The Friends built no churches. They assembled in halls or houses, called meeting-rooms, and sat there together in silence, listening to the revelation of the inner voice, and speaking merely when this admonished them to say any thing.

The Puritans regarded woman as the helper of man, and his companion in the house and on the private path of life.

The Friends regarded woman as man's helper also in his life as a citizen, as his helper in the business of his public as well as his private life, and acknowledged the right of woman to speak, as well in the Senate as the Church. The Female Assemblies of Council were of as much weight as those of the men, and the inspiration of woman was listened to with reverence when she stood forth, at the call of the Spirit, in their meeting-houses.

The Puritans had simplified the marriage ceremony. The Friends rejected marriage by a priest, and it became a civil rite. If a man and woman declared themselves willing to live together as a married pair, that sufficed to constitute the marriage. The inner voice was enough to sanctify the union, and to make it firm; the inner voice alone could point out the way, and keep the heart pure.

Thus pure, thus sublime were the principles which guided this little people, who went over to the New World to make that "holy experiment," as William Penn terms it; to found a community wholly and entirely based upor that which is most inward and most spiritual in human life.

Thus began the colony which, under the guidance of William Penn, extended itself into the most flourishing condition, and received the name of Pennsylvania. Penn desired in it to found a free colony for all mankind.

The fame of that holy experiment resounded afar. The sons of the forest, the chiefs of the Indian tribes, came to meet the Quaker king. Penn met them beneath the open

sky, in the depths of the forest, now leafless by the frosts of autumn, and proclaimed to them the same message of the nobility of man, and of the unity and truth of the inner light, which Fox had announced to Cromwell, and Mary Fisher to the Grand Sultan. The Englishmen and the Indians must regard the same moral law, and every quarrel between them be adjusted by a peaceful tribunal composed of an equal number of men of each race.

"We meet," said Penn, "upon the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no one shall seek to take advantage of the other, but all shall be done with candor and with love."

"We are all one flesh and blood."

"We

The Indians were affected by these noble words. will live," said they, "in love with William Penn and his children as long as sun and moon shall endure."

And the sun, and the forest, and the river witnessed the treaty of peace and friendship which was made on the shores of the Delaware; the first treaty, says an historian, which was not ratified by an oath, and the only one which never was broken.

The Quakers said, "We have done a better work than if we, like the proud Spaniards, had gained the mines of Potosi. We have taught to the darkened souls around us their rights as men."

Upon a stretch of land between the Rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, purchased from the Swedes, and blessed with pure springs of water and a healthful atmosphere, Penn laid the foundation of the city of Philadelphia, an asylum for the persecuted, a habitation for freedom, a home for all mankind. "Here," said the Friends, "we will worship God according to His pure law and light; here will we lead an innocent life upon an elysian, virgin soil."

That Philadelphia was later to become the birth-place of American independence, and of that Declaration which

proclaimed it to all the world, and united all the individual states of the Union in the great name of humanity— of this the Friends thought not.

My dear heart, I have written out the above for you, partly from books, partly from myself, from my own observation and thoughts; for I have been greatly fascinated by this episode in the history of man, and I see traces of its life still quite fresh around me.

Looking now at the principles of Quakerism in and for themselves, I see clearly that they are the same doctrines for which Socrates died and Luther lived, and for which the great Gustavus Adolphus fought and conquered, and died the death of the hero-the right of freedom of thought, of faith in the light and voice of God in the soul of man; this principle, arising in George Fox from the very heart of the people, and thence becoming the vital principle of people, Church, and State, constitutes the peculiarity of Quakerism, thoroughly permeating social life.

New it is not; neither is it sufficient in the one-sided view in which Quakers comprehend it. What if that inner light illumines a dark desire in the human soul? if the inward voice finds itself opposed by a debased or evil impulse of the heart? The Quakers have forgotten, or have not regarded the old saying, that "there is a drop of black blood in every man's heart." And in order to make this pure, neither light nor admonishing voice avails any thing, but only another drop of blood of divine power and purity. The Quakers may, in the mysteries of Quaker life, find proofs enough of the existence of this black drop, even among the children of the inner light; perhaps no bloody proofs, no burning spot, but dark histories of gloomy, silent, bitter quarrels among "the Friends;" secret oppression, secret, long misery, irreconcilable misunderstandings, and all those dark fiends which, when I see them imbittering family or social life, remind me of the old Northern hell with its dark, poisonous rivers, cruel witchcraft, rainy

But Quakerism, in

clouds, venomous serpents, and so on. its first arisings, saw nothing of this, and perhaps possessed nothing of it. Enthusiasm for a beautiful idea changes the soul to a spring morning, with a clear heaven and the purest air, full of the song of birds. amid flowery meadows. Later in the day the clouds arise. Quakerism, in its earliest morning freshness. was itself a pure, unfathomed river, derived from pure fountains, and which baptized the world anew with the purifying waters of truth, and faith in the voice and power of truth. That was and that is its good work in mankind. And its awakening cry has penetrated with purifying power into millions of souls. Waldo Emerson, in his belief in the power of this inner light and truth, is a Quaker.

It was a mistake in the Quakers to believe that man has sufficient of this inner light in himself, nay of his own strength, to attain to perfection, and it still remains a mistake to this day. For this reason they make too little use of prayer, too little of the Lord's Supper, too little of all those means which the All-good Father has afforded to His children, in order to bring them into connection with Him, and Him with them, that He might impart to them His life and His strength, and which, therefore, are so properly called means of grace. Therefore is it, also, that they are deficient in that reliance and freedom with which a child of God moves through the whole circle of his creation, regarding nothing as unclean, and nothing as hurtful, which is enjoyed with a pure mind. They look with suspicious glances upon all free beauty and art, and are afraid of joy; nay, they mistrust even the beauty of nature, and are deficient in that universal sense which belongs to the Scandinavians-though it sometimes a little oversteps itself with them--and which made your somewhat eccentric acquaintance, L., say, "One should eat in God; one should play and sing in God; nay, one should dance in God."

But peace be with Quakerism! It has accomplished

its mission, and borne the torch of light before mankind for a season, during its passage "out of darkness, and through the shadows to the light." It has had its time. There is an end of the earlier power of the sect. But its influence still exists, and is in force in the New World, especially as the principle of stern uprightness and public benevolence, and it will yet by this open new paths for the people of the New World. The doctrine of the inner light died not, but seeks a union with another higher light. It has, especially in its declared equality of man and woman, a rich seed which must germinate through a wider sphere. How little danger there is in this avowed equality, and how little outward change is produced by it in society, the Quaker community has practically shown. Men and women have there the same privileges, and exercise them alike. But in all this they have remained true to their nature; she turns rather into the home; he, more outward, to the community. The women have remained equally feminine, but have become more marked in character. The different characteristics of the two have, in that which was the best, remained unchanged, but have been improved, elevated where they were worst. That "holy experiment" proves itself to have been in this respect wholly successful, and ought to have led to a yet more grand experiment.

The present younger generation of Quakers unites itself more to the world by poetry and music, and begins to light up the old gray and drab attire by a still more cheerful hue. The change is prepared in the mind. The world has become purified through the purity of the Quakers, and its innocent joy and beauty now begin to find their way to them. A young girl of Quaker family, of my acquaintance here, wore pale pink ribbon, and had her bonnet made in a prettier form than that in use among the Quakers, and when reproached by her mother for seeking to please man rather than God, she replied: