Books of Interest to Friends

BOOKS OF INTEREST TO FRIENDS.73 TVIy love to thy Wife and to Baby and take of a large Share thyselfe , from thy affectionate Aun. Gra. Lloyd. I should have writ to ffrancis but cañt. I intend to have sent thy book but having company yesterday and today had not time —if thou Wants them shall endeavour to send them next trip. BOOKS OF INTEREST TO FRIENDS. No more gratifying news has come across the water regarding things historical than the information that the Journal of George Fox has at last become the property of Friends at the Reference Library, Devonshire House, London, where it will remain as one of its most treasured possessions. With it are letters to and from George Fox and the Fells; the MSS have heretofore been known as the " Spence MSS" in three excellently mounted and bound volumes. After many vicissitudes, and a long loan of them to the Library by Robert Spence, the artist, who was their late owner, the purchase has been accomplished, and it is matter of satisfaction that American Friends have done their share in the work. As a suitable and altogether courteous acknowledgment of hospitalities received at the hands of the English Friends, the American group of visitors at the All Friends Conference in London last autumn aided in completing the purchase price of £1500, giving an international interest to the Journal of the Founder of Quakerism. The priceless MS. will remain in the care of the Librarian, Norman Penney, F.R.H.S., who in 191 1 ably edited it for publication by the Cambridge University Press. Household Account Book of Sarah Fell of Swarthmore Hall. Edited by Norman Penney, F.R.H.S. (Cambridge University Press, London. The Macmillan Co., New York.) Such a commonplace thing as an account book will sometimes preserve for future generations a picture of home life that can be presented in no other way. . This cash book, with its infinite number of homely details of payments to the laborers of Lancashire and Cumberland, and its suggestions of character in the latter half of the seventeenth century , has a lineage worthy of the form in which its able editor has presented its 650 pages. The MS. passed through hands which have respected and preserved it since it was closed by Sarah, daughter of Margaret (Fell) Fox, and wife of William Meade. It was the gift of J. Herbert' Midgely, the last owner, to Devonshire House Library. The Times (London) Literary Supplement for 11 mo. (November) nth. 74BULLETIN OF FRIENDS* HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 1920, devotes a column and a half to the book, to which the reader is referred. The editor quotes Professor C. H. Firth in the "Scottish Historical Review" for July, 1913, who says that the especial merit of the lives of the Quakers is that "they introduce us to a wider circle than the memoirs of courtiers and noblemen; all sorts of men appear in their pages ; a picture of the middle classes and the people could be put together from them." This is a powerful argument for our best efforts in keeping alive an interest in Quaker collections and domestic history of all sorts. A valuable little twelve-page pamphlet (No. 8 of a series) has recently been distributed at Friends' Select School by its compiler, Walter W. Haviland, entitled " Some Books on Religious Education." The occasion of its preparation was the recent series of lectures held at the school on that subject. While not exhaustive, its graded titles are suggestive . As the old " guarded " education of early days is opening out toward the great realms of the imagination in art, we are led to wish that a full and fundamental study might be begun in all our Quaker schools on correct historical lines, that would bring the subject properly before both the young pupil and the older student. This is suggested by the evening lecture of Professor A. E. Bailey of Boston on "The Gospel in Art." A totally new subject in our Friends' Schools needs to begin at the beginning. We speak now of the beginning of art, not of religion, which, we are thankful to reflect, has for...