
179 JOHN MILTON 
 
 But I could wish that this wheel, or partial wheel, in 
 state, if it be possible, might be avoided, as having too 
 much affinity with the wheel of Fortune. ^ For it appears 
 not how this can be done without danger and mischance 
 of putting out a great number of the best and ablest, in 
 whose stead new elections may bring in as many raw, 
 unexperienced, and otherwise affected, to the weaken- 
 ing and much altering for the worse of public transac- 
 tions. Neither do I think a perpetual senate, especially 
 chosen or intrusted by the people, much in this land to 
 be feared, where the well-affected, either in a standing 
 army or in a settled militia, have their arms in their 
 own hands.2 Safest, therefore, to me it seems,, and of 
 least hazard or interruption to affairs, that none of 
 the grand council be moved, unless by death or just 
 conviction of some crime ; for what can be expected 
 firm or steadfast from a floating foundation? How- 
 ever, I forejudge not any probable expedient, any tem- 
 perament that can be found in things of this nature 
 so disputable on either side. 
 
 members. He held that there could be no free Commonwealth 
 when property, and especially land, was in the bands of a few 
 men, but only when the whole people were land-owners, could 
 the nation be called a republic. He declared that one third of 
 those governing should at the end of each year pass into the ranks 
 of the governed, and not be eligible to reelection until after three 
 years. Some prominent men were attracted by the doctrines of 
 the Clnb, and for a few months it seemed as if it might have a 
 good deal of influence. Milton reluctantly approves, as a last re- 
 sort, of one of its principles. See Pepys, Diary, Jan. 10, 17 and 
 Feb. 20, 1660. 
 
 1 See P. R. IV, 317; S. A. 172. 
 
 2 The history of the preceding years had abundantly shown 
 that there was a possible redress in a resort to the armed force, 
 but the frequent attempts of the army to control the Parliament 
 had been one of the chief causes of the restlessness and dissatis- 
 faction in the country. See the Letter to Monk, p. 202. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 173 
 
 Yet, lest this which I affirm be thought my single 
 opinion, I shall add sufficient testimony. ^ Kingship it- 
 self is, therefore, counted the more safe and durable be- 
 cause the king, and for the most part his council, is 
 not changed during life. But a commonwealth is held 
 immortal, and therein firmest, safest, and most above 
 fortune ; for the death of a king causeth oft-times many 
 dangerous alterations, but the death now and then of 
 a senator is not felt, the main body of them still con- 
 tinuing permanent in greatest and noblest common- 
 wealths, and as it were eternal. Therefore, among the 
 Jews the supreme council of seventy, called the San- 
 hedrim, founded by Moses,^ in Athens that of Areo- 
 pagus,^ in Sparta that of the ancients,* in Rome, the 
 Senate,* consisted of members chosen for term of life; 
 and by that means remained as it were still the same 
 to generations. In Venice ^ they change indeed oftener 
 
 ' Note the contrast in method between this pamphlet and the 
 Areopagitica; in this he uses very little the argument from example. 
 
 * The Sanhedrin was the great council at Jerusalem, which 
 consisted of seventy-one members chosen from the sori bes, elders, 
 prominent members of the high-priestly families, and with the 
 High-Priest acting as president. 
 
 ' Areopagus: see p. 31, n. 1. 
 
 * " The senate, as I said before, consisted at first of those that 
 were assistants to Lycurgus in his great enterprise. Afterward, 
 to fill up any vacancy that might happen he ordered the most 
 worthy men to be selected, of those that were full three score 
 years old. This was the most respectable dispute in the world, 
 and the contest was truly glorious; for it was not who should be 
 the swiftest among the swift, or strongest of the strong, but who 
 was the wisest and best among the good and wise." — Plutarch, 
 Life of Lycurgus. 
 
 ' The Komaii senate was at first elected from the patrician 
 class, afterwards the members were chosen by higher officers or 
 became members by virtue of holding certain offices; later they 
 were chosen also from the plebeian class. 
 
 ° There were in Venice " four tiers in the original structure 
 
174 JOHN MILTON 
 
 than every year some particular council of state, as 
 that of six, or such other ; but the true Senate, which 
 upholds and sustains the government, is the whole ar- 
 istocracy immovable. So in the United Provinces the 
 States-General,! which are indeed but a council of state 
 deputed by the whole union, are not usually the same 
 persons for above three or six years ; but the states of 
 every city, in whom the sovereignty hath been placed 
 time out of mind, are a standing Senate, without suc- 
 cession, and accounted chiefly in that regard the main 
 prop of their liberty. And why they should be so in 
 every well-ordered commonwealth, they who write of 
 policy give these reasons: that to make the senate suc- 
 cessive not only impairs the dignity and lustre of the 
 senate, but weakens the whole commonwealth, and 
 brings it into manifest danger ; while by this means 
 the secrets of state are frequently divulged, and mat- 
 
 of the constitution, the doge, the College, the Senate, and the 
 Great Council" (Horatio F. Brown, Studies in Venetian History, 
 I, 306). The College, or Cabinet of Ministers, was composed of 
 " the doge, his six councillors, and the three chiefs of the court of 
 appeal ... in addition to these there were the six savii grandi, the 
 five savii di terra firma, and the five savii da mar." The second 
 aud third of these last three groups held ofSce only six months; 
 the six savii grandi each took a week in turn, " and the savio of 
 the week was, in fact, prime minister of Venice." — Ibid. I5 
 300-01. 
 
 1 The States-General of the United Provinces was the 
 legislative body formed at the Union of Utrecht (see p. 156, n. 1). 
 The members were not representatives of the people, but ambas- 
 sadors of the individual provinces. See C. M. Davies, The History 
 of Holland, u, 75-76. "As the States-General were not them- 
 selves sovereign, but representatives only of the provincial States 
 by whom they were deputed, and they again of the governments 
 of the towns which composed them, it was necessary that all 
 measures should be referred to the provincial States, and by 
 them to the towns of which they were the deputies." — Ibid. 
 442. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 175 
 
 ters of greatest consequence committed to inexpert 
 and novice counsellors, utterly to seek ^ in the full and 
 intimate knowledge of affairs past. 
 
 I know not, therefore, what should be peculiar in 
 England to make successive parliaments thought) safest 
 or convenient here more than in other nations, unless 
 it be the fickleness which is attributed to us as we are 
 islanders. But good education and acquisite ^ wisdom 
 ought to correct the fluxible^ fault, if any such be, of 
 our watery situation. It will be objected that in those 
 places where they had perpetual senates they had also 
 popular remedies against their growing too imperious : 
 as, in Athens, besides Areopagus, another senate of 
 four or five hundred ; * in Sparta, the Ephori ; ^ in 
 Some, the Tribunes of the people. ^ 
 
 1 to seek : at a loss, ignorant; see P. L. vin, 197; C. 366. 
 
 2 acquisite : acquired. 
 
 ' fluxible : apt to flow ; here in the figurative sense, change- 
 able, inconstant. 
 
 * Draco (seventh cen. B.C.) created a council of 401 members, 
 100 chosen from each one of the four tribes ; the function of this 
 council was to " discuss beforehand every resolution which the 
 authorities had to propose to the people." Cleithenes, about a 
 hundred years later, divided the people into ten tribes and had 
 50 chosen from each tribe, thus making the council consist of 
 500. Holm, The History of Greece, i, 392, 400, 422. 
 
 * The Ephori, five in number, were elected annually by the 
 people: "The Lacedsemoni.an constitution is defective in an- 
 other point ; I mean the Ephoralty. This magistracy has author- 
 ity in the highest matters, but the Ephors are all chosen from 
 tlie people, and so the office is apt to fall into the hands of very 
 poor men, who, being badly off, are open to bribes. . . . And so 
 great and tyrannical is their power, that even the kings have 
 been compelled to court them." — Aristotle, Politics, n, 9. 
 
