invectives against Christianity, they met with no interdict that can
be cited till about the year 400. The primitive councils and bishops
were wont only to declare what books were not commendable, passing no
further till after the year 800, after which time the popes of Rome
extended their dominion over men's eyes, as they had before over their
judgments, burning and prohibiting to be read what they fancied not,
till Martin V. by his Bull not only prohibited, but was the first
that excommunicated the reading of heretical books; for about that
time Wickliffe and Huss, growing terrible, drove the papal court to a
stricter policy of prohibiting. To fill up the measure of encroachment,
their last invention was to ordain that no book, pamphlet, or paper
should be printed (as if St. Peter had bequeathed them the keys of the
press also out of Paradise), unless it were approved and licensed under
the hands of two or three glutton friars.
Not from any ancient state or polity or church, nor by any statute
left us by our ancestors, but from the most tyrannous Inquisition have
ye this book-licensing. Till then books were as freely admitted into
the world as any other birth. No envious Juno sat cross-legged over
the nativity of any man's intellectual offspring. That ye like not now
these most certain authors of this licensing Order, all men who know
the integrity of your actions will clear ye readily.
_III.--The Futility of Prohibition_
But some will say, "What though the inventors were bad, the thing, for
all that, may be good?" It may be so, yet I am of those who believe it
will be a harder alchemy than Lullius ever knew to sublimate any good
use out of such an invention.
Good and evil in the field of this world grow up together almost
inseparably. As the state of man now is, what wisdom can there be to
choose, what continence to forbear, without the knowledge of evil?
I cannot 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. That which purifies us is trial, and trial is
by what is contrary. And how can we more safely, and with less danger
scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of
tractates and hearing all manner of reason? And this is the benefit
which may be had of books promiscuously read.
'Tis next alleged we must not expose ourselves to temptations without
necessity, and next to that, not employ our time in vain things. To
both these objections one answer will serve--that to all men such books
are not temptations, nor vanities, but useful drugs and materials
wherewith to temper and compose effective and strong medicines. The
rest, as children and childish men, who have not the art to qualify
and prepare these working minerals, well may be exhorted to forbear,
but hindered forcibly they cannot be by all the licensing that sainted
Inquisition could ever yet contrive.
This Order of licensing conduces nothing to the end for which it was
framed. If we think to regulate printing, thereby to rectify manners,
we must regulate all recreations and pastimes, all that is delightful
to man. No music must be heard, no song be set or sung, but what is
grave and Doric. There must be licensing dancers, that no gesture,
motion, or deportment be taught our youth but what by their allowance
shall be thought honest. Our garments, also, should be referred to
the licensing of some more sober workmasters to see them cut into a
less wanton garb. Who shall regulate all the mixed conversation of our
youth? Who shall still appoint what shall be discoursed, what presumed,
and no further? Lastly, who shall forbid and separate all idle resort,
all evil company? If every action which is good or evil in man at ripe
years were to be under pittance and prescription and compulsion, what
were virtue but a name?
When God gave Adam reason, he gave him reason to choose, for reason is
but choosing. Wherefore did he create passions within us, pleasures
round about us, but that these rightly tempered are the very
ingredients of virtue?
Why should we then affect a rigour contrary to the manner of God and
of nature, by abridging or scanting those means which books freely
permitted are both to the trial of virtue and the exercise of truth?
_IV.--An Indignity to Learning_
I lastly proceed from the no good it can do to the manifest hurt
it causes in being, first, the greatest discouragement and affront
that can be offered to learning and to learned men. If ye be loth to
dishearten utterly and discontent the free and ingenuous sort of such
as were born to study, and love learning for itself, not for lucre or
any other end but the service of God and of truth, and perhaps that
lasting fame and perpetuity of praise which God and good men have
consented shall be the reward of those whose published labours advance
the good of mankind, then know that so far to distrust the judgment and
the honesty of one who hath but a common repute in learning, and never
yet offended, as not to count him fit to print his mind without a tutor
and examiner, is the greatest displeasure and indignity to a free and
knowing spirit that can be put upon him.
