5. Instance in keeping compacts.
That men should keep their compacts is certainly a great and undeniable rule in
morality. But yet, if a Christian, who has the view of happiness and misery in another life, be asked why a man
must keep his word, he will give this as a reason:--Because God, who has the power of eternal life and death,
requires it of us. But if a Hobbist be asked why? he will answer:--Because the public requires it, and the
Leviathan will punish you if you do not. And if one of the old philosophers had been asked, he would have
answered:--Because it was dishonest, below the dignity of a man, and opposite to virtue, the highest perfection of
human nature, to do otherwise.