imported by John Smith and left by him with his own books to the library which James Logan founded. These are in all probability the identical volumes used by John Woolman. Smollett's "Voyages" and his History appeared in 1757, and were also closely studied, and Smollett himself was a correspondent of the brothers Smith. Woolman was a hard reader all his life, and when one reflects upon the intimate friends who loved and admired him, among whom were the distinguished brothers Pemberton,3,6,8 and the Frenchman, Anthony Benezet, only second to Woolman in the importance of his anti-slavery work, one becomes somewhat impatient at encountering in every writer on Woolman, the persistent tradition of his illiteracy, linked usually with poverty. That he was neither unlearned nor poor, there is abundant evidence. Both impressions have doubtless come from the utter simplicity of the man's life and thought. He speaks of his family as "we who are of a middle station between poverty and riches."

We now know that John Woolman was an accomplished school teacher and taught many years, publishing a "Primer" which went through at least three editions. He mastered surveying and read enough law to obtain the legal knowledge necessary to draw wills, for which his services were in constant demand; to execute deeds and do conveyancing. Six estates for which he served as executor are named, with the accounting, in his manuscript account book, and old deeds in private hands, and in the Record Office in his native county, together with marriage certificates and surveyors' plans, all in his clear handwriting, are frequently turning up in unexpected ways. Passages in his writings indicate a legal turn of mind. In the chapter, for instance, "On Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves," is the following syllogism:

"In great measure there is a great trust.

A great trust requireth a great care;

But the laborious mind wants rest."

Again, in his last mystical epistle to his countrymen, before sailing for London in the spring of 1772, he says:

1 Essay "On Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves."

"The Church is called the body of Christ: Christ is called the Head of the Church;

The Church is called the Pillar and Ground of the Truth."

Even surgery was not unfamiliar, for evidently Woolman frequently bled people, and his judgment was of value to both the body and mind of his neighbor. Surely this is no illiterate laboring man who produces a wonderful book, but one possessed of as much self-taught wisdom as many another famous man, not to mention his neighbor, Benjamin Franklin. (1706-1790).

Anyone familiar with life in the Jerseys at this period will remark the total absence in the Journal of any reference to the great philosopher. Franklin was the publisher of Woolman's second essay on "Considerations," &c. as to the Negro, (1762), and the two men must often have met. Moreover, Franklin Park, on the outskirts of Rancocas, the residence of Franklin's son, William, (1729-1813) better known later as the Tory Governor, was frequently the retreat of his father. On the streams and swamps nearby he pursued his investigations into phosphoric phenomena, and all sorts of agricultural experiments were made on the farm, which comprised some two hundred acres. The large mansion was burned about 1843 and the park was later divided into several small farms. The deep ditch or moat surrounding the deer park may still be faintly traced to-day; twenty-five years ago it was clearly marked.

John Woolman must have been aware of the work of these agricultural pioneers, and of the Agricultural Society to which also belonged some of his wealthy Quaker neighbors. But one can imagine no sympathy between the practical scientist and the Quaker idealist. Their views of life, present and future, were too radically different to permit of any common standing ground, and Woolman would naturally shrink from the brilliant social circle in which the Franklins, father and son, moved together, until their differing political opinions separated them at the time of the American Revolution.

The pleasures of youth, as Woolman describes them, were temptations which he does not give us in any detail, but he leaves a picture in our minds of a sensitive spirit, whose disrespectful reply to his mother was never repeated after his father's gentle

and wise reproof, and who was preserved "from profanity and scandalous conduct." He loved vanities and mirthful company in a normal and natural way, but through all he "retained a love and esteem for pious people" and frequently read religious authors. At sixteen he was very ill, and made thoughtful by the circumstance, on his recovery he writes, "I was early convinced in my mind that true religion consisted of an inward life . . . I found no narrowness respecting sects and opinions, but believed that sincere, upright-hearted people in every society, who truly love God, were accepted of him." In this spirit of wide sympathy, so utterly foreign to the average young man, was lived out the whole of Woolman's life.

Until the age of twenty, our Journalist, as he says, "wrought on his father's plantation." A paragraph omitted in earlier editions of the Journal tells us that he was desired by a shop-keeper and baker to tend shop and keep books. For this he asked and obtained his father's consent, adding, "I had for a considerable time found my Mind less given to Husbandry than heretofore, having often in mind some other way of living." In the year 1740 he was settled in his master's shop at Mount Holly, six miles from his master's house, and seven from his own.

