They would be
fearful therefore of departing from a path, which they conceive their
own experience and that of their ancestors has shewn them to be safe,
and which after all their inquiries, they believe to be that which is
pointed out to them by the Christian religion.
I shall not attempt to follow up this practical argument by any history
of the lives of the Quakers, but shall content myself with one or two
simple facts, which appear to me to be materially to the point.
In the first place I may observe that it is an old saying, that it is
difficult to put old heads on young shoulders. The Quakers, however, do
this more effectually than any other people. It has often been observed
that a Quaker boy has an unnatural appearance. This idea has arisen from
his dress and his sedateness, which together have produced an
appearance of age above the youth in his countenance, or the stature of
his person. This, however, is confessing, in some degree, in the case
before us, that the discretion of age has appeared upon youthful
shoulders. It is certainly an undeniable fact, that the youth of this
society, generally speaking, get earlier into a knowledge of just
sentiments, or into a knowledge of human nature, or into a knowledge of
the true wisdom of life, than those of the world at large.
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