and exceptions-the occasional extravagances of a great man under excessive excitement. Boyle, the philosopher, had great faith in "the marrow of the thigh bone of a hanged man" for the cure of certain complaints; and left the recipe amongst his papers. Bacon, notwithstanding the wonderful advance of his mind beyond the mind of his own age, held some notions nearly as absurd but who measures those great men by their foibles? It would be easy to bring a ludicrous list of extravagances, follies, and eccentricities, committed by three-fourths of our martyrs and reformers; but it would be an invidious task. We have better things to estimate them by :and, in the same manner, stripping away the outer coat of trivial absurdities from George Fox, we shall behold him one of the greatest and most noble-minded of reformers. We shall find him one of those rare characters that have but a single object in existence, and are ready to sacrifice everything for it-the establishment of Truth as the rule and the good of man: and we shall find him not more quick-sighted to discover it, than bold to avow and maintain its cause. On almost all those great questions of civil and religious polity which the world is now coming to a late discussion of, he made up his mind at once, and as at one splendid leap across the broad morass of the errors and sophistries of ages. The grand discovery at which he arrived was the clear perception of the spirituality and all-suffi ciency of Christianity,—that it is a law to which we must bend all our morals, manners, and institutions, and not seek in vain to make it conform to them. His system was therefore simply the system of the New Testament, not as it is interpreted by partial interests and preconcerted creeds, but by the broad, common-sense impressions of men—the fountain of all true knowledge in politics and morals, as well as in religion-the source whence all true philosophers and originators of systems do but draw their lights, and whence historians have yet much to learn and much to teach; eventually remoulding all society, by reviewing the human annals in its spirit, and meting all actions by its stand.. ard. The Christian system is that alone which recognises the great rights of humanity; civil and religious liberty, in its fullest extent; the casting down of all monopolies in religion, in trade, in education; the abrogation of every law, however ancient, however sanctioned by grave authorities or extended practice, which is not founded on the eternal principles of justice; and the erection of the divine law of Love in its stead. It holds in abhorrence customs, however deemed by ages and nations to be allowable, the customs of national bloodshed, and national force, for determining questions of right. This was his system, a system certainly of most Radical Reform,-the system of abandoning the pernicious doctrine of expedience, the authority of names and precedents, and substituting that of "doing to others, as you would be done by ;" and so far was it carried beyond the noions of that age, and even of this, that it placed

women on a footing of social equality with man and gave them, in his society, meetings of civil discipline of their own, where they transacted their own affairs of association, and learned to rely on their own, intellectual and moral re

sources.

But before going at large into his doctrines, let us take a rapid view of his career, and his disciples.

He was born in 1624, at Drayton, in Leicestershire, and apprenticed there to a small farmer and shoemaker. To the farming he voluntarily attached himself; and as he advanced to manhood, working alone in the solitary fields, his active and sensitive mind began powerfully to turn its inquiries upon itself-upon its own nature and destiny,- what it was, why here, and whither advancing,- questions that one would imagine must vividly affect every living spirit, but which appear little to visit the multitude, and sink deep only into minds of a certain temperament. Soon satisfying himself that Christianity was the best and only guide in this inquiry the only philosophy which can solve the great mystery of human existence,-he next was anxious to possess himself of the best means of studying it. Taught, as the bulk of people are, and ever have been, not to depend upon their own inquiries, but to lean upon somebody in the shape of a priest, he immediately went to those who had the greatest reputation in his neighbourhood. How well qualified they were to instruct such a mind as his, may be sufficiently understood from this:-the first advised him, in order to settle his spirit, " to chew tobaeco, and sing psalms." He went afterwards to a Dr. Cradock of Coventry, who began to condole very sympathetically with him, till George happened to set his foot on the edge of a flower-bed, as they walked in the garden, which put the priest into a passion, 66 as if his house was on fire,”and all was over. He went therefore to the right source at once,—the New Testament,-and studying it night and day with the deepest ear. nestness, often standing with it whole days ir his hand in a hollow tree,—at length he saw the whole Christian system in so clear and beauti. ful a light, that he was not only filled with hap piness for himself, but felt it his bounden dut to go forth and proclaim it to the world. T him the gospel appeared a free gift tha every one might literally come, and receive i without money and without price,-the Bible a book that every one might study for himself

and that, to every such sincere student, woul be vouchsafed free teaching of the Eternal Spi rit, and that he would be led to a perfec knowledge of the divine will; that the grea essence of Christianity was Love, and that a true Christians must, in reality, become a ban of brothers. Against mercenary preaching, th vanity and pride of life, against all oppressio and systematized wrong,-war, slavery, the plun der of wrecks,-he wrote to the authoritie: and preached to the people, with a fiery an impetuous eloquence. How far he was qualifie

