To do
this, I shall begin with the causes which led to the production of this
great event.
And, in the first place, as example is more powerful than precept, we
cannot suppose that the Quakers could have shown these noble instances
of religious principle, without supposing also that individuals of other
religious denominations would be morally instructed by them. They who
lived in the neighborhood where they took place, must have become
acquainted with the motives which led to them. Some of them must at
least have praised the action, though they might not themselves have
been ripe to follow the example: nor is it at all improbable that these
might be led, in the course of the workings of their own minds, to a
comparison between their own conduct and that of the Quakers on this
subject, in which they themselves might appear to be less worthy in
their own eyes. And as there is sometimes a spirit of rivalship among
the individuals of religious sects, where the character of one is
sounded forth as higher than that of another; this, if excited by such a
circumstance, would probably operate for good. It must have been
manifest also to many, after a lapse of time, that there was no danger
in what the Quakers had done, and that there was even sound policy in
the measure.
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