rianism. The consequences of this extension form one of the most creditable features in the history of the Friends, which we shall presently have to notice. Here the broad fact may suffice that, of all the forms of Christianity which existed in England in the seventeenth century, the Quakers may claim to be the first among whom schemes of much needed social and political amelioration took root, not as schemes of vague theorizing, but as enter.

pression. It refused the authority of the But the doctrine of the inner light and priest, but it refused no less decisively its universality produced also another the self-arrogated claim of the presbyter, effect. It originated and stimulated juster "old priest writ large," as no one dis- and loftier ideas of the co-equality of all cerned more clearly than George Fox. It men before God than had existed before. equalized, though in a wild, haphazard The ecclesiastical standpoint of the exfashion, the claims of aspirants to become treme Prelatist, the predestinarian standreligious teachers. Instead of external point of Presbyterian and Independent, qualifications and secular accomplish- resembled each other in this, that they ments, all that the genuine evangelist were founded on a principle of monopoly needed was a development of that inward and exclusiveness. This was the common illumination he had in common with all position of all the sectaries, and was for men. That the culture thus sanctioned a time shared, as we have seen, by the was narrow and fanatical, that it induced Quakers themselves. Soon, however," the disorders and excesses of the most mis- seed," as it was properly called, began to chievous kind, is as much a fact of history germinate in the case of the latter. The as an obvious inference from the proba- natural inference from a common possesbilities of the case. On the other hand, sion of a sacred and supernatural princithe principle of the inner light helped to ple was too obvious to be resisted. From diminish the excessive and often perverted indicating a relation to God, it soon came stress on the mere letter of Scripture. to signify and enforce a mutual relation To our freer and, we must hope, not less among men. It became, in other words, religious, culture, nothing in the libera- a principle of philanthropy and humanitation of the Bible by the Reformation seems more repugnant than this unlettered literalism. Nothing could be more perverse, more fatal to mental and spiritual prog. ress, than the combined ignorance and narrowness which the sectaries as a rule brought to the interpretation of the Bible. The illumination which the sacred text, rightly used, was calculated to impart was transformed into positive darkness by the pettiness which guided its exegesis, which tried to enforce its casual and minor in-prises of practical imperiousness. junctions, which attempted to take it as an absolute rule of science and secular wisdom, which propounded its political or ecclesiastical politics as authoritative exemplars for all time. Episcopalians were protected from the extreme consequences of this literalism by the theory of a divinely inspired and directed Church. Far more potent, however, in the same direction was the inner light, the individual inspiration, of the Quakers. It was at once a verdict of private judgment and a rule of Scriptural exegesis. It imparted a breadth and freedom to interpretation which probably no other principle could have so well secured. That in practice it had its drawbacks must be granted, but as an antagonistic influence to a mere slavish literalism its value as a theory is indisputable. Not the least of its merits was that it discriminated between the spirit and letter, between Christ the living, and Scripture the written, word, between the real and the phenomenal, between the intention of the sacred writer and the frequently imperfect vehicle employed in its communication.

Having thus touched upon the main starting points of Quakerism, we proceed to glance at their development in the evolution of the sect. This development is at once the most remarkable and most creditable feature of Quaker history, whether we consider the sect as a body or its more eminent members as individuals. The sectarian wild-oat sowing, which is so pronounced in the case of the Friends, subsides into a calm, placid serenity, unexampled in the evolution of any other body of English Christians. The vehemently fermenting spirit, with its natural products of froth and scum, is gradually transformed into a potent liquor, becoming continually clearer and stronger as it reaches its mellow maturity. Passing from the first years of George Fox's activity, with its unseemly violence and eccentricity, its perpetual outrages on the religious belief and social usages of his fellow Englishmen, to the later years of his life, is like passing from a savage desert into a cultivated region. And what is true of the founder and his friends is true also of the corporate body. With

the formation of the sect the individual | versation entirely free from violent or eccentricities of its leaders disappeared. highly colored language.

