A
Quaker-beggar would be a phenomenon in the world.
It does not, however, follow from this account, that there are no poor
Quakers, or that members of this society are not born in a dependent
state. The truth is, that there are poor as well as rich, but the wants
of the former are so well provided for, that they are not publicly seen,
like the wants of others.
George Fox, as he was the founder of the religion of the Quakers, I mean
of a system of renovated Christianity, so he was the author of the
beautiful system by which they make a provision for their poor. As a
Christian, he considered the poor of every description, as members of
the same family, but particularly those, who were of the household of
faith. Consistently with this opinion, he advised the establishment of
general meetings in his own time, a special part of whose business it
was to take due care of the poor. These meetings excited at first the
vigilance and anger of the magistrates; but when they came to see the
regulations made by the Quakers, in order that none of their poor might
become burthensome to their parishes, they went away--whatever they
might think of some of their new tenets of religion--in admiration of
their benevolence.
The Quakers of the present day consider their poor in the same light as
their venerable elder, namely, as members of the same family, whose
wants it is their duty to relieve; and they provide for them nearly in
the same manner.
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