LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OP CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO QUAKES QUIDDITIES; FRIENDS IN COUNCIL Colloqug. The primal duties shine aloft like stars ; The charities that soothe and heal and bless Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers. THE EXCURSION. BOSTON: CROSBY, NICHOLS, LEE, AND COMPANY, 117, WASHINGTON STREET. 1860. BOSTON: PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON 2J, SCHOOL STSIIT. to % JsUumni YEARLY-MEETING SCHOOL, PROVIDENCE BY AN UNDERGRADUATE. PREFACE. THE following pages are given to the public without the sanction of the Meeting for Sufferings. Had the manuscript been submitted to the censorship of that body, it is hardly probable that its publication would have been suffered. The course I have taken being contrary to discipline, I have thought it proper to send out my little book without the writer s name on the titlepage. I have no fear of disownment, should I be known as the offender. My age would prevent that ; as, in the eye of the law, I am still an infant : but I am by no means sure that a punishment more in accordance with schoolroom usages would not follow. I hope no one who reads what I have written will receive an impression that there is a shade of disrespect intended towards the Society of Friends. A member by birthi ight, my associations with them have always been of the most intimate character. I respect them as a body. I have, from conviction, adopted their princi- 6 PHI-FACE. pies ; and many if not most of their usages have, in my opinion, the sanction of experience and sound reason. But, although I am an undergraduate, I am old enough to think and judge for myself. In the colloquy which follows, some of my thoughts and opinions are re corded. What is contained in the following pages has nothing to do with prize-essayism. After it was written, I was surprised to learn that the hundred-guinea offer had produced a baker s dozen of books, each one of which was considered by the writer conclusive as an answer to the question, "Why is Quakerism declining?" As near as I can find out by a cursory examination of these "essays to do " the hundred-guinea job successfully, Qua kerism is declining because it is Quakerism, and not Epis- copalianism, Methodism, or Mormonism. < Most lame and impotent conclusion !" one is prompted to exclaim, in view of the result of this speculative operation in the article of Quakerism. There is a decrease of the num ber of names on the rolls of the monthly meetings; and why? Why? because Quakerism is not Mormonism : if it were, the number would increase. The only questions which have any vitality in them, connected with the admitted fact of the decline of Qua kerism, are, " Is it worth saving ? " " Can it be saved ? " PREFACE. < "How can it be saved?" One thing is sure: it must show its right to a distinctive place in the world s civili zation by something more significant and progressive than a formless method in its meetings and a uniform cos tume. Its negations cannot give it a longer lease of life. It must in some way grapple with the world, and show its potency by helping the world onward. The world is demanding aid from every organization that has for its object the inculcation of moral and religious truth. It is not satisfied, it should not be satisfied, with the plea of self-preservation. It seems to me that Quakerism is dying of isolation. But these questions are too mighty to be mooted in a preface to a pamphlet. PKOVIDEXCE, R.I., 5rno. 21, 1SGO. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. FRIENDS IN COUNCIL. Friends: SAMUEL BONUS and JEREMIAH AUSTEN- JEREMIAH. OH ! this is mournful. Samuel, does thee know, That, from our fathers land beyond the sea, The land of Fox, of BARCLAY, and of PENX, Tidings have come of breaches wide and deep In the defences which so long have kept Our Zion safe and separate from the world ? SAMUEL. A rumor reached me, that our Friends proposed, In things of discipline, some little change. JEREMIAH. Some little change ? Dost say, some little change ? A little change ! The pillars twain, so long 12 QrAKi;i; The chief support of all our sect holds clear, Are tottering to their fall. SAMUEL. My recent letters hardly give support To such an apprehension. Twas supposed, (Thus ran the tidings rfs they come to me,) That by the favor of our weightiest Friends, Who late in London held convening sage, Some modes less ri<nd in our marriage rules O O Might at the Annual Gathering be approved. Twas further rumored, that the same high source