I have seen a Quaker in such a company (and at such a
distance from home, that the transaction in all probability never could
have been known, had he, in order to free himself from their attacks,
conformed to their custom) bearing all their raillery with astonishing
firmness, and courageously struggling against the stream. It is
certainly an awkward thing for a solitary Quaker to fall in such
companies, and it requires considerable courage to preserve singularity
in the midst of the prejudices of ignorant and illiberal men.
This custom, however, of drinking toasts after dinner, is, like the
former of drinking healths at dinner, happily declining. It is much to
the credit of those, who move in the higher circles, that they have
generally exploded both. It may be probably owing to this circumstance,
that though we find persons of this description labouring under the
imputation of levity and dissipation, we yet find them respectable for
the sobriety of their lives. Drunkenness indeed forms no part of their
character, nor, generally speaking, is it a vice of the present age as
it has been of former ages; and there seems to be little doubt, that in
proportion as the custom of drinking healths and toasts, but more
particularly the latter, is suppressed, this vice will become less a
trait in the national character.
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