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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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la have induced the Czar to attend the Friends' Meeting , at Gracechurch Street , with his suite and interpreter , the next Sunday morning . And while he was at Deptford , afterwards , acouiring a practical knowledge of shipbuilding , he occasionally attended their jneeting at that place , and behaved not only with great propriety , but with the condescension of a truly great man , by changing seats , or standing up to accommodate others . His conduct also towards the Quakers in so
promptly ordering his soldiers out of their Meeting-house at Frederiekstadt , going himself to their meeting , and acting as an interpreter to his attendants , who did not understand the language of the preacher , was to give an
impressive , practical lesson of toleration , and almost of religious liberty , which many monarchs have yet to learn , or want the virtue or the wisdom to act upon . There seems , indeed , to have been in his intercourse
with the Friends , an entire consonance between his actions and his professions , which is more than I can say of Alexander's . His I confess rather rc ^ nind me of the saying of Napoleon , who was personally acquainted with him , and a shrewd discerner of the real character
of others , ( whatever might be the de - fects of his own , ) when he described Alexander , as " delightful in conversation , but as false and treacherous as a Greek , " alluding , I suppose , not to the modern Greeks , but to the well-known line in Virgil" tinico Danaos et dona ferentes . " F .
" At-this time , " ( 1697 , ) says Thomas Story , ( Journal of his Life , fol . Vol . I . p . 123 , ) " Peter the Great , Czar of Muscovy , being" in London incog ., and Gilbert Mollyson ( Robert Barclay ' s wife ' s brother ) haying heard that a kinsman of his was in the Czar ' s
service , and being desirous to increase the knowledge of the truth , requested ine to go with him in quest of his kinstnan to the Czar ' s residence , a large house at the bottom of York Buildings , in order to present him with some of Robert -Barclay ' s Apologi es in Latin , hoping they might fall under the Czar ' s notice . When we came to the place , Gilbert inquired of the porter after , his cousin .
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" Being invited up stairs , we ob «* served two tall men walking in a large room , and being directed to the Czar ' s interpreter , he told us , that such a person had been in the Czar ' service , but was dead - " In the mean time , the Czar and Prince Menzicoff , his general , came to us , and upon the Czar saying something to his interpreter which we did not understand ; he asked us , as we had our hats on , * Why do you not pay respect to great persons when you are in their presence ? ' I
answered , ( says Thomas Story , ) * So we do when we are fully sensible of it , especially to kings and princes ; for , though we decline all vain and empty shows of respect and duty , and
flattering titles , whereby they are generally deceived by insincere and designing men ; yet we yield all due and sincere respect to such , and all in authority under them , by ready obedience to all their lawful commands . But when , at
any time , any of them , either through tyranny or ignorance , or ill counsel , happen to command any thing contrary to our duty to the Almighty , or his Son , Christ our Lord , then we offer our prayers to God , and humble addresses unto such rulers , that their understandings may be opened , and their minds changed towards us . ' " The Czar made no reply to this , but talked with his interpreter again , who then asked , * Of what use can
you be in any kingdom or government , seeing you will not bear arms and fight ? " To this I replied , ' That many of us had borne arms in times past ; but when it pleased God to reveal in our hearts the life and power of Jesus Christ , his Son , our Lord , whose
commandment is love , we were then reconciled unto God , one unto another , unto our enemies , and unto all men . Yet we are of use in any kingdom or government . For the principle of our religion forbids idleness and incites to industry ; as it is written , ' They shall beat their swords into ploughshares , and their spears into
pruninghooks . ' And we being concerned in all manner of husbandry , as likewise in manufactories and merchandizing , with the blessing of heaven upon our labours , do not want , but rather abound . " And though we are prohibited
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Conference of Peter the Great toith two English Quakers . $ §
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1822, page 79, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2509/page/15/
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