On entering the room, they
neither bow nor scrape, nor kneel, and as this ceremony cannot be
performed for them by others, they go into the royal presence in a less
servile, or more dignified manner, than either the representatives of
sovereigns, or those, who have humbled nations by the achievement of
great victories.
The ground, upon which the Quakers decline the use of the ordinary
ceremonies just mentioned, is, the honours are the honours of the world.
Now, as that these of the world, they consider them as objectionable on
several accounts.
First, they are no more the criterions of obeisance and respect, than
mourning garments are the criterions of sorrow. But Christianity is
never satisfied but with the truth. It forbids all false appearances. It
allows no image to be held out, that is not a faithful picture of its
original, or no action to be resorted to, that is not correspondent with
the feelings of the heart.
In the second place the Quakers presume, that, as honours of the world,
all such ceremonies are generally of a complimentary nature. No one bows
to a poor man. But almost every one to the rich, and the rich to one
another. Hence bowing is as much a species of flattery through the
medium of the body, as the giving of undeserved titles through the
medium of the tongue.
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