"
They may say also that the system of their language originated in the
purest motives, and that it is founded on the sacred basis of truth.
It may be said also, that the habits of caution which the different
peculiarities in their language have introduced and interwoven into
their constitution, have taught them particularly to respect the truth,
and to aim at it in all their expressions whether in speech or letters,
and that it has given them a peculiar correctness in the expression of
their ideas, which they would scarcely have had by means of the ordinary
education of the world. Hobbes says[54] "animadverte, quam sit ab
improprietate verborum pronum hominibus prolabi in errores circa res,"
or "how prone men are to fall into errors about things, when they use
improper expressions." The converse of this proposition may be observed
to be true with respect to the Quakers, or it may be observed, that the
study of proper expressions has given them correct conceptions of
things, and has had an influence in favor of truth. There are no people,
though the common notion may be otherwise, who speak so accurately as
the Quakers, or whose letters, if examined on any subject, would be so
free from any double meaning, so little liable to be mistaken, and so
easy to be understood.
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