Society, how is this to be effected, while the other part speak of them, from their own experience, with rapture or delight? It would be impossible, therefore, in the opinion of the Quakers, in so mixed a family, to keep up that discipline, which they consider as a corner-stone of their constitutional fabric, and which may be said to have been an instrument, in obtaining for them the character of a moral people.

SECTION IIL

But though persons are thus disowned, they may be restored to membership-Generally understood, however, that they must previously express their repentance for their marriages-This confession of repentance censured by the world-but is admissible without the criminality supposed-The word repentance misunderstood by the world.

BUT though the Quakers may disown such as marry out of their Society, it does not follow that these may not be reinstated as members. If these should conduct themselves, after their disownment, in an orderly manner; and, still retaining their attachment to the Society, should bring up their children in the principles and customs of it; they may, if they apply for restoration, obtain it, with all their former privileges and rights.

The children also of such as marry out of the Society, though they are never considered to be members of it, may yet become so in particular cases. The Society advise that the monthly meetings should extend a tender care towards such children, and that they should be admitted into membership, at the discretion of the said meetings, either in infancy or in maturer age.

But here I must stop to make a few observations on an opinion, which prevails on this subject. It is generally understood that the Quakers, in their restoration of disowned persons to membership, require them previously and publicly to acknowledge that they have repented of their marriages. This obligation, to make this public confession of repentance, has given to many a handle for heavy charges against them. Indeed, I scarcely know, in any part of the Quaker-system, where people are louder in their censures than upon this point. A man, they say, cannot express his penitence for his marriage, without throwing a stigma upon his wife. To do this is morally wrong, if he has no fault to find with her. To do it, even if she has been in fault, is indelicate. And not to do it is to forego his restoration to membership. This law therefore of the Quakers is considered to be immoral, because it may lead both to hypocrisy and falsehood."

I shall not take up much time in correcting the notions that have gone abroad upon this subject.

Of those, who marry out of the Society, it may be presumed that there are some, who were never considered to be sound in the Quaker-principles;,

and these are mostly they, who intermarry with the world. Now those, who compose this class, generally live after their marriages as happily out of the Society as when they were in it. Of course these do not repent of the change. And if they do not repent, they never sue for restoration to membership. They cannot therefore incur any of the charges in question. Nor can the Society be blamed in this case, who, by never asking them to become members, never entice them to any objectionable repent

ance.

Of those, again, who marry out of the Society, there may be individuals so attached to its communion, that it was never imagined they would have acted in this manner. Now of these it may in general be said, that they often bitterly repent. They find, soon or late, that the opposite opinions and manners to be found in their union do not harmonize, and therefore they experience a disappointment, which they did not expect.

I have no doubt that instances might be produced, not included in either of the cases now mentioned, by which it would appear, that persons of this Society might say that they repented, and this truly, without any crimination of their wives; but the production of these is unnecessary, because they, who make the charge in question, have entirely misapplied the meaning of the word "repent." People are not called upon on this occasion to express their sorrow for having married the objects of their choice, but for having violated those great tenets of the Society, which have been already men-

tined, and which form distinguishing characteristics between Quakerism and the religion of the world. They, therefore, who say that they repent, say no more than what any other persons might be presumed to say, who had violated the religious tenets of any other society to which they might have belonged, or who had flown in the face of what they had imagined to be religious truths.

SECTION IV.

Of persons, disowned for marriage, the greater proportion is said to consist of women-Causes assigned for this difference of number in the two

sexes.

IT will perhaps appear a curious fact to the world, but I am told it is true, that the number of the women, who are disowned for marrying out of the Society, far exceeds the number of the men, who are disowned on the same account.

It is not difficult, if the fact be as it is stated, to assign a reason for this difference of number in the two sexes.

When men wish to marry, they wish, at least if they are men of sense, to find such women as are virtuous; to find such as are prudent and domestic ; such as have a proper sense of the folly and dissipation of the world; such, in fact, as will make good mothers and good wives. Now, if a Quaker looks

into his own Society, he will generally find the female, part of it of this description. Female Quakers excel in these points. But if he looks into the world at large, he will generally find a contrast in the females there. These in general are but badly educated. They are taught to place a portion of their happiness in finery and show. Utility is abandoned for fashion. The knowledge of the etiquette of the drawing-room usurps the place of the knowledge of the domestic duties. A kind of false and dangerous taste predominates. Scandal and the card-table are preferred to the pleasures of a rural walk. Virtue and modesty are to be seen with only half their energies, being overpowered by the noxiousness of novelreading principles, and by the moral taint which infects those, who engage in the varied rounds of a fashionable life. Hence a want of knowledge, a love of trifles, and a dissipated turn of mind, generally characterize those, who are considered as having had the education of the world.

We see, therefore, a good reason why the men should confine themselves in their marriages to their own Society. But the same reason, which thus operates with Quaker-men in the choice of Quakerwomen, operates occasionally with men, who are not of the Society, in choosing them also for their wives. These are often no strangers to the good education and the high character of the Quaker-females. Fearful often of marrying among the badly educated women of their own persuasion, they address themselves to those of this Society, and not unfrequently

succeed.