Of those who marry out of the society, it may be presumed that there are some, who were never considered to be sound in the Quaker-principles, and these are generally they who intermarry with the world.  Now they, who compose this class, generally live after their marriages, as happily out of the society as when they were in it.  Of course, these do not repent of the change.  And if they do not repent, they never sue for restoration to membership.  They cannot, therefore, incur any of the charges in question.  Nor can the society be blamed in this case, who, by never asking them to become members, never entice them to any objectionable repentance.

Of those again, who marry out of the society, there may be individuals, so attached to its communion, that it was never imagined they would have acted in this manner.  Now of these, it may in general be said, that they often bitterly repent.  They find, soon or late, that the opposite opinions and manners, to be found in their union, do not harmonize.  And here it may be observed, that it is very possible, that such persons may say they repent without any crimination of their wives.  A man, for instance, may have found in his wife all the agreeableness of temper, all the domestic virtue and knowledge, all the liberality of religious opinion, which he had anticipated; but in consequence of the mixed principles resulting from mixed marriages, or of other unforeseen causes, he may be so alarmed about the unsteady disposition of his children and their future prospects, that the pain which he feels on these accounts may overbalance the pleasure, which he acknowledges in the constant prudence, goodness, solicitude, and affection, of his wife.  This may be so much the case, that all her consolatory offices may not be able to get the better of his grief.  A man, therefore, in such circumstances, may truly repent of his marriage, or that he was ever the father of such children, though he can never complain as the husband of such a wife.

The truth, however, is, that those who make the charge in question, have entirely misapplied the meaning of the word repent.  People are not called upon to express their sorrow, for having married the objects of their choice, but for having violated those great tenets of the society, which have been already mentioned, and which form distinguishing characteristics between Quakerism and the religion of the world.  Those, therefore, who say they repent, say no more than what any other persons might be presumed to say, who had violated the religious tenets of any other society to which they might have belonged, or who had flown in the face of what they had imagined to be religious truths.

SECT.  IV.

Of persons, disowned for marriage, the greater proportion is said to consist of women—­Causes assigned for this difference of number in the two sexes.

It will perhaps appear a curious fact to the world, but I am told it is true, that the number of the women, disowned for marrying out of the society, far exceeds the number of the men, who are disowned on the same account.