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 EDITED BY GRACE A. OLIVER 
 
 STORY OF 
 
 THEODORE PARKER 
 
Copyright, 1883, 
 By Cupples, Upham & Co. 
 
 PR>88 OF 
 
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 ItoHTON. 
 
STORY OF 
 
 THEODORE PARKER 
 
 FRANCES E. COOKE 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 GRACE A. OLIVER 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM & COMPANY 
 
 <BXii Corner Bookstore 
 
 1883 
 
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CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction iii 
 
 The Old Home 7 
 
 The i-armer's Boy 19 
 
 Unknown Workers 31 
 
 Barnstable and West Roxbury . . . .44 
 
 Seekers of the Truth 56 
 
 A Brave Heretic 66 
 
 Scattering Broadcast 75 
 
 Fighting for Freedom 89 
 
 "A Hero in the Strife" 100 
 
 The Last Voyage 112 
 
 f) 25 7 09 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 This little story of Theodore Parker, by an English- 
 woman, should find a place in our literature and have an 
 enduring name. 
 
 She has skilfully woven a vivid, picturesque, and in- 
 spiring narrative of the events of Mr. Parker's life, with- 
 out overstepping the bounds of natural and simple de- 
 scription. There is in it enough of imagination, of 
 truth, of character-drawing, of incident, to put the salient 
 points in the life and work of Mr. Parker clearly before 
 the minds of all who desire a portrait of one who is 
 called justly by our worthy critic and friend, James 
 Freeman Clarke, " the ripe fruit of New England," who 
 united " traits of common sense, joined with abstract 
 speculation ; sensibility of conscience, poised with calm 
 judgment ; the fanatic's devotion to ideas, with the cal- 
 culating prudence of a man of the world, — which make 
 the basis of New England character and its essential 
 strength. . . . 
 
 " In looking for some illustration ot this strangely 
 exuberant and varied genius, I have recalled, as its 
 best emblem, a day I once passed in crossing the St. 
 Gothard Mountain, from Italy into Germany. In the 
 morning, we were among Italian nightingales and the 
 sweet melody of the Italian speech. The flowers were 
 all in bloom, and the air balmy with summer perfumes 
 
iv ' INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from vine and myrtle. But, as we slowly climbed the 
 mountain, we passed away from this, — first into vast 
 forests of pine, and then out upon broad fields of snow, 
 where winter avalanches were falling in thunder from 
 above. And so, at noon, we reached the summit, and 
 began to descend, till we again left the snow ; and so 
 rode continually downward on a smooth highway, but 
 through terrible ravines, over rushing torrents, into dark 
 gorges, where the precipices almost met overhead, and 
 the tormented river roared far below : and so on and on, 
 hour after hour, till we came down into the green and 
 sunny valleys of Canton Uri, and passed through meadows 
 where men were mowing the hay, and the air was fra- 
 grant, not now with Southern vines, but with the Northern 
 apple-blossoms. Here we heard all around us the lan- 
 guage of Germany ; and then we floated on the enchant- 
 ing lake of the Four Cantons, and passed through its 
 magnificent scenery, till we reached at dark, the old city 
 of Lucerne. This wonderful day, in its variety, is a type 
 to me of the career of our brother. His youth was full 
 of ardor and hope, full of imagination and poetic dreams, 
 full of studies in ancient and romantic lore. It was 
 Italian and classic. Then came the struggling ascent of 
 the mountain, — the patient toil and study of his early 
 manhood ; then the calm survey of the great fields of 
 thought and knowledge, spreading widely around in their 
 majestic repose, and of the holy heavens above his head, 
 — the sublimities of religion, the pure mountain air of 
 devout thought and philosophic insight ; and then came 
 the rapid progress, on and on, from this high summit of 
 lonely speculation, down into the practice and use of 
 life, — down among the philanthropies and humanities of 
 
INTRODUCTION. v 
 
 being, — down from the solitary, serene air of lonely 
 thought, through terrible ravines and broken precipices 
 of struggling reform ; by the roaring stream of progress, 
 where the frozen avalanche of conservative opposition 
 falls in thunder to crush the advancing traveler ; and so, 
 on and on, into the human homes of many-speaking men, 
 among low cottages, along the road the human being 
 travels, and by which blessing comes and goes, — the 
 road which follows — 
 
 'The river's course, the valley's peaceful windings, 
 Curves round the cornfield and the hill of vines ; 
 And so, secure, though late, reaches its end.' 
 
 Out of classic, Roman-Catholic, mediaeval Italy, into 
 Protestant Germany ; out of the land of organization 
 and authority into the land of individual freedom ; out 
 of the historic South, inheriting all treasures of the past, 
 into the enthusiastic, progressive North, inspired with all 
 the expectations of the future, — such was the course and 
 progress of his earthly day. A long life, though closed 
 at fifty years ; as that day on the St. Gothard seemed to 
 us already three days, long before sundown." 
 
 The reformers of one age become the bulwarks of 
 strength, the inspirers of truth, for the next, and it is 
 only just and right that the generation now growing up 
 among us should have the opportunity offered it of 
 studying all phases of character in the great men who 
 have worked for the progress of humanity. As this last 
 biography of Theodore Parker says, " the memory of 
 one whose reverence was so deep for the essential basis 
 of religion should never die away ; and no npbler ex- 
 ample can be found in modern times of faithfulness to 
 conscience." 
 
vi INTliODUCTION. 
 
 This is a thoughtful and intelligent community, yet 
 it is doubtful if this little sketch of one of America's 
 great writers, preachers, and speakers will not give the 
 reader something quite fresh in style, afford food for 
 thought, for emulation, and uplift the hearts of many of 
 the younger people who know the name of Theodore 
 l^arker only as a faint memory. It is now twenty years 
 since the life of him by John Weiss appeared, — a mas- 
 sive, exhaustive, scholarly, and eloquent book, full, too 
 Rill, alas! for the general reader who had neither time 
 nor money to spend on so large a study. 
 
 Mr. Weiss wrote this **Life " with the assistance of 
 many private " Journals," little note-books, and data 
 furnished him by friends and relatives whose vivid 
 recollections of Mr. Parker greatly helped the personal 
 touches of the portrait. Mrs. Parker too lent all her 
 aid. Mr. Weiss says that the memory '* is indebted 
 greatly to that devoted heart, that delicate disposition, 
 and that good sense, which has been left to recall how 
 loving a husband was this champion of oppressed 
 thoughts and people, and to build, with most careful 
 and assiduous hands, a memorial to the dear one, so 
 illustrious to her by private sweetness as by public 
 service. It is from her that I have derived all my 
 authority and opportunity to undertake this work. 
 
 " Only three years have passed since another ministry 
 called the noble and variously gifted man, whom my 
 pen, at a long interval and with many an imperfect 
 movement, has been striving to recall, hoping, at least, 
 not greatly to mar the character which is now perceived 
 to have been bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh 
 of America. But the consideration which is paid to 
 
INTR OD UC TION. v i i 
 
 him, in all quarters where it is worthy to be well 
 remembered, through most diverse theological and 
 political confessions, is a tribute which hastens very 
 early to his grave. In England alone, the simultaneous 
 publication of two distinct editions of his Works, 
 though both of them are quite unauthorized, and neither 
 respects the duty and wishes which rule in his late home, 
 sufficiently attests the importance of his writings to the 
 popular mind, to develop therein free and manly 
 thought. 
 
 ''The soil of no grave was ever more fertile. Men, 
 who expected that his influence would become extinct, 
 and that he had no gifts incisive enough to Avrite his 
 name upon the heart, acknowledge even now that he 
 was a representative man, with conscience and human- 
 ity enough to feed a generation, to warm and to save, 
 to build up with healthy tissue, to repair the degenerate 
 waste of a noble people, and to pull down and trample 
 on their crimes alone. He has been missed during 
 these three years. The best men have asked for him, 
 because they wanted New England granite to build 
 with a breakwater, to have firm words to put in slippery 
 places, that the country might be helped across into 
 purpose and a definite policy of freedom. Men have 
 said, at home and abroad, in various tongues, He grows 
 upon us : he was healthy as immortality, he was as 
 unconventional as a period of revolution always must 
 be — a strong soil full of seeds : the more you till it, the 
 better it nods with wheat, and corn, and all the substan- 
 tial elements of human food. Foreign thinkers are 
 very quick to perceive the drift of his mind, and very 
 enthusiastic to recognize his capacity for entertaining. 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 righteousness. They see from afar, what we are now 
 beginning to see close at hand, that he was a pioneer 
 of this America which has been sending her dreadful 
 columns over roads of his surveying and which he helped 
 to clear. 
 
 ** It would be surprising to see how readily everything 
 which is now happening connects itself with his sincerit) 
 and indignation, if we did not know that God's hand 
 holds nothing but things that are sincere, and that His 
 earth must grow the things that are planted. It is the 
 test of the symmetry of a great mind ; its anticipations 
 Providence seems to have overheard, so readily do its 
 tlioughts, its just wrath, its salutary hatred, its heavenly 
 hopes, become converted into histoVy. 
 
 " His Life appears at the very moment when the great 
 struggle which he anticipated is going against the wicked- 
 ness which he smote so valiantly. The sound of victo- 
 rious cannon is a salvo of recognition over his distant 
 grave — a thundering welcome paid, so soon after those 
 mutterings of hatred and contempt, to the great sense of 
 liberty which he represented. The Lexington blood is 
 cold ; flowers cover that simple and manly presence, and 
 divert our thoughts from its decay ; he is absent ui)on 
 some ministry that requires a brave and unselfish heart. 
 But look through the hearts of the common people 
 who supply this redness and are blushing so frankly at 
 Gettysburg and Charleston, — what American ever had so 
 good a right as he to say, as for himself, * There is a day 
 after to-day ' ? " 
 
 The clouds which still obscured the air, murky yet 
 from the great battle-fields of the civil war, where the 
 great truths taught and prayed for by Theodore Parker 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 were being bravely battled for, were too heavy for the 
 clear study of his life. The very destinies of a great 
 nation hung in the balance, and every day brought to 
 an anxious people new considerations for already over- 
 tasked hearts and minds. The personal influence of Mr. 
 Parker was still too vivid, to those who loved him no 
 words were adequate ; and to his opponents, for he had 
 many and bitter ones, the brave words he spoke in behalf 
 of the oppressed and down-trodden in all places, were 
 only a renewal of the strife which had grown more and 
 more cruel. The manner in which he had been pursued 
 by his opponents made him bitter and severe in his 
 denunciations of wrong and wrong-doers. Mr. Clarke 
 says : — 
 
 " His end was to revolutionize public opinion ; to beat 
 down, by terrible blows of logic and satire, the cool 
 defenders of inhuman wrong to pour floods of fiery 
 invective upon those who opposed themselves to the 
 progress of a great cause ; to fill all minds with a sense 
 of responsibility to God for the use of their faculties ; 
 to show the needs of suffering man ; to call attention to 
 the degraded classes ; to raise up those who are bowed 
 down, and to break every yoke. He also came in the 
 spirit and power of Elijah. He was ready to denounce 
 the Arabs and Herods of our day, the hard-money kings 
 of a commercial city, the false pohticians whose lying 
 tongue is always waiting to deceive the simple. His 
 fiery indignation at wrong showed itself, in the most 
 terrible invectives which modern literature knows, against 
 the kidnappers, the pro-slavery politicians, the pro-slavery 
 priests, and the slave-catching commissioners. These 
 invectives were sometimes cruel and severe ; in the 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 spirit of Moses, David, and John the Baptist, rather than 
 in that of Christ. Such extreme severity, whether in 
 Jew or Christian, defeats its own object ; for it is felt to 
 be excessive and unjust. I cannot approve of Theodore 
 Parker's severity. I consider it false, because extrava- 
 gant ; unjust, because indiscriminate ; unchristian, be- 
 cause relentless and unsympathizing. But then I will 
 remember how bitterly he was pursued by his oppo- 
 nents ; how Christians offered prayers in their meetings 
 that he might be taken away ; how the leaders of opmion 
 in Boston hated and reviled him ; how little he had, from 
 any quarter, of common sympathy or common charity. 
 I cannot wonder at his severity ; but I cannot think it 
 wise. Being so great, I wish he had been greater. Being 
 so loving to his friends, I wish he could also have felt less 
 bitter scorn towards his opponents." 
 
 This state of partisan feeling was too violent against 
 Mr. Parker, and the personal affection borne him by 
 thousands was too deep for any writer to bear impartial 
 evidence as to his peculiar powers, his influence, and his 
 great work. 
 
 Ten years passed and then appeared the excellent Life, 
 by Mr. Frothingham, full of personal reminiscences, ex- 
 tracts from private letters, and enough of detail to enrich 
 without encumbering the narrative. There is no shadow 
 of an open grave to depress the seeker after the inward 
 life of Parker, there are no long extracts to detract from 
 the simplicity of the portrait which is here given in Mr. 
 Frothingham's admirable style. He says, as one reason 
 for his memoir : " There was more in him than any one 
 mind, even (he most candid and sympathetic, could see; 
 antl there was much in him that few, if any, were ever 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 permitted to see ; the private journal, to which he con- 
 fided his most secret thoughts, containing many things of 
 deep significance as illustrations of his interior life, which 
 could with the least propriety be published, even when 
 their meaning is clear, and which often need interpreta- 
 tion. None of them exhibit qualities inconsistent with a 
 very noble character ; but some of them point to secret 
 recesses of feeling which cannot be uncovered." Mr. 
 Frothingham, in summing up the work of Mr. Parker, 
 says : — 
 
 " Utter fidelity to his calling made Theodore Parker 
 the great preacher that he was : probably, all things con- 
 sidered, the greatest of his generation. He was greater 
 than Spurgeon, whom five or six thousand men flock to 
 hear; but who lacks learning, knowledge of men and 
 things, breadth and poetic fervor of mind, culture of intel- 
 lect, and delicacy of perception — an earnest, zealous, 
 toilsome man, powerful through his sectarian narrowness, 
 not, as Parker was, through his human sympathy. He 
 was greater beyond measure than Maurice, Robertson, 
 Stopford Brooke, or any of the new Churchmen ; the 
 delight of those who want to be out of the Church, and 
 yet feel in it. He was greater than Channing in range of 
 thought, in learning, in breadth of human sympathy, in 
 vitality of interest in common affairs, in wealth of imagi- 
 nation, and in the racy flavor of his spoken or written 
 speech. Channing had an equal moral earnestness, an 
 equal depth of spiritual sentiment, a superior gift of look, 
 voice, expression, manner, perhaps a more finely endowed 
 speculative apprehension, a subtler insight ; but as a 
 preacher he addressed a smaller class of his fellow-men. 
 His was an aristocratic, Parker's a democratic, mind. 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Channing was ethereal even when treading most manfully 
 the earth, and seraphic even when urging the claims of 
 negroes : Parker, when soaring highest, kept both feet 
 planted on the soil, and, when unfolding the most ideal 
 principles, remembered that his brother held him by the 
 hand for guidance. Channing always talked prose even 
 while dilating on transcendental themes : Parker, even 
 when discussing affairs of the street, would break out 
 into the language of poetry. Channing could sympathize 
 with great popular ideas and movements, but was too fas- 
 tidious to be ever in close contact with the people : 
 Parker was a man of the people through and through ; 
 one of the people, as much at home with the plainest as 
 the most cultured, more heartily at home with the simple 
 than with the polished ; hence his word ran swiftly in 
 rough paths, while Dr. Channing's trod daintily m high 
 places." 
 
