AREOPAGITICA
A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENSED PRINTING
TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND
This is true liberty, when free-born men,
Having to advise the public, may speak free,
Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise;
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace:
What can be juster in a state than this?
Euripid. Hicetid.
They, who to states and governors of the Commonwealth direct
their speech, High Court of Parliament, or, wanting such access in
a private condition, write that which they foresee may advance the
public good; I suppose them, as at the beginning of no mean
endeavour, not a little altered and moved inwardly in their minds:
some with doubt of what will be the success, others with fear of
what will be the censure; some with hope, others with confidence of
what they have to speak. And me perhaps each of these
dispositions, as the subject was whereon I entered, may have at
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