of those different Sects There are no Images for God in their Temples so that every one may represent him to his thoughts according to the way of his Religion nor do they call this one God by any other Name but that of Mithras which is the common Name by which they all express the Divine Essence whatsoever otherwise they think it to be nor are there any Prayers among them but such as every one of them may use without prejudice to his own Opinion They meet in their Temples on the Evening of the Festival that concludes a Season and not having yet broke their Fast they thank God for their good success during that Year or Month which is then at an end and the next day being that which begins the new Season they meet early in their Temples to pray for the happy Progress of all their Affairs during that Period upon which they then enter In the Festival which concludes the Period before they go to the Temple both Wives and Children fall on their Knees before their Husbands or Parents and confess every thing in which they have either erred or failed in their Duty and beg pardon for it Thus all little Discontents in Families are removed that so they may offer up their Devotions with a pure and serene mind for they hold it a great impiety to enter upon them with disturbed thoughts or when they are conscious to themselves that they bear Hatred or Anger in their Hearts to any Person and think that they should become liable to severe Punishments if they presumed to offer Sacrifices without cleansing their Hearts and reconciling all their Differences In the Temples the two Sexes are separated the Men go to the right hand and the Women to the left and the Males and Females do all place themselves before the Head and Master or Mistress of that Family to which they belong so that those who have the Government of them at home may see their deportment in publick and they intermingle them so that the younger and the older may be set by one another for if the younger sort were all set together they would perhaps trifle away that time too much in which they ought to beget in themselves a most religious dread of the Supream Being which is the greatest and almost the only incitement to Vertue They offer up no living Creature in Sacrifice nor do they think it suitable to the Divine Being from whose Bounty it is that these Creatures have derived their Lives to take pleasure in their Death or the offering up their Blood They burn Incense and other sweet Odours and have a great number of Wax Lights during their Worship not out of any Imagination that such Oblations can add any thing to the Divine Nature for even Prayers do not that but as it is a harmless and pure way of worshipping God so they think those sweet Savors and Lights together with some other Ceremonies do by a secret and unaccountable Vertue elevate Mens Souls and inflame them with more force and chearfulness during the Divine Worship The People appear all in the Temples in white Garments but the Priest's Vestments are particoloured both the Work and Colours are wonderful they are made of no rich Materials for they are neither embroidered nor set with precious Stones but are composed of the Plumes of several Birds laid together with so much Art and so neatly that the true value of them is far beyond the costliest Materials They say that in the ordering and placing those Plumes some dark Mysteries are represented which pass down among their Priests in a secret Tradition concerning them and that they are as Hieroglyphicks putting them in mind of the Blessings that they have received from God and of their Duties both to him and to their Neighbours As soon as the Priest appears in those Ornaments they all fall prostrate on the Ground with so much reverence and so deep a silence that such as look on cannot but be struck with it as if it were the effect of the appearance of a Deity After they have been for some time in this posture they all stand up upon a sign given by the Priest and sing some Hymns to the Honour of God some musical Instruments playing all the while These are quite of another form than those that are used among us but as many of them are much sweeter than ours so others are not to be compared to those that we have Yet in one thing they exceed us much which is that all their Musick both Vocal and Instrumental does so imitate and express the Passions and is so fitted to the present occasion whether the subject matter of the Hymn is chearful or made to appease or troubled doleful or angry that the Musick makes an impression of that which is represented by which it enters deep into the Hearers and does very much affect and kindle them When this is done both Priests and People offer up very solemn Prayers to God in a set Form of Words and these are so composed that whatsoever is pronounced by the whole Assembly may be likewise applied by every Man in particular to his own condition in these they acknowledg God to be the Author and Governor of the World and the Fountain of all the Good that they receive for which they offer up their Thanksgivings to him and in particular they bless him for his Goodness in ordering it so that they are born under a Government that is the happiest in the World and