Explanation: And, as it was tyranny in any government to require the first, so it was weakness not to enforce the second.

Explanation:

And, as it was tyranny in any government to require the first, so it was weakness not to enforce the second.

Answer: This extract comes from a conversation between Gulliver and the King of Brobdingnag in Chapter 6 of Part 2 of Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Here, the King argues that people have the right to express their own beliefs but not the right to express them at their sweet will.

The Brobdingnagian king has little sympathy for many English institutions as Gulliver describes them to him. Swift would probably not have rejected such institutions and we should keep in mind that Brobdingnagian criticism does not always imply that of Swiftian. Indeed, Gulliver's Travels could be considered to contain at least a few "Opinions prejudicial to the Public". Therefore, it is unlikely that Swift is in favor of suppressing all social criticism entirely. Whatever the final interpretation is, the quotation raises interesting issues of censorship, freedom of speech, and the rightful place of indirect forms of criticism, such as the satire of which Swift was a master.

Thus, the quoted words refer to interesting issues of censorship, freedom of speech, and the rightful place of indirect forms of criticism. Here Swift portrays the real situation of his age and time.