Excerpt from The Peculium; An Endeavor to Throw Light on Some of the Causes of the Decline of the Society of Friends: Especially in Regard to Its Original Claim of Being the Peculiar People of God The Essay to which the second prize was adjudged is printed in the present volume. Whatever hope I may have had when I commenced, when I had finished the following Essay I certainly had no hope at all of seeing my name set forth as one of the successful competitors. I felt convinced that my work could not answer to the real heart's desire Of the generous ofl'erer of these prizes. His ultimate hope must have been that some expedient might be brought forward by which Quakerism could be saved. The whole tenor of my Essay goes to prove that its salvation is impossible. The donor laments that the Society of Friends is less in number than it was at the beginning of the century. The reader will see that my own convictions, as expressed in this Essay, compel me rather to rejoice. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.