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.
When the first Quakers met in union, they consisted of religious or
spiritually minded men. From that time to the present, there has always
been, as we may imagine, a succession of such in the society. Many of
these, at their great meetings, which have been annual since those days,
have delivered their sentiments on various interesting points.
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