Some trifling relaxation might ordain In those rcquirings which restrain, so close, Friends in the matters of attire and speech. JEREMIAH. Such is indeed the fact ; and, knowing this, Can thee the purposed consummation view Without the deepest sadness and alarm ? To me it heralds overthrow and ruin. The flood-gates open wide ; the worldly waves Rush unobstructed and relentless in, QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 13 And sweep before them every thing that gives, To those who hold in purity our faith, A place apart, .distinctive and secure. SAMUEL. And can it be that our peculiar speech, And vestments hued and fashioned by a rule Made of an accident, with no support But weak tradition, are the pillars strong, Which give us all our beauty and our strength ? Are we by these distinctive and secure ? Are we defended from the world s array By this environment of garb and speech ? JEREMIAH. Mournful to me the saddening doubt implied By thy bold questioning. Hear the holy word, Bidding us not to this vain world conform, But bear the daily cross, denying self; Despising Fashion s ignis fatttus light, t Dazzling* to blind, and leading to betray. * See Note A. 14 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. .- \MUEL. N this the measure of the word inspired, " Self to deny, the sacred cross to bear ; " To fix the cut and color of a coat, Use or misuse a certain form of speech, Making that holy which is only odd ? J.EREMIAH. " Be not conformed," the sacred page repeats ; " But -be ye transformed " to a higher life. Plainness of speech, of manners, and attire, Attest the weaning of the Christian heart From worldly pleasures^ honors, and pursuits. BAMTJEL. With such a fruitage, is the tree secure From questioning inspired, and Truth s decree, " Cut, cut it down ; why cumbereth it the ground . " N the heart s fealty to God and truth, A Xaiour s teachings and a Saviour s love, Proclaimed, secured, made manifest to all, When, long and earnest cogitation o er, . QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 15 Numbered the plaits, the front s true curve secured, And the just elevation of the crown, The bonnet, raven black or sober drab, In all its aspects, gives expression true To what the abrogated wisdom deems oo o A fitting covering for the friendly head ? JEREMIAH. What says the discipline ? SAMUEL. And has the law The gospel law, the law by love fulfilled And the blessed ministry of the daily cross Done all their work, their highest triumph found, When singularity of diction (called, By strange misnomer and assumption bold, Plainness of speech) is by a pronoun gained, Used all unlike the erring world around, And saying " John" instead of "Mr" Smith? 16 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. JEREMIAH. And does thce * doubt the discipline ? SAMUEL. Twere well Thus to conform in number, if the case, In cases numberless, were not so oft Objectionable ; when the objective case, Supreme above its banished brothers .twain, Objective, nominative, potsesrive reigns. JEREMIAH. AVe must, thee knows, to discipline conform. SAMUEL. Sad the condition of the man who lives A stranger to the beauty of the cross, That " daily dying " which gives daily life, And who for this in forms and creeds and rules Seeks substitution. Light and love and life * Note B. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 17 Are fled ; and, rapt in worldliness, he seeks In forms, the fossils of departed life, To win the right to bear the Christian name, And find a Christian s refuge and reward. Creeds, metaphysics of a bigot brain, And rules and forms, the sole vitality Of corporate existence, hold the place Of instant ministering from Wisdom s fount. And make the mystery of the Spirit s power A thins? of <?arb and grammar. O O < JEREMIAH. Thee s doing discipline a grievous wrong. SAMUEL. Then let the discipline the wrong requite ; And, when thy friend is under dealing brought For dealing honestly with it and thee, Twere well, methiiiks, to give him in the dock * The fellowship of our esteemed Friend I3enajah Luvchink, him thou knowcst deemed, * Note C. 2 18 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. Among the -weighty, weightiest. In his walk And conversation, manners and address, He is an incarnated discipline, All fearless standing at each month s broadside Of queries* from the discipline discharged. But recently, he stood within the yard Where his new ship is building. Long discourse He held with Thomas, master-workman there, Touching the merits of a mighty stick To form the stern-post. Sorrowing, he had seen A small defect, and had the master called The spot to view, and talk the matter o er. Pending the question, lo, the hour arrived When Friend Benajah must to meeting go. He went, and duly greeted all the Friends ; And then, with features fitted to the place, His body seated and his mind composed. No movement broke the solemn stillness there : We passed in silence the accustomed hour. The extended hand the parting signal gave, And Friend Benajah to his home repaired. * Note D. