Excerpt from Famous Pamphlets

Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England. Henry VI II., when he destroyed the Pope's authority in England, took it to himself. He continued the cen sorship of books, which had been established for the suppression of opinions hostile to the established faith, and extended censorship over political writings which had not been checked by Rome. Queen Elizabeth allowed printing only to a few known presses in London, Oxford and Cambridge, and that was not the liberty of printing, for there was strict endeavour to suppress utterance of opinion that might disturb the order of the State. A decree of the Star Chamber, in 1637, limited the number of printers in the whole country to twenty and of type-founders to four. With provision for strict censorship of all they uttered to the world. In 1640 the Star Chamber was abolished, but in 1643, on the 14th of June, the' Parliamen pression, by an'ordinance for the regulating of printing. Milton at once set himself to reason with the chiefs of his own party, and used all the force of his genius to make them understand that truth can be established only by the freest interchange of thought. The principle for which he contended is that upon which all healthy growth and national prosperity, in its true sense, must depend. He took for his model an oration written' to be read, which was addressed by Isocrates to the Areopagus, the Great Council of Athens, and is known as the Areopagitic Discourse. Isocrates called on the Parliament of Athens to undo acts of its own; Milton was making a like call on the Areopagus of England. He gave to his work the exact form of a Greek oration, with exordium, statement, proof and peroration; and he put into it the very soul of England, claiming freedomin the search for truth. It was published in November 1644.

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