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 view'd and many a Journey will he make ' ere 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 3. 'T is a great prejudice even to the Book it self to come out under the partiality and ignorant approbation of a Licenser Every Acute Reader upon the first sight of a Pedantick License 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 replyes the Stationer But hath a quick return The State shall be my Governours but not my Criticks they may be mistaken in the choice of a Licenser as easily as this Licenser in the choice of an Author Whereunto he might also add from my Lord Bacon That such Authorized Books are but the Language of the Times For though a Licenser should happen to be more then ordinary Judicious which will be a great hazard in the next succession yet his very Office and Commission enjoyns him to let pass nothing but what is Vulgarly received already Nay if the work of any Deceased Author though never so Famous in his Life time come to their hand for License 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 for all Posterity be lost out of the presumptuous Rashness of a pedantick Licenser So that if these things be not seriously and timely resented by them who have the remedy in their power but that Licensers are permitted to gnaw out the choicest periods of exquisite Books and to commit such a Treacherous Fraud against the Orphan remainders of the worthiest men after death the more sorrow will belong to that helpless race of men whole misfortune it is to have Understanding Henceforth 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 stedfast Dunce will be the only pleasant life and only in request 4 It is not only a reflection upon Books and particular men but it is likewise an undervaluing and vilifying of the whole Nation I cannot set so small value for all the Invention the Art the Wit the grave and solid Judgment which is in England as to imagine that it can be comprehended in any 20 Capacities how good soever much less that it should not pass except their Superintendence be over it except it be sifted and strained with their Strainers and that it should be uncurrant without their Manual Stamp Truth and Understanding are not such Wares as to be Monopolized and Traded in Tickets Statutes and Standards We must not think to make a Staple Commodity of all the knowledge in the Land to Mark and License it like our Broad-cloath and Wool-packs What is it but a servitude like that imposed by the Philistines not to be allow'd the Sharpning of our own Axes but we must repair from all quarters to twenty Licensing Forges Had any one written and divulged Erroneous things and scandalous to an Honest Life mis-using and forfeiting the esteem had of his reason amongst men if after conviction this only censure were adjudged him that he should never henceforth Write but under the Authority of an Examiner this could not be apprehended less then a disgraceful punishment Whence to include the whole Nation and those that never yet thus offended under such diffident and suspectful Prohibition renders it no less then a National disparagement and so much the more seeing Debtors and Delinquents may walk abroad without a Keeper but inoffensive Books must not stir forth without a visible Jaylor in their Title Nor is it a less reproach to the Commonalty since if we be jealous over them as that we dare not trust them with an English Pamphlet What do we but censure them for a giddy vicious unthinking crowd in such a sick estate of discretion as to be able to take nothing down but through the Pipe of a Licenser Now that this proceeds from the care or love of the Commonalty we cannot pretend since in those Popish places where the Laity are most hated and despised the same strictness and severity is used over them 5. It reflects upon our Church and Clergy of whose labours we should hope better and of the proficiency which their Flock reaps by them then after all this Light of the Gospel all this continual Preaching they should be still frequented with such an un-principled un-edify'd and Laick rabble as that the Whiff of every new Pamphlet should stagger them out of their Catechism and Christian walking This may have much reason to stagger and to discourage the Ministers when such a low conceit is had of all their Exhortations and the benefiting of their Hearers as that they are not thought fit to be turned loose to three Sheets of Paper without a License that all the Sermons all the Lectures Preached Printed and Vented in such numbers and such Volumes should not be Armour sufficient against one single Enchyridion Unlicensed I am confident that a Kingdom 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 That all freedom of Writing should be thus restrained with the proud curb of an Imprimatur must needs administer cause of doubt and discouragement to all Learned and Religious men who may justly suspect the Reason and Power of that cause which durst not stand a Tryal of Skill Every Author Writes either Truth or Falshood If he Writes Truth why should he be oppressed or stifled And if he delivers what is False let him be confuted by Answer whereunto every Author is subject since no cause ever suffered by being answered only by Fire and Faggot That Liberty is the Nursery of Science appears in that there is nothing hath so much clouded and discouraged the Italian Wits as their Inquisition which restraining all manner of Philosophick freedom hath for these many years produced nothing but obsequious flattery In which Country the Famous Galileo was oppressed under the Inquisitions