 * The Tribunes of the people, at first two, then five and at 
 last ten, were officers chosen by the people, from about 490 B.C., 
 to protect them against the oppression of the patrician class, and 
 to defend them against the unjust acts of the Senate or consuls. 
 
176 JOHN MILTON 
 
 But the event tells us that these remedies either 
 little availed the people or brought them to such a 
 licentious and unbridled democracy as, in fine, ruined 
 themselves with their own excessive power. So that 
 the main reason urged why popular assemblies are to be 
 trusted with the people's liberty rather than a senate 
 of principal men, because great men will be still en- 
 deavoring to enlarge their power, but the common sort 
 will be contented to maintain their own liberty, is by 
 experience found false, none being more immoderate 
 and ambitious to amplify their power than such pop- 
 ularities 1 which were seen in the people of Rome, 
 who, at first contented to have their tribunes, at length 
 contended with the Senate that one consul, then both, 
 soon after that the censors and praetors also, should be 
 created plebeian, and the whole empire put into their 
 hands, adoring lastly those who most were adverse to the 
 senate, till Marius,^ by fulfilling their inordinate de- 
 sires, quite lost them all the power for which they had 
 so long been striving, and left them under the tyranny 
 of Sylla.' The balance, therefore, must be exactly so 
 
 Their duties were in the beginning largely police, but with time 
 they gained more and more power, until they, came to sit in the 
 senate, to propose laws, and to issue edicts. 
 
 1 popularities: populRrassembliesordemocratiogovemments. 
 
 2 Caius Marius (155-86 B.C.), tlie great general who was 
 victorious in the war with Jngnrtha, who conquered the tribes 
 of the Cimbrians and the Teutons threatening Home, who was 
 elected consul seven times, and who created a standing army of 
 professional soldiery, thus preparing the way for a military des- 
 potism. Plutarch says of him, " He courted the people, and 
 endeavored to ingratiate himself with the meanest of them." He 
 voted to approve the law proposed by Saturn inns, the tribune of 
 the people, that the Senate should confirm whatever the people 
 decreed. He had, therefore, to sanction the crimes of Saturui- 
 nua, and this was the beginning of his downfall. 
 
 8 Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 B.C.), the general, who as 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 177 
 
 set as to preserve and keep up due authority on either 
 side, as well in the senate as in the people. And this 
 annual rotation of a senate to consist of three hun- 
 dred, as is lately propounded, requires also another 
 popular assembly upward of a thousand, with an an- 
 swerable rotation. Which, besides that it will be lia- 
 ble to all those inconveniences found in the aforesaid 
 remedies, cannot but be troublesome and chargeable, 
 both in their motion and their session, ^ to the whole 
 land, unwieldy with their own bulk, unable in so great 
 a number to mature their consultations as they ought, 
 if any be allotted them,^ and that they meet not from 
 so many parts remote to sit a whole year lieger ' in 
 one place, only now and then to hold up a forest of 
 fingers, or to convey each man his bean ^ or ballot into 
 
 questor in the army aroused the jealousy of Marius, because he 
 was instrumental in the capture of Jugurtha. In 88 when the 
 war with Mithradates began, Mariiis demanded that Sulla should 
 resign to him the control of the troops. Thus the civil war be- 
 tween the two generals broke out, in which Sulla led a Koman 
 army against Rome. He was victorious, instituting a reign of 
 terror by putting to death his enemies and many of the enemies 
 of his friends. " These massacres were not the only thing that 
 afflicted the Romans. He declared himself dictator, reviving 
 that office in his own favor, though there had been no instance of 
 it for a hundred and twenty years. He got a decree of amnesty 
 for all he had done : and, as to the future, it invested him with 
 the power of life and death, of confiscating, of colonizing, of 
 building or demolishing cities, of giving or taking away king- 
 doms at his pleasure." — Plutarch, Life of Sylla. 
 
 1 Such large numbers would be a burden to the nation because 
 of the difficulty of travel to and from the place of meeting, and 
 of providing residence during the time of the session. 
 
 ^ This looks as if he means that all law is to originate in the 
 upper house, and to be presented to the lower only at the dis- 
 cretion of the upper. 
 
 ^ lieger : resident, stationary. 
 
 * Black and white beans were used in Greece and Rome for 
 
178 JOHN MILTON 
 
 the box, without reason shown or common deliber- 
 ation ; incontinent of secrets,^ if any be imparted to 
 them ; emulous and always jarring with the other 
 senate. The much better way, doubtless, will be, in this 
 wavering condition of our affairs, to defer the chang- 
 ing or circumscribing of our senate, more than may 
 be done with ease, till the Commonwealth be thor- 
 oughly settled in peace and safety, and they themselves 
 give us the occasion. 
 
 Military men hold it dangerous to change the form 
 of battle in view of an enemy ; neither did the people 
 of £ome bandy with their Senate, while any of the 
 Tarquins ^ lived, the enemies of their liberty ; nor 
 sought, by creating tribunes, to defend themselves 
 against the fear of their patricians, till sixteen years 
 after the expulsion of their kings, and in f uU security 
 of their state, they had, or thought they had, just cause ' 
 given them by the Senate. Another way will be to well 
 qualify and refine elections, not committing all to the 
 noise and shouting of a rude multitude, but permitting 
 only those of them who are rightly qualified to nomi- 
 nate as many as they wiU, and out of that number 
 others of a better breeding to choose a less number 
 more judiciously, till, after a third or fourth sifting and 
 refining of exactest choice, they only be left chosen 
 
 taking the ballot ; also iu Holland iu the seventeenth century. 
 See Davies, i, 79. 
 
 1 Cf. S. A. 775. 
 
 2 Tarquinius Priscus, 616-578 B.C., and Tarquinius Super- 
 bus, 534r-510 B.C., were the fifth and seventh Etruscan kings 
 of Rome ; they enlarged and beautified and strengthened the 
 city. The latter, especially by the use of his despotic power, lived 
 in great splendor. He was deposed, and the people swore that 
 never again should a kii.g rule in Rome ; they elected annually 
 two consuls to have authority in his place. 
 
 » See p. 176. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 179 
 
 who are the due number, and seem by most voices the 
 worthiest.! 
 
 To make the people fittest to choose and the chosen 
 fittest to govern, will be to mend our corrupt and faulty 
 education, to teach the people faith, not without virtue, 
 temperance, modesty, sobriety, parsimony, justice ; not 
 to admire wealth or honor ; to hate turbulence and 
 ambition ; to place every one his private welfare and 
 happiness in the public peace, liberty, and safety. They 
 shall not then need to be much mistrustful of their 
 chosen patriots in the Grand Council, who will be then 
 rightly called the true keepers of our liberty, though 
 the most of their business will be in foreign affairs.* 
 But, to prevent all mistrust, the people then wiU have 
 their several ordinary assemblies (which will hence- 
 forth quite annihilate the odious power and name of 
 committees ^) in the chief towns of every county, 
 without the trouble, charge, or time lost of summon- 
 ing and assembling from far in so great a number, and 
 so long residing from their own houses, or removing 
 of their families, to do as much at home in their sev- 
 eral shires, entire or subdivided, toward the securing 
 of their liberty, as a numerous assembly of them all 
 formed and convened on purpose with the wariest ro- 
 tation. Whereof I shall speak more ere the end of 
 this discourse,* for it may be referred to time, so we 
 be still going on by degrees to perfection. The people 
 
 ^ Compare the plan of elections with that which Plato pro- 
 poses in the Laws, vi, 753. 
 
 ^ That is, righteousness will so prevail that tlieironly business 
 will he dealing with other nations. 
 