severity of our English penal law, the hardening effect of long imprisonments, and the undue frequency of capital punishment. Probably few passages in George Fox's journal are more characteristic of his spirit and his methods than the following:

As Dr. Hatch said of the early Church: Of far more importance in the history "When it was founded prophesying of Quakerism is the development of its ceased." Not that all this preliminary first principles in the direction of human turbulence was unallied, as some writers justice and freedom: Few, indeed, are the have alleged, with the vital spirit of Quak- conspicuous advances in our English life erism. The central doctrine of the early and legislation, the reformations of crying Quakers, their belief in personal illumina- abuses, etc., in which Quakers, individution, the individualism naturally gendered ally and as a religious body, have not by such a belief, itself suggested in excit- taken the lead. It is to the eternal honor able persons abnormal forms of expres- of the early Quakers, George Fox, John sion. Why the collar of a coat should be Woolman, and others, that they not only deemed obnoxious, or why hooks and eyes made a stand against slavery, urging should be a more becoming method of Quaker slaveowners to free their slaves, fastening clothes than buttons, or why but they contributed largely to awaken the grey and drab should be preferable to conscience of England and of Europe, other colors, might puzzle a casuist of our and, in course of time, produced the own time to determine; but these visible sense of justice which led to the emancisigns were not empty symbols, having lit-pation of slaves in our own country and tle connection with doctrinal phases of the colonies. No less honorable is the belief; on the contrary, they indicated protest they made against the ruthless opinions and preferences, based, however, though somewhat perversely, upon their profoundest convictions. Hence, when Lord Macaulay says, in his "Essay on Milton," ," "most of their absurdities were mere external badges, like the signs of Freemasons or the dresses of friars," he seems to us to lack, in an unusual degree, his customary perspicacity. Setting aside, as obviously at variance with truth, the notion that the dresses of friars were mere external badges, it is clear that the modes of dress adopted by the Quakers had definite principles and reasons to recommend them. We do not presume to affirm that these reasons are wholly sufficient to justify the adoption of what soon came to be regarded as a sectarian livery. It is one of the many anomalies in the early structure of Quakerism that its leaders did not discern the prohibition of a religious and separatist uniform in the divine judgment passed on the Pharisees for their long, broad-bordered garments and ostentatious phylacteries. But, at all events, the Quaker dress was not a meaningless external badge. We must regard it as a protest against the pomps and affectations of fashionable attire, and particularly against the extravagances which marked the Restoration. Though some of its effects were grotesque, and savored of affectation, it is impossible to deny the congruity between attire of neutral tints, without visible ornament of any kind, and the quiet routine of a life thoroughly disciplined by religious self-restraint and wholly removed from passion and excitement, a demeanor of extreme simplicity and placidity, and a con

Moreover, I laid before the judges what an hurtful thing it was that prisoners should lie so long in jail, showing how they learned wickedness one of another in talking of their bad deeds: therefore speedy justice should be done.

When she

While I was here in prison [he continues] there was a young woman in the jail for robwas to be tried for her life, I wrote to the bing her master of some money. judge and to the jury about her, showing them how it was contrary to the law of God in old time to put people to death for stealing, and moving them to show mercy. Yet she was condemned to die and a grave was made for her, and at the time appointed she was carried

forth to execution. Then I wrote a few words

warning all people to beware of greediness or horting all to fear the Lord, to avoid all earthly covetousness, for it leads from God, and exlusts, and to prize their time while they have it. This I gave to be read at the gallows, and though they had her upon the ladder with a cloth bound over her face ready to be turned off, yet they did not put her to death, but brought her back again to prison, and in the prison she afterwards came to be convinced of God's everlasting truth. (Vol. i., p. 96.)

