Just Among Friends: The Quaker Way of Life (review)

BOOK REVIEWS91 a very lucid presentation of the spiritual tendencies of the time which gave birth to this work. For the lay reader they are indispensable and even the scholar conversant with the time will find them very useful. Ernst Jockers University of Pennsylvania Just Among Friends: The Quaker Way of Life, by William Wistar Comfort. With an Introduction by Henry Seidel Canby. New York, Macmillan, 1941. xiv + 210 pp. $2.00. PRESIDENT COMFORT has given us a new interpretation of the·*· Quaker faith and way of life, following in the footsteps of such distinguished Quaker writers as Edward Grubb, Rufus M. Jones, A. Ruth Fry, Jane P. Rushmore,. and A. Neave Brayshaw, and bringing the story down to an announcement by the American Friends Service Committee, dated December 11, 1940. In his Conclusion he addresses himself especially to the Friends of the Wider Quaker Fellowship, or Friends of the Friends—those whose ancestors left the Society but who have never entirely lost their sense of fellowship with it, and those who have been attracted by the Society but who have not yet joined—and expresses the hope that ¡his interpretation may be of use to them; but the portrait of Friends in contemplation and in action, the account of their faith and practice, will prove illuminating and stimulating to oldtime members as well. For the work is admirably done. In spite of the mass of interesting material available in Quaker history and crying for comment, President Comfort has not lost himself in details, but has displayed in his writing something of the quality of artistry which he tends to deny to the Quakers as a group (p. 69). An occasional passage of discreet humor spices the pages; an occasional generalization or piece of homely philosophy points the narrative. The craftsmanship, as well as the content, will win new friends for the Friends. The first three chapters, and the fifth—"The Quaker Faith," "Quaker Meetings," "Some Fruits of Silence," and "Quaker Education"—have to do largely with Quakers as a self-contained group. Friends in general will be familiar with many of the facts stated; but the presentation is fresh, and the interpretation always stimulating and interesting. The other chapters—"Quakers in a Larger Sphere," "Quaker Business Ethics," "Race Relations," "The Peace Testimony"—show the Quakers more in active contact with the outside world. Many of us learned about these things in childhood; but this or that has slipped our minds, and we have not kept ourselves informed on later developments, so that along with the zest of following a new interpretation by a skilful writer there is interest aroused by much of factual information that is new. The presentation of the peace testimony is especially timely, and, though Vol. 30, No. 2. Autumn 1941 92 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION it is presumably intended to be rather an exposition of the testimony than an argument for it, President Comfort has nevertheless made his discussion movingly convincing. Rufus Jones is quoted on the jacket as saying of this book: "Those who are wise will want to own it, not to borrow it. It is a gem of a book." With this judgment the present reviewer gladly agrees. T. K. B. QUAKER ARCHIVES IN PENNSYLVANIA THE PROPOSED "Inventory of Quaker Archives in Pennsylvania ," which President Comfort commented upon at the last annual meeting of Friends' Historical Association, will soon be published by the Pennsylvania Historical Survey under the sponsorship of our Association. The book will contain approximately four hundred pages, and will include brief histories of all the Friends' meetings in the State, together with an inventory of their minutes and other records which are known to exist. Local meetings are included which belong or once belonged to eight different Yearly Meetings in the State—the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings, the General Meeting of Friends (Primitive Friends, now centered at Fallsington), the Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends at Longwood, the two Baltimore Yearly Meetings, and Orthodox and Hicksite Yearly Meetings of Ohio. A map of Quaker meetings throughout the State will be included, as well as a list of organizations in which Friends have been interested. The editorial work for this...