Book Notices and Reviews

BOOK NOTICES AND REVIEWS.4« A notice of the life of Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh, and of her " Great Bible," still in existence, is in The Friend (Phila.), 8 mo. n and 18, 1921. A sketch of the life of John Gratton, by Emily Manners, is in The Friend (London), 9 mo. 16 and 23, 1921. He was a minister of the first generation of Friends, who suffered much for his faith, including an imprisonment of more than five and a half years. He was born about 1641 and died in 1712. A striking incident in the life of David Sands is related in The Friend (Phila.), 8 mo. 25, 1921, p. 87. BOOK NOTICES AND REVIEWS. Jones, Rufus M. The Later Periods of Quakerism. 2 vols. Macmillan , London and New York. 1921. I have been asked to write a short review, from the British standpoint , of Rufus Jones's latest book; and I gladly offer the following remarks, though conscious how inadequate they are to express the debt we owe to the author for this illuminating story of the arrest of growth in the Society and of its later developments. It is a great thing that the work should have been undertaken by one who has sufficient knowledge of the thoughts of humanity to set forth the Quaker idea and way of life in relation to the wider religious movements of the world. Not the least valuable parts of the book, especially for readers who are not themselves Friends (of whom it is to be hoped there will be many), are the "background" chapters, including the Introduction , with its powerful exposition of Mysticism and Evangelicalism, and those which deal with Quietism, the spiritual' environment of Eighteenth Century Quakerism, and the religious tendencies of the Nineteenth Century. It is a source of wonder to a British reader that any American could gain so full and accurate a knowledge as is here shown of the details of our history on this side of the Atlantic. After careful reading I can hardly discover any mistakes of fact; though the proportions of things, as they appear to some of us over here, are not always those which we ourselves should have given them. There is, for example, very little allusion to the Foreign Mission work which has taken so large a place in our activities since the middle of the nineteenth century. Minor points open to criticism there are, of course, and must be. Quite at the opening of his story (p. 3) the author says that in the eighteenth century "there was" (he is inclined to think) "no striking decrease of 42BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. zeal." If he means " among the few leaders," this may be true ; but he himself provides sorrowful evidence, in his account of John Griffith and elsewhere, of the " low ebb " to which spiritual life had fallen among the rank and file. The picture of the " Eldership," as it prevailed from about 1750 to 1850 (pp. 126-7), may appear to English readers somewhat idealized. It is, I think, too favorable a judgment, 90 far as we are concerned, to say (p. 669) that " Friends saw clearly from the beginning of their history that . . . they must educate the entire membership of the Society." The reading of the Bible by the head of the family (p. 191) was usually practised both morning and evening, and not once only in the day ; and " opportunities " for vocal' prayer or exhortation frequently occurred at these times, especially when visiting ministers were present. The main objections felt to congregational singing—that it may mean the utterance of solemn words which are not felt, and that if it is to be done well it requires so much arrangement that it is in danger of becoming a performance—are not mentioned (p. 911). It is not enough to call the disuse of singing a " fixed habit which goes on operating after everybody has forgotten its rational grounds." The veiled irony of the allusion to pastors who " restrained aimless preaching and filled the meeting-time with profitable talk" might perhaps well have been made explicit. We, at least, though we have no pastors, know too much...