When a man writes to the world he summons up all his reason and
deliberation to assist him; he searches, meditates, is industrious, and
likely consults and confers with his judicious friends. If in this,
the most consummate act of his fidelity and ripeness, no years, no
industry, no former proof of his abilities can bring him to that state
of maturity as not to be still mistrusted and suspected, unless he
carry all his considerate diligence to the hasty view of an unleisured
licenser, perhaps much his younger, perhaps far his inferior in
judgment, perhaps one who never knew the labour of book-writing, and if
he be not repulsed or slighted, must appear in print with his censor's
hand on the back of his title, to be his bail and surety that he is no
idiot or seducer, it cannot be but a dishonour and derogation to the
author, to the book, to the privilege and dignity of learning.
And, further, to me it seems an undervaluing and vilifying of the whole
nation. I cannot set so light by all the invention, the art, the wit,
the grave and solid judgment which is in England, as that it can be
comprehended in any twenty 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, that it should be
uncurrent without their manual stamp. Truth and understanding are not
such wares as to be monopolised and traded in by tickets and statutes
and standards.
Lords and Commons of England, consider what nation it is whereof ye
are, and whereof ye are the governors--a nation not slow and dull, but
of a quick, ingenious and piercing spirit, acute to invent, subtle and
sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the highest
that human capacity can soar to. Is it for nothing that the grave and
frugal Transylvanian sends out yearly from as far as the mountainous
borders of Russia, and beyond the Hercynian wilderness, not their
youth, but their staid men, to learn our language and our theologic
arts? By all concurrence of signs, and by the general instinct of holy
and devout men, God is decreeing to begin some new and great period in
His Church, even to the reforming of Reformation itself. What does He,
then, but reveal Himself to His servants, and as His manner is, first
to His Englishmen?
Behold now this vast city--a city of refuge, the mansion house of
liberty, encompassed and surrounded with His protection. The shop of
war hath not there more anvils and hammers waking to fashion out the
plates and instruments of armed justice in defence of beleaguered
truth than there be pens and heads there, sitting by their studious
lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith
to present, as with their homage and their fealty, the approaching
Reformation; others as fast reading, trying all things, assenting
to the force of reason and convincement. What could a man require
more from a nation so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge?
Where there is much desire to learn, there, of necessity, will be
much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men
is but knowledge in the making. A little generous prudence, a little
forbearance of one another, and some grain of charity might win all
these diligencies to join and unite in one general search after
truth, could we but forego this prelatical tradition of crowding free
consciences and Christian liberties into canons and precepts of men.
Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself
like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks.
Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling
her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam; purging and unsealing her
long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while
the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that
love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in
their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms.
What should ye do then? Should ye suppress all this flowery crop
of knowledge and new light? Should ye set an oligarchy of twenty
engrossers over it, to bring a famine upon our minds again, when we
shall know nothing but what is measured to us by their bushel? Believe
it, Lords and Commons, they who counsel ye to such a suppressing do
as good as bid ye suppress yourselves. If it be desired to know the
immediate cause of all this free writing and free speaking, there
cannot be assigned a truer than your own mild, and free, and humane
government. It is the liberty, Lords and Commons, which our own
valorous and happy counsels have purchased us, liberty, which is the
nurse of all great wits. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to
argue freely according to conscience above all liberties. And though
all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so
Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting,
to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple. Whoever knew
Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? For who knows not
that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty? She needs no policies, nor
stratagems, nor licensing to make her victorious. Those are the shifts
and defences that error uses against her power. Give her but room, and
do not bind her when she sleeps.
PLUTARCH
Parallel Lives
Little is known of the life of Plutarch, greatest of biographers.
