ish, but that all should
inherit eternal life.

CHAP. IX.

_Last good trait is that of punctuality to words and engagements--This
probable from the operation of all those principles, which have produced
for the Quakers the character of a moral people--and from the operation
of their discipline._

The last good trait, which I shall notice in the character of the
Quakers, is that of punctuality to their words and engagements.

This is a very ancient trait. Judge Forster entertained this opinion of
George Fox, that if he would consent to give his word for his
appearance, he would keep it. Trusted to go at large without any bail,
and solely on his bare word, that he would be forth coming on a given
day, he never violated his promise. And he was known also to carry his
own commitment himself. In those days also, it was not unusual for
Quakers to carry their own warrants, unaccompanied by constables or
others, which were to consign them to a prison.

But it was not only in matters which related to the laws of the land,
where the early Quakers held their words and engagements sacred. This
trait was remarked to be true of them in their concerns in trade. On
their first appearance as a society, they suffered as tradesmen,
because others, displeased with the peculiarity of their manners,
withdrew their custom from their shops. But in a little time, the great
outcry against them was, that they got the trade of the country into
their hands. This outcry arose in part from a strict execution of all
commercial appointments and agreements between them and others, and
because they never asked two prices for the commodities which they sold.
And the same character attaches to them as a commercial body, though
there may be individual exceptions, at the present day.

Neither has this trait been confined to them as the inhabitants of their
own country. They have carried it with them wherever they have gone. The
treaty of William Penn was never violated. And the estimation, which the
Indians put upon the word of this great man and his companions,
continues to be put by them upon that of the modern Quakers in America,
so that they now come in deputations, out of their own settlements, to
consult them on important occasions.

The existence of this trait is probable both from general and from
particular considerations.

If, for example, any number of principles should have acted so forcibly
and in such a manner upon individuals