ng the speech, and disciplining the whole deportment
of the young and the newcomer. No one has ever been addressed with the
use of his first name by grave, sweet ladies and elderly saints, without
its beginning an influence and exerting a charm he could not resist; the
more so that the Quaker in so doing is guarding his own soul, rather
than seeking to save his hearer.

The grave manners of the Quakers, both in meeting and without, are
framed upon their belief that all days are holy, and all places sacred.
Their long and triumphant fight against amusements is a tribute to the
gravity of life. The contest to which I have elsewhere referred for pure
morals, in matters of sex, of property and of speech, was a victorious
battle.

In all these matters Quaker Hill was a population socialized by
religion. Central to it all was the worship of the Meeting on First Day,
and on other occasions; and the great solemnity of the annual Quarterly
Meeting. Fascinated by that "silence that can be felt," men came from
far. They would come as readily to-day. They went away under the
domination of that idea of pure and spiritual faith, which kept a whole
houseful of men silent for an hour in communion.

As I have looked into this matter it has seemed to me that the induction
to be drawn from the history of Quaker Hill is this: Religion was a true
organizing power for this social population. Whatever the meeting
determinedly strove to do it accomplished. If it had tried to do more it
would have succeeded.

This was a gain, moreover, without corresponding losses; a total net
gain in all the moralities. The whole area on which this meeting exerted
its influence was by it elevated to a higher moral and social tone, and
organized into a communal whole, characterized by a loftier and cleaner
standard than that of surrounding populations.

Why, then, did it die out? First, because of the bareness of its
worship, the lack of music, color and form; through which it lost in the
nineteenth century some of its best families. Then through dogmatic
differences, of no interest to human beings, it lost its primacy in the
community and so its authority.

In the chapter on "Ideals of the Quakers," I have dwelt upon their
dramatization of life. They "made believe" that "plainness" was
sanctity. They fixed their minds upon the commonplace as the ideal. It
is probable that the early population were men and women of no such
talents as to disturb this conv