A pile of metal printers' type. Photo: By Laura Olsen on Unsplash.
Eye - 06 December 2024
Eye dives into the archive - all the way back to a tongue-in-cheek piece from 1843; Friends share their limericks; and Eye spies a Quaker cameo
On this day
December of 1843 saw the twelfth edition of the then-monthly Friend appear.
As serious and weighty as much of the content had been in that first year, December’s edition had its tongue firmly in cheek, relating the contents of ‘a rather remarkable meeting’ by ‘A Friend of Letters’.
The letters in question were opinionated, and not all they seemed: ‘It was arranged that there should be a conference of all the letters of the alphabet, at the printer’s office… It was unanimously agreed that the letter A, as usual, should be in the chair.’
A urged all present to ‘speak their minds freely, as their remarks might have a beneficial influence on the Friend during the ensuing year’, and suggestions were abundant…
Y ‘saw too many instances in the Friend of an inclination to depart from the language employed by ancient Friends’, while M felt ‘it is not what is ancient that is wanted – it is something new. The Friend must keep pace with the age’.
X ‘should be pleased if more new publications were reviewed in the Friend, and more extracts inserted from them’. However, H ‘objected to such extracts’ and felt that ‘the place which had been occupied by such extracts would, in his opinion, have been better filled had it contained narratives suited to the comprehension of young children’.
R thought there was ‘a want of concern in the paper for the interests of humanity generally’ and that ‘the editors seem to have taken alarm at anything connected with politics’. This was backed up by G, whose opinion was that innovation was also lacking: ‘the Friend, if it wants to gain popularity, must show more decision on great questions, and more boldness in expressing its opinion. In a word, it must have more spirit.’
J replied that if a want of spirit meant ‘the absence of dogmatical decision and overbearing eloquence’, he would say that ‘however magnificent might be the foaming cataract, or the resistless torrent, it was inferior in its practical benefit to the calm stream that turned the mill of the peasant’.
E chimed in to say: ‘Another remedy than a political one was required for the eradication of the evils complained of. In all diseases which originate in the human heart, it is to the heart that the cure must be applied. If [the Friend] had not made use of vehement denunciation of evil practices and evil doers, the tenor of its religious articles had shown a warm interest in the good of the community.’
Z spoke eloquently on how many letters, ‘surrounded as they were by their friends, could easily become acquainted with what was passing in the religious world around them. But with himself, as was well known, the case was different. He loved to hear of the labours of Friends in the ministry. They were animating to him in his solitary condition.’
A rose to bring the meeting to a close, saying that ‘the discussion had forcibly reminded him of the difficulties with which the editors had to grapple, if they tried to make their paper acceptable to all their readers’.
As the ‘Friend of Letters’ says: ‘It does certainly seem difficult to believe that what we have been accustomed to call the letters of the alphabet should now be considered to possess not merely the faculty of thinking [but] the power likewise of expressing their thoughts; yet, is this any more strange than the fact that these twenty-six letters, however small, ill shaped, or arbitrary they may be, are the great civilisers of the world? Nay, farther, that by means of certain collocations and combinations they exert now, and have long exerted, a prodigious influence on the temporal and eternal interests of millions and tens of millions of the human race?’
Inspired by Friends
I knew my trusty Eye readers wouldn’t leave me hanging! The next few weeks will see lyrical offerings aplenty – and are always welcome! Melvyn Freake, of Wanstead Meeting, was inspired by Friends, specifically a Meeting featured in the 22 November edition…
They’ve laid down the Meeting in Peckham
And nobody needed to make ’em
They met in the Light
And discerned what was right
For this readiness we must respect ’em.
They shared that home Meeting with Plumstead
For whose clearness we feel really humb-led
They may open again
In two years or ten
In the meantime they’re welcome at Wanstead
(and Blackheath and Kingston and Hampstead…)
A Quaker cameo
Eye-spied a familiar figure in a Netflix movie about sixties cereal rivals. Unfrosted is a comedy loosely based around the invention of Pop Tarts. It features a smorgasbord of cameos, including a brief one by The [US] Office’s Andy Daly… as ‘Isaiah Lamb, the face of Quaker Oats’. He can be seen in the trailer, here: https://bit.ly/4g8SrBz.
