Page 13 - GALIET AREOL.AGIT.ICA: Milton IV

is if Truth, in neither being absolute nor static, is rather a relative force? Moreover, from Milton’s perspective, who are we to silence or license Truth since we are incapable of such perfect vision as to know with deepest certainty what shape or form Truth might take nextorfromwhosevoiceitshallsingitsheavennext? Consequently, for Milton, repressing the press is equal to repressing God “Neither is God appointed and confin’d, where and out of what place these his chosen shall be first heard to speak; for he sees not as man sees, chooses not as man chooses...” (566).
Milton’s warnings about the potentiality for dangerous and terrible losses arising out of licensing since it will injure Truth resonate gravely throughout Aeropagitica “... the incredible losse, and detriment that this plot of licencing puts us to... it hinders and retards the importation of our richest Merchandize, Truth: ... by the prohibition of printing” (548), and furthermore “ ... if Truth have spok’n to him before others, or but seem’d at least to speak... that if it come to prohibiting, there is not ought more likely to be prohibited than truth itself; whose first appearance to our eyes blear’d and dimm’d with prejudice and custom, is more unsightly and unplausible than many errors...” (565).
To Milton, not only do we face a devastating loss by licensing of the press but also the possibility of a double-edged knife since one’s truth may be equally misread and turned into a heresy, “...yet the very truth he holds, becomes his heresie... (543), which would prove more detrimental to humankind as if the contrary were true for Truth is born out of freedom and cannot exist without it: “see the ingenuity
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