ourse of their studies, daily find something
new. Every thing new shews them only their former ignorance, and how
much there is yet to learn. The more they persevere, in their
researches, the more they acknowledge the latter fact. The longer they
live, the more they lament the shortness of life, during which, man with
all his industry, can attain so little, and that, when he is but just
beginning to know, he is cut off. They see, in short, their own
nothingness, and, however they may be superior in their attainments,
they are convinced that their knowledge is, after all, but a shadow;
that it is but darkness; that it is but the absence of light; and that
it no sooner begins to assume an appearance than it is gone.

The last general argument against learning is, that it does not lead to
morality, or that learned men do not always exhibit an example of the
best character. In answer to this I must observe, that the natural
tendency of learning is to virtue. If learned men are not virtuous, I
presume their conduct is an exception to the general effect of knowledge
upon the mind. That there are, however, persons of such unnatural
character, I must confess. But any deficiency in their example is not to
be attributed to their learning. It is to be set down, on the other
hand, to the morally defective education they have received. They have
not been accustomed to wise restraints. More pains have been taken to
give them knowledge, than to instruct them in religion. But where an
education has been bestowed upon persons, in which their morals have
been duly attended to, where has knowledge been found to be at variance,
or rather where has it not been found to be in union, with virtue? Of
this union the Quakers can trace some of the brightest examples in their
own society. Where did knowledge, for instance, separate herself from
religion in Barclay, or in Penn, or in Burroughs, or in Pennington, or
in Ellwood, or in Arscott, or in Claridge, or in many others who might
be named. And as this has been the case in the Quaker society, where a
due care has been taken of morals, so it has been the case where a
similar care has been manifested in the great society of the world.

"Piety has found
Friends In the friends of Science, and true pray'r
Has flow'd from lips wet with Castalian dews.
Such was thy wisdom, Newton, childlike sage!
Sagacious reader of the works of God,
And in his word sagacious. Such too thine,
M