A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 1: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of FriendsClarkson, Thomas
Religion
A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 1: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of Friends
Clarkson, Thomas
Society of Friends
One of the prints, to which I allude, contained a representation of the
conclusion of the famous treaty between William Penn and the Indians of
America. This transaction every body knows, afforded, in all its
circumstances, a proof to the world, of the singular honour and
uprightness of those ancestors of the Quakers who were concerned in it.
The Indians too entertained an opinion no less favourable of their
character, for they handed down the memory of the event under such
[37]impressive circumstances, that their descendants have a particular
love for the character, and a particular reliance on the word, of a
Quaker at the present day. The print alluded to was therefore probably
hung up as the pleasing record of a transaction, so highly honourable to
the principles of the society; where knowledge took no advantage of
ignorance, but where she associated herself with justice, that she might
preserve the balance equal. "This is the only treaty," says a celebrated
writer, "between the Indians and the Christians, that was never ratified
by an oath, and was never broken."
[Footnote 37: The Indians denominated Penn, brother Onas, which means
in their language a pen, and respect the Quakers as his descendants.]
The second was a print of a slave-ship, published a few years ago, when
the circumstances of the slave-trade became a subject of national
inquiry. In this the oppressed Africans are represented, as stowed in
different parts according to the number transported and to the scale of
the dimensions of the vessel. This subject could not be indifferent to
those, who had exerted themselves as a body for the annihilation of this
inhuman traffic. The print, however, was not hung up by the Quakers,
either as a monument of what they had done themselves, or as a stimulus
to farther exertion on the same subject, but, I believe, from the pure
motive of exciting benevolence; of exciting the attention of those, who
should come into their houses, to the case of the injured Africans, and
of procuring sympathy in their favour.
The third contained a plan of the building of Ackworth-school. This was
hung up as a descriptive view of a public seminary, instituted and kept
up by the subscription and care of the society at large.
But though all the prints, that have been mentioned, were hung up in
frames on the motives severally assigned to them, no others were to be
seen as their companions. It is in short not the practice[38] of the
society to decorate their houses in this manner.
[Footnote 38: There are still individual exceptions. Some Quakers have
come accidentally into possession of printings and engravings in frame,
which, being innocent in their subject and their lesson, they would have
thought it superstitious to discard.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account