Philadelphia Tea-Party Letter—1773

Abstract

into any of them, which can pain the most virtuous mind or give the least offence to the eye or ear of modesty." 13 This somewhat complacent reflection of the great Quaker grammarian may well be considered alongside the words of Bagehot already quoted. They represent two diametrically opposed conceptions of literary education, one artistic, and the other moral. The evidence here submitted is not exhaustive; it could not be so. But enough has been presented to prove,—what was perhaps worth proving before the first-hand memory of the old guarded Quaker education was quite lost,"—that Cowper, an Anglican poet, so nearly expressed the sentiments and aspirations of the Society of Friends during a large part of the nineteenth century that he may be justly termed the titled Poet of Quakerism. (Concluded)