250 SAMUEL FOTHERGILL CHAP, xvm 



he tenderly cautioned the Friends of the sister island 

 against their vivacity : let the girdle, he said, be drawn 

 a little tighter, and let them know the ass's colt to be 

 bound to the choice vine. 



His spirit was a fine instrument which could respond 

 to many tones. It woke to the solemn chord of judgment : 

 " I testify, in the name and under an awful sense of the 

 authority of the Most High : Woe to those by whom such 

 offences come." It quivered to a symphony of sorrow ; 

 or again it vibrated with gladness, as when he likened the 

 joyful chorus of souls raised above the clogs of mortality 

 to the singing of birds. Samuel Fothergill was in his 

 own society one of those prophetic figures whose influence 

 helps to form the atmosphere of a church long after they 

 have passed out of sight. His letters were treasured, 

 read and copied ; they are found in old collections of 

 Quaker manuscripts preserved in families. Many have 

 been printed in the society's periodicals. One remarkable 

 letter, perhaps not hitherto published, will be found in the 

 appendix (C) to this volume. 1 



1 The Memoirs of Samuel Fothergill, 1843, were written by George Crosfield 

 of Lancaster, who had married his great niece. The book consists mainly of 

 a series of letters, and is compiled in a loyal and sympathetic spirit. See also 

 A Just Character of the Late Mr. S. Fothergill, by a Lover of Truth and Virtue, 

 1774, reprinted from the British Magazine ; Memoir of W. Cookworthy, p. 135 ; 

 MS. Letters, Frds. Ref. Lib. ; The Friend, Phila., numerous references ; D. H. 

 Forsythe, in Quaker Biographies, Phila., 1910, iv. S. Fothergill is said to 

 have destroyed his own Journals in a fit of depression. J. Jenkins, op. cit. 

 p. 918. 