are of a Religion that they hope is the truest of all others but if they are mistaken and if there is either a better Government or a Religion more acceptable to God they implore his Goodness to let them know it vowing that they resolve to follow him whithersoever he leads them but if their Government is the best and their Religion the truest then they pray that he may fortify them in it and bring all the World both to the same Rules of Life and to the same Opinions concerning himself unless according to the unsearchableness of his Mind he is pleased with a variety of Religions Then they pray that God may give them an easy passage at last to himself not presuming to set limits to him how early or late it should be but if it may be wish'd for without derogating from his Supream Authority they desire rather to be quickly delivered and to go to God tho by the terriblest sort of Death than to be detained long from seeing him in the most prosperous course of Life possible When this Prayer is ended they all fall down again upon the Ground and after a little while they rise up and go home to Dinner and spend the rest of the day in diversion or Military Exercises Thus have I described to you as particularly as I could the Constitution of that Common-Wealth which I do not only think to be the best in the World but to be indeed the
enough that they living at their ease do no good to the Publick resolve to do it Hurt instead of Good They stop the course of Agriculture inclose Grounds and destroy Houses and Towns reserving only the Churches that they may lodg their Sheep in them And as if Forrests and Parks had swallowed up too little Soil those worthy Country-Men turn the best inhabited Places into Solitudes for when any unsatiable Wretch who is a Plague to this Country resolves to inclose many thousand Acres of Ground the Owners as well as Tenants are turned out of their Possessions by Tricks or by main Force or being wearied out with ill Usage they are forced to sell them So those miserable People both Men and Women Married Unmarried Old and Young with their Poor but numerous Families since Country-Business requires many Hands are all forced to change their Seats not knowing whither to go and they must sell for almost nothing their Houshold-stuff which could not bring them much Mony even tho they might stay for a Buyer when that little Mony is at an end for it will be soon spent what is left for them to do but either to steal and so to be hanged God knows how justly or to go about and beg And if they do this they are put in Prison as idle Vagabonds whereas they would willingly work but can find none that will hire them for there is no more occasion for Country Labour to which they have been bred when there is no Arable Ground left One Shepherd can look after a Flock which will stock an extent of Ground that would require many hands if it were to be ploughed and reaped This likewise raises the price of Corn in many places The price of Wool is also so risen that the poor People who were wont to make Cloth are no more able to buy it and this likewise makes many of them idle For since the increase of Pasture God has punished the Avarice of the Owners by a Rot among the Sheep which has destroyed vast numbers of them but had been more justly laid upon the Owners themselves But suppose the Sheep should encrease ever so much their Price is not like to fall since tho they cannot be called a Monopoly because they are not engrossed by one Person yet they are in so few hands and these are so rich that as they are not prest to sell them sooner than they have a mind to it so they never do it till they have raised the Price as high as is possible And on the same account it is that the other kinds of Cattel are so dear and so much the more because that many Villages being pulled down and all Country-Labour being much neglected there are none that look after the breeding of them The Rich do not breed Cattel as they do Sheep but buy them Lean and at low Prices and after they have fatned them on their Grounds they sell them again at high rates And I do not think that all the Inconveniences that this will produce are yet observed for as they sell the Cattle dear so if they are consumed faster then the breeding Countries from which they are brought can afford them then the stock most decrease and this must needs end in a great Scarcity and by these means this your Island that seemed as to this particular the happiest in the World will suffer much by the cursed Avarice of a few Persons besides that the rising of Corn makes all People lessen their Families as much as they can and what can those who are dismissed by them do but either Beg or Rob And to this last a Man of a great Mind is much sooner drawn than to the former Luxury likewise breaks in apace upon you to set forward your Poverty and Misery there is an excessive Vanity in Apparel and great Cost in Diet and that not only in Noblemens Families but even among Tradesmen and among the Farmers themselves and among all Ranks of Persons You have also many infamous Houses and besides those that are known the Taverns and Alehouses are no better add to these Dice Cards Tables Football Tennis and Coits in which Mony runs