LANCASTER COUNTY. 439 



discouraged ambition by a representation of the evils neces- 

 sarily following in its train. Devoting themselves and their 

 families to religion, they labored and were happy. Spurning 

 alike the honors and emoluments of office, they kept on in the 

 even tenor of their way, rejoicing. Why then should they 

 spend much time in Literary pursuits'! They were farmers, 

 why waste time precious to them, in the acquisition of 

 that which when obtained, to a people of such simple habits 

 of life and so unassuming, could be of no present or conceiv- 

 able advantage ] Thus reasoned the father, so argued the sons, 

 and as a consequence, learning was— with the exception of so 

 much as barely enabled them to read the Bible and the Psalm- 

 book, to write a little in the German and master the three first 

 rules in Arithmetic — not only neglected but absolutely dis- 

 couraged by them. Although there has been a vast improve- 

 ment in the Society for the better in this respect; and notwith- 

 standing many of its members possess superior abilities and 

 attainments, still the same opinions are entertained by the 

 Society at large ; and while almost every other sect has made 

 its efforts towards the establishment of Academies, Colleges, 

 and Theological Seminaries, they have been content to walk 

 in the ways of their fathers, and to hear "the word of life'* 

 expounded, by men of as simple tastes and habits as them- 

 selves. Let no man here reproach them with hostility to 

 learning for learning's sake, for such a reproach will be as 

 unjust as it is undeserved. They oppose its extension among 

 their youth, beyond what we have already stated, simply 

 because in their estimation, it begets a state of life inconsist- 

 ent with their profession of religion. Of them it may he truly 

 said, they worship God, not only in the "beauty " but also ia 

 the simplicity of " of holiness." 



in the year 1717* a settlement was commenced on the banks 

 of the Octorara Creek, by a party of what are now known as 

 '^ the Scotch-Irish." They had many difficulties to encounter, 

 for besides being destitute of any large amount of this world's 

 goods, they had the misfortune of settling upon a soil by no 

 means so fertile or so kind as that secured by their more for- 

 tunate fellow emigrants — the German Mennonites. From ne- 

 cessity and poverty, they made but little progress in the estab- 



*Page 117 antca. 



