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03 - William Penn by George Hodges · William Penn

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three of William Penn by George Hodges. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Richard Vogel
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  Speaker 1: in France and Ireland. The World and the Other World.
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  Speaker 1: In his retrospect of his early life, pen notes what
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  Speaker 1: immediately followed his departure from the university, the bitter usage
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  Speaker 1: I underwent when I returned to my father, whipping, beating
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  Speaker 1: and turning out of doors. In sixteen sixty two. The
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  Speaker 1: Admiral was thoroughly angry. He was, at best but imperfectly
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  Speaker 1: acquainted with his son, of whom, in his busy life
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  Speaker 1: he had seen but little, and was therefore unprepared for
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  Speaker 1: such extraordinary conduct. He was, by no means a religious person.
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  Speaker 1: For this spiritual or even the ecclesiastical aspects of the matter,
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  Speaker 1: he cared nothing. But he had, as Clarendon perceived, a
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  Speaker 1: strong desire to be well thought of by those who
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  Speaker 1: composed the good society of the day. He expected the
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  Speaker 1: members of his family to support themselves as befitted such society.
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  Speaker 1: And here was William, whom he had carefully sent to
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  Speaker 1: a college where he would naturally consort with the sons
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  Speaker 1: of titled families, taking up with a religious movement which
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  Speaker 1: would bring him into the company of cobblers and tinkers.
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  Speaker 1: It is said, indeed, that Robert Spencer, afterwards Earl of Sunderland,
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  Speaker 1: helped William destroy the surplices. But this is denied, and
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  Speaker 1: even if it were true, it would be plain from
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  Speaker 1: Spencer's after career that he did it not for principle,
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  Speaker 1: but for the fun of the thing. William was in
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  Speaker 1: the most sober earnest. Accordingly, the Admiral turned his son
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  Speaker 1: out of doors. The boy came back. Of course, meeting
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  Speaker 1: and turning out of doors were not such serious events
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  Speaker 1: in the seventeenth century as they would be at present.
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  Speaker 1: Most men said more and in louder voices, and meant less.
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  Speaker 1: It was but a brief quarrel, and father and son
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  Speaker 1: made it up as best they could. It was plain, however,
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  Speaker 1: that something must be done. Whipping would not avail. William's
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  Speaker 1: head was full of queer notions upon which a stick
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  Speaker 1: had no effect. His father bethought himself of the pleasant
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  Speaker 1: diversions of France. The lad, he said, has lived in
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  Speaker 1: the country all his days, and has had no acquaintance
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  Speaker 1: with the merry world. He shall go abroad that he
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  Speaker 1: may see life and learned to behave like a gentleman.
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  Speaker 1: Let us see if this will not cure him of
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  Speaker 1: his pious follies. Accordingly to France, the young man went
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  Speaker 1: and traveled in the company with certain persons of rank.
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  Speaker 1: He stayed more than a year and enjoyed himself greatly.
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  Speaker 1: He was at the age when all the world is
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  Speaker 1: new and interesting, and being of attractive appearance and high spirits,
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  Speaker 1: with plenty of money, the world gave him a cordial welcome.
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  Speaker 1: So far did he venture into the customs of the
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  Speaker 1: country that he had a fight one night in a
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  Speaker 1: Paris street with somebody who crossed swords with him and
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  Speaker 1: disarmed his antagonist. He had a right, according to the rules,
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  Speaker 1: to kill him, but he declined to do so. When
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  Speaker 1: he came home, he pleased his father much by his
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  Speaker 1: graceful behavior and elegant attire this day, says mister Peeps
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  Speaker 1: in his diary for August twenty sixth, sixteen sixty four.
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  Speaker 1: My wife tells me that mister Penn, Sir William's son,
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  Speaker 1: is come back from France and came to visit her.