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 19 His frugal meal despatched, with, quickened step He sought the timbered yard ; and, on the oak AVnose imperfections had his trouble made, He found the master seated ; who at once Thus his employer greeted : " It will do." "It will, no doubt," Benajah quick replied : "I ve thought about it all our meeting-time."* JEREMIAH. Thrift is a virtue in Benajah s eyes, And thoughtful prudence is the ministry By which it lives. SAMUEL. Thrift, thus exalted high, Claims its full share of homage ; and the hour We to devotion give may well be spent In solemn cogitation how to save A stern-post from the wood-pile. * Note E QUAKER QUIDDITIES. JEREMIAH. Thee is wrong Thus to decry the testimony strong Of weighty Friends now gone to their reward, Barclay and Fox and Pennington and Penn, And hosts of others, faithful to the end.* SAMUEL. Spare mb thy music : no occasion calls For this display of tuneful exhortation. Thou art not now upon the rising-seat. Murray and Goold (both weighty Friends), well known At Haverford, at Providence as well, Have taught that English grammar is the art Correctly to express by speech or pen The English language. Pass the syntax by ; The tax too great the chronic sin to cure Of daily violations of the laws Of speech, in case and number, numberless. Note F. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 21 But speech has other laws, by nature formed, By wisdom perfected, and use ordained. By these, when reason clothes the thought in words, When feeling to its gushings utterance gives, "When passion flashes and when mercy pleads, And indignation thunders its behest, All speech is governed ; and each living word Flies on its embassy of weal or woe, Winged by the potency of utterance clear, A graceful manner, and an earnest soul ; And, by an intonation richly robed, Like beauty by the sculptor s chisel traced. JEREMIAH. Thy words, my friend, sound strangely to my ear. SAMUEL. Dost miss the twang conventional, the tone Which, by some instinct or some custom strange, So oft our public ministrations make Revolting violations of the rules Which nature, law, and usage have ordained ? 22 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. How painful and how futile, when the voice Ranges the gamut in a single word, And touches every discord on the track ! How often exhortations are sent forth With such negations strange in tone and speech Of all propriety, that they become Grating to hear, and impotent for good ! From such exhortings, neither said nor sung, Alike removed from poetry or prose, Impinging on the doubting, troubled ear With sounds which bear no message to the brain, When shall we be delivered ? Could I speak With Cowper s tongue, I would, like Cowper, plead With those who sacred supervision keep O er such as minister in sacred things,* From ministrations such as these to save The gatherings of our people. JEREMIAH. T would be strange To hear the speaking from our rising-seats, Note G. QUAKE* QUIDDITIES. 2 Like recitations in a public school, Or social readings at our quiet homes, Or hireling sermons from the pulpit sped, Without that solemnizing, measured tone Which marks its coming from a sacred source. SAMUEL. Which marks its coming from a sacred source ! Did. the Great Teacher speak the word of life With a rude sing-song, indolent as rude ? When Felix trembled, and when Athens heard From Paul the message of the Prince of Peace, Did he, the noblest soul that ever bore That message to an erring, suffering world, Dole out his reasonings awful and sublime, Like strop-man at his improvised bazaar, Like show-man with his stereotyped harangue, Or half-crazed preacher at camp-meeting found ? JEREMIAH. The matter weighty, why the manner heed ? He who the Leader follows cannot pause To <nvt his thought to utterance and tone. O O ~4 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. SAMUEL. Such was ////? answer, whose discordant tones Revolting fell upon the startled ear, And closed all access to the mind and heart. He who with quickened thought, by love inspired, Burns with a message to my waiting soul, Pails in his high commission, if it comes AVith such environment of tone and speech, That sense and taste in joint rebellion rise, And bar its entrance. JEREMIAH. Surely, Truth Divine Needs not the foreign aid of ornament.