heir endeavours after
it. Another sort of them is less willing to put themselves to much toil,
and therefore prefer a married state to a single one; and as they do not
deny themselves the pleasure of it, so they think the begetting of
children is a debt which they owe to human nature, and to their country;
nor do they avoid any pleasure that does not hinder labour; and therefore
eat flesh so much the more willingly, as they find that by this means
they are the more able to work: the Utopians look upon these as the wiser
sect, but they esteem the others as the most holy. They would indeed
laugh at any man who, from the principles of reason, would prefer an
unmarried state to a married, or a life of labour to an easy life: but
they reverence and admire such as do it from the motives of religion.
There is nothing in which they are more cautious than in giving their
opinion positively concerning any sort of religion. The men that lead
those severe lives are called in the language of their country
Brutheskas, which answers to those we call Religious Orders.

"Their priests are men of eminent piety, and therefore they are but few,
for there are only thirteen in every town, one for every temple; but when
they go to war, seven of these go out with their forces, and seven others
are chosen to supply their room in their absence; but these enter again
upon their employments when they return; and those who served in their
absence, attend upon the high priest, till vacancies fall by death; for
there is one set over the rest. They are chosen by the people as the
other magistrates are, by suffrages given in secret, for preventing of
factions: and when they are chosen, they are consecrated by the college
of priests. The care of all sacred things, the worship of God, and an
inspection into the manners of the people, are committed to them. It is
a reproach to a man to be sent for by any of them, or for them to speak
to him in secret, for that always gives some suspicion: all that is
incumbent on them is only to exhort and admonish the people; for the
power of correcting and punishing ill men belongs wholly to the Prince,
and to the other magistrates: the severest thing that the priest does is
the excluding those that are desperately wicked from joining in their
worship: there is not any sort of punishment more dreaded by them than
this, for as it loads them with infamy, so it fills them with secret
horrors, such is their reverence t