by urging upon them a dependance on the more general prevalence of Knowledge, and Virtue:  It is one of the most essential means of further, and still further improvements in Society, and of correcting, and amending moral sentiments, and habits, and political institutions; till “by human means” directed by divine influence, Men shall be prepared for that “happy, and holy State” when the Messiah is to reign.

“It is a fixed Principle that all good Government is, and must be Republican.”  You have my hearty concurrence; and I believe we are well enough acquainted with each others Ideas to understand what we respectively mean when we “use the Word with approbation.”  The Body of the People in this Country are not so ignorant as those of England were in the Time of the Interregnum Parliament.  They are better educated:  they will not easily be prevailed upon to believe that a Republican is “as unamiable as a Witch, a Blasphemer, a Rebel, or a Tyrant.”  They are charmed with their forms of Government, in which is admitted a mixture of Powers to check the human passions, and controul them from rushing into exorbitances.  So well assured are they, that their liberties are best secured, by their own frequent, and free Election of fit persons to be the essential sharers in the administration of their Government, and that this form of Government is truly Republic, that the body of the People will not be perswaded nor compelled to “renounce, detest, and execrate the very Word Republican as the English do.”  Their Education has “confirmed them in the opinion of the necessity of preserving, and strengthening the Dykes against the Ocean, its Tydes, and Storms,” and I think they have made more safe, and more durable Dykes, than the English have done.

We agree in the Utility of universal Education, but “will nations agree in it as fully, and extensively as we do”?  Why should they not?  It would not be fair to conclude, that because they have not yet been disposed to agree in it, they never will.  It is allowed, that the present age is more enlightened than former ones.  Freedom of enquiry is certainly more encouraged:  The feelings of humanity have softned the heart:  The true principles of civil, and religious Liberty are better understood:  Tyranny in all its shapes, is more detested, and bigotry, if not still blind, must be mortified to see that she is despised.  Such an age may afford at least a flattering Expectation that Nations, as well as individuals, will view the utility of universal Education in so strong a light as to induce sufficient national Patronage, and Support.  Future Ages will probably be more enlightned than this.

The Love of Liberty is interwoven in the Soul of Man.  “So it is in that of a Wolf;” However irrational, ungenerous, and unsocial the love of liberty may be in a rude Savage, he is capable of being enlightned by Experience, Reflection, Education, and civil, and Political Institutions.  But the Nature of the Wolf is, and ever will be confined to running in the forest to satisfy his hunger, and his brutal appetites; the Dog is inclined in a more easy way to seek his living, and fattens his sides with what comes from his masters kitchen.  The Comparison of La Fontaine is in my opinion ungenerous, unnatural, and unjust.