〖下列译文为许先生对弥尔顿的《论出版自由》的译文，出自王佐良先生《英国散文的流变》（商务印书馆1991年版），42-43. 〗
（原文： I deny not, but that it is of greatest concernment in the Church and Commonwealth, to have a vigilant eye how books demean themselves as well as men; and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors. For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth, and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet, on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destorys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.）
许先生译文：教会与国家，于书之为好书坏书，公民之为好人坏人，不能不表极大关注。此点余亦承认。治坏人，或予禁闭，或投牢中，或处于极刑。然则书非可以致死者也。书之生命力，乃作者灵魂所赋予。书，作家智慧之精华，如炼金丹，升华净化，臻于至纯，乃纳玉壶，以为珍藏。谚言，龙之齿，植地生幼龙。书之孳衍，与龙似。植书于野，异日或生持矛武士。人可以错杀，好书亦可以错毁。是不可不慎也。杀一人，杀一有理性之生命，杀一上帝之子孙耳。若毁一好书，实毁理性本身，无异毁上帝之目 。