And, when thou dost confess the world too poor, The room of bankrupt nature to supply, That gilds with everlasting rays the highest sky. All wonders past, or present times can tell, And thou art left of all the world the only miracle. A JUST VINDICATION OF LEARNING: HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT, IN BEHALF OF THE BY PHILOPATRIS. Sub bono principe sentire licet quæ velis, & quæ sentias dicere. PROEM. May it please you, my LORDS and GENTLEMEN, This session of parliament is of such high importance to these parts of the world, that heaven seems to have committed the universal fate of Christendom to your disposal: from whose proceedings both France, Spain, Germany, Holland, and this part of the universe must take their measures: Nor will it be a vanity in me to affirm the same thing of you, which heretofore Tacitus did of the Batavi; who, in the time of the Romans, saith he, were able to confer a victory upon what ever party they adhered to.' The parliaments of England have ever been formidable to their neighbours, but you, above all others, seem to have been reserved by Providence for those great and weighty affairs, which are now in agitation, as well at home as abroad, and for which purpose you are here convened. You only are able to cast out that angel of darkness, with his many legions, who is at this time endeavouring to destroy our best of kings and governments; you only are able to center this reeling kingdom, which staggers and groans under the pleurisy of popery, and which, if not now prevented, may in time attaint and corrupt the whole mass of English blood; you only are able to preserve that so necessary religion, and sacred property of our British Isle, by continuing, as there now is, a protestant head upon a protestant body; without which our prince would be no other than a father-in-law to his people, and they sons-in-law to him; besides, the incoherence would be as great and disagreeable, as to behold a black Indian head annexed unto a white body. Neither would such a conjunction be more unnatural, than inconvenient, since he that is arbitrary over the soul (as in popery) hath ever a co-equal power over the body and the estate; which is evident from the examples of France, Spain, and other popish governments, where the priest rides the soul, and the prince the body; a tyranny as disagreeable to our gracious sovereign's nature to impose upon us, as it would be insupportable for our English spirits to bear. Now the original of these popish villainies, as I humbly conceive, proceeds not more from their sacerdotal malice and interest, than from their laicks ignorance and servitude; without which their clergy would, at the best, be rendered but like wolves without teeth. Wherefore, to divest their priests of this power of doing ill, nothing would be more conducive, than the propagating of wisdom and knowledge amongst the populace; since, as ignorance renders men obedient and susceptible of the meanest slavery, so doth its contrary put all men upon their guard: Omnes enim nos sumus, aut corvi qui lacerant, aut cadavera que lacerantur. Now, for the more speedy effecting hereof, there hath never been discovered any better expedient amongst men, than that of the Liberty of the Press; whereby whoever opposes the publick interest are exposed and rendered odious to the people, as, on the contrary, they, who merit well of their country, are ever recorded with immortal honour to posterity. So that, if fame and ambition, as all generous souls must acknowledge, have so great an influence over the minds of active men, what can be more reasonable, what can be more serviceable to the world, than that which hurries men into a necessity either of acting virtuously, or of forfeiting their so much desired honour for ever? And such I take to be the consequence of a Free Press: From which consideration, since the late act, which laid that severe restraint upon printing, is so near expiring, my humble address to your lordships, and to you, gentlemen of the house of commons, is, that, before you proceed to the continuation of any thing of that nature, you would condescend so far, as to look down upon these ensuing arguments against any such inquisition, or embargo upon science; wherein you may, haply, find some reasons, which, though not founded upon private ends, like those of our adversaries, may yet prove sufficiently satisfactory to all but that dead weight of interest which opposes us, and will not be converted, for that it is not for its interest so to be. This, my lords and gentlemen, is all from him, who would sacrifice his life and fortune for his king and country, coveting no other title of honour, whereby to be distinguished, than that of PHILOPATRIS. A LL civilised people, as well ancient as modern, have ever had that veneration and deference for learning, that almost no nation, disengaged from barbarism, wants its publick donations either of magnificent structures, or plentiful revenues for the encouragement of literature and learned men. Such patrons and admirers of learning were the heroes of old, that they seem to contend about nothing more, than to excel in their liberality to the muses. Thus we see Alexander the Great presented Aristotle with eight-hundred talents, as also