Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 23, 2025
What light does the Areopagitica throw on Milton's notion of Toleration, or Liberty of Conscience, and on his feelings towards the Sects and Sectaries generally among whom he was now ranked? It is not uncommon to regard the Areopagitica as one of the first and greatest English pleas for Liberty of Conscience; and, broadly viewed, it is.
This may have been the very pamphlet, or one of the pamphlets, of Woodward which the Stationers had in view when they complained of him; for it was published Nov. 13, 1644, or exactly eleven days before the Areopagitica, and it appeared anonymously and without a licence.
There are argumentative, philosophical, historical, biographical, and theological prose works; but only the fine presentation of nature and life in The Complete Angler interests the general reader of to-day, although the grandeur of Milton's Areopagitica, the humor of Thomas Fuller, the stately rhythmical prose of Sir Thomas Browne, and the imagery and variety of Jeremy Taylor deserve more readers.
Milton protested against this, as against every other form of tyranny, and his Areopagitica so called from the Areopagus or Forum of Athens, the place of public appeal, and the Mars Hill of St. Paul's address is the most famous plea in English for the freedom of the press.
As we have already seen, he had entreated Voltaire, of all men in the world, to draw up a civil profession of faith. See vol. i. 326. If I were a magistrate, and if the law pronounced the penalty of death against atheists, I would begin by burning as such whoever should come to inform against another." Plato's Laws, Bk. x. 909, etc. Areopagitica, p. 417.
One, however, of his prose tracts has continued to enjoy some degree of credit down to the present time, for its matter as well as for its words, Areopagitica. This tract belongs to the year 1644, the most fertile year in Milton's life, as in it he "brought out two of his divorce tracts, the Tractate of Education, and the Areopagitica.
No Name Series, "Signor Monaldini's Niece." Poe, "Poems." Arnold, "Light of Asia." Swinburne, "Atalanta." Auguez, "Histoire de France." Amiers, "Olanda." St. Simon, "Louis XIV. et sa Cour." Paradol, "La France Nouvelle." Caesar, "De Bello Gallico." Palgrave, "Golden Treasury." Milton, "Poems." Milton, do. Milton, "Areopagitica." Stevenson, "Inland Voyage." Stevenson, "Travels with a Donkey."
A wonder picture of Warble made face, and all. "Pleathe Pleathe " she held out her hand, and he dropped the miniature into it. "Why don't you hit it off better with your husband?" he demanded. "Don't ask me things when you know everything yourself." "I do. I paint a miniature of a face, and I get a soul laid bare." "Your name? Your silly first name " "It's a nickname." "For what?" "Areopagitica."
Practically he stands forth in the Areopagitica as the advocate of a Toleration that would have satisfied all the necessities of the juncture, by giving full liberty not only to orthodox Congregationalists, but also to Baptists, so-called Antinomians, and Seekers, and perhaps all other Protestant sects that had any real rooting at that time in English society.
The truth is that the just Vindication consists chiefly of garbled extracts from the Areopagitica of Milton. That noble discourse had been neglected by the generation to which it was addressed, had sunk into oblivion, and was at the mercy of every pilferer.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking