If the Quakers are so nice,
that they will use no expression, that is not precisely true, they
should invent additional terms, which should express the relative
condition of those, with whom they converse. The word "friend" denotes
esteem, and the word "neighbour" proximity of dwelling. But all the
persons, to whom the Quakers address themselves, are not persons, whom
they love and respect, or who are the inhabitants of the same
neighbourhood with themselves. There is, it is said, as much untruth in
calling a man friend, or neighbour, who is not so, as excellency, in
whom there may be nothing that is excellent.
The Quakers, in reply to this, would observe, that they use the word
friend, as significative of their own union, and, when they speak to
others, as significative of their Christian relation to one another. In
the same sense they use the word neighbour. Jesus Christ, when the
lawyer asked him who was his neighbour, gave him a short[46] history of
the Samaritan, who fell among thieves; from which he suggested on
inference, that the term neighbour was not confined to those, who lived
near one another, or belonged to the same sect, but that it might extend
to those, who lived at a distance, and to the Samaritan equally with the
Jew.
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