III.
_Cards on account of the manner in which they are generally used, produce an excitement of the passions--historical anecdotes of this excitement--this excitement another cause of their prohibition by the Quakers, because it unfits the mind, according to their notions, for the reception of religious impressions_.
The Quakers are not so superstitious as to imagine that there can be any evil in cards, considered abstractedly as cards, or in some of the other amusements, that have been mentioned.

The red or the black images on their surfaces can neither pollute the fingers, nor the minds, of those who handle them.

They may be moved about, and dealt in various ways, and no objectionable consequences may follow.

They nay be used, and this innocently, to construct the similitudes of things.

They may be arranged, so as to exhibit devices, which may be productive of harmless mirth.