"The Quakers in the American Colonies," By Rufus M. Jones and Others

"THE QUAKERS IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES" 107 " THE QUAKERS IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES," BY RUFUS M. JONES AND OTHERS. Augustine Jones. " The Quakers in the American Colonies "is by far the most complete history of these Friends which has appeared. One wonders how such otherwise busy persons have gathered so much, and wrought the whole so rapidly into this excellent book. The Introduction is a full epitome of the brilliant conceptions of this author. It penetrates to the core, in love and admiration , the doings of the settlers. He intensely enjoys mining underground, and drawing neglected truth to the light. Their deficiencies in education are not overlooked, and what they might have been is made manifest, with the training of scholarship diffused among them, in the land of promise. But they did a work the airs of Harvard never attained to. Yet our author is correct : they needed both. The Galilean disciples had one field, St. Paul another. Every page testifies to their refinement of spirit in the school of Christ. The missionaries of the Sandwich Islands, instead of giving to those pagans the culture of the hoe, and simple gospel, dosed them with Greek and Latin, and failed. It is most edifying to con over the residue of truth from the fathers. If their tenets at last are ground as fine as snuff, by religious unity, and scattered wide as the dust of Wickliffe, their lives lived in the truth, testimony to the indwelling Spirit, the Divine Immanence, to eternal righteousness, will abide forever. Boswell says, " A man will turn over half a library to make one book." These authors have certainly done that, in an age of more books. No one can really write biography but the man who lived the life, and he needs watching. No persons could have written this adequate history, unless reared within the fold. Foreigners have not the vantage ground, and always grope about and fumble, Thomas Clarkson excepted. The evolution of meetings, the quality of people and their doings, in society, religion and politics, throughout the colonies, the style of writing and flavor of the book in all quarters, leaves nothing to be desired. The moral obedience of these colonists is io8 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY exceeded by none, " to the stern daughter of the voice of God," even to the brink of martyrdom." These eminent pioneers and leaders are an inspiring group, in this portraiture of men and deeds. The courtier, William Penn, with his vast sacrifices, and wise constructive labors, sought light from Sydney, " whose very name is a synonym of liberty," and whose writings were a text-book, in the colonies, on the principles of government. There they were, at Worminghurst , consulting about the " Holy Experiment." Here are delineated the notable services in the colony, of James Logan, Thomas Lloyd, John Kinsey and others in Pennsylvania , both in Church and State ; John Archdale in the Carolinas ; Charles Lynch, member of the legislature of Virginia, who heard Patrick Henry castigate Great Britain, who also was the founder of Lynchburg; Anthony Benezet, of Pennsylvania; John Woolman , Richard Hartshorne, and John Fenwick, of New Jersey; Lady Moody, in New York ; the Coddingtons, Eastons, Wantons, Walter Clarke and Stephen Hopkins, of New England. These are a few gathered from a multitude who have found a place in this history. I have not mentioned Richard Partridge, foreign agent for Rhode Island in England many years, agent Parliamentary for the London Meeting for Sufferings. He was a very successful and distinguished diplomat, for forty years. He secured the governorship of New Jersey for Jonathan Belcher, of Massachusetts. " Great men have been among us; hands that penned And tongues that uttered wisdom better none." —Wordsworth. Nothing is more instructive than their faith, with the most advanced mystical conceptions, disciplined by persecutions, shown throughout the colonies. It has the Apostolic quality. It appears in the conflict for human freedom and soul liberty. It shone in Woolman and Benezet. They went from meeting to meeting, and with tongue and pen awoke minds darkened by the thirst for Mammon. The light finally extinguished slavery, and sent a crushing blow to it, in a widening circle over the world...