All that matter in
religion which has been nicknamed other-worldliness was
strictly in his gamut; but a rule of life that should make a
man rudely virtuous, following right in good report and ill
report, was foolishness and a stumbling-block to Pepys. He
was much thrown across the Friends; and nothing can be more
instructive than his attitude towards these most interesting
people of that age. I have mentioned how he conversed with
one as he rode; when he saw some brought from a meeting under
arrest, "I would to God," said he, "they would either
conform, or be more wise and not be catched;" and to a Quaker
in his own office he extended a timid though effectual
protection. Meanwhile there was growing up next door to him
that beautiful nature William Pen. It is odd that Pepys
condemned him for a fop; odd, though natural enough when you
see Pen's portrait, that Pepys was jealous of him with his
wife. But the cream of the story is when Pen publishes his
SANDY FOUNDATION SHAKEN, and Pepys has it read aloud by his
wife. "I find it," he says, "so well writ as, I think, it is
too good for him ever to have writ it; and it is a serious
sort of book, and NOT FIT FOR EVERYBODY TO READ." Nothing is
more galling to the merely respectable than to be brought in
contact with religious ardour. Pepys had his own foundation,
sandy enough, but dear to him from practical considerations,
and he would read the book with true uneasiness of spirit;
for conceive the blow if, by some plaguy accident, this Pen
were to convert him! It was a different kind of doctrine
that he judged profitable for himself and others.
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