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    upon a poem too long to quote . This was the result of the second venture : —

    " HUMAN LIFE . " Great God ! how strange a thing is human life ! Though borne by us , and felt , enjoy'd , and seen , Inexplicable ever hath it been , To calm self-study , or the curious knife . Minds rich with genius , and with knowledge rife , Have doubted even if being truly be ; And if the firm-set earth we seem to see—The scene of all our joy , grief , love , and strife-Be more than fancy—an idea . Strange , Oh ! very strange , indeed , the life of man ! Beyond the walls of time and space to range , And all the now invisible to scan , It were not much to die , if by the change We might appreciate the wondrous plan !" Here is the third : — tears . " Tears are the ink with which deep feeling writes Its most endearing bonds of tenderness . What tongue and lips fail fitly to express , Silence , with pen in eye-dew dipp'd , indites Upon the cheek . Grief draweth solace thence ; And Anguish , with the corrugated brow , Teels its sore pains to easeful weeping bow ; And hard remorse so melts to Penitence . But Hope , and Joy , and Gratitude , and Love , Emotions are , not less in unison With the effusions of the surcharged eyes . And hath not Nature shown like sympathies ? Over the waters came the Blessed Dove , And through celestial drops the Rainbow shone . ' * After these can even the most sympathetic reader sympathize with this utterance of sadness ?—" sonnet . " How many of my years have pass'd away , And yet how little has been done for fame ? Oh ! shall this burning wish to leave a name , That may reecho to a distant day , Know nor in life fulfilment nor decay , But still consume my bosom—now a flame Fuell'd with noble hopes , and now a tame , Dull gloss , that wastes , not lights , this frame of clay r Is it , then , fruitlessly that thus I yearn ? May Heaven have planted in the human soul This deathless thirst for an immortal urn , And yet made unattainable the goal ! From thought to thought , from view to view , I turn , And meanwhile pauselessly the seasons roll . "

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    QUAKERISM . Quakerism ; or , the Stort / of My Life . By a lady , Avho for forty years was a Member of the Society of Friends . S . B . Oldham , Dublin . We have been greatl y disappointed with this book . Written with spiteful animus , it has not the sharpened cleverness of malice ; recording early experiences , it does not rise above the smallest gossip ;

    pretending to lay bare the follies , weaknesses , and assumptions of Quakerism , it has no more claim to be accepted as a fair picture of that sect , than the village talk respecting the conduct of " the Squire" has to be accepted as a judgment on the M . l \ The authoress , with all her means of judging , haw wanted judgment ; her experience has been of details , not of wholes ; she has been arrested b y the incidental trifles which have obtruded

    themselves so prominently as to have obscured her perception of the actual thing . Not that we are disposed to take up cudgels in favour of Quakerism . Our entire ignorance insists upon entire silence . The merely outward characteristics are absurd enough ; but are not all ayinbolH absurd to those who feel not what they symbolize ? And although it is more than probable that drab coats and broad brims arc now mere "

    conventions , " having no real significance , are we guilty of no analogous formalism ? lie that is without a broad brim may laugh ! Indeed , on reading these querulous pages we were much struck with their equal applicability to one and all of our sects : the colour of the coat and the width of the brim may vary , but the underl ying spirit is the name . Oh ! with what ineffable pity—for scorn in too human Jind unwise n feeling—would some superior creature look down upon the fierce antagonism of our

    sects , ko arbitrary in their symbols , ho slavishly ' lowing to their self-created idols , so rnncorously lulling their brethren for a . slight < litfcrence in colour ! It was a keen perception of this microscopic bitterness which gave Voltaire the leather to many <» 1 his shafts ; and when Thackeray ' s friend pointed out to him two compartments of oysters in ai finhinoiig ( : r ' window , hearing the several luhcls " Hd . a dozen , 9 d . H dozen , " the great satirist profoundly obse rved , « U , they must , hate each other !"

    it in not Quakerism the authoress exposes : it ih tnvial-mindedncBH , us exhibited by Quakers , but

    not as confined to them . The book is superficial and worthless ; but it contains some amusing passages . Here is one : —

