PENN'S HOLY EXPERIMENT                     109
that; and you have a plentiful estate; why should you render yourself unhappy by associating with such a simple people ?" Sometimes the prisoner's ingenuity and resourcefulness would baffle the prosecutor, and in despair of other means of catching him the magistrate would tender the oath of allegiance. But Penn's subtlety was matched by his boldness: once when the judge insulted him by a remark derogatory to his character, the reply came quickly and sharply, " I trample thy slander as dirt under my His feet!" And this boldness was equalled by his courase steadfastness: once the Bishop of London sent word to him in the Tower, that he must either withdraw certain statements or die a prisoner. " Thou mayest tell him," said Penn to the messenger, "that my prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot, for I owe obedience of my conscience to no mortal man."
Durjng these years Penn kept publishing books and pamphlets, controversial or expository, wherein he argues and persuades with logic and with eloquence, and is not always meek; sometimes the keen blade leaps from the scabbard and deals a mortal thrust. Mrs. Samuel Pepys read one of these treatises aloud to her husband, who calls it extremely well written and "a serious sort of book, not fit for every one to read." The titles of these books give an inkling of their savour: " Truth Exalted," " The Guide Mistaken," "A Seasonable Caveat against Popery," etc. The Some(rf one which Mr. Pepys would not recommend to all his writings readers was entitled "The Sandy Foundation Shaken," which was clearly open to the charge of Socinianism. Grave accusations of heresies were brought against Penn, to which he made reply in his " Innocency with her Open Face," some quotations from which will give us an impression of his style:—
" It may not be unreasonable to observe, that however industrious some (and those dissenters too) have been to represent me as a person disturbing the civil peace, I have not violated any truly fundamental law which relates to external