standing out in
the history of England as the era of its greatest literary
activity and splendour.
In the reign of Charles I., Cowley held various offices of trust
and confidence. He acted as private secretary to several of the
royalist leaders, and was afterwards engaged as private secretary
to the Queen, in ciphering and deciphering the correspondence
which passed between her and Charles I.; the work occupying all
his days, and often his nights, during several years. And while
Cowley was thus employed in the royal cause, Milton was employed
by the Commonwealth, of which he was the Latin secretary, and
afterwards secretary to the Lord Protector. Yet, in the earlier
part of his life, Milton was occupied in the humble vocation of a
teacher. Dr. Johnson says, "that in his school, as in everything
else which he undertook, he laboured with great diligence, there
is no reason for doubting" It was after the Restoration, when his
official employment ceased, that Milton entered upon the principal
literary work of his life; but before he undertook the writing of
his great epic, he deemed it indispensable that to "industrious
and select reading" he should add "steady observation" and
"insight into all seemly and generous arts and affairs." (18)
Locke held office in different reigns: first under Charles II. as
Secretary to the Board of Trade and afterwards under William III.
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