No one here undertakes the least Employment _invita Minerva_. I remember to have heard an illustrious Philosopher, by Name _Rakhasi_, descanting upon this Subject, and thus expressing himself: “Every one of us should be acquainted with his own Abilities, and be the strictest Judge of his own Virtues and Vices; otherwise Stage-Players will appear to have more Wisdom than we; for they do not chuse the finest Parts, but those that are the fittest for them. And shall a Player see that on a Stage, which a wise Man cannot see in Life?” The Natives of this Empire are not divided into Nobles and Commons. Formerly indeed this Distinction obtain’d. But when the Sovereigns observ’d that the Seeds of Discord sprang from hence, they wisely removed all such Privileges as were deriv’d from Birth, so that Virtue alone is now the Test of Honour; and this will appear plainer hereafter. The sole Preheminence of Birth consists in a Plurality of Branches. The Offspring is accounted Noble or Ignoble, according to the Plenty or Want of those, for this Reason, because the greater Plenty they have, the fitter they are for all manual Operations. Enough has been said in the foregoing Part of this Work concerning the Genius and Manners of this People; and therefore referring the Readers to those Passages, I conclude this Chapter, and proceed to some other Particulars. CHAP. VI. _Of the Religion of the_ Potuan _Nation_. The _Potuan_ System of Religion lies in a narrow Compass, and contains a Confession of Faith, something longer than our Apostles Creed. It is prohibited here, under Pain of Banishment to the Firmament, to comment upon the sacred Books. And if any presume to dispute about the Essence and Atrributes of God, or about the Nature of Spirits and Souls, he is condemn’d to the _Venæ-section_, and then confin’d in the publick _Bedlam_. For they think it the height of Folly to offer to describe or define those Things, to which the human Mind is as blind as the Eyes of an Owl to the Light of the Sun. They are all unanimous in adoring one Supreme Being, by whose Almighty Power all Things were created, and by whose Providence they subsist. Let but this Principle be uncontroverted, and they never molest any one for entertaining different Sentiments concerning a Method of Worship. Those alone who openly attack this Religion, as by Law established, are regarded as Disturbers of the publick Tranquillity. Hence I had the free Exercise of my own Religion, nor suffer’d the least Affront upon that Account. The _Potuans_ pray but seldom, but then it is with great Ardency, insomuch that they seem to be in an Extasy. And when I related that we pray and sing Psalms very often while employ’d about the common Affairs of Life, the _Potuans_ thought it a vicious Custom, replying, that an earthly Sovereign would take it extremely ill, to see any one humbly approaching him with a Petition, and at the same Time brushing his