Thus I spent my time with this enlightened botanist—­this worthy citizen; who united all the simplicity of rustic manners to the most useful learning.  Various and extensive were the conversations that filled the measure of my visit.  I accompanied him to his fields, to his barn, to his bank, to his garden, to his study, and at last to the meeting of the society on the Sunday following.  It was at the town of Chester, whither the whole family went in two waggons; Mr. Bertram and I on horseback.  When I entered the house where the friends were assembled, who might be about two hundred men and women, the involuntary impulse of ancient custom made me pull off my hat; but soon recovering myself, I sat with it on, at the end of a bench.  The meeting-house was a square building devoid of any ornament whatever; the whiteness of the walls, the conveniency of seats, that of a large stove, which in cold weather keeps the whole house warm, were the only essential things which I observed.  Neither pulpit nor desk, fount nor altar, tabernacle nor organ, were there to be seen; it is merely a spacious room, in which these good people meet every Sunday.  A profound silence ensued, which lasted about half an hour; every one had his head reclined, and seemed absorbed in profound meditation, when a female friend arose, and declared with a most engaging modesty, that the spirit moved her to entertain them on the subject she had chosen.  She treated it with great propriety, as a moral useful discourse, and delivered it without theological parade or the ostentation of learning.  Either she must have been a great adept in public speaking, or had studiously prepared herself; a circumstance that cannot well be supposed, as it is a point, in their profession, to utter nothing but what arises from spontaneous impulse:  or else the great spirit of the world, the patronage and influence of which they all came to invoke, must have inspired her with the soundest morality.  Her discourse lasted three quarters of an hour.  I did not observe one single face turned toward her; never before had I seen a congregation listening with so much attention to a public oration.  I observed neither contortions of body, nor any kind of affectation in her face, style, or manner of utterance; everything was natural, and therefore pleasing, and shall I tell you more, she was very handsome, although upward of forty.  As soon as she had finished, every one seemed to return to their former meditation for about a quarter of an hour; when they rose up by common consent, and after some general conversation, departed.

How simple their precepts, how unadorned their religious system:  how few the ceremonies through which they pass during the course of their lives!  At their deaths they are interred by the fraternity, without pomp, without prayers; thinking it then too late to alter the course of God’s eternal decrees:  and as you well know, without either monument or tombstone.  Thus after having lived under the mildest government,