It was the operation of this code of morals, and of its ecclesiastical checks and curbs, that made the Quaker Hill man and the Quaker Hill sentiment what they are. And having done its work this code at the last tended to weaken the Meeting, as it had strengthened the public conscience. In talking recently with a sweet old lady past eighty, I asked her, "Did you ever hear anyone disowned in meeting?" "No," she never had, and "doubted if there had been many." Later, her daughter said, "Why, Grandmother, you married out of meeting yourself!" Whereupon I asked again, "Well, what did they do with you then?" "Oh," she replied, not at all embarrassed, "they turned me out!" "But what was the outcome of it all?" asks James Wood, in the closing sentences of his monograph, "The Purchase Meeting." He continues: "As a church the Quakers here missed their great opportunity. As settlers came among them in increasing numbers, the Friends became solicitous to preserve the strictest moral observance among their members. They withdrew from contact and association with the world about them and confined their religious influence and effort to themselves. The strictest watch was maintained over the deportment of old and young. Members were dismissed for comparatively slight offences. Immigration further reduced their numbers. Hypercriticism produced disagreements among themselves. Finally, doctrinal differences arose which resulted in a disastrous separation into two bodies in 1828." [11] Francis B. Gummere of Haverford college says of George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends: "The central point of his doctrine is the direct responsibility of each soul to God, without mediation of priest or form, because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart of every human being." Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia, 1894. The following is authoritative for the Society: "We believe in no principle of life, light or holiness, but the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, bestowed on mankind, in various measures and degrees, through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the capacity to receive this blessed influence, which, in an especial manner, gives man pre-eminence above the beasts that perish; which distinguishes him, in every nation and in every clime, as an object of the redeeming love of God; as a being not only intelligent but responsible;..."--"A Declaration of Some of the Fundamental Doctrines of Christian Truth, as held by the Religious Society of Friends." [12] Mr. James Wood, in an address at Quaker Hill Conference, 1907. [13] "David Irish, A Memoir," by Mrs. Phoebe T. Wanzer. [14] "Richard Osborn, a Reminiscence," by Margaret B. Monahan. [15] "David Irish, A Memoir," by Mrs. Phoebe T. Wanzer.