With his entrance at twenty-one into what he doubtless regarded as a career, in a little village containing all that he knew of the great world, excepting the occasional glimpses which he had of the city of Philadelphia, eighteen miles distant, we have the beginning of a life that was henceforth dedicated to his Master's service. He was quite alone after the day's work was done and his employer had gone home. He pursued his reading, improved himself in his education, and had time for pious meditation. It was so small an incident as the agreement to drink a health at an ale house that brought on the crisis in George Fox's life, and sent him forth to struggle with his soul in the wilderness. Fox was then nineteen. A similarly important crisis in John Woolman's life, and at nearly the same age, was brought about by being unexpectedly called upon to write a bill of sale for his employer's negro woman. The agitation into which this incident threw him marks the moment when he became dedicated to the life-long effort to free the slave-a result which he did not himself live to see. The Quakers held much property in

human flesh throughout the colonies, and at Perth Amboy stood the slave market where scenes occurred that must have rent John Woolman's heart.

He became much more serious and in this year, 1740-1, he records his first appearance in the ministry. But fearing that he had too much enlarged upon his message, he sat in abasement of spirit for six weeks before he again broke the silence of his little meeting. The house in which he first uttered his message no longer stands. Where can be found in few words, so vivid a description of the living spirit which moved him and his predecessors in the Faith, as in these words of the Quaker youth? "All the faithful are not called to the public ministry; but whoever are, are called to minister of that which they have tasted and handled, spiritually. The outward modes of worship are various; but wherever any are true Ministers of Jesus Christ, it is from the operation of his spirit in their hearts, first purifying them, and thus giving them a just sense of the condition of others. This truth was early fixed in my mind, and I was taught to watch the pure opening."

From the very beginning of his preaching Woolman appears to have been able to put aside the narrowness of thought and teaching by which he was surrounded, and to have grasped a sense of the unity of mankind. The keynote of his message, at the very start, no less than at the moment when, wearied out, he laid down his life in a distant land, was always and ever, Love: Love to God and love to man. This single note runs through the life and writings of John Woolman, as has been said, like a silver thread that is always conspicuously bright and glowing, however lark the web in which it is woven by circumstance.

17

His meeting recognized the power of the young preacher, for the Quarterly Meeting of Ministers and Elders at Burlingon, under date "27th. day of 6mo. 1743" recorded on their inutes: "The Monthly Meeting of Burlington have recomended our friends, Peter Andrews, John Woolman, and osiah White,18 who have sometimes appear'd in a way of pubick testimony, as Friends whom they have unity with, to be members of this meeting." Woolman, much the youngest, was but twenty-three.

Almost immediately after this formal recognition the young

Woolman accompanied Abraham Farrington,19 an elderly preacher, on a brief tour through northern New Jersey. Wool man at first hesitated, but some elderly Friends whom he consulted advised him to go. During this first and most important preach ing tour of John Woolman it is interesting to note that nearly all the meetings were held in places where no Quakers were set tled. In the town tavern at Brunswick they had a large and attentive congregation. The same thing happened in the Pres byterian settlements in East Jersey. A large meeting in the Court House at Perth Amboy, where the Provincial Assembly was then in session, was attended by many members of that body. A large proportion of these were Quakers, or of Quaker affiliations, and some of them were life-long friends of the old preacher and his young companion. One of these was the Treasurer of the Prov ince, Samuel Smith. Woolman says his "ancient Companion preached largely in the love of the Gospel" to the statesmen and prominent people present. He himself took but an occasional brief part, "with" as he says, "much care that I might speak only what Truth opened. My mind was often tender, and I learned some profitable lessons. We were out about two weeks." This was in the autumn of 1743 and was Woolman's first visit away from home on such an errand. Abraham Farrington 19 died in London on a religious visit in 1758.

The Journal at this period tells its own story of the daily life of Woolman, with somewhat more detail than at other times. We learn that in the falling off of his master's business in "mer chandising," Woolman began to look about for more permanen employment, especially as thoughts of the possibility of "set tling”—i.e., marrying-arose in his mind. There is no certain clu to the name of this master, but he apparently carried on a larg general business such as was for a century or more to be found in country districts throughout the colonies, supplying the farr ing population with every possible need, not furnished by the own farms. He made up into clothing the cloth woven on th hand looms, and for this purpose employed a man who ha learned tailoring. With his characteristic thoroughness Woolma determined that this would furnish him with a living, and if s he must become skilful and learn the trade properly. The wa was made easy by his master; terms were agreed upon, an