Few were insensible to his personal charm and gaiety. He excelled especially in quick repartée, in "exquisite nonsense," and in spontaneous humour. When quite a young man, just entering upon political life, Evelyn described him as "a witty gentleman, if not a little too prompt and daring." The latter characteristic was not moderated by time but persisted throughout his life. He was incapable of controlling his spirit of raillery, from jests on Siamese missionaries to sarcasms at the expense of the heir to the throne and the ridicule of hereditary monarchy. His brilliant paradoxes, his pungent and often profane epigrams were received by graver persons as his real opinions and as evidence of atheism. The latter charge he repudiated, assuring Burnet that he was "a Christian in submission," but that he could not digest iron like an ostrich nor swallow all that the divines sought to impose upon the world.