called their moral education. The second their discipline. The third may
be said to consist of those domestic, or other customs, which are
peculiar to them, as a society of christians. The fourth of their
_peculiar tenets of religion_. In fact, there are many circumstances
interwoven into the constitution of the society of the Quakers, each of
which has a separate effect, and all of which have a combined tendency,
towards the production of moral character.

These auxiliary causes I shall consider and explain in their turn. In
the course of this explanation the reader will see, that, if other
people were to resort to the same means as the Quakers, they would
obtain the same reputation, or that human nature is not so stubborn, but
that it will yield to a given force. But as it is usual, in examining
the life of an individual, to begin with his youth, or, if it has been
eminent, to begin with the education he has received, so I shall fix
upon the first of the auxiliary causes I have mentioned, or the _moral
education_ of the Quakers, as the subject for the first division of my
work.

Of this moral education I may observe here, that it is universal among
the society, or that it obtains where the individuals are considered to
be true Quakers. It matters not, how various the tempers of young
persons may be, who come under it, they must submit to it. Nor does it
signify what may be the disposition, or the whim, and caprice of their
parents, they must submit to it alike. The Quakers believe that they
have discovered that system of morality, which christianity prescribes;
and therefore that they can give no dispensation to their members, under
any circumstances whatever, to deviate from it. The origin of this
system, as a standard of education in the society, is as follows.