upon him, for many reasons.  His strong sense of justice made it painful for him to owe debts he could not pay.  He had an exceeding love of imparting to others, and these pecuniary impediments tied down his large soul with a thousand lilliputian cords.  He had an honest pride of independence, which chafed under any obligation that could be avoided.  His strong attachment to the Society of Friends rendered him sensitive to their opinion; and at that period their rules were exceedingly strict concerning any of their members, who contracted debts they were unable to pay.  People are always ready to censure a man who is unprosperous in worldly affairs; and if his character is such as to render him prominent, he is all the more likely to be handled harshly.  Of these trials Friend Hopper had a large share, and they disturbed him exceedingly; but the consciousness of upright intentions kept him from sinking under the weight that pressed upon him.

He was always a very industrious man, and whatever he did was well done.  But the fact was, the claims upon his time and attention were too numerous to be met by any one mortal man.  He had a large family to support, and during many years his house was a home for poor Quakers, and others, from far and near.  He had much business to transact in the Society of Friends, of which he was then an influential and highly respected member.  He was one of the founders and secretary of a society for the employment of the poor; overseer of the Benezet school for colored children; teacher, without recompense, in a free school for colored adults; inspector of the prison, without a salary; member of a fire-company; guardian of abused apprentices; the lawyer and protector of slaves and colored people, upon all occasions.  When pestilence was raging, he was devoted to the sick.  The poor were continually calling upon him to plead with importunate landlords and creditors.  He was not unfrequently employed to settle estates involved in difficulties, which others were afraid to undertake.  He had occasional applications to exert influence over the insane, for which he had peculiar tact.  When he heard of a man beginning to form habits likely to prove injurious to himself or his family, he would go to him, whether his rank were high or low, and have private conversations with him.  He would tell him some story, or suppose some case, and finally make him feel, “Thou art the man.”  He had a great gift in that way, and the exertion of it sometimes seasonably recalled those who were sliding into dangerous paths.

When one reflects upon the time that must have been bestowed on all these avocations, do his pecuniary embarrassments require any further explanation?  A member of his own Society summed up the case very justly in few words.  Hearing him censured by certain individuals, she replied, “The whole amount of it is this:—­the Bible requires us to love our neighbor as well as ourselves; and Friend Isaac has loved them better.”