Excerpt from The Second Period of Quakerism The present volume is a sequel to The Beginnings of Quakerism, published in 1912, and completes, after fourteen years, my contribution to the History of the Society of Friends projected by my friend, the late John Wilhelm Rowntree. The wealth of materials that had to be sifted and the pre-occupations of war-time may serve to excuse its somewhat tardy appearance; but the hour is opportune for reviving the brave story of the early Quaker movement now that all serious thought is turning to the reconstruction of the Church catholic and of the Social Order. The past is pregnant with lessons for the present, not indeed by prescribing ready-made solutions for our modern problems, but by showing the spirit of dedication and adventure in which these problems must be faced. We lose its inspiration when we think of it as some far-off age untroubled by the spiritual doubts and difficulties that beset us; closer examination shows that it was crowded with its own perplexities and fateful issues, through which those could walk most worthily who fronted the dawn in glad surrender to its light. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The late William C. Braithwaite's Second Period of Quakerism was first published in 1919, and reprinted with corrections in 1921. This edition incorporates some changes of detail in the text and a large appendix of new matter by Henry J. Cadbury. Braithwaite's earlier volume The Beginnings of Quakerism was reissued in a similar form in 1955. The standard history of the first seventy-five years of Quakerism is thus available again.