The reformation of our prison management, and the amelioration of the condition of prisoners, both while in custody and after their liberation, is another field of beneficent energy which owes more to Quakers than to any one religious body in

England. In this connection the hallowed | Society of Friends was made until nearly name of Elizabeth Fry will ever occupy in a century after its origin, though it English records of social meliorism a has kept careful records of births, deaths, niche next to that of John Howard the and marriages." He quotes the "Snake philanthropist. In the sympathetic life of in the Grass," as mentioning that the Mrs. Fry contributed to the "Dictionary Quakers are not fewer, by the lowest comof National Biography" we have a strik-putation, than one hundred thousand here ing picture of the effects of her minis- in England. This, Mr. Rowntree thinks, trations among the female prisoners in is an over-estimate; and from other Newgate. The American minister of the sources, including the records of the Sociday thus describes a scene of which he ety at Devonshire House, London, he had been eye-witness: arrives at the conclusion that it must have numbered at the end of the seventeenth

Two days ago I saw the greatest curiosity in London, ay, and in England too, compared to which Westminster Abbey, the Tower, Somerset House, the British Museum, nay, Parliament itself, sink into utter insignificance. I have seen Elizabeth Fry in Newgate, and I have witnessed there the miraculous effect of true Christianity upon the most depraved of human beings,... and yet the wretched outcasts have been tamed and subdued by the Christian eloquence of Mrs. Fry.

This

century about sixty-six thousand.
more moderate estimate, which seems to
us amply justified, is, it must be allowed,
an enormous outcome of a propaganda,
extending only over half a century, and
carried on mostly by ignorant and uncul
tured fanatics. But the reasons for its
success are not far to seek. The Quaker
movement was in touch with every senti-
ment and activity pertaining to the Revo.
Its initial principle of human

Of the other directions of human benefi-lution. cence which Quaker philanthropy took, equality it not only asserted, but placed their larger efforts among all European on a religious basis. It represented its nations to avert war and promote peace, wildest extravagances and disorders, but their lesser energies to found hospitals, yet found room and ministered aliment to refuges, schools, etc., we have no further space to speak. Mr. Turner well remarks, speaking of Woolman's anti-slavery efforts:

the choice quietistic spirits which, by a merciful compensation, every age of mental unrest and commotion seems to engender. It reproduced the puerile distinctions, the Human history presents few parallels to hotheaded intolerance, of the Revolution, this triumph of the Spirit of Christ over self- all the while it propagated principles calishness and evil custom. If the other Chris- culated to reduce those mischiefs to their tian churches had wielded Woolman's weap-fitting nullity. It administered to the unons and won his victory, what a sad and rest of the present, while it cherished bloody chapter in the history of America would have been escaped. (P. 284.) We cannot refrain from quoting the

tribute which follows:

germs full of promise of quietude and repose in the future. Besides which, it enjoyed the ascendency which a cruel persecution, borne with wonderful meekness and forbearance, invariably confers on a

growing sect; nor was it destitute of the influence which rightly attaches to continued efforts for the political and social welfare of humanity.

In John Woolman and Anthony Benezet, Quaker philanthropy became conspicuously brilliant. Thenceforth the wellspring of Quaker beneficence has never run dry. In the lives of Grellet and Allen, Joseph Sturge, Elizabeth Fry, and many more, it flowed on, But, if Quakerism grew and prospered and still it flows, proving that, whatever the up to the close of the seventeenth century, detects of the Quaker form of Christianity, it the earlier half of the eighteenth was deshas learned this lesson well: that to be a tined to see a change. The Friends beChristian is to live in this world after the came, and that with unexpected rapidity, manner of Him who went about doing good. a dwindling sect. For this many causes That the Quakers increased largely dur-have been assigned, some more, some less ing the seventeenth and the first two decades of the eighteenth century is a well-known fact of our religious history. The precise extent of this increase is, however, not easily determined. Statistics have never been a strong point among the Friends. As Mr. Rowntree remarks, in his "Quakerism Past and Present,' ""No attempt at defining membership with the

obvious. The most operative of all was the gradual failure of the fuel needed to sustain the flame of religious zeal. To the spiritual unrest, the many-sided, burning enthusiasm, of the seventeenth century succeeded, in due course, the lassitude and coldness of the eighteenth. It was not that the church wanted apostles. George Fox had followers as zealous and unwea