fast away and those that are initiated into them must in conclusion betake themselves to robbing for a supply Banish those Plagues and give order that these who have dispeopled so much Soil may either rebuild the Villages that they have pulled down or let out their Grounds to such as will do it Restrain those engrossings of the Rich that are as bad almost as Monopolies leave fewer Occasions to Idleness let Agriculture be set up again and the Manufacture of the Wooll be regulated that so there may be Work found for these Companies of Idle People whom want Forces to be Thieves or who now being idle Vagabonds or useless Servants will certainly grow Thieves at last If you do not find a Remedy to these Evils it is a vain thing to boast of your Severity of punishing Theft which tho it may have the appearance of Justice yet in it self it is neither just nor convenient for if you suffer your People to be ill Educated and their Manners to be corrupted from their Infancy and then punish them for those Crimes to which their first Education disposed them what else is to be concluded from this but that you first make Thieves and then punish them allow of it upon the same Grounds Laws may be made to allow of Adultery and Perjury in some Cases for God having taken from us the Right of disposing either of our own or of other Peoples Lives if it is pretended that the mutual Consent of Men in making Laws allowing of Manslaughter in Cases in which God has given us no Example frees People from the Obligation of the Divine Law and so makes Murder a lawful Action What is this but to give a preference to Humane Laws before the Divine And if this is once admitted by the same Rule Men may in all other things put what Restrictions they please upon the Laws of God If by the Mosaical Law tho it was rough and severe as being a Yoke laid on an obstinate and servile Nation Men were only fined and not put to death for Theft we cannot imagine that in this new Law of Mercy in which God treats us with the tenderness of a Father he has given us a greater License to Cruelty than he did to the Iews Upon these Reasons it is that I think the putting Thieves to death is not lawful and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd and of ill Consequence to the Common-Wealth that a Thief and a Murderer should be equally punished for if a Robber sees that his Danger is the same if he is convicted of Theft as if he were guilty of Murder this will naturally set him on to kill the Person whom otherwise he would only have robbed since if the Punishment is the same there is more security and less danger
the Face all the rest of the Body being covered under which there may lie hid that which may be contagious as well as loathsome All Men are not so wise that they chuse a Woman only for her good Qualities and even wise Men consider the Body as that which adds not a little to the Mind And it is certain there may be some such deformity covered with ones Clothes as may totally alienate a Man from his Wife when it is too late to part with her for if such a thing is discovered after Marriage a Man has no remedy but patience So they think it is reasonable that there should be a good provision made against such mischievous Frauds There was so much the more reason in making a regulation in this Matter because they are the only People of those parts that do neither allow of Polygamy nor of Divorces except in the cases of Adultery or insufferable Perversness for in these Cases the Senate dissolves the Marriage and grants the injured Person leave to marry again but the Guilty are made infamous and are never allowed the privilege of a second Marriage None are suffered to put away their Wives against their Wills because of any great Calamity that may have fallen on their Person for they look on it as the height of Cruelty and Treachery to abandon either of the married Persons when they need most the tender care of their Consort and that chiefly in the case of old Age which as it carries many Diseases along with it so it is a Disease of it self But it falls often out that when a married Couple do not agree well together they by mutual consent separate and find out other Persons with whom they hope they may live more happily yet this is not done without obtaining leave of the Senate which never admits of a Divorce but upon a strict enquiry made both by the Senators and their Wives into the Grounds upon which it proceeds and even when they are satisfied concerning the Reasons of it they go on but slowly for they reckon that too great easiness in granting leave for new Marriages would very much shake the kindness of married Persons They punish severely those that defile the Marriage-Bed If both Parties are married they are divorced and the injured Persons may marry one another or whom they please but the Adulterer and the Adulteress are condemned to slavery Yet if either of the injured Persons cannot shake off the Love of the married Person they may live with them still in that state but they must follow them to that Labour to which the Slaves are condemned and sometimes the Repentance of the condemned Person together with the unshaken kindness of the innocent and injured Person has prevailed so