He was born about 50 A.D., at Chæronea, in Bœotia, Greece, the
son of a learned and virtuous father. He studied philosophy
under Ammonius at Delphi, and on his return to his native city
became a priest of Apollo, and archon, or chief magistrate.
Plutarch wrote many philosophical works, which are enumerated by
his son Lamprias, but are no longer extant. We have about fifty
biographies, which are called "parallel" because of the method
by which Plutarch, after giving separately the lives of two or
more people, proceeds to compare them with one another. The
"Lives" were translated into French in Henry II.'s reign, and
into English in the time of Elizabeth. They have been exceedingly
popular at every period, and many authors, including Shakespeare,
have owed much to them. Plutarch died about 120 A.D.
_I.--Lycurgus and Numa_
According to the best authors, Lycurgus, the law-giver, reigned only
for eight months as king of Sparta, until the widow of the late king,
his brother, had given birth to a son, whom he named Charilaus. He
then travelled for some years in Crete, Asia, and possibly also in
Egypt, Libya, Spain, and India, studying governments and manners; and
returning to Sparta, he set himself to alter the whole constitution of
that kingdom, with the encouragement of the oracles and the favour of
Charilaus.
The first institution was a senate of twenty-eight members, whose place
it was to strengthen the throne when the people encroached too far, and
to support the people when the king should attempt to become absolute.
Occasional popular assemblies, in the open air, were to be called, not
to propose any subject of debate, but only to ratify or reject the
proposals of the senate and the two kings.
His second political enterprise was a new division of the lands, for
he found a prodigious inequality, wealth being centred in the hands of
a few; and by this reform Laconia became like an estate newly divided
among many brothers. Each plot of land was sufficient to maintain a
family in health, and they wanted nothing more.
Then, desiring also to equalise property in movable objects, he
resorted to the device of doing away with gold and silver currency, and
establishing an iron coinage, of which great bulk and weight went to
but little value. He excluded all unprofitable and superfluous arts;
and the Spartans soon had no means of purchasing foreign wares, nor did
any merchant ship unlade in their harbours. Luxury died away of itself,
and the workmanship of their necessary and useful furniture rose to
great excellence.
Public tables were now established, where all must eat in common of
the same frugal meal; whereby hardiness and health of body and mutual
benevolence of mind were alike promoted. There were about fifteen to
a table, to which each contributed in provisions or in money; the
conversation was liberal and well-informed, and salted with pleasant
raillery.
Lycurgus left no law in writing; he depended on principles pervading
the customs of the people; and he reduced the whole business of
legislation into the bringing up of the young. And in this matter
he began truly at the beginning, by regulating marriages. The man
unmarried after the prescribed age was prosecuted and disgraced; and
the father of four children was immune from taxation.
Lycurgus considered the children as the property of the state rather
than of the parents, and derided the vanity of other nations, who
studied to have horses of the finest breed, yet had their children
begotten by ordinary persons rather than by the best and healthiest
men. At birth, the children were carried to be examined by the oldest
men in council, who had the weaklings thrown away into a cavern, and
gave orders for the education of the sturdy.
As for learning, they had just what was necessary and no more, their
education being directed chiefly to making them obedient, laborious,
and warlike. They went barefoot, and for the most part naked. They were
trained to steal with astuteness, to suffer pain and hunger, and to
express themselves without an unnecessary word. Dignified poetry and
music were encouraged. To the end of his life, the Spartan was kept
ever in mind that he was born, not for himself, but for his country;
the city was like one great camp, where each had his stated allowance
and his stated public charge.
Let us turn now to Numa Pompilius, the great law-giver of the
Romans. A Sabine of illustrious virtue and great simplicity of life,
he was elected to be king after the interregnum which followed on
the disappearance of Romulus. He had spent much time in solitary
wanderings in the sacred groves and other retired places; and there,
it is reported, the goddess Egeria communicated to him a happiness and
knowledge more than mortal.
