Answer:
- the catholic population in poverty
- criticize protestants who abandoned their country.
Explanation:
This question is incomplete. The complete question is the following:
<em>(From "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift)</em>
<em>For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of Papists, with whom we are yearly over-run, being the principal breeders of the nation, as well as our most dangerous enemies, and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good Protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country, than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.</em>
1.The "principal breeders" of the nation refer to ______.
2.In the last line, the writer talks about the "good Protestants" to ______.
1.
- nonworking population
- the catholic population in poverty
- young men and women in poverty
- foreigners living in ireland
2.
- mock the protestants for paying tithes(compulsory donations).
- criticize the growing influence of the catholic population.
- highlight the sufferings of Irish protestants.
- criticize protestants who abandoned their country.
In the first case, the author refers to "principal breeders." By saying this, he is referring to people who have most of the babies in the nation. In "A Modest Proposal," these are identified to be Irish Catholics. Swift also refers to them as "papist," due to the the Pope being the head of the Catholic Church. Therefore, he is referring to the Catholic population in poverty.
In the second case, Swift is talking about "good Protestants" who leave their country because they cannot tolerate the idea of staying at home and dealing with the nation's problems. Swift says "good Protestants" in an ironic way, as his purpose is to criticize such a defeatist attitude. Therefore, we know that the author talks about good Protestants in order to criticize people who have abandoned their country.
