vol. i · est. mmxxvi · public domain
The New Alexandria is a digital library for classical and modern literature that uses AI to translate difficult passages into clear modern English.
Each translation is cached after the first query. The more passages that get translated, the more complete each book becomes for the next reader.
155 complete works so far.
Milton · Areopagitica · 1644
"For Books are not absolutely dead things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them to be as active as that soule was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a violl the purest efficacie and extraction of that living intellect that bred them."
Modern translation
Books are not entirely dead things. They contain within themselves a vital potency, as active as the soul whose offspring they are; and they preserve, as in a vial, the purest essence and extract of the living intellect that produced them.