* SAMUEL. Spare me, Friend Austen, this unmeaning cant. Truth, Truth Divine, whenever she commands The ministration of the human thought, Claims all that thought and reason can impart * Note H. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 25 To give her word attractiveness and power. Would that the teachings of the Holy Word, So oft recited, and which often make Of our prelections the potential part, And all that " Highest Wisdom " may supply Of exhortation, could an utterance find Like that which listening crowds enamoured hear, When SHAKSPEARE through the gifted Kemble speaks, Dewey interprets COLERIDGE S* mystic page, And ShaWj* with genius kindred to their own, Unveils the beauties of the BROWNINGS song ! Shall elocution lavish all its skill, In making patent to the common thought, The gifts of genius to the world of mind / Leaving to rude, untutored tone and speech The words of sacred prophecy and song, The matchless teachings of the Saviour s lips, Paul s earnest letters and his speech sublime. When he the gifted, he the silver-tongued, The elocutionist without a peer, * Note I. 26 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. Speaks to the people of the peerless one, And bids the Father of his Country hail,* How apt each word ! its utterance how clear ! How rich and full of meaning every tone ! While grace of attitude and motion join With the mute eloquence of eye and face To crown the speaker AUTOCRATOR there. . JEREMIAH. Thy speech is strange : I do not understand. What names are these of which I hear thee speak ? Shakspeare and Coleridge, Browning, Dewey, Shaw, Kcmblc, and Autocrat, are they public Friends ? SAMUEL. Some to the public are not quite unknown ; Although the liberty of jpen and speech Came in no shape the discipline approves, Certificate, in form, and duly signed, Of meetings, yearly, quarterly, select, Monthly, preparative, for sufferings, f * Note J. t Note K. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 7 -~N The right conferring on the favored one To be a teacher to his fellow-man. JEREMIAH. Thee spoke of Shakspeare, and of Brownings sang. Songs and their writers cannot hold a place Approved and cherished in the thoughts of Friends. SAMUEL. Then let us banish from our hearts and homes The Judean records. Let us quick disown Whittier,* the gifted son of song, whose lays Have the true lyric ring ; and who, in lines As touching and as sweet as Burns ere sunsr, O o^ Pays heartfelt homage to his brother-bard, Scotland s dear minstrel, of the world beloved. Remembercst thou when we were at a school, A half a century or more ago, Founded, endowed, and managed by the Friends Of Massachusetts ? Elam was its friend. He gave his money ; and, a richer gift, * Note L. *O QUAKER QUIDDITIES. lie gave his books, collection rich and rare : But, ere from Flam s island-home they reached The academic hall, the Flam books Must an expurgatory process know By the stern censorship that kept the gate To bar the entrance of all hurtful things ; And, when the longed-for treasures were revealed, The " Briti.sk Poets " had been ostracized, And SIIAKSPEARE minuted contraband,* and sold ! JEREMIAH. " Judean records ; " " Whittier, gifted son ; " " Scotland s dear minstrel ; " " Shakspearc ; " British Poets/ Why speak of these ? For what they have to do With Friends, or with the tidings from abroad, I understand not. I was moved to say, That twas with apprehension and alarm I heard the rumor of the mournful change Which makes our customs, bulwarks of the church, By which we stand distinctive and select, * Note M. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 29 Plainness of speech, of manners, and of dress, No longer hold unquestioned and revered Their high position. Plainly can I see, With thee these apprehensions have no place, My anxious fears 110 sympathy. How long, This overturning spirit unrestrained, Shall we retain our form, so highly prized, Of silent -worship ? SAMUEL. Worship has no form. To sit, to kneel, to stand, to speak, to think, Determine not the spirit s attitude. Speech may be silver, silence may be gold, And both be sounding or unsounding brass. O O We dust our knees ; but no repentant dust Dims the bright polish of our self-conceit. A " tinkling cymbal " were a sure