...hold fast that which is good. And he might have added another remarkable saying of the same author; to the pure all things are pure, not only meats and...knowledge whether of good or evil ; the knowledge can not defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and conscience be not defiled. For books are...

...of contrast. Emphasizing the epistemological and moral bases for accurate discrimination, he says: To the pure all things are pure, not only meats and drinks, but all kinds of knowledge whether good or evil. ...Bad meats will scarce breed good nourishment in the healthiest...

...attitude toward heretical doctrine. In one such citation Milton quotes St. Paul's Epistle to Titus: "To the pure all things are pure, not only meats and...books, if the will and conscience be not defiled" (II, 512). Milton distorts Paul. While St. Paul rejects the distinction between pure and impure foods...

...dictum, "Unto the pure are all things pure" (Titus 1:15), in Milton's Areopagitica resonates: ". . . not only meats and drinks, but all kind of knowledge...books, if the will and conscience be not defiled" (CPW 2: 512). A related undertone pervades the flatulent simile attached to Raphael's admonition that...

...ever come to thy hands, for thou art sufficient both to judge aright, and to examine each matter. ... To the pure all things are pure, not only meats and drinks, but all kinde of knowledge whether of good or evill [sic]; the knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the...

...all things e pure, not only meats and drinks, but all kinds of knowledge whether of good or evill; the knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the...be not defiled. For books are as meats and viands; some of good, some of evill, but the choice is to each man's discretion. JNacko s simmering resentment...

...metaphorisation of the acquisition of knowledge through the troping of books as food in Areopagitica: 'To the pure all things are pure, not only meats and drinks, but all kinde of knowledge' (p. 512). As Nigel Smith points out, the violent consumption of books as meat appears...

...hold fast that which is good/' And he might have added another remarkable saying of the same author: "To the pure, all things are pure;" not only meats...knowledge, whether of good or evil; the knowledge can not defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and conscience be not defiled. For books are...

...things are pure,32 not only meats and drinks, but all kinde of knowledge whether of good or evill; the knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and conscience be not defil'd. Milton would have been thinking only of sophisticated, well-educated (male Protestant) individuals...

...hold fast that which is good. And he might have added another remarkable saying of the same Author; To the pure all things are pure, not only meats and drinks, but all kinde of knowledge whether of good or evill; the knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the books,...