dency to produce in them an anxious concern for the good
of their fellow-creatures. Man is considered, in the theory of this
discipline, as a being, for whose spiritual welfare the members are
bound to watch. They are to take an interest in his character and his
happiness. If he be overtaken in a fault, he is not to be deserted, but
reclaimed. No endeavour is to be spared for his restoration. He is
considered, in short, as a creature, worthy of all the pains and efforts
that can be bestowed upon him.

The religion of the Quakers furnishes also a cause, which occasions them
to consider man in an elevated light. They view him, as may be collected
from the preceding volume, as a temple of the Spirit of God. There is no
man, so mean in station, who is not made capable by the Quakers of
feeling the presence of the Divinity within him. Neither sect, nor
country, nor colour, excludes him, in their opinion, from this
presence. But it is impossible to view man as a tabernacle, in which the
Divinity may reside, without viewing him in a dignified manner. And
though this doctrine of the agency of the Spirit dwelling in man belongs
to many other Christian societies, yet it is no where so systematically
acted upon as by that of the Quakers.

These considerations may probably induce the reader to believe, that the
trait of benevolence, which has been affixed to the Quaker character,
has not been given it in vain. There can be no such feeling for the
moral interests of man, or such a benevolent attention towards him in
his temporal capacity, where men have been accustomed to see one another
in low and degrading characters, as where no such spectacles have
occurred. Nor can there be such a genuine or well founded love towards
him, where men, on a signal given by their respective governments,
transform their pruning-hooks into spears, and become tygers to one
another without any private provocation, as where they can be brought
under no condition whatever, to lift up their arm to the injury of any
of the human race. There must, in a practical system of equality, be a
due appreciation of man as man. There must, in a system where it is a
duty to watch over him, for his good, be a tender attention towards him
as a fellow creature. And in a system, which considers him as a temple
in which the Divine Being may dwell, there must be a respect towards
him, which will have something like the appearance of a benevolent
disposition to the world.