But mourning garments, the Quakers contend, are only emblems of sorrow.  They will therefore frequently be used, where no sorrow is.  Many persons follow their deceased relatives to the grave, whose death, in point of gain, is a matter of real joy; witness young spendthrifts, who have been raising sum after sum on expectation, and calculating with voracious anxiety, the probable duration of their relations’ lives.  And yet all these follow the corpse to the grave, with white handkerchiefs, mourning habits, slouched hats, and dangling hat-bands.  Mourning garments, therefore, frequently make men pretend to be what they are not.  But no true or consistent Christian can exhibit an outward appearance to the world, which his inward feelings do not justify.

It is not contended here by the Quakers, that because a man becomes occasionally a hypocrite, this is a sufficient objection against any system; for a man may be an Atheist even in a Quaker’s garb.  Nor is it insinuated, that individuals do not sometimes feel in their hearts, the sorrow which they purpose to signify by their clothing.  But it is asserted to be true, that men who use mourning habits as they are generally used, do not wear them for those deceased persons only whom they loved, and abstain from the use of them where they had no esteem, but that they wear them promiscuously on all the occasions which have been dictated by fashion.  Mourning habits therefore, in consequence of a long system of etiquette, have become, in the opinion of the Quakers, but little better than disguised pomp, or fashionable forms.

I shall endeavour to throw some light upon this position of the Quakers, by looking into the practice of the world.

In the first place, there are seasons there, when full mourning, and seasons when only half mourning, is to be worn.  Thus the habit is changed, and for no other reason, than that of conformity with the laws of fashion.  The length of this time also, or season of mourning, is made to depend upon the scale of men’s affinity to the deceased; though nothing can be more obvious, than that men’s affection for the living, and that their sorrow for them when dead, cannot be measured by this standard.  Hence the very time that a man shall mourn, and the very time that he shall only half-mourn, and the very time that he shall cease to mourn, is fixed for him by the world, whatever may be the duration of his own sorrow.

In court-mourning also, we have an instance of men being instructed to mourn, where their feelings are neither interested nor concerned.  In this case, the disguised pomp, spoken of by the Quakers, will be more apparent.  Two princes have perhaps been fighting with each other for a considerable portion of their reigns.  The blood of their subjects has been spilled, and their treasures have been exhausted.  They have probably had, during all this time, no kind disposition one towards another, each considering