CONTENTS

24

2

2!

2

3

31

3

.

INTRODUCTION, •

11 July 1637. Star.Chamber Decree,

29 January 1642. Order of the House of Commons,

9 March 1643. Order of the House of Commons,

14 June 1643. Order of the Lords and Commons,

AREOPAGITICA,

ARGUMENT. Introduction,

What books are ?

1. The origin, inventors and object of Book licen-

cing,
2. What is to be thought in general of reading books;

3. The Order (of 14 June 1643] conduces nothing

to the end for which it was framed,

4. The manifest hurt it causes :-

(1) It is the greatest discouragement and affront

that can be offered to learning and to learned

men,

(2) It is an undervaluing and vilisying of the

whole nation,

(3) It brings disrepute upon the Ministers,
Proof.—The servile condition of learning in Italy,

the home of licencing, •

5. It may prove a nursing mother to sects,

6. It will be the step-dame to Truth :-
(1) By disenabling us in the maintenance of what

is already known,
(2) By the incredible loss it entails in hindering

the search after new Truth,

Description of the English nation,

The power of Truth,

An appeal for toleration, spiritual unity and peace,

Notes,

.

INTRODUCTION.
HAT half-living thing-a book : may be re-

garded in many ways. It may be considered
in connection with the circumstances which
led to its conception and creation; and in

! the midst of which it appeared. It may be studied, as exhibiting the moral intent, the mental power of its author. Its contents may be analysed as to their intrinsic truthfulness or falsity. We may trace and identify its influence upon its own age and on succeeding generations. This is an apprehension of the mind of a book.

More than this. We may examine its style, its lower and manner of expressing that mind. The inging collocation of its words, the harmonious adence of its sentences, the flashing gem-like beauty f isolated passages, the just mapping out of the eneral argument, the due subordination of its several arts, their final inweaving into one overpowering onclusion: these are the features, discovering, illumiating, enforcing the mind of a book.

Much of what is in books is false, much only half ue, much true. It is impossible to separate the tares om the wheat. Every one, therefore-of necessity-. lust read discriminatively; often fifting and searching I first principles, often testing the catenation of an gument, often treasuring up incidental truths for ture use; enjoying—as delights by the way-whater felicity of expression, gorgeousness of imagination, vidness of description, or aptness of illustration may ance, like sunshine, ethwart the path : the journey's \d being Truth. The purpose through these English Reprints is to ing this modern age face to face with the works of ir forefathers. The Editor and his clumsy framework

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