This modulation is
artificial, for it is usually taught. The Quakers, on, the other hand,
neither prepare their discourses, nor vary their voices purposely,
according to the rules of art. The tone which comes out, and which
appears disagreeable to those who are not used to it, is nevertheless
not unnatural. It is rather the mode of speaking which nature imposes,
in any violent exertion of the voice, to save the lungs. Hence persons
who have their wares to cry, and this almost every other minute, in the
streets, are obliged to adopt a tone. Hence persons with disordered
lungs, can sing words with more ease to themselves than they can utter
them, with a similar pitch of the voice. Hence Quaker women, when they
preach, have generally more of this tone than the Quaker men, for the
lungs of the female are generally weaker than those of the other sex.
Against the sermons of the Quakers two objections are usually made; the
first of which is, that they contain but little variety of subject.
Among dissenters, it is said, but more particularly in the
establishment, that you may hear fifty sermons following each other,
where the subject of each is different. Hence a man, ignorant of
letters, may collect all his moral and religious duties from the pulpit
in the course of the year. But this variety, it is contended, is not to
be found in the Quaker church.
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