 ' Milton's official position had given him a hearty hatred of 
 the dilatoriness and arbitrariness of committees. Their name 
 was legion in the time of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. 
 
 •• See pp. 196-97. 
 
180 JOHN MILTON 
 
 well weighing and performing these things, I suppose, 
 would have no cause to fear, though the Parliament 
 abolishing'that name, as originally signifying but the 
 parley of our Lords and Commons with their Norman 
 king when he pleased to call them, should, with cer- 
 tain limitations of their power, sit perpetual, if their 
 ends be faithful and for a free commonwealth, under 
 the name of a Grand or General Council. 
 
 Till this be done I am in doubt whether our state 
 wiU be ever certainly and thoroughly settled ; never 
 likely till then to see an end of our troubles and con- 
 tinual changes, or at least never the true settlement 
 and assurance of our liberty. The Grand Council being 
 thus firmly constituted to perpetuity, and still, upon 
 the death or default of any member, supplied and kept 
 in full number,! there can be no cause alleged why 
 peace, justice, plentiful trade, and all prosperity should 
 not thereupon ensue throughout the whole land, with 
 as much assurance as can be of human things that 
 they shall so continue (if God favor us, and our wilful 
 sins provoke him not), even to the coming of our true 
 and rightful and only to be expected King, only worthy 
 as he is our only Saviour, the Messiah, the Christ, the 
 only heir of his eternal Father, the only by him 
 anointed and ordained since the work of our redemp- 
 tion finished, universal Lord of all mankind. 
 
 The way propounded is plain, easy, and open be- 
 fore us, without intricacies, without the introducement 
 of new or absolute forms or terms or exotic models,* 
 ideas that would effect nothing, but with a number of 
 new injunctions to manacle the native liberty of man- 
 
 ^ He makes no provision for the manner of electing those who 
 are to keep it in full number. 
 
 ' For other schemes of reorganization proposed see p. 168, n. 2. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 181 
 
 kind, turning all virtue into prescription, servitude, 
 and necessity, to the great impairing and frustrating 
 of Christian liberty. I say again, this way lies free 
 and smooth before us ; is not tangled with inconven- 
 ieneies ; invents no new encumbrances ; requires no 
 perilous, no injurious, alteration or circumscription 
 of men's lands and properties ; secure that in this 
 commonwealth, temporal and spiritual, lords removed, 
 no man or number of men can attain to such wealth or 
 vast possession as will need the hedge of an agrarian 
 law ^ (never successful, but the cause rather of sedi- 
 tion, save only where it began seasonably with first 
 possession) to confine them from endangering our 
 public liberty. To conclude, it can have no consider- 
 able objection made against it that it is not practicable, 
 lest it be said hereafter that we gave up our liberty 
 for want of a ready way or distinct form proposed of 
 a free commonwealth. And this facility we shall have 
 above our next neighboring commonwealth (if we can 
 keep us from the fond conceit of something like a duke 
 of Venice, put lately into many men's heads ; by some 
 one or other subtly driving on under that notion his 
 own ambitious ends to lurch ^ a crovra), that our lib- 
 
 1 He doubtless lefers to the plau of the Rota Club. See p. 
 171, n. 1. 
 
 ^ to lurch : to get hold of by stealth, steal. 
 
 " The all but universal conviction, however, even among the 
 Bepublicans, was that the Republic was doomed, and that, if the 
 last and worst consummation in a return of Charles Stuart was to 
 be prevented, it could only be by consenting to some single-per- 
 son government of a less fatal kind. O that Richard's Protector- 
 ate could be restored I . . . But might not Monk himself be 
 invested with the sovereignty ? " (Masson, v, 556). Pepys says 
 in his Diary, March 3, " He told me he feared there was new 
 design hatching, as if Monk had a mind to get into the saddle. 
 Beturniug, met with Mr. Gifford, who told me, as I hear froai 
 
182 JOHN MILTON 
 
 erty sliall not be hampered or hovered over by any en- 
 gagement to such a potent family as the house of 
 Nassau, '^ of whom to stand in perpetual doubt and 
 suspicion, but we shall live the clearest and absolutest 
 free nation in the world. 
 
 On the contrary, if there be a king,^ which the in- 
 considerate multitude are now so mad upon, mark how 
 far short we are like to come of all those happinesses 
 which in a free state we shall immediately be pos- 
 sessed of. First, the Grand Council, which, as I showed 
 before, should sit perpetually (unless their leisure give 
 them now and then some intermissions or vacations, 
 easily manageable by the Council of State left sitting) 
 shall be called, by the king's good will and utmost en- 
 deavor, as seldom as may be. For it is only the king's 
 right, he will say, to call a parliament ; and this he 
 will do most commonly about his own affairs rather 
 than the kingdom's, as will appear plainly so soon as 
 they are called. For what will their business then be, 
 and the chief expense of their time, but an endless 
 tugging between petition of right and royal preroga^ 
 tive, especially about the negative voice, militia, or 
 
 many, that things are in a very doubtful posture, some of the 
 Parliament being willing to keep the power in their hands." 
 March 5, " Great hopes of the King's coming again." March 6, 
 " My Lord told me, that there was great endeavours to bring in 
 the Protector again ; but he told me, too, that he did believe it 
 would not last long if he were brought in ; no, nor the King 
 neither, (though he seems to think that he will come in) nnless 
 he carry himself very soberly and well. Everybody now drinks 
 the King's health without any fear, whereas before it was very 
 private that a man dare do it." 
 
 ' Nassau : the powerful family of Germany, from a branch of 
 which have sprung the stadtholders and sovereigns of Holland. 
 
 " There follows, under the form of a prediction, a brief re- 
 view of the relation of king and people in parliaments during 
 the reigns of James I and Charles L 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 183 
 
 subsidies, demanded and oft-times extorted without 
 reasonable cause appearing to the Commons, who are 
 the only true representatives of the people and their 
 liberty, but will be then mingled with a court faction; 
 besides which within their own walls ^ the sincere part 
 of them who stand faithful to the people wiU. again 
 have to deal with two troublesome counter-working 
 adversaries from without, mere creatures of the king, 
 spiritual, and the greater part, as is likeliest of temporal 
 lords,^ nothing concerned with the people's liberty. 
 
 If these prevail not in what they please, though 
 never so much against the people's interest, the Parlia- 
 ment shall be soon dissolved, or sit and do nothing; 
 not suffered to remedy the least grievance, or enact 
 aught advantageous to the people. Next, the Council 
 of State shall not be chosen by the Parliament, but by 
 the King,' stiU his own creatures, courtiers, and favor- 
 ites, who will be sure in all their counsels to set their 
 master's grandeur and absolute power, in what they 
 are able, far above the people's liberty. I deny not 
 but that there may be such a king, who may regard 
 the common good before his own, may have no vicious 
 favorite, may hearken only to the wisest and incor- 
 ruptest 4 of his parliament ; but this rarely happens 
 in a monarchy, not elective ; and it behooves not a 
 wise nation to commit the sum of their well-being, the 
 
 1 Within the walls of Parliament. 
 
 • The creatures of the king, both spiritual and temporal, 
 such as Laud and Buckingham and Wentworth. 
 
 ' The personal government of Charles I lasted from 1629 to 
 1640, during which time he chose the members of his council 
 and the judges of the Star Chamber from among those who 
 would assist him in carrying ont his designs. 
 
 * incorruptest: morally uncorrupted or incorruptible. Cf. 
 P. L. XI, 66. 
 
