And it must be equally obvious that wishes, expressed in this manner,
can have no medicinal effect.
With respect to the custom of drinking healths at dinner, I may observe
that the innovation, which the Quakers seem to have been the first to
have made upon the practice of it, has been adopted by many, not out of
compliance with their example, but on account of the trouble and
inconveniences attending it; that the custom is not now so general as it
was; that in the higher and more fashionable circles it has nearly been
exploded; and that, among some of the other classes of society, it is
gradually declining.
With respect to the custom of drinking toasts after dinner, the Quakers
have rejected it for various reasons.
They have rejected it first, because, however desirable it may be that
Christians should follow the best customs of the heathens, it would be a
reproach to them to follow the worst. Or, in other words, it would be
improper for men, whose religion required spirituality of thought and
feeling, to imitate the heathens in the manner of their enjoyment of
sensual pleasures. The laws and customs of drinking, the Quakers
observe, are all of heathen origin. The similitude between these and
those of modern tunes is too remarkable to be overlooked; and too
striking not to warrant them in concluding, that christens have taken
their model on this subject from Pagan practice.
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