Kings and Magistrates." Between its
literary seduction and the horror generally excited by the King's
execution, the tide of public opinion was turning fast. Milton no doubt
felt that no claim upon him could be equal to that which the State had a
right to prefer. He accepted the office of "Secretary for Foreign
Tongues" to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, a delegation from the
Council of State of forty-one members, by which the country was at that
time governed. Vane, Whitelocke, and Marten were among the members of
the committee. The specified duties of the post were the preparation and
translation of despatches from and to foreign governments. These were
always in Latin,--the Council, says that sturdy Briton, Edward Phillips,
"scorning to carry on their affairs in the wheedling, lisping jargon of
the cringing French." But it must have been understood that Milton's pen
would also be at the service of the Government outside the narrow range
of official correspondence. The salary was handsome for the time--L288,
equivalent to about L900 of our money. It was an honourable post, on the
manner of whose discharge the credit of England abroad somewhat
depended; the foreign chanceries were full of accomplished Latinists,
and when Blake's cannon was not to be the mouthpiece, the Commonwealth's
message needed a silver trumpet. It was also as likely as any employment
to make a scholar a statesman. If in some respects it opposed new
obstacles to the fulfilment of Milton's aspirations as a poet, he might
still feel that it would help him to the experience which he had
declared to be essential: "He who would not be frustrate of his hope to
write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true
poem, that is, a composition and pattern of the best and honourablest
things, not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men or famous
cities, unless he have within himself the experience and the practice of
all that which is praiseworthy." Up to this time Milton's experience of
public affairs had been slight; he does not seem to have enjoyed the
intimate acquaintance of any man then active in the making of history.
In our day he would probably have entered Parliament, but that was
impossible under a dispensation which allowed a Parliament to sit till a
Protector turned it out of doors. He was, therefore, only acting upon
his own theory, and he seems to us to have been acting wisely as well as
courageously, when he consented to