at the map of the world. What but learning ever translated the Bible into our mother tongue, or any other tongue, since "Babel was confounded?" What a prodigious effect on all the interests of society has the art of printing exerted! Look at the Friends themselves. The writings of Barclay, Penn, and others, who were comparatively learned men, have procured for them all the theological respectability, or the most of it, which they have ever attained: and of this they are so conscious, that they continually refer to those writers for a vindication of their tenets. The sum is this: no man ever yet sincerely or consistently denounced true learning, who did himself : possess it; and they who possess it not, are no proper judges in the case. "He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him." Prov. 18:13. The book of Proverbs is Baconian, to a wonder!

But there is one feature of the system of Friends which deserves a recognition here-its inimical regard to classical and scientific learning. I do not say that all Friends are thus hostile, or that they are all alike hostile to liberal learning; but I charge this hostility on the system. That such is its character, appears from the denunciation, the indiscriminate proscription of Barclay; and that not in a few places of his book. It appears in the general hostility of Friends to all colleges and seminaries where the elevated branches are thoroughly taught. Not one young Friend out of five hundred, even in this free country, ever obtains a liberal education, in fact or in name; certainly never becomes gradu

ated in the arts at any chartered institution; and where an instance occurs, it is always attended with special difficulties. They have no college of liberal science in the world! Some, I know, of the suspected worldly sort in Philadelphia, have proposed, and would have forwarded so excellent an object; but they were always awed into despondency by the unlettered, all-knowing light within. And in this, their obsequiousness was quite consistent; for, if schools, academies and universities are all in their nature wrong, and as such forbidden of God, it is certainly right to desist totally and at once from the prosecution of their cause! Incidental evils indeed they will always include; but the system is not chargeable with these, unless in its own nature it approves and fosters them. There will always, perhaps, be hypocrites at the communion table; but christianity does not make them: and the purest ministry of the gospel will often become "a savor of death unto death;" but sinners themselves, and not such a ministry, are to blame for the consequence. And so the best organized system of intellectual education that the world has ever seen, has often presented the appalling spectacle of profligate and wicked students perverting its privileges. But what of that? Shall we burn our colleges? Why not our primary school-houses too? What beneficent institution, what bounty of the blessed God is not perverted and abused in this naughty world? I return to the fact, and ask the friends of order, of religion, and of man, dispassionately to consider, at their leisure, the three following questions :

1. Is Quakerism friendly to the cultivation and diffusion of scientific knowledge? 2. If not, is it congenial any more with christianity than with the real interests of the nation or the world? 3. When would the whole world be converted to Christ upon their principles, or by their influence?

One painful consideration to any person who wishes and who endeavors to subserve the conversion of Friends to christianity, is their characteristic aversion to investigate. One special reason of this, beside others, not a few derived, in common with the hinderances of other men, from the "first Adam," results from the genius of their religion. To investigate, is to think, examine, analyze; and in religion it is to "search the scriptures daily;" to "ask wisdom" in prayer to God; to weigh evidence; to respect the opinion of others, so far as to "consider" what they say; to admit the possibility of one's own error on any subject; to deprecate and resist the dark tyranny of prejudice; to deny infallibility to men universally; to surmount the dictation of friends just as sincerely as that of enemies; to feel the incomparable value of truth, and to realize the obligation of the mandate, "buy the truth, and sell it not;" to feel and to own one's personal fallibility; to study the force and to sift the correctness of educational principles; to ply all proper means of right knowledge with candor and benevolence; to grasp known truth, after examination, with courage and tenacity; to habituate the exercise of investigation; to "incline one's ear unto wisdom, and apply the heart to understanding; yea,

to cry after knowledge, and lift up the voice for understanding; to seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures; in order to understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." Prov. 2: 2-5. True, there are some minds comparatively incapable of investigation. They look back, and not forward, and they can see nothing out of the wake of their own random sailing. They perceive not the other side of the question. With them to investigate is indevotion, is danger, is scepticism-so incredulous are they of the ultimate truth of what they believe. With them abstraction is distraction; the value of principles of thought is inscrutable; and degrees of evidence are a profane supposition. What they believe they know, though they cannot prove it; what they hold, they are sure is right, though they have no other evidence; and what their conscience approves, they are not afraid to venture, because they are sincere. "The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason." Prov. 26: 16. "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. 12." "My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways." 23: 26. "Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit, in malice be ye children, but IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN.” 1 Cor. 14: 20. There are minds, too, so weak and insipid in their very structure, that, wherever. is their place in "the body," it is plain that they were never intended for "the eye;" although the perversion of their native training, mixed with the dregs of their own vanity,

may possibly intoxicate them with the notion of their competency to become leaders in religion. Such minds as these are easily brought to feel the flame of inspiration, and to surrender to all the phantasies of that serene delirium. But with respect to greater minds, those capacitated for thought and investigation, what are we, in consistency, to expect from them, after they have imbibed from infancy the sentiment of a universal inward light, PARAMOUNT to the scriptures, which every man is SUPREMELY bound to audit and to follow, "through faith in its effectual operation?" Hence is it that I aver their intractableness, and their consistent aversion to investigate, as resulting from the very genius of their religion. Their master spirits often, I might say habitually, resist the tendencies of rational thought, that they may get still, suppress "the motions and activity of the creature," and come to know a unity with the life, the power, and spirit within them. This is their religion. It was the very soul of the scheme and conduct of George Fox. When I was yet recent in the faith of Christ, and before I was "disowned;" being in company with some eminent preachers of the society at a public inn, and conversing very moderately, but with decision, on the topics of difference ; one of the preachers suddenly rose, beckoned me solemnly into an adjoining apartment, and then commenced his inspired advice substantially in this sort: "Samuel, thy mind is too active; if thee wants peace, I can tell thee how to find it: get still, get still! and thou shalt come to know the hidden