ART. VI.-FABLES, &c., IN PROSE AND VERSE-CONTINUED,

The Lion libelled! Esop, 35.

The Lion stood alone, and cast his eyes around,

No creature was in view, and yet he heard a sound;
Hoarse, hollow, from the bog at intervals it came,

He droop'd his tail with fear, then hung his head for shame.
For now appears at once the cause of his alarm,
Forth leapt a pallid frog from out the wat'ry swarm:
"Tis nothing but a voice—I thought t'have crush'd a foe,
Poor tenant of the ditch, back to thy quarters go!"

Esop at play, or the Bow unstrung.

'Tis not so light a thing

To moralize the while we sing!

The Fable, trite and simple as it shews,

May task a fruitful muse :

Quick fancy gallops and grows tired; its powers
Patient and slow, the silent heart explores,

And tries, through many a change,
The forms of thought that range,

Waiting dismissal due from mem'ry's stores.

This Æsop knew full well,

Nor longer would in meditation dwell

Than nature freely might the toil sustain ;

Then to a sportive crowd

Of children, blithe and loud,

He hies-and with them plays and laughs amain!

Caught at his merry game

Once, by some grave Athenian, Quit, for shame,

Esop! (his neighbour cries) thy silly sport,

And to grave studies go!—

But the Sage answers, No!

And, while more hearers to the place resort,

He brings a long bow forth,

And asks, what were this worth

Kept always strung? They see at once his mind

And reason in the wise man's gambols find.

The Shepherd Sailor. Esop, 47.

The Sun full on the mountain side
Shone warm-'t was a calm eventide--
The sea, as mirror smooth, was still—
The fleecy charge had ate their fill—
His view the wide horizon round
The Shepherd cast: for once he found
His thoughts from quiet home to range,
While hope of gain and love of change
Wrought out the purpose by degrees,
To leave his flock, and tempt the seas.
Behold him now at merchandize:
His bark unmoor'd the pennant flies,
Each sail is up and, whilst her way
The gallant boat cuts through the sea,
His proud hopes hail the breeze, and sum
The cargo, and his gains to come!

But look ahead-here comes a squall—
(His new companions roughly call)
All hands on deck! The vessel heels,
The sails fly loose, the mainmast reels :
She fills almost-the cargo's cast
Quick to the deep, and soon the last
Poor bag of dates is gone: the gale
Subsides at length-they hoist a sail,
And make to shore, the Shepherd lands
And dries his clothes: thus, while he stands

Casting an anxious look to sea

(For wealth at home now none had he)

A sailor unconcern'd comes by,

And, as he'd meant at once to try
The patience of th' impoverish'd wight,
Remarks," "Twas somewhat rough last night,
But now 'tis calm: d'ye want an oar?"
"Not I-but look, the sea wants more

Of my fine dates, and quiet lies

In hope to gain a second prize!"

Communications may be addressed, rost PAID, “For the Editor of the Yorkshireman," at the Printer's, Pontefract; at Longman and Co's, London; John Baines and Co's, Leeds; and W. Alexander's, York.

CHARLES ELCOCK, PRINTER, PONTEFRACT.

THE

YORKSHIREMAN,

Α

RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL

BY A FRIEND.

PRO PATRIA.

No. XXXV. FIFTH DAY, 19th TWELFTH Mo. 1833. PRICE 4d.

ART. I.-A Chronological Summary of events and circumstances connected with the origin and progress of the doctrines and practices of the Quakers.

the

(Continued from p. 133.)

The patience of my readers not of the Society must yet be craved a little longer; while I follow the Quakers through a further portion of Sufferings, brought upon them by the exercise of their undoubted right to worship God according to their conscientious persuasion; and by bearing their testimony against superstition, and a usurped Ecclesiastical rule. This statement of facts, selected from their authentic histories, is proposed to be continued, at least until we see the feet of the priests (to use a Scriptural allusion which will scarcely be denied us) safe on dry ground, with the ark on their shoulders, on the other side of Jordan. After the Revolution in 1688, their affairs will present less of detail interesting to the public, or likely to promote the cause of religious liberty as argued at present. But even this limited view of the subject cannot be fulfilled, without its being made to occupy several further portions (similar to the present) of the matter of my work.

