BX 9867 FS Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1874, by JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. BOSTON: RAND, AVERY, & Co., STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS. PREFACE. THE friends of Theodore Parker's ideas, as well as the lovers of his person, thinking that his day was not done, but was rather about to break, have long wished that he might be introduced to a new public by a new biography. The "Life" by John Weiss, written as soon as possible after Mr. Parker's decease, and published in 1863, for obvious reasons failed to command the attention it deserved. Being issued in two large volumes, it proved to be too heavy for general circulation, besides being too costly for general purchase. Another drawback to popular favor was found in the space given to letters and discussions, which, however interesting in themselves, and however important as contributions to thought, had the effect of blurring the outline of his individuality. But a disadvantage more serious, perhaps, than either of these, was the publication of the work at a time when the destinies of the nation hung on a thread, and the crowding events of the war pushed into obscurity nearly all memories, and allowed the public eye to rest only on such men as the combat made famous. The clearing-away of the war-cloud displays once more the figure of Theodore Parker as one of the nation's true prophets, and at the same time reveals a country prepared in some degree to receive the best results of his thought and experience. In the hope that these results may be appreciated better than hitherto, this memoir is written. The author's aim has been simply to recover and present the person of Mr. Parker with all simplicity, omitting some details which Mr. Weiss's valuable biography will supply to the more searching student, and making prominent the mental and moral traits which concern the miscellaneous public. The present biographer, in addition to the materials that were placed in the hands of Mr. Weiss, has been intrusted with many private letters and personal reminiscences, which enable him to fill out his picture with more delicate touches. From old sources and new it has been his delightful task to extract the qualities of the man in such a way, that the records, literary and historical, may reveal, and not cumber or cloak, his form. Should the portrait be unfaithful or inadequate, the artist alone will be at fault. Or rather let me say, should it be unfaithful; for inadequate it must be in the judgment of many, and chiefly of those who knew Mr. Parker most intimately. There was more in him than any one mind, even the most candid and sympathetic, could see; and there was much in him that few, if any, were ever permitted to see; the private journal, to which he committed his most secret thoughts, containing many things of deep significance as illustrations of his interior life, which could not with the least propriety be published, even when their meaning is clear, and which often need interpretation. None of them exhibit qualities inconsistent |