CHAPTER IX.

Last good trait is that of Punctuality to Words and Engagements-this probable from the operation of all those principles which have produced for the Quakers the character of a moral people -and from the operation of their discipline. THE last good quality, which I shall notice in the character of the Quakers, is that of Punctuality to their Words and Engage

ments.

This is a very antient trait. Judge Forster entertained this opinion of George Fox,that, if he would consent to give his word for his appearance, he would keep it. Trusted to go at large without any bail, and solely on his bare word that he would be forthcoming on a given day, he never violated his promise. And he was known also to carry his own commitment himself. In those days, also, it was not unusual for Quakers to carry their own warrants, unaccompanied by constables or others, which were to consign them to a prison.

But it was not only in matters which related to the laws of the land, where the primitive

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mitive members held their words and engagements sacred. This trait was remarked to be true of them in their concerns in trade. On their first appearance as a Society they suffered as tradesmen, because others, displeased with the peculiarity of their manners, withdrew their custom from their shops. But in a little time the great outcry against them was, that they got the trade of the country into their hands. This outcry arose in

part from a strict execution of all commercial appointments and agreements between them and others, and because they never asked two prices for the commodities, which they sold. And the same character attaches to them as a commercial body, though there may be individual exceptions, at the present day.

Neither has this trait been confined to them as the inhabitants of their own country. They have carried it with them whereever they have gone. The Treaty of William Penn was never violated: and the estimation, which the Indians put upon the word of this great man and his companions, continues to be put by them upon that of the modern Quakers in America; so that they now come in deputations out of their own

settlements

settlements to consult them on important

occasions.

The existence of this feature is probable, both from general and from particular considerations.

If, for example, any number of principles should have acted so forcibly and in such a manner upon individuals as to have procured for them as a body the reputation of a moral people, they must have produced in them a disposition to keep their faith*.

But the discipline of the Society has a direct tendency to produce this feature in their character, and to make it an appendage of Quakerism. For, punctuality to words and engagements is a subject of one of the periodical inquiries. It is therefore publicly handed to the notice of the members, in their public meetings for discipline, as a Christian virtue that is expected of them. And any violation in this respect would be deemed a breach, and cognisable as such, of the Quaker-laws.

i

* This character was given by Pliny to the first Christians. They were to avoid frauds, theft, and adultery. They were never to deny any trust when required to deliver it up, nor to falsify their word on any occasion.

CHAPTER X.

Imperfect traits in the Quaker-character-some of these may be called intellectually defective traits -first imputation of this kind is, that the Quakers, are deficient in learning, compared with other people-this trait not improbable, on account of their early devotion to trade-and on account of their controversies and notions about human learning-and from other causes.

THE world, while it has given to the Qua-, kers as a body, as it has now appeared, a more than ordinary share of virtue, has not been without the belief that there are blemishes in their character. What these blemishes are, may be collected partly from books, partly from conversation, and partly from vulgar sayings. They are divisible. into two kinds,—into intellectually defective, and into morally defective traits; former relating to the understanding, the latter to the heart.

the

The first of the intellectually defective traits consists in the imputation, that the Quakers are deficient in the cultivation of

the

the intellect of their children; or, that when they grow up in life they are found to have less knowledge than others in the higher branches of learning. By this I mean that they are understood to have but a moderate classical education, to know but little of the different branches of philosophy, and to have, upon the whole, less variety of knowledge than others of their countrymen in the corresponding stations of life.

This feature seems to have originated with the world in two supposed facts. The first is, that there has never been any literary writer of eminence born in the Society; Penn, Barclay, and others, having come into it by convincement, and brought their learning with them. The second is, that the Society has never yet furnished a philosopher, or produced any material discovery. It is rather a common remark, that if the education of others had been as limited as that of the individuals of this community, we should have been probably at this day without a Newton, and might have been strangers to those great discoveries, whether of the art of navigation, or of the circulation of the blood, or of any other kind, which