sober people._




INTRODUCTION.


MOTIVES FOR THE UNDERTAKING--ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF QUAKERS--GEORGE FOX,
THE FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY-SHORT HISTORY OF HIS LIFE.

From the year 1787, when I began to devote my labours to the abolition
of the slave trade, I was thrown frequently into the company of the
people, called Quakers, these people had been then long unanimous upon
this subject. Indeed they had placed it among the articles of their
religious discipline. Their houses were of course open to me in all
parts of the kingdom. Hence I came to a knowledge of their living
manners, which no other person, who was not a Quaker, could have easily
obtained.

As soon as I became possessed of this knowledge, or at least of so much
of it, as to feel that it was considerable, I conceived a desire of
writing their moral history. I believed I should be able to exhibit to
the rest of the world many excellent customs, of which they were
ignorant, but which it might be useful to them to know. I believed too,
that I should be affording to the Quakers themselves, some lessons of
utility, by letting them see, as it were in a glass, the reflection of
their own images. I felt also a great desire, amidst these
considerations, to do them justice; for ignorance and prejudice had
invented many expressions concerning them, to the detriment of their