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Life of Thomas Eddy

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work may be ruined by men, who in England arecalled Oppositionists or Reformers, (in America, De-mocrats,) and who, actuated by an overstrained zeal,do not know how to take hold of things at the righttime; like many religious zealots, they press on thepeople more than they are able to bear. The lightwith which Providence has been pleased to enlight-en the minds of men, as it regards moral or reli-gious truths, is gradual—as was the commencementof the abolition of slavery. If the good people inEngland, who are now engaged in endeavouring toeffect an alteration in the penal system, act wisely,they will be exceedingly prudent and cautious notto press for too much in their first application—eventually they must succeed in so righteous a cause. I expect thou wilt procure a fund of information,relating to public institutions, particularly LunaticAsylums. I requested of thee, if thou shouldst visitYork, to find out, if in thy power, on what accountit is, that Samuel Tuke seems offended with me—itmay be for my publishing one of his letters to me, in doing which I conceived it was promoting thepublic good by using his name. I am very sorry, ifin any way, his feelings have been hurt, owing to anypart of my conduct. I hope thou arrived in London in time for the Annual Meeting of the Bible Society, and also for ouryearly meeting—do they manage their matters bet-ter in London than with us? The last London print-ed epistle, was not printed by our yearly meeting asusual; this was opposed by E. Hicks, Willet, andothers of his disciples, on account of it containingsome pointed good remarks, on the observance of theFirst Day—it was advocated by G. Dillwyn, &;c. &;c.,but they were obliged to yield, in order to preservepeace and harmony. For some days past, we have had the company ofJ. Wistar, T. Stewardson, William Newbould, Samuel Bettle, and R. Hartshorn, appointed by the Indian com-