It may be admitted as a truth, that the society practice, with few
exceptions, what is considered to be the proper usage on such occasions.
The poor, we know, cannot use any but homely-furniture. The middle
clashes are universally in such habits. As to the rich, there is a
difference in the practice of these. Some, and indeed many of them, use
as plain and frugal furniture, as those in moderate circumstances.
Others again step beyond the practice of the middle classes, and buy
what is more costly, not with a view of shew, so much as to accommodate
their furniture to the size and goodness of their houses. In the houses
of others again, who have more than ordinary intercourse with the world,
we now and then see what is elegant, but seldom what would be considered
to be extravagant furniture. We see no chairs with satin bottoms and
gilded frames, no magnificent pier-glasses, no superb chandeliers, no
curtains with extravagant trimmings. At least, in all my intercourse
with the Quakers, I have never observed such things. If there are
persons in the society, who use them, they must be few in number, and
these must be conscious that, by the introduction of such finery[36]
into their houses, they are going against the advices annually given
them in their meetings on this subject, and that they are therefore
violating the written law, as well as departing from the spirit of
Quakerism.
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