    HOW QUAKERS PAY TITHES . " Soon after becoming a housekeeper , I was called on by the tithe collector . Friends annually sum up the amount of all they have lost by this suffering , as they call it ; and I was then under the idea , that our noble testimony against an hireling ministry' was an essential part of all true Christianity , and that our refusal to pay the unholy tax was an acceptable martyrdom , in a small way . I had heard much preaching on the subject , and very much self-laudation on the faithfulness of the Society generally , indeed

    universally , to this our testimony , which so widely separated us from the hirelings of all other creeds . The two men who called on me for the purpose of collecting the disputed impost , were exceedingly gentle and polite . They 8 aw at a glance that I was an ignoramus , and kindly volunteered to inform me how other Quakers managed ; for I had told them , that my profession would not allow me to pay tithes ; and that if they insisted on forcibly taking away my property , though . I would not resist , still I would look on it as actual robbery

    " 'Did you ever pay tithes , ma am ? said one of the men . " Never , ' I replied . " ' Well , then , ' said , ' you are a stranger here , I see , and I ' ll just tell you how the Bristol Quakers manage ; for I am going about among them for twenty years past , and 1 am always glad to accommodate them and meet their scruples . The sum you must pay is one guinea ; so I will call here to-morrow , at eleven o ' clock in the morning , and you just leave on the sideboard there some articles of plate—your teapot will do very well , or spoons , or whatever you like —then I come and take it away . You don ' t give it , and so your conscience is clear . You will then return

    to your meeting-people , that your tea-pot , worth ten guineas , was distrained for tithe ; and as soon after as you like you can go to Mr . Jones , the silversmith , and tell him how you lost your tea-pot , and are obliged to buy a new one . He will condole with you ; and after showing you a variety of new ones to select from , he will hand you your own identical article , and say , he can sell you that cheap—say one guinea . You pay your guinea , and get your own safe back again , cleaner and brighter than ever ; and if you like , you can purchase some other little trifling article ; for Mr . Jones is a very accommodating man . '

    " I was really shocked at the cool proposal of so nefarious and unprincipled a transaction , and indignantly rejected it ; declaring , at the same time , my firm belief , that no Quaker would be guilty of so undignified and false an act . The man smiled , and said , 'Ay , that is the way they all go on at first ; but , ma ' am , it is a great deal the easiest and best plan in the end ; ' and then he gave me the names of very many , my own acquaintances , who regularly once a year , as he jocularly said , ' allowed Mr . Jones to dean their plate . There is old Mr . 11 ., ' said he , * has a fine mastive silver tea-pot . It is always laid out ready

    for me ; I always give notice before I go ; and now , twenty times I liave carried it off , and got it brightened for him . Ife values it at twenty pounds , and his tithe is only one pound ten . And there is young Mr . It . He likes me to get hia spoons done for him . He gives so many dinners , he likes to have them bright and new-looking . ' Seeing me still very incretluloup , he said , « Well , ma ' am , I wont call on you for a week , to give * you time to think about the matter . ' During that week I went to old Mr . lt . ' s , and told hia daughter that tithes had been demanded of me , but that I had not paid them , and was expecting another visit from the collector .

    " ' Oh ! yes , ' said she , ' this is just the time they go about . They seized a valuable silver tea-pot from us lost week . My father values it at twenty guineas , and the demand in money is only about thirty shillings ; but it ia a noble testimony we are called on to bear ; and I trust our faithfulness will yet be the means of opening the eyes of professing Christians to the nature of n pure , free , Gimpel ministry . 1 trust , my young Friend , thou wilt be faithful . ' " She spoke « o seriously , that I hesitated to Hay what I intended about Jones ' s shop , leat the idea that I for a moment could think her or her father capable of such a deed , might offend .

    ' I then culled on young- Mrs . It ., and mentioned the mime thing to her . 'They did indeed , ' Hajd she , take our sp < ona ; hut my William lias Home way or other to get them back . I enn ' t tell how he manages ; but 1 suppose , they are ashamed of taking no much over their denmiid , and ho return them . At any rate , they are Bent back beautifully polished ; and not only that , but a haudnomo sugar-spoon , with our crest engraved on it , was also amongst them . I suppose they were worry , and put in the spoon by way of atonement . L Hut-jKcted that nuy Friend William might know more than bin wife on the subject , but tmid nothing . J

