MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS
RELATIVE TO THE
QUAKERS

Quakers a happy people—­Subordinate causes of this happiness—­namely, their comfortable situation—­their attachment to domestic life—­their almost constant employment—­this happiness not broken like that of others, by an interruption of the routine of constituted pleasures—­or by anger and other passions or by particular enquiries and notions about religion.

If a person were to judge of the Quakers by the general gravity of their countenances, and were to take into consideration, at the same time, the circumstance, that they never partook of the amusements of the world, in which he placed a part of his own pleasures, he would be induced to conclude, that they had dull and gloomy minds, and that they could not be upon the whole a happy people.  Such a conclusion, however, would be contrary to the fact.  On my first acquaintance with them I was surprised, seeing the little variety of their pursuits, at the happiness which they appeared to enjoy, but as I came to a knowledge of the constitution and state of the society, the solution of the problem became easy.

It will not be difficult to develope the subordinate causes of this happiness.[42] To shew the first of these, I shall view the society in the three classes of the rich, the middle, and the poor.  Of the rich, I may observe, that they are not so affluent in general as the rich of other bodies.  Of the middle, that they are upon the whole in better circumstances than others of the same class in life.  Of the poor, that they are not so poor as others in a similar condition.  Now the rich in the Quaker society have of course as many of the comforts of life in their power as they desire.  The middle classes in this society have more of these than the middle classes of other denominations.  The poor in the same society have also more of these, in consequence of the handsome provision which is made for them, than others in a similar situation with themselves.  There is therefore upon the whole a greater distribution of the comforts of life, among all the ranks of this society, than is to be found in any other community, in proportion to their numbers.  But this superior state, in point of comfortable circumstances, ought to be undoubtedly a source of superior happiness.  For where the comforts of life are wanting, it is in vain to suppose men can be happy, unless their minds are more than usually comforted by their religion.

[Footnote 42:  Religion, which includes positive virtues, and an absence from vices, joined to a peaceful conscience and a well grounded hope of a better life, is the first and greatest cause of happiness, and may belong to all.  But I confine myself, in this chapter, to such causes only as may be called subordinate, and in which the Quakers are more particularly concerned.]