The Portland daily press., 1864-02-27
LIFE AND CORRESPONDENTS OF THEODORE
IL

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THEODORE
PARKER, Minister of the Twenty-eighth
Congregational Society, Boston. BY John
Weiss. New York: ID. Appleton x Co. For
sale by Walker, Wise d Co. For sale in
this city by Hall l.. Davis.
AS have not had time to give this work that
full examination that such work should receive before
suitable notice can be given of it, copy entire
notice OF contemporary who has evidently given 1t
careful reading.
The many friends of Mr.. Parker, who have looked
impatientiy for this long delayed memoir will find
themselves abundanty repaid for waiting by greater
perfection of the portrait which time has rendered it
possible present The letters which have been col
lected from numerous and widely divergent quarters
and into which the writer breathed his nmost thoughts
his hopes, fears wishes purposes and tas,es-Ieyea
the not only with precision and cearness of outline
but with minuteness and nicely of shading which
could have been attained through no other medium
Indeed the bographer has for the most part, permit
ted the subject OF his pen to tell his story and
the first page the last it is his hand which adds touch
to touch until the picture complete. The reader
as if with the pencil of artist the old farm
house unattrsctivc without, but frightened within by
Intelligence and moral WORTH the flora whose treasures
are so lovingly enumerated that the cranefower
and buercup forgotten, the little brown school
house. and the honest dlgent neighbors Out of these
quiet and somewhat homely surroundings, springs the
future scholar aud phantbropist driven increasingly
forward by keen thirst for knowledge, by the power OF
ready acquisition, and by the consciousness of an un-
limited capacity for effort lie soon adds teaehir
study and gives attention theology well to the
classics He!ransate from various languages and con
tributes to the magazines and fairly inaugurates that
long of unceasng toll which nothing lghens
but sickness and the grave. The direction growth and
ultimate form of his religion views with his final posi-
ton In The Broad Church, fully presented He gives
charming gmpses of his first journeyings in Europe
humorous and sorrowu hints Of his lectufng
and bits of sharp shrewd criticism Much of the second
volume is occupied with the expression of his antsav
cry opinions and the history of his antavery abors;
and then follow the records of his second visit the
Old World his death at Florence. and his burial upon
festival day in the little P oestant cemetery just out
side the Pint gate. In the appendix placed copy
of his will and the letter from Santa Cruz called Theo
dore Farkers Experience as a Minister" Such per-
sons cling to what usually termed the orthodox
forms of Christian belief will find much in these volumes
to sturb and even wound them; but if they have
known Mir. Parker only po'emic eager to uproot
the faith which accepts all the utterances of Holy
Writ they will lay them down " til very different
innate ofthe from that which they had previous
y formed, They will not only appreciate more fully
the depth aud richness of his learning and the many
sidedness through which lie attracted and Influenced
meu of differing temperament, habits and positions,
but they will find beneath tie somewhat harsh exte-
ror, arectitude Of purpose, purity and delicacy of
feeling and warmth and tenderness Of love unsus-
pected before and which modify the partzan aspect Of
his public iabo!s The work is furnished with an in
dex, and Is embellished with two portraits-ihe
copied from story's fine bust the other frem Da.
gnerreotype taken in 1853.