But this is not the case with the young. The whole year to them is a kind of perpetual spring. Their blood runs briskly throughout; their spirits are kept almost constantly alive; and, as the cares of the world occasion no drawback, they feel a perpetual disposition to cheerfulness and to mirth. This disposition seems to be universal in them. It seems, too, to be felt by us all; that is, the spring, enjoyed by youth, seems to operate as spring to maturer age. The sprightly and smiling looks of children, their shrill, lively, and cheerful voices, their varied and exhilarating sports,-all these are interwoven with the other objects of our senses, and have an imperceptible though an undoubted influence in adding to the cheerfulness of our minds. Take away the beautiful choristers of the woods, and those who live in the country would but half enjoy the spring. So, if by means of any unparalleled pestilence the children of a certain growth were to be swept away, and we were to lose this infantile link in the chain of age, they who were left behind would find the creation dull, or experience an in→ terruption in the cheerfulness of their feel

ings, till the former were successively restored.

The bodies as well as the minds of children require exercise for their growth; and, as their disposition is thus lively and sportive, such exercises as are amusing are necessary; and such amusements, on account of the length of the spring which they enjoy, must be expected to be long.

The Quakers, though they are esteemed an austere people, are sensible of these wants or necessities of youth. They allow their children most of the sports or exercises of the body, and most of the amusements or exercises of the mind, which other children of the island enjoy: but as children are to become men, and men are to become moral characters, they believe that bounds should be drawn, or that an unlimited permission to follow every recreation would be hurtful.

The Quakers, therefore, have thought it proper to interfere on this subject, and to draw the line between those amusements which they consider to be salutary, and those which they consider to be hurtful. They have accordingly struck out of the general list of these, such, and such only, as,

by

by being likely to endanger their morality, would be likely to interrupt the usefulness and the happiness of their lives. Among the bodily exercises, dancing, and the diversions of the field, have been proscribed. Among the mental, music, novels, the theatre, and all games of chance of every description, have been forbidden. These are the principal prohibitions which the Quakers have made on the subject of their moral education. They were suggested, most of them, by George Fox, but were brought into the discipline, at different times, by his suc

cessors.

I shall now consider each of these prohi bitions separately; and I shall give all the reasons, which the Quakers themselves give, why, as a society of Christians, they have thought it right to issue and enforce them.

CHAP.

CHAPTER II.

SECTION I.

Games of chance-Quakers forbid cards, dice, and other similar amusements--also concerns in lotteries and certain transactions in the stocksThey forbid also all wagers and speculations by a moneyed stake-The peculiar wisdom of the latter prohibition, as collected from the history of some of the amusements of the times.

WHEN

HEN we consider the depravity of heart, and the misery and ruin, that are frequently connected with gaming, it would be strange indeed if the Quakers, as highly professing Christians, had not endeavoured to extirpate it from their own body.

No people, in fact, have taken more effectual measures for its suppression. They have proscribed the use of all games of chance, and of all games of skill that are connected with chance in any manner. Hence, cards, dice, horse-racing, cock-fighting, and

VOL. I.

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all

all the amusements, which come under this definition, are forbidden.

But as there are certain transactions, independently of these amusements, which are equally connected with hazard, and which individuals might convert into the means of moral depravity and temporal ruin, they have forbidden these also, by including them under the appellation of gaming.

Of this description are concerns in the lottery, from which all Quakers are advised to refrain. These include the purchase of tickets, and all insurance upon the same.

In transactions of this kind there is always a moneyed stake, and the issue is dependent upon chance. There is of course the same fascinating stimulus as in cards or dice, arising from the hope of gain. The mind also must be equally agitated between hope and fear, and the same state of desperation may be produced, with other fatal consequences, in the event of loss.

Buying and selling in the public stocks of the kingdom is a practice, which, under particular circumstances, is discouraged also. Where any of the members of the Society buy into the stocks, under the idea that they are

likely