Brief Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The People Called Quakers, by William Penn

I wanted to learn more about the Quakers, I think they're one of the most fascinating and under-rated social movements ever. If anyone knows a good overview/biography/something I'd love to see it, unfortunately this wasn't it.
Everyone hated the Quakers early on, it seems -- this is so unimaginable to me because they seem so great. But, y'know, establishments gonna establishment, etc. Or: "calumnies have been leveled against all steps to reformation."

A great sentence in the book: critiquing some other denomination's priests, they were "more for a party than for piety"

The book includes a long introduction to, like, humankind. Very roundabout, and very reminiscent of Genesis. It's also reminiscent of Olaf Stapledon's brilliant Last And First Men, which I definitely need to book-thought. Basically there's a certain zoom-lens on history that I've rarely seen written, and is somehow really impactful, just zooming out enough that each century might be a paragraph, rather than a year filling an entire book.

The Quakers had to justify their pacifism -- reading between the lines, I think especially in relation to not-fighting for the King. But this ought not "be obnoxious to civil government, since, if they cannot fight for it, neither can they fight against it, which is no mean security to any state," and, "nor is it reasonable that people should be blamed for not doing more for others than they can do for themselves."
The experience of the inner-mind states of Quakers can't be understood by the unconverted: "as they were opened and moved of His spirit, with which they were well acquainted in their own conversion, which cannot be expressed to carnal men, so as to give them any intelligible account."

It strikes me around this point in the book how the Quakers' external forms map on to various features of (what I would call) cult-like cults -- e.g. the descriptions of their founder, George Fox, are much more "personal prophet"-y than I would have imagined. And some of the descriptions make it sound like only the Quakers can speak for God, which is much more exclusionary than I've come to see them. So I guess the reason I see the Quakers very differently is entirely about their outcomes than necessarily their early forms or doctrines, though it would be super interesting to learn how the Quakers came to be the way they are -- again, if anyone knows of a good group biography I'd love to read it.

p.s. "Jesus loved and chose solitudes -- often going to mountains, gardens, and seasides -- to avoid crowds and hurries." Idk how orthodox that is but I just love the idea of Jesus as an introvert.

p.p.s. yes the author is William Penn, as in the guy who started Pennsylvania, and his life story is BATS, see here: https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Penn-English-Quaker-leader-and-colonist