Elizabeth Fry, Quaker Heroine (review)

92 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION this story. We want them, not for the disclosure of the unloveliness of some parts of the Yearly Meeting at the turn of the century, but in order to relieve the course of a narrative that seems too limpid, too invariably triumphant. One defect in history generally lies in the fact that as we read it, we know the answer. But it is not so in real life. Rufus Jones hints at this in those passages about the battle front where the event was still obscure, but his own trouble of soul is slighted, perhaps in his desire to be uncritical of Quaker tendencies in a time of great narrowness. And so, I shall replace Rufus Jones in his Middle Years back upon the shelf, and in the darkness, after the household is asleep, he will have sweet converse with Rebecca Jones and Richard Jordan, or even, perhaps , with their next neighbors on either hand, Alexander Jaffray and Thomas Kite. Friends all ; and valiant Friends they were, regardless of their times and the garb they wore, and valiant also is he, who, after his Middle Years, settles down upon the shelf beside them, with the rich compensations of old age still to be told. Francis R. Taylor. Cheltenham, Pa. Sixth Month, 1936. Elizabeth Fry, Quaker Heroine. By Janet Whitney. Illustrated. Boston, Little, Brown, and Co., 1936. xii + 337 pp. $3.50. JANET WHITNEY'S new story of Elizabeth Fry's life differs from the conventional biography of a Quaker worthy about in the way in which Elizabeth Fry's real life differed from that of her conventional Quaker contemporaries. And in both cases we may be thankful for the difference. I do not mean to speak disparagingly of Quaker biographies, nor of Elizabeth Fry's contemporaries ; but there is something so obviously out of the ordinary, so refreshingly direct and simple, so charmingly natural in both book and life, that one can praise them without hurting their fellows. Mrs. Whitney's book is altogether admirable. It is based on full knowledge of abundant source material of the most intimate and personal kind; and it is fascinatingly told. From the spicy opening scene of the seven apple-cheeked, saucy-eyed Gurney sisters who spread themselves across the road and stopped the mail coach, to the simple and moving narrative of Elizabeth Fry's death, the narrative portrays a vividly living person. As a Quaker one is glad to have such an able and artistic presentation of so great a Quaker subject. The title is "Elizabeth Fry, Quaker Heroine" ; and it is interesting to note the kind of heroine that is portrayed. There are in the book two other Quakers who were fired with a certain religious genius, the American William Savery and the Frenchman Stephen Grellet. These also rank with the heroes; but Elizabeth Fry's claim rests on different grounds. NOTES93 All three were filled with a spirit of love and tenderness for their fellows. The American Friends might be called inspired prophets who achieved genius because they were not too heavenly for practical affairs ; Elizabeth Fry was a person whose extraordinary gift for practical affairs was raised to the point of genius through her love and tenderness for her fellow men, and her understanding of their earthly needs. Parents who wish their children were more sensitive to their Quaker heritage (there are, alas, many such) will rejoice at this book: it is fascinating enough to capture the attention, and significant enough to command respect. Adults who read it will feel the same interest and respect, and may be challenged into further study into the social problems which lie in the background. For many of the social maladjustments whose consequences Elizabeth Fry faced with such practical charity persist , into our generation, and challenge our own potential Elizabeth Frys for solution.T. K. B. NOTES "LJARVARD COLLEGE Library has recently acquired a small collection of manuscript material embracing copies of letters to antislavery leaders and contributions to antislavery journals made principally during the years 1853, 1854, and 1857 by Henry Miles of Monkton, Vermont . Miles was a member of the Society of Friends, born in...