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GEORGE FOX AND HIS COADJUTORS.

ferent teachers of religion inviting their attention, and saying, "Lo here is Christ!" or "Lo he is there!" it is not surprising that the honest and sincere inquirers after the right way of the Lord, should be greatly perplexed. The effect of these commotions was to wean men from a dependence on each other, in the work of religion, to prepare their minds for the reception of the important truth, that however useful instrumental means of divine appointment may be, it is the glory of the Gospel dispensation, that the Lord, by his Holy Spirit, is himself the teacher of his people. Previous to the commencement of George Fox's ministry, many had withdrawn from all the acknowledged forms of public worship and were engaged in diligently searching the Holy Scriptures, with prayer for right direction in the path of duty, and frequently meeting in select companies, for the wor ship of Almighty God and their mutual edification. Among these the preaching of George Fox found a ready entrance, and many of them joined in religious profession with him.

The period of which we have been speaking, may justly be denominated the age of polemic strife. The war itself had been commenced ostensibly for the redress of religious grievances. In the camp and the field, as well as by the fireside, religion was the absorbing theme. The Baptists and Independents encouraged persons to preach, who had not studied for the ministry, nor been formally ordained; and numbers of this description engaged in the vocation, with unwearied assiduity, often holding meetings in the fields, or preaching in the market places. The parliament army abounded with them, and preaching, praying, and disputing on points of doctrine, were daily to be heard among both officers and soldiers. Public disputations were also common, and were often conducted with a warmth of temper, and harshness of language, which seem hardly consistent with the meek and gentle spirit of the gospel. Modern ideas of courtesy and propriety, can scarcely tolerate the latitude of expression which the antagonists sometimes indulged towards each

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other, not only on these occasions, but in their controversial essays. Amid so much strife and contention, and the intemperate feelings naturally arising out of them, it is not surprising, that even good men should have formed erroneous opinions of the character and sentiments of each other. They judged rather by the impulses of prejudice and sectarian feeling, than by the law of truth and Christian kindness. In the heat of discussion, the mind is not in a condition to form a sound and correct judgment. The weakness and mistakes of an opponent, are seen through a medium which greatly magnifies them; while his virtues are either depreciated or distorted into errors. The controversial writings of the times, furnish evidence of the existence of these uncharitable feelings, among nearly all denominations of professors; and he who reads them with the enlightened and liberal views of religious toleration, which now happily obtain, will observe with regret, men of unquestionable piety, unchristianing each other for opinion's sake; and lament that such monuments of human frailty should bave been handed down to posterity.

Those who judge of the writings of the first Friends by modern standards of literary excellence and courtesy, are apt to censure them for their severity. Much, however, may be said in extenuation of them. Friends were particularly obnoxious to the hatred of the clergy, in consequence of their unyielding opposition to a ministry of human appointment, to the system of tithes and a forced maintenance. Their views on these subjects, which they fearlessly published, struck directly at priesteraft. Deeply affected by the corruption which they saw among many who assumed the sacred office, they boldly declaimed against their cupidity, licentiousness, and persecution. This course drew upon them a host of enemies, who were not very nice in the choice of means to lessen their influence and prejudice their characters. Friends were assailed with calumny and misrepresentations; opinions and practices were charged upon them, of which they solemnly declared themselves innocent; yet they

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were again and again renewed with the boldest effrontery. The conduct of some of the visionary sects which arose about the same time, was unjustly imputed to them, and every advantage that could be taken, was eagerly embraced to prejudice their religious profession. Harrassed by this unchristian conduct, and at the same time smarting under a cruel persecution, they must have been more than human, if the weakness of nature had never betrayed them into an unguarded, or intemperate expression. A comparison, however, with other controversialists of the times, will show that they were not peculiar in this respect. It should be recollected too, that language, as well as the regulations of decorum towards opponents, have undergone a great change since that time. Expressions which sound harsh and offensive to modern ears, were then considered strictly within the limits of propriety, and appear to have given no offence to those who were the objects of them. This license of the tongue and pen, is found also in the parliamentary debates, and appears to have characterized those times of excitement and recrimination.

If the wood designed for the building were to chose, very likely no iron instrument would come upon it but in this case it would never be fit for the building. So we, if left to chose, might prefer to be without sorrow: but should we then, unhumbled and full of earthly prosperity, be fit for Heaven?

Che Philosopher's Scales.

JANE TAYLOR.

IN days of yore, as Gothic fable tells,
When learning dimly gleamed from grated cells,
When wild Astrology's distorted eye,
Shunned the fair field of true philosophy,

And wandering thro' the depths of mental night.
Sought dark predictions mid the worlds of light:
When curious Alchemy, with puzzled brow,
Attempted things which science laughs at now—
Losing the useful purpose she consults,
In vain chimeras and unknown results-
In those grey times there lived a reverend Sage,
Whose wisdom shed its light on that dark age:
A monk he was, immured in cloistered walls,
Where now the ivy'd ruin crumbling falls;
'T was a profound seclusion that he chose,
The noisy world disturbed not that repose-
The flow of murmuring waters day by day,
The whistling winds that forced their tardy way
Thro' reverend trees, of ages growth, that made
Around the pile, a deep monastic shade,
The chanted psalm or solitary prayer,

Such were the sounds that broke the silence there.
'Twas here, when his rites sacerdotal were o'er,
In the depths of his cell, with its stone covered floor,
Resigning to thought his chimerical brain,

He formed the contrivance we now shall explain;
But whether by magic's, or Alchemy's powers,
We know not-indeed 'tis no business of ours,-
Perhaps it was only by patience and care,

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At last that he brought his invention to bear.
In youth 't was projected, but years stole away,
And e'er 't was complete, he was wrinkled and grey;
But success is secure unless energy fails,
And at last he produced the Philosopher's Scales!

What were they, you ask-you shall presently see-
These scales were not made to weigh sugar and tea :-
Oh no-for such properties wondrous had they,
That qualities, feelings and thoughts they could weigh;
Together with articles small and immense,

From mountains or planets to atoms of sense-
Naught was there so bulky but there it could lay,
And naught so etherial but there it could stay,
And naught so reluctant, but in it must go-
All which some examples more clearly will show.

The first thing he weighed was the head of Voltaire,
Which retained all the wit that had ever been there;
As a weight he threw in a torn scrap of a leaf,
Containing the Prayer of the Penitent Thief—
When the skull rose aloft with so sudden a spell,
That it bounced, like a ball, on the roof of the cell.

One time he put in Alexander the Great,
With a garment that Dorcas had made, for a weight-
And though clad in armour from sandal to crown,
The Hero rose up and the Garment went down.

A long row of Almshouses, amply endowed
By a well esteemed Pharisee, busy and proud,
Next loaded one scale-in the other was prest

By those mites the poor widow dropped into the chest-
Up flew the endowment not weighing an ounce,

And down, down the farthing's worth came with a bounce!