Mr. Rowntree's book, it should be added, was published in 1859; the intervening thirty years, accompanied by a relaxation of these petty and servile restrictions, have had a corresponding effect on Quaker statistics, as we shall presently have occa sion to notice.

ried as himself, but the time was not vitality left. Dealing with the statistics propitious. The religious and political of the present century, Mr. Rowntree environment had changed. In a heartless assures us: and sceptical age like that which followed the Restoration appeals to religious im- Upwards of 8,400 persons have resigned pulses and sensibilities were necessarily loss having only been compensated for by the their membership or been disowned, and this "flat, stale, and unprofitable." The harp-introduction of 6,000 persons through constrings had no longer their old tension, vincement, registration of non-members, reand the tones that feebly vibrated from admissions, etc., a melancholy balance of the relaxed strings were but dissonant 2,400 remains on the debtor side of the soechoes of their former high-strained music. ciety's balance sheet. Other causes also contributed to the decadence of Quakerism. Mr. Rowntree lays a great but not undue stress on emigration chiefly as an escape from persecution. How great such a stress might be we may imagine from the bare fact that in 1660 the number of Quakers in prison amounted to four thousand, two hundred, some estimates even making it five thousand. We cannot wonder at the result that "about five hundred Friends per annum are reported as emigrating between 1676 and 1700." To these causes of decadence must be added others which pertain to the discipline of the Quaker body. It was an obvious though unhappy result of the root thought of Quakerism -the inner light – that it implied necessarily a high spiritual condition of membership. This induced an extreme severity of discipline, which, however honorable to those who underwent it, was nothing less than suicidal in respect of the progressive vitality of the sect. The conditions thus imposed related not only to moral and spiritual fitness, they descended to petty and unworthy restrictions in respect of dress, language, and demeanor. The effect of this minute scrupulosity this excessive tithing of the mint, anise, and cumin of social life on men of broad sympathies and masculine culture was irksome in the extreme. The late Wm. E. Forster used to say that he did not leave the church of his fathers, he was turned out of it; and a similar apology might Coming lastly to the present position of doubtless have been proffered by hun- the society, and to what has been termed dreds of less eminent persons, victims of "the revival of Quakerism,' we need the peevish stepmotherly severity of hardly insist that by this is in no way meant Quaker discipline. A further restriction the resuscitation of the old sect, with its of the same kind was that on marriage. quaint and uncouth features, as it startled Every man or woman who married out of the England of the seventeenth century. the connection was promptly "disowned; "That is a sheer impossibility. in other words, put out of the Quaker synagogue. The effect of these petty and tyrannical restrictions on family and social life, the degrading espionage and suspicion thereby introduced into peaceful domestic circles, need no further particularizing. Instead of marvelling at the decadence of Quakerism, one might be justified in wondering that it had any germs of

There are other causes of the waning of Quakerism which we have no space to describe. These refer to the divisions and intestine controversies that have sprung up within the sect, both here and in America, from the time of George Fox to our own day. Those of our readers who desire further instruction on this head may be referred to the brief but trustworthy summaries contained in chapters ix. and xvi. of Mr. Turner's history. Here we may notice, as not coming within the province of Mr. Turner's book, the doctrinal dissensions to which has been given the name of the Beacon controversy. It may be described as an offshoot or sequel of the Evangelical revival at the commencement of this century, and resulted from a justifiable refusal on the part of the majority of the Quaker society to subordinate the individual experience as a test of scriptural truth to a dogmatic literalism in the interpretation of the Bible. It is said that from the effects of this last dissension the society has not yet fully recovered.

George

Fox and his rude methods would be as great an anachronism to-day as, let us say, the Salvation Army big drum will be to our descendants of the twentieth century. His wild dress and leathern breeches are as much out of date as the accoutrements of Cromwell's Ironsides. The externalities of dress and diction which half irritated, half amused, our forefathers, are