SOME FRUITS OF SOLITUDE
By William Penn
Grolier Enterprises Corp., 1985, 82 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
This author is the famous settler of the British colony that came to be known as Pennsylvania in northeastern America. The particular volume of this review is a compendium that includes the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and the journal kept by John Woolman. I shared a review of those sections in earlier editions of the BHP.
Penn converted to the Quaker sect in 1667 at the age of 23. It put him at odds with the royal crown that had deeded him the Pennsylvania territory. He worked to regain graces and went back and forth between the old world and the new. He died in 1718 in England.
The work in question reads like a set of proverbs as the author shares his views on many topics. Those of this work are drawn from many papers he wrote over decades. It is an interesting look into the mind of a 17th century thinker and leader. Since he lived about 100 years prior to the American Revolutionary War there is little in it of that spirit. He pushes in much of the writings to lift people through education, then goes on to offer his ideas that should be part of a developed person’s education. Themes include matters of character such as charity, avarice, pride, etc. There are also musings of important social issues of the day such as discipline, justice, right marriage, obedience to parents, and the like.
Though there is not much of history in the text itself, the reader gains a sense of the historical moment Penn was living in. He was educated in the perspectives of his time and was a leader of people. It’s safe to say that much of his view was common among those of his sect, but also of much of the American population of the late 1600’s.
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