Numa was in his fortieth year, and was not easily persuaded to
undertake the Roman kingdom. But his disinclination was overcome, and
he was received with loud acclamations as the most pious of men and
most beloved of the gods. His first act was to discharge the body-guard
provided for him, and to appoint a priest for the cult of Romulus. But
his great task was to soften the Romans, as iron is softened by fire,
and to bring them from a violent and warlike disposition to a juster
and more gentle temper. For Rome was composed at first of most hardy
and resolute men, inveterate warriors.
To reduce this people to mildness and peace, he called in the
assistance of religion. By sacrifices, solemn dances, and processions,
wherein he himself officiated, he mixed the charms of festal pleasure
with holy ritual.
He founded the hierarchy of priests, the vestal virgins, and several
other sacred orders; and passed most of his time in performing some
religious function or in conversing with the priests on some divine
subject. And by all this discipline the people became so tractable,
and were so impressed with Numa's power, that they would believe the
most fabulous tales, and thought nothing impossible which he undertook.
Numa further introduced agriculture, and fostered it as an incentive to
peace; he distributed the citizens of Rome into guilds, or companies,
according to their several arts and trades; he reformed the calendar,
and did many other services to his people.
Comparing, now, Lycurgus and Numa, we find that their resemblances are
obvious--their wisdom, piety, talent for government, and their deriving
their laws from a divine source. Of their distinctions, the chief is
that Numa accepted, but Lycurgus relinquished, a crown; and as it was
an honour to the former to attain royal dignity by his justice, so it
was an honour to the latter to prefer justice to that dignity. Again,
Lycurgus tuned up the strings of Sparta, which he found relaxed with
luxury, to a keener pitch; Numa, on the contrary, softened the high and
harsh tone of Rome. Both were equally studious to lead their people
to sobriety, but Lycurgus was more attached to fortitude and Numa to
justice.
Though Numa put an end to the gain of rapine, he made no provision
against the accumulation of great fortunes, nor against poverty, which
then began to spread within the city. He ought rather to have watched
against these dangers, for they gave birth to the many troubles that
befell the Roman state.
_II.--Aristides and Cato_
Aristides had a close friendship with Clisthenes, who established
popular government in Athens after the expulsion of the tyrants; yet
he had at the same time a great veneration for Lycurgus of Sparta,
whom he regarded as supreme among law-givers; and this led him to
be a supporter of aristocracy, in which he was always opposed by
Themistocles, the democrat. The latter was insinuating, daring, artful,
and impetuous, but Aristides was solid and steady, inflexibly just, and
incapable of flattery or deceit.
Neither elated by honour nor disheartened by ill success, Aristides
became deeply founded in the estimation of the best citizens. He
was appointed public treasurer, and showed up the peculations of
Themistocles and of others who had preceded him. When the fleet of
Darius was at Marathon, with a view to subjugating Greece, Miltiades
and Aristides were the Greek generals, who by custom were to command
by turns, day about; and Aristides freely gave up his command to the
other, to promote unity of discipline, and to give example of military
obedience. The next year he became archon. Though a poor man and a
commoner, Aristides won the royal and divine title of "the Just." At
first loved and respected for his surname "the Just," Aristides came to
be envied and dreaded for so extraordinary an honour, and the citizens
assembled from all the towns in Attica and banished him by ostracism,
cloaking their envy of his character under the pretence of guarding
against tyranny. Three years later they reversed this decree, fearing
lest Aristides should join the cause of Xerxes. They little knew the
man; even before his recall he had been inciting the Greeks to defend
their liberty.
In the great battle of Platæa, Aristides was in command of the
Athenians; Pausanias, commander-in-chief of all the confederates,
joined him there with the Spartans. The opposing Persian army covered
an immense area. In the engagements which took place the Greeks behaved
with the utmost firmness, and at last stormed the Persian camp, with
a prodigious slaughter of the enemy. When, later, Aristides was
entrusted with the task of assessing the cities of the allies for a
tax towards the war, and was thus clothed with an authority which made
him master of Greece, though he set out poor he returned yet poorer,
having arranged the burden with equal justice and humanity. In fact, he
esteemed his poverty no less a glory than all the laurels he had won.