far with the Prince that he has taken off the Sentence But those that relapse after they are once pardoned are punished with Death Their Law does not determine the Punishment for other Crimes but that is left to the Senate to temper it according to the Circumstances of the Fact Husbands have power to correct their Wives and Parents to correct their Children unless the Fault is so great that a publick Punishment is thought necessary for the striking terror into others For the most part Slavery is the punishment even of the greatest Crimes for as that is no less terrible to the Criminals themselves than Death so they think the preserving them in a state of servitude is more for the Interest of the Common-Wealth than the killing them outright since as their Labour is a greater benefit to the Publick than their Death could be so the sight of their Misery is a more lasting terror to other Men than that which would be given by their Death If their Slaves rebel and will not bear their Yoke and submit to the Labour that is enjoined them they are treated as wild Beasts that cannot be kept in order neither by a Prison nor by their Chains and are at last put to death But those who bear their Punishment patiently and are so much wrought on by that pressure that lies so hard on them that it appears they are really more troubled for the Crimes they have committed than for the Miseries they suffer are not out of hope but that at last either the Prince will by his Prerogative or the People will by their intercession restore them again to their liberty or at least very much mitigate their slavery He that tempts a married Woman to Adultery is no less severely punished than he that commits it for they reckon that a laid and studied Design of committing any Crime is equal to the Fact it self since it s not taking effect does not make the Person that did all that in him lay in order to it a whit the less guilty They take great pleasure in Fools and as it is thought a base and unbecoming thing to use them ill so they do not think it amiss for People to divert themselves with their Folly and they think this is a great advantage to the Fools themselves For if Men were so sullen and severe as not at all to please themselves with their ridiculous behaviour and foolish sayings which is all that they can do to recommend themselves to others it could not be expected that they would be so well look'd to nor so tenderly used as they must otherwise be If any Man should reproach another for his being mishaped or imperfect in any part of his Body it would not at all be thought a reflection on the Person that were so treated but it would be accounted a very unworthy thing for him that had upbraided another with that which he could not help It is thought a sign of a sluggish and sordid Mind not to preserve carefully one 's natural Beauty but it is likewise an infamous thing among them to use Paint or Fard And they all see that no Beauty recommends a Wife so much to her Husband as the probity of her Life and her Obedience for as some few are catched and held only by Beauty so all People are held by the other Excellencies which charm all the World As they fright Men from committing Crimes by Punishments so they invite them to the love of Vertue by publick Honours therefore they erect Statues in honour to the memories of such worthy Men as have deserved well of their Country and set these in their Market-places both to perpetuate the remembrance of their Actions and to be an incitement to their Posterity to follow their example If any Man aspires to any Office he is sure never to compass it They live all easily together for none of the Magistrates are either insolent or cruel to the People but they affect rather to be called Fathers and by being really so they well deserve that Name and the People pay them all the marks of Honour the more freely because none are exacted of them The Prince himself has no distinction either of Garments
this means those that are named in their Schedules become not only distrustful of their Fellow-Citizens but are jealous of one another and are much distracted by Fear and Danger for it has often fallen out that many of them and even the Prince himself have been betrayed by those in whom they have trusted most for the Rewards that the Vtopians offer are so unmeasurably great that there is no sort of Crime to which Men cannot be drawn by them They consider the Risque that those run who undertake such Services and offer a Recompence proportioned to the danger not only a vast deal of Gold but great Revenues in Lands that lie among other Nations that are their Friends where they may go and enjoy them very securely and they observe the Promises they make of this kind most religiously They do very much approve of this way of corrupting their Enemies tho it appears to others to be a base and cruel thing but they look on it as a wise course to make an end of that which would be otherwise a great War without so much as hazarding one Battel to decide it They think it likewise an Act of Mercy and Love to Mankind to prevent the great slaughter of those that must otherwise be killed in the progress of the War both of their own side and of their Enemies by the