Xenocrates, the philosopher, with fifty talents; Antiochus likewise presented his physician, Theombrotus, with sixty-thousand crowns; Homer for his works received a thousand pieces of silver from the Candiots; nor did that suffice, but cities must fall together by the ears for the honour of his birth: So liberal were the ancients to all manner of sciences; nor have our modern benefactors been inferior to them, as our two famous universities may testify to posterity. Yet, nor with standing all these encouragements, learning hath of late years met with an obstruction in many places, which suppresses it from flourishing or increasing, in spight of all its other helps; and that is, the inquisition upon the press, which prohibits any book from coming forth without an imprimatur; an old relique of popery, only necessary for the con Plus. Vita Ales. cealing of such defects of government, which of right ought to be discovered and amended. However, as our government is not sick of the same distemper, so need we not the same cure, but rather the contrary: for, as an ill face cannot be too closely masked, so neither can a good one be too much exposed. That books are of great use to a government is evident, first, for that they are the only records of time, which excite us to imitate the past glories of our ancestors: secondly, we owe our manner or form of divine worship to books alone: thirdly, we owe our philosophy, or contemplation of God in his works, to the same cause. For men's natural abilities, like natural plants, need pruning by study: thus we see, that histories make men wise; poets, witty; mathematicks, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral philosophy, grave; logick and rhetorick, able to dispute all which excellencies are to be acquired only from books: since no vocal learning is so effectual for instruction as reading; for that written discourses are better digested, and support themselves better on their own weight, than words disguised by the manner of expression, cadence, or gesture, which corrupt the simplicity of things; when also the suddenness of pronunciation allows not the audience time sufficient to reflect upon what was said. Moreover, books flatter much less, and have more universal precepts, than discourse; which generally affects complaisance, and gaining the hearers good will: particularly in morality, where great persons are better instructed, and more plainly reprehended for their faults by books, than by discourses. Books being therefore in the main so useful to human society, I cannot but herein agree with Mr. Milton, and say, that (unless it be effected with great caution) you had almost as good kill a man, as a good book; for he, that kills a man, kills but a reasonable creature, God's image: whereas he that destroys a good book, kills reason itself, which is as it were the very eye of God. Having thus demonstrated how much the world owes to learning and books, let me not be altogether unmindful of Faust and Guttenburg, the promoters of both; who by their ingenuity discovered and made known to the world that profound art of printing, which hath made learning not only easy, but cheap; since now any person may accommodate himself with a good moderate library at the same price, as heretofore Plato paid for three books of Philolaus, the Pythagorean, viz. three hundred pounds. This was the invention wherewith Cardan up. braided the ancients, saying antiquitas nihil par habet.+ Nay, Thuanust goes higher, when, speaking of the inventors of this art, he saith, quibus plus debet Christianus orbis, quam cuiquam fortissimorum belli ducum ob propagatos fines patria unquam debuit. And truly so we do; but still provided, that the inquisition upon it be removed, without which, this art, designed at first for the service of the publick, will prove useful to none but the licenser. Therefore, in opposition to any such restraint, I shall here demonstrate the unreasonableness of any such licence, or imprimatur. First, from the ancient usage as well of the Greeks, as Romans, who • Gell. Lib. v. C. 17. Subt. Lib. xvii. Hist. Lib. XV. were both highly eminent for learning; and whom, in this particular, we need not be ashamed to imitate. We do not find amongst the Greeks, that their vetus comedia (which was so much censured for libelling and traducing men by name, as to be prohibited acting on the stage) was ever suppressed from being read; but rather the contrary; for that Plato himself recommended the reading of Aristophanes, the loosest of all those old comedians, to his royal scholar Dionysius. Neither do we read any where, that either Epicurus, or that libertine school of Cyrene, or what the Cynick impudence uttered, with many other sects and opinions, which tended to voluptuousness, and the denying of a providence, were ever prohibited or questioned. Also amongst the Latins, we find Lucretius versifying his Epicurean tenents to Memnius, without any molestation; and had the honour to be published a second time by Cicero the great father of the commonwealth, although he himself dis putes against that same opinion in his own writings. Neither do we read of any decree against the satyrical sharpness of Lucilius, Catullus, or Flaccus. Likewise, in matters of state, the story of Titus