Book Notices and Reviews

BOOK NOTICES AND REVIEWS41 BOOK NOTICES AND REVIEWS Books of interest to Friends may usually be purchased at the following places : Friends' Book Store, 302 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Walter H. Jenkins, 140 N. 15 St., Philadelphia. Friends' Book and Tract Committee, 144 East 20th Street, New York City. Friends' Book and Supply House, Richmond, Indiana. Friends' Bookshop, Friends' House, Euston Road, London, N. W. 1, England. When the price of an English book is given below, in terms of American money, it means that one of the American book stores has quoted that price. Best, Mary Agnes. Rebel Saints. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co. 1925. Pp. 333, cloth. $3.00. In this most delightful book Miss Best has done a fine piece of interpretation . Feeling that the word Quaker has too often come to connote a quiet, contemplative nature she points out that in its earliest days "the Society was characterized neither by hoary heads nor by tranquility ; it was distinctly a youth movement, and consequently noted for intense enthusiasm rather than the caution and discretion that comes with years." The book is primarily neither historical nor chronological, but to illustrate her thesis the author has resuscitated from Quaker chronicles, notably Sewel's History and Besse's Sufferings, such tales of courage, devotion to a great ideal, and unconquerable persistence that her book is a record of adventure by sea and land, of apparently mad projects brought to success, of men and women who made war on society with no other weapons than spiritual argument. "In its time the Quaker uprising was regarded as extreme left-wing radicalism, subversive of law and order, threatening the overthrow of government; and it was therefore considered a pious and patriotic duty to suppress it by fair means or foul." This point is frequently discussed and especially in connection with the Boston martyrs where our author finds herself in close agreement with recent historians who have laid bare the "Puritan superiority complex" which got so early a start. "Some of the war cries seem trivial," she admits, "or even absurd. It is only against the background of their time, however, that these absurdities can be viewed in the proper perspective. In many cases they were the protective coloring by which their raids on the fields of tradition were made less conspicuous ...... But beneath all the fanatical exploits, buried under mountains of obsolete phraseology and dogma, one great fact emerges : their 42 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. fight was one of the most cruel and persistent wars in the records of our race, between intrenched authority and custom on one side and individual liberty on the other. They enlisted for the duration of that war, and, so far as the English-speaking peoples are concerned, went over the top almost alone, with nothing to back them but spiritual force, unparalleled courage, and a mighty power which they called God." With the exception of slight errors in the Foreword and the mistaken statement that Elizabeth Haddon's courtship was the basis for Longfellow's Courtship of Miles Standish instead of his poem Elisabeth, the book is remarkably accurate both as to facts and atmosphere. But even those who are fairly familiar with Quaker literature will be impressed with the fresh and vivid method of presentation and the sympathetic understanding of the principles at stake. Elizabeth B. Jones. Brandt, Francis Burke, and Gummere, Henry Volkmar. Byways and Boulevards in and about Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Corn Exchange National Bank, 1925. Pp. 320, cloth. $3.00. From jacket to binding to sumptuous illustrations this is a book worthy of the best traditions of Philadelphia book-making. It would ornament any library table but would not long be left there if the garage housed an automobile. For this book, as its title suggests, beckons enticingly to the Byways and Boulevards of historic Philadelphia. It is an automobile "Blue Book" for those who wish to see the historic sights of Philadelphia and vicinity. Its timeliness in view of the SesquiCentennial is obvious, and has been duly recognized. It has been designated the Official Historic Auto-Guide of the Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition Association . The various routes are given in the approved style...