 Mr. Frothingham next shows in how many features 
 Parker was the superior of Henry Ward Beecher, who 
 has generally been thought of as the greatest preacher of 
 America, and then proceeds to say of Parker's printed 
 sermons : " Take up any of his volumes containing the 
 sermons he thought worthy of permanent preservation — 
 the volume of Ten Sermons on Religion; the Theism, 
 Atheism, and Popular Theology, which is made up of 
 pulpit addresses ; read the pamphlet sermons on Im- 
 mortal Life ; on The Perils of Adversity and Prosperity ; 
 What Religion will do for a Man ; Lesson for a Mid- 
 summer Day ; The Function and Place of Conscience ; 
 The Sermon of Poverty, Of War, Of Merchants ; The 
 Chief Sins of the People ; The Power of a False Idea ; 
 and you have many a long hour full of edification, in- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xiii 
 
 struction, and delight. They are sermons — always ser- 
 mons; not essays or disquisitions. The pareneticai 
 character runs through everything the man wrote, as 
 the moral element ran through the man. As sermons 
 intended to reach the conscience as well as the under- 
 standing of miscellaneous and heedless auditors, who 
 must have a thought expressed in several forms, and 
 reiterated more than once, in order to catch or retain it, 
 they are almost perfect, and are destined to do a most 
 important work in educating and inspiring thousands 
 whom the preacher's voice never reached, who perhaps 
 were not born when he fell asleep. More may be learned 
 from his political speeches and addresses than from many 
 volumes of contemporaneous history. His speculative 
 discourses throw light on abstruse problems of philoso- 
 phy ; his ordinary sermons are rich in practical wisdom 
 for daily life, and will be read when hundreds of sermons 
 now popular are forgotten, and even when the literature 
 of the pulpit has fallen into that neglect it, for the most 
 part, deserves." 
 
 Parker wrote nearly a thousand sermons — an average 
 of about forty-five per year — during the course of his 
 twenty- two years' ministry. 
 
 Wonderful tributes have been given to the strong 
 humanitarian influence of Parker. Weiss says : — 
 
 " He had a native love for man. It was not an abstract 
 recognition of new phases of Equality and Fraternity. 
 His nature was not of the cool and serene kind which 
 prefers truths to people, and would never invite the latter 
 except under compulsion. Every scholarly attainment 
 only seemed to widen the channels for his human im- 
 pulse ; it mantled in every gift, it beat to shatter all doc- 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 txines which degraded or depreciated man. He had all 
 Dr. Channing's reverence for human nature, with a 
 prompt, practical friendliness, gentle to visit the humble, 
 terrible to defend them. Whenever he found a truth, he 
 placed it in the glittering row which sits upon the rugged 
 forehead of humankind ; there it looked handsomer to 
 him than in aesthetic and transcendental cabinets. For 
 all things look best where they belong." 
 
 Miss Frances Power Cobbe, known for her many excel- 
 lent writings on advanced thought, and her strong desire 
 to make herself useful in her day and generation, was for 
 years a literary friend and correspondent of Theodore 
 Parker. She felt she owed to him the religious influence 
 which saved her from spiritual wreck. This noble woman, 
 called by Mary Somerville the "best and cleverest 
 woman I ever met," gave to the English public an edition 
 of Parker's writings. She called him " the prophet of the 
 absolute goodness of God." Simultaneously another edi- 
 tion appeared in London, making the works of Parker 
 well known there, and his influence widely felt. To the 
 author of the first English life of Parker, Mr. Dean, 
 who dedicated his volume to Miss Cobbe, she wrote : — 
 
 "■ I am heartily glad you are undertaking the good work 
 of making Parker better known as a living man as well as 
 a writer. As the years pass on, and we travel with them 
 into other regions of thought than those we once crossed 
 with him, my sense of the loss we have sustained by his 
 early death, grows greater rather than less. I never figlit 
 a battle for what I deem to be truth or right but I think 
 how his voice would have rung out to cheer and guide 
 us, and his sympathy have followed every fortune of the 
 war." 
 
INTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 In her introduction to the pubhshed works, she 
 wrote : — 
 
 " Theodore Parker's faith at least bore this result : It 
 brought out in him one of the noblest and most complete 
 developments of our nature which the world has seen ; a 
 splendid devotion, even to death, for the hohest cause, 
 and none the less a most perfect fulfilment of the minor 
 duties and obligations of humanity. Though the last 
 man in the world to claim faultlessness for himself, he was 
 yet to all mortal eyes absolutely faithful to the resolution 
 of his boyhood to devote himself to God's immediate 
 service. Living in a land of special personal inquisition, 
 and the mark for thousands of inimical scrutinies, he yet 
 lived out his allotted time, beyond the arrows of calumny ; 
 and those that knew him best said that the words they 
 heard over his grave seemed intended for him : ^ Blessed 
 are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ' ! The 
 lilies, which were his favorite flowers, and which loving 
 hands laid on his coffin, were not misplaced thereon. 
 Truly, if men cannot gather grapes off thorns, nor figs off 
 thistles, then must the root of the most faithful life have 
 been a sound one. 
 
 "He was a great and good man : the greatest and best, 
 perhaps, which America has produced. He was great in 
 many ways. In time to come his country will glory in 
 his name, and the world will acknowledge all his gifts and 
 powers. His true greatness, however, will in future ages 
 rest on this : that God revealed Himself to his faithful 
 soul in His most adorable aspect — that he preached with 
 undying faith, and lived out in his consecrated life the 
 lesson he had thus been taught — that he was worthy to 
 be the Prophet of the greatest of all truths, the Absolute 
 Goodness of God, the centre truth of the universe." 
 
XI INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 This prophet was not without honor at home as well as 
 abroad, when at the time of his death Emerson spoke 
 such words as these to the sorrowing multitude gathered 
 at the Commemoration service in the great Music Hall in 
 Boston, in June, i860 : — 
 
 " He never kept back the truth for fear to make an 
 enemy. But, on the other hand, it was complained that 
 he was bitter and harsh ; that his zeal burned with too hot 
 a flame. It is so difficult, in evil times, to escape this 
 charge! — for the faithful preacher most of all. It was 
 his merit — like Luther, Knox, Latimer, and John the 
 Baptist — to speak tart truth when that was peremptory, and 
 when there were few to say it. But his sympathy with 
 goodness was not less energetic. One fault he had : he 
 overestimated his friends, I may well say it, and some- 
 times vexed them with the importunity of his good 
 opinion, whilst they knew better the ebb which follows ex- 
 aggerated praise. He was capable, it must be said, of the 
 most unmeasured eulogies on those he esteemed, espe- 
 cially if he had any jealousy that they did not stand with 
 the Boston public as high as they ought. His command- 
 ing merit as reformer is this, that he insisted, beyond all 
 men in pulpits, — I cannot think of one rival, — that the 
 essence of Christianity is its practical morals : it is there 
 for use, or it is nothing ; and if you combine it with sharp 
 trading, or with ordinary city ambitions to gloss over 
 municipal corruptions, or private intemperance, or suc- 
 cessful frauds, or immoral politics, or unjust wars, or the 
 cheating of Indians, or the robbery of frontier nations, or 
 leaving your principles at home, to show on the high 
 seas, or in Europe, a supple complaisance to tyrants, it is 
 an hypocrisy, and the truth is not in you ; and no love of 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 religious music, or of dreams of Swedenborg, or praise of 
 John Wesley, or of Jeremy Taylor, can save you from the 
 Satan which you are. 
 
 *' His ministry fell on a political crisis also : on the 
 years when Southern slavery broke over its old banks, 
 made new and vast pretensions, and wrung from the 
 weakness or treachery of Northern people, fatal conces- 
 sions in the Fugitive Slave Bill, and the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise. Two days, bitter in the mem- 
 ory of Boston, — the days of the rendition of Sims and 
 of Burns, — made the occasion of his most remarkable 
 discourses. He kept nothing back. In terrible earnest 
 he denounced the public crime, and meted out to every 
 official, high or low, his due portion. By the incessant 
 power of his statement, he made and held a party. It 
 was his great service to freedom. He took away the re- 
 proach of silent consent, that would otherwise have laid 
 against the indignant minority, by uttering, in the hour 
 and place wherein these outrages were done, the stern 
 protest. There were, of course, multitudes to defame 
 and censure the truth-speaker. But the brave know the 
 brave. Fops, whether in drawing-rooms or churches, will 
 utter the fop's opinion, and faintly hope for the salvation 
 of his soul ; but his manly enemies, who despise the fops, 
 honored him ; and it is well known that his great hospita- 
 ble heart was the sanctuary to which every soul conscious 
 of an earnest opinion came for sympathy — ahke the 
 brave slave-holder and the brave slave-rescuer. These 
 met in the house of this honest man ; for every sound 
 heart loves a responsible person — one who does not in 
 generous company say generous things, and in mean 
 company base things ; but says one thing, now cheerfully, 
 
xviii INTRO D UC TION. 
 
 now indignantly, but always because he must, and because 
 he sees that whether he speaks or refrains from speech, 
 this is said over him, and in histoiy, nature, and all souls 
 testify to the same. 
 
 " Ah, my brave brother ! it seems as if, in a frivolous 
 age, our loss were immense, and your place can not be 
 supplied. But you will already be consoled in the trans- 
 fer of your genius, knowing well that the nature of the 
 world will affirm to all men, in all times, that which for 
 twenty-five years you valiantly spoke j that the winds of 
 Italy murmur the same truth over your grave, the winds 
 of America over these bereaved streets; that the sea 
 which bore your mourners home affirms it, the stars in 
 their courses, and the inspirations of youth ; whilst the 
 polished and pleasant traitors to human rights, with per- 
 verted learning and disgraced graces, rot and are forgot- 
 ten with their double tongue, saying all that is sordid for 
 the corruption of a man." 
 
 In Wendell Phillips' address at the sessions of the New 
 England Anti-Slavery Society, May, i860, he said : — 
 
 " When some Americans die, when most Americans 
 die, their friends tire the public with excuses. They con- 
 fess this spot \ they explain that stain ; they plead cir- 
 cumstances as the half justification of the mistake ; and 
 they beg of us to remember that nothing but good is to 
 be spoken of the dead. We need no such mantle for the 
 green grave under the sky of Florence ; no excuses, no 
 explanations, no spot ! Priestly malice has scanned 
 every inch of his garment ; it was seamless ; it could find 
 no stain. History, as in the case of every other of her 
 beloved children, gathers into her bosom the arrows 
 which malice had shot at him, and says to posterity, * Be- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 hold the title deeds of your gratitude ! ' We ask no mo- 
 ment to excuse : there is nothing to explain. What the 
 snarling journal thought bold, what the selfish politician 
 feared as his ruin, it was God's seal set upon his apostle- 
 , ship. " The little Hbel glanced across him like a rocket 
 when it goes over the vault : it is passed, and the royal 
 sun shines out as beneficent as ever. 
 
 "When I returned from New York, on the 13th of this 
 month, I was to have been honored by standing in his 
 desk, but illness prevented my fulfilling that appointment. 
 It was eleven o'clock in the morning. As he sank away 
 the same week under the fair sky of Italy, he said to the 
 most loving of wives and of nurses, ' J^et me be buried 
 where I fall ' ; and tenderly, thoughtfully, she selected 
 four o'clock of the same Sunday to mingle his dust with 
 the kindred dust of brave, classic Italy. 
 
 " Four o'clock ! The same sun that looked upon the 
 half dozen mourners that he permitted to follow him to 
 the grave, the same moment of brightness lighted up the 
 arches of his own temple as one whom he loved stepped 
 into his own desk, and with remarkable coincidence, for 
 the only time during his absence, opened one of his own 
 sermons to supply my place ; and, as his friend read 
 the Beatitudes over his grave on the banks of the Arno, 
 his dearer friend here read from a manuscript, the text : 
 ' Have faith in God.' 
 