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  Speaker 1: A most modish person grown, She says, a fine gentleman
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  Speaker 1: Peeps thinks that he is even a bit too French
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  Speaker 1: in his manner in conversation. I remember your honor very well,
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  Speaker 1: writes a correspondent years after, when you came out of
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  Speaker 1: France and wore pantaloon breeches. This journey affected Penn all
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  Speaker 1: the rest of his life. It restrained him from following
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  Speaker 1: the absurder singularities of his associates. George Fox's leather suit,
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  Speaker 1: he would have found him possible. He wore his hat
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  Speaker 1: in the Quaker way and said thee and now. But
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  Speaker 1: otherwise he appears to have dressed and acted according to
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  Speaker 1: the conventions of polite societ. He did, indeed become a Quaker,
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  Speaker 1: but there were always Quakers who looked askance at him
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  Speaker 1: because it was so different from them, Able to speak
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  Speaker 1: French and acquainted with the manners of drawing rooms. In
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  Speaker 1: two respects, however, his visit to France differed from that
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  Speaker 1: of some of his companions in travel. There were places
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  Speaker 1: to which they went without him, and there were places
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  Speaker 1: to which he went without them. He kept himself from
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  Speaker 1: the grosser temptations of the country. You have been as
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  Speaker 1: bad as other folks, said Sir John Robinson, when Penn
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  Speaker 1: was on trial for preaching in the street. When cried Penn,
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  Speaker 1: and where I charge THEE tell the company to my
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  Speaker 1: face abroad, said Robinson, And at home too. I make
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  Speaker 1: this bold challenge, answered Penn, to all men, women and
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  Speaker 1: children upon earth, justly to accuse me with ever having
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  Speaker 1: seen me drunk, heard me swear, utter a curse, or
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  Speaker 1: even one obscene word, much less that I ever made
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  Speaker 1: it my practice. I speak this to God's glory, that
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  Speaker 1: has ever preserved me from the power of those pollutions,
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  Speaker 1: and that from a child begot a hatred in me
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  Speaker 1: towards them. He went away alone for some months to
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  Speaker 1: the Protestant college of Somur, where he devoted himself to
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  Speaker 1: a study of that primitive Christianity in which, as Low
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  Speaker 1: had told him, was to be found the true ideal
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  Speaker 1: of the Christian Church. Here he acquired an acquaintance with
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  Speaker 1: the writings of the early Fathers, from whom he liked
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  Speaker 1: to quote. Thus he returned to England in sixteen sixty four,
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  Speaker 1: attired in French pantaloon breaches, and with little French affectations
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  Speaker 1: in his manner, but without vices, and with a smattering
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  Speaker 1: of patristic learning. He was sent by his father to
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  Speaker 1: study law at Lincoln's Inn. He was to be a courtier,
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  Speaker 1: and in that position it would be both becoming and
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  Speaker 1: convenient to have some knowledge of the law. Thus he
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  Speaker 1: settled down among the lawyers, and it seemed, for the
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  Speaker 1: moment as if his father had succeeded in his purpose.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed as if the world had effectually obscured the
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  Speaker 1: other world. There are two letters written about this time
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  Speaker 1: from William to his father, which show a pleasant mixture
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  Speaker 1: of piety with a lively interest in life about him.
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  Speaker 1: He has been at sea for a few days with
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  Speaker 1: the admiral, and returns with dispatches to the King. I
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  Speaker 1: bless God, he writes, art does not in any way
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  Speaker 1: fail but firmly believe that if God has called you
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  Speaker 1: out to battle, he will cover your head. In that
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  Speaker 1: smoky day, he hastened on his errand he says, to Whitehall,
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  Speaker 1: and arrived before the king was up. But his Majesty,
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  Speaker 1: learning that there was news, earnestly skipping out of bed,
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  Speaker 1: came only in his gown and slippers, who, when he
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  Speaker 1: saw me, said, oh, isn't it you? How is sir
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  Speaker 1: William that was in May. Within a week the plague
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  Speaker 1: came on the seventh of June sixteen sixty five. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Peeps makes this ominous entry this day says much against
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  Speaker 1: my will I did in Drury Lane see two or
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  Speaker 1: three houses marked with the red Cross upon the doors,
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  Speaker 1: and Lord have mercy written there, which was a sad
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  Speaker 1: sight to me, being the first of the kind that,
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  Speaker 1: to my remembrance I ever saw. Day by day the
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  Speaker 1: pestilence increased, and presently there was no more studying at
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln's Inn. Young pen went out for safety into the
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  Speaker 1: clean country. There among the green fields in the enforced leisure,
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  Speaker 1: with time to think and the most sobering things to
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  Speaker 1: think about, his old seriousness returned. The change was so
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  Speaker 1: marked that his father, feeling that it were well to
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  Speaker 1: renew the pleasant friendship with the world which had begun
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  Speaker 1: in France, sent him over to Ireland. At Dublin, the
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  Speaker 1: Duke of Ormond, the Lord Lieutenant, was keeping a merry court.
