n no Theodore
Parker_.

* * * * *

The reader can not fail to see the substantial elements of the Quaker
character in Junius, if we let Mr. Paine define it. In the Age of
Reason, second part, he says: "The only sect that has not persecuted are
the Quakers, and the only reason that can be given for it is, that they
are rather Deists than Christians. They do not believe much about Jesus
Christ, and they call the Scriptures a dead letter."

The Quakers have no priesthood. With them the power to teach is the
immediate gift of God, and they speak as they are moved by the Spirit,
and what they say is by the inspiration of the inner light. They have
neither pulpit nor church, and in their meeting there is neither
ceremony nor song, nor the dull routine of stated prayers. They oppose
war, slavery, intemperance, litigation, extravagance, profanity, and
priestcraft. Dancing and dressing in the fashion of the day they
forbid. Their religion consists in morality; not in ceremony and show.
They hate a bishop as they hate a tyrant, and they hold an honest man
the noblest work of God. What could be more like Junius than this? But
if this does not satisfy the reader the evidence of Junius himself would
have little weight. But he positively affirms the principles of the
Quakers as the true religion, and this ought to satisfy the most
doubtful. At the close of Letter 41, he says: "An _honest_ man, _like
the true religion_, appeals to the understanding, or modestly confides
_in the internal evidences_ of his conscience. The _impostor_ employs
_force_ instead of argument, imposes silence when he can not convince,
and _propagates his character by the sword_." This proves Junius to be a
Quaker, in principle. No one can mistake the expression: "The internal
evidences of the conscience," which often comes so forcibly from Junius.
And says Paine also: "As for morality, the knowledge of it exists in
every man's conscience." Were an artist called upon to produce a picture
of Junius' moral, political, and religious character, he could give no
shade or stroke which he could not find full and distinct in the living
character of Mr. Paine.

Although Thomas Paine was not a professed Quaker, yet the rigid Quaker
principles of moral conduct spoke out in every action; and while he did
not spare their errors, he spoke highly of them as a sect. He chastised
them with an unsparing hand, but it was in friendship, not in rev