The Quaker faith has long been associated with "practical mysticism" in its thought, teachings, and written and spoken language. Charles Lamb's exhortation to "get the writings of John Woolman by heart" indicates the respect given to his works by later literary figures in England, where several of his essays were first published. In America, John Greenleaf Whittier, William Ellery Channing, Theodore Dreiser, and many others admired, were moved, and were influenced by Woolman's prose, life, and vision. As a "Quaker saint," Woolman's mysticism and quest for salvation resulted in prophetic critiques of the injustices and complacencies of the social order: slavery, war, materialism, and the exploitation of the Indians and the poor. As Dag Hammarskjöld stated in Markings (1964), "the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action." Yet Woolman's efforts at practical and humanitarian reform remained so deeply rooted in a pietistic and mystical...