relief From drowsy Silence, as she slowly moves Her leaden sceptre o er a slumbering band,* Convened and ranged in form and order due. * Note N. 30 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. JEREMIAH. Then what is worship ? SAMUEL. Tell me what is not, When on the bosom of the Infinite The spirit rests submissively and meek ; "\Vhcn the heart finds its daily meat and drink Its will subdued, its wishes, hopes, desires, Moving in union with the Will Divine In daily homage to the Eternal Love. All work of God, commanded or allowed, Is worship, when, by right divine, the soul Joins in the sympathy that wakes the harps Of choirs angelic round the eternal throne. JEREMIAH. Remember what the Sacred Record says : " Be still, O man ! and know that I am God." SAMUEL. Man may " be still," and yet he may not " know." Hast yet to learn that silence has no power QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 31 To grapple with the importunities Somniferous, which, on soft-cushioned seats, Bind and subdue the willing captives there ? Silence no charm or conjuration wields To exorcise the demon of the world, When he appears, companion unrebuked, Of faces formal, elongate, and sad. Silence may reign when at the chosen place The people meet collectively to " wait Upon the Lord." Some wait awhile, and then To Somnus quietly their homage yield, And, by a nod, unconscious worship pay. Some wait a moment ; and, when all is still, They hear the whistle of the railroad! train, Railroad " Celestial," * whose conductor, full Of complaisance and prudence, has prepared A car for those who in a quiet way A little work " terrestrial " would perform, Accommodation great for those who think The whole fii st day too large a sacrifice. They mount ; and now there s sterner work in hand Than comes of single stern-posts. On they speed, * Note 0. 32 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. And build the thick-ribbed ship from stem to stern ; Launch her, and load, and send her on her way, And bring her back, a golden harvest won. Thus " some renew their strength " by balmy sleep ; And some " mount upwards " as on golden wings, Beholding visions of increasing gain. Thus these to Mammon, those to Morpheus, bow : Tis thus they " wait," and thus they are " re newed." Better the " long-drawn aisle and fretted vault," The painted window and the vestured priest, The swelling organ and the hireling song ; Better the Liturgy s unvarying ^ound ; Better the Mass misguided masses seek ; Better the closet s deeply studied lore, AVith unimpassioncd utterance discharged; Better the rude, unmeaning dance and song, The Shaker s safety- valve for false restraint ; Better the harmonics of flute and horn Heard at Moravian worship ; better far The songs and shoutings and the loud amens At crowded vestries and camp-meetings heard. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 33 JEREMIAH. Our speech and silence are alike condemned. SAMUEL. Nor speech, nor silence are by me condemned. The spirit s homage to the Infinite Good, By adoration or obedience paid, Is worship, waiting : they who worship wait, And they who truly wait are worshippers. Forms are but servitors to lift the gates To let the King of glory enter in, The needful aids of doubting, struggling faith. JEREMIAH. Wouldst rouse our sleepers by an organ-peal ? By forms liturgic keep the world at bay ? And help the halting by a painted wall ? Where, then, our high distinctions ? Where our claim To nearest access to the Infinite Mind In silent waiting ? Where the hisrhcr claim o o Of instant guidance by the Master s -hand In every act of prophecy and praise ? 34 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. SAMUEL. Oh ! spare the " higli distinction," spare the " claim ; " The bigot s solace and the sectarist s boast. ~\\ here our distinction in the eyes of Him AVho seeth, knoweth, loveth, kcepeth all The mind of God is known to them alone Who do the Father s will. To him unknown All geographic, all sectarian bounds, His tender mercies over all his works. The life of God within the soul of man Feeds not upon- the interpretation dim Of music s strain, though Handel press the keys ; Of highest plastic or pictorial art Of SAN/IO * or of BUONAROTTI * bom ; Or iterated flow of solemn speech, Echoed by swelling dome or pillared aisle. God is his own interpreter ; and, when The Sacred Presence f fires the waiting soul, Or be there spepch or silence, there is known Note P. t Note Q. