LIBERTY OP THE PRESS, $55 



and unreakmablc enough to take offence at a modert 

 contradiction, the whole reafonable world will be on 

 his fide. It is not to be told how much a man may 

 injure the befl caufe by a violent method of defending 

 it, by exafperating the opponent, and by wounding / 

 his felf-love. If we only injured ourfelves by this 

 means, it might very well be allowed to pafs ; we 

 Ihould have the confolation at lealt of considering our- 

 felves as martyrs for the truth : but the caufe of man- 

 kind is injured. ■ — A moral from Terence, which can 

 never be too much inculcated, is highly applicable in 

 all cafes of this fort, Tu h* hie effes, &c. 



You fee, my dear friend, that I take the diftinction 

 before us, in a fenfe that fhews it to be the moft harm- 

 lefs matter in the world ; which it would by no means 

 be if I gave it that dangerous import which to many 

 it feems to have : namely, as if the meaning were, 

 that becaufe Caius, or Titius, or Sempronius, have 

 ufed the liberty of thinking (which all the learned, 

 nay, which every perfon who can utter his reflections 

 intelligibly has a right to enjoy) with fome indifcre- 

 tion, authors in general mould be fubjected to a kind 

 of inquilition ; and arbitrary fetters fhould be laid on 

 the freedom of the prefs, under the pretext of pre- 

 venting the licentioufnefs of it. I know not what 

 caufe many nice people may have for being fo quarrel- 

 fome with the liberty of the prefs : but of this I am 

 well allured, that Auguftus or Titus would have taken 

 it very ill of any one who mould have fuggefted to ei- 

 ther of them only the thought of wanting to fupprefs 

 the freedom of fpeaking and writing (printing was not 

 in being in their times) on account of the too bold ufe 



a Labe- 