    1 then went to Jones ' s shop , and boldly naked , if they would return me article * of plate which might be diBttamed for tithe , on paying the exact amount of titho demanded , and was politely informed , that

    they would be most happy to do so—to enter into the same arrangement with me as with other Quakers . ? But , ' said I , ' what recompense will you require , for affording me so great an accommodation ?* " ' None whatever , ' replied the shopkeeper ; ' the Friends are very good customers of ours ; we are always glad to see them entering our doors . ' " ' And what must I pay the collectors ?' " ' They make no charge either ; you can give them an odd shilling now and then if you like , for they are very honest civil fellows . ' " Faithful to their appointment , at the end o £ the week , the men came to me , walked straight into the

    parlour , and over to the sideboard * and looked disappointed not to find the plate ready laid out for them . I told them I had to apologise for doubting their veracity . I had inquired , and found that their statement was true ; but as I could not see any sense in such a roundabout way of paying , I thought it simpler , and it came to the same thing in the end , to pay the money at once , which I did . They thanked me , and broadly grinning , said , ' I was the only Quaker in Bristol who did the thing in a straightforward manner , as most of the Society had a crank in their consciences about it . * This first drew my attention to the doctrine of our

    Friends as relates to tithes . I studied the rules of the Meeting , Barclay ' s Apology , and various tracts , &c . on the subject ; and finding that , in the first place , they assume , that all who receive any pecuniary aid , are hirelings , and preach for the sake of filthy lucre ; and in thenext place , that the one only Scripture text on which they profess to be called on to bear this testimony , is this— ' Freely ye have received , freely give , ' I imagined , that the first was an uncharitable , as well as a most unwarrantable assumption ; and the second seemed to me an actual command to give . Surely it is a curious perversion to construe ' freely give , ' into do not give . '"

    There is less about Quaker customs than might be desired ; or perhaps it would be more accurate to say there is little that is graphically portrayed . The following is a curious account of

    A QUAKER WEDDING . " Soon after my visit to London , I was married . Oh ! what an ordeal I had to go through ! My intended husband lived in England , and I in Ireland ; so that we had to undergo all the formalities which the Society boasts of having instituted under the 'influence of best wisdom , ' for the performance of the ceremony . First of all I had , in the presence ol two men witnesses , to sign a document , etating that the gentleman was authorized by me to stand up in his own Meeting , and to inform his assembled brethren that he had an intention of marrying me , telling them all who I was , and where I lived . His Meeting then made inquiry into his former conduct ; and a month after , they gave him a vritten peimission to marry me , as thev had satisfied tlumsclves that lie was ' clear

    of all other marriage engagements . I he second step was then , that he and I , with a large company of our respective relative * - " , bad to walk in together , arm-inarm , into the women ' s Monthly Meeting that I belonged to j and there , before the assembled throng , all seated and gazing at us , we had each to make the appointed speech standing , tin u to sit down , while the clerk of the Meeting at-. ked the relatives who accompanied us , did they consent to the ' prim ntalion of mairiago ' which had just been made ? " 1 hey answered ' Yes ; ' and then the written permission fiom the English Meeting was read . We then ' panned a bit , ' and retired from the women ' s room , in the same solemn procession we had entered it ; and , having walked into the men ' s meeting room , there went through the very same formalities .

    "It is ctitecnied very desirable that , as Boon as the ceremony is over , the presentation party should , one and all of them , return to their respective meetingroomp , and nit out the sitting' with the Friends . We evaded this custom , and returned home . We had x large dinner party thnt elny , and 1 received inuny compliments on the elegance of my dress , the beauty of my companion , the satisfactory manner in which we had performed , and admonition on the necessity of speaking louder at the next and final ceremony .

    " Five weeks after thin , another monthly meeting wan held , and then the two men and the : two women Friends who had been appointed to make inquiry , reported , thnt there did not appear to be any reason for refusing to allow of our marriage ; and therefore they gave us formal permission to go on with it . There was thru a delay of two weeks more , before the wedding day came . At last it arrived , and then , accompanied by sixteen couple , we were marshalled , into the elders' and overseers' gallery , which in two steps lower than the ministers ' , and like it , fronts the

    whole assembl y . As usual on such occasions , a va « t number of the towu ' s-ptople Hocked to see the show . A Quaker bride is not allowed to wear a veil ; ami there , for two long weary hour * , we had to sit and be 8 tnred at . About the middle of the Meeting , an appointed mini Friend came over to where w «; sat , and placed before u » the words that , we were to stand up and repent aloud . Then we signed each the long certificate , which wan u very elaborate and < : le gant specimen of peinnaimhip , on veJJiun , and the ' man Friend rend tho whole out very loud . After thin wiih done , threw

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    Avo . , 1851 . J ® ft £ 3 Le& % tt . 779

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1851, page 779, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1896/page/15/