AMONG THE BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2695, 8 November 1905, Page 81

AMONG THE BOOKS.

GEORGE FOX'S JOURNAL.

With an Introduction by W. Robertson

Niooll, M.A., LL.D,

London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons.

"If you want to understand 'the dissidenco of Dissent and th.3 Protestantism of the Protestant religion' read the journal of George Fox," wrote Carlyle many years ago, and though the "Carlyle craze" has passed, in a great measure, this piece of mental direction is as true now as the day it was written. A later and very different counsellor, the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, whose tongue and pen, like Carlyle's, will labour no more in these familiar ways, "being called of tlie Master to other work," has even broader giounds for advising us to a like oourse : — " He who desires to understand the real history of the Englisb people during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries should read most carefully three books — Goorga Fox's 'Journal,' John Wesley's 'Journal,' Pind Newman's ' Apologia.' " The edition of Fox's "Journal," brought oui by Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, is well and judiciously abridged, is pleasingly habited as to its" Quaker-grey binding encircling the small, black-and-white portrait, and is of excellent print. The English published price is Is. The mental and moral powers of tha great Quaker apostle have perhaps only lately been appreciated at their true value, and Macaulay's brilliant but shallow dictum on his character been consigned to its proper place in the literary dust-heap. Though written without other signification than the simple, personal record! of a highminded and single-hearted reformer, this journal of Georgo Fox is of immense value as an historical record by reason of the light it throws on the social atmosphere of the time. Cartyle, despite Ms appreciation of Fox, complains of the lack of dates and erratic methods of his writing. " George dates nothing," he says ; " his facts everywhere lie round him like the leather parings of his old shop." He was also a most voluminous correspondent, and Mr Percy Simington Parker, in whose hands the abridgement of the journal was placed, says : " I have been compelled to delete no less than three-quarters of the

journal . . . but . . . the portion here published sets forth a unique, massive figure of great physical bravery, of mighty moral courage, and of superb spiritual insight."