xix THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY QUAKER 259 



Quaker of this century. It must be remembered that 

 these marks of behaviour were linked with a certain 

 truth and simplicity of mind, an aloofness from the ways 

 of the world and a freedom from its conventions. The 

 character they betokened was at its best one of unselfish 

 love. It is true that many of the Friends, though they 

 might still wear the plain coat, were not strict in their 

 ways, and held on to the society by a looser tie. But 

 the assiduity which the loyal member gave to the mainten- 

 ance of his own church, his zeal for its discipline, his 

 scrupulous attachment to the testimonies which hedged 

 him from the world, the care for his own poor, and for 

 the education of his children, these held the society 

 together as a compact well-ordered body. Thus preserved 

 it made a contribution of value to the age, for it was a 

 standing witness to the inwardness of religion, to the rule 

 of love in human affairs, to the denial of slavery and of 

 war as institutions, and to the place of woman in the 

 church and in the community. 



The English Friend in the latter part of the century 

 was educated, sometimes cultured ; a man of truth, 

 whose sober integrity in business was proverbial, and 

 led to the acquisition of wealth. 1 Debarred from public 

 life, he was active in works of benevolence ; and although 

 he had little missionary zeal, yet the preaching of " public 

 Friends," alternating as it were with the frequent silent 

 meetings, sought and found an audience amongst the 

 public outside his borders. He did not add to his numbers, 



1 In the history of the Society of Friends the influence of wealth has been 

 great, and has tended to the gradual extinction of much of its original life. It 

 is said that early in this history a play represented the devil reproving the 

 persecutors of the Quakers : Your action, he told them, weans their minds 

 from lower enjoyments, and keeps them low and humble and out of my reach : 

 let them alone, and as they are honest and industrious, they will grow rich, 

 get fine houses and furniture, and lose their humility, becoming like other 

 people, and then I shall have them (MS. Letter from Thomas Nicholson of 

 North Carolina, Frds. Ref. Lib. He heard the story from an ancient Friend 

 in London in 1750). A writer in the Westminster Review (Oct. 1875) satirises 

 their profession of literally following the precepts of Christ, when they have 

 been careful, he says, not to sell all their goods, and never to lend except on 

 good security, laying up at the same time much treasure upon earth. Yet 

 there have been signal instances of the use of wealth, as in FothergilTs case, 

 for the highest ends. 



