FRIENDS' REVIEW. VOL II. A RELIGIOUS, LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS JOURNAL. PHILADELPHIA, SECOND MONTH 10, 1849. On page 61 of the Memoirs of T. Scattergood, as published in "FRIENDS' LIBRARY," may be seen a weighty epistle addressed to him by R. J., bearing date Fifth month 10th, 1794, with the endorsement-"To be opened when at sea, and recurred to in Great Britain and Ireland." R. Jones was so reduced in this fever, that not only was her life despaired of, but her decease was currently reported. There are those who remember her name being officially announced one morning-supposed Tenth month 25th-among the deaths of the preceding night; nor is it strange that such should be the case, as all hope was relinquished the previous evening, and the nurse was about to remove the pillow, and lower her head, that her close might be more speedy and more easy, when Dr. Cathrall, her attending physician, exclaimed, "No! No! I cant let her die!" He assumed the post and duties of a nurse, and remained with her all night, dropping into her mouth alternately, water and diluted wine; and when, in the morning, Dr. Physick-who, besides being in consultation with Dr. Cathrall, was greatly attached to R. J. as his mother's friend-called in, he was amazed to find her not only living, but a little revived. And now it pleased her Divine Master, having made all her bed in sickness, and filled her soul with peace and rejoicing in the very valley of the shadow of death, to prolong her life for his service. And as in her extremity she magnified the Lord, so in her renovated health she recognised, in dutiful allegiance, his perfect right to do with her as it pleased him, and praising him upon the banks of deliverance, she reverently dedicated unto him, as a whole burnt offering, the residue of her days. No. 21. In a brief account of this epidemic, after mentioning the death of 4000 of the inhabitants of Philadelphia, from the latter part of the Seventh month to the second week in the Eleventh month, R. J. remarks, "But the visitation and awful judgment of the Most High were singularly mixed with mercy, in so many instances, that no serious mind can forbear exclaiming, 'Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are all thy ways, thou King of Saints!" After recording the names of 118 of her "near friends and acquaintances who died with this fever, she adds, "For many days I had no other prospect but that I should also, by the same disease, be removed; but the Lord had mercy on me and healed me; blessed forever be his adorable Name, Mercy, Goodness and Truth." R. J. to C. Hustler. Philadelphia, 2d mo. 24th, 1794. My beloved companion C. Hustler, and her dear children, may, by this salutation of my true love, be informed that I am still on this uncertain stage, and a monument of divine compassion, goodness and power. I am weak, and my eyesight very dim, both rendered so by my long late sickness, called the yellow fever, from which I was spared, until the weather grew cooler than it had been during the two months before, for which I desire to be thankful. I was not taken down till the 11th of Tenth month last; and before I was able to go out again, the disease, which had raged with great violence, was marvellously checked, and the people who left the city through fear, had mostly returned. However, it pleased the good Hand which was stretched out over the city, and permitted upwards of four thousand of its inhabitants, of all ranks, ages, sexes, conditions and denominations, among whom were seven of our select members, and many others of my near friends, to be deposited thereby in the silent grave. Oh, what a humbling season this has been to many! And how I fear that the people, concluding that * Margaret Haines, Huson Longstreth, Daniel Offley, Samuel Lewis, Samuel Taylor, Charles Williams, &c. In addition to these, she notes the decease, in the fever of this year, of the following select members, whose residence, we believe, was not in Philadelphia: Thomas Lightfoot, Joseph Moore, Owen Jones. 66 "I am rather cautious of what I say respecting the sickness which prevailed last fall in your city, lest I should speak below the standard of those minds who have been witnesses of the affliction, and sharers in it; for in this case it may be eminently said, feeling has no fellow.' The soul has had an almost uncommunicable knowledge of its own bitterness; and, for the mercy of preservation and support, has found a joy with which the stranger cannot intermeddle. I see no solid ground of comfort at such a time, but the blessing thou mentionest of a resigned and quiet mind; which, although it cannot be com and indeed, from the very circumstance of being received as a gift, becomes more precious and consoling than if it could be." the bitterness of death is past, will, by returning to those things which have drawn down the Lord's displeasure upon us, furnish occasion for another and perhaps yet more heavy judgment, for, verily there is a God who judgeth in the earth." To return: let it suffice, my dear friend, to say, that I was confined three weeks to my bed, and to the house near eight weeks; during which time, and when at the worst," my soul did magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiced in God my Saviour," in that he condescended to my low estate, and, by the incomes of his love, sustained me; granted to me more than I dared to petition for, and was to me ALL THINGS.manded, is, nevertheless, sometimes afforded; Blessed, now and forever, be his adorable name! I refer thee to my beloved brother Thomas Scattergood, who is bound in gospel love to visit your land-and probably John Pemberton may be again with you-for any particular information thou mayest wish to have, concerning me, as he (i. e. Thomas Scattergood) fearless of danger from infection, was my frequent daily visitor, and was made near to my best life; as also respecting the deplorable state of this once joyous city during the late visitation, for I have no language whereby I can convey an adequate idea thereof. And now, having been raised from the brink of the grave, I am desirous to stand ready to answer all the requirings of my great Lord and Master, who hath a right to do as he pleases, by, with, through and upon me, and to whom I desire to be enabled to offer the daily tribute of thanksgiving and praise, which is his due alone, now and forevermore. Thy letters per D. Darby, with others from thy daughter Sarah and other friends, arrived whilst I was confined to my bed, and my doctor, and those about me, detained them many days, thinking me unfit to peruse them; but when I grew better, they all proved cordially acceptable to my poor mind. Present my dear fellow labourers, now in your land, with my sincere love, and bid them quit themselves like good soldiers: be strong, and stand fast in the faith. He who hath appointed to them this service, will not fail them nor forsake them. Dear Job Scott is, I hear, happily gathered from further labour and pain. My love to thee, my dear friend, and to all thy children, remains unabated. I should have great joy in hearing that they were all so listed under the heavenly banner, as that, by their conduct, they may evince this to be their resolution-Let others do as they may, as for us, we will serve the Lord. Pray for, and pity thy poor, weak and affec-through, my heart is solaced with the evidence tionate friend, of peace, and centered in reverent acknowledgment to the great and good Shepherd, who not only put forth, but went before, and sustained * * * R. JONES. Her princely host and beloved friend, Joseph Gurney Bevan, writing to her from London, Fourth month 30th, 1794, thus tenderly and appropriately refers to the visitation of the previous summer and autumn: An impression of duty to visit, in the love of the everlasting gospel, the families composing the Northern District Monthly Meeting, pressing weightily upon her mind, it is thus referred to in a letter to T. Scattergood, Fifth month 10th, 1794-" When thou arrivest on the British shores, remember me, and pray for me when thou canst, for though I have been, through the Lord's ever adorable mercy, favoured to see for, and feel with thee, yet now, under the prospect of a family visit, I am ready to sink, and very much doubt my ability to get through to the honour of my great and good Master, being a much poorer creature every way than thou hast any idea of." This concern was weightily spread before and united with, by her friends, in a monthly meeting capacity, in the Third month, and a minute of Fifth month 27th, referring to the service as having been entered upon, and to the "propriety in enlarging the number of those who should be encouraged to afford her their aid and company," thus concludes "It is therefore agreed, to mention to women Friends, for this service, the name of Jane Snowden, and that such of the overseers-both men and women-as may find themselves at liberty therefor, should be encouraged to attend thereto. Such an addition appearing to be agreeable to Rebecca's prospect.' In a letter to a friend, she thus refers to this engagement-"I have been favoured, beyond all expectation, to visit the families of our Monthly Meeting-about 250 in number. It was almost my summer's work, as my bodily and mental powers were so reduced the autumn and winter previous, that I went on very gradually; my friends being disposed, in great sympathy and patience, to take my pace. Now it is got This Friend was acknowledged as a minister by Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting, in the ensuing Eighth month, during the course of this family visit. through those unavoidable baptisms which attend-, ed from day to day. To him be the praise of his own works-I am an unprofitable servant." To another friend she says, respecting this visit, "I was mercifully helped through it, and though I began in a very enfeebled state of body, and little and low in mind, and was obliged to stop in very wet and hot weather, yet our elders, &c., who gave up to accompany me, held out in the patience, and, through the Lord's adorable goodness, I was enabled to get through, to the peace of my own mind, with the sentence of an UNPROFITABLE SERVANT." iTo be continued.] For Friends' Review. ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. (Continued from page 309.) It is a natural error when we contemplate our ancestors-in reference either to their dress, their houses, their equipages or their mannersto suppose that we may picture them to ourselves as we see our neighbours every day moving before us. We forget the changes that one, two, or three hundred years produce. We do not realize, without an effort, the changes and modifications which Society has undergone, even within the short period of our own lives. Yet, who that is now here, and has lived sixty years, does not recognize in the subjects above referred to, slow and gradual variations, which if minutely detailed, would show the generation that was in its vigor when we were boys, to have been curiously different from that which now gives its impress to the middle of the nineteenth, and is to be transmitted by the Historian, to those who shall come after us. It is not the writer's intention to particularize; he is not quite old enough he cannot go far enough back, beyond the present century, to do the matter full justice: yet, young as he is, he could give some details within his own recollections, that would produce a smile of incredulity among his juniors, and bring up old reminiscences quite agreeably, no doubt, to our octogenarians. common traveller to perform readily with two horses, what Elizabeth or Charles did laboriously with six. "In 1685," says Macaulay," the tin of Cornwall, which had more than two thousand years before attracted the Tyrian sails beyond the Pillars of Hercules, was still one of the most valuable subterranean productions of the island. The quantity annually extracted from the earth, was found to be, some years later, sixteen hundred tons-probably about a third of what it now is. But the veins of copper which lie in the same region were, in the time of Charles the Second, altogether neglected, nor did any landowner take them into the account in estimating the value of his property. Cornwall and Wales at present yield annually near fifteen thousand tons of copper, worth near a million and a half sterling; that is to say, about twice as much as the annual produce of all English mines of all descriptions in the seventeenth century. The first bed of rock salt had been discovered not long after the restoration, in Cheshire, but does not appear to have been worked in that age. The salt which was obtained by a rude process from brine pits, was held in no high estimation. At present our springs and mines not only supply our own immense demand, but send annually seven hundred millions of pounds of excellent salt to foreign countries." Great as the preceding paragraph indicates the increase in the production of tin, copper and salt, to have been, far more important is that in relation to iron and coal. These constitute the foundation of England's greatness. They enable her to sustain her credit unshaken, under the pressure of a debt of eight hundred millions sterling-they spread her sails in every sea, and render the world tributary to her mechanical skill. Nay, more; the purposes to which she applies them-the bone, and the muscle and the mind, which their use forces into perpetual activity, have placed her-limited, and a mere speck as her island is on the world's map-in a position, and confers upon her a moral influence, which, if we except our own, has never been attained by any other Government or people. On a certain occasion, when a son of the Emerald Isle was boasting to Dr. Johnson, that the time had been when a pullet in Ireland might be bought for a penny, the Dr. retorted with a Iron works had long existed in Great Britain, severity of sarcasm that has not often been ex-but as coal was not used for smelting the ore, ceeded, that it was not because pullets were so loud complaints were made as early as the time plentiful, but because pennies were so scarce. So of Elizabeth, that "whole forests were cut down when we read of coaches and six, being not un- for the purpose of feeding the furnaces." Parcommon in England among the gentry two hun-liament interfered, and the manufacture, being dred years ago, we would be quite in error, were regarded unfavorably by the Government and we to infer, that they were evidences of the wealth, and luxury of the people. There were two main reasons for their use-the wretched state of the roads, and the miserable creatures that were harnessed to make up the team. Now, the almost perfect character of the English coach horse-the road, like a pavement-and the light structure of the carriage, enable the the people, necessarily languished. "At the close of the reign of Charles the Second, great part of the iron which was used in the country, was imported from abroad; and the whole quantity cast here annually, seems not to have exceeded ten thousand tons. At present the trade is thought to be in a depressed state if less than eight hundred thousand tons are produced in a year." Macaulay states that "coal, though very little used in any species of manufacture, was already the ordinary fuel in some districts which were fortunate enough to possess large beds, and in the capital, which could easily be supplied by water carriage. It seems reasonable to believe that at least one half of the quantity then extracted from the pits was consumed in London.