in re alioqui non necessariâ to be Capital and Damnable I would fain know why is not any Vicious Habit as bad or worse then a False Opinion Why are we so zealous against those we call Non-conformists or Hereticks and yet at the same time dear Friends with Drunkards Fornicators Swearers Intemperate and Idle Persons I am certain that a Drunkard is as contrary to God and lives as contrary to the Laws of Christianity as any Heretick and I am also sure that I know what Drunkenness is but I am not sure that such an Opinion is Heresie nor would any man else be so dogmatical in these matters did he not mistake confidence for certainty Faction and Heresie were things unknown in the World till the increase of Interest and abatement of Christian Simplicity when the Churches Fortune grew better her Sons worse and her Fathers worst of all Why should I hate men because their Understandings have nor been brâ—ught up like mine have not had the same Masters have not met with the same the Books nor the same Company or have not the same Interest or are not so Wise or are much Wiser and therefore do not determine their School-questions to the sense of my Sect or Interest I think they are in an Error but they believe me to be in the wrong If they Erre they do it not through Obstinacy but Ignorance and if God affords them his Patience why should we not lend them ours It was nobly and bravely answered for a Heathen of Tamberlain the Great who when his High Priest desired him to reduce all that part of the World to one Religion replyed No I will not for that how saith he do I know but the same God who hath delighted himself so much with the variety of all other things as appears in Men Beasts Birds Fish Trees Herbs Flowers c. May not also delight himself as much in variety of Worship Therefore I will punish none but such as deny either a God or his Providence and him will I put to death Certainly 't is very unreasonable for men to press and pretend every Opinion in matters of Religion as necessary in so high a degree that if they spoke Truth or indeed two of them in 500 Sects which are now in the World and for ought I know there may be 5000. it is 500. to one but every man is Damn'd for every Sect Damns all but it self and yet that is Damn'd of 499. and it is excellent Fortune then if that escape All Wise Princes heretofore till they were overborn with Faction gave Toleration to different Sects whose Opinions did not disturb the publick Interest And not without reason for that being restrained and made miserable mutually endears the discontented Party and so begets more hearty and dangerous Confederations against the oppressing Government Now how unreasonable soever such kind of Persecutions may appear to all tender hearted Christians yet if once a License prevails when men shall not be permitted to justifie their Innocence to the World 't is greatly to be fear'd that these mischiefs and worse then these if possible will be the consequence of it Having therefore thus plainly and at large demonstrated the inconveniences of a Licensing Press give me leave to write upon the square and shew you the Objections of our Adversaries which without wrong to their cause may be justly comprehended under one head and that is this Objection If say they a Restraint be not laid upon Printing and some Supervisors assigned over the Press how then can we be secured from Libells against the King the Church the State and private men As also from Popish Books of all sorts Now this I take to be the only Material Objection wherewith they can have any shew of a pretence to baffle and obstruct our design To which I Answer First that to expect any assurance that no such Books shall be written is more then Mortal man can give since we see that during this late Act and should there be even a Spanish Inquisition erected amongst us yet there are some Authors and some Printers so bold that the one to vent his Humour and the other for the Lucre of Money would Write and Print such Books in spite of the strictest enquiry and in defiance of the severest Penalty And these are the Authors that are most dangerous and also most incorrigable being persons however that are more likely to be silence'd by Liberty then by Restraint For experience hath already shew'd that all such Acts will prove uneffectual as to them Secondly supposing any such Authors are taken and discovered why we need no other new Laws for the punishing of them as I humbly conceive then what are already in force As for example if any Audacious Villain shall Publish Treason he is already lyable to suffer as a Traytor or if he Writes Scandalous Reflections upon the Government I presume he is by the present Laws of the Land subject to a Fine and Imprisonment Again if he publishes any Atheism Heresie or Schism he is lyable to an Excommunication and to be proceeded against accordingly in the Spiritual Court Or if in his Writing he Defames any particular person he is obnoxious to a Scandala Magnatum if he be a Peer and to an Action upon the Case for Slander if he be a Commoner And last of all for Popish Books Quaere whether there be not Statutes already in force for the abolishing them made 3 and 4 of Ed. 6. For although this Statute was once repealed by the 1 M. 2. yet that of the 1 M. 2. was likewise afterwards repealed by the 1 Jac. 28. So that I cannot apprehend wherein we have need of any other new Law of this nature unless it be to preserve to the poor Book-sellers their just and undoubted property of their Copies which is