It may do to soften savages, but a christian community, in the opinion of the Quakers, can admit of no better civilization, than that which the spirit of the supreme being, and an observance of the pure precepts of christianity, can produce.
Music, again, does not appear to the Quakers to be the foundation of any solid comfort in life.

It may give spirits for the moment as strong liquor does, but when the effect of the liquor is over, the spirits flag, and the mind is again torpid.

It can give no solid encouragement nor hope, nor prospects.

It can afford no anchorage ground, which shall hold the mind in a storm.

The early christians, imprisoned, beaten and persecuted even to death, would have had but poor consolation, if they had not had a better friend than music to have relied upon in the hour of their distress.