Quakers Observed in Prose and Verse: An Anthology 1656-1986 (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews131 century. Finally, the gradual re-integration ofthe radical Children ofPeace into the economic and religious mainstream suggests, to this reviewer at least, new ways oflooking at changes among both Orthodox and Hicksite Friends in the mid 19th century. State University of New York at BuffaloChristopher Densmore Quakers Observed in Prose and Verse: An Anthology 1656-1986. Compiled and edited by Mollie Grubb. York, England: Sessions, 1993. A5 - 132 pp. Notes, index, illustrations. Paper. £7.50 (+ £1.00 p&p = £8.50) In 1985 David Blamires published inA Quaker MiscellanyforEdwardMilligan an overview of references to Quakers by non-Friends from Pepys to Iris Murdoch which ended with the suggestion that an anthology of readings would be useful. Taking the title of his essay and responding to his suggestions, Mollie Grubb solicited contributions from readers of The Friend and drew on her own wide knowledge of Quaker history to produce this documentary history of three centuries ofperceptions ofQuakers by those outside the Society. This informative compilation includes excerpts from poetry, fiction, and drama as well as journals and tracts, mostly from British sources, though Voltaire and a few Americans are also represented. The collection is bracketed on the one hand by John Evelyn's 1656 description of "a new phanatic sect, of dangerous principles, who shew no respect to any man. . . and seem a melancholy proud sort of people," and on the other by Fenner Brockway's 1 982 report ofFriends' effectiveness in working with the World Disarmament Campaign. Taken together, the selections trace an uneven trajectory from an initial view of Quakers as misguided, disruptive, and cruel in a hypocritically uncompromising stance, though a gradual respect for their sturdy principles, good will, and cleanliness, to an appreciation oftheir sincerity, courage, and commitment to social justice and non-violence. While John Bunyan accuses Quakers of "vile and abominable things" in 1666, by 1807 Robert Southey could write "they are universally admitted to be the most respectable sect in England." Considering the range of potential material, the collection is of necessity selective; there is nothing, for instance, from Harriet Beecher Stowe though there is an extract from Longfellow; nothing from William Wordsworth though we have Dorothy Wordsworth's awed description ofthe devotion ofan old Quaker woman. Some ofthe quotations will be familiar to many readers—Dr. Johnson's remarks on women preachers, for instance—but others, such as the youthful Lord Byron's appreciative verses "To a Beautiful Quaker," are unexpected. Many excerpts will provide flashes ofpleasure and insight for the Quaker reader. There are sensitive accounts of silent worship by sympathetic non-Friends such as Charles Lamb and Dorothy Richardson (who also comments on "the iniquity of unpunctuality in attending a Quaker meeting"). There are suggestions of the Society's strengths even from those who attack it most vehemently, such as Richard Baxter in One Sheet Against the Quakers (1657) who, in decrying the pernicious misleading of pious churchgoers, reports that "many turned Quakers, because the Quakers kept their meetings openly, and went to prison for it cheerfully." There are glimpses of familiar pitfalls, such as the comments ofseveral 18th and 19th century writers on the difficulty encountered by Quakers, grown wealthy through industry and discipline, in keeping their children within the plain sect. And there are painful 132Quaker History reminders that Quakers have not always lived up to their high calling. Mollie Grubb provides a useful general introduction to the volume briefly summarizing and interpreting the patterns she has observed, as well as introductions to each excerpt. This composite portrait ofhow the Society has been viewed by the general public should be of interest to historians of religion and of social attitudes as well as to Friends. Eastern CollegeCaroline L. Cherry The Correspondence ofJohn Bartram, 1 734-1 777. Ed. by Edmund Berkeley and Dorothy Smith Berkeley. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1992. xv + 809 pp. Illustrations, appendices, glossary of names, notes, bibliography, and index. $125.00. Beginning in the 1730s, John Bartram (1699-1777) achieved fame in international botany circles for his tireless labors in exploring wild, uncharted American territories, identifying countless new American species of flora and fauna, and supplying King George III and other notables with plants for...