at the present day. Great proficiency, without which music now ceases to
be delightful, cannot, as I have just observed, be made without great
application, or the application of some years. Now all this long
application is of a sedentary nature. But all occupations of a sedentary
nature are injurious to the human constitution, and weaken and disorder
it in time. But in proportion as the body is thus weakened by the
sedentary nature of the employment, it is weakened again by the
enervating powers of the art. Thus the nervous system is acted upon by
two enemies at once, and in the course of the long education necessary
for this science, the different disorders of hysteria are produced.
Hence the females of the present age, amongst whom this art has been
cultivated to excess, are generally found to have a weak and languid
constitution, and to be disqualified, more than others, from becoming
healthy wives, or healthy mothers, or the parents of a healthy progeny.


SECT. II.

_Instrumental forbidden--Quakers cannot learn it on the motives of the
world--it is not conducive to the improvement of the moral
character--affords no solid ground of comfort--nor of true elevation of
mind--a sensual gratification--remarks of Cowper--and, if encouraged,
would interfere with the duty recommended by the Quakers, of frequent
religious retirement._


The reader must always bear it in his mind, if the Quakers should differ
from him on any particular subject, that they set themselves apart as a
christian community, aiming at christian perfection: that it is their
wish to educate their children, not as moralists or as philosophers, but