It is not difficult, if the fact be as it is stated, to assign a reason for this difference of number in the two sexes.

When men wish to marry, they wish, at least if they are men of sense, to find such women as are virtuous; to find such as are prudent and domestic, and such as have a proper sense of the folly and dissipation of the Fashionable world; such in fact as will make good mothers and good wives.  Now if a Quaker looks into his own society, he will generally find the female part of it of this description.  Female Quakers excel in these points.  But if he looks into the world at large, he will in general find a contrast in the females there.  These, in general, are but badly educated.  They are taught to place a portion of their happiness in finery and show:  utility is abandoned for fashion:  The knowledge of the etiquette of the drawing-room usurps the place of the knowledge of the domestic duties:  A kind of false and dangerous taste predominates:  Scandal and the card-table are preferred to the pleasures of a rural walk:  Virtue and Modesty are seen with only half their energies, being overpowered by the noxiousness of novel-reading principles, and by the moral taint which infects those who engage in the varied rounds of a fashionable life.  Hence a want of knowledge, a love of trifles, and a dissipated turn of mind, generally characterize those who are considered as having had the education of the world.

We see therefore a good reason why Quaker-men should confine themselves in their marriages to their own society.  But the same reason, which thus operates with Quaker-men in the choice of Quaker-women, operates with men who are not of the society, in choosing them also for their wives.  These are often no strangers to the good education, and to the high character, of the Quaker-females.  Fearful often of marrying among the badly educated women of their own persuasion, they frequently address themselves to this society, and not unfrequently succeed.

To this it may be added, that if Quaker-men were to attempt to marry out of their own society, they would not in general be well received.  Their dress and their manners are considered as uncouth in the eyes of the female-world, and would present themselves as so many obstacles in the way of their success.  The women of this description generally like a smart and showy exterior.  They admire heroism and spirit.  But neither such an exterior, nor such spirit, are to be seen in the Quaker-men.  The dress of the Quaker-females, on the other hand, is considered as neat and elegant, and their modesty and demeanor as worthy of admiration.  From these circumstances they captivate.  Hence the difference, both in the inward and outward person, between the men and the women of this society, renders the former not so pleasing, while it renders the latter objects of admiration, and even choice.

CHAP.  II.