184 JOHN MILTON 
 
 whole state of their safety, to fortune. What need 
 they ; and how absurd would it be, whenas they them- 
 selves, to whom his chief virtue wiU be but to hearken, 
 may with much better management and despatch, 
 with much more commendation of their own worth 
 and magnanimity, govern without a master? Can 
 the folly be paralleled, to adore and be the slaves 
 of a single person for doing that which it is ten thou- 
 sand to one whether he can or will do, and we without 
 him might do more easily, more effectually, more laud- 
 ably ourselves ? Shall we never grow old enough to be 
 wise, to make seasonable use of gravest authorities, 
 experiences, examples ? Is it such an unspeakable joy 
 to serve, such felicity to wear a yoke? to clink our 
 shackles, locked on by pretended law of subjection, 
 more intolerable and hopeless to be ever shaken off, 
 than those which are knocked on by illegal injury and 
 violence ? 
 
 Aristotle, our chief instructor in the universities, 
 lest this doctrine be thought sectarian, as the royalist 
 would have it thought, tells us in the third of his Pol- 
 itics 1 that certain men at first, for the matchless ex- 
 
 ^ " The first governments were kingships, probably for this 
 reason, because of old, when cities were small, men of eminent 
 virtue were few. They were made kings because they were bene- 
 factors, and benefits can only be bestowed by good men. But 
 when many persons equal in merit arose, no longer enduring the 
 pre-eminence of one, they desired to have a coraraonwealth, and 
 set np a constitution. The ruling class soon deteriorated and en- 
 riched themselves ont of the public treasury ; riches became the 
 path to honour, and so oligarchies naturally grew up. These 
 passed into tyrannies and tyrannies into democracies ; for love of 
 gain in the ruling classes was always tending to diminish their 
 number, and so to strengthen the masses, who in the end set upon 
 their masters and established democracies." — Aristotle, PoZt- 
 tics, m, 15. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 185 
 
 cellence of their virtue above others, or some great 
 public benefit, were created kings by the people, in 
 small cities and territories, and in the scarcity of 
 others to be found like them ; but when they abused 
 their power, and governments grew larger, and the 
 number of prudent men increased, that then the peo- 
 ple, soon deposing their tyrants, betook them, in all 
 civilest places, to the form of a free commonwealth. 
 And why should we thus disparage and prejudicate ^ 
 our own nation as to fear a scarcity of able and worthy 
 men united in counsel to govern us, if we will but use 
 diligence and impartiality to find them out and choose 
 them, rather than yoking ourselves to a single person, 
 the natural adversary and oppressor of liberty ; though 
 good, yet far easier corruptible by the excess of his 
 singular power and exaltation, or, at best, not com- 
 parably sufficient to bear the weight of government, 
 nor equally disposed to make us happy in the enjoy- 
 ment of our liberty under him ? 
 
 But admit that monarchy of itself may be conven- 
 ient to some nations, yet to us who have thrown it out, 
 received back again, it cannot but prove pernicious. 
 For kings to come, never forgetting their former ejec- 
 tion, will be sure to fortify and arm themselves suffi- 
 ciently for the future against aU such attempts here- 
 after from the people, who shall be then so narrowly 
 watched and kept so low that, though they would 
 never so fain, and at the same rate of their blood and 
 treasure, they never shall be able to regain what they 
 now have purchased and may enjoy, or to free them- 
 selves from any yoke imposed upon them.'' Nor will 
 
 1 prejudicate : prejudge. See All 's Well that Ends Well, i, 
 ii, 8. 
 * Milton's profouud diseourageraent leads him to underesti- 
 
186 JOHN MILTON 
 
 they dare to go about it ; utterly disheartened for the 
 future, if these their highest attempts prove unsuccess- 
 ful ; which wiU be the triumph of all tyrants here- 
 after over any people that shall resist oppression ; and 
 their song wiU then be, to others, How sped the re- 
 bellious English ? to our posterity, How sped the rebels, 
 your fathers? 
 
 This is not my conjecture, but drawn from God's 
 known denouncement against the gentilizing Israelites, 
 who, though they were governed in a commonwealth 
 of God's own ordaining, he only their king, they his 
 peculiar people, yet affecting rather to resemble hea- 
 then, but pretending the misgovemment of Samuel's 
 sons,i no more a reason to dislike their commonwealth 
 than the violence of Eli's sons ^ was imputable to that 
 priesthood or religion, clamored for a king. They had 
 their longing, but with this testimony of God's wrath : 
 " Ye shall cry out in that day because of your king 
 which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord wiU not 
 hear you in that day." ^ Us if he shall hear now, how 
 much less will he hear when we cry hereafter, who 
 once delivered by him from a king, and not without 
 wondrous acts of his providence, insensible and un- 
 worthy of those high mercies, are returning precipi- 
 
 mate the English temper and power of resistance. Charles II 
 would have heen glad to impose a yoke upon the people and free 
 himself from the Parliament, but he was less conscientious than 
 his father, and hence when principle was at stake, he gave way, 
 instead of stubbornly standing for what he believed to be the right, 
 as Charles I had done ; he was too pleasure-loving to exert himself 
 to the utmost of his power in a struggle with the people ; and he 
 was afraid to bring in a foreign army, lest be might be beaten 
 and compelled to go again into exile. 
 
 1 1 Sam. viir, 4, 6. 
 
 2 1 Sam. II, 12-17; in, 12-14. 
 8 1 Sam. vni, 18. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 187 
 
 tantly, if he withhold us not, back to the captivity 
 from whence he freed us ! 
 
 Yet neither shall we obtain or buy at any easy rate 
 this new gilded yoke, which thus transports us ; a new 
 royal revenue must be found, a new episcopal, for 
 those are individual ; both which being wholly dissi- 
 pated, or bought by private persons, or assigned for 
 service done, and especially to the army, cannot be 
 recovered without a general detriment and confusion 
 to men's estates, or a heavy imposition on all men's 
 purses ; benefit to none but to the worst and ignoblest 
 sort of men, whose hope is to be either the ministers 
 of court riot and excess, or the gainers by it. But, not 
 to speak more of losses and extraordinary levies on our 
 estates, what will then be the revenges and offences re- 
 membered and returned, not only by the chief person, 
 but by aU his adherents, — accounts and reparations 
 that win be required, suits, indictments, inquiries, dis- 
 coveries, complaints, informations, who knows against 
 whom or how many, though perhaps neuters, if not to 
 utmost infliction, yet to imprisonment, fines, banish- 
 ment, or molestation ? If not these, yet disfavor, dis- 
 countenance, disregard, and contempt on all but the 
 known royalist, or whom he favors, will be plenteous. ^ 
 
 ^ Much of the confusion which Milton, in this paragraph, pre- 
 dicts did follovr on the reestablishment of kingship, but the 
 agreement — known as the Declaration of Breda — made with 
 Charles II before he entered England certainly diminished that 
 confusion. The early acts of Parliament were the carrying out 
 of these provisions : the revenue of the crown was fixed at 
 £1,200,000, which was about £300,000 greater than that of 
 Charles I ; the king declared that he would grant the freest in- 
 demnity to all, provided they would return to the loyalty and 
 obedience of good subjects ; the only exceptions to this were to 
 be made by the Parliament and not by the King. Thirteen regi- 
 
188 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Nor let the new royalized Presbyterians ^ persuade 
 themselves that their old doings, though now recanted, 
 will be forgotten, whatever conditions be contrived or 
 trusted on. Will they not believe this .: nor remember 
 the pacification, how it was kept to the Scots ;2 how 
 
 cides were finally executed ; many regicides and other opponents 
 of the king and kingship suffered imprisonment or the loss of 
 property and position ; some escaped and remained exiles the 
 rest of their lives. The lauds of tlie King and the clergy were to 
 revert to their former owners, and here much confusion arose 
 andmany suffered great hardship; the Independent and Presby- 
 terian clergy were turned out of their livings, and the heads and 
 fellows of the two colleges had to surrender their places to those 
 who had previously held them. But withal the confusion was 
 less than was to be expected, and the King showed far more len- 
 iency and wisdom than Milton prophesies of him. 
 
