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and invited him to go home and dine with him, he replied, ‘I am represented by some people as a very bad man; and I do not wish to impose myself upon the hospitality of strangers, without letting them know who I am.’
The stranger assured him that he knew very well who he was, and cared not a straw what opinions they accused him of; that he was going to have a company of Friends at dinner, who wished to converse with him. He went accordingly, and was received with true Irish hospitality and kindness.
Upon another occasion, a Quaker lady, who did not know he was a ‘Hicksite,’ observed to him, ‘I suppose the Society of Friends are very much thinned in America, since so many have gone off from them.’
He replied, “It is always best to be candid.
I belong to the party called Hicksites, deists, and schismatics; and I suppose they are the ones to whom thou hast alluded as having gone off from the Society.
I should like to talk with thee concerning the separation in America; for we have been greatly misrepresented.
But I came to this country solely on business, and I have no wish to say or do anything that can unsettle the mind, or wound the feelings of any Friend.”
She seemed very much surprised, and for a minute or two covered her face with her hands.
But when the company broke up, some hours after, she followed him into the entry, and cordially
Boston, J. P. Jewett and Company; Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor and Worthington; London; Low and Company, 1854.
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