The Roman counterpart of Aristides was Cato; which name he received
for his wisdom, for Romans call wise men Catos. Marcus Cato, the
censor, came of an obscure family, yet his father and grandfather were
excellent soldiers. He lived on an estate which his father left him
near the Sabine country. With red hair and grey eyes, his appearance
was such, says an epigram, as to scare the spirits of the departed.
Inured to labour and temperance, he had the sound constitution of one
brought up in camps; and he had practised eloquence as a necessary
instrument for one who would mix with affairs. While still a lad he had
fought in so many battles that his breast was covered with scars; and
all who spoke with him noted a gravity of behaviour and a dignity of
sentiment such as to fit him for high responsibilities.
A powerful nobleman, Valerius Flaccus, whose estate was near Cato's
home, heard his servants praise their neighbour's laborious life.
He sent for Cato, and, charmed with his sweet temper and ready wit,
persuaded him to go to Rome and apply himself to political affairs. His
rise was rapid; he became tribune of the soldiers, then quæstor, and at
last was the colleague of Valerius both as consul and as censor.
Cato's eloquence brought him the epithet of the Roman Demosthenes, but
he was even more celebrated for his manner of living. Few were willing
to imitate him in the ancient custom of tilling the ground with his own
hands, in eating a dinner prepared without fire, and a spare, frugal
supper; few thought it more honourable not to want superfluities than
to possess them. By reason of its vast dominions, the commonwealth had
lost its pristine purity and integrity; the citizens were frightened
at labour and enervated by pleasure. But Cato never wore a costly
garment nor partook of an elaborate meal; even when consul he drank
the same wine as his servants. He thought nothing cheap that is
superfluous. Some called him mean and narrow, others thought that he
was setting an object-lesson to the growing luxury of the age. For my
part, I think that his custom of using his servants like beasts of
burden, and of turning them off or selling them when grown old, was the
mark of an ungenerous spirit, which thinks that the sole tie between
man and man is interest or necessity. For my own part, I would not sell
even an old ox that had laboured for me.
However that may be, his temperance was wonderful. When governor of
Sardinia, where his predecessors had put the province to great expense,
he did not even use a carriage, but walked from town to town with
one attendant. He was inexorable in everything that concerned public
justice. He proved himself a brave general in the field; and when
he became censor, which was the highest dignity of the republic, he
waged an uncompromising campaign against luxury, by means of an almost
prohibitive tax on the expenditure of ostentatious superfluity. His
style in speaking was at once humorous, familiar, and forcible, and
many of his wise and pregnant sayings are remembered.
When we compare Aristides and Cato, we are at once struck by many
resemblances; and examining the several parts of their lives
distinctly, as we examine a poem or a picture, we find that they both
rose to great honour without the help of family connections, and merely
by their own virtue and abilities. Both of them were equally victorious
in war; but in politics Aristides was less successful, being banished
by the faction of Themistocles; while Cato, though his antagonists
were the most powerful men in Rome, kept his footing to the end like a
skilled wrestler.
Again, Cato was no less attentive to the management of his domestic
affairs than he was to affairs of state, and not only increased his own
fortune, but became a guide to others in finance and in agriculture.
But Aristides, by his indigence, brought disgrace upon justice itself,
as if it were the ruin and impoverishment of families; it is even said
that he left not enough for the portions of his daughters nor for the
expenses of his own funeral. So Cato's family produced prætors and
consuls to the fourth generation; but of the descendants of Aristides
some were conjurors and paupers, and not one of them had a sentiment
worthy of his illustrious ancestor.
_III.--Demosthenes and Cicero_