Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1383

Carbon of a letter to Prof. Jesse H. Holmes, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

May 5, 1941

 

Dear Professor Holmes:

I am deeply impressed by the public letter of the Friends’ Advancement Committee, of Philadelphia, addressed to the “Scientifically Minded” and inviting correspondence with signers of the letter, among whom I find your name.

Although, my own activities up to recent years

have been chiefly in the fields of engineering (aeronautical), manufacturing and the law, my interest and viewpoint has always been that of the natural sciences. Naturally, this has disqualified me for wholehearted belief or member­ship in any of the conventional denominations. A few years ago I had occasion and opportunity to reread much of the general sciences with a mature mind and a broader com­prehension than ever before. Here I found myself ex­periencing esthetic reaction to the methods and generali­zations of the natural sciences. This seemed to bring into a new activity the latent religious sense I had always felt but never able fully to experience in any formal or associative way.

Your letter is, therefore, exceedingly attractive to me. It inspires me with a strong desire to be admitted, if I am acceptable, into your simple and serious fellowship of spirit and mind.

 

If admitted to your Fellowship, I shall hope not only to enjoy the communion of rare and gifted minds but to find greater opportunity to practice that love of mankind which fulfills itself in good works and in spreading the Light.

 

     For a long time I have felt a spiritual sympathy with the Friends’ philosophy and their history, but until somewhat lately I have not been thrown among them. For the last several months, however, I have been attending the Friends’ Meetings with some regularity both in Baltimore and in New York where I spend part of my time. In the contacts so made, I found my informal communion with the Friends as satisfying as their philosophy might lead one to expect, and while I have said little, if anything about it, I have begun to feel among them a truly spiritual home.

 

Please consider this letter as an expression of my desire for a still deeper communion and participation in their spiritual and intellectual work.

 

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

    

Spencer Heath

SH:ML