Quaker Ideal

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. T is evident that no Ideal of a Community can be anything more than an individual conception. These sketches -make no other pretension. Yet the writer may fairly claim to have had large opportunity for the study of his subject, having been for nearly half a century a close observer of all that relates to the Society, a diligent reader of its literature, and during the greater part of that time a deeply interested partici petor in its affairs. I was born in the reign of Quietism, the period which is often referred to as that of lifeless formality. I have no desire, however, to forget the deep, calm, soul nursing influence of that time; of this, more hereafter.