Livius, though it extolled and magnified Pompey's party, was not therefore suppressed by Octavius Cæsar of the other faction. Nay, even in the times of Christianity, unless they were plain invectives against Christianity, as those of Porphyrius and Proclus, they met with no interdict till about the year 400, in a Carthaginian council, wherein bishops themselves were forbid to read the books of Gentiles, but heresies they might read: whereas others, long before them, scrupled more the books of hereticks, than of Gentiles. And that the primitive councils and bishops were used only to declare what books were not commendable, passing no further censure, but leaving to each one's conscience to read, or to lay by, till after the year 800, is already observed by Father Paul, that great unmasker of the Trentine council. After which time, the unsatiable popes engrossed more and more every day, till Martin the Fifth, by his bull, not only prohibited, but was the first that excommunicated the reading of heretical books: for, about that time, Wickliff and Huss, growing formidable, were they who first drove the papal court to a stricter policy of prohibiting: which course Leo the Tenth and his successors followed, until the council of Trent and the Spanish inquisition, engendering together, produced these two monsters, an index expurgatorius and a licenser, when they enacted, that no book, pamphlet, or paper should be printed, till it were approved and licensed under the hands of two or three gluttonous friars: so that, in fine, there was never any such inquisition upon learning known in the world, till slavery supplanted liberty, and interest religion. Secondly, it is the greatest affront and discouragement that can be of. fered to learning and learned men: for so far to distrust the judgment and honesty of one who hath but a common repute in learning, having never yet offended, as not to count him fit to print his mind, without a tutor or 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 boy at school, if we have only escaped the ferula, to come under the fescu of an imprimatur? When a man writes to the world, he summons up all his reason and deliberation to assist him; he searches, meditates, is industrious in consulting and conferring with his judicious friends; after all which, he takes himself to be informed in what he writes, as well as any that writ before. 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 the state of maturity, as not to be still distrusted, unless he carry all his considerate diligence, all his midnight watchings and expence of Palladian oil, to the hasty view of an unleisured licenser, perhaps much his younger, perhaps much his inferior in judgment, perhaps one who never knew the labour of book-writing, or perhaps one altogether ignorant of that art or science whereof the author treats. When, if he be not repulsed or slighted, he 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: this cannot but be a derogation to the author and to the book, as well as to the privilege and dignity of learning. And what if the author shall be of so copious a 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 frequently happens even to the best of writers, and that perhaps a dozen times in one book? The printer dares not go 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 journey will he make before that licenser (for it must be the same man) can either be found, or be found at leisure; in the mean while, either the press must stand still, which is no small damage, or the author lose his most correct thoughts, and so send forth his book imperfect. How can any man esteem himself doctor enough to teach with authority in his own book, when he himself and all that he writes must submit to the jurisdiction and censure of another? .. Thirdly, 'Tis a great prejudice even to the book itself, to come out under the partiality and ignorant approbation of a licenser. Every acute reader, upon the first sight of a pedantick licence, will be apt to misinterpret the word imprimatur, and think it signifies no more, but that this book is foolish enough to be printed; when, seeing it comes out under the wardship of another, he will be apt to say, I know nothing of the licenser, but that I have his own hand for his arrogance; who shall warrant me his judgment? The state, sir, replies the stationer; but hath a quick return, the state shall be my governors, but not my criticks; they may be mistaken in the choice of a licenser, as easily as this li. censer in the choice of an author: whereunto he might also add from my lord Bacon, 'that such authorised books are but the language of the times. For though a licenser should happen to be more than ordinary judicious, which will be a great hazard in the next succession; yet his very office and commission enjoins him to let pass nothing but what is vulgarly received already. Nay, is the work of any deceased author, though never so famous in his life time, come to their hand for a licence to be printed or reprinted; if there be found in the book any one opinion that thwarts the licenser's humour, whether it be of a vacuum, motion, air, or never so inconsiderable a subject; the sense of that great man shall to all posterity be lost, out of the presumptuous rashness of a |