me: if I make use of them to refresh myself after study and business, they preserve my health, restore the vigour of my mind, and increase my pleasure; but if I spend all, or the greatest part of my time in them, they hinder my improvement in knowledge and useful arts, they blast my credit, and give me up to the uneasy state of shame, ignorance, and contempt, in which I cannot but be very unhappy. Drinking, gaming, and vicious delights will do. me this mischief, not. only by wasting my time, but by a positive efficacy endanger my health, impair my parts, imprint ill habits, lessen my esteem, and leave a constant lasting torment on my conscience; therefore all vicious and unlawful pleasures I will always avoid, because such a mastery of my passions will afford me a constant pleasure greater than any such enjoyments; and also deliver me from the certain evil of several kinds, that by indulging myself in a present temptation I shall certainly afterwards suffer.

All innocent diversions and delights as far as they will contribute to my health, and consist with my improvement, condition, and my other more solid pleasures of knowledge and reputation, I will enjoy, but no farther, and this I will carefully watch and examine, that I may not be deceived by the flattery of a present pleasure to lose a greater.

WILLIAM PENN

(A. D. 1644–1718.)

THE founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, was the son of a British admiral, Sir William Penn, and was bred in the aristocratic circles of the English court. London was the place of his birth, which occurred on the 14th of October, 1644, in the midst of the Civil War. He reached manhood soon after the Restoration, with every prospect of a career that should be gilded by the sunshine of royal favor. But in 1668 he made what seemed to be a choice of worldly ruin, by embracing the religious doctrines of the despised and persecuted sect of Friends, or Quakers. The suffering which he shared with his fellows in the humble society of George Fox led Penn to interest himself in American colonization. He first became one of the proprietors of West Jersey, and assisted in establishing Quaker settlements in that province; but in 1681 he acquired in his own name a more princely domain. For payment of a debt due his father he procured from the king a proprietary grant of the great territory now covered by the State of Pennsylvania. Furthermore, the next year, he joined with other Friends in the purchase of the province of East Jersey from the trustees of Sir George Carteret. Not content with the title to Pennsylvania derived from the English king, Penn entered into personal treaty with the Indians and purchased their territorial rights. Twice during his lifetime, in 1682-84 and 1699-1701, he visited his province, remaining in all some four years. He died in England on the 30th of July,

1718.

In the "Life of Penn," which he prepared for the second series of the "Library of American Biography," Mr. George E. Ellis classes him with "the very few of the innocently great of the earth." "He pursued," says Mr. Ellis, “exalted aims, drawn from the most advanced attainments of

the age in which he lived, and anticipating the light of an after time. Three great principles controlled his mind and cheered his heart; reverence for God, love for man, and confidence in freedom. Penn excelled in the best of human His natural powers were

qualities. He was free from vice. of a high order; his acquired advantages were large and various, embracing bodily strength, learning, wisdom, and discretion, as the furniture of his mind, with the richest and most attractive graces of the heart. As a writer he used few images, but employed a wide compass of language. He makes constant references to the Scriptures, but always quotes them in their natural sense, with no forced applications.

. . They who conceive of Penn as a sanctimonious and rigid zealot, with a stiffened countenance, a formal garb, and a frowning look cast upon the innocent pleasures and good things of life, would go wide of the truth. He was quite a gentleman in his dress and manner of life, in his furniture and equipage. He loved manly sports; he could hunt and angle. Dean Swift says, that he talked very agreeably and with great spirit.

Penn wrote clearly and eloquently, from a full mind and a full heart, and he wrote much, chiefly in the way of religious appeal and encouragement, or in explanation of the beliefs of the Society of Friends. But among his published writings there are two which come within the range of the gleanings made for this collection. One of these, first published in 1693, under the title of "Fruits of Solitude, gave great delight to Robert Louis Stevenson, when he came upon it a few years ago. At San Francisco, Stevenson had picked up a Philadelphia reprint of the little book, and some time afterwards he sent it to a friend, with this note written in it: "If ever in all my 'human conduct' I have done a better thing to any fellow creature than handing on to you this sweet, dignified, and wholesome book, I know I shall hear of it on the last day. To write a book like this were impossible; at least one can hand it on - with a wrenchone to another. My wife cries out and my own heart misgives me, but still here it is. . . . Even the copy was dear to me, printed in the colony that Penn established, and carried in my pocket all about the San Francisco streets, read in street cars and ferry-boats, when I was sick unto death,

and found in all times and places a peaceful and sweet companion. "Letters of Stevenson," vol. i. p. 232.

Possibly the meditations first ripened epigrammatically in these "Fruits of Solitude' were simply reconsidered and broadened out in the "Advice to his Children," which Penn published in 1699. The same spirit, with something more of religious warmth in it, is carried to the latter, and the essence of the teaching is the same. It is a far finer and purer teaching of righteousness for its own sake than was at all common in the age to which William Penn belonged.

SELECTED

"REFLECTIONS AND MAXIMS RELATING TO THE CONDUCT OF LIFE."

(From William Penn's "Fruits of Solitude.")

Lend not beyond thy ability, nor refuse to lend out of thy ability; especially when it will help others more than it can hurt thee.

Frugality is good, if liberality be joined with it. The first, is leaving off superfluous expenses; the last, bestowing them to the benefit of others that need. The first without the last, begins covetousness; the last without the first, begins prodigality: both together make an excellent temper.

Hospitality is good, if the poorer sort are the subjects of our bounty; else too near a superfluity.

Love labour: for if thou dost not want it for food, thou mayest for physic.

The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume; but a good stomach excels them all; to which nothing contributes more, than industry and temperance.

"Let nothing be lost," said our Saviour: but that is lost that is misused.

Choose thy clothes by thine own eyes, not another's. If thou art clean and warm, it is sufficient; for more doth but rob the poor, and please the wanton.

Never marry but for love: but see that thou lovest what is lovely.

He that minds a body and not a soul, has not the better part of that relation; and will consequently want the noblest comfort of a married life.

Between a man and his wife, nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants; yet not without sweetness.

Choose a friend as thou dost a wife, "till death separate you."

Be not easily acquainted: lest, finding reason to cool, thou makest an enemy, instead of a good neighbour.

Be reserved, but not sour; grave, but not formal; bold, but not rash; humble, but not servile; patient, not insensible; constant, not obstinate; cheerful, not light; rather sweet, than familiar; familiar, than intimate; and intimate with very few, and upon very good grounds.

If thou hast done an injury to another, rather own it, than defend it. One way thou gainest forgiveness; the other, thou doublest the wrong and reckoning.

If thou thinkest twice, before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it.

Better say nothing, than not to the purpose.

In all debates, let truth be thy aim; not victory, or an unjust interest: and endeavour to gain, rather than to expose, thy antagonist.

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers.

It is wise not to seek a secret; and honest, not to reveal one.

Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee. Openness has the mischief, though not the malice, of treachery.

It is not enough that a thing be right, if it be not fit to