The mild and simple principles of the Christian
philosophy would produce too much calm, too much regularity of good,
to extract from its disciples a support for a numerous priesthood, were
they not to sophisticate it, ramify it, split it into hairs, and
twist its texts till they cover the divine morality of its author with
mysteries, and require a priesthood to explain them. The Quakers seem to
have discovered this. They have no priests, therefore no schisms. They
judge of the text by the dictates of common sense and common morality.
So the printers can never leave us in a state of perfect rest and union
of opinion. They would be no longer useful, and would have to go to
the plough. In the first moments of quietude which have succeeded the
election, they seem to have aroused their lying faculties beyond their
ordinary state, to re-agitate the public mind. What appointments to
office have they detailed which had never been thought of, merely to
found a text for their calumniating commentaries. However, the steady
character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor:
and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early
discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate, and steady conduct
will at length rally to a proper system the great body of our country.
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