regency the young king kept himfelf in a ftate o f total infignifi-
cance. He never o f his own accord appeared before the people,
nor did any thing without aiking leave o f the duke: it feemed as
i f he confidered himfelf as nobody during his minbrity, for the
foie purpofe o f making the regent feel the whole weight o f his
authority, when the period ihould arrive o f exerciiing it in its
full extent. T he leading features in this young prince's character,
as I conceive, are an ambition o f governing without mtnifters, or
any interference that might fet bounds to his abfolute fway, and
a iincere wilh at the lame time to do as much good as lies within
the narrow fphere o f his powers and knowledge. Under the influence
o f two prieils, and ftrongly impreifed with an abhorrence
o f what is called the new philofophy, he has become a determined
bigot, and hence is influenced by a fuperftition that throws
every poflible obflacle in the way o f progreflive improvement.
Thofe two prieils are Bifhop Fleddin and Bifhop M * * * . The
firft was the king’s preceptor in religious inftru&ion : he is a man
o f no learning, but o f an afpiring temper, and ready to make any
facrifice to his private intereft. T he religion o f Luther, under
his aufpices, degenerates into the rites and ceremonies o f popery.
It is by his advice that the. foldiers have received orders on Good-
Friday to turn the muzzles o f their fire-arms downwards, and to
have their drums llackened and deadened, as at Rome and in
other catholic countries. Bilhop M * * * , in his earlier years w?s
a friend to democracy : he was firft brought into notice by a
treatife
treatife in favour o f that form o f government, entitled, D e De-
mocratia Optimo Regimine* He embraced the ecclefiaftical pro-
feffion merely from motives o f intereft ; but afterwards became a
zealous ftickler for the moft abfurd tenets o f the grofleft fuperftition,
whether it be that he has in reality become a convert to
what he at firft merely belived ex officio ; or, as fome people are
inclined, to think, from hypocrify. . He has at once fignalized his
clerical fervor, and difplayed his own chara&er by a Differtation on
the Power and Influence o f the D evil on. the Human Body. He proves
in this book, by evidence amounting, as he fays, to mathematical
demonftration, not only the exiftence o f the devil and his operations
on the human mind and body, but has been fo fuccefsful in
his enquiries into the fubjeft, as to diftinguilh the different forts o f
devils, and to afcertain the means proper for putting them to flight.
He has difcovered that the diabolus crinitus, or hairy devil, may be
routed by a plant' called hypericum quadrangulare, (quadrangular
St. John’s wort). There is another anecdote which may ferve
to throw fome light upon the prefent ipirit o f religion in Sweden.
As far down as the reign o f the late king a ceremony prevailed,
which was very much at variance with the advanced ftate o f
knowledge, and with common fenfe, namely, that o f exorcifing
and fummoning the devil to depart from the body o f an infant
in the rite o f baptifm. For this ceremony, in the late king’s
reign, another was fubftituted lefs iliocking to the underftanding:
but
* Democracy the befl form of government.