and imprisonment for life. On this he was necessarily confined; but, being some time after dangerously ill, he was permitted, though under this dreadful sentence, to leave his prison, and reside in a friend's house till recovered. The termination of this affair is little less extraordinary than the progress of it. Fox was offered the king's pardon, and refused it, because acceptance seemed to him an acknowledgement of guilt. He was again brought up by habeas corpus to the King's-bench, to plead to errors in the indictment; and the judges, evidently desirous of his liberty, admitted their validity; and thus, after fourteen months' imprisonment, he was liberated. This we must think is one of the most unquestionable evidences of known and acknowledged innocence and suffering, that can be brought from the entire history of persecution, and shews the monstrous injustice of laws against conscience, which bad men evade without difficulty, and which can be only operative against men who need no laws to secure them. Here was a man to whose perfect sincerity the whole country could testify, whose word was taken as a bond even in the courts of law, subjected to this grievous punishment, because he would not violate his conscience by an oath.

But this persecution, though occurring under the government of Charles, is not to be urged, exclusively, against it, for Fox and his friends suffered equally under all the changes, in those changeable times. It is, indeed, a melancholy fact, that no religion, possessing the power of law, and the power of opinion, has ever had sufficient magnanimity to forbear persecution. Those very men who, in the early part of the reign of Charles the 1st, fled, even to the "vast howling wilderness" of America, as Cromwell called it, for liberty of conscience, were no sooner warmed by their numbers, and secure by power, than they became persecutors, and in the case of the Quakers, persecutors even to death. The conduct of those men was, indeed, a disgrace to the age, and the men themselves to the religion they professed. The unhappy people who visited them, however ignorant and misguided, were, at least, disinterested; and could only reap labour, privation, and long suffering, in return for their exertion; to the civil government of every country, they were inoffensive; yet these, men, women, and children, the people of New England most cruelly imprisoned, whipped, tortured, and put to death. What a contrast to the conduct of these professing Christians was offered by the Mahometans under similar circumstances. "Mary Fisher, a maiden, being come to Smyrna, to go from thence to Adrianople, was stopt by the English consul, and sent back to Venice, from whence she came by another way to Adrianople, at the time that Sultan Mahomet the 4th was encamped with his army near the said

town.

She went alone to the camp, and got somebody to go to the tent of the grand Vizier, to tell him that an English woman was come, who had something to declare from the great God to the Sultan. The Vizier sent word, that next morning he should procure her an opportunity for that purpose. Then she returned to the town, and repaired next morning to the camp again; where being come, she was brought before the Sultan, who had his great men about him, in such a manner as he was used to admit ambassadors. He asked her by his interpreter, (whereof,there were those about him,) whether it was true that had been told him, that she had something to say to him from the Lord God? She answered, Yea. Then he bad her speak on and she not being forward, weightily pondering what she might say, and he supposing that she might be fearful to utter her mind before them all, asked her, whether she desired that any might go aside before she spoke? She answered, No. He then bad her speak the word of the Lord to them, and not to fear, for they had good hearts, and could bear it. He also charged her to speak the word she had from the Lord, neither more nor less, for they were willing to hear it, be it what it would. Then she spoke what she had upon her mind.—The Turk hearkened to her with much attention and gravity, till she had done, and then the Sultan asking her, whether she had any thing more to say? She asked him whether he understood what she said? And he answered, Yes, every word; and further said, that what she had spoken was truth. Then he desired her to stay in that country, saying, they could not but respect such an one, as should take so much pains to come to them so far as from England with a message from the Lord God. He also proffered her a guard to bring her into Constantinople, whither she intended. But she not accepting this offer, he told her, it was dangerous travelling, especially for such an one as she; and wondered that she had passed so safe so far as she had; saying also, it was in respect to her, and kindness, that he proffered it, and that he would not for any thing she should come to the least hurt in his dominions.-And Mary having performed her message, departed from the camp to Constantinople, without a guard, whither she came without the least hurt or scoff. And so she returned safe to England."

We have already shewn to what a state of bodily exhaustion, from labour and privation, Fox was at times reduced. Indeed, in early life, his journeys were without end, his fastings without limit, his exposure without consideration of weather or season, night or day; and his enemies were not less zealous, for his beatings were without mercy, and his imprisonments without number. For this sort of life he had well prepared himself, both in mind and body. His mind was nerved and disci

plined by long thinking and moral consciousness; and his body was not, indeed, “armed in complete steel," but in complete leather; "partly," says Sewel," for the simplicity of that dress, and also because such clothing was strong, and needed but little mending or repairing." In early life he journeyed on foot; but like most founders of sects, eventually rode on horseback or in a carriage; and, says Milton's friend, Ellwood, “the good man (like Julius Cæsar) willing to improve all parts of his time, did usually, even in travel, dictate to his amanuensis what he would have committed to writing." That he bestrode no contemptible cattle we infer from the commendation of the justice at Lynn; and it is not improbable from his apprehension at that time, that he wore a suit of grey, and that his appearance was altogether more respectable than formerly. One of the news-writers, he says, "put in the paper, that in my interview with Oliver, I wore silver buttons; which was false: for they were but ochimy." He wore his hair extremely long, we should have said in offence to the round-heads, whom he certainly disliked, but that he gives us to understand it was by command of the Lord.