 1 The Presbyterians were not forgotten, but many of them 
 had quietly changed their point of view. In a debate on a De- 
 claration of his Majesty concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs, Baxter 
 said : " None of them now spoke for Presbytery, or thought of 
 bringing any of the essential differences between the Presbyter- 
 ian system and the Episcopal into the discussion. They had, all 
 of them, practically ceased to be Presbyterians, and had consented 
 to accept Episcopacy and a Liturgy ; what they now spoke for 
 was simply an abatement of the excesses of Episcopacy and the 
 excesses of Ritual. It was a, strange pass for the great body 
 of the English Presbyterians to have come to in the person of 
 their chief representatives. But the fact was as Baxter states 
 it." — Masson, vi, 90-100. 
 
 ' The condition on which the Scots were to bring help to the 
 Parliament had been that England should sign the Solemn League 
 and Covenant establishing Presbyterianism in England, and ex- 
 tirpating Popery and Prelacy (Masson, m, 13-15). The test of 
 loyalty to the Parliament was the signing of this Covenant, as 
 had been promised the Scots. But by no means all of even the 
 members of Parliament were willing to sign it, and in the army 
 practically only the officers consented to it. By 1649, the Parlia- 
 ment had become so liberal toward other forms of religion that 
 the Covenant was supplanted by the Engagement, " I do declare 
 and promise that I will be true and faithful to the Common- 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 189 
 
 other solemn promises many a time to us ? Let them 
 but now read the diabolical forerunning libels, the 
 faces, the gestures, that now appear foremost and 
 briskest in all public places, as the harbingers of those 
 that are in expectation to reign over us ; let them but 
 hear the iasolencies, the menaces, the insultiags, of 
 our newly animated common enemies crept lately out 
 of their holes, their hell I might say, by the language 
 of their infernal pamphlets, the spew of every drunk- 
 ard, every ribald ; nameless, yet not for want of li- 
 cense, but for very shame of their own vile persons, 
 not daring to name themselves, while they traduce 
 others by name ; and give us to foresee that they in- 
 tend to second their wicked words, if ever they have 
 power, with more wicked deeds. '^ 
 
 wealth of England, as the same is established without a King or 
 a House of Lords." 
 
 ^ All that the newspapers now publish then appeared in the 
 form of pamphlets or weekly news-letters or news-sheets. Lou-, 
 don was flooded with these publications, usually appearing ftom 
 unlicensed presses. The act for the licensing of the press, 
 passed in 1643, was still in force, but this proved futile to con- 
 trol the kind of pamphlets described. So hitter had been the op- 
 position to the Parliament after the death of the King, that a 
 new law was necessary, directed especially against the seditious 
 and libelous tracts, against that which was false or misrepre- 
 senting. " No ' book or pamphlet, treatise, sheet or sheets of news ' 
 was to be published without a licence. The penalty for spreading 
 abroad scandalous or libelous books was to be £10 or forty days' 
 imprisonment for the author, £5 or twenty days' imprisonment 
 for the printer, and £2 or teu days'. imprisonment for the seller, 
 whilst the purchaser was to forfeit £1 if he did not give inform- 
 ation within four aud twenty hours " (Gardiner, History of the 
 Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1, 193-94). And there was added 
 to this: " Whereas divers vagrant persons, of idle conversations, 
 having forsaken their usual callings, and accustomed themselves 
 after the manner of hawkers to sell and cry about the streets, 
 and in other places, pamphlets and other books, aud under col- 
 
190 JOHN MILTON 
 
 Let our zealous backsliders forethink now with 
 themselves how their necks yoked with these tigers of 
 Bacchus,* these new fanatics of not the preaching, but 
 the sweating tub,^ inspired with nothing holier than 
 the venereal pox,* can draw one way under monarchy 
 to the establishing of church discipline * with these 
 new disgorged atheisms. Yet shall they not have the 
 honor to yoke with these, but shall be yoked under 
 them ; these shall plough on their backs. And do they 
 among them, who are so forward to bring in the single 
 person, think to be by him trusted or long regarded ? 
 So trusted they shall be, and so regarded, as by kings- 
 are wont reconciled enemies ; neglected, and soon after 
 discarded, if not persecuted for old traitors ; the first 
 inciters, beginners, and more than to the third part 
 actors, of all that followed. 
 
 our thereof to disperse all sorts of dangerons libels, to tbe in- 
 .tolerable dishonour of tbe Parliament and tbe whole Govern- 
 ment of the Commonwealth, be it ordained and enacted . . . 
 that no such hawkers shall be any more permitted, and that they 
 and all ballad-singers, shall ... be conTOjed and carried to the 
 House of Correction, there to be whipped as common rogues 
 and then dismissed " (Masson, iv, 117-18). "More than 30,000 
 political pamphlets and newspapers were issned from the press 
 during the 20 years from 1640 to the Restoration. They may be 
 seen at the British Museum bound up in two thonsand volumes " 
 (May; CansiitiUiimal History, ii, 241. See some of these ballads 
 and libels in Ashton, Humour, Wil, and Satire of the Seventeenth 
 Century, 213, 252, 259, 293, 295, 380, 382). In 1660 those who de- 
 sired the return of Charles II broke out into new libels and ri- 
 baldry against the Parliament and Presbyterianism. 
 
 ' When Dionysus in his wanderings came to the river, Zeus 
 sent a tiger to bear him across. 
 
 * The reference is of course to Diogenes. Cf. Cormts, 708. 
 
 * venereal ; see S. A . 533. 
 
 ' The Act of Uniformity, reestablishing the Church of £ng> 
 land, was passed in 1662. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 191 
 
 It will be found also that there must be then, as 
 necessarily as now (for the contrary part wiU be still 
 feared), a standing army ^ which for certain shall not 
 be this, but of the fiercest cavaliers, of no less expense, 
 and perhaps again under Rupert.^ But let this army 
 be sure they shall be soon disbanded, and likeliest 
 without arrear or pay ; and, being disbanded, not be 
 sure but they may as soon be questioned for being in 
 arms against their king. The same let them fear who 
 have contributed money, which will amount to no 
 small number, that must then take their turn to be 
 made delinquents and compounders.^ They who past 
 reason and recovery are devoted to kingship perhaps 
 will answer that a greater part by far of the nation 
 will have it so, the rest, therefore, must yield. 
 
 Not so much to convince these, which I little hope, as 
 to confirm them who yield not, I reply that this greatest 
 part have both in reason, and the trial of just battle,* 
 
 1 The desire of the Parliament was to disband the army, 
 after paying the long-standing arrears of money, and to this 
 Charles II gave his consent. But the rising of fanatics, in Lon- 
 don in 1661, gave him the excuse for retaining a part of thenot- 
 yet dismissed army, and this 5000 men formed the basis of 
 what afterwards became a standing army. 
 
 ^ Rupert, the nephew of Charles I, had been especially hated, 
 because during the war he was famous for his swift action in 
 battle and for his mercilessness. See the caricatures of him in 
 Humour, Wit, and Satire of the Seventeenth Century, 103-12. 
 " That inhuman Prince Rupert." — Ibid. 97. 
 
 ^ delinquents: see p. 151, n. 1. compounders: On January 
 30, 1644, the Houses offered pardon to all delinquents who would 
 submit before a certain date, and they were allowed to com- 
 pound or settle for their delinquency by the payment of a cer- 
 tain sum to be assessed by the Parliament ; tliis to be used in de- 
 fraying public expenses. — GsirdiaeT, History of the Great Civil 
 War, III, 197-98. 
 
 * That is, in the decisive battles of the Civil War. 
 
