Two men contended respecting the motive by which mankind are influenced to good actions.  One attributed it to reason; the other held that it was virtue which restrains from evil and impels to good, and maintained that we must do good actions from the love of justice and virtue, and not from the fear of punishment or the hope of reward.  The latter had the advantage over his antagonist in the argument:—­

I had not, says J.Y., taken part in the conversation; but at the close I felt constrained to tell the Christian that I confessed myself on his side, because he had defended the truth; only that what he called virtue, I called the action of the spirit of God in the heart of man.  With much animation, he clasped my hand in his, and cried, “That is the very thing,—­that is just what I mean!”

In the year 1856, he engaged in two religious visits at home, both of them in accordance with the kind of service which had been unfolded to him in the retirement of Neuveville, viz., mingled religious and social intercourse with his younger fellow-members.

In reading the expression of his feelings in the prospect of the former of these engagements, it is instructive to remark, that the same sense of entire dependence which had bowed his spirit when required in early life to make the first offering of this kind, was present with him when now called upon to go forth in his Master’s name for the twentieth time, and when age and experience had given him reverence among men.

1 mo. 8.—­To-morrow is our Monthly Meeting, when I expect to propose to my Friends a visit to the meetings composing the Quarterly Meetings of Bristol and Somerset, and Gloucester and Wilts.  Every time any fresh exercise turns up for me, it always feels as if it was the first time of entering into the holy harness.  If my friends permit me to proceed, I hope I shall be helped through it; but it looks formidable.

21_st_.—­Bristol is like a great mountain looking me in the face, and weighing heavily upon my heart.

The following short memoranda of the way in which he was engaged at Bristol are taken from his letters; the Diary, during his later years, supplies few notes, either of his labors or his experience:—­

3 mo.—­I met at Richard Fry’s house a large number of young men and women teachers of the First-day School; forty-eight were present.  An opportunity was offered for my receiving and also communicating information respecting schools and education.  What makes the subject more interesting in Bristol, is the attendance of more than one hundred of the school children at meeting on First-day mornings, which, I think, has been the practice for about ten years, and their behavior is orderly and good.