their House and Land they having the same Title for the one as we have for the other POSTSCRIPT HAving thus therefore my Lords and Gentlemen tendred to your serious consideration these few reasons against any such Inquisition upon the Press I shall presume to offer but this one Proposal to Your Judgment and so conclude viz. That if these fore-mentioned Arguments prove so unneffectual as that your Prudence shall think fit to take some further care about the regulating of the Press then if it be Enacted that any Book may be Printed without a License provided that the Printers and the Authors Name or at least the Printers be Registred whether or no this will not have all the good but none of the bad Consequence of a Licenser And that those which otherwise come forth if they be found Mischeivous and Libellous shall be committed to the Flames as also the Author to Condigne Punishment but in this as in all other things I most humbly submit my self to Your Supream Wisdom and Judicature FINIS Pl. Alex Gell. lib. 5. ch 17. Subt. lib. 17. Hist. lib. 25. Lord Bacon Dr. Taylor Liberty of Proph
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 allow 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 Humain 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 Gods Image Whereas he that destroys a good Book kills Reason it self 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 Easie but Cheap since now any person may accommodate himself with a good moderate Library at the same Price as heretofore Plato payed for three Books of Philolaus the Pythagorian viz. Three Hundred Pounds This was the Invention wherewith Cardan upbraided the Ancients saying Antiquitas nihil par habet Nay Thuanus goes higher when speaking of the Inventors of this Art he saith Quibus plus debet Christianus orbis quà m cuiquam fortissimorum belli ducum ab propagatos fines patria unquam debuit And truly so we do but still provided that the Inquisition upon it be removed without which this Art design'd 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 demonstrat the unreasonableness of any such License or Imprimatur 1. From the Ancient usage as well of the Greeks as Romans who 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 Comaedia which was so much censured for Libelling and Traducing men by Name as to be prohibited Acting on the Stage was ever supprest from being read but rather the contrary for that Plato himself recommended the Reading of Aristophanes the loosest of all those old Comaedians to his Royal Scholar Dyonisius Neither do we read any where that either Epicurus or that Libertine School of Cyrene or what the Cynick Impudence utter'd with many other Sects and Opinions which tended to Voluptuousness and the denying of a Providence were ever prohibited or question'd Also amongst the Latines we find Lueretius 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 disputes 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 Livins though it extoll'd and magnify'd Pompey's party was not ther suppress'd by Octavins Caesar 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 ones 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 engross'd more and more every day till Martin the 5th by his Bull not only prohibited but was the first that Excommunicated the Reading of Haeretical Books For about that time Wicklis and Huss growing formidable were they who first drove the Papal Court to a stricter policy of prohibiting Which Course Leo the 10th and his Successors followed untill the Council of Trent and the Spanish Inquisition engendring 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 Gluttenous Fryers So that in fine there was never any such Inquisition upon Learning known in the World till Slavery supplanted Liberty and Interest Religion 2. It is the greatest Affront and Discouragement that can be offer'd 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 least he should drop a Scism 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 ' scap'd 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 inform'd in what he Writes as well as any that writ before if in this the most consummate act of his sidelity 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 Oyl to the hasty view of an Unleasured 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 repuls'd or slighted must appear in Print like a Puny with his Guardian and his Censors 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 priviledge 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
Tyranny for thinking otherwise in Astronomy then the Dominican and Franciscan Licensers thought 6. This Licensing of Books is one of the most dangerous and mischeivous Monopolies and Oppressions our Government is subject to Since put the Case we were under an evil Prince as now we are under a good one he paying this Licenser his Stipend might influence him so far as to make him License all Books against the Interest of the Subject or to the Defamation of any publick Spirited Lords or Commoners and to prohibit only such Books as are in the Vindication of such persons who are for the Liberty and Property of the Subject For that 't is ever the Interest of a Licenser above all to regard the Favour of his Prince though to the prejudice and almost ruine of his Country Who payes him his Wages His Prince Who hath the disposal of all Places and Offices of Preferment His Prince Then who should he study to please right or wrong but his Prince and Pay-master that is if he be such as most Licensers are low-spirited men who consider nothing but their