272
NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii 8. XL APRIL 3, wis.
"A HAIR DRAWN THROUGH MILK" (US.
xi. 185). MR. M. L. B. BRESLAR'S interest- ing note, wherein he speaks of " dying binneshikko," brought me to the death of Moses, concerning which there is a legend that the great leader's spirit was unwilling to leave the body it had inhabited for a hundred and twenty years, until ""God bent over the face of Moses and kissed him. And the soul leaped up in joy, and went with the kiss of God to Paradise " (Baring-Gould's * Legends of Old Testament Characters,' vol. ii. p. 135).
ST. SWITHIN.
on
Hinduism in Europe and America. By Elizabeth
A. Reed. (Putnam, 6s. net.)
THIS book was written to very good purpose. There is no doubt that alien cults of a secretly devastating nature are insinuating themselves more and more deeply into our Western civilization, and principally among the leisured women of Western Europe and America. The writer of this book does well to expose the recklessness of many of the statements by which the professors of these systems bolster up their claims. She does well, too, in pointing out the "unreality" of the adop- tion of these practices and beliefs by a European or American ; and, again, the terrible degradation and misery to which, in many cases, these have led down.
What her book lacks, however, is fairness towards the Hindu religion as seen among its own people. Monier Williams, whom she quotes fre- quently, as if he had no good to say of it, points out with admirable clearness and justice that certain methods of devotion which to a Westerner are excessively repellent, and seem to argue moral depravity, are not of such appearance or such effect in respect of Indian natives. She misappre- hends, or it might be more exact to say that in foer laudable eagerness to combat a great evil she somewhat distorts, the Hindu view of the spiritual and material worlds as they are set over against one another. Hinduism in itself is by no means so wholly detestable a thing as she here makes it out to be ; still less is the Veda though some of the claims made for it are exaggerated so barren, or so uniformly childish in its philosophy, as she would have us suppose.
Her case would actually have gained by a more impartial account of her subject, for the inadequacy of Hinduism as a world religion is best and most strikingly made manifest by comparing its acknow- ledged excellences with the corruptions to which certain of its own tenets directly lead.
The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society.
Vol. XII. No. I. (Headley Brothers, 2s.) THE opening article,' Old Glasgow Meeting-Houses, ' by Mr. William P. Miller, gives an account of the first Meeting-House in that city. It was founded in Third Month, 1691, and was the commencement of what is, at the present time, by far the largest assembly of Friends in Scotland. Prof. Lyon Turner continues the list of ' Presentations in Episcopal Visitations, 1662-79.'
Mr. Joseph J. Green gives an account of Mercy
Ransom, nee Bell (1728-1811). In her diaries
frequent reference is made to Samuel Fothergill's
sermons. On the occasion of a parting meeting
at Gracechurch Street he preached two sermons
of an hour and a half each.
Ella Kent Barnard provides notes on the originals of ' The House of the Seven Gables.' Col. Pyncheon, it is said, represents Col. John Hathorne (who died in 1717 magistrate of Salem), the great-grandfather of the author, who " made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him." Reference is made to him in Longfellow's ' New England Tragedies.' His father William, who emigrated to America from Wiltshire about 1630, was also a bitter persecutor, and the Quakers suffered much at his hands.
Under Supplement No. 13 is announced the proposed publication of the parcel of letters discovered some years ago at Devonshire House. There are about 250 original letters of early Friends, ranging in date from 1654 to 1688. The interest and support of the readers of The Journal are requested. The subscription price is 3s.
Friends in 1745 showed their loyalty and benevolence in time of need just as they are doing now. Among the notes we find that the Friends in Darlington, hearing that the Duke of Cumber- land was coming from the South when the winter was very severe, set to work and furnished 10,000 woollen waistcoats in four or five days at their own expense.
MR. J. EDWARD FRANCIS regrets that he is com-
pelled this week to reduce the number of pages.
The reduction is made necessary in part ny diffi-
culties arising out of the War, and in part oy delay
in the receipt of a consignment of paper which was
required to ensure earlier publication in view of
the Easter holidays.
10
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BARONESS VON ROEMER and F. W. B. Forwarded.
