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Book Reviews119 Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and Hebrew. In 1787, under the guidance of David Barclay of Youngsbury (grandson of Robert Barclay of Urie), Thomas Young and David Barclay's grandson, Hudson Gurney, were put under a private tutor. Thus began a long association between Thomas Young and Hudson Gurney, an association terminated only by Young's death in 1829. Time and again throughout the volume there are cogent excerpts from the letters of Thomas Young to Hudson Gurney. The latter wrote the first memoirs of Young's life. In estimating the influence on Thomas Young of his early training, Alexander Wood says, "There is a certain affinity between the Quaker pursuit of truth, with its emphasis on verification in personal experience, and the scientific method." He speaks also of Young's "acute sense of the importance of time." Thomas Young's break with his early upbringing, particularly in matters of the existing discipline and testimonies, began in Göttingen when he was twenty-two. He accepted all of life and relished it, becoming adept in music, dancing, art, horsemanship, and gymnastics. In Göttingen, in taking his degree, he records his testimony against the taking of oaths. But when he later returned to complete his studies at Cambridge, he could enter only as a member of the Church of England, which he forthwith joined. One senses that he retained throughout his life a sense of reverence and respect for religious observance. Hudson Gurney reports soon after Young's death that "he was a great studier of the scriptures and was very careful in encouraging the religious practices of those around him. . . . He himself, I gather, retained a good deal of his old creed." That this versatile man had some weaknesses is evident in the biographer 's treatment of the occasional controversies into which his scientific work threw him. He does not appear to have been a great success as a physician, and one suspects that his chief interests usually lay elsewhere, in scientific and linguistic pursuits. As a lecturer, he was so advanced as to be obscure, and his claim to enduring recognition must reside chiefly in the number and high quality of the scientific contributions he made. He moved restively but brilliantly from one field to another throughout his life. Haverford CollegeRichard M. Sutton William Penn, Horticulturist. By Rachael McMasters Miller Hunt. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press. 1953. 38 pages. $10.00. In the short compass of thirty-two pages of text the author tells the whole story of William Penn's stirring life. On pages 13 to 27 inclusive we find his interest in plants touched upon through quotations from his letters, from the little book Some Fruits of Solitude, and from his long letter to the Committee of the Free Society of Traders, dated August 16, 1683. The text is well documented. There is an index, and seven and a half pages of photostatic reproduction of the letter just mentioned as it was printed in Penn's day. For illustration there is a view of restored Perms- 120Bulletin of Friends Historical Association bury and a copy of William Penn's bookplate "from his own copy of the Holy Bible." Inman's portrait of William Penn is reproduced as a frontispiece . Moorestown, New JerseyEdward E. Wildman John Woolman, Child of Light. By Catherine Owens Peare. New York: Vanguard Press. 1954. 254 pages. $3.00. The Prisoner's Friend: The Story of Elizabeth Fry. By Patrick Pringle. New York: Roy Publishers. 1953. 143 pages. $2.50. These two books fall into very different categories, though both are classified as "juveniles." The art of writing for children is a very special gift. Catherine Owens Peare has that gift and her account of John Woolman 's life, simplified and made into story-scenes based on selected facts, will introduce many a juvenile Quaker to our greatest Quaker saint in a very attrattive way. Catherine Peare makes no pretense of not inventing dialogue and minor incident to make her drama move, but she has made every effort to cling close to her sources and to interpret John Woolman faithfully. Elizabeth Gray Vining did a similar task beautifully with the more exciting...

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