tiquity, you will be too curious to
neglect inquiring into the authors of the very age before you; and to
think that this insolent, in the account he is preparing for your view,
designs to reduce them to a number so insignificant as I am ashamed to
mention; it moves my zeal and my spleen for the honour and interest of
our vast flourishing body, as well as of myself, for whom I know by
long experience he has professed, and still continues, a peculiar
malice.

It is not unlikely that, when your Highness will one day peruse what I
am now writing, you may be ready to expostulate with your governor upon
the credit of what I here affirm, and command him to show you some of
our productions. To which he will answer--for I am well informed of
his designs--by asking your Highness where they are, and what is become
of them? and pretend it a demonstration that there never were any,
because they are not then to be found. Not to be found! Who has mislaid
them? Are they sunk in the abyss of things? It is certain that in their
own nature they were light enough to swim upon the surface for all
eternity; therefore, the fault is in him who tied weights so heavy to
their heels as to depress them to the centre. Is their very essence
destroyed? Who has annihilated them? Were they drowned by purges or
martyred by pipes? Who administered them to the posteriors of ----. But
that it may no longer be a doubt with your Highness who is to be the
author of this universal ruin, I beseech you to observe that large and
terrible scythe which your governor affects to bear continually about
him. Be pleased to remark the length and strength, the sharpness and
hardness, of his nails and teeth; consider his baneful, abominable
breath, enemy to life and matter, infectious and corrupting, and then
reflect whether it be possible for any mortal ink and paper of this
generation to make a suitable resistance. Oh, that your Highness would
one day resolve to disarm this usurping _maitre de palais_ of his
furious engines, and bring your empire _hors du page_!

It were endless to recount the several methods of tyranny and
destruction which your governor is pleased to practise upon this
occasion. His inveterate malice is such to the writings of our age,
that, of several thousands produced yearly from this renowned city,
before the next revolution of the sun there is not one to be heard of.
Unhappy infants! many of them barbarously destroyed before they have so
much a