 " It is said that in his last hours, in the wandering of 
 the masterly brain, he murmured, * There are two Theo- 
 dore Parkers : one rests here dying ; but the other lives, 
 and is at work at home.' How true ! At that very 
 moment he was speaking to his usual thousands ; at that 
 very instant his own words were sinking down into the 
 
XX INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 hearts of those that loved him best, and bidding them, in 
 this the lonehest hours of their bereavement, ' have faitii 
 in God.* He always came to this [the x\nti- Slavery] 
 platform ; he is an old occupant of it. He never made 
 an apology for coming to it. I remember, many years 
 ago, going home from the very hall which formerly occu- 
 pied this place. He had sat where you sit, in the seats, 
 looking up at us. It had been a stormy, hard gathering, 
 a close fight ; the press caluminating us ; every journal in 
 Boston ridiculing the idea which we were endeavoring to 
 spread. As I passed down the stairs homeward, he put 
 his arm within mine, and said, ' You shall never need to 
 ask me again to share that platform.* It was the instinct 
 of his nature, true as the bravest heart. The spot for 
 him was where the battle was hottest. He had come, as 
 half the clergy came, a critic. He felt it was not his 
 place ; that it was to grapple with a tiger, and throttle 
 him. And the pledge that he made he kept ; for whether 
 here or in New York, as his reputation grew, when that 
 lordly mammoth of the press. The Tribune ^ overgrown in 
 its independence and strength, would not condescend to 
 record a word that Mr. Garrison or I could utter, but 
 bent low before the most thorough scholarship of New 
 England, and was glad to win its way to the confidence of 
 the West by being his mouth-piece — with that weapon of 
 influence m his right hand, he always placed himself at 
 our side, and in the midst of us, in the capital state of 
 the empire. 
 
 '* You may not think this great praise ; we do. Other 
 men have brought us brave hearts ; other men have 
 brought us keen-sighted and vigilant intellects ; but he 
 brought us, as no one else could, the loftiest stature of 
 
INTR OD UC TION. xxi 
 
 New England culture. He brought us a disciplined in- 
 tellect, whose statement was evidence, and whose affirma- 
 tion the most gifted student took long time before he 
 ventured to doubt, or to contradict. When we had 
 nothing but our characters, nothing but our reputation 
 for accuracy, for our weapons, the man who could give 
 to the cause of the slave that weapon was indeed one of 
 its ablest and foremost champions. 
 
 " Lord Bacon said in his will, ' I leave my name and 
 memory to foreign lands, and to my own countrymen 
 after some time be passed.' No more fitting words 
 could be chosen, if the modesty of the friend who has 
 just gone before us would have permitted him to adopt 
 them for himself. To-day, even within twenty-four hours, 
 I have seen symptoms of that repentance which John- 
 son describes, — 
 
 ' When nations, slowly wise and meanly just, 
 To buried merit raise the tardy bust.' 
 
 " The men who held their garments aside, and desired 
 to have no contact with Music Hall, are beginning to 
 show symptoms that they will be glad, when the world 
 doubts whether they have any life left, to say, ' Did not 
 Theodore Parker spring from our bosom ? ' Yes, he 
 takes his place, his serene place, among those few to 
 whom Americans point as a proof that the national heart 
 is still healthy and alive. Most of our statesmen, most of 
 our politicians, go down into their graves, and we cover 
 them up with apologies : we walk with reverent and filial 
 love backward, and throw-the mantle over their defects, 
 and say, 'Remember the temptation and the time!' 
 Now and then one, now and then one, goes up silently, 
 
xxii INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 and yet not unannounced, like the stars at their coming, 
 and takes his place : while all eyes follow him, and say, 
 * Thank God that it is the promise and the herald ; it is 
 the nation alive at its heart. God has not left us without 
 a witness ; for His children have been among us, and 
 one half have known them by love, and one half have 
 known them by hate — equal attestations to the divine 
 life that has passed through our streets.' " 
 
 Again he spoke burning words of eloquent eulogy, 
 heart-felt and sincere, at the commemoration services, 
 when he said : — 
 
 " There is one thing every man may say of this pulpit : 
 it was a live reality, and no sham. Whether tearing 
 theological idols to pieces at West Roxbury, or here bat- 
 tling with the every-day evils of the streets, it was ever 
 a live voice, and no mechanical or parrot tune ; ever 
 fresh from the heart of God, as these flowers, these lilies — 
 the last flower over which, when eye-sight failed him, 
 with his old gesture he passed his loving hand, and said, 
 *How sweet! ' x\s in that story he loved so much to 
 tell of Michel Angelo, when in the Roman palace Raphael 
 was drawing his figure too small, Angelo sketched a colos- 
 sal head of fit proportions, and taught Raphael his fault : 
 so Parker criticized these other pulpits, not so much by 
 censure as by creation ; by a pulpit proportioned to the 
 hour, broad as humanity, frank as truth, stern as justice, 
 and loving as Christ. Here is the place to judge him. 
 In St. Paul's Cathedral the epitaph says, if you would 
 know the genius of Christopher Wren, ' look around ! ' 
 Do you ask proof, how full were the hands, how large 
 the heart, how many-sided the brain, of your teacher : 
 listen, and you will hear it in the glad, triumphant cer- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxiii 
 
 taintyofyour enemies — that you must close these doors, 
 since his place can never be filled. Do you ask proof 
 of his efficient labor, and the good soil into which that 
 seed fell : gladden your eyes by looking back, and 
 seeing for how many months the impulse his vigorous 
 hand gave you has sufficed, spite of boding prophecy, to 
 keep these doors open — yes, he has left those accustomed 
 to use weapons, and not merely to hold up his hands. 
 x\nd not only among yourselves : from another city I 
 received a letter, full of deep feeling : and the writer, an 
 orthodox church member, says : — 
 
 " ' I was a convert to Theodore Parker before I was a 
 
 convert to . If there is anything of value in the 
 
 work I am doing to-day, it may, in an important sense, 
 be said to have had its root in Parker's heresy ; I mean 
 the habit — without which orthodoxy stands emasculated, 
 and good for nothing — of independently passing on the 
 empty and rotten pretensions of churches and churchmen, 
 which I learned earliest, and, more than from any other, 
 from Theodore Parker. He has my love, my respect, 
 my admiration.' 
 
 "Yes, his diocese is broader than Massachusetts. His 
 influence extends very far outside these walls. Every 
 pulpit in Boston is freer and more real to-day because of 
 the existence of this. The fan of his example scattered 
 the chaff of a hundred sapless years. One whole city is 
 fresher to-day because of him. The most sickly and 
 timid soul under yonder steeple, hide-bound in days and 
 forms and beggarly Jewish elements, little dreams how 
 ten times narrower and worse it was before this sun 
 warmed the general atmosphere around. As was said of 
 Burke's unsuccessful impeachment of Warren Hastings, 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 'never was the great object of punishment, the preven- 
 tion of crime, more completely obtained. Hastings was 
 acquitted; but tyranny and injustice were condemned 
 wherever English was spoken.* So we may say of Boston 
 and Theodore Parker. Grant that few adopted his ex- 
 treme theological views, that not many sympathize in his 
 politics : still, that Boston is nobler, purer, braver, more 
 loving, more. Christian, to-day, is due more to him than 
 to all the pulpits that vex her Sabbath air. He raised 
 the level of sermons, intellectually and morally. Other 
 prjachers were compelled to grow in manly thought, and 
 Christian morals, in very self-defence. As Christ preached 
 of the fall of the Tower of Siloam the week before, and 
 what men said of it in the streets of Jerusalem ; so Parker 
 rang through our startled city the news of some fresh 
 crime against humanity — some slave-hunt, or wicked 
 court, or prostituted official — till frightened audiences 
 actually took bond of their new clergyman that they 
 should not be tormented before their time. 
 
 "Men say he erred on that great question of our age 
 — the place due to the Bible. But William Craft, one of 
 the bravest men who ever fled from our vulture to Victoria, 
 writes to a friend : * When the slave-hunters were on our 
 tracks, and no other minister except yourself came to 
 direct our attention to the God of the oppressed, Parker 
 came with his wise counsel, and told us where and how 
 to go ; gave us money. But that was not all : he gave 
 me a weapon to protect our liberties, and a Bible to guide 
 our souls. I have that Bible now, and shall ever prize it 
 most highly.' 
 
 " How direct and frank his style ! just level to the 
 nation's ear. No man ever needed to read any of his 
 
INTR OB UC TION. xxv 
 
 sentences twice to catch its meaning. None suspected 
 that he thought other than he said, or more than he con- 
 fessed. 
 
 *' Like all such men, he grew daily ; never too old to 
 learn. Mark how close to actual life, how much bolder 
 in reform, are all his later sermons, especially since he 
 came to the city ; every year his step 
 
 ' Forward, persevering to the last, 
 From well to better, daily self-surpassed.' 
 
 "There are men whom we measure by their times, 
 content and expecting to find them subdued to what they 
 work in. They are the chameleons of circumstance ; 
 they are seolian harps, toned by the breeze that sweeps 
 over them. There are others who serve as guide-posts 
 and landmarks : we measure their times by them. Such 
 was Theodore Parker. Hereafter the writer will use him 
 as a mete-wand to measure the heart and civilization of 
 Boston. Like the Englishman, a year or two ago, who 
 suspected our great historian could not move in the best 
 circles of the city when it dropped out that he did not 
 know Theodore Parker ; distant men gauge us by our 
 toleration and recognition of him. Such men are our 
 nilometers : the harvest of the future is according to the 
 height that the flood of our love rises round them. Who 
 cares now that Harvard vouchsafed him no honors? 
 But history will save the fact to measure the calculating 
 and prudent bigotry of our times. 
 
 "Some speak of him only as a bitter critic and harsh 
 prophet. Pulpits and journals shelter their plain speech 
 in mentioning him under the example of what they call 
 his 'unsparing candor.' Do they feel that the strangeness 
 
xxvi INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 of their speech, their unusual frankness, needs apology 
 and example? But he was far other than a bitter critic ; 
 though thank God for eveiy drop of that bitterness, that 
 came like a wholesome rebuke on the dead, saltless sea 
 of American life ! . Thank God for every indignant 
 protest, for every Christian admonition, that the Holy 
 Spirit breathed through those manly lips ! But, if he 
 deserved any single word, it was 'generous.' Vir gener- 
 osus (magnanimous man) is the description that leaps 
 to the lips of every scholar. He was generous of money. 
 Born on a New England farm in those days when small 
 incomes made every dollar matter of importance, he no 
 sooner had command of wealth than he lived with open 
 hands. Not even the darling ambition of a great library 
 ever tempted him to close his ear to need. Go to Venice 
 or Vienna, to Frankfort or to Paris, and ask the refguees 
 who have gone back — when here, friendless exiles but 
 for him — under whose roof they felt most at home. One 
 of our oldest and best teachers writes me that telling him 
 once, in the cars, of a young lad of rare mathematical 
 genius, who could read Laplace, but whom narrow 
 means debarred from the University — *Let him enter,' 
 said Theodore Parker : 'I will pay his bills.' 
 
 *' No sect, no special study, no one idea bounded his 
 sympathy ; but he was generous in judgment where a 
 common man would have found it hard to be so. 
 Though he does not go Mown to dust without his fame,' 
 though Oxford and Germany sent him messages of sym- 
 pathy, still no word of approbation from the old grand 
 names of our land, no honors from university or learned 
 academy, greeted his brave, diligent, earnest life. Men 
 confess that they voted against his admission to scientific 
 
INTR OD UC riON. xx v i i 
 
 bodies for his ideas, feeling all the while that his brain 
 could furnish half the academy; and yet, thus ostracized, 
 he was the most generous, more than just, interpreter of 
 the motives of those about him, and looked on while 
 others reaped where he sowed, with most generous joy 
 in their success. Patiently analyzing character, and 
 masterly in marshalling facts, he stamped with generous 
 justice the world's final judgmemt of Webster; and, now 
 that the soreness of the battle is over, friend and foe 
 allow it. 
 
 " He was generous of labor. Books never served to 
 excuse him from any of the homehest work. Though 
 ' living wisdom with each studious year,' and passionately 
 devoted to his desk, as truly as was said of Milton, Uhe 
 lowliest duties on himself he laid.' What drudgery of 
 the street did that scholarly hand ever refuse ? Who so 
 often and constant as he in the trenches when a slave 
 case made our city a camp? Loving books, he had no 
 jot of a scholar's indolence or timidity but joined hands 
 with labor everywhere. Erasmus would have found him 
 good company, and Melancthon got brave help over a 
 Greek manuscript; but the likeliest place to have found 
 him in that age would have been at Zwingle's side on the 
 battlefield pierced with a score of fanatic spears ; for, 
 above all things, he was terribly in earnest. If I might 
 paint him in one word, I should say he was always in 
 earnest. 
 
 " Fortunate man ! he lived long enough to see the 
 eyes of the whole nation turned toward him as to a 
 trusted teacher; fortunate, indeed, in a life so noble 
 that even what was scorned from the pulpit will surely 
 become oracular from the tomb ; thrice fortunate, if he 
 
xxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 loved fame and future influence, that the leaves which 
 bear his thoughts to posterity are not freighted with 
 words penned by sickly ambition, or wrung from hunger, 
 but with earnest thoughts on dangers that make the 
 ground tremble under our feet, and the heavens black 
 over our head — the only literature sure to live. Ambi- 
 tion says, ' I will write and be famous.' It is only a 
 dainty tournament, a sham fight, forgotten when the 
 smoke clears away. Real books are like Yorktown or 
 Waterloo, whose cannon shook continents at the moment, 
 an echo down the centuries. Through such channels 
 Parker poured his thoughts. 
 
 " And true hearts leaped to his side. No man's brain 
 ever made him warmer friends; no man's heart ever 
 held them firmer. He loved to speak of how many 
 hands he had in every city, in every land, ready to work 
 for him. With royal serenity he levied on all. Vassal 
 hearts multiplied the great chief's powers ; and at home 
 the gentlest and deepest love, saintly, unequaled devo- 
 tion, made every hour sunny, held off every care, and 
 left him double hberty to work. God comfort that 
 widowed heart ! 
 
 " Judge him by his friends. No man suffered any 
 where who did not feel sure of his sympathy. In sick 
 chambers, and by the side of suffering humanity, he kept 
 his heart soft and young. No man lifted a hand any 
 where for truth and right who did not look on Theodore 
 Parker as his fellow-laborer. When men hoped for the 
 future, this desk was one stone on which they planted 
 their feet. Where more frequent than around his board 
 would you find men familiar with Europe's dungeons, 
 and the mobs of our own streets ? Wherever the fugitive 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxix 
 
 slave might worship, here was his Gibraltar ; over his 
 mantel, however scantily furnished, in this city or else- 
 where, you were sure to find a picture of Parker. 
 
