“For the Sake of Liberty” 1652–1654disestablishment. Because the Defensio Secunda includes extensive passages of auto-
biography, albeit shaped by Milton’s rhetorical purposes, it provides the most re-
vealing window we have into Milton’s sense of himself and his life up to this moment.
“I Do Not Complain About My Own Role”
On March 29, 1652 a long eclipse of the sun cast the nation into temporary dark-
ness, prompting an outpouring of preaching and praying. But Milton’s darkness
was by this time total and permanent. Though his government duties increased
exponentially, now he usually waited at home for council messengers to bring state
documents to him (LR III, 213, 214); scribes would read to him letters or docu-
ments drafted in English which he had to digest, revise as needed, and translate into
Latin by dictation. His attendance at the council and its Committee on Foreign
Affairs was now infrequent; and, as he admitted a year later, he was no longer “fit”
to attend “at Conferences with Ambassadors.”^2 This shrinking of his public world
surely intensified Milton’s sense of loss: no longer did he have regular casual con-
tacts with men of power, affording an opportunity to lobby discreetly for his own
views. No longer could he discern men’s motives and meanings from facial expres-
sions and body language. Moreover, this proud man, somewhat vain about his
appearance, had to endure the humiliation of being led by his nephew or a messen-
ger whenever he came to Whitehall. He took great satisfaction, however, in his
continued usefulness to the government and in the signs of their continued value
for him:
[S]ince the loss of my eyesight has not left me sluggish from inactivity but tireless and
ready among the first to risk the greatest dangers for the sake of liberty, the chief men
in the state do not desert me either but, considering within themselves what human
life is like, they gladly favor and indulge me, and grant to me rest and leisure, as to one
who well deserves it. If I have any distinction, they do not remove it, if any public
office, they do not take it away, if any advantage from that office, they do not dimin-
ish it, and although I am no longer as useful as I was, they think that they should
reward me no less graciously. (Defensio Secunda, CPW IV.1, 591)The council was no doubt relieved to find Milton able to cope with many of his
official duties, but he needed help. On February 2, 1652 Lewis Rosin was officially
appointed to provide translations from French, and others were occasionally called
on for other languages, as needed.^3 On March 11 the council called out of retire-
ment Milton’s predecessor as Latin Secretary, Georg Weckherlin, appointing him
assistant secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, but Weckherlin was 68 and
in poor health. Later that month the council’s very able general secretary, Gualter
Frost, died, but they replaced him with the even more talented John Thurloe, who