For in
raising the power of kings immeasurably above the laws, by the same means you
remind almost all nations of their slavery, which they had not suspected. You also drive them more violently into
suddenly shaking off that sluggishness
in which they idly used to dream they were free men, by reminding them of something
they didn’t realize: that they were the slaves of kings. And they will judge the power of kings to be
the less bearable to them the more successfully you persuade them that such unlimited
power grew not as the result of their own sufferance of it, but that it
originated from the beginning with its present nature and extent just because
of the right of kings. So you and this
defence of yours, whether you convince the people or whether you don’t, will
needs be destructive, deadly and accursed for all kings hereafter. For if you convince the people that the right
of kings is all-powerful, they will no longer bear a monarchy; if you do not
convince them, they will not endure kings who obtain such illegal power as if
it were their right.
Milton, A Defence of the People of England (1651)[1]
[1] John Milton, Political Writings, ed. Martin Dzelzainis, tr. Claire Gruzelier
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 129. Note: A
Defence of the People of England was originally published in Latin as Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio two years
after the execution of King Charles I which was on January 30, 1649. The above selection appears at the beginning of Chapter IV.
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