 " The blessings of the poor are his laurels. Say that 
 his words won doubt and murmur to trust in a living 
 God : let that be his record. Say that to the hated and 
 friendless he was shield and buckler : let that be his 
 epitaph. The glory of children is the father's. When 
 you voted 'That Theodore Parker should be heard in 
 Boston,' God honored you. Well have you kept that 
 pledge. In much labor and with many sacrifices he has 
 laid the corner-stone : his work is ended here. God 
 calls you to put on the top stone. Let fearless lips and 
 Christian lives be his monument.' 
 
 Garrison also bore his fitting tribute to his departed 
 brother in the great conflict, at the Anti-Slavery Ses- 
 sions : — 
 
 *' Mental independence and moral courage character- 
 ized Theodore Parker in respect to all his convictions and 
 acts. He was not technically 'a Garrisonian aboHtionist,' 
 though often upon that platform, but voted with the 
 Republican party, though faithfully rebuking it for its 
 timidity and growing spirit of compromise. He was no 
 man's man, and no man's follower, but acted for himself, 
 bravely, conscientiously, and according to bis best judg- 
 ment. 
 
 " But what of his theology ? I do not know that I can 
 state the whole of Parker's creed, but I remember a part 
 of it : ' There is one God and Father over all, absolute 
 and immutable, whose love is infinite, and therefore in- 
 exhaustible, and whose tender mercies are over all the 
 works of His hand ; and, whether in the body or out of 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the body, the farthest wanderer from the fold might yet 
 have hope.' He beheved in the continual progress and 
 final redemption of the human race ; that every child of 
 God, however erring, would ultimately be brought back. 
 You may quarrel with that theology, if you please : I 
 shall not. I like it ; I have great faith in it ; I accept it. 
 But this I say in respect to mere abstract theological 
 opinions — the longer I live the less do I care about them, 
 the less do I make them a test of character. It is noth- 
 ing to me that any man calls himself a Methodist, or 
 Baptist, or Unitarian, or Universalist. These sectarian 
 shibboleths are easily taken upon the lip, especially when 
 the ofilence of the cross has ceased. Whoever will, with 
 his theology, grind out the best grist for our common 
 humanity, is the best theologian for me. 
 
 "Many years ago, Thomas Jefferson uttered a senti- 
 ment which shocked our eminently Christian country, 
 as being thoroughly infidel : ' I do not care,' said he, 
 ' whether my neighbor believes in one God, or in twenty 
 gods, if he does not pick my pocket.' Thus going to the 
 root of absolute justice and morality, and obviously 
 meaning this : if a man pick my pocket, it is in vain he 
 tells me, in palliation of his crime, I am a believer in one 
 true and living God. That may be ; but you are a pick- 
 pocket, nevertheless. Or he may say, I have not only 
 one God, but twenty gods : therefore, I am not guilty. 
 Nay, but you are a thief ! And so we always throw our- 
 selves back ui)on character ; upon the fact whether a man 
 is honest, just, long-suffering, merciful ; and not whether 
 he believes in a denominational creed, or is a strict ob- 
 server of rites and ceremonies. This was the religion of 
 Theodore Parker, always exciting his maiTellous powers 
 
INTR OD UC TION. xxxi 
 
 to promote the common good, to bless those who needed 
 a blessing, and to seek and to save the lost ; to bear tes- 
 timony in favor of the right in the face of an ungodly 
 age, and against a 'frowning world.' We are here to 
 honor his memory. How can we best show our estima- 
 tion of him? By trying to be like him in nobility of soul, 
 in moral heroism, in fidelity to the truth, in disinterested 
 regard for the welfare of others. 
 
 " Mr. Parker, though strong in his convictions, was no 
 dogmatist, and assumed no robes of infallibility. No 
 man was more docile in regard to being taught, even by 
 the lowliest. Mr. Phillips has done him no more than 
 justice, when he said that he was willing and eager to 
 obtain instruction from any quarter. Hence he was al- 
 ways inquiring of those with whom he came in contact, 
 so that he might learn, if possible, something from them 
 that might aid him in the great work in which he was 
 engaged. 
 
 "When the question of 'Woman's Rights' first came 
 up for discussion, like multitudes of others, Mr. Parker 
 was inclined to treat it facetiously, and supposed it could 
 be put aside with a smile. Still it was his disposition to 
 hear and to learn ; and as soon as he began to investigate, 
 and to see the grandeur and world-wide importance of 
 the 'Woman's Rights' movement, he gave to it his hearty 
 support before the country and the world. 
 
 " How he will be missed by those noble, but unfortunate, 
 exiles who come to Boston from the old world from time 
 to time, driven out by the edicts of European despotism ! 
 What a home was Theodore Parker's for them ! How 
 they loved to gather round him in that home ! And what 
 a sympathizing friend and trusty adviser, and generous 
 
xxxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 assistant, in their times of sore distress, tliey have found 
 in him ! There are many such in Boston and various 
 parts of our country who have fled from foreign oppres- 
 sion, who will hear of his death with great sorrow of 
 heart, and drop grateful tears to his memory." 
 
 From foreign thinkers and writers recognition comes, 
 and will gain in strength as the years pass. As early as 
 1846, James Martineau in a review of Mr. Parker's "Dis- 
 course on Religion," in The Prospective Ranew for Feb- 
 ruary, 1846, says : — 
 
 "Gladly then do we gird up our hearts to follow the 
 bold and noble steps of Theodore Parker over the ample 
 province of thought which he traverses in his Discourse 
 on Religion. However startUng the positions to which 
 he conducts us, and however breathless the impetuosity 
 with which he hurries on, the region over which he flies 
 is no dreamland, but a real one, which will be laid down 
 truly or falsely in the minds of reflecting men : his survey 
 of it is grand and comprehensive, complete in its bound- 
 aries, if not always accurate in its contents ; and the glass 
 of clear and reverential faith through which he looks at 
 all things, presents the most familiar objects in aspects 
 beautiful and new. . . . 
 
 " So vast a mass of matter, requiring for its manage- 
 ment a very various skill, cannot, it may be supposed, be 
 dealt with by one man, otherwise than superficially. Yet 
 there is a mastery shown over every element of the great 
 subject ; and the slight treatment of it in parts no reader 
 can help attributing to the plan of the work, rather than to 
 the incapacity of the author. From the resources of a 
 mind singularly exuberant by nature and laboriously en- 
 riched by culture, a system of results is here thrown up and 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxiii 
 
 spread out in luminous exposition : and though the pro- 
 cesses are often imperfectly indicated by which they have 
 been reached, they so evidently come from the deep and 
 vital action of an understanding qualified to mature them 
 that an opponent who might stigmatize the book as super- 
 ficial would never venture to call the author so. There 
 are few men livino^, we suspect, who would like to have a 
 controversy with him on any one of his many heresies. 
 The references in his notes, though often only general, 
 are, when needful, sufficiently specific and various to 
 show an extent of reading truly astonishing in so young 
 a writer" [Parker was only thirty-two when he published 
 the work Dr. Martineau was now reviewing] ; "yet the 
 glow and brilliancy of his page prove that the accumula- 
 tive mass of other men's thought and learning has been 
 but the fuel of his own genius. The copiousness of Ger- 
 man erudition, systematized with a French precision, 
 seems here to have been absorbed by a mind having 
 the moral massiveness, the hidden tenderness, the strong 
 enthusiasm, of an English nature. 
 
 "The least perfect of his achievements appears to us 
 to be the metaphysical ; he is too ardent to preserve self- 
 consistency throughout the parts of a large abstract 
 scheme ; too impetuous for the fine analysis of intricate 
 and evanescent phenomena. His philosophical training, 
 however, gives him great advantages in his treatment of 
 concrete things and his views of human affairs ; and in 
 nothing would he, in our opinion, more certainly excel 
 than in history — whether the history of thought and 
 knowledge or of society and institutions. 
 
 "As to the form in which our author presents his ideas, 
 our readers must judge of that from the passages we may 
 
xxxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 have occasion to quote. We have small patience at any 
 time with the criticisms on style in which ' Belle-Lettres 
 men ' and rhetoricians delight ; and where we speak to 
 one another of the solemn mysteries of life and duty in 
 God, such things affect us like a posture-master's discus- 
 sions of Christ's sitting attitude in the Sermon on the 
 Mount, or some prudish milliner's critique on the peni- 
 tent wiping his feet with her hair. Men who neither 
 think nor feel, but only learn, pretend, and imitate, may 
 make an art out of the deepest utterances of the human 
 soul ; but from these histrionic beings, who would ap- 
 plaud the elocution of Isaiah, and study the delivery of 
 a ' Father, forgive them ! ' such a man as Theodore Parker 
 recalls us with a joyful shame. He reasons, he meditates, 
 he loves, he scorns, he weeps, he worships, aloud. It 
 may be thought very improper that a man should thus 
 publish himselfj instead of some choice, decorous ex- 
 cerjDts, fit for the public eye. As, in prayer to God, it is 
 deemed in these days no sin to utter, instead of our real 
 desires, something else which we should hold it decent to 
 desire ; so, in addressing men, it is esteemed wise, not to 
 say, or even to inquire, what we do think, but to put forth 
 what it might be as well to think. Weary of all this, and 
 finding nothing but a holy dulness and sickly unreality in 
 the conventional theology of pulpit and the press, we de- 
 light in our author's irrepressible unreserve. No doubt 
 there are rash judgments ; there is extravagant expres- 
 sion ; the coloring of his emotions is sometimes too vivid, 
 the edge of his indignation too shaqD. But he believes, 
 and therefore does he speak. You have his mind. These 
 things are true to him. . . . 
 
 "Honor then to the manly simplicity of Theodore 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxv 
 
 Parker. Perish who may among Scribes and Pharisees, 
 — 'orthodox Uars for God/ — //^ at least ' has delivered 
 his soul.' . . . 
 
 " His vast reading, and his quick sympathy with what 
 is great and generous of every kind, has given an eclectic 
 character to his philosophy. His mind refuses to let go 
 anything that is true and excellent. . . . 
 
 "In the Discourse on Rehgion, he has nowhere stated 
 the principles of his ethical doctrine, or bridged over the 
 chasm which separates it from his theology. But the 
 purity and depth of his conceptions of character, his in- 
 tense abhorrence of falsehood and evil, the moral lofti- 
 ness of his devotion, and the generous severity of his 
 rebuke, are in the strongest contradiction to the serene 
 complacency of a mind suspended in metaphysic eleva- 
 tion above the point where truth and error, right and 
 wrong, diverge, and looking down from a station whence 
 all things look equally divine. 
 
 "If there is any one who for his judgment on the his- 
 torical evidence for the miracles, chooses to denounce 
 him as 'no Christian' ; who conceives that a literary ver- 
 dict, referring the Gospels to the second century instead 
 of the first, outlaws a man from 'the Kingdom of God' ; 
 who can read this book, and suppose in his heart that 
 here is a man whom Jesus would have driven from the 
 company of his disciples, — we can only wish that the 
 accuser's title to the name was as obvious as the accused's. 
 Alas for this poor wrangling ! To hear the boastful anger 
 of our stout believers, one would suppose that to take up 
 our faith on too easy terms, and to be drawn into disciple- 
 ship less by logic than by love, were the very Sin against 
 the Holy Ghost ! Jesus thought it might not be too much 
 
xxxvi INTRODUCTION, 
 
 to expect of his enemies, that, being eye-witnesses, they 
 might * beheve his works ' ; but of his friends it was the 
 mark, that they would 'beheve him.' But now-a-days 
 who are our ' patient Christians,' ever busy with indict- 
 ments against all counterfeits? Why, men who think it 
 supremely ridiculous to accept anything or being as 
 divine, unless visible certificates of character be written 
 on earth, air, and water, and Heaven, will pawn the laws 
 of nature as personal securities. 
 
 "We part with Theodore Parker in hope to meet 
 again. He has, we are persuaded, a task, severe perhaps, 
 but assuredly noble, to achieve in this world. The work 
 we have reviewed is the confession, at the threshold of 
 a high career, of a great Reforming soul, that has thus 
 cleared itself of hindrance, and girded up itself for a 
 faithful future. The slowness of success awaiting those 
 who stand apart from the multitude will not dismay him. 
 He knows the ways of Providence too well." 
 
 In Stopford Brooke's Life and Letters of F. W. Robert- 
 son, he says : — 
 
 "Theodore Parker he admired for the eloquence, 
 earnestness, learning, and indignation against evil, and 
 against forms without a spirit, which mark his writings." 
 " Much that Theodore Parker says on the subject of in- 
 spiration is very valuable, though I am of opinion that 
 Martineau has, with much sagacity and subtlety, corrected 
 in the review certain expressions which are too unguarded, 
 and which, unless modified, are untrue." " Dissenters 
 anathematize Unitarians, and Unitarians of the Old 
 School condemn the more spiritual ones of the New." 
 
 From a French pasteur, Dr. Albert Reville, came ap- 
 preciative words : — 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxvii 
 
 " Arrived at the end, we must ask ourselves what re- 
 mains of that brilUant existence which we have sketched, 
 and to what extent Parker's vision was prophetic when, 
 on his death-bed, he saw himself doubled, and contin- 
 uing his work in America, while his body dissolved in an 
 Itahan soil. 
 
 " Parker founded neither a church nor a school. His 
 ministry, his words, his writings, his entire life, was a dem- 
 onstration of spirit and power, rather than the construc- 
 tion of anything visible and organized ; consequently it 
 is difficult to indicate the positive results of his efforts, 
 although the latent energy of the principles which he 
 proclaimed, and the impressions which he left behind, 
 are incontestable. 
 
 "What a fine comment have the last five years [the 
 years includmg the American War] furnished on the social 
 and religious teachings of the Boston preacher. Hardly 
 had his ashes grown cold, when the Union arrived upon 
 the border of that Red Sea which he had so often fore- 
 told. It arrived there without suspecting the depth of 
 the water, and imbued with illusions and prejudices which 
 could not but make the passage more difficult and painful 
 than the most clear-sighted could have foreseen. 
 
