claim to a supernatural commission. Thus we frequently see
inquisitive and restless spirits take refuge from their own
scepticism in the bosom of a church which pretends to
infallibility, and, after questioning the existence of a Deity,
bring themselves to worship a wafer. And thus it was that Fox
made some converts to whom he was immeasurably inferior in every
thing except the energy of his convictions. By these converts his
rude doctrines were polished into a form somewhat less shocking
to good sense and good taste. No proposition which he had laid
down was retracted. No indecent or ridiculous act which he had
done or approved was condemned; but what was most grossly absurd
in his theories and practices was softened down, or at least not
obtruded on the public; whatever could be made to appear specious
was set in the fairest light; his gibberish was translated into
English; meanings which he would have been quite unable to
comprehend were put on his phrases; and his system, so much
improved that he would not have known it again, was defended by
numerous citations from Pagan philosophers and Christian fathers
whose names he had never heard.37 Still, however, those who had
remodelled his theology continued to profess, and doubtless to
feel, profound reverence for him; and his crazy epistles were to
the last received and read with respect in Quaker meetings all
over the country. His death produced a sensation which was not
confined to his own disciples. On the morning of the funeral a
great multitude assembled round the meeting house in Gracechurch
Street. Thence the corpse was borne to the burial ground of the
sect near Bunhill Fields. Several orators addressed the crowd
which filled the cemetery. Penn was conspicuous among those
disciples who committed the venerable corpse to the earth. The
ceremony had scarcely been finished when he learned that warrants