d abhorrence, and
cannot but be owned to be a proper introduction to such scenes, as seem
designed to kindle in the audience a flame of opposition, patriotism,
publick spirit, and independency; that spirit which we have so long
endeavoured to suppress, and which cannot be revived without the entire
subversion of all our schemes.

The seditious poet, not content with making an open attack upon us, by
declaring, in plain terms, that he looks upon freedom as the only source
of publick happiness, and national security, has endeavoured with
subtilty, equal to his malice, to make us suspicious of our firmest
friends, to infect our consultations with distrust, and to ruin us by
disuniting us.

This, indeed, will not be easily effected; an union founded upon
interest, and cemented by dependence, is naturally lasting; but
confederacies which owe their rise to virtue, or mere conformity of
sentiments, are quickly dissolved, since no individual has any thing
either to hope or fear for himself, and publick spirit is generally too
weak to combat with private passions.

The poet has, however, attempted to weaken our combination by an artful
and sly assertion, which, if suffered to remain unconfuted, may operate,
by degrees, upon our minds, in the days of leisure and retirement, which
are now approaching, and, perhaps, fill us with such surmises as may at
least very much embarrass our affairs.

The law by which the Swedes justified their opposition to the
encroachments of the king of Denmark, he not only calls

Great Nature's law, the law within the breast,

but proceeds to tell us, that it is

--stamp'd by heaven upon th' unletter'd mind.

By which he evidently intends to insinuate a maxim, which is, I hope, as
false as it is pernicious, that men are naturally fond of liberty till
those unborn ideas and desires are effaced by literature.

The author, if he be not a man mewed up in his solitary study, and
entirely unacquainted with the conduct of the present ministry, must
know that we have hitherto acted upon different principles. We have
always regarded letters as great obstructions to our scheme of
subordination, and have, therefore, when we have heard of any man
remarkably unlettered, carefully noted him down, as the most proper
person for any employments of trust or honour, and considered him as a
man, in whom we could safely repose our most important secrets.

From among the uneducated and unlettered, we have cho