Then we should be confined
to such enterprises as are best for us. Moreover we ought not to make
money. We ought to make no more than a moderate surplus over our usual
living, so as to lay by something for hard times. In fact, we do not do
much more than this."
Nevertheless nearly all the Shaker societies have the reputation of
being wealthy.
In their daily lives many profess to have attained perfection: these are
the older people. I judge by the words I have heard in their meetings
that the younger members have occasion to wish for improvement, and do
discover faults in themselves. One of the older Shakers, a man of
seventy-two years, and of more than the average intelligence, said to
me, in answer to a direct question, that he had for years lived a
sinless life. "I say to any who know me, as Jesus said to the Pharisees,
'which of you convicteth me of sin.'" Where faults are committed, it is
held to be the duty of the offender to confess to the elder, or, if it
is a woman, to the eldress; and it is for these, too, to administer
reproof. "For instance, suppose one of the members to possess a hasty
temper, not yet under proper curb; suppose he or she breaks out into
violent words or impatience, in a shop or elsewhere; the rest ought to
and do tell the elder, who will thereupon administer reproof.
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