 " If now we go back to days preceding this fearful 
 duel, we may say without the least exaggeration that 
 Parker shines in the first rank of those who cried to the 
 North most energetically, Be on your guard ; and who 
 contributed most largely to arouse the mind of the people 
 out of that torpor into which it had been thrown by mate- 
 rial prosperity. The Massachusetts volunteers were the 
 first in the hour of the greatest peril to make their bodies 
 a rampart around the Federal capital, seriously menaced 
 
xxxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 by the insurgent army. The silver and gold of New 
 England never ceased to flow forth, even in the darkest 
 hours, to sustain the good cause. At length the day came 
 when the President of the United States saw himself able 
 to proclaim the abolition of slavery ; which he did amid 
 the plaudits of the same crowd that selfish sophists had 
 so long tried to blind, touching interests the most manifest. 
 Parker's ashes may well have thrilled with joy when 
 touched by the news reverberating from the other side 
 of the Atlantic. We have no wish to glorify our hero by 
 letting persons little instructed in American affairs take 
 the impression that the Boston pastor was the principal 
 author of that patriotic revolution. But we must not un- 
 derrate the glorious part which belongs to him ; and if 
 only you know the man, you will comprehend the in- 
 fluence which he exercised on those eminent citizens of 
 the Union, Wendell Phillips, Chase, Seward, Sumner, Hale, 
 Banks, Horace Mann, and others, his friends, his admirers, 
 his fellow-combatants, with whom he ceaselessly conversed 
 and corresponded, encouraging them, consoling them, 
 commending them, sometimes frankly blaming them, 
 always feeling a warm interest in their noble endeavors, 
 always ready to enhance his public instructions by his 
 generous and faithful example. Who, moreover, can 
 measure the amount of liberal feeling which his numerous 
 lectures poured into the different States of the Union? 
 How often ears of corn, ripened before others under the 
 rays of that frank and enlightened liberalism, foretold the 
 hour of the coming harvest ! All that cannot be calcu- 
 lated, but it has weight — immense weight — in the scales 
 of the history of God's kingdom on earth. 
 
 " Theodore Parker undermined slavery by his bold criti- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxix 
 
 cisms of the Bible more, perhaps, than by the discourses 
 directly prompted by the horror the observance called 
 forth in his mind. And as a theology more liberal than 
 that which prevailed around him was in his hands a mar- 
 vellous instrument of political liberalism, so the future 
 will show us America profiting by its political liberalism 
 to realize, sooner and better than any other nation, the 
 religious liberalism after which the soul of our age is 
 sighing. For all liberalisms, like all liberties, are linked 
 together. It is chiefly as a religious thinker and writer 
 that Theodore Parker belongs to the future. 
 
 " What ought we in general to think of Parker's reli- 
 gious work ? This question interests the old world not less 
 than the new. We may describe Parker's religion as 
 Christian Theism, and the characteristic of that mode of 
 religion is this — that to one or two very simple and, if 
 I may so speak, very sober doctrines, it adds a great rich- 
 ness of applications to individual and social life. For 
 ourselves there is not the slightest doubt that all the cur- 
 rents of our modern life lead us to that side of religion ; 
 and we are not shaken in that conviction by the cries of 
 terror uttered by those who desire at any cost that we 
 should remain immured in a past where we should be 
 stifled, any more than by the frivolous predictions which 
 fall from those who, disowning one of the most ineradi- 
 cable instincts of human nature, go about declaring that 
 we are hastening on to the end of all religion. There 
 will arise in the near future a prolific synthesis of religion 
 and liberty, under the aegis of spiritualism. Under wliat 
 form and to what point has Theodore Parker contributed 
 to prepare this magnificent future ? We must not look 
 for a professor of systematic theology in Theodore Parker : 
 
xl INTR OD UC T/ON. 
 
 he is an originator, he is a singer inspired with the future. 
 You may reject many of his ideas, but if you all love re- 
 ligious liberty and social progress you cannot but warmly 
 sympathize with the man. It is much less system of doc- 
 trine he will give you than impressions, consolations, 
 hopes, courage, faith. His religion is not an abstract 
 theory, but a spontaneous fact of his nature. As he 
 himself remarked, ' his head is not more natural to his 
 body than his religion to his soul.' His science, his eru- 
 dition, very great in reality and of the best grain, are not 
 the servants, but the auxiliaries, the friends, of his un- 
 shaken faith in the living God, and aid him to put away 
 everything in the dogmas and institutions of former days 
 which hindered him from enjoying the Heavenly Father's 
 immediate presence and from bathing in the waters of 
 infinite love. Truth in Parker is, you feel, a necessity, 
 a passion of his nature, on account of which you pardon 
 his outbursts ; such is the courage and loyalty of his soul. 
 Let us remember that the age is going forward, that 
 modern society in its imperious exigencies calls hence- 
 forth for more radical and exact solutions than the com- 
 promises which up till now have been accounted satisfac- 
 tory. For that, need is there of the generous audacity 
 of Parker, going straight ahead without troubling him- 
 self about the dust he raises in passing through so 
 many ruins, his eyes ever fixed on the everlasting 
 light. Moreover, it would be unjust to see in him 
 only the severe and energetic wrestler. There is in his 
 nature, — and this constitutes its charm, — by the side 
 of and below his revolutionary ardor, a pure and rich 
 mysticism, delightful to contemplate. His profound 
 faith in the living God carries him beyond the poor 
 
INTRODUCTION. xli 
 
 world in which we live, and transports him before the 
 time into the region of celestial harmonies. He is one 
 of those thinkers who, to unsparing censure of the men 
 and the things of their own times, have joined the 
 most serene anticipations of . the definite future of 
 humanity. To the feverish agitations of his career as 
 a reformer, his religion is that which the depths of 
 the ocean are to the surface which the winds toss into 
 confusion. After every tempest the inviolable calm of 
 the abyss resumes its mastery over the entire mass, 
 which, again peaceful and smiling, reflects the boundless 
 azure of the sky. 
 
 " To sum up, Parker was essentially a prophet ; and 
 he is one of those contemporaneous appearances which, 
 better than laborious researches, enable us to understand 
 certain phenomena which at first sight one would think 
 belonged exclusively to the past. What were the prophets 
 in the bosom of Israel? Not diviners, not utterers of 
 supernatural oracles, as is too often fancied. They were 
 the organs of a grand idea, — a simple, austere, even 
 abstract idea, — hidden in the hfeart of the national 
 tradition : the idea of pure monotheism. In order to 
 disengage that idea from what disfigured it, from the 
 people's sins which caused it to be misapprehended, 
 from the abuses of a priesthood and a throne interested, 
 as they thought, in its remaining forgotten, the prophets 
 persisted in their path of duty in spite of all opposition ; 
 and notwithstanding the ill-will of which they were the 
 objects at every step, they came forth from the. old soil 
 of Israel always with a deeper faith and a stouter heart. 
 For their force sprang from the fact that at the bottom 
 the spirit of Israel conspired with their spirit, and the 
 
xlii INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 more hostility that spirit encountered the more did it 
 become conscious of itself, and the more it asserted 
 itself clearly and demonstratively. Kings, priests, people 
 — all might find the prophets unendurable, but within 
 a secret voice declared to them that nevertheless the 
 prophets were in the right. In the same way the spirit 
 of Protestantism and of the American constitution took 
 possession of Theodore Parker near his father's work- 
 shop, as of old the spirit of Monotheism seized the 
 prophet by the side of his plow or under his wild fig-trees. 
 This man, who might have lived at ease beneath the 
 shadow of his pines, in the midst of the flowers of his 
 parsonage, and who goes out to preach from city to city 
 'against the people's sins,' — this man overruled by an 
 idea simple, grand, implicitly contained in the religion 
 of his childhood and the constitution of his native land : 
 the idea of the free development of the human person- 
 ality, — who consecrates his existence to the task of 
 disembarrassing that idea from all the shackles created 
 by interests, by vices, by sacerdotalism, by officials' 
 prerogatives ; this man, who refuses every compromise, 
 who has no kind of indulgence for political or commer- 
 cial necessities ; who, in spite of the many bitter cups 
 he is forced to drink, joyously proclaims on the house- 
 tops, and foretells, with an assurance that is disconcerted 
 by nothing, the final victory of truth and liberty — This 
 Man is a Prophet. 
 
 " Not only for the United States was Parker a prophet. 
 His patriotism was not exclusive ; he felt himself to be 
 literally a citizen of the world, and if he loved America 
 so well it is because in her he saw the predestined soil 
 where some day the ideal, dreamt of in our Europe, 
 
INTRODUCTION. xliii 
 
 would receive full realization. For us also, at the 
 moment when long-established edifices and traditions 
 nod to their fall ; when it is anxiously asked, whether 
 they will not in their fall crush both those who uphold 
 and those who assail them, such a man as Parker is a 
 prophet of consolation and hope. He is right ; no cow- 
 ardly fears ! whatever happen, man will remain man. In 
 his very nature, such as God has made it, there will ever be 
 the revelations and the promises which produce beautiful 
 lives and beautiful deaths. And what more is needed? 
 Happy the churches who shall find in their essential prin- 
 ciples the right to open themselves without resolution to 
 that imperishable Christianity of which Theodore Parker 
 was the inspired preacher ! The fundamental truth 
 which he maintained, namely, that in the last analysis 
 everything rests on conscience ; that God reveals Him- 
 self to whosoever seeks after Him ; that the salvation 
 of man and society, on earth as well as in heaven, 
 depends not on dogmas, not on rites, not on miracles, 
 not on priesthoods, nor on books, but on ' Christ in us ' : 
 on a pure and honest heart, on a loving soul, on a will 
 devoted and active, — this truth will live and cause 
 us to live with it. And the church for which he prayed, 
 which shall be spacious enough to contain all the sincere, 
 all the disinterested, all the morally great, all the inno- 
 cent, and all the repentant — that Church, truly uni- 
 versal, which in the past already unites so many noble 
 souls separated by barriers now tottering — that church 
 will never perish. Even the death of the prophets 
 would not for an hour retard the triumph of the truth 
 which they preach, and the moment ever comes when 
 humanity, confused and yet grateful, perceived that it 
 was ignorantly stoning the organs of the Holy Spirit." 
 
xliv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 From Germany as early as 1856, Professor Gervinus, 
 of Heidelburg, the eminent writer on the Philosophy 
 of History, wrote of the introduction of Mr. Parker's 
 writings and the interest felt there: — 
 
 " Honored Sir, — The lines from your own hand are 
 so precious to me that I hasten thankfully to reply. The 
 announcement in your letter that we already have the 
 pleasure of personally knowing you — in fact, without 
 being aware of it — took me not disagreeably by surprise. 
 When we saw you at our house in 1844, it was, in fact, 
 before we knew who Parker was ; for it is only since 
 the German translations of your writings that we have 
 become acquainted with you — American books are 
 so seldom sent to us. And, unfortunately, so many 
 people pass through this little gathering-point of the 
 great routes that the interesting visitors rejoice us less 
 in the mass of indifferent ones ; but that you should 
 have been lost to us in this manner disturbs us greatly. 
 It must, however, humiliating as it is, be confessed. 
 My wife, who is an enthusiastic admirer of yours, was 
 in a sort of despair. We rejoice every day at the 
 happy idea of Herr Ziethen to translate your works. 
 I hope that, gradually, this will have wide and deep 
 results. We possess your liberal standpoint in theory, 
 in learning, in the schools ; we have it in the broad 
 circle of the world, among all people of common sense ; 
 but we repel it from the place whence it ought to be 
 taught and planted, so that morality and religion might 
 not disappear with obscurantism. Everybody among 
 us knows how it stands with the religious convictions 
 of the majority, only the pulpit does not dare to say it ; 
 that is the domain of official hyj)ocrisy. Consequently, 
 the calling of the clergyman has been altogether cor- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlv 
 
 rupted ; let sermons sound ever so high, the whole 
 profession is one of the most despised in Germany. I 
 hope that the impression of your discourses will be fav- 
 orable to a practical theology among us. I can remark 
 how much they have improved the orthodox themselves. 
 I do what I can to circulate them, in order to make 
 propaganda of the theologians." 
 
 In 1876, in an article on Theodore Parker and the 
 Unitarians of Boston, The Inquirer said : — 
 
 " The fame of Theodore Parker and his noble work 
 is growing more brilliant with every receding year. That 
 Fugitive Slave Law itself was the Act of a northern 
 statesman who was at least intimately connected with 
 the Unitarian body, and was zealously upheld by states- 
 men and politicians and lawyers — especially of the 
 Boston school — who were avowed Unitarians. That 
 was a dark blot on the history of American Unitarians ; 
 and it would be better to leave it in obscurity than drag 
 it again to the light of day. But there was one great 
 man — 
 
 " ' Faithful found 
 
 Among the faithless, faithful only he 
 
 Among innumerable false, unmoved, 
 
 Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified. 
 
 His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal; 
 
 Nor numbers nor example with him wrought 
 
 To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind. 
 
 Though single.' 
 
 "And of Parker, as of Abdiel, it might also be said 
 that — 
 
 " ' he passed 
 Long way through hostile scorn, 
 And with retorted scorn his back he turned.* 
 
xlvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 When this man set himself to his life-work of withstand- 
 ing and subverting to the foundation tliis gigantic iniquity ; 
 when he not only thundered in the pulpit against the 
 national sin, but armed himself to resist the Fugitive 
 Slave Law even unto the death ; when all his acts and 
 predictions are more than justified by that great result 
 which was due chiefly to him and to reformers like him ; 
 when all brave thinkers and true workers everywhere — 
 except in Boston — have learned to love and revere his 
 name, and are erecting a monument to his memory in 
 their hearts, what can we think of the petty backbiting 
 criticism, both here and in America, which makes it 
 a serious charge against him — a strong ground for refus- 
 ing to republish his greatest book — that he once said, 
 half in jest, half in earnest, of some Unitarian ministers, 
 'stuff them with good dinners, and freedom, the- 
 ology, religion, may go to the devil for all them*? 
 The real thing to be considered is, was it not true of 
 some at least : and might not far worse things have been 
 said of the Divines who practically exalted the laws of 
 the Devil above the laws of freedom, conscience, and 
 God?" 
 
