Indeed, if I were to choose a subject, upon
which the world had been more than ordinarily severe on the Quakers, I
should select that of their dress. Almost every body has something to
say upon this point. And as in almost all cases, where arguments are
numerous, many of them are generally frivolous, so it has happened in
this also. There is one, however, which it is impossible not to notice
upon this subject.
The Quakers, it is confessed by their adversaries, are not chargeable
with the same sort of pride and vanity, which attach to the characters
of other people, who dress in a gay manner, and who follow the fashions
of the world, but it is contended, on the other hand, that they are
justly chargeable with a preciseness, that is disgusting, in the little
particularities of their cloathing. This precise attention to
particularities is considered as little better than the worshipping of
lifeless forms, and is usually called by the world the idolatry of the
Quaker-dress.
This charge, if it were true, would be serious indeed. It would be
serious, because it would take away from the religion of the Quakers one
of its greatest and best characters. For how could any people be
spiritually minded, who were the worshippers of lifeless forms? It would
be serious again, because it would shew their religion, like the box of
Pandora, to be pregnant with evils within itself.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249