Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr John Milton for the Liberty of the Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parliament of England
Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr John Milton for the Liberty of the Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parliament of England,by Milton , published in 1644 . The title imitates the Areopagiticus of the Athenian orator Isocrates, which was addressed to the Council that met on the Areopagus in Athens. This discourse, one of Milton's most impassioned prose works, was an unlicensed and unregistered publication. It attempted to persuade Parliament to repeal the licensing order of 14 June 1643 , which effectively reinstated the Stuart machinery of press censorship. Milton opens with a selective history of licensing, identifying it with the Papal Inquisition, which he satirizes. He sanctions the reader's freedom to judge for himself between good and bad books, since good and evil are inseparable in the fallen world (‘from out the rind of one apple tasted…two twins cleaving together’) and the condition of virtue is the recognition of evil and the...
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