If Quaker youth should have
the same desires in this respect as others, they cannot gratify them but
at the expence of their virtue. If they wish for novels, for example,
they must get them clandestinely. If to go to the theatre, they must go
in secret. But they must do more than this in the latter case, for as
they would be known by their dress, they must change it for that of
another person. Hence they may be made capable of intrigue, hypocrisy,
and deceit."
"Prohibitions, again, they believe, except they be well founded, may
confound the notions of children on the subject of morality; for if they
are forbidden to do what they see worthy and enlightened persons do,
they may never know where to fix the boundaries between vice and
virtue."
"Prohibitions, again, they consider, if made without an allowance of
exceptions, as having a tendency to break the spirit of youth. Break a
horse in the usual way, and teach him to stop with the check of the
reins, and you break him, and preserve his courage. But put him in a
mill to break him, and you break his life and animation. Prohibitions
therefore may hinder elevated feeling, and may lead to poverty and
sordidness of spirit."
"Prohibitions, again, they believe, if youth once depart from the right
way, render them more vicious characters than common.
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