terature and science is likely to be a trait in the
character of the Quakers, we may pronounce, if we take into
consideration circumstances which have happened, and notions which have
prevailed, in this society.

The Quakers, like the Jews of old, whether they be rich or poor, are
brought up, in obedience to their own laws, to some employment. They are
called of course at an early age from their books. It cannot therefore
be expected of them, that they should possess the same literary
character as those who spend years at our universities, or whose time is
not taken up by the concerns of trade.

It happens also in this society, that persons of the poor and middle
classes are frequently through industry becoming rich. While these were
gaining but a moderate support, they gave their children but a moderate
education. But when they came into possession of a greater substance,
their children had finished their education, having grown up to men.

The ancient controversy too, relative to the necessity of human learning
as a qualification for ministers of the Gospel, has been detrimental to
the promotion of literature and science among the Quakers. This
controversy was maintained with great warmth and obstinacy on both
sides, that is, by the early Quakers, who were men of learning, on the
one hand, and by the divines of our universities on the other. The less
learned in the society, who read this controversy, did not make the
proper distinction concerning it. They were so interested in keeping up
the doctrine, that learning was not necessary for the priesthood, that
they seemed to have forgotten that it was necessary at all. Hence
knowledge began to be cried down in the society; and though the
proposition was always meant to be true with respect to the priesthood
only, yet many mistook or confounded its meaning, so that they gave
their children but a limited education on that account.

The opinions also of the Quakers relative to classical authors, have
been another cause of impeding in some degree their progress in
learning, that is, in the classical part of it. They believe these to
have inculcated a system of morality frequently repugnant to that of the
Christian religion. And the Heathen mythology, which is connected with
their writings, and which is fabulous throughout, they conceive to have
disseminated romantic notions among youth, and to have made them
familiar with fictions, to the prejudice of an unshaken devotedn