 The twenty-three years which have passed from i860 to 
 1883 have removed the name and fame of Theodore 
 Parker from the roll of the workers, the thinkers, and 
 the martyrs of the world to the position he will now hold. 
 He has passed into history as one of the greatest Amer- 
 icans. His influence was manifold, his memory is now 
 respected, if nothing more, and by many it is regarded 
 as saintly. 
 
 Let the great leader have from distant lands and his own 
 people just meed of praise and reward. Each year brings 
 
INTR on UC TION. xl vi i 
 
 him more before the people as a leader, a firm friend to 
 humanity. These Lives have all their place, their value, 
 and still .there is room for more, for another work which 
 shall appeal directly to the new circle of readers which 
 has grown up in the last decade, — the readers who desire 
 to know the motive power, the life-work, the personality, 
 of the great Boston preacher who drew and held his 
 thousands of hearers every Sunday for years, — who would 
 have gone on, to triumphantly vindicate his position, as a 
 single-minded, noble-hearted disciple of his Master if 
 time had been granted him. 
 
 Early years of excessive bodily and mental toil, of 
 actual privation for one of his mental and physical 
 calibre, of exhausting thought and study, a middle life 
 spent in a desperate struggle for the strength to do 
 his earnest work, and the most intense devotion to 
 the cause of freedom of thought in every path of life, 
 made the days of this great, earnest thinker and worker 
 comparatively short, yet into his fifty years were crowded 
 the enthusiasm, the immense acquisition of knowledge, 
 the ripened study of the fourscore years of the Psalmist. 
 It was an ideal life in its force and intensity — the spirit 
 of the enthusiast and the exact knowledge of the scholar 
 united in it in a singular degree with the devotion to 
 humanity which was so overpowering that the superficial 
 and hasty multitude too often called him iconoclast, 
 atheist, and many more opprobrious epithets because 
 they thought in his love for mankind he forgot the Maker 
 of all. 
 
 Years have brought greater breadth and tolerance, 
 and to two English authors we owe excellent lives of 
 Mr. Parker. The first, written by Peter Dean, appeared 
 
xlviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in 1877, and this gentleman makes acknowledgment of 
 indebtedness to the Lives by Weiss and Frothingham, 
 with thanks for the assistance of James Martineau and 
 other English friends of Mr. Parker. This biography 
 is very attractively written, and the autlior has faithfully 
 gathered from many sources all that could interest the 
 reader. The book, as already stated, is dedicated to 
 Frances Power Cobbe. 
 
 This last, but not least, sketch of Mr. Parker is inter- 
 esting and attractive. It is not loaded with any superfluous 
 details. It is brief, comprehensive, and clear in its 
 conception. The outline is sharp and the portrait 
 clear and accurate. The author has put into eight 
 chapters the marked events of Mr. Parker's life without 
 marring by compression the marvellous details of his 
 industry, his study, his mental vigor, and his grand love 
 of God and man. Where a larger work will have one 
 reader, this will have a hundred, it is so admirably 
 concise, fitting, and powerful, without wanting either 
 picturesque and graphic touches or animated incidents. 
 Thousands of minds feel Theodore Parker's influence, 
 hundreds of writers and thinkers bear witness to his 
 power; our library shelves teem with works upon his 
 writings and his life, his name is one long to be remem- 
 bered in our land. This English tribute to his worth and 
 work must find a place in our homes and libraries far 
 and near. 
 
 GRACE A. OLIVER. 
 " Red Gables," Swamscot. 
 
THE STORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE OLD HOME. 
 
 The village of Lexington lies ten miles 
 away from Boston, in the State of Massachu- 
 setts, and near Lexington not many years 
 ago, stood a house among the meadows 
 which was more than a century old. The 
 doorsteps were worn by the tread of many 
 feet, and old-fashioned latticed windows let 
 air and sunshine into' the low-roofed rooms. 
 Pine trees shaded the house from the hot 
 summer's sun ; and in the background a 
 wooded hill sheltered it from some of the 
 winter's colder winds. Close at hand grew 
 an orchard full of peach trees ; while in front 
 of the dwelling lay a little field, through 
 which a narrow path led down to the wide 
 
8 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 meadows. Beyond the meadows, far as eye 
 could see, stretched a valley bounded by low 
 hills, and watered by a merry brook which 
 flowed into the River Charles, on its way to 
 the distant sea. 
 
 What a valley that was ! In summer, rich 
 with soft mosses and blue gentians ; in 
 spring, with violets and tender anemones ; in 
 winter, white and dreary with deep snow- 
 drifts; no living green to be seen but that of 
 the great pine trees, bent and battered under 
 the stormy winds. 
 
 In the old house lived a millwright, with 
 his wife, his aged mother, and a large family 
 of children. He was a hard-working, some- 
 what silent man ; but he was known as a 
 tender husband and father, a good son, and 
 a faithful friend. All his neighbors respected 
 him. He had lived among them for years, 
 and his honest, sober way of life was so 
 unlike that of many men who lived in Lexing- 
 ton, that it was a common saying in the 
 village, "John Parker has all the manners of 
 the neighborhood." 
 
 For this reason the millwright was often 
 asked to settle disputes among the people of 
 
THE OLD HOME. g 
 
 the village ; and because he was known to be 
 so honest and trusty, dying men sometimes 
 found comfort in leaving John Parker as 
 guardian to their orphan children. He was 
 a hard-working man, too. Most of the day 
 he might be found in the workshop at the 
 back of the house making wheels, and 
 barrows, and tubs. In the evening, when 
 the day's work was done, he used to sit with 
 his family in the old-fashioned kitchen. 
 There he read, sometimes aloud, while his 
 wife and daughters sewed and knitted, and 
 the old grandmother nodded in her easy- 
 chair by the fire. When the clock struck 
 eight, he used to send the young ones to 
 rest with a wave of his hand ; and before 
 very long all the inmates of the house were 
 fast asleep — for they were quiet people, 
 with very simple, peaceful ways of life. 
 
 Thus one day passed away much like 
 another, and it was very rarely that any of 
 the family wandered out into the world 
 beyond the blue "Milton hills" that bounded 
 the valley where their home lay. But books 
 gave them knowledge, if they gained none 
 from travel, and these John Parker used to 
 
lO THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 borrow from the village library. For in 
 those clays Lexington had three public build- 
 ings — a library, a church, and a school- 
 
 1 house. Very few volumes made up the 
 wealth this library owned. About twelve 
 new books, it is said, were added each year ; 
 yet to men living like the millwright, ten 
 miles away from the nearest town, even the 
 small store of a village library was worth 
 much. 
 
 A farm lay near the old house, and John 
 Parker's "boys" used to work upon this 
 farm. It was only a small place and paid 
 
 1 badly. The Parkers were poor people, so all 
 their work must be done by their own hands. 
 The girls helped their mother, and she was 
 always to be found busy about the house, 
 unless some neighbor was ill or In trouble 
 
 land needed her help. Like her husband, 
 Mrs. Parker was well known and loved in the 
 village. Sometimes people wondered to 
 find her so wise a woman, and her advice 
 always so good ; for she had little time to 
 read, and she worked as hard as the poorest 
 of her neighbors, though she was by no 
 means a strong woman. The fact was, Mrs, 
 
THE OLD HOME. I I 
 
 Parker's wisdom did not come from books. 
 She thought as she went about her work, and 
 her loving- heart and firm trust in God made 
 clear to her mind questions which were puz- 
 zles to people less faithful than herself. 
 Her children believed, however, that no one 
 knew so many wonderful, wild stories of the 
 Indians, or beautiful old ballads, as their 
 mother did. Her memory was good, and 
 richly stored with legends and tales she had 
 known and loved when she was a child herself. 
 So fables, hymns, texts, and good thoughts of 
 her own were, any and all of them, ready to 
 help and cheer when they were wanted. 
 
 One August day in the year 1810, a new 
 baby was born in John Parker's house, and the 
 hearts of all the ten children were full of joy. 
 Even the youngest little sister, five years of 
 age, was old enough to welcome the little ' 
 brother heartily, and by one consent he was 
 named Theodore, or the "gift of God." He 
 found many nurses and playfellows awaiting 
 him, all ready to watch over and help him to 
 grow happy and strong. Long after he could 
 run alone, Mrs. Parker used to call him her 
 baby; and every day, under his mother's lov- 
 
12 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 ing influence, the boy learned without know- 
 ing it himself, to grow into good thoughts 
 and habits, and into a strong and earnest 
 faith. 
 
 " Mrs Parker, you 're spiling that boy of 
 yours," people sometimes used to say as a 
 friendly warning, when they saw the little 
 fellow so often sitting at his mother's feet or 
 running by her side; "he never can take care 
 of himself when he grows up." But Mrs. Par- 
 ker knew better than this. The knowledofe 
 of his mother's love made the boy sure of the 
 guardian care of God about which she told 
 him, and before he was three years old he 
 was brave and fearless. 
 
 In summer-time he used to wander alone 
 over the farm and fields, making friends with 
 the birds and flowers. He loved to lie on the 
 soft grass, watching the sunshine and the 
 shadows made by the floating clouds, and 
 drinking in the sweet-scented breeze. In 
 winter he rushed about among the thick snow- 
 drifts that lay heaped up by the fierce winds ; 
 or he played in the workshop and among the 
 cows and horses in the barn. But always he 
 loved the summer sights and sounds the 
 
THE OLD HOME. 
 
 13 
 
 best. As he grew older, father, mother, 
 brothers, and sisters were at hand to teach 
 this Httle new comer, less wise than them- 
 selves, the meaning- of the sights he saw 
 about him on the fair face of earth, and help 
 him to learn the book of Nature for himself. 
 
 One summer day, as Theodore was ram- 
 bling about the farm in the bright sunshine, 
 he stopped by the side of a pond to look at 
 a lovely red flower growing on a plant in the 
 moist soil at the water's edge. Beneath the 
 sheltering leaves of the plant lay a spotted 
 tortoise. Without a thought of the pain his 
 act would give, the little fellow raised the 
 stick which he held in his hand to strike the 
 sleeping tortoise and make it wake and move. 
 Suddenly, with the upraised stick still in the 
 air, he seemed to hear a voice within him say 
 clearly, '' It Is wrong." 
 
 Down dropped the stick, and away trotted 
 Theodore back over the fields to find his 
 mother, and ask her whence came the warn- 
 ing words he had just heard. Mrs. Parker 
 lifted the breathless little lad on her knee, 
 and listened to his eager tale. When it was 
 ended, with her eyes wet with tears, she said : 
 
14 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 " That voice that you have heard some men 
 call conscience, but I prefer to call it the 
 voice of God in the soul of man. If you 
 listen to it and obey it, it will speak clearer 
 and clearer, and always guide you right ; but 
 if you turn a deaf ear and disobey, then it 
 will fade out little by little and leave you all 
 in the dark. Your life depends on your 
 heeding this little voice." 
 
 From that day, though he was so young, 
 the thought that he must listen to God's voice 
 within him became a part of his daily life, 
 and, like the thought of his mother's love, 
 went everywhere with him. Like his broth- 
 ers and sisters, he said a hymn and prayer 
 each night; but the good thoughts did not 
 end there. x^U through the day he learned 
 to listen for the tiny whisper of conscience 
 that never failed to tell him what was right 
 or wrong, and so it came to pass that people 
 knew if Theodore Parker said a thing, that 
 thing must be true. 
 
 \ While still quite a small boy, like all the 
 busy people about him, Theodore learned to 
 work. His life, even when a child, was not 
 to be all play in the sunny meadows and the 
 
THE OLD HOME. 1 5 
 
 sheltered barn. He carried into the house 
 chips and broken branches for the fires, drove 
 the quiet cows to pasture, and carried grain 
 to the oxen in their stalls. He waited also 
 on the old grandmother at her meals, for 
 this old lady lived most of her time in a little 
 parlor upstairs ; and when the older people 
 were tired with their hard day's work, the 
 active little grandson was always ready to run 
 her errands and supply her wants. 
 
 A mile from Mr. Parker's house, along the 
 country road, stood a small school-house close 
 to the village. When he was six years old, 
 Theodore was sent to this school every day 
 for two years. After that time, until he was 
 sixteen, he only went for twelve weeks in 
 each year. The nicest and shortest way to 
 the school lay across the fields ; but a brook 
 flowed through them, and the small boy had 
 no good fairy ready to carry him across. 
 With much labor he rolled some heavy 
 stones into the brook, and crossed safely thus 
 four times a day, with no help but that of his 
 own hard-working little hands and feet. 
 
 A mistress, known by the name of " Aunt 
 Pattie," taught the little children in the day 
 
1 6 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 school. At first all that happened there was 
 new and astonishing to the young scholar 
 from the farm-house. For a week a pretty 
 little girl was among the children. She was 
 called Narcissa, and Theodore looked upon 
 her as a dainty flower, or as one of the 
 fairies that his mother's fables told about. 
 He could not learn his lessons as he gazed 
 at her pretty face and golden hair, and out 
 of school he walked round her slowly, full 
 of wonder, and was ready to do great deeds 
 to help her or defend her from harm. 
 
 One morning as he was crossing the fields 
 on his way to school, he met an old man 
 with a long gray beard. The stranger turned 
 back to walk with the little school-boy, who 
 had such a merry and, at the same time, 
 such an earnest face ; and he spent the time 
 they were together in telling Theodore of the 
 clever man he might become if he tried, and 
 of all he might do and be in later life. As 
 they neared the school-house the old man 
 went away, and Theodore never saw him 
 again : but he did not forget the stranger s 
 words. Again and again they came back to 
 the boy's memory, and the wish grew strong 
 
THE OLD HOME. 
 
 17 
 
 in him to become what he had been told he 
 had the power to be. 
 
