have fallen below the pattern of excellence which they have occupied, nothing is more true, than that the result has been,-that the whole Society, as a body, have obtained from their countrymen the character of a moral people.

If the reader is a lover of virtue, and anxious for the moral improvement of mankind, he will be desirous of knowing what means the Quakers have used, to preserve, for a hundred and fifty years, this desirable reputation in the world.

They would attribute supposed to have, to

If he were to put the question to the Quakers themselves, for their opinion upon it, I believe I can anticipate their reply. any morality, they might be the Supreme Being, whose will, having been discovered by means of the Scriptures, and of religious impressions upon the mind when it has been calm and still, and abstracted from the world, they have endeavoured to obey. But there is no doubt that we may add auxiliary causes of this morality, and such as they themselves would allow to have had their share in producing it, under the same influence. The first of these may be called their Moral Education. The second, their Discipline. The third may be said to consist of those domestic or other Customs, which are peculiar to them as a society of Christians. The fourth, of their peculiar Tenets of Religion. In fact, there are many circumstances interwoven into the constitution of this Society, each of which has a separate effect, and all of which have a combined tendency towards the production of moral character.

These auxiliary causes I shall consider and explain in their return. In the course of this explanation the reader will see, that, if other people were to resort to the same means as the Quakers, they would obtain the same reputation: or, that human nature is not so stubborn but that it will yield to a given force. But as it is usual, in examining the life of an individual, to begin with his youth, or, if it has been eminent, to begin with the education he has received, so I shall fix upon the first of the auxiliary causes I have mentioned, or the Moral Education of the Quakers, as the subject of the first division of my work.

Of this moral education I may observe here, that it is universal among the Society, or that it obtains where the individuals are considered to be true Quakers. It matters not how various the tempers of young persons may be who come under it; they must submit to it. Nor does it signify what may be the disposition, or the whim and caprice of their parents; they must submit to it alike. The Quakers believe that they have discovered that system of morality which Christianity prescribes; and therefore that they can give no dispensation to their members, under any circumstance whatever, to deviate from it. The origin of this system, as a standard of Education in Society, is as follows.

When the first Quakers met in union, they consisted in religious or spiritually-minded men. From that time to the present there has always been, as we may imagine, a succession of such in the Society. Many of these at their great meet

ings, which have been annual since those days, have delivered their sentiments on various interesting points. These sentiments were regularly printed in the form of yearly epistles, and distributed among Quaker families. Extracts, in process of time, were made from them, and arranged under different heads, and published in one book under the name of "Advices*." Now these advices comprehend important subjects. They relate to Customs, Manners, Fashions, Conversation, Conduct. They contain, of course, recommendations, and suggest prohibitions to the Society, as rules of guidance: and as they came from spiritually-minded men, on solemn occasions, they are supposed to have had a spiritual origin. Hence, Quaker-parents manage their youth according to these recommendations and prohibitions; and hence, this Book of Extracts (for so it is usually called), from which I have obtained a considerable portion of my knowledge on this subject, forms the basis of the moral education of the Society.

Of the contents of this book, I shall notice, while I am treating upon this subject, not those rules which are of a recommendatory, but those which are of a prohibitory nature. Education is regulated either by recommendations, or by prohibitions, or by both conjoined. The former relate to things where there is a wish that youth should conform to them, but where a small deviation

* The book is entitled, "Extracts from the Minutes made, and from the Advices given, at the Yearly Meeting of the Quakers in London, since its first Institution."

from them would not be considered as an act of delinquency publicly reprehensible. The latter, to things where any compliance with them becomes a positive offence. The Quakers, in consequence of the vast power, which they have over their members by means of their discipline, lay a great stress upon the latter. They consider their prohibitions, when duly watched and enforced, as so many barriers against vice, or preservatives of virtue. Hence, they are grand component parts in their moral education; and hence I shall chiefly consider them in the chapters which are now to follow upon this subject.

MORAL EDUCATION

OF THE

QUAKERS.

CHAPTER I.

Moral education of the Quakers-Amusements necessary for youth—Quakers distinguish between the useful and the hurtful—the latter specified, and forbidden.

WHEN the blooming spring sheds abroad its

benign influence, man feels it equally with the rest of created nature. The blood circulates more freely, and a new current of life seems to be diffused, in his veins. The aged man is enlivened, and the sick man feels himself refreshed. Good spirits and cheerful countenances succeed. But as the year changes in its seasons, and rolls round to its end, the tide seems to slacken, and the current of feeling to return to its former level.

But this is not the case with the young. The whole year to them is a kind of perpetual spring. Their blood runs briskly throughout; their spirits are kept almost constantly alive; and, as the cares of the world occasions no drawback, they feel a perpetual disposition of cheerfulness and to mirth.