for this great undertaking, we may learn from a very competent judge, William Penn, who had seen human life from the palace to the cottage, and whose own honourable and capacious mind made him a fitting evidence. Penn says, George Fox was above the ordinary size, of a graceful countenance, and having an eye so piercing that many who contended with him were unable to bear it; that he had great majesty of presence and that his addresses to the people possessed a strange and stirring power, so that whole multitudes-collected in market-places, in the open fields, under the shade of large trees, on wild heaths, sea-shores, or amongst the mountains of Wales, Scotland, and Westmoreland, and amid the forests of America, or the plantations of the West Indies were wonderfully moved, and melted, subdued, or exalted, by his grave and burning eloquence, and by the bold, simple dignity of the doctrines he taught. His system of a free gospel, and renouncement of the vanities| of the world, was sure to bring upon him all the vengeance of the proud and interested; yet, in spite of this, not only the common people, but clergy, magistrates, and officers of the army, came over to his opinions, and enrolled themselves in his new Society. No idea can be formed from the numbers or character of the Society of Friends of the present day, of the number and character of those who mustered to its formation from every quarter. Vast numbers, during the hot persecution which fell upon them, went with Penn to his settlement in America, especially from the neighbourhood of Kidsley Park, in Derbyshire, a favourite resort of Fox's. Fox himself appears to have been in prison not less than a dozen times, and frequently for a long period at once, as in Lancaster and Searborough gaols, where he lay for two years-prisons of the most filthy and dreadful description, and so open to the weather, that he is said scarcely to have been dry all that time.

It is not possible, in an article of this kind, to follow his career at length. It is enough to say, that a host of able and zealous coadjutors gathered about him, whose names, labours, and singular adventures, may be found in Sewell's history of this people. For the propagation of his sentiments, George Fox, as I have already hinted, visited all parts of the kingdom, some of them many times, and extended his travels into the West Indies, America, Germany, and Holland. He had interviews with Cromwell, in which that great and wily adventurer used all that cant slang, and dealt in those double entendres which he adopted towards the Puritans. "George," he would say, shaking him cordially by the hand at parting,-" come often, for I feel if thou and I were often together, we should be nearer to each other."

In the presence of Protector or King, he never for a moment lost that simple dignity which distinguished him,—a Christian dignity of mind, so opposite to pride, that, while it made him feel no abjectness in the presence of human greatness, never inspired him towards the low

and the poor with anything but the most thorough courteousness, kindness, and compassion. For these he always expressed the greatest sympathy, and so organized his own Society, as to restore them to the rights and consideration of men. In the meeting-houses there was to be no place of distinction, except a railed gallery or platform in front for the ministers, and a seat under it for the elders and overseers, that they might face the people, and preserve order. Besides this, there were to be no separate seats, -no squire's pew with its superior splendour,— no aristocratic elevations or seclusions in the house of God. All the seats were of the plainest description, and free to every one alike. The poor were to have a good English education given to their children ;-and they themselves were not expected to wait till their necessities compelled them to come and receive a niggard allowance,— their needs were to be kindly, privately, and delicately inquired into by proper persons, and as unostentatiously relieved. So it was, and so it is to this day.

Penn says,- -and his life shows it,-that Fox possessed, on all occasions, the most undaunted courage. Though of an ardent temperament, yet he possessed such self-command as rarely, if ever, to be thrown off his guard, by insult and outrage, and he manifested the most forgiving disposition. He was simple, dignified, and manly in behaviour; grave, yet affable and pleasant in conversation; and so ready in reply, as to continually baffle his most subtle antagonists. One instance may be given:-He was imprisoned in Launceston Jail, and brought up for trial before Judge Glyn. He was ordered to take off his hat. Fox inquired what authority there was in law or scripture for this compulsion; at which the Judge fell into a passion, and cried, "Take him away jailer; I'll ferk him!" Soon after he sent for him again; and on seeing him, exclaimed, "Come! where had they hats from Moses to Daniel? Come, answer me, I have you fast now!" Fox immediately replied," The three children were ordered to be thrown into the furnace with their coats, hose, and hats on." The judge instantly shouted,— "Take him away, jailer!"

