Having explained some of those, which may be considered as positive sources of happiness to the Society, I shall now show what may be causes of unhappiness to others, and that the Quakers seldom partake of these. Such an exposition, however strange it may appear at the first sight, will be materially to the point: for though an exemption from the causes of the uneasiness of others can never be admitted as a proof of the existence of positive enjoyment among the Quakers; yet, if the latter have solid sources of happiness of their own, and these are not in any material degree diminished by the causes of the uneasiness of the former, there will be left to them, because there will be no drawback, a certain portion of happiness with less alloy. And here it is obvious at the first sight, that the individuals belonging to this Society have not the same, nor so many, wants as others with respect to their pleasures, and that they do not admit the same things to be component parts of them. Hence they have not the same causes of uneasiness from the chance of interruption. Hence also their happiness is more in their own power. What individual can annihilate the comforts, which arise from their own industry, or their domestic enjoyments, or their friendly intercourse with each other, or their employments, which arise from their discipline and from their trade and callings? But how easily are many of the reputed enjoyments of the world to be broken! Some people place their happiness in a routine of constituted pleasures. In proportion as these have been frequently resorted to, they will

have got into the habit as the necessary enjoyments of life. Take away, then, from persons in such habits the power of these their ordinary gratifications, and you will make them languid, and even wretched. There will be a wide chasm, which they will not know how to fill up ;—a dull vacuum of time, which will make their existence insipid ;a disappointment, which will carry with it a tormenting sting. In some of the higher circles of life, accustomed to such rounds of pleasure, who does not know that the Sunday is lamented as the most cruel interrupter of their enjoyments?—No shopping in the morning,-no theatre or rout in the evening,-nothing but dull, heavy, church, stares them in the face. But I will not draw the picture at full length. I shall only observe, that where persons adopt a routine of constituted pleasures, they are creating fictitious wants for themselves, and making their own happiness subject to interruption, and putting it into the power of others. The Quakers, however, by their total rejection of all the amusements included in the routine alluded to, know nothing of the drawbacks or disadvantages described.

They are exempt, again, from several of the causes of uneasiness, which attach to the world at large. Some go to the gaming-table, 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 in

temperate 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 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 occasion.

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 the Quakers can have no such feelings as these. They pass in their pilgrimage through life regardless of such distinctions, or they estimate 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 may be here and there an instance where their feelings may be unduly af

may

fected, 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 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.

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 capital 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