This then, in a few words, is a general definition of [3]Quakerism. It
is, as we see, a most strict profession of practical virtue under the
direction of christianity, and such as, when we consider the infirmities
of human nature, and the temptations that daily surround it, it must be
exceedingly difficult to fulfil. But, whatever difficulties may have
lain in the way, or however, on account of the necessary weakness of
human nature, the best individuals among the Quakers may have fallen
below the pattern of excellence, which they have copied, nothing is more
true, than that the result has been, that the whole society, as a body,
have obtained from their countrymen, the character of a moral people.

[Footnote 3: I wish to be understood, in writing this work, that I can
give no account that will be applicable to all under the name of
Quakers. My account will comprehend the general practice, or that which
ought to be the practice of those, who profess Quakerism.]

If the reader be a lover of virtue, and anxious for the moral
improvement of mankind, he will be desirous of knowing what means the
Quakers have used to have preserved, for a hundred and fifty years, this
desirable reputation in the world.

If we were to put the question to the Quakers themselves for their own
opinion upon it, I believe I can anticipate their reply. They would
attribute any morality, they might be supposed to have, _to the Supreme
Being_, whose will having been discovered by means of the scriptures,
and of religious impressions upon the mind, when it has been calm, and
still, and abstracted from the world, they have endeavoured to obey. But
there is no doubt, that we may add, _auxiliary causes_ of this morality,
and such as the Quakers themselves would allow to have had their share
in producing it, under the same influence. The first of these may be