And an habitual silence is as much the consequence, as if
the person present had been at a place of worship.
It may be observed, however, that such pauses seldom or never occur in
ordinary companies, or where Quakers ordinarily visit one another. When
they take place, it is mostly when a minister is present, and when such
a minister is upon a religious visit to families of a certain district.
In such a case such religious pauses and exhortations are not
unfrequent. A man however may be a hundred times in the company of the
Quakers, and never be present at one of them, and never know indeed that
they exist at all.
CHAP. VI.
_Custom before meals--ancients formerly made an oblation to Vesta before
their meals--Christians have substituted grace--Quakers agree with
others in the necessity of grace or thankfulness-but do not adopt it as
a devotional act, unless it comes from the heart--allow a silent pause
for religious impressions on these occasions--observations on a Scotch
grace._
There was a time in the early ages of Greece, when men apparently little
better than beasts of prey, could not meet at entertainments, without
quarrelling about the victuals before them. The memory of this
circumstance is well preserved in the expressions of early writers.
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