CORRESPONDENCE 



To THE Editor of " Science Progress " 



THE MENTAL ABILITY OF THE QUAKERS 

 From John W. Graham, M.A., Principal of Dalton Hall, Manchester 



Dear Sir, — ^Dr. Hankin of Agra writes in your April number an article with 

 the above title, expounding the achievements of Friends, and contrasting 

 these with their queer doctrines and practices. He says that they are a small 

 " sect of religious fanatics," dreading " sensible reasoning as a temptation 

 of the Evil One," and chiefly concerned with the " plain " language, a curious 

 dress, an education in which the training of intelligence is subordinated to 

 dogma and formality, and a testimony for Peace which Dr. Hankin mis- 

 represents. 



The contrast thus drawn is indeed puzzling. But it is all due, put bluntly, 

 to lack of knowledge of the subject. The writer seems to have worked at 

 the Society's Library in London and collected his personal data there, so it 

 is very strange that he should never have discovered what Quakerism is all 

 about. There are many books upon it in that Library. ^ He quotes instead 

 the twisted conclusions of Macaulay, of all writers, for information. No 

 historian would have done so, on this subject ; for were not Quakers friendly 

 to James II ? George Fox's occasionally preposterous Scriptural arguments 

 were what his Puritan and Anglican j udges and persecutors believed in ; and 

 he with them, but far less completely. The strength of George Fox was in 

 placing inward conviction above the letter of the Bible. Quakers are, briefly 

 put, rational Mystics, and Christians of the primitive type, rejecting clergy, 

 sacraments, and all ritual. 



The strength of Friends, in business, philanthropy, banking, science, and 

 invention, as described in the Essay, has lain in their reverence for human 

 beings, as the only holy Temples where the Divine dwells. Everything that 

 they believe, even the temporary fads about dress and speech now abandoned, 

 grew out of this. It led them to adopt their just, industrious, self-reliant 

 ways, to preserve their openness of mind and willingness to learn, and their 

 aloofness from dogma. They were spared the expenses due to fashion, to 

 self-indulgence and to ecclesiastical establishments. Such people saved 

 money. 



Then they were excluded from some professions. The Church, the Army, 

 the Navy, and Government employment were barred. So were Oxford and 

 Cambridge till 1873. An artistic or musical career was discouraged in the 

 puritanic period, say to about 1850. There were left Law, Medicine, Teach- 

 ing, Farming, and Business. On these they concentrated. The last fitted 

 best with intelligent people deprived of a University education. Honesty, 

 good judgment, and accumulation produced the Quaker banker. 



^ May I perhaps venture to refer him to one of my own. The Faith of a 

 Quaker, published by the Cambridge University Press in 1920, and therefore 

 recent ? 



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