* The consumption of London seemed to the writers of that age enormous, and was often mentioned by them as a proof of the greatness of the imperial city. They scarcely hoped to be believed when they affirmed that two hundred and eighty thousand chaldrons, that is to say, about three hundred and fifty thousand tons, were, in the last year of the reign of Charles the Second, brought to the Thames. At present near three millions and a half of tons are required yearly by the metropolis; and the whole annual produce cannot, on the most moderate computation, be estimated at less than twenty millions of tons."t "The modern country gentleman generally receives a liberal education, passes from a distinguished school, to a distinguished college, and has every opportunity to become an excellent scholar. He has generally seen something of foreign countries, a considerable part of his life has generally been passed in the capital; and the refinements of the capital follow him into the country. * It may be confidently affirmed, that of the squires whose names were in King Charles' commissions of peace and lieutenancy, not one in twenty went to town once in five years, or had ever in his life wandered so far as Paris. Many lords of manors had received an education differing little from that of their menial servants. The heir of an estate often passed his boyhood and youth at the seat of his family, with no better tutors than grooms and gamekeepers, and scarce attained learning enough to sign his name to a mittimus. If he went to school and to college, he generally returned before he was twenty to the seclusion of the old hall, and there, unless his mind was very happily constituted by nature, soon forgot his academical pursuits in rural business and pleasure. His chief serious employment was the care of his property. He examined samples of grain, handled pigs, and on market days made bargains over a tankard with drovers and hop merchants. His chief pleasures were commonly derived from field sports and from an unrefined sensuality. His language and pronunciation were such as we should now expect to hear only from the most ignorant clowns. It was easy to discern, from the first words which he It is believed that coal was introduced into London as fuel, at least as early as the middle of the 14th century. The whole amount yielded by our Pennsylvania mines in the Lehigh and Schuylkill regions, would be insufficient to supply the present demand of London. spoke, whether he came from Somersetshire or Yorkshire. The litter of a farm yard gathered under the windows of his bed chamber, and the cabbages and gooseberry bushes grew close to his hall door. His table was loaded with plenty, and guests were cordially welcomed to it; but, as the habit of drinking to excess was general in the class to which he belonged, and as his fortune did not enable him to intoxicate large assemblies daily with claret or canary, strong beer was the ordinary beverage. The quantity of beer consumed in those days was indeed enormous; for beer then was to the middle and lower classes not only all that beer now is, but all that wine, tea and ardent spirits now are." Previous to the Reformation, learning was very much confined to the Clergy. Ecclesiastics filled the high offices of State; and the circumstance that "a man could read, raised a presumption that he was in orders." But with the Reformation came a change. "The abolition of the monasteries deprived the Church" of a great part of her wealth-her learning declined, and with her wealth and her learning, declined also her influence. "The sacerdotal office lost its attraction" for gentlemen; the "Clergy were regarded as, on the whole, a plebeian class," and the domestic chaplain held a position that was by no means enviable. "If he was permitted to dine with the family, he was expected to content himself with the plainest fare. He might fill himself with the corned beef and carrots; but as soon as the tarts and cheesecakes made their appearance, he quitted his seat and stood aloof till he was summoned to return thanks for the repast, from a great part of which he had been excluded." These statements which imply any thing but respectability, evidently can only have reference to the country Clergy and among them there were doubtless numerous exceptions. They cannot apply to the city, for at this very period, Sherlock was preaching in London at the Temple,Tillotson at Lincoln's Inn, and Stillingfleet at St. Pauls.* T. M. (To be continued.) As a matter probably not uninteresting to our readers, it may be stated that a late number of the London Athenæum mentions as a rumour, current in the metropolis, that Macaulay had sold the two volumes already written, for ten years, to his publishers, the Longmans, for an annuity of £600, for that period. Should he complete the work in six volumes as contemplated, and dispose of the remaining four at the same price, $90,000 would seem to indicate that his authorship was in fair demand. If we remember rightly, Milton sold the copy of Paradise Lost, for £15, and this dependant on the sale of three editions. But he wrote for posterity. Hume, it is said, received but little for his great work, while Smollet made a couple of thousand pounds in a short time. The edition of 3000 copies of Macaulay, published by the Harpers, in New York, was soon exhausted. A second edition, however, is now in the market. For Friends' Review. It is no uncommon thing to hear people speak of thinking in French, German or English; and those who speak in this manner, appear to imagine that they are expressing themselves in a perfectly definite and rational way. Hannah Moore, in some of her writings, I think, observes that those who cannot think in a given language, cannot be said to understand it. Sismondi says, "In a task which has continued at least eight hours a day, during twenty years, I was obliged constantly to read and think in Italian or Latin, and occasionally in German, Spanish, Greek, English, Portuguese, and Provençal."