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Doc. 196.] 539
HIS ADDRESS TO THE DIET.
able freedom , every one who possesses a purely developed
understanding and hence a rational insight is able to prog
nosticate what an unhappy people we should be, if our
excellent form of government were changed and transformed.
For we inhabit the extreme north, which may be called an
[out of the way] corner of the earth (angulus mundi), and
if an absolute monarchy (envåldsregering) should again be intro
duced among us, there would be no balance or protection left
for the people and the country (as little as in Russia and the
countries of Asia), by which even a single bad propensity, which
may be inrooted by birth and lie concealed in the disposition
of a sovereign, as in every other human being, may be kept
within bounds, and prevented from bursting out as soon as an
opportunity offers, i. e. as soon as power finds itself without
limit. No one indeed has the right to leave his life and
property in the absolute power of any individual ; for of these
God alone is master, and we are merely His stewards in this
world. It would be too tedious to enumerate all the grievous
and dreadful consequences and modes of treatment that might
befall us here in the north under an absolute monarchy ; for
these dangers are manifold ; I will therefore mention and
specify only one, viz. popish darkness. It is known from
experience how the Babylonian whore (which is the Catholic
religion) has fascinated and bewitched the reigning princes of
Saxony, Cassel, and Zweibrücken, also the king of England,
shortly before the house of Hanover was chosen to the throne,
and how it is still dallying with the pretender; how even in
Prussia it tampered with the present king, when crown-prince,
through his own father ; not to mention King Sigismund and
Queen Christina here in Sweden. It is well known how this
whore is still going her rounds through the courts of Reformed
Christendom . If therefore an absolute monarch should reign
in Sweden, and if any of his successors should allow this whore
that understands so well how to dissemble, and to adorn
herself like a goddess, to intrude herself into his cabinet, is
there any reason why she should not as easily delude and
infatuate him , as she did the above-mentioned kings and
princes of Christendom? What opposition would there be,
what means of self-protection, especially if the army, which
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