own present Interest Why should I not have the same freedom to write as to speak If I speak any thing that is evil I am lyable to be punish'd but yet I am never examined before I speak what I am about to say So let not my Book be Censured by one Interested man alone in private till it hath tryed the publick Test and then if there be any thing ill in it I am ready to answer for it Why must no Writing either in the behalf of such great matters as Liberty Property and Religion or in the behalf of such small trifles as Funeral Tickets Play-house Bills City Mercuries Hackney-Coach Bills Quack-Doctors Bills and the like be Printed without a License Is it for that the Subject of these Bills or Tickets are dangerous to the Government or rather that this Monopoly would be injured in its Prerogative if the least Word or Letter be Printed without paying Toll to this Licenser Heaven grant that in time there be not the same Restraint and Monopoly over Wity Discourse as there is now over Ingenuous Writing Since by the same reason the Royal Jester may demand a Spell of Money for every Jest that is broken in Discourse as well as the Licenser doth expect a reward for every Ingenious Piece or Jest that is Printed in Books When with more Gravity then Wit having with great Study and Labour Corrected some such dangerous Author as Thomas a Thumbis he from his Learned Grammatical Pen which casts no Ink without Latin drops forth that Lordly word IMPRIMATUR either because he judged no Vulgar Tongue was worthy to express so pure a Conceit or rather perhaps for that our English the Language of men ever famous and bold in the Atcheivements of Liberty will not easily find servile Letters enough to spell such an Arbitrary Presumptuous word as is that of IMPRIMATUR 7. This trouble of Licensing doth very much prejudice and injure the very Licensers themselves in the Calling of their Ministry if they will discharge that Office as they ought because of necessity they must neglect either the one duty or the other 8. It robs us of that great Argument we make use of against the Mahometans and what is worse Popish Religion viz. That Ignorance is the Mother of their Devotions since how can We justly brand their Religions for being founded meerly upon their Laicks Ignorance when we in the like manner discountenance Knowledge our selves How can we upbraid Papists for not daring to permit their Common people to read the Bible when we do the same thing in effect by tying all persons up to one mans Exposition and Interpretation of the same viz. the Licenser's who will not permit any Exposition to come forth that thwarts his own particular Judgment I am confident that if the Turk or the Pope could be assured to make all men Expound the Alcoran and Scriptures according to the sense of the Musti and Conclave they would neither of them be against the Common peoples reading them so that we all three aim at one the same thing only by different ways and that is our mistake For let their falshoods use what artifice they can yet we do in a manner Libel our own Truth when by Licensing and Prohibiting fearing each Book and the shaking of each Leaf we distrust her own strength Let her and Falshood grapple who ever knew Truth put to the worst in a free and open Encounter Her confuting is the best and surest oppressing when it leaves all standers by no room no doubt The punishing of Wits enhaunces their Authority and forbidden Writing is thought to be a certain spark of Truth that flyes up in the Faces of them who seeks to tread it out When a man hath been working at the hardest Labour in the deep Mines of Knowledge and hath furnisht himself out in all Equipage drawn forth his Reasons as it were in Battail-array scatterd and defeated all objections in his way summons his Adversary into the Field offers him the advantage of Wind and Sun if he pleases only that he might try the matter by dint of Argument for his opponent then to Sculk lie in Ambuscade to keep a narrow Bridge of Licensing where the Challenger should pass this though it be courage enough in a Souldier is but Weakness and Cowardice in the Wars of Truth For Truth needs no Policies no Stratagems no Licensings to render her Victorious these are only the shifts and defences that Error uses against her power So that if it once come to Prohibiting there is nothing more likely to be Prohibited then Truth it self even the very Bible as we may see it is by the first Inventors of this Monopoly To justifie the Suppression of Books some may Cite the Burning of those Ephesian Books by St. Paul's Converts but that agrees not with our Case for there it was not the Magistrate but the Owners of the Books themselves who burnt them in remorse 9. And Lastly Give me leave to tell you that Licensing and Persecution of Conscience are two Sisters that ever go hand in hand together being both founded upon one and the same Principle Therefore to Asperse the one permit me to Defame the other Now although I allow no indifferency to those Religions whose Principles destroy Government nor those Religions that Teach ill Life both which Errors the Papists are guilty of Yet I cannot but wish that all men would use one another so gently and so charitably that no violent Compulsion should introduce Hypocrisy and render Sincerity as well troublesome as unsafe It would be hard measure for any man to blame that Chyrurgion who refused to cut off a mans Head only to Cure a Wart or Pimple upon his Chin or Cheek Now the Case is altogether the same and we may as well decree a Wart to be Mortal as a various Opinion