192 JOHN MILTON 
 
 lost the right of their election what the government 
 shall be. Of them who have not lost that right, 
 whether they for kingship be the greater number, who 
 can certainly determine? Suppose they be, yet of 
 freedom they partake all alike, one main end of gov- 
 ernment ; which, if the greater part value iiot, but will 
 degenerately forego, is it just or reasonable that most 
 voices against the main end of government should en- 
 slave the less number that would be free ? ^ More just 
 it is, doubtless, if it come to force, that a less number 
 compel a greater to retain, which can be no wrong 
 to them, their liberty than that a greater number, for 
 the pleasure of their baseness, compel a less most in- 
 juriously to be their fellow-slaves. They who seek no- 
 thing but their own just liberty have always right to 
 win it and to keep it, whenever they have power, be 
 the voices never so numerous that oppose it. And 
 how much, we above others are concerned to defend it 
 from kingship, and from them who in pursuance 
 thereof so perniciously would betray us and themselves 
 to most certain misery and thraldom, will be needless 
 to repeat. 
 
 Having thus far shown with what ease we may now 
 obtain a free commonwealth, and by it, with as much 
 ease, all the freedom, peace, justice, plenty, that we 
 can desire ; on the other side, the difficulties, troubles, 
 
 1 Here Milton affirms more clearly and fully than before 
 (pp. 150, 164) his belief that the few wise men should rule the 
 many. See Ajistotle's discussion of this subject, Politics, m, 4, 
 7 ; III, 10; ni, 13, 2-7; lu, 18; and " For if liberty and equalitj', 
 as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracj', 
 they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the 
 government to the utmost. And since the people are the major- 
 ity, and the opinion of the majority is decisive, such a govern- 
 ment must necessarily be a democracy." — Ibid, rv, 4, 23. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 193 
 
 uncertainties, nay, rather impossibilities, to enjoy 
 these things constantly under a monarchy; I will 
 now proceed to show more particularly wherein our 
 freedom and flourishing condition will be more ample 
 and secure to us under a free commonwealth than 
 under kingship. 
 
 The whole freedom of man consists either in spirit- 
 ual or civil liberty. As for spiritual, who can be at 
 rest, who can enjoy anything in this world with content- 
 ment, who hath not liberty to serve God, and to save 
 his own soul, according to the best light which God 
 hath planted in him to that purpose, by the reading 
 of his revealed will and the guidance of his Holy 
 Spirit ? That this is best pleasing to God, and that 
 the whole Protestant church allows no supreme judge 
 or rule in matters of religion but the Scriptures, and 
 these to be interpreted by the Scriptures themselves, 
 which necessarily infers liberty of conscience, I have 
 heretofore proved at large in another treatise,^ and 
 might yet further, by the public declarations, confess- 
 
 1 The Christian Doctrine, a, treatise written in Latin (De 
 Doctrina Christiana) to prove from texts of Scripture, taken liter- 
 ally, the nature of God, Christ, and man, and their relation to 
 each other. In the preface Milton says : " I resolved not to re- 
 pose on the faith or judgement of others in matters relating to 
 God; but on tha one hand, having taken the grounds of my faith 
 from divine revelation alone, and on the other, having neglected 
 nothing which depended on my own industry, I thought fit to 
 scrutinize and ascertain for myself the several points of my re- 
 ligious belief, by the most careful perusal and meditation of the 
 Holy Scriptures themselves. ... I deemed it therefore safest 
 and most advisable to compile for myself, by my own labour 
 and study, some original treatise which should be always at 
 hand, derived solely from the word of God itself, and executed 
 with all possible fidelity, seeing that I could have no wish to prac- 
 tice any imposition on myself in such a matter." — P. W. IV, 
 2-4. 
 
194 JOHN MILTON 
 
 ions, and admonitions of whole clinrches and states, 
 obvious in all histories since the reformation. 
 
 This liberty of conscience, which above all other 
 things ought to be to all men dearest and most precious, 
 no government more inclinable not to favor only, but 
 to protect, than a free commonwealth, as being most 
 magnanimous, most fearless, and confident of its own 
 fair proceedings. Whereas kingship, though looking 
 big, yet indeed most pusillanimous, fuU of fears, fuU 
 of jealousies, startled at every umbrage, as it hath 
 been observed of old to have ever suspected most and 
 mistrusted them who were in most esteem for virtue 
 and generosity of mind, so it is now known to have 
 most in doubt and suspicion them who are most re- 
 puted to be religious. Queen Elizabeth, though her- 
 self accounted so good a protestant, so moderate, so 
 confident of her subjects' love, would never give way 
 so much as to presbyterian reformation in this land, 
 though once and again besought, as Camden ^ relates ; 
 but imprisoned and persecuted the very proposers 
 thereof, alleging it as her mind and maxim unalterable 
 that such reformation would diminish regal authority. 
 
 What liberty of conscience can we then expect of 
 others, far worse principled from the cradle, trained 
 up and governed by popish and Spanish counsels, and 
 on such depending hitherto for subsistence? Espe- 
 cially what can this last Parliament expect, who, hav- 
 ing revived lately and published the Covenant, have re- 
 engaged themselves never to readmit episcopacy ? * 
 
 1 William Camden, 1551-1623, the learned antiquarian who 
 wrote in Latin the Annals of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 2 When the Long Parliament, which had been broken up in 
 1648, was brought together again in February, 1660, it proceeded 
 to reestablish Presbyterianism and to enact, on March 5, " That 
 the solemn League aud Covenant be printed and published, and 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 195 
 
 Which no son of Charles returning but will most cer- 
 tainly bring back with him,i if he regard the last and 
 strictest charge of his father, " to persevere in, not 
 the doctrine only, but government of the church of 
 England, not to neglect the speedy and effectual sup- 
 pressing of errors and schism," among which he ac- 
 counted presbytery one of the chief. 
 
 Or if, notwithstanding that charge of his father, he 
 submit to the covenant, how will he keep faith to us, 
 with disobedience to him; or regard that faith given, 
 which must be founded on the breach of that last and 
 solemnest paternal charge, and the reluctance, I may 
 say the antipathy, which is in all kings, against pres- 
 byteriaa and independent discipline? For they heat 
 the gospel speaking much of liberty, — a word which 
 
 set lip and forthwith read in every church, and also read once a 
 year according to former Act of Parliament, and that the said 
 Solemn League and Covenant be also set up in this House." — 
 Masson, V, 549. 
 
 ' In a book, published ten days after the King's death, called 
 Eikon Basilike : The True Portraicture of His Sacred Majestie 
 in his Solitudes and Sufferings, the next to the last chapter is ad- 
 dressed to his son, and in this Charles says (Masson, IV, 35) : " I 
 do require and entreat you, as your Father and King, that you 
 never suffer your heart to receive the least check against, or dis- 
 affection from, the true religion established in the Church of Eng- 
 land." There was much heated discussion as to whether the King 
 had written the book, but it had an enormous influence in the 
 reaction which followed upon the beheading of Charles. Milton 
 was commissioned by the Parliament to answer it, and in this 
 answer, called Eikonoklastes, he assumes that it was written by 
 Charles. With reference to the passage quoted he says : " First, 
 he. hath the same fixed opinion and esteem of his old Ephesian 
 goddess, called the church of England, as he had ever ; and 
 charges strictl)' his son after him to persevere in that anipapal 
 schism, (for it is not much better), as that which will be neces- 
 sary both for his soul's and the kingdom's peace." — P. W.l, 
 475. 
 
196 JOHN MILTON 
 
 monarcLy and her bishops both fear and hate, but a 
 free commonwealth both favors and promotes and 
 not the word only, but the thing itself. But let our 
 governors beware in time, lest their hard measure to 
 liberty of conscience be found the rock whereon they 
 shipwreck themselves, as others have now done before 
 them in the course wherein God was directing their 
 steerage to a free commonwealth ; and the abandon- 
 ing of all those whom they call sectaries,^ for the de- 
 tected falsehood and ambition of some, be a wilful 
 rejection of their own chief strength and interest in 
 the freedom of all Protestant religion, under what 
 abusive name soever calumniated. 
 