death of a few that are most guilty and that in so doing they are kind even to their Enemies and pity them no less than their own People as knowing that the greater part of them do not engage in the War of their own accord but are driven into it by the Passions of their Prince If this Method does not succeed with them then they sow Seeds of Contention among their Enemies and animate the Prince's Brother or some of the Nobility to aspire to the Crown If they cannot disunite them by Domestick Broils then they engage their Neighbours against them and make them set on foot some old Pretensions which are never wanting to Princes when they have occasion for them And they supply them plentifully with Mony tho but very sparingly with any Auxiliary Troops for they are so render of their own People that they would not willingly exchange one of them even with the Prince of their Enemies Country But as they keep their Gold and Silver only for such an occasion so when that offers it self they easily part with it since it would be no inconvenience to them tho they should reserve nothing of it to themselves For besides the Wealth that they have among them at home they have a vast Treasure abroad Many Nations round about them being deep in their Debt so that they hire Souldiers from all Places for carrying on their Wars but chiefly from the Zapolets who lie five hundred miles from Vtopia eastward They are a rude wild and fierce Nation who delight in the Woods and Rocks among which they were born and bred up They are hardned both against Heat Cold and Labour and know nothing of the delicacies of Life They do not apply themselves to Agriculture nor do they care either for their Houses or their Clothes Cattel is all that they look after and for the greatest part they live either by their Hunting or upon Rapine and are made as it were only for War They watch all opportunities of engaging in it and very readily embrace such as are offered them Great numbers of them will often go out and offer themselves upon a very low Pay to serve any that will employ them they know none of the Arts of Life but those that lead to the taking it away they serve those that hire them both with much courage and great Fidelity but will not engage to serve for any determin'd time and agree upon such Terms that the next day they may go over to the Enemies of those whom they serve if they offer them a greater pay and they will perhaps return to them the day after that upon a higher advance of their Pay There are few Wars in which they make not a considerable part of the Armies of both sides so it falls often out that they that are of kin to one another and were hired in the same Country and so have lived long and familiarly together yet they forgetting both their Relation and former Friendship kill one another upon no other consideration but because they are hired to it for a little Mony by Princes of different Interests and so great regard have they to Mony that they are easily wrought on by the difference of one Penny a Day to change sides So entirely does their Avarice turn them and yet this Mony on which they are so much set is of little use to them for what they purchase thus with their Blood they quickly waste it on Luxury which among them is but of a poor and miserable form This Nation serves the Vtopians against all People whatsoever for they pay higher than any other The Vtopians hold this for a Maxim that as they seek out the best sort of Men for their own use at home so they make use of this worst sort of Men for the Consumption of War and therefore they hire them with the offers of vast Rewards to expose themselves to all sorts of hazards out of which the greater part never returns to claim their Promises Yet they make them good most religiously to such as escape And this animates them to adventure again when there is occasion for it for the Vtopians are not at all troubled how many of them soever happen to be killed and reckon it a service done to Mankind if they could be a mean to deliver the World from such a leud and vicious sort of People that seem to have run together as to the Drain of Humane Nature Next to these they are served in their Wars with those upon whose account they undertake them and with the Auxiliary Troops of their other Friends to whom they join some few of their own People and send some Man of eminent and approved Vertue to command in chief There are two sent with him who during his Command are but private Men but the first is to succeed him if he should happen to be either killed or taken and in case of the like misfortune to him the third comes in his place and thus they provide against ill Events that such Accidents as may befal their Generals may not endanger their Armies When they draw out Troops of their own People they take such out of every City as freely offer themselves for none are forced to the Laws of the Country and their Learning add more vigor to their Minds for as they do not undervalue Life to the degree of throwing it away too prodigally so they are not so indecently fond of it that when they see they must sacrifice it honourably they will preserve it by base and unbecoming Methods In the greatest heat of Action the bravest of