Chapter IX: Under the Yew-Trees

_'George Fox was a born leader of
souls. The flame of religious
ardour which burned in him, and
the intense conviction and
spiritual power with which he
spoke, would in any age have made
him great. He was born in a
generation of revolutions and
upheavals, both political and
spiritual. Confusion and unrest,
war and reformations, give to
great spirits a power which, when
life is calmer, they might not
attain. Fox drew to himself a
multitude of noble souls,
attracted to him by that which
they shared with him, the sense of
spiritual realities, and the
consciousness of the guiding
Spirit. The age of George Fox
thirsted for spiritual reality. He
had found it. Men on all sides
were ready to find it as he had.
The dales of Yorkshire, and the
hills of lakeland, not less than
the towns of the Midlands, had men
in them ready to rejoice in the
touch of the spiritual, ready to
respond to the movement of the
Spirit. See him then arriving at
some farm-yard in the hills, or
may be at a country squire's
hall....'--CYRIL HEPHER,
'Fellowship of Silence.'_

_'The house was no doubt full of
music, as were indeed many others,
in that most musical of English
centuries.'--J. BAILEY, 'Milton.'_

_Motto on Seal of a letter to M.
Fell:_

1660
'_GOD ABOVE
KEEP US IN HIS LIGHT
AND LOVE._'