 The other part of our freedom consists in the civil 
 rights and advancements of every person according to 
 his merit ; the enjoyment of those never more certain, 
 and the access to these never more open, than in a 
 free commonwealth. Both which, in my opinion, may 
 be best and soonest obtained if every county in the 
 land were made a kind of subordinate commonalty or 
 commonwealth, and one chief town or more, according 
 as the shire is in circuit, made cities, if they be not 
 so called already, where the nobility and chief gentry, 
 from a proportionable compass of territory annexed to 
 each city, may build houses or palaces befitting their 
 quality, may bear part in the government, make their 
 own judicial laws, or use those that are, and execute 
 them by their own elected judicatures and judges with- 
 out appeal, in all things of civil government between 
 man and man. So they shall have justice in their own 
 hands, law executed fully and finally in their own 
 counties and precincts, long wished and spoken of, 
 but never yet obtained. They shall have none then to 
 1 sectaries : see p. 116, n. 3. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 197 
 
 blame but themselves if it be not well administered ; 
 and fewer laws to expect or fear from the supreme au- 
 thority ; or to those that shall be made of any great 
 concernment to public liberty, they may, without much 
 trouble in these commonalties, or in more general as- 
 semblies called to their cities from the whole territory 
 on such occasion, declare and publish their assent or 
 dissent by deputies, within a time limited, sent to the 
 grand council ; yet so as this their judgment declared 
 shall submit to the greater number of other counties 
 or commonalties, and not avail them to any exemption 
 of themselves, or refusal of agreement with the rest, 
 as it may in any of the United Provinces, being sov- 
 eireign within itself, oft-times to the great disadvantage 
 of that union.'' 
 
 In these employments they may, much better than 
 they do now, exercise and fit themselves till their lot 
 fall to be chosen into the Grand Council, according as 
 their worth and merit shall be taken notice of by the 
 people. As for controversies that shall happen between 
 men of several counties, they may repair, as they do 
 now, to the capital city, or any other more commodious, 
 indifferent place and equal judges. And this I find to 
 have been practised in the old Athenian commonwealth, 
 reputed the first and ancientest place of civility in all 
 Greece ; that they had in their several cities a peculiar, 
 in Athens a common, government ; and their right, as 
 it befell them, to the administration of both. 
 
 They should have here also schools and academies 
 at, their own choice, wherein their children may be 
 bred up in their own sight to all learning and noble 
 
 1 In the plan here proposed note the points of similarity to 
 ourown State and Federal Government. For United Ptoviaces^ 
 see p. 166, n. 1. 
 
198 JOHN MILTON 
 
 education; not in grammar only, but in all liberal 
 arts and exercises. This would soon spread much more 
 knowlege and civility, yea, religion, through all parts 
 of the land, by communicating the natural heat of 
 government and culture more distributively to all ex- 
 treme parts, which now lie numb and neglected, would 
 soon make the whole nation more industrious, more in- 
 genious at home, more potent, more honorable abroad.^ 
 To this a free commonwealth will easily assent (nay, 
 the Parliament hath had already some such thing in 
 design) ; for of all governments a commonwealth aims 
 most to make the people flourishing, virtuous, noble, 
 and high-spirited. Monarchs will never permit, whose 
 aim is to make the people wealthy indeed perhaps, and 
 well fleeced, for their own shearing, and the supply of 
 regal prodigality, but otherwise softest, basest, vicious- 
 est, servilest, easiest to be kept under. And not only 
 in fleece, but in mind also sheepishest, and will have 
 all the benches of judicature annexed to the throne, 
 as a gift of royal grace, that we have justice done us: 
 whenas nothing can be more essential to the freedom 
 of a people than to have the adminstration of justice, 
 and all public ornaments, in their own election, and 
 within their own bounds, without long travelling or 
 depending on remote places to obtain their right, or 
 any civil accomplishment, so it be not supreme, but 
 
 1 "The state, as I was sayiug, is a plurality, which 
 should be united and made into a community by education " 
 (Aristotle, Politics, U, 5, 15). " But of all the things which I 
 have mentioned that which most contributes to the permanence 
 of constitutions is the adaptation of education to the form of 
 government. . . . The best laws, though sanctioned by every 
 citizen of the state, will be of no avail unless the young are 
 trained by habit and education in the spirit of the constitution." 
 ~-Ibid.y,9,n. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 199 
 
 subordinate to the general power and union of the 
 vhole republic. 
 
 In which happy firmness, as in the particular above 
 mentioned, we shall also far exceed the United Prov- 
 inces, by having, not as they (to the retarding and 
 distracting oft-times of their counsels or urgentest oc- 
 casions), many sovereignties united in one common- 
 wealth, but many commonwealths under one united 
 and entrusted sovereignty. And when we have our 
 forces by sea and land, either of a faithful army or a 
 settled militia, in our own hands, to the firm establish- 
 ing of a free commonwealth, public accounts under our 
 own inspection, general laws and taxes, with their 
 causes, in our own domestic suffrages, judicial laws, 
 offices, and ornaments at home in our own ordering 
 and administration, all distinction of lords and com- 
 moners, that may anyway divide or sever the public 
 interest, removed, what can a perpetual senate have 
 then wherein to grow corrupt, wherein to encroach 
 upon us, or usurp ? i Or, if they do, wherein to be 
 formidable ? Yet if all this avail not to remove the 
 fear or envy of a perpetual sitting, it may be easily 
 provided, to change a third part of them yearly or 
 every two or three years, as was above mentioned; or 
 that it be at those times in the people's choice whether 
 they will change them or renew their power, as they 
 shall find cause. 
 
 I have no more to say at present: few words will 
 save us, well considered ; few and easy things, now 
 seasonably done. But, if the people be so affected as 
 to prostitute religion and liberty to the vain and 
 
 1 He returns to the point of the perpetual senate, knowing 
 it to be the vulnerable part of his whole scheme, and the part 
 his enemies would surely hold up to ridicule. 
 
300 JOHN MILTON 
 
 grounidless appreHension that nothing but kingship can 
 restore trade, not remembering the frequent plagues 
 and pestilences * that then wasted this city, such as 
 through God's mercy we never have felt since; and 
 that trade flourishes nowhere more than in the free 
 commonwealths of Italy, Germany, and the Low Conn- 
 tries, before their eyes at this day; yet if trade be 
 grown so craving and importunate through the pro- 
 fuse living of tradesmen that nothing can support it 
 but the luxurious expenses of a nation upon trifles or 
 superfluities ; so as if the people generally should be- 
 take themselves to frugality, it might prove a danger- 
 ous matter, lest tradesmen should mutiny for want of 
 trading,* and that therefore we must forego and set to 
 sale religion, liberty, honor, safety, all concernments 
 divine or human, to keep up trading ; if, lastly, after 
 all this light among us, the same reason shall pass for 
 current, to put our necks again under kingship, as was 
 made use of by the Jews to return back to Egypt, and 
 to the worship of their idol queen, because they falsely 
 imagined that they ihen lived in more plenty and 
 prosperity : ' our condition is not sound, but rotten, 
 both in religion and ail civil prudence, and will bring 
 us soon, the way we are marching, to those calamities 
 which attend always and unavoidably on luxury, all 
 national judgments under foreign and domestic slavery. 
 So far we shall be from mending our condition by 
 monarchizing our government, whatever new conceit 
 now possesses us. 
 
 * The grea/test ravages of the plague bad been in 1603 and 1625. 
 
