656 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



counting votes or a show of hands. Controversial speeches referring to 

 previous speakers were strongly discouraged. One or two members would 

 act as assessors and come to a decision from the tenor of the speeches. 



As to education in the Society of Friends, " a fear that it might interfere 

 with the higher light led, at certain periods, to much opposition towards the 

 higher branches." In 1781, a Friend wrote deprecating any large share of 

 learning for school-children " lest it should be injurious to them, touch their 

 vanity and infect them with the disease of taste and refinement that too much 

 prevails amongst us." In 1705 various " heathenish authors," as Vergil, 

 Horace, Juvenal, etc., were laid aside in favour of the Latin Bible, the 

 Academia celestis, and Robert Barclay's Catechism and Apology. The frame 

 of mind of the Quaker school-teachers may be judged from the following 

 anecdote : The Right Hon. W. E. Forster, as a boy at a school at Tottenham, 

 wrote an essay in which he referred to mathematics as the noblest of the 

 sciences. Such praise of a product of pure reason somewhat alarmed the 

 worthy schoolmaster, who accordingly wrote on the essay that " all worldly 

 knowledge, even that of ' the grandest and noblest structure ever raised by 

 mental art,' was but dross in comparison with the excellency of the knowledge 

 of Christ Jesus and Him crucified." 



Despite such education and such habits of thought, the Quakers from the 

 first displayed a singular shrewdness, ability and success in business affairs. 

 This is the more remarkable in that certain of George Fox's tenets provided 

 very serious handicaps to them in commerce. In 1693 Quaker overseers 

 inspected shops to see if " needless things were sold," such as " lace and rib- 

 bons." " Gilbert Latey, the London Court tailor, lost the greater part of 

 his trade because he could no longer trick out his work with the trimmings 

 that the vain world demanded." ^ Owing to their regarding it as wrong to 

 take an oath, even in a law court, it was impossible for them to prosecute 

 anyone by whom they had been defrauded. Their refusal to take off their 

 hats when brought into a court of law involved them in heavy fines and 

 imprisonment. They were mostly recruited from the yeomen and trading 

 classes, and none of them could boast of ancestors distinguished either intellec- 

 tually or in commerce. 



It frequently happens with religious sects that, when the first fervour has 

 worn off, converts are made who join owing to hope of some worldly advan- 

 tage. It might be suggested that such success as the Quakers had in business 

 was due to hypocritical or self-seeking adherents of this kind. But such an 

 explanation will not meet the case, owing to the fact that the successors of 

 George Fox introduced a measure that effectually excluded insincere converts. 

 This was the " birthright membership rule " introduced in 1737. In virtue 

 of this rule, the wives and children of Quakers had all the privileges of member- 

 ship, whether or not they belonged to the sect, including assistance in distress 

 and free education for poor children. Henceforward conversion implied 

 pecuniary liability, while expulsion had the opposite tendency. As a result 

 conversion almost ceased, and there was " wholesale expulsion for trivial 

 causes," especially between the years 1753 and 1820. In 1707, at Aberdeen, 

 a member was expelled for " playing at gowf and other suchlike games." 

 Between 1760 and 1825, " disownment " for " marrying out " was specially 

 frequent. Consequently during this period the number of adherents of the 

 sect rapidly diminished .2 



Thus during the period of religious depression that followed the first 

 enthusiasm, the careless and indifferent were being expelled. There was a 



* The Beginnings of Quakerism, by W. C. Braithwaite. Macmillan & Co., 

 1912. 



2 Religious Societies of the Commonwealth, by R, Barclay. London : Hodder 

 & Stoughton, 1876. 



