of their countrymen, that it
should have become an acknowledged feature in their character. He will
naturally ask, does their education produce it? Does their discipline
produce it? Do their religious tenets produce it? What springs act upon
the Quakers, which do not equally act upon other people? The
explanation of this phenomenon will be perfectly consistent with my
design; for I purpose, as I stated before, to try the truth or falsehood
of the different traits assigned to the character of the Quakers, by the
test of probabilities as arising from the nature of the customs or
opinions which they adopt. I shall endeavour therefore to show, that
there are circumstances, connected with their constitution, which have a
tendency to make them look upon man in a less degraded and hostile, and
in a more kindred and elevated light, than many others. And when I shall
have accomplished this, I shall have given that explanation of the
phenomenon, or that confirmation of the trait, which, whether it may or
may not satisfy others, has always satisfied myself.

The Quakers, in the first place, have seldom seen a man degraded but by
his vices. Unaccustomed to many of the diversions of the world, they
have seldom, if ever, seen him in the low condition of a hired buffoon
or mimic. Men, who consent to let others degrade themselves for their
sport, become degraded in their turn. And this degradation increases
with the frequency of the spectacle. Persons in such habits are apt to
lose sight of the dignity of mankind, and to consider them as made for
administration to their pleasures, or in an animal or a reptile light.
But the Quakers, who know nothing of such spectacles, cannot, at least
as far as these are concerned, lose either their own dignity of mind,
or behold others lose it. They cannot therefore view men under the
degrading light of animals for sport, or of purchasable play-things.

And as they are not accustomed to consider their fellow-creatures as
below themselves, so neither are they accustomed to look with enmity
towards them. Their tenet on the subject of war, which has been so amply
detailed, prevents any disposition of this kind. For they interpret
those words of Jesus Christ, as I have before shewn, which relate to
injuries, as extending not to their fellow-citizens alone, but to every
individual in the world, and his precept of loving enemies, as extending
not only to those individuals of their own country, who may hav