In the personal appearance of Fox there seems to have been something very solemn and imposing. His expressions, says Penn, "were uncouth and unfashionable," but "his very presence expressed a religious majesty."—" He had an extraordinary gift in opening the scriptures-but, above all, he excelled in prayer. The inwardness and weight of his spirit, the reverence and solemnity of his address and behaviour, and the fewness and fulness of his words, have often struck even strangers with admiration, as they used to reach others with consolation. The most awful, living, reverent frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his in prayer.”—“ Graceful he was in countenance," says Ellwood," manly in personage, grave in gesture, courteous in conversation, weighty in communication, instructive in discourse; free from affectation in speech or carriage." Sewel, who also knew him personally, says, “he was tall of stature, and pretty big-bodied, yet very moderate in meat and drink; neither did he yield much to sleep. He was a man of a deep understanding, and of a discerning spirit; and though his words were not always linked together by a neat grammatical connexion, and that his speech sometimes seemed abrupt, as with a kind of gap; yet he expressed himself intelligently, and what was wanting in human wisdom, was abundantly supplied with heavenly knowledge. In his prayers (which generally were not very long, though powerful), appeared a decent gravity, mixt with an awful reverence to admiration." To these extraordinaries we may add, that Fox had extraordinary lungs, no indifferent thing to a man who preached three

and four hours at a time, to large congregations in the open air. Indeed, Camm and Coale, two of the early ministers, the latter of whom, Sewel, after Homer we suppose, calls "son of thunder," died of consumption through straining their voices.

The ordinary events recorded in biography, the birth, the marriage, and death of the party, are of little consequence in the life of Fox. In compliance, however, with established custom, we add, that he died in London on the " 13th of the month, anciently called January, about 10 o'clock at night, in the 67th year of his age; and his body was buried near Bunhill-fields, on the 16th of the said month."

It may be allowed us before closing this article to say a few words in reference to the age in which Fox lived, and the consequences of his ministry. At the time he first appeared, there was, raging over the whole kingdom, a religious madness. "Who," says Howel, in a letter dated 1644, the very first of Fox's wanderings, "would have held it possible, that to avoid superstition, some people should be brought to belch out such a horrid profaneness, as to call the temples of God, the tabernacles of Satan; the Lord's Supper, a twopenny ordinary; to make the communion table a manger, and the font, a trough to water their horses in; to term the white decent robe of the Presbyter, the whore's smock; the pipes through which nothing came but anthems and holy hymns, the devil's bagpipes." This was the current and established slang, and about the only thing in which the people were agreed. On one occasion, says Fox, "I met with people that held women had no souls;" at another with a people that "relied much on dreams,” as indeed Fox himself did; but he professed to distinguish between "the whisperings of Satan," " the speaking of God," and the mere vulgar shadowing from "multitude of business." At another time, with "people that held all things come by nature." Being in prison at Coventry, he met with men who declared themselves to be God; in Darby prison one said, "Your faith stands in a man that died at Jerusalem, and there was never any such thing." The same person also "held, that never any of the prophets, nor apostles, nor holy men of God, suffered any thing outwardly, but all their sufferings were inward." From a short news-tract, published at the time, it appears that "upon the 10th of this instant month of January, [1646,] being the blessed sabbath, in sermon-time, there arose a great disturbance, [in one of the city churches,] by one Evan Price, a taylor, who in the middle of the sermon stood up, and declared himself to be Christ." Being taken and questioned before the Lord Mayor," he maintained that he had suffered upon the cross, and had the print of all the nails upon his hands." The country was, in fact, overrun with sects, parties, and divisions beyond all number; and their

differences equally beyond reason and common apprehension. "Some," says Mr. D'Israeli, "maintained there existed no distinction between moral good and moral evil, and that every man's actions were prompted by the Creator. Prostitution was professed as a religious act; a glazier was declared to be a prophet, [why every third Quaker was a prophet,] and the woman he cohabited with was said to be ready to lie in of the Messiah. A man married his father's wife; [another was apprehended for having seven wives.] Murders of the most extraordinary nature were occurring; one woman crucified her mother; another sacrificed her child in imitation of Abraham; and just at this time appeared George Fox to add to the bewilderment, and make confusion worse.' "A Quaker," proceeds D'Israeli, "to prove the text that man shall not live by bread alone, but by the word of God, persisted in refusing his meals. The literal text proved for him a dead letter, and this practical commentator died of a metaphor." One young gentleman found himself so possessed of the spirit, even while at school, that" the making of Latin verses became a burthen to him," and he was therefore taken home by his rejoicing family. If this test be sufficient, we suspect the influence of the spirit is much more extensive than the simple Quakers imagine. Boys of sixteen and seventeen became "powerful ministers." The history of one of these, James Parnell, is full of melancholy interest, and we regret we cannot extract it.

While Fox was confined in York jail, "Justice Benson's wife," he observes, 66 was moved of the Lord to come to visit me, and to eat no meat but what she eat with me at the bars of the prison window.” Another woman, "Sarah Goldsmith, who from a well-meant zeal to testify against pride, having a coat of sack-cloth, and her hair dishevelled, with earth or dust strewed on her head, had gone through the city without receiving any considerable harm from the people, because some looked upon her to be crack-brained." This not succeeding to their satisfaction, others threw aside the sack-cloth, and with it common decency, and paraded the public streets stark naked. Solomon Eccles" went naked above his waist, with a chafing dish of coals and burning brimstone on his head, and entered a [Catholic] chapel when all the people were on their knees to pray for their idol, and spoke as follows:-Wo to these idolatrous worshippers! God hath sent me this day to warn you, and to show you what will be your portion except you repent." William Sympson was moved of the Lord to go at several times for three years, naked and barefoot before them, as a sign to them, in markets, courts, towns, cities, to priests' houses, and to great men's houses; telling them," So should they be stripped naked as he was stripped naked." And sometimes he was