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  Speaker 1: William entered hardily into its pleasures. He resided upon his
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  Speaker 1: father's dea states at Channegray Castle. He so distinguished himself
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  Speaker 1: in the suppression of a mutiny that Ormond offered him
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  Speaker 1: a commission in the army, and William was disposed to
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  Speaker 1: accept it. He had his portrait painted, clad in steel,
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  Speaker 1: with lace at his throat. His dark hair is parted
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  Speaker 1: in the middle, an hangs in cavalier fashion over his shoulders.
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  Speaker 1: He looks out of large, clear, questioning eyes, and his
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  Speaker 1: handsome face is strong and serious. But the young cavalier
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  Speaker 1: went one day to Cork upon some business, and there
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  Speaker 1: heard that Thomas Lowe was in town, and that he
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  Speaker 1: was to preach. Penn went to hear him, and again
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  Speaker 1: the spoken word was critical and decisive. There is a faith,
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  Speaker 1: said the preacher, which overcomes the world, and there is
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  Speaker 1: a faith which is overcome by the world. Such was
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  Speaker 1: the theme, and it seemed to Penn as if every
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  Speaker 1: word were spoken out of Heaven, straight to his own soul.
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  Speaker 1: And the long contention which had been going on within
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  Speaker 1: him between the world and the other world, the world
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  Speaker 1: had been getting the mastery. The attractions of a martial
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  Speaker 1: life had shone more brightly than the light which had
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  Speaker 1: flamed about him in his boyhood. Then low spoke, and
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  Speaker 1: thenceforth there was no more perplexity. Penn's choice was definitely
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  Speaker 1: made in his account of his travels in Holland and Germany,
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  Speaker 1: written some ten years after this crisis. Pen recurs to
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  Speaker 1: it in an address from which I have already quoted.
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  Speaker 1: He was speaking in Weimart at a meeting in the
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  Speaker 1: mansion house of the Summer Dykes, and was illustrating his
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  Speaker 1: exhortations from his own experience. He passed in rapid review
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  Speaker 1: the incidents of his early life, which we have recounted here.
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  Speaker 1: I began to let them know. He says, how and
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  Speaker 1: where the Lord first appeared under me, which was about
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  Speaker 1: the twelfth year of my age, in sixteen fifty six,
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  Speaker 1: How at times betwixt that and the fifteenth the Lord
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  Speaker 1: visited me, and the divine impressions he gave me of himself,
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  Speaker 1: Then the banishment from Oxford and his father's churning him
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  Speaker 1: out of doors, of the Lord's dealings with me in France,
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  Speaker 1: and in the time of the great plague in London,
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  Speaker 1: in fine the deep sense he gave me of the
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  Speaker 1: vanity of this world, of the deep irreligiousness of the
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  Speaker 1: religions of it. Then of my mournful and bitter cries
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  Speaker 1: to him that he would show me his own way
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  Speaker 1: of life and salvation, and my resolution to follow him
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  Speaker 1: whatever reproaches our sufferings should attend me, and that with
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  Speaker 1: great reverence and tenderness of spirit. How after all this,
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  Speaker 1: the glory of the world overtook me, and I was
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  Speaker 1: even ready to give myself up unto it, seeing as
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  Speaker 1: yet no such thing as the primitive Spirit in Church
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  Speaker 1: upon Earth, and being ready to faint concerning my hope
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  Speaker 1: of the restitution of all things. It was at this
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  Speaker 1: time that the Lord visited me with a certain sound
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  Speaker 1: and testimony of his word through one of them the
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  Speaker 1: world calls Quakers, namely Thomas Lowe. Struggling his pen was
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  Speaker 1: against continual temptations to abandon his high ideal, getting no
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  Speaker 1: help from his parents, who were displeased at him, nor
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  Speaker 1: from the clergy, whose invictiveness and cruelty he remembers, nor
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  Speaker 1: from his companions, who made themselves strange to him. Bearing
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  Speaker 1: meanwhile that great cross of resisting and watching against mine
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  Speaker 1: own inward vain affections and thoughts. The only voice of
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  Speaker 1: help and strength was that of Thomas low Seeking for
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  Speaker 1: the primitive Spirit in Church upon Earth, he found it
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  Speaker 1: in the sect which low represented. His mind was now
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  Speaker 1: resolved he too, would be a Quaker. End of chapter three,