A. D.

1662-3,

The person who had been George Fox's jailer (1650) in the house of correction at Derby, and being a cruel man had behaved very wickedly to him, but now convinced of Truth,' writes him the following letter;

"Dear Friend: Having such a convenient messenger, I could do no less than give thee an account of my present condition; remembering, that to the first awakening of me to a sense of life and of the inward principle, God was pleased to make use of thee as an instrument. So that sometimes I am taken with admiration that it should come by such a means as it did: that is to say, that Providence should order thee to be my prisoner, to give me my first real sight of the truth. It makes me many times to think of the jailor's conversion by the apostles. Oh happy George Fox! that first breathed that breath of life within the walls of my habitation. Notwithstanding my outward losses are since that time such that I am become nothing in the world, yet I hope I shall find that all these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, will work for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. They have taken all from me; and now instead of keeping a prison, I am rather waiting when I shall become a prisoner myself. Pray for me, that my faith fail not, and that I may hold out to the death; that I may receive a crown of life. I earnestly desire to hear from thee, and of thy condition; which would very much rejoice me; not having else at present but my kind love unto thee and all Christian friends with thee; in haste I rest thine in Christ Jesus, Thomas Sharman. Derby, the 22nd of the 4th month, 1662. (a)

A. D.

By personal application to the Lord D'Aubigny (who was in 1662-3priest's orders) George Fox procures the release of Catherine Evans and Sarah Cheevers from the prison of the Inquisition, in Malta.

These two friends had been confined there from the year 1658: there was printed, under the date of 1662, a circumstantial relation of their trials and sufferings, the substance of which may be seen in Friends' historians. (b)

The following stanzas, from their poetry composed in the Inquisition, afford a favourable view of their motives and abilities.

In prisons strong and dungeons deep

To God alone we cry and weep:

Our sorrows none can learn nor read
But those that in our path do tread.

But he whose beauty shineth bright,
Who turneth darkness into light,
Makes cedars bow and oaks to bend
To him that's sent to the same end;
He is a fountain pure and clear,
His cristal streams run far and near
To cleanse all those, that come to him
For to be healed of their sin:

All them that patiently abide,
And never swerve nor go aside,

The Lord will free them out of all
Bondage, captivity and thrall.-

It appears that, on finding themselves in view of the people on the walls at Malta (whither they had no intention to go, being bound for Alexandria) Catherine Evans, who had before said they had a dreadful cup to drink at that place, soliloquized thus: Shall ye destroy us? If we give up to the Lord, then he is sufficient to deliver us out of your hands but if we disobey our God, all these could not deliver us

(a) Fox: Journal, 335. (b) Idem. Sewcl, vol. 1, 493-540. Gough, vol. 2, 51-63.

out of his hand.' And so, all fear of man was taken from them. When George Fox, in conference with Lord D'Aubigny, had asked him, What would they (the Papists) do with all their relicks and images, if they should own and believe in this light [of which he had confessed the reality] and receive the grace [of God] to teach them, and bring their salvation; he replied, Those things were but policies to keep people in subjection! (c)

The persecution in New England is mitigated: the magistrates finding that to hang quakers was not sufficient to suppress their doctrine, it is resolved (by the Court at Boston) for the future only to whip them at the cart's tail, as vagabonds, through all the towns, out of their jurisdiction. (d)

From 1662 to 1665 accordingly, we have a series of these cruel inflictions to which women were subjected even more freely than men -and of those, some respectable for their property and station in life. The historian closes his pretty long narrative of these doings with instances of the sudden and violent ends of persecutors, and of calamities afterwards befalling the country; with which it is not so conducive to my object here to occupy the Reader. (e)

A. D.

1663.

Thomas Lurting, a mariner who before his convincement had been in the king's service and encountered many perils, retakes a vessel belonging to a quaker from the Turks, and by stratagem without bloodshed overcomes his captors, but restores them to their own country.

See an account of this person's convincement, and adventures (for such we may call them) by the historian Sewel. (ƒ) It is likewise extant in print: and forms one of the Tracts published by Friends.

William Caton, one of the earliest associates of George Fox, having married into Holland, visits his friends in England. On his return, the vessel being in danger of foundering in a storm, he first takes his turn at the pump with the seamen, then calls upon the Lord and prays to the Most High for deliverance from the danger; and, lastly, praises the Almighty for the great mercy shewn to him and the mariners. After all which, the vessel having put back to Yarmouth, he is there taken, with seven others, from a religious meeting on the First day of the week, and confined above six months in prison in England. In his absence Stephen Crisp visits and preaches to the Friends in Holland: an account of whom see in Sewel: also in his Life in print.

One Lodowick Muggleton having, with John Reeves his associate, uttered and spread many gross blasphemies, his books are answered by Richard Farnsworth a zealous and intelligent minister of the Society. (g)

(c) Journal, 336. (d) Gough, vol. 2, p. 33.

(e) Besse, vol .2. Ch. v. (f) Sewel, vol. 2, p. 72-89. Life of Thomas Lurting. (g) Sewel, ii, 93.