Cleo. That's quite another Thing. The Quakers take all Oaths whatever, whether they are made before a Magistrate or otherwise, to be sinful, and for that Reason they refuse to Swear at all. But as it is their avow'd Opinion, that a wilful notorious Lie is not less Criminal in the Sight of Heaven than we take Perjury to be, it is evident, that in giving their Testimony, they stake their Salvation equally with other People that make Oath. Whereas those who, with us, are credited upon their Honour, have no such Scruples, and make Oath themselves on other Occasions: The Reason therefore why they don't try Criminals and pronounce their Judgment upon Oath, as other Judges and Juries do, is not, that they think appealing to God or Swearing by his Name to be Sinful, which is the Case of the Quakers; but because they are supposed to be altogether as credible without it, as if they did. And if there was not some Adoration, some Worship, which Men of Honour pay to themselves, the Principle they act from could not have produced the visible Effects it has in so many different Nations. Hor. You have said several Things which I cannot disprove, and some of them, I own, are probable enough; but you are like to leave me as you found me. The Principle of Honour has lost no Ground in my Esteem; and I shall continue to act from it as I did before. But since you imagine to have so plainly proved, that we are Idols to our Selves, and that Honour is diametrically opposite to Christianity, I wonder you don't call it the Beast in the _Apocalypse_, and say, that it is the Whore of _Babylon_. This would be a notable Conceit, and suit Papists as well as Protestants; nay, I fancy, that the Colour of the Whore, and her Thirst after Blood, might be better accounted for from Duelling, than any other Way that has been tried yet. Cleo. The Revelations of St. _John_ are above my Comprehension; and I shall never laugh at Mysteries for not understanding them. Hor. What you say of Mysteries, I think, ought to be more justly applied to the Principle of Honour, which we do understand; for whatever it may be derived from, the Advantages the Civil Society receives from it, both in Peace and War, are so many and so manifest, that the Usefulness of it ought to exempt and preserve it from being ridicul'd. I hate to hear a Man talk of its being more or less portable, the melting of it over again, and reducing it to a new Standard.