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 35 The full fruition of immortal joy. Holy the flame that on the altar glows, By fire celestial kindled and supplied. Presumptuous man, with sacrilegious hand, Would fain its sacred heat and light apply To gild and vivify his lifeless forms : Device Promethean* to give his work The heavenly impress of the life divine. Man in his manliness, when reason s light Shines with the radiance of its Primal Source, Reigns autocrat within his own 1 domain. His high prerogatives by God bestowed, God will, himself, acknowledge and protect. Twcre well to heed the teachings of the rule Rhetorical, by ancient wisdom penned, For those who dared the heights of epic song : The gods should never on the earth appear, Except their work be godrtkc.-f Let us not Place on our rules and forms conventional The image and the superscript divine. The precepts of our fathers bear no seal The wisdom of the children may not break. * Note R. t Note S. 36 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. Open to bold revision every form Of marriage rite, of language, and of dress. True to the inward life, we shall not need The organ s peal or hireling s speech or song To lead our spirits in the solemn act Of public worship. We shall ever find Nearness of access to the Infinite Mind, When silently we wait ; in every act Of exhortation, prayer, or praise, shall know The instant guidance of the Master s hand. JEREMIAH. Farewell ! To-day the men s committee meet, Appointed in the case of Thomas Swift 1 , Charged with a serious breach of discipline, In having at his house, for instant use, A stringed instrument, piano called.* SAMUEL. Farewell ! and, when you deal with Thomas Swift, Remember good. King David had the same At home, and in the holy temple too. * Note T. NOTES. NOTES. NOTE A. " That leads. to bewilder, and dazzles to blind." My change in Beattie s beautiful line is no improve ment. Had the rhythm conformed, I should have left it unchanged. I allude to it, that the confession of the plagiarism may, as in other cases of larceny, abate the punishment. NOTE B. " And does thee doubt the discipline? " I allow Friend Jeremiah to speak after his own fa shion. This chronic form of diseased speech seems to admit of no cure. Friends should legalize it by having it recognized in the next editions of Murray and Goold. NOTE C. " Twere well, methinks, to give him in the dock." Webster defines a dock to be " the place where a criminal stands in court." Such a place has but a figu rative existence in monthly -meeting proceedings under 40 QIVKER QUIDDITIES. the discipline code; but such proceedings sometimes put people in a tight place. NOTE D. " Of queries from the discipline discharged." I hope, when the time shall come for our code to be revised, that the matter contained in the queries will be changed from its interrogatory to a declaratory form. It is, no doubt, highly proper that the sleepirtg-in-meet- ing business should have attention certainly as often as once a month ; but it would, I think, save some hard straining for answers, and be quite as effective, if in place of the usual query, " Are Friends careful to abstain from sleeping in meeting? " a declaration should be solemnly made, that no person, indulging in the habit of sleeping during the hour of worship, has any right to a seat in an assembly convened for that purpose. And so of other matters contained in the queries. NOTE E. " I ve thought about it all our meeting-time." Founded on fact. We might probably multiply the number of Benaiahs, were all as candid. NOTE F. It is not in my power to introduce the musical nota tion to describe Friend Jeremiah s style of speaking. QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 41 At present, we are not, at our school, initiated into the mysteries of do, re, me, &c. ; so I cannot in the text give any idea of this (to me) most revolting sing-song. Itis astonishing that persons of fair intellectual attainments, who everywhere else, and at all times beside, speak with a natural tone, and in a simple and unaffected manner, should, the moment they open their lips on the rising-seat, ignore all the laws of elocution and common sense. What would be thought of a member of the first class in read ing, at Providence School, if he should read an extract from Macaulay or Milton after the manner so often presented to him from the high-seat ? If the training of the school is ever of any value, it certainly must be when its recipient takes the position of a public religious teacher. He has no right to set aside the rules by which, through all time , the spoken word has been