 Aunt Pattie left the school, and a master 
 took her place. He was a poor teacher, and 
 not at all the kind of man to gain any influ- 
 ence over the rough boys among his scholars. 
 Even little Parker played a prank one day, 
 which he would never have played if the 
 master had been in earnest in his work. A 
 quill popgun had been given to Theodore by 
 one of his brothers. He took it to school 
 one morning loaded with potato, and let it off 
 with a loud pop, which made both master 
 and scholars jump up in wonder. The play- 
 thing was burnt and the boy deserved to lose 
 it. But that was the only time when his love 
 of fun led him to give so bad an example to 
 the school. He kept his merry ways for the 
 playground, where he became the leader in 
 all the games. 
 
 Sometimes, perhaps, he was rough in play ; 
 but he never bullied or teased a school-fellow, 
 and always would see justice and fair play 
 done wherever he was. The boys liked to 
 follow such a brave, worthy leader in their 
 play ; and they had no better leader in their 
 
l8 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 work. His home lessons were always well 
 learned, however many tasks he had ; and, 
 with the exception of a girl who was as hard- 
 working as himself, Theodore was always at 
 the head of the school. 
 
 In course of time the school examination 
 was held. The small school-house was filled 
 with scholars and their friends. The mill- 
 wright, John Parker, was there, and all the 
 school committee. Little Theodore Parker 
 was always ready with an answer to the ex- 
 aminer's questions. 
 
 ** Who is that fine boy who spoke up so 
 well ? " said one to John Parker, when th« 
 examination was over. Theodore heard the 
 question asked, and he heard his father an- 
 swer, with a smiling face: "That is one of 
 my boys — the youngest." It made his 
 heart glad to see his father look so proud 
 and happy ; and he thought once more, as he 
 had often thought before, that he would try 
 with all his might and main as he grew older 
 to be and do the very wisest and best he 
 could. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE farmer's boy. 
 
 A COUNTRY boy leaving school when he 
 was eight years old ! Theodore Parker was 
 this boy. How could he ever hope to 
 become a great man ? We shall see how he 
 managed to carry out his wish, for ** where 
 there 's a will there 's a way." 
 
 In summer a great deal of work could be 
 done on Mr. Parker's farm even by a small 
 boy ; and sometimes tJiis small boy tried to 
 do work much too heavy for his strength. 
 One day he was helping to lay a new wall. 
 Great, heavy stones were wanted to build 
 v/ith, and one after another he lifted them and 
 carried them to the place, never caring when 
 his back ached and he felt faint and tired. 
 He was brave and full of spirit ; but not 
 quite wise enough to know when he harmed 
 himself by overtasking his strength ; and the 
 strain of that day's work he often felt in 
 future years. 
 
20 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 One sunny day the peaches on the orchard 
 trees were ripe, and ready to be gathered. 
 Theodore's father and brothers were all busy 
 in the workshops and on the farm. No one 
 could be spared to take the precious fruit to 
 market at Boston, ten miles away. What 
 was to be done ? The fruit would spoil, and 
 the money they had hoped to gain by its sale 
 would be lost. To the surprise of all, up 
 sprang the little lad, always ready to help, 
 and cried out : ** Send me ! I will sell the 
 fruit at Boston ! " And the older people 
 knew they could trust him to be careful and 
 do the errand well. 
 
 Next morning the family waited at the 
 farm-yard gate to see Theodore, and a com- 
 panion as young as himself, set off on their 
 way to Boston. Father, mother, sisters, and 
 brothers, — we can fancy them standing there ; 
 some anxious, some laughing, and all waving 
 their farewells as the rosy-faced little driver 
 takes the reins, and pats the horse that is to 
 draw the cart-full of baskets of ripe fruit. On 
 the journey to town no one could lead him 
 to play, or to be careless about his charge ; 
 and at the market no one would try to cheat 
 
THE FARMER'S BOr. 21 
 
 the honest looking little fellow, who was so 
 anxious to sell his fruit and so careful to give 
 just weight to every buyer. He was very 
 happy when he brought home the well-earned 
 money and the empty cart at night. It was 
 the best thing in the world to him to have 
 been trusted and useful. 
 
 As Theodore grew older, of course he was 
 able to do still more work on the farm. 
 There was not much variety in his life each 
 day ; but great pleasure came to him in little 
 ways. A piece of work ended and well done 
 made him happy ; and the sight of a red 
 sunset sky, and the green, bursting buds in 
 spring, made him ready to sing with joy. He 
 liked to watch the growth of a plant, or to 
 study the ways of the animals on the farm. 
 Indeed, he made friends of the cattle, just as 
 he had done when, only a small boy, he played 
 among them in the barns in wintry weather. 
 He never thought them stupid because he 
 could not read their thoughts ; and, by watch- 
 ing them, he learned to understand their 
 habits and ways, and even to fancy he could 
 interpret their dealings with each other. 
 Very often the stories he told of his dumb 
 
THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 friends made the family circle merry ; but 
 never did he fancy anything about them that 
 could waken any thoughts in human minds 
 but those of love and pity. 
 
 Thus he found many new objects to inter- 
 est him. Yet they were what some people 
 would call "common things." If he asked 
 the country people about him questions as 
 to the reason or history of anything that he 
 saw, they often answered : " I dun no." But 
 such answers only made him think the more, 
 and so he went on learning every day. 
 
 Each winter for three months there was 
 little farm work to be done. Then Theodore 
 could go to school again. So through fierce 
 snow-storms and biting winds he crossed 
 the fields each day, and was always the best 
 scholar in Lexington school-house. When 
 spring came, and he had to go back to work, 
 the schoolmaster offered to lend him books 
 that he might study whenever he could. 
 This schoolmaster's name was White, and he 
 was a very different man from the poor 
 teacher who took Aunt Pattie's place a few 
 years before. Theodore owed him much, 
 and never forgot the debt. Dearly he loved 
 
THE FARMER'S EOT. 23 
 
 the memory of this friend in later years ; 
 and It was one of the happiest deeds of 
 his hfe then, to be able to help the orphan 
 children of the man who had Influenced his 
 own boyhood so greatly. 
 
 So In spring days the farm-boy, as he 
 guided the plow, said over to himself the 
 lessons he had learned durlno- the winter 
 months at school ; and when other workers 
 lay sleeping during dinner-time under the 
 shade of the trees, he read page after page 
 of his schoolmaster's books and learned new 
 lessons. No odd moments were wasted. 
 Early In the summer morning, and when the 
 work was done at night, Theodore found 
 time to read, and his father often marveled 
 at the number of books he knew all about, 
 of which he could give a clear account when 
 asked. 
 
 But there was one book he could not bor- 
 row ; and this he must have. It was a Latin 
 dictionary. In some way he must get to- 
 gether money enough to buy It. But he 
 would not ask his hard-working father for 
 the money. What could he do ? A bright 
 thought came to his mind. Ripe whortle- 
 
24 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 berries hung upon the bushes in the fields. 
 These he might gather and sell, if he could 
 only find time to do so. So, very early in 
 the morning before the sun had fairly risen, 
 and while the heavy dew lay upon the 
 grass and hedgerows, he sprang out of bed 
 and was out in the meadows while other 
 people still lay resting after the hard work 
 of the previous day. 
 
 In this way, Theodore gathered many 
 baskets of whortleberries ready for Boston 
 market, and yet he was able to begin his 
 day's work when his fellow-workers came out 
 on the farm. That Latin dictionary, when he 
 got it, was a precious book to him. It was 
 the first book he had earned for himself, and 
 the first book of the large library which he 
 afterwards gathered round him by degrees. 
 Those hard-working days were very happy 
 days to look back upon in later life, and 
 while they lasted there was no happier boy 
 in all that country-side than the youngest 
 son of the millwright of Lexington. 
 
 One winter the young people of the vil- 
 lage planned together to make the long, cold 
 evenings merry by dancing. But farm-boys 
 
THE FARMER'S BOT. 25 
 
 and country girls did not know how to dance, 
 and must first be taught. The older people, 
 their fathers and mothers, glad to give them 
 pleasure, hired a teacher for them, and paid 
 him for all the pupils he taught. Theodore's 
 father was ready to join with the other farm- 
 ers near Lexington in this plan, and Theo- 
 dore had quite enough love of fun to enjoy 
 all the merry times that would have followed 
 for him if he had learned to dance. But he 
 loved something else more than he loved fun ; 
 and with the money with which he might have 
 learned to dance, he asked his father to send 
 him for a few weeks to the new Academy 
 which had been opened in Lexington, and 
 which was a much better school than the lit- 
 tle village school he had been used to go to. 
 In the Academy for those few weeks he 
 worked at Latin and Greek and Algebra ; and 
 while his young companions danced and 
 made merry at night, he sat at home with 
 his much-loved books. 
 
 Now perhaps it may seem as if Theodore 
 Parker must have been rather a dull play- 
 fellow, and as if the country boys and girls 
 about Lexington would not regret his ab- 
 
26 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 sence from their sports. But this was not 
 the case. He was a favorite everywhere. 
 His merry laugh made the farm-house 
 cheerful, and lightened the cares of the 
 millwright and his wife. This youngest 
 boy was very dear to all his brothers and 
 sisters, and one and all they were certain 
 that he would grow up no common man. 
 But far better than his merry ways, which 
 every one liked, was the knowledge that 
 he might always be trusted, and that still, 
 just as when he was a younger boy, if 
 Theodore Parker said a thing, that thing 
 must be true. 
 
 Year after year passed away, each one 
 spent by him much as the last had been. In 
 1828, he was eighteen years old. Then came 
 a change. That winter he became what was 
 called a "winter schoolmaster," and earned 
 money by teaching a school just when there 
 was little work to be done on the farm. 
 He earned in this way enough money to 
 pay for his board, and to hire a laborer 
 to do any thing on the farm that might 
 have fallen to his lot if he had stayed at 
 home ; and while he taught he still found 
 time to read and, best of all, to think. 
 
THE FARMER'S BOY, 
 
 27 
 
 At last came the time when he must 
 settle what his future work in life as a 
 man should be. Not that of a millwright 
 or farmer. So all his friends were certain. 
 When a boy, he used to think he should 
 like best to be a preacher ; he should like in 
 this way to help to make the world a better 
 and a wiser place. Now as a young man 
 he still thought a preacher's work was the 
 best kind of work. But his friends said 
 sermons were dull and churches were al- 
 ways half empty, and though preachers 
 might be good men, y^ they seldoca made 
 any mark in the world. 
 
 So some people proposed one plan, and 
 some another. Meanwhile, he thought the 
 matter over, and as he did the daily duties 
 that came in his way, his future prospects 
 also became clear. He had no doubt that 
 the fancy of his boyhood had been no 
 mistake. He would become a preacher of 
 all that seemed to him to be true and 
 right; and, whatever other men might do 
 or say, he would try to practise what he 
 preached, that his life might help on the 
 world as well as his words. This he would 
 do, and leave results to God. 
 
28 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 But now came another puzzle. Before 
 he could teach other men he must learn 
 much more himself, and his father was too 
 poor to send him to college and pay the 
 college fees. Well, summer came, and in 
 the year 1830 he was at home again work- 
 ing on the farm as before, plowing and 
 digging, and mending wheels and wagons, 
 reading at odd moments, and thinking as 
 he went about his work. 
 
 One sunny day in August he asked his 
 father to give him a holiday on the mor- 
 row. Early in the morning, when the 
 rising sun was just beginning to chase the 
 shadows from the earth, he set out from 
 the farm. It was a new thing for Theo- 
 dore to want a holiday, and every one 
 wondered what he was going to do with 
 it ; but they knew that sooner or later he 
 woiikl tell them all about it ; so they asked 
 no questions and were content to wait. 
 
 While the usual morning's work went on 
 at the farm, he was walking along the 
 dusty road to Boston ; and before the 
 great heat of the day had come he had 
 reached the city. A little way from Boston 
 
THE FARMER'S EOT. 29 
 
 Stood a long red-brick building, with fields 
 before it, and an avenue of trees leading 
 to the great hall-door. Up this avenue 
 went the tired holiday-maker ; and, knock- 
 ing at the door when it was opened to 
 him, he entered in. More than fifty years 
 have passed since Theodore Parker took 
 his holiday on that sunny August day; but 
 still the long red-brick building is standing 
 near Boston, and is more famous in these 
 days than it was in his time. This building 
 was Harvard College. To it young men 
 went, as they do now, to study and be trained 
 for useful work in the world. But first a hard 
 examination must be passed, and then must 
 follow two or three years of study. 
 
 What made Theodore Parker come out 
 again later in the day with such a joyful look 
 upon his face ? He had found out the worth 
 of his few years of study in the village school, 
 and of his self-teaching and thought in 
 the winter evenings, and behind the plow. 
 That morning, he, the farm-boy, with his few 
 chances, had passed the hard examination ! 
 There was the first step in his new path of 
 life; other steps must follow. 
 
30 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 Back along the dusty highroad, in the 
 fading evening Hght, but with a happier 
 heart than when he had walked along it 
 in the bright morning sunshine to Boston. 
 He entered the farm-house door, and ran 
 upstairs to the room where his old father, 
 tired with the day's work, had gone to rest. 
 
 " Father," he said, " I have passed the 
 examination and entered Harvard College 
 to-day." 
 
 The old man was amazed. After a little 
 time, he replied, sadly : — 
 
 *' But, Theodore, I cannot afford to keep 
 you there." 
 
 '* No, father," said the light-hearted youth; 
 " I 'm going to stay at home and read, and 
 still keep up with my class." 
 
 So Theodore Parker's holiday ended. Be- 
 fore long, hard work and brave days began 
 for him in a new life. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 UNKNOWN WORKERS. 
 
 It was no easy course that Theodore had 
 planned for himself. He had only passed 
 the first college examination so far ; others 
 would follow, and as he had no money he 
 meant to read at home and make ready for 
 them. In the end must come some col- 
 lege fees. How was he to find money to 
 pay them ? At first he worked on the 
 farm just as he had been used to do and 
 read at all the odd moments he could find ; 
 but these odd moments were rare, and now 
 that he knew what the work and his future 
 life must be, he must press on. 
 
