54


"This is well enough, but nevertheless I cannot, I confess, incline
towards the Shakers; view them with much favour, or extend towards them
any very lenient construction. I so abhor, and from my soul detest that bad
spirit, no matter by what class or sect itmay be entertained, which would
strip life of its healthful graces, rob youth of its innocent pleasures, pluck
from maturity and age their pleasant ornaments, and make existence but a
narrow path towards the grave: that odious spirit which, if itcould have had
full scope and sway upon the earth, must have blasted and made barren the
imaginations of the greatest men, and left them, in their power of raising
up enduring images before their fellow-creatures yet unborn, no better than
the beasts: that, in these very broad-brimmed hats and very sombre coats --
in stiff-necked solemn-visaged piety, in short, no matter what its garb, whe-
ther it have cropped hair as in a Shaker village, or long nails as in a Hindoo
temple--! recognize the worst among the enemies of Heaven and Earth, who
turn the water at the marriage-feasts of this poor world, not into wine, but
gall. And if there must be people vowed to crush the harmless fancies and
the love of innocent delights and gaieties, which are a part of human nature:
as much a part of it as any other love or hope that is our common portion:
let them, for me, stand openly revealed among the ribald and licentious;
the very idiots know that THEY are not on the Immortal road, and will
despise them, and avoid them readily.
"Leaving the Shaker village with a hearty dislike of the old Shakers,
and a hearty pity for the young ones: tempered by the strong probability of
their running away as they grow older and wiser, which they not uncommonly
do: we returned to Lebanon, and so to Hudson, by the way we had come the
previous day. "