* That he was obliged to read in the various languages mentioned, is easily understood. But that he was compelled to think in those languages, will probably be found, if closely scrutinized, to mean nothing more than that he was under the necessity of keeping his powers of recollection so far concentrated upon the phraseology of the various languages in question, as to make himself master of the information which the writers had furnished. It is indeed difficult to conceive, that an historical fact or philosophical principle, stored in the mind, merely as a fact or a principle, would have any more intimate association with the particular language through which it was received, if the words were forgotten, than with any other language which was equally familiar. Be form; or whatever traces of intellect they might But to return from this digression: The conclusion to which the narrative of the sacred historian naturally leads; and to which the author of the Essay on the human understanding arrived, without appearing to suspect that Moses had cast any light on the subject, is that the original words of the primitive language were all nouns. Names would be assigned to visible and tangible objects; and actions would be indicated by the names of the agents, or instruments by which the actions are effected. Of this manner of forming verbs, our own language, far as it is removed from the primitive type, furnishes numerous examples. The merchant ships his goods to a foreign port. The cavalier bridles, saddles, curbs, reins, whips, or spurs his horse. Now, in the original formation of language, when Adam, or any of his posterity, first assignIf we advert to the nature and origin of lan-ed a name to a new object, the perception of the guage, and to the character of the associations by which it is employed, we shall probably find reason to apprehend that the common opinion respecting the identity of language and thought, or in other words, the opinion that the Englishman thinks in English, the Frenchman in French, the Hollander in Dutch, &c., is not altogether correct. object must have been anterior to the application of a name. When an object and its name have become familiar, they are so associated with each in the mind, that the sight or recollection of the one naturally suggests the other. But that the conception of an object, and the recollection of the name are not identical, must be obvious from the consideration, that persons born deaf, No inconsiderable share of learning and inge- and who remain, as all such were until recently nuity has been devoted to the investigation of permitted to do, ignorant of words, have the same the origin of language; but I conceive that the perception of tangible and visible objects with oldest history in the world supplies us with the those who can hear. Before the modern immost philosophic account of the subject. "And provements in the education of the deaf were out of the ground the Lord God formed every made, the communications with such individuals beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and were conducted by signs; and of course the deaf brought them unto Adam, to see what he would mute knew no more of the spoken or written call them; and whatsoever Adam called every language of his native country than of that used living creature, that was the name thereof." Gen. in China or Japan. It is true that formerly the 2: 19. It is true the sacred historian has not in-deaf were compelled to remain ignorant of many formed us, though, from the nature of the case, things which can scarcely be taught in any way we readily infer that such was the fact, that the without the instrumentality of words; yet where same process was extended to other things be- long and intimate acquaintance was maintained, sides living creatures. We may even perceive a a channel of communication was often laid open, satisfactory reason why Moses confined his nar- which clearly proved the exercise of a very conration to living creatures. He was about to siderable range of thought. It was, I think, establish historically the important distinction during the revolutionary war, that a serious between man and the other races. However young man, a Friend, who was deaf and dumb, some of them might approximate to the human was applied to, by means of his mother, to make a quantity of buttons, which was in the line of his business, for the use of the army. *See page 309 of this volume. a After a |