He married the widow of a Welsh Judge, (Fell,) at Swarthmore, in Westmoreland; and, on this occasion, set the example of that justice to all parties which he had made the law to his own Society. He called the children of the widow together, and ascertained from themselves, that they were not only satisfied with the marriage, but that it would be no detriment to their inheritance. He died at the age of sixty-seven, having seen a large community established on his principles, and that, too, through a career of the most violent persecution,-through the imprisonment of thousands at a time, and the destruction and seizure of their property, to the amount of more than a million sterling in value.

Of his disciples, the most illustrious were Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, and Barclay, the author of the famous "Apology" for Quakerism,

a gentleman of the house of Gordon, and whose patrimonial estate of Ury in Scotland, is now in the hands of his descendant, the well-known Captain Barclay. These are all I have now room to mention, except Thomas Ellwood, the friend of Milton, whose autobiography may be said to be one of the most picturesque of books, full of the character and scenes of those singular times. Let us take one scene from Newgate, in 1662:-"When we came there, we found that side of the prison very full of Friends, as indeed were, at that time, all the other parts of that prison and most of the prisons about town; and our addition caused a great throng on that side; notwithstanding which, we were kindly welcomed by our Friends whom we found there, and entertained by them as well as their condition would admit. We had the liberty of the hall, which is on the first story over the gate, and which, in the day time, is common to all prisoners on that side, felons as well as others, to walk in, and beg out of; and we had also the liberty of some other rooms in the daytime; but in the night, we all lodged in one room, which was large and round, having in the middle of it a great pillar of oaken timber, which bore up the chapel. To this pillar we fastened our hammocks at one end, quite round the room, and in three degrees, or three stories high, one over the other; so that they who lay in the upper and middle rows of hammocks, were obliged to go to bed first, because they were to climb up to the higher by getting into the lower. The sick and weakly persons lay in beds on the floor; and, though the room was large, and pretty airy, yet the breath and steam that came from so many bodies of different ages, conditions, and constitutions, packed up so close together, was enough to cause sickness amongst us, as I believe it did. Many were sick, and one soon died.

"This caused some bustle in the house. The body was put into a coffin, and carried down into the lodge, in order that the Coroner might inquire into the manner of his death; and the manner of their doing this is thus:-As soon as the Coroner is come, the turnkeys run out into the street under the gate, and seize upon every man that passes by, till they have got enough to make up the Coroner's Inquest; and so resolute these rude fellows are, that, if any man resist or dispute it with them, they drag him in by main force, not regarding what condition he is of; nay, I have been told, they will not stick to stop a coach, and pluck the men out of it.

were shut in together, the rest of them said to this ancient man,- Come, father, you are the oldest man among us; you shall be our foreman.' And when the Coroner had sworn them on the jury, the coffin was uncovered, that they might look upon the body. But the old man, disturbed in his mind at the interruption they had given him, was grown somewhat fretful upon it, and said to them,- To what purpose do you show us a dead body here? You would not have us think, sure, that this man died in this room. How then shall we be able to judge how this man came by his death, unless we see the place wherein he died, and wherein he hath been kept prisoner before he died? How know we but the incommodiousness of the place wherein he was kept may have occasioned his death? Therefore show us the place wherein this man died.'

"This much displeased the keepers, and they began to banter the man, thinking to have beaten him off it; but he stood tightly to them. 'Come, come,' said he, though you have made a fool of me in bringing me in hither, ye shall not find a child of me now I am here. Mistake not yourselves. I understand my place, and your duty; and I require you to conduct me and my brethren to the place where this man died. Refuse it at your peril!'

"They now wished they had let the old man go about his business, rather than by troubling him, have brought this trouble on themselves. But when they saw he was peremptory, the Coroner told them they must show him the place.

"It was evening when they began this work, and by this time it was grown bed-time with us, so that we had taken down our hammocks, which, in the day, were hung up by the walls, and had made them ready to go into; and were undressing ourselves in readiness to go into them, when, on a sudden we heard a great noise of tongues, and of tramplings of feet coming up towards us; and, by and by, one of the turnkeys opening our door, said,— Hold, hold, don't undress yourselves: here's the Coroner's Inquest coming to see you.'

how

"It so happened that at this time, they lighted on an ancient man, a grave citizen, who was trudging through the gate in great haste; and him they laid hold on, telling him he must come in, and serve upon the Coroner's Inquest. He pleaded hard, begged and besought them to let him go, assuring them he was going on very urgent business, and that the stopping him would be greatly to his prejudice. But they were deaf to all entreaties, and hurried him in, the poor man chafing without remedy.

fork first, though he paid nothing,-and the general condition and contents of Newgate at that period, furnish a grand picture for the student of man under all aspects. But I must here close this sketch.

