The Henson Journals

[199]

Thursday, July 21st, 1927.

And 'till we are persuaded to stop, & step a little aside, out of the noisy crowd and incumbering hurry of the world, & calmly take a prospect of things it will be impossible we should be able to make a right judgment of ourselves, or know our own misery. But after we have made the just reckonings which Retirement will help us to, we shall begin to think the world in great measure mad, & that we have been in a sort of Bedlam all this while.

(Wm. Penn. Preface to Reflections & Maxims)

The weather is heavy & thunderous, very unfavourable to every form of honest effort. I fooled away the morning in my study, and, in the afternoon, went into Durham, & attended a meeting of the Playing Fields Association in the Town Hall. General Surtees presided. On my return to the Castle, I had an interview with Sinnamon, which relieved me of much anxiety.

I read through Penn's preface to Fox's Journal. It is admirably written, and gives as clear an account of the Quaker Gospel as I know. His description of the Founder of Quakerism is vivid, attractive, and drawn from life.

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