power, they indulge to excess. By degrees they ruin their health and fortunes, and get wisdom by experience when it is too late to use it. How many young persons have I known-I wish I could make a different statement-whose ruin originated wholly in a sense of their own independence of the world.

Neither, if we look into the Society of the Quakers shall we find a different result. It is undoubtedly true, though there are many amiable exceptions, that the worst examples in it are generally among the children of the rich. These presently take wings and fly away; so that, falling into the corruptive and destructive fashions of the times, their parents have only been heaping up riches, not knowing who were to gather them. And here it may be remarked, that the Quaker-education, by means of its prohibitions, greatly disqualifies its young members, who may desert from the Society, from acting prudently afterwards. They will be, in general, but children and novices in the world. Kept within bounds till this period, what is more probable, than that, when they break out of them, they will launch into excess? A great river may be kept in its course by paying constant attention to its banks; but if you make a breach in these restrictive walls, you let it loose, and it deluges the plains below.

In short, whether we turn our eyes to the Quaker-Society, or to the world at large, we cannot consider an affluent independence as among the temporal advantages of youth. And as they, who

only leave their children a moderate portion of substance, so that they shall see the necessity of relying upon their own honest endeavours and the Divine support, act wisely in their own generation, so they act only consistently with the religion they profess. For, what does the religion of the Quakers hold out to them as the best attainment in life? Is it not spiritual knowledge? Is it not that knowledge, which shall fit them best for the service of their Maker? But such knowledge is utterly unattainable while a money-getting spirit exists; for it has been declared by the highest authority, that we cannot ́serve God and Mammon.

CHAPTER XIV.

Another trait is that of a Want of Animation or Affection—this an appearance only, and no reality, arising from a proper subjugation of the passions -from the prohibitions relative to dress-and address—and the amusements of the world.

IT is said next of the members of this Society, that they are a cold and inanimate people, and that they have neither the ordinary affection, nor the gradation of affection of other people.

I may immediately pronounce upon this trait,. that it is merely an outward appearance. The Quakers have as warm feelings as the rest of their

countrymen. Their love of their fellow-creatures, more conspicuous in them than in many others, as has been amply shown, gives them a claim to the possession of warm and affectionate feelings. They have the character also of a domestic people; but surely, if they do not possess affection, and this in a very high degree, they must have miserable homes. There is indeed a want of gradation in their affections, which may be traced upon some occasions. In making their wills, for example, they are not apt to raise up an eldest son to the detriment of the rest of their offspring. And this certainly is a proof, that they do not possess the gradation of affection of many other people. Happy is it for their own feelings, and the welfare of their families, that they give this proof to the world of this equal affection for their children.

That this feature is only an appearance, and not a reality, I shall show by stating many outward circumstances in the Quaker-constitution, which may be preventive of apparent animation, but which can have no influence on the heart.

We must all of us be sensible, that both opinions and customs have an effect on the warmth or coldness of our characters. Who would expect, if two faithful portraits could have been handed down to us from antiquity, to find the same gravity or coldness of countenance and manners in an Athenian as in a Spartan? And, in the same manner, who can expect that there will not be a difference in the appearance of Quakers and other people?

The truth is, that the discipline and education of the Society produce an appearance of a want of animation, and this outward appearance the world has falsely taken as a symbol of the character of the heart. Can we expect that a due subjugation of the passions, which is insisted upon in true Quaerfamilies, will give either warmth to the countenance, or spirit to the outward manners? Do not the passions animate and give a tone to the charac⚫ters of men? Can we see, then, the same variety of expression in the faces of the individuals now under our consideration as in those of others on this account? The actions of men, again, enliven their outward appearances; but Quakers, being forbidden to use the address of the world, can assume no variety of action in their intercourse with others. The amusements again, of the world, such as of music and the theatre, reach the mind, and, animating it, give a certain expression to the countenance; and the contemplation upon these amusements afterwards produces a similar though a slighter effect.

But in what Quakers can you see sensibility from the same cause? The dress too of the members of this Society gives them an appearance of gravity and dulness. It makes them also shy of their fellow-citizens. But gravity, and dulness, and shyness, have generally, each of them, the appearance of coldness of manners.

CHAPTER XV.

Another trait is that of Evasiveness in Speech-this an appearance only, arising from a peculiar regard to truth-and from a caution about the proper use of words, induced by circumstances in the discipline, and by the peculiarities in the Quakerlanguage.

IT is alleged against the members of this Society, as another bad feature in their character, that they are not plain and direct, but that they are evasive in their answers to any questions that may be asked them.

There is no doubt that the world, who know scarcely any thing about the Quakers, will have some reason, if they judge from their outward manner of expression, to come to such a conclusion. There is often a sort of hesitation in their speech, which has the appearance of evasiveness. though there may be such an appearance, their answers to questions are full and accurate when finally given and unquestionably there is no intention in them either to hold back any thing, or to deceive.

But

This outward appearance, strange to relate, arises in part from an amiable trait in their character! Their great desire to speak the truth, and not to exceed it, occasions often a sort of doubtfulness of speech. It occasions them also, instead of answering a question immediately, to ask other questions,