There are three distinct periods into which the his tory of Quaker dress will naturally fall — the period of persecution, when the early Friends had everything at stake, and life was to them more than meat and the body than raiment; the second, or reactionary period, when their position was established, their cause won, and prosperity, with its successes, was proving, as it always will prove, a far more dangerous foe than the perils of adversity; and the third, or modern period, when the crisis of the present brings them face to face with intricate problems, and dress again falls into its proper place in the general scheme of things. We shall see that in the face of a real issue, Quakerism disre garded the question of dress; and it is worth while to trace the growth and development of the traditional idea of Quaker costume, as it has come to be universally accepted. In other words, we shall study the Quaker in the light of a Higher Criticism, applied to the Doc trine of Clothes.