But
when we consider them as a distinct people, differing in their manner of
speech and in their dress and customs from others, rebelling against
fashion and the fashionable world, and likely therefore to become rather
the objects of ridicule than of praise; when we consider these things,
and their steady and rigid perseverance in the peculiar rules and
customs of the society, we cannot but consider their obedience to their
own discipline, which makes a point of the observance of these
singularities, as extraordinary.
[Footnote 32: The government or discipline is considered as a
theocracy.]
[Footnote 33: The clerk, who keeps the records of the society in London,
is the only person who has a salary.]
This singular obedience, however, to the laws of the society may be
accounted for on three principles. In the first place in no society is
there so much vigilance over the conduct of its members, as in that of
the Quakers, as this history of their discipline must have already
manifested. This vigilance of course, cannot miss of its effect. But a
second cause is the following. The Quaker-laws and regulations are not
made by any one person, nor by any number even of deputies. They are
made by themselves, that is by the society in yearly meeting assembled.
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