Has, said he, (who smiled all the while I held this Discourse) your Nation any near Neighbours? I answer’d, That, by the means of our Shipping, we might be said near Neighbours to every Nation; but that our Island was separated but Seven Leagues from the Continent, inhabited by a warlike and powerful People. Have you any Commerce with the Nations on the Continent? We are, said I, the greatest Dealers in Europe. Have you any Religion among you? We have, in the main, I replied, but one, tho’ it is branch’d out into a great many Sects, differing only in some trifling Ceremonies, in Essentials we all agree.

Religion, answer’d my Lord, is absolutely necessary in a well-govern’d State; but do your great Men make any Profession of Religion? or, to ask a more proper Question, do they do more than profess it?

My Lord, said I, our great Men are the brightest Examples of Piety.  Their Veracity is such, that they would not for an Empire falsify their Word once given.  Their Justice won’t suffer a Creditor to go from their Gate unsatisfied:  Their Chastity makes them look on Adultery and Furnication the most abominable Crimes; and even the naming of them will make their Bloods run cold.  They exhaust their Revenues in Acts of Charity, and every great Man among us is a Husband and Father to the Widow and Orphan.  They esteem themselves Stewards to the Poor, and that in a future State they are accountable for every Doit lavish’d in Equipage or superfluous Dishes.  Their Tables are not nicely, but plentifully served, and always open to the honest Needy.  At Court, as I have learn’d, there is neither Envy nor Detraction, no one undermines another, nor intercepts the Prince’s Bounty or Favour by slandrous Reports; and neither Interest, Riches, nor Quality, but Merit only recommends the Candidate to a Post:  A Bribe was never heard of there; which, together with the exact Justice practised, is the Reason that a Minister, after Twelve or Fourteen Years, shall die not a Doit richer than he was at the Entrance upon his Office:  Nay, I’ve been told, that a Paymaster General of the Army, after he had past his Accounts before the Grand Council of the Nation, with a general Applause, found his Patrimony so impoverish’d by his Charity to Soldiers Widows, he was oblig’d to turn Merchant for his Support; but being unfortunate, he petition’d for a small Government.

As you say you have divers Sects of Religion, you must have Priests among you, pray what sort of Men are they? I answer’d, their Lives and Doctrine were of a-piece, their Example differing nothing from their Precepts:  That Hypocrisy, Avarice, Ambition, litigious Suits, Lying, Revenge, and Obscenity, were Vices known to ’em by Name only:  That they were a mortify’d Set of Men, who look’d upon nothing transitory worth their Concern; and having their Thoughts always employ’d on Meditations of a future Happiness, neglected every thing on Earth