JOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL. Charles Lamb's advice, °Get the writings of John Woolman by heart,* is well known, and other sensitive and idealistic critics, English and American, have been equally enthusiastic over Woolman's chief work, his Journal; but among practical Americans of to-day, it is to be feared that the book is oftener praised than read. It was begun when Woolman was 35 years old, and was continued until his death, in 1772, at the age of 52. Though it is called a journal, it goes back to recount the events of his whole life, particularly his spiritual experi ences. It is notable that among the few Ameri can classics that have come down from the 18th century are the autobiographies of two men who represent opposed tendencies in American thought — Franklin and Woolman. In contrast with Franklin's extreme practicality stands Woolman's disreeard of wordly things, and his readiness to sacrifice property, convenience, and bodily comfort for the sake of principle, and even for reasons of conscience so slight as to seem almost whims. Thus, on his trip to
Europe he endured all the hardships of the steerage for the reason, as he says, "that on the outside of that part of the ship where the cabin was I observed sundry sorts of carved work and imagery; that in the cabin I observed some superfluity of workmanship of several sorts,* and he felt a scruple against paying a passage rate that was greater because of these worldly adornments. Woolman was, however, no ordinary crank or eccentric reformer. The genuineness and sweetness of his character im pel us to respect him when he goes to the greatest extremes in matters of conscience. He did not, like Franklin, pay deliberate attention to the mastery of style, but his singularly pure and limpid prose seems a natural expression of the man himself.