John and William Bartram: Botanists and Explorers (review)

BOOK REVIEWS41 helpful. A life oí an active man who takes part in movements of national importance stimulates the reader to look into a general history, in order to place the hero in the larger framework of his time. The initial volume of the series promises well; for though there is no mention of including Penn and Franklin, who run no risk of being forgotten, a series that perpetuates the memory of men of the caliber of Mifflin, the Bradfords, the Bartrams, Priestley, and Geary, is performing a valuable public service.T. K. B. John and William, Bartram: Botanists and Explorers, by Ernest Earnest. Philadelphia, University Press, 1940. vii+187 pp. Illustrated. $2.00. "pRIENDS will perhaps be more interested in the Bartrams, father and son, than in the soldier and administrator Geary; for though they had some difficulties with their meeting, at Darby, they regarded themselves as Friends, and form a link in one of the best Quaker traditions. The Friends of a past day, finding some of the arts closed to them— they declined on principle to enjoy or to practice music, fine art, or fictional or dramatic literature—often turned to nature and to natural science; and there has been a succession of Quaker botanists, led by the Bartrams, who have achieved national or international fame. John (1699-1777) lived his life in the pre-Revolutionary period. He was a plain Quaker farmer, without formal schooling; but he became observant of plants and other natural objects, and made himself one of the great naturalists of his generation. He knew many of the distinguished men of his day; Franklin was an especial friend and supporter. He corresponded—and argued—with Linnaeus, and helped Linnaeus's pupil Peter KaIm (part of whose account of a visit to America is printed elsewhere in this issue) ; he corresponded with Peter Collinson, a wealthy Quaker of England, who exchanged seeds and plants with him, and who introduced him to a considerable number of others, including the Quaker Dr. John Fothergill, who joined in paying their American correspondent for his pains in hunting new plants for their gardens. With this support John Bartram traveled widely over eastern North America, from Florida to Canada, making notes and shrewd observations, and laying the foundation for many a pioneering essay or experiment in the science of botany. He was one of the founders of the American Philosophical Society; he was elected to the Royal Society of Sweden; he was appointed Royal Botanist in America to King George III, with an annual stipend that continued till interrupted in the latter part of his life by the Revolution. He was one of our great early scientists. His son William (1739-1823) had the advantage of his father's distinguished circle of acquaintances, and received a careful classical education ; but botany, ornithology, and drawing were his favorite pastimes, and his drawings of birds, plants, turtles, shells, and other natural objects were much admired in the circle of his father's English friends. He was not Vol. 31, No. 1. Spring 1942 42FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION very successful in business in his youth; but he accompanied his father on some of his travels, and thus acquired a taste that became one of his chief urges. He was supported by Dr. John Fothergill, who did not wish a genius to go to waste in unprofitable mercantile pursuits. His journeys, mainly in the South, were written up in volumes of Travels, in which the spirit of the man is shown. The influence of this work on the imagination of Coleridge (who discovered Bartram) and Wordsworth has long been known, and is admirably treated by Professor Earnest. "Kubla Khan," "Ruth," "The Prelude," "The Excursion" show passages which must have been inspired by Bartram . In an excellent chapter called "The Crest of Feathers," Earnest does justice to Bartram's studies of the primitive American races ; and in another chapter, "The Spirit of the Century," he shows how Bartram's thought penetrated European thinking on philosophical and religious subjects. William Bartram was a cosmopolite of the eighteenth century. But better than most of his contemporaries, he was able to reconcile the apparently conflicting claims of science...