the world at large. Some go to the gamingtable, and ruin themselves and their families, and destroy the peace of their minds: but the Quakers are never found injuring their fortunes or their happiness by such disreputable means.

Others disturb the harmony of their lives by intemperate sallies of passion. It has been well observed, that, whatever may be the duration of a man's anger, so much time he loses of the enjoyment of life. The Quakers, however, have but few miserable moments on this account. A due subjugation of the passions has been generally instilled into them from early youth. Provocation seldom produces in them any intemperate. warmth, or takes away in any material degree from the apparent composure of their minds.

Others, again, by indulging their anger, are often hurried into actions, of which the consequences vex and torment them, and of which they often bitterly repent. But the Quakers endeavour to avoid quarrelling, and therefore they often steer clear of the party- and family-feuds of others. They avoid also, as much as possible, the law; so

that

that they have seldom any of the law-suits to harass and disturb them, which interrupt the tranquillity of others by the heavy expense and by the lasting enmities they oc

casion.

They are exempt, again, from many of the other passions, which contribute to the unhappiness of the world at large. Some men have an almost boundless ambition: they are desirous of worldly honours, or of eminent stations, or of a public name, and pursue these objects in their passage through life with an avidity, which disturbs the repose of their minds. But the Quakers scarcely know any such feeling as that of ambition, and of course scarcely any of the torments that belong to it. They are less captivated by the splendour of honours than any other people; and they had rather live in the memory of a few valuable friends, than be handed down to posterity for those deeds, which generally constitute the basis of public character.

Others, again, who cannot obtain these honourable distinctions, envy those who possess them. They envy the very coronet upon the coach as it passes by.

But che

2

Quaker

Quakers can have no such feelings as these. They pass in their pilgrimage through life regardless of such distinctions, or they estiinate them but as the baubles of the day. It would be folly, therefore, to suppose that they would be envious of that, which they do not covet.

They are exempt, again, from some of the occasions of uneasiness, which arise to others from considerations on the subject of religion. Some people, for example, pry into what are denominated Mysteries. The more they look into these, the less they understand them; or rather, the more they are perplexed and confounded. Such an inquiry, too, while it bewilders the understanding, generally affects the mind. But the Quakers avoid all such curious inquiries as these; and therefore they suffer no interruption of their enjoyment from this source. Others, again, by the adoption of gloomy creeds, give rise frequently to melancholy, and thus lay in for themselves a store of fuel for the torment of their own minds. But the Quakers espouse no doctrines which, while they conduct themselves uprightly, can interrupt the tranquillity of their minds. It is possible

there

there may be here and there an instance where their feelings may be unduly affected, in consequence of having carried the doctrine of the influence of the Spirit, as it relates to their own condition, beyond its proper bounds. But individuals, who may fall into errors of this nature, are, it is to be hoped, but few; because any melancholy, which may arise from these causes, must be the effect, not of genuine Quakerism, but of a degenerate superstition.

CHAP

CHAPTER II.

Good which the Quakers have done as a Society, upon earth-by their general good example— by showing that persecution for religion is ineffectual by showing the practicability of the subjugation of the will of man-the influence of Christianity on character-the inefficacy of capi tal punishments—the best object of punishment— the practicability of living either in a private or public capacity in harmony and peace-the superiority of the policy of the Gospel over the policy of the world.

WHEN we consider man as distinguished from other animals by the rational and spiritual faculties which he possesses, we cannot but conceive it to be a reproach to his nature, if he does not distinguish himself from these: or, if he does not leave some trace behind him, that he has existed rationally, and profitably both to himself and others; but if this be expected of man, sidered abstractedly as man, much more will it be expected of him, if he has had the ad

con

vantages