CHAPTER X.

Imperfect traits in the Quaker-character-some of these may be called intellectually defective traitsfirst imputation of this kind is, that the Quakers are deficient in learning, compared with other people-this trait not improbable, on account of their early devotion to trade-and on account of their controversies and notions about human learn ing-and of other causes.

THE world, while it has given to the Quakers as a body, as it will have now appeared', a more than ordinary share of virtue, has not been without the belief that there are blemishes in their character.. What these traits or blemishes are, may be collected partly from books, partly from conversation, and partly from vulgar sayings. They are divisible into two kinds,-into intellectually defective, and into morally defective traits the former relating to the understanding, the latter to the heart.

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The first of the intellectually defective traits consists in the imputation, that the Quakers are deficient in the cultivation of

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the intellect of their children; or, that when they grow up in life they are found to have less knowledge than others in the higher branches of learning. By this I mean that they are understood to have but a moderate classical education, to know but little of the different branches of philosophy, and to have, upon the whole, less variety of knowledge than others of their countrymen in the corresponding stations of life.

This trait seems to have originated with the world in two supposed facts. The first is, that there has never been any literary writer of eminence born in the Society; Penn, Barclay, and others, having come into it by convincement, and brought their learning with them. The second is, that the Society has never yet furnished a philosopher, or produced any material discovery. It is rather a common remark, that if the education of others had been as limited as that of the Quakers, we should have been probably at this day without a Newton, and might have been strangers to those great discoveries, whether of the art of navigation, or of the circulation of the blood, or of other kind, which have proved so eminently useful

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useful to the comfort, health, and safety of many of the human race.

This trait will be true, or it will be false, as it is applied to the different classes which may be found in the Society of the Quakers. The poor who belong to it are all taught to read, and therefore better educated than the poor belonging to other bodies of men. They who spring from parents whose situation does not entitle them to rank with the middle class, but yet keeps them out of the former, are generally educated by the help of a subscription at Ackworth-School, and may be said to have more school-learning than others in a similar situation in life*. The rest, whatever may be their situation, are educated wholly at the expense of their parents, who send them either to private Quakerseminaries or to schools in the neighbour hood, as they judge it to be convenient or proper. It is upon this body of the Quakers that the imputation can only fall; and, as far as these are concerned, I think it may be said with truth that they possess a less

* Their parents pay a small annual sum towards their board and clothing. The rest is made up by a subscription among the Society, and by the funds of the school.

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portion of what is usually called liberal knowledge, than others in a corresponding station in life. There may be here and there a good classical or a good mathematical scholar: but in general there are but few Quakers who excel in these branches of learning. I ought, however, to add, that this character is not likely to remain long with the Society; for the young Quakers of the present day seem to me to be sensible of the inferiority of their own education, and to be making an attempt towards the improvement of their minds, by engaging in those which are the most entertaining, instructive, and useful;-I mean philosophical pursuits.

That deficiency in literature and science is likely to be a trait in the character of the Quakers we may pronounce, if we take into consideration circumstances which have happened, and notions which have prevailed, in this Society.

The Quakers, like the Jews of old, whether they be rich or poor, are brought up, in obedience to their own laws, to some employment, They are called of course at an early age from their books. It cannot there

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fore be expected of them, that they should possess the same literary character as they who spend years at our Universities, or whose time is not taken up by the concerns of trade.

It happens also in this Society, that persons of the poor and middle classes are frequently through industry becoming rich. While these were gaining but a moderate support, they gave their children but a moderate education. But when they came into possession of a greater substance, their children had finished their education, having grown up to men.

The antient controversy, too, relative to the necessity of human learning as a qualification for ministers of the Gospel, has been detrimental to the promotion of literature and science among the Quakers. This controversy was maintained with great warmth and obstinacy on both sides; that is, by the early Quakers, who were men of learning, on the one hand, and by the Divines of our Universities on the other. The less learned in the Society, who read this controversy, did not make the proper distinction concerning it. They were so interested in keeping

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