50
Andrews in The Gift To Be Simple says that as the Shakers declined
in numbers after the Civil War, they "slowly lost that inner vitality of spirit
04
which was the well-spring of its exuberant worship/' They still sang of
union, holiness, the joy of virgin life; still marched solemnly, but their
worship was mainly a mechanical repetition of old forms, lacking the fresh-
ness of movement renewed from within.
"The world, some say, has become more tolerant with the
passing years, but even today one doubts if Mother Ann Lee,
with her strange prophecies and visions, would find it any
more willing to listen than it was in 1774 , . . "^5




34. Andrews, Edward D. The Gift To Be Simple, Dover Publications,
New York, 1940, p. 157?
35. O'Brien, op. cit. p. 30