spirituous liquors, in an unfinished state; he opened the book and laid
it on a table before them, saying, 'This is a treatise which I have been
for some time engaged in writing, on the subject of thy concern in
meeting to-day; and now if thou hast a mind to sit down, and write a
paragraph or two, I will embody it in the work, and have it
published.'"[A]

[Footnote A: Life of Anthony Benezet, p. 107-109.]

These eminent men, John Woolman and Anthony Benezet, had much in common;
yet their characters were as unlike as opposite temperaments, and as
alike as similarity of views, could make them. So marked was their
coincidence of sentiment in opposition to the prevailing opinions and
practices of that day, that it might be surmised one was a disciple of
the other, yet there is no reason to suppose such was the case. Each had
the single eye; both learned in the same school, and sat at the feet of
the same Divine Master. It is an interesting fact that on the subject
last noticed, their labors should have been comparatively fruitless, and
for a long interval almost forgotten, while their views on slavery
rapidly spread, and produced extensive and permanent results. Does not
this illustrate the lesson long ago taught by a great master of wisdom:
"In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand;
for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or
whether they shall both be alike good." May we not infer from this, that
even those labors, rightly undertaken, which do not immediately prosper,
are yet owned and accepted in the Divine sight?

To return from this digression to our attendance of the Yearly Meeting
in Philadelphia: one interesting part of the business was the annual
report on education; from which it appeared, that the whole number of