 * This was one' of the arguments for the return of kingship; 
 that a court with its luxurious living increased trade and pro- 
 vided employment for a large number of people. 
 
 ' See Num. xi, 4-6; xiv, 1-3. their idol queen, the goddess 
 of plenty. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 201 
 
 However, with all hazard I have ventured what I 
 thought my duty to speak in season, i and to forewarn 
 my country in time, wherein I doubt not but there 
 may be many wise men in all places and degrees, but 
 am sorry the effects of wisdom are so little seen among 
 us. 2 Many circumstances and particulars I could have 
 added in those things whereof I have spoken ; but a 
 few main matters now put speedily in execution will 
 suffice to recover us, and set all right ; and there will 
 want at no time who are good at circumstances, but 
 men who set their minds on main matters, and suffi- 
 ciently urge them, in these most difficult times, I find 
 not many. 
 
 What I have spoken is the language of that which 
 is not called amiss " the good old Cause " ; ^ if it seem 
 strange to any, it will not seem more strange, I hope, 
 than convincing to backsliders. Thus much I shpuld 
 perhaps have said, though I were sure I should have 
 spoken only to trees and stones ; and had none to cry 
 to, but with the prophet, " O earth, earth, earth " ! * 
 to tell the very soil itself what her perverse inhabitants 
 are deaf to. Nay, though what I have spoke should 
 happen (which Thou suffer not, who didst create man- 
 kind free ! nor Thou next, who didst redeem us from 
 
 * It was far too late to stem the tide in favor of the king. 
 Masson (v, 559) thinks Monk himself would have been glad to 
 retain a commonwealth in some form, had he not recognized the 
 impossibility of curbing the desire of the people for a return to 
 that form of government under which they had flourished in the 
 past of the nation's history. 
 
 ' This was the chief cause of Milton's discouragement, that 
 there were many men to quibble about details, but no one was 
 wise enough to set his thought and effort upon formulating a 
 principle and putting it into active operation. 
 
 s See p. 153, n. 3. * Jer. xxil, 24-30. 
 
802 JOHN MILTON 
 
 being servants of men ! ) to be the last words of our 
 expiring liberty. But I trust I shall have spoken per- 
 suasion to abundance of sensible and ingenuous men ; 
 to some, perhaps, whom God may raise to these 
 stones to become children of reviving liberty, and may 
 reclaim, though they seem now choosing them a cap- 
 tain back for Egypt, to bethink themselves a little, and 
 consider whither they are rushing ; to exhort this tor- 
 rent 1 also of the people not to be so impetuous, but to 
 keep their due channel ; and at length recovering and 
 uniting their better resolutions, now that they see al- 
 ready how open and unbounded the insolence and rage 
 is of our common enemies, to stay these ruinous pro- 
 ceedings, justly and timely fearing to what a precipice 
 of destruction the deluge of this epidemic madness 
 would hurry us, through the general defection of a mis- 
 guided and abused multitude. 
 
 The Present Means and Brief Delineation 
 OF A Free Commonwealth, East to be put 
 IN Practice and without Delay. 
 
 In a Letter to General Monk. 
 
 First, all endeavors speedily to be used, that the en- 
 suing election be of such as are already firm, or inclin- 
 able to constitute a free commonwealth (according to 
 the former qualifications decreed in Parliament, and 
 
 1 " To exhort a torrent ! The very mixture and hurry of the 
 metaphors in Milton's mind are a reflex of the facts around him. 
 Current, torrent, rush, rapid, avalanche, deluge hurrying to a 
 precipice : mix and jumble such figures as we may, we but ex- 
 press more accurately the mad haste which London and all Eng- 
 liuid were making in the end o{ April 1660 to bring Charles 
 over from the Continent." — Masson, v, 688. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 803 
 
 not yet repealed, as I hear i), without single person or 
 House of Lords. If these be not such, but the contrary, 
 who foresees not that our liberties will be utterly lost 
 in this next Parliament, without some powerful course 
 taken, of speediest prevention ? The speediest way wiU 
 be to call up forthwith the chief gentlemen out of 
 every county ; to lay before them (as your Excellency 
 hath already, both in your published letters to the 
 army and your declaration recited to the members of 
 Parliament) the danger and confusion of readmitting 
 kingship in this land, especially against the rules of 
 all prudence and example, in a family once ejected, 
 and thereby not to be trusted with the power of re- 
 venge. That you will not longer delay them with vain 
 expectation, but wUl put into their hands forthwith the 
 possession of a free commonwealth, if they will first 
 return immediately and elect them, by such at least 
 of the people as are rightly qualified, a standing coun- 
 cil in every city and great town, which may then be 
 dignified with the name of city, continually to consult 
 the good and flourishing state of that place, with a 
 competent territory adjourned ; to assume the judicial 
 laws, either those that are, or such as they themselves 
 shall new make severally, in each commonalty, and 
 all judicatures, aU magistracies, to the administration 
 of all justice between man and man, and aU the orna- 
 ments of public civility, academies, and such like, in 
 their own hands. Matters appertaining to men of sev- 
 eral counties or territories may be determined, as they 
 are Jiere at London, or in some more convenient place, 
 under equal judges. 
 
 Next, that in every such capital place they will 
 choose them the usual number of ablest knights and 
 1 See p. 168, n. 1. 
 
204 JOHN MILTON 
 
 burgesses, engaged for a commonwealth,! to make up 
 the Parliament, or (as it wiU from henceforth be 
 better called) the Grand or General Council of the Na- 
 tion, whose office must be, with due caution, to dispose 
 of forces both by sea and land, under the conduct of 
 your Excellency, for the preservation of peace both at 
 home and abroad ; must i'aise and manage the public 
 revenue, but with provided inspection of their ac- 
 counts ; must administer all foreign affairs, make all 
 general laws, peace or war, but not without assent of 
 the standing council in each city or such other general 
 assembly as may be called on such occasion, from the 
 whole territory, where they may, without much trouble, 
 deliberate on all things fully, and send up their suf- 
 frages within a set time, by deputies appointed.* 
 
 Though this Grand Council be perpetual (as in that 
 book ^ I proved would be best and most conformable 
 to best examples), yet they will then, thus limited, 
 have so little matter in their hands or power to en- 
 danger our liberty, and the people so much in theirs 
 to prevent them, having all judicial laws in their own 
 choice, and free votes in all those which concern gen- 
 erally the whole Commonwealth, that we shall have 
 little cause to fear the perpetuity of our general senate, 
 which will be then nothing else but a firm foundation 
 and custody of our public liberty, peace, and union, 
 through tlie whole Commonwealth, and the transactors 
 of our affairs with foreign nations. If this yet be not 
 thought enough, the known .expedient may at length 
 be used, of a partial rotation. 
 
 ' Observe that there is not to be a free election, but those 
 only are to be elected who believe in a commonwealth. 
 2 See p. 197. 
 " The pamphlet. 
 
THE COMMONWEALTH 205 
 
 Lastly, if these gentlemen convocated refuse these 
 fair and noble offers of immediate liberty and happy 
 condition, no doubt there be enough in every county 
 who will thankfully accept them, your Excellency once 
 more declaring publicly this to be your mind, and 
 having a faithful veteran army, so ready and glad 
 to assist you in the prosecution thereof. ^ For the 
 full and absolute administration of law in every 
 county, which is the difficultest of these proposals, 
 hath been of most long desired ; and the not grant- 
 ing it held a general grievance. The rest, when they 
 shall see the beginnings and proceedings of these con- 
 stitutions proposed, and the orderly, the decent, the 
 civil, the safe, the noble effects thereof, will be soon 
 convinced, and by degrees come in of their own ac- 
 cord, to be partakers of so happy a government. 
 
 1 If they do not consent to this plan, the army is to be used 
 to compel them.