John Milton and Freedom of the Press
John Milton wrote the Areopagitica in 1644, in protest of a law passed in England which required all books and pamphlets to be OK’ed by a group of censors before being published. He believed that if England allowed licensing of books – who could be printed and who could not – it would be an attempt at controlling what the people were thinking. Milton is not easy reading, but I still get a thrill reading his defense of freedom of the press.
This comment on Milton is from the St. Lawrence Institute:
“While knowledge of this context is important to an understanding of the nature of Milton’s passion in writing this pamphlet, it is not essential to a modern appreciation of its contents. Milton’s words are just as powerful today in their call for freedom of thought as they were in his own. The issue he is addressing is still with us: the debate between legitimate societal control and freedom – whether of printing, speech, or thought – is on-going, and will continue to be of central importance in our media-dependent culture.”
This is John Milton’s most often quoted paragraph:
“And perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into of knowing good and evil, that is to say of knowing good by evil. 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 apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true warfaring Christian. I can not praise a fugitive and cloistered 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.”
If you are looking for a challenge, you can read the whole Areopagitica here:
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One of the problems I find in Milton is his insistence on associating evil with the feminine (e.g. the character of Sin in Paradise Lost) and this quote illustrates that: “vice with all her baits”.
Still I feel like giving it a try, issues of censorship and freedom of speech are more pertitent now than anytime before.
Good comment! And good catch on his association of vice with the female. But did you also catch that in “I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue” that virtue is also feminine in his pamphlet?
1644 – even very wealthy women were under submission to husband or father, and not allowed to manage their own property . . .
I find reading Milton tough, but when I’m finished, I feel like dancing for joy – you struggle, and you triumph. He had some pretty amazing ideas for the 1600’s. Freedom to think . . . WOW.
I think Milton was a truly inspirational man he gave so many people who had lost hope, courage to carry on and fight for what they believed to be right. It does seem that his comparison between the evil and the feminine is frequent. However I believe on some level this proves his point even more. In his day and age women were inferior to men. So in a sense, he shows the influence society ( which was manipulated by the church and the rich) had on everyone elses beliefs weather it was with the writen word or in general
Every time I read Milton, I come away feeling refreshed. What a thinker this man was! Thanks for your comment, Sarah.