readers that I am sincere in these professions, yet it was right to take all means for avoiding the appearance of self-conceit or presumption. It seemed not easy to devise a better means than to connect my observations on these great and universal principles with certain events that were passing in the heart of a small, and comparatively unknown religious society. A less ambitious mode of setting forth truths, which I believe to be important, than that of embodying them in "Letters to a Member of the Society of Friends" did not suggest itself to me. But this, was not my chief motive for taking that course. felt deeply interested in the crisis which that body has reached, on account of its own members; I could not imagine one more strikingly illustrating the truths which I wished to assert, or one more full of instruction to ourselves; and it was also very important to the object which I had proposed to myself, to show that my views were capable of a practical application; that they explained the relation be

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tween the English church and the bodies which have separated from it, and that they hold out the very best hope of a reconciliation, without the sacrifice of our position, or of any one real principle maintained by them.

There are only a few facts necessary to support this opinion, with which the Letters themselves will not sufficiently acquaint the reader. That a body rose up in this country, during the first half of the seventeenth century, which assumed a more exclusively spiritual character than other sects both in its doctrines, its ministrations, and its discipline; that it is distinguished by particular badges of dress and speech; that it protests against wars, against worldly amusements, and against national worship; above all, that it entertains a somewhat different opinion respecting the Scriptures from that prevalent among Christians generally, and that it has utterly renounced the use of sacraments; that the members of this body were much persecuted in for

mer times, and are now rather popular in society, enjoying some immunities which do not belong to the other sects, and no longer regarded by those sects with dread or dislike, these facts, are notorious to all. The more recent events, of which the general reader cannot be supposed to be equally well aware, may be stated in a few words.

Every one knows, that the largest and most powerful settlement of Quakers is in America. In that country, a few years ago, a man arose among them, who maintained that the modern Friends had departed from the maxims of their ancestors, and were approaching far too nearly to those of other religious bodies. "You speak of the doctrines of the Trinity and of the atonement," said he, "like the members of any common sect; you are beginning to magnify the written Word far beyond its real worth; you are forgetting all that your founders taught you respecting the Invisible Teacher and the Universal Light." This Elias Hicks preached many sermons,

in this strain, and made a number of converts to his opinions. After some conflict, they were disowned by the Quaker body, and are now treated as schismatics. But the spirit of inquiry which the American Quaker had excited, spread to England; and here it produced exactly the opposite effect to that which he would have desired. A portion of the Quakers who had mixed with other sects, and adopted many of their habits and feelings, became alarmed at the passages which he quoted from their ancient oracles. They began to assert more and more loudly, that Hicks was indeed a heretic as to the doctrines of Christianity, but had too much pretence for calling himself an orthodox Quaker. These statements awakened a spirit which had been long dormant in the elder members of the Society. They affirmed that Quakerism, as taught by Fox and Barclay, did not impugn the doctrines of Christianity, but presented them in their highest and most spiritual form; that, as soon as their teachings were for

gotten, the Society would perish; and that the restless disposition of the young members was the most striking confirmation of their great doctrine, that spiritual knowledge can only be acquired by the submission of the heart and understanding to a Heavenly Teacher. Between these two classes there lies, of course, a large body of moderate men, who endeavour to explain away each of the extreme views, and by all means to save the Society from the dissolution which threatens it.

From this short statement, it will, I think, be perceived, how much the great experiment of the Quakers, its origin, progress, and results, may teach us respecting our own position and our own controversies-respecting the best method of maintaining the one and settling the otherrespecting the power which we possess of blessing those who curse us, if we will first understand ourselves, and the certainty of our deserving all their curses, and reaping the fruits of them if we are heedless of their example, and emulate their divisions.