rendered effective. If he would give his message its greatest force, he must send it forth with all those accompaniments which the world has recognized as the laws of successful utterance. Two reasons may be given for this almost universal habit : I mean, of course, among the ministers of our society. The first is, that it is easy. . It requires very much less effort to send forth our words in this " rude sing-song," than it does to give them the emphasis and intonation a perfect elocu tion requires. Believing this, I have ventured to use the word indolent in connection with this habit. But, when Jeremiah speaks of the tone which marks the 1:2 Ql AKKH UVIDDITIES. sacred source of the words, he makes a declaration of a fact widely existing among us; and this is the second neaxni. J cannot here speak as I think the subject requires, of this deeply-seated hut most absurd and most unfortunate notion. The term I have used may seem undignified, but it is not improper. It is nothing but a notion to believe that there can be any peculiar so lemnity attached to an intonation which sets at defiance all the laws of speech. It it but just for me to say, that all our public speak ers do not thus offend. The members of the Providence School often hear, at the school and in the city, speaking from Providence Friends, the manner of which does them no discredit as official advisers in the government of two of the highest educational institutions of the State of Rhode Island. The gifted young woman, who sometimes visits us from Southern Massachusetts, has been, when I have heard her, as perfect in her intonation as she was sweet in her tones and correct and elegant in her language. Her exhortations lose none of their solemnity by the da-Heal purity of their language, or the truthful modu lation of her musical periods. One other I would name ; and he, too, is from the same section of country. That young man, whose voice I have often heard, and always heard with profit and delight, at our yearly meetings, has risen superior to that pressure of custom and tradition which has led a-tray >o many of our ministers. Of all our public QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 43 speakers, I have heard no one who comes to his work with so large a share of the proprieties of speech. It is evident that he regards it as a duty to give to his mini strations all the aid that is to be derived from purity of language, an easy and graceful manner, a clear enuncia tion, and an intonation in harmony with the meaning of his words. I may be allowed, in close, to remark, that it is to be hoped that the example of these public Friends from New Bedford and Nantucket will not be withoiit its influence in the society. NOTE G. " Could I speak With Cowper s tongue, I would, like Co \vper, plead." Hear how Cowper pleads : " From such apostles, ye mitred heads ! Preserve the church; and lay not careless hands On skulls that cannot teach, and will not learn." NOTE H. "Needs not the foreign aid of ornament." Another larceny ; but I cannot now say from whom. It is a line Jeremiah would be likely to remember. NOTE I. I name the public readers I have heard. The kins woman of the Siddons must, I suppose, be allowed the 44 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. highest place. Mary Dewey, daughter of the Doctor, is a fine reader. Hood is more than ever Hood, when she stands interpreter. The reading of the " Ancient Mariner " came nearly up to the highest standard. Emily Shaw is the daughter of the Hon. John Shaw of Nan- tucket. In scenes of deep pathos, she excels both the others. The reading of the death of Jo, from Dickens s " Bleak^I louse," was a performance I have never heard equalled. The minutest shades of thought and feeling are developed in the light of her clear, full, distinct utterance and faultless intonation, and by a correspond ing expression of feature, which is the most attractive and astonishing characteristic of this gifted lady. The versatility of her powers enables her to give with equal and almost unequalled truthfulness and effect the coarse originality of Toby Belch, and the exquisite tenderness and deep contrition of Mildred Tresham: "I I was so young! Beside, I loved him, Thorold and I had Xo mother God forgot me so I fell." These graces of delivery I regard as qualities of the highest value. To despise and reject them is to cast away the most effective aids to our public religious teachings. NOTE J. " And bids the Father of his Country hail." This line is not mine ; at any rate, not the whole of it. As it