It seemed, therefore, from the circumstance of my familiar intercourse
with the Quakers, that it devolved upon me particularly to write their
history. And I was the more confirmed in my opinion, because, in looking
forward, I was never able to foresee the time when any other cause would
equally, with that of the slave-trade, bring any other person, who was
not of the society, into such habits of friendship with the Quakers, as
that he should obtain an equal degree of knowledge concerning them with
myself. By this new consideration I was more than ordinarily stimulated,
and I began my work.
[Footnote 1: I must except Dr. Toulmin's revision of Neal's history of
the Puritans. One or two publications have appeared since, written, in a
liberal spirit, but they are confined principally to the religious
principles of the Quakers.]
It is not improbable but some may imagine from the account already
given, that this work will be a partial one, or that it will lean, more
than it ought to do, in favour of the Quakers. I do not pretend to say,
that I shall be utterly able to divest myself of all undue influence,
which their attention towards me may have produced, or that I shall be
utterly unbiased, when I consider them as fellow-labourers in the work
of the abolition of the slave-trade; for if others had put their
shoulders to the wheel equally with them on the occasion, one of the
greatest causes of human misery, and moral evil, that was ever known in
the world, had been long ago annihilated, nor can I conceal, that I have
a regard for men, of whom it is a just feature in their character, that,
whenever they can be brought to argue upon political subjects, they
reason upon principle, and not upon consequences; for if this mode of
reasoning had been adopted by others, but particularly by men in exalted
stations, policy had given way to moral justice, and there had been but
little public wickedness in the world.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25