pilgrimage was inherently suspect, while the record of actual
experiences in the form of a journal was not? Be this as it may,
the slight loosening of standards with the opening of the eighteenth
century allowed the "Second Day's Morning Meeting," which then
censored Quaker manuscripts, to approve for printing "A Short History
of a Long Travel from Babylon to Bethel." It was put out in 1711.
How entertaining it would be to know the number of copies that were
printed in that first edition.

Stephen Crisp was a famous preacher. "He had a gift of utterance
beyond many" said his brethren in Colchester at the time of his
decease. He was listened to by many outside the Society of Friends and
his sermons, together with the prayer at the end of every one of them,
were "exactly taken in character," that is in shorthand "as they were
delivered ... in the meeting houses of the people called Quakers."

Though Stephen Crisp's letters, sermons, and journal promptly appeared
in print and were widely circulated, the "Short History" remained
after his death in the bundle of his papers in Colchester. John
Bunyan's famous book "The Pilgrim's Progress" had appeared with its
primitive woodcuts in 1678. It received immediate recognition and
in due time was acclaimed the greatest religious book produced in
England. Stephen Crisp's allegory is minimal besides it (some 30 pages
as against 207), but the "Long Travel" retains significance because of
its more modern point of view.

This tiny tract usually printed in pocket size (2" x 3") sometimes
with a passage from the author's journal included, was reprinted
more than twenty times. I happened upon it in the Friends Historical
Library at Swarthmore College twenty years ago. They then had four