"And do you know any of them? Have you ever spoken to them, or been at their houses?"
"O yes, I was acquainted with many families; I knew Mr. ----, and Mr. ----, etc. etc. (I suppress names.) I have been employed in their houses, and seen them frequently."
Well, then, can you tell me what sort of people they are, and what their characters and habits?"
"O yes, I can assure you that they are the best set of people in the world. They are esteemed, loved, and respected by every one: I never heard any thing but good of those I knew, and they always appeared to me to conduct themselves irreproachably."
I continued to question your mother on the manner in which the protestants brought up their children; how they treated their servants, strangers, and the poor. I asked if domestic harmony prevailed among them, and how they conducted themselves as parents and children, brothers and sisters.
All her answers tended to convince me that pious protestants lived under the influence of the word of God; and at each disclosure she made, (though unconscious of the value I attached to it,) I said to myself, "This is the morality of the Gospel."
Satisfied on this point, I turned to another:
"How do the protestants spend their Sabbaths and festivals," I asked, "separated as they are from each other and their church? Do they ever assemble for prayer, or do they live without worship?"
"O, no! they don't live without worship; they have their divine services; they are at too great a distance from their minister and each other to meet every Sunday, but they have a church in the country where they assemble many times in a year, I believe once a month; and at other times they meet for prayer at their own houses." "Oh! then they have a church near Libos? I should very much like to know," said I, "how they conduct their worship, and what they do at their church?"