Barclay, or in Penn, or in Burroughs, or in Pennington, or in Ellwood, or in Arscott, or in Claridge, or in many others who might be named? And as this has been the case in the Quaker-Society, where a due care has been taken of morals, so it has been the case where a similar care has been manifested in the great society of the world.

"Piety has found

Friends in the friends of science, and true pray'r
Has flow'd from lips wet with Castalian dews.
Such was thy wisdom, Newton, childlike sage!
Sagacious reader of the works of God,

And in his Word sagacious. Such, too, thine,
Milton, whose genius had angelic wings,
And fed on manna. And such thine, in whom
Our British Themis gloried with just cause,
Immortal Hale, for deep discernment prais'd
And sound integrity not more, than fam'd
For sanctity of manners undefil'd.”

CowPER.

It appears, then, if I have reasoned properly, that the arguments usually adduced against the acquisition of human knowledge are but of little weight. If I have reasoned falsely upon this subject, so have the early Quakers. As they were friends to virtue, so they were friends to science.

3

If

If they have at any time put a low estimate upon the latter, it has been only as a qualification for a minister of the Gospel. Here they have made a stand. Here they have made a discrimination.

But I believe it

will no where be found that they have denied either that learning might contribute to the innocent pleasures of life, or that it might be made a subordinate and auxiliary instrument towards the promotion of

virtue.

CHAP

CHAPTER VII.

Conclusion of the work-conclusory remarks divided into two kinds-first as they relate to those who may have had thoughts of leaving the Society-advantages which these may have proposed to themselves by such a change-these advantages either religious or temporal-the value of them considered.

HAVING now gone through all the subjects which I had prescribed to myself at the beginning of this work, I purpose to close it. But as it should be the wish of every author to render his production useful, I shall add a few observations for this purpose. My remarks then, which will be thus conclusory, will relate to two different sorts of persons. They will relate first to those who may have had thoughts of leaving the Society, or, which is the same thing, who persist in a course of irregularities, knowing before-hand, and not regretting it, that they shall eventually disowned. It will relate, secondly, to all other persons, or to those who may

be

called

1

1

called the world, To the former I shall conmy attention in this chapter.

fine

I have often heard persons of great respectability, and these even in the higher circles of life, express a wish that they had been brought up as Quakers. The steady and quiet deportment of the members of this Society, the ease with which they appear to get through life, the simplicity and morality of their character, were the causes which produced the expression of such a wish. "But why then, I have observed, if you feel such a disposition as this wish indicates, do you not become Quakers? Because, it has been replied, we are too old to be singular. Dressing with sufficient simplicity ourselves, we see no good reason for adopting the dress of the Society. It would be as foolish in us to change the colour and fashion of our clothing, as it would be criminal in the Quakers, with their notions, to come to the use of that which belongs to us. Endeavouring also to be chaste in our conversation, we cannot adopt their language. It would be as inconsistent in us to speak after the manner of the Quakers, as it would be inconsistent in them to leave their own

language

born Quakers, we would never have deserted the Society."

Perhaps they, to whom I shall confine my remarks in this chapter, are not aware that such sentiments as these are floating in the minds of many. They are not aware, that it is considered as one of the strangest things, for those who have been born in the Society and been accustomed to its peculiarities, to leave it. And least of all are they aware of the worthless motives which the world attributes to them for an intended separation from it.

There is, indeed, something seemingly irreconcilable in the thought of such a dereliction or change. To leave the society of a moral people can it be a matter of any credit? To diminish the number of those who protest against war, and who have none of the guilt upon their heads of the sanguinary progress of human destruction which is going on in the world, is it desirable, or rather ought it not to be a matter of regret? And to leave it at a time when its difficulties are over, is it a proof of a wise and a pru

dent