persons of such unnatural character I must confess. But any deficiency in their example is not to be attributed to their learning. It is to be set down, on the other hand, to the morally defective education they have recieved. They have not been accustomed to wise restraints. More pains have been taken to give them knowledge, than to instruct them in religion. But where an education has been bestowed upon persons, in which their morals have been duly attended to, where has knowledge been found to be at variance, or, rather, where has it not been found to be in union with virtue? Of this union the Quakers can trace some of the brightest examples in their own Society. Where did knowledge, for instance, separate herself from religion in 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.

nent among

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 the most emithem were friends to virtue, so they were friends to science. 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 in the promotion of virtue.

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 as useful as he can, 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 be eventually disowned. It will relate, secondly, to all other persons, or to those, who may be called the world. To the former I shall confine my attention in this chapter.

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 solicit membership? 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 its members, with their notions, to come to the use of that, which belongs to us. Endeavouring also to be chaste in our conversation, we see no reason to 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 for ours. But still we wish we had been born Quakers. And, if we had been born in the Society, we would never have deserted it."

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 prudent choice? If persons had ever had it in contemplation to leave the Society in its most difficult and trying times, or in the days of its persecution, when only for the adoption of innocent singularities its members were insulted, and beaten, and bruised, and put in danger of their lives, it had been no matter of surprise; but to leave it when all judices against them are gradually decreasing; when they are rising in respectability in the eyes of the government under which they live; and when, by the weight of their own usefulness and character, they are growing in the esteem of the world, is surely a matter of wonder, and for which it is difficult to account.

pre

This brings me to the point in question, or to the examination of those arguments, which may at times have come into the heads of those, who have had thoughts of ceasing to be members of this Society.

In endeavouring to discover these, we can only suppose them to be actuated by one motive, for no other will be reasonable, namely, that they shall derive advantages from the change. Now all advantages are resolvable into two kinds; into such as are religious, and into such as are temporal. The