stands, it well answers my purpose ; for it shows QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 45 that I am speaking of Edward Everett. Emerson says of him, that he is the greatest elocutionist of the age. NOTE K. This list of meetings is almost as difficult to versify as Homer s Catalogue, which is such a puzzle to the translators ; but I believe I have named them all. The meeting For Sufferings was so called, in England, be cause one ojf its most important duties is to extend the care and aid of the society in cases where suffering fol lows an adherence to duty. It is expected that all writings in reference to the principles and usages of the society will be submitted to this meeting before publica tion. Therefore it is that the writer of this little book is an offender, should there not be an offending line in it. NOTE L. " Whittier, the gifted son of song, whose lays Have the true lyric ring." I know not what the booksellers say ; but my belief is, that the poems of Whittier have had a^more exten sive and powerful influence upon the minds of the people than the writings of any other American poet. He is the New-England Lyrist. He has shown us the potency of the lyric power, and how effective it is when wielded in the support of freedom and truth. For the first time 46 <JT \K1.U QUIDDITIES. in its history, the Society of Friends has produced a poet ; and not only produced, but pardoned. The lyrist having made his. way into our homes, the lyre must soon follow. The painter lias also made a lodgment, lie who looks upon the beautiful painting by Bradford of Fairhaven, now on exhibition at the National Gallery in Xcw York, with the slightest ability of appreciation, will not only feel that the production of such a work is a well-directed exercise of man s highest and most enlarged ability, but that the taste that it educates and gratifies is one that is intended by Him who thus en dowed us to be cultivated and enjoyed. I hope I shall be pardoned for using the word " lyrist," as meaning not only the singer, but the maker, of the lyric. NOTE M. " The British Poets had been ostracized, And Shakspeare minuted contraband, and sold ! " Fact: so says a Friend who has seen the minute,. This was not, however, directly a society matter. It was the Board of Friendly Trustees who decided that the Library of the Friends Academy must not contain the dangerous volumes. Whittier was not a member of the Board. NOTE N. Young wrote, " Her leaden sceptre o er a slumbering world ; " QUAKER QUIDDITIES. 47 and he wrote it so nearly right for me, that I could not resist the temptation to appropriate it, Avith a trifling change. Considering this, and the several other lines which a pretty retentive memory, joined with some small abi lity of appreciation, have enabled me to work into the homely texture of my verse from the writings of the poets, it must be allowed that the colloquy has some good lines in it. NOTE O. "Railroad Celestial, whose conductor, full Of complaisance and pru.dence,*has prepared. Hawthorne has given us a striking description of the Celestial Railroad. According to his account, arrange ments have been made for carrying on nearly every kind of terrestrial traffic in these cars. NOTE P. " Of Sanzio or of Buonarotti born." Raphael and Michael Angelo. The rhythm made it difficult to use the more commonly known names of these great men. NOTE Q. " And when a sense of sacred presence fires," wrote the great and good Dr. Johnson. 48 QUAKER QUIDDITIES. NOTE R. " Device Promethean, to give his work The heavenly impress of the life divine." Man is ever prone to imitate the Titan, and lay hold , of the heavenly fire to animate his own handiwork. How often is our own ecclesiastical machinery regarded as holding its life through the direct agency of heaven. NOTE S. " The g<)ds should never on the eartli appear, Except their work be godlike." Blair states Aristotle s rule thus : " Never permit a god to appear but on an occasion worthy of a god." NOTE T. " A stringed instrument, piano called." Notwithstanding the earnestness and eloquence of Samuel, Jeremiah is thinking more about removing that stringed instrument from Friend Swift s house, or dis owning him for keeping it there, than about weightier matters. We have many of these mint, anise, and cumin members. As a matter of fact, I may as well state that Thomas was disowned. The time, I believe, is not far distant, when Shakspeare will not be banished from the library, or the piano from the parlor. 17574 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000 754 847 2