nowledge
teaches us the causes of things. Mysteries, hitherto hidden both in the
garden and in the field, and in the heaven and in the air, lie unfolded
to our view. Every walk we take, while the surface of the earth remains
as it is, and the canopy of the firmament is spread over us, gives its
the opportunity, in all the innumerable objects presented to our view,
of almost endless investigation and delight. And the deeper we go into
the hidden things of nature, and the more we unfold them, have we not a
better belief of the existence of the Creator, and grander notions of
the symmetry, order, beauty, and wisdom of his works? Such knowledge
leads also, as it has always done, to discoveries, by which we may make
ourselves useful to mankind. And, besides the utility, of which it may
make us capable, can discoveries of the principles of nature lessen oar
love and admiration of the first great Cause?

To philosophical knowledge should be added general reading. Such reading
should be of the purest kind. Of knowledge, acquired in this manner, it
maybe said, that it opens new sources of right views and sentiments, and
this even independently of Christianity, from which our most valuable
information is derived. Thus at a time, when as a nation we professed to
be Christians, we shed the blood of the martyrs. Thus when even such men
as the great Sir Matthew Hale, one of the brightest Christian patterns
in our country, were at the head of it, we condemned persons to death
for witchcraft. But knowledge superior to that of those times, has
taught us better things. By means of it we perceive, that persecution
does not destroy, but that it propagates opinions, and that the belief
of the existence of witchcraft is absurd.

These then appear to me to be the general advantages, or such as are
inseparable from education when composed of the various branches of
knowledge which have been described. I shall now endeavour to shew the
peculiar advantages, which the Quakers would derive from it.

It will appear then, if we look back into the character of the Quakers,
as described in this volume, that the world charges them, I mean the
more affluent part of them, with having less learning, than others in a
similar rank of life. But surely the education I propose would remove
this intellectual defect.

The world again, as we have seen, has fixed another intellectual blemish
upon them by the imputation of superstition. But how does superstition