Such were Fox and his first disciples,—such was their early career. And what were the doctrines they proposed to the world? They were principally these.

1st, The influence of the Divine Spirit on the spirits of his creatures.

2d, The Spirituality of Christianity; consequently the non-essentiality of ceremonies.

3d, The civil and religious freedom of all men; consequently an abhorrence of tyranny, political or ecclesiastical, in the shape of the despot or the priest.

4th, The Anti-Christianity of War. 5th, The free gift of the Gospel ; consequently a dislike of hirelings.

6th, The Anti-Christianity of Oaths.

7th, The contempt of fawning and flatteries, and foolish titles given to men, as inconsistent with our self-respect, our respect for truth, and as repugnant to the meek and brotherly spirit of Christianity, and degrading to our immortal and intellectual nature.

8th, The equality of the sexes,-no sex in souls, all one in Christ Jesus;-consequently elevating the female world to the highest pitch of honour, usefulness, and felicity.

9th, Simplicity and purity in language, in manners, and in dress.

I do not mean to say that these comprised all their doctrines. They held others with the Christian world in general; but these they held in contra-distinction to most of their own times. The influence of the Divine Spirit, now in some shape or other received by all denominations, was then held by some as little short of madness, and ridiculed without measure by others. The spirituality of Christianity was then as little comprehended. All reformers before them, and the Puritans, their cotemporaries, were so little illuminated on the subject, that, though they were determined not to conform to the ceremonial set up, they were all busy in framing ceremonies for themselves. Fox at once pronounced ceremonies and externals to be the beggarly elements of Christianity,-its essence, a renewed vitality of mind. So far, indeed, did he outgo the ordinary grasp of public opinion, that at this day the Christian world has much to learn before it can comprehend the full nature of that system which shall go on till "they shall no more teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know him, from the least of them to the greatest."

The great doctrine of civil and religious freedom, a doctrine of the most superlative im.. portance, a doctrine on which depends not merely the present happiness, but the spiritual destinies of men, inasmuch as tyranny and ignorance go hand in hand, and ignorance and crime: this great doctrine his cotemporaries

had glimpses of; but it can only be said of Fox, that he fully comprehended it. The Puritans and Covenanters fought for their liberties and their altars:—they resisted the aggressions of ecclesiastical establishments; but they did not deny their right to exist:-the Republicans fought for their own freedom with one hand, and held with the other their fellow men in bondage: ---but Fox claimed freedom for all,—one right for all,-one law for all,-for man in every situation, character, and aspect-for white and for black. It did not square with his notions of Christianity that we should be free ourselves, and hold others in slavery; that we should settle in the lands of the pagans, and drive them out of their ancestral possessions, as the nominal Christians of those and these times did and do in America, in the Indies, and at the Cape of Good Hope. The non-conformists resisted the compulsory demands of uniformity of creed and ceremony of the Establishment; but Fox resisted and denounced establishments themselves. However all other reformers, biassed by the force of education, might overlook the absolutely free nature of Christianity,—given to be the charter of liberty, the birthright of Hope in Earth and in Heaven, to all men-given to be the solace of all partaking the form, the affections, and the sufferings of men throughout the world-given "to break the bonds of the captive and to let the oppressed go free,"-to be enjoyed without permission from Pope or Patriarch, conclave or convocation, fully and fearlessly, wherever two or three are met in Christ's name,-its freedom, and freedom-giving spirit did not escape the single-eye of Fox. In the declaration, that "God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth"-in the avowal of Christ, that "the heathen lorded it over one another, but it should not be so with his disciples"—their bond and their distinction should be Love,-he saw the law of brotherhood and not of subjection. The same recognised independence of the Christian code which leads to the abjuration of political and ecclesiastical despotism led him to resist, despise, and expose those assumptions of absurd titles, those demands of servile obeisance and empty flatteries by mere wealth and factitious rank, which degrade both givers and receivers, and fill the world with so much misery from the reckless and vindictive rancour of over-fed pride. Civility to all, servility to none, was his rule and principle of action, and brought upon him and his friends unbounded insult and outrage; but they and the whole community have reaped and will reap the benefit of it. In that day there was a different style of address to the rich and the poor-a practice still common on the continent-you to a gentleman, thou to a man; and so odious and opposed to the whole spirit of the gospel did it appear to Fox, that he adopted the singular number in speaking to every individual; and his followers have retained the practice to the present day, though the cause has ceased. The language has firmly settled into the other form, and the