 In twelve months' time he agreed to be- 
 come a teacher in a Boston school. In 
 such a life he would have more chance to 
 study than on the farm, and some of the 
 money he earned could go to pay a laborer 
 in his place. The day came when he must 
 leave the old home where he had lived for 
 
32 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 twenty-one years. How dear every place was 
 to him ! Each nook in the fields was filled 
 with happy memories, and he loved every 
 room in the old house. Now he must leave it 
 all, and his heart clung fondly to the friends 
 with whom he had so far spent his life. 
 
 When the spring buds were bursting into 
 leaf and flower, Theodore said good-bye to 
 all and went out into the world. He was 
 only an awkward looking country lad, in 
 rough farming garments, and he set out for 
 his city life with a few more clothes and 
 two or three books in one wooden trunk. 
 There was nothing wonderful in his look 
 or manner: no promise of future greatness 
 to be seen in him; but he left heavy, 
 aching hearts behind, for father, mother, 
 brothers, and sisters all knew what he had 
 been to them in his own home. It was a 
 hard parting, but it must take place, and 
 all knew it was for the best. So they 
 watched him down* the long country road, 
 as they had watched him when a little lad 
 he went to sell the peaches in Boston 
 market ; and at length the winding hedge- 
 rows hid him from their straining eyes. 
 
UNKNOWN WORKERS. 33 
 
 No bright life awaited him at Boston. He 
 loved work, and truly he found enough there, 
 with six hours' teaching and ten or twelve 
 hours' study every day. But sad longings 
 for home and friends used to visit him in his 
 lonely lodging, and he pined in his new life 
 for some one to love and care for. It seemed 
 to him that more than anything else he cared 
 for love ; not so much to be loved, as for 
 some object on which his great, tender heart 
 could pour itself forth. He had had so many 
 dear ones at home, and in this great city of 
 Boston he was alone among strangers. In 
 those days he took little sleep and seldom 
 any exercise. Often he did not himself 
 know the lessons he had to teach ; and 
 through the quiet hours of the night he kept 
 himself awake to study, and he wanted no 
 rest from his toil. One aim was always 
 before him — to prepare for his future work. 
 
 On Sundays he went to a crowded church 
 in the city. How different from the quiet 
 little village church at home, to which he 
 used to walk throucrh the meadows with dear 
 friends and old companions. In this city 
 church he heard hard doctrines preached — 
 
34 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 threats of an angry judge, and of future 
 misery, if men did not believe an appointed 
 creed. To himself he said, that if ever he 
 became a preacher people should hear from 
 him of a tender Father, and of the need 
 for a holy, loving life, instead of belief in a 
 creed. 
 
 Day after day he went on working bravely 
 until months passed, and still he saw no 
 prospect beyond his daily teaching in the 
 school, and knew that the little money he 
 earned in this way would never take him to 
 college. But God helps those who help 
 themselves, and suddenly a new way opened 
 out to him. Not many miles from Boston 
 lies the village of Watertown. A school was 
 needed there, and Theodore was asked to 
 open one there himself. He gladly agreed 
 to do so, and before long went to Watertown 
 to make ready. 
 
 A short way from the village of Watertown 
 stood an old disused bake-house. Before its 
 door lay broad green fields, and round about 
 its walls sheltering trees waved their branches 
 in the gentle breezes, and made a home for 
 many a bird whose songs filled the old empty 
 
UNKNOWN WORKERS. 35 
 
 house with music. Rather a tumble-down 
 building it was ; still, there Theodore meant 
 to open his school ; so he hired it, and then 
 set to work to saw planks and join them 
 together for forms and desks. This done, 
 after many days' work, he swept out the 
 room and lighted the fire and began his 
 school with two scholars. But he put his 
 whole heart into this work as into all he did, 
 and boys and girls could not help learning 
 when he was their teacher. Before long he 
 had fifty-four children in his school. 
 
 Now he had no longer a sad longing for 
 some one to love and care for. Poor as he 
 was, he could help those who were poorer 
 than himself, and he never turned a child 
 from his school-door because no fee was 
 brought. He even searched the village for 
 children who were too poor to pay. He 
 taught and helped them all alike, and they 
 learned to love him so heartily that their 
 happiest hours were those they spent with 
 him. Sometimes he took them long rambles 
 in the fields and woods, and then the best 
 lessons they learned were not from printed 
 pages ; for he found for them " sermons in 
 
36 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 Stones, and books in the running brooks." 
 Above all, he taught them more by what he 
 was himself than by his words. Boys and 
 girls who knew Theodore Parker grew true 
 and earnest, because they felt him to be so, 
 and longed to be like him. Even idle schol- 
 ars laid aside their idleness, and made no 
 complaints of the hard tasks he asked from 
 them, lest they should disappoint the hopes he 
 had formed of them. Now all this time, while 
 he was training his young scholars, he himself 
 was growing. The story of his life would be of 
 little use to us if it told us of a man who had 
 no battles to fight and no mistakes to learn 
 from. The grand thing about him was that 
 he was always in earnest and always tried to 
 do the duty that lay nearest and seemed the 
 clearest. Therefore clearer and clearer did 
 the light shine upon his duties as the years 
 went on, and nobler and better grew his life. 
 One day a colored girl came to the school- 
 house door and asked to be taught. Theo- 
 dore cared nothing for outside appearance : 
 the color of the skin, or the fit of the clothes, 
 mattered not to him. He saw this girl had 
 the will to learn and he took her in at once. 
 
UNKNOWN WORKERS. 37 
 
 Next morning he was surprised to hear from 
 many parents of his scholars that their 
 children must leave his school if the black 
 girl were not sent away at once. 
 
 A few years later, Theodore Parker would 
 have seen a great principle here to which he 
 must be true. He would have kept and 
 taught the colored girl, even though he had 
 ruined his school. Now in his earnestness 
 he only saw the work to which he had given 
 himself up. He must make a good school- 
 master, and he must earn money to take him 
 to college in the future. Sorrowfully he 
 sent the child away. In a few years he was 
 ready to give up home and life to defend one 
 such colored girl as had come to his school- 
 door In Watertown. This is one instance of 
 the way in which this American farmer's boy 
 grew wiser. He always tried to do what he 
 thought right ; but, by degrees, fresh light 
 came to him, and he saw new duties to be 
 done and wider ways of helping the world 
 than he had seen before. 
 
 Now just at this time there came to Boston 
 an unknown youth, a stranger such as Theo- 
 dore himself had been, and something of his 
 
38 THEODORE PARKER, 
 
 Story must be told, for, in course of time, 
 his influence acted on Theodore Parker, and 
 helped to lead him into fresh paths of life 
 and work. 
 
 Twenty-five years before, there had lived 
 in the little town of Newburyport a brave 
 sea-captain named Garrison, with his wife. 
 Newburyport was built beside the sea-coast, 
 and the great waves of the Atlantic Ocean 
 came dashing up in spray and foam upon 
 the cliffs, and the stormy winds roared round 
 the town when the captain's boat was far 
 away out at sea. But the captain's wife 
 was as brave as himself. She was a good 
 woman, and her faith was strong. So when 
 the storms were fierce she only prayed the 
 more, and knew that all was right. 
 
 Now these people had one only boy, and 
 being very poor they put him to a trade 
 when he was so little that he could hardly 
 hold the tools he had to use. At first he 
 was with a shoemaker. But in the end they 
 sent him to a printer, and he learned to set 
 type, and the printer s office served him both 
 for school and college that richer boys attend. 
 By-and-by he began to write articles for the 
 
UNKNOWN WORKERS. 39 
 
 paper his master published, and surprised 
 him by the knowledge shown by a boy thus 
 self-taught. 
 
 A few years passed and the boy became 
 a youth. Both his parents died. Then, in a 
 town among the distant '' Green Mountains," 
 in Vermont, he set on foot a paper of his 
 own. For this paper he had always one aim 
 in view. Through its means he wanted to 
 spread a love of temperance among the 
 people who read it, for he had found out 
 what sad homes and ruined lives a love of 
 drink caused among men. So this was the 
 purpose of his life at that time, and he 
 worked for it with all his might. 
 
 Now a strange looking old man used to 
 travel on foot at that time through Vermont 
 and other States with a heavy pack of 
 papers on his back, day after day selling 
 copies of the paper which he published 
 himself by the help of money collected as 
 he walked. But this paper had a different 
 aim from that of Garrison. Long years 
 ago, when a boy, he had been shocked by 
 the dreadful sight of slaves torn from their 
 friends and driven in chains to be sold to 
 
40 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 new slavery down the River Ohio. Ben- 
 jamin Lundy, as the boy was called, never 
 afterwards forgot this first sight of the cruel- 
 ties of slavery. As he grew older he learned 
 more about it, and he vowed to spend his 
 life in doing all he could to make America 
 a free country. 
 
 So here were two men, a young man and 
 an old one, each trying to mend the world in 
 different ways by the papers that they wrote. 
 Before long these two men were to meet 
 and join together in a common cause. 
 For Benjamin Lundy heard one day of young 
 Garrison working so hard with his printing- 
 press among the Green Mountains of Ver- 
 mont; and he set off on a long tramp over 
 hill and dale, with his pack on his back, to 
 beg the youth to help him to fight against 
 the great crime of slavery which filled their 
 native land with wrong. 
 
 The young man agreed to the old man's 
 wish. He left the old cause and took up the 
 new one; and truly in great earnest was 
 William Lloyd Garrison. The spirit of his 
 father, the brave old sea-captain, filled him, 
 and right into the heart of the Slave States 
 
UNKNOWN WORKERS. 
 
 41 
 
 he went, and printed and published his anti- 
 slavery paper. Then, it is said, he wakened 
 the land with his bold words and his warning 
 cry that slavery must end at once. Thought- 
 less people could no longer help asking them- 
 selves whether slavery were right or wrong. 
 He wakened the slave-owners, too, who on 
 some pretext seized him and threw him into 
 prison for his brave, outspoken words. 
 
 For weeks Garrison lay in prison. At 
 length a New York merchant paid his fine 
 and set him free. Then, knowing there was 
 no chance to be heard in the Slave States any 
 more, he went to Boston, just about the time 
 when Theodore Parker left his father's house 
 to begin his work in the world. In a small 
 gloomy garret, with only a small negro boy 
 to help him, living on bread and water, and 
 unknown in Boston, Garrison set on foot a 
 new paper called the Liberator^ which was to 
 make the Northern people, who bought and 
 spun the slave-grown cotton, learn that to 
 keep slaves was a crime. Again and again 
 he said to himself: "I am in earnest. I will 
 not retreat an inch I will be heard." 
 
 Was not this a man after Theodore 
 
42 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 Parker's own heart ? Both were living 
 heartily for the duty nearest to them, and 
 the work that must be done. But as yet 
 they had not met. 
 
 Meanwhile, there lived in Watertown a 
 minister named Dr. Francis. The Charles 
 River flowed by his pretty home, and a 
 garden gay with flowers lay round the 
 house. Dr. Francis was a lover of books, 
 and his wife was a lover of flowers, and they 
 were never at ease and happy unless they 
 were on the watch to find some one whom 
 they could .help. They heard of the hard- 
 working young schoolmaster, Theodore 
 Parker, who wanted to go to college, and 
 they asked him to their house. Fresh in- 
 terests now opened out to him. He went 
 to Dr. Francis's church, and taught in his 
 Sunday School, and soon a bright hope 
 dawned upon him. For he learned to know 
 and love a young girl named Lydia Cabot, 
 who afterwards became his wife. Often he 
 gathered wild flowers for her by the river's 
 bank, and as he walked alone, dreams 
 mingled with the music of the rushing 
 waters of a home that they might some 
 time make together. 
 
UNKNOWN WORKERS. 
 
 43 
 
 It was a joyful day when he first found 
 that Lydia cared for him, and he went back 
 to the old farm-house at Lexington to tell 
 his friends there his good news. Life began 
 to seem very rich to him, for his new love 
 brightened all his works and ways. Still 
 he worked as hard as ever to prepare for 
 the college examination, and often the early 
 morning light broke and found him still 
 reading, as he had read through the long 
 "sleepless night. 
 
 There is a story told of a countryman far 
 away in the Black Forest, who once spent 
 many years in carving a grand statue out of 
 hard pine wood. Many hindrances came in 
 his way, knots in the wood and disappoint- 
 ments in his tools. But at last the work was 
 done, and he looked upon a perfect image 
 before he died. This story tells of another 
 kind of carver : of a boy who vowed to him- 
 self to carve out a noble character before 
 he died. Like a block of pine wood lay his 
 life before him, and we have seen him carve 
 some deep, hard strokes already. We shall 
 see what kind of a character he had carved 
 out for himself by the time death came. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BARNSTABLE AND WEST ROXBURY. 
 
 One morning there was great excitement 
 among the children in Theodore Parker's 
 school-house. Heads were bent together over 
 the desks, and never before had there been 
 low whispers over the books. Something 
 was plainly the matter, and it was plain, also, 
 that the young master saw all that went on, 
 and took no notice. The morning wore 
 away and the school broke up. Then the 
 mystery was explained. Because it was the 
 last day on which he should teach his 
 school, the children had got ready a part- 
 ing present to give him, — a silver cup, — 
 and the eldest boy was to present it and to 
 act as spokesman for the rest. For two 
 years Theodore had been their master, and 
 it was no easy matter for any of them to say 
 good-bye to him or for him to say good-bye 
 to them. In fact, when the great moment 
 came, and the silver cup was given, and 
 
BARNSTABLE AND WEST ROXBURT. 45 
 
 the little speech made, master and children 
 alike burst into tears. 
 
 At length the time had come when he had 
 earned enough money, thanks to the hard 
 life and ceaseless work, to enter Harvard 
 College. There he could still live on the 
 plainest food, and still go on teaching until 
 he had passed the last examination and was 
 ready for his new work in life. So, for two 
 years and three months, he went to Harvard, 
 and quickly did the time pass away. Well 
 might his friends be proud of the hard- 
 working student, who had made his own way 
 to college, and now took such a high place 
 among his college companions. He was a 
 wonder to many who saw him living on poor 
 food and giving himself no holidays from the 
 tasks he undertook. In the hottest sum- 
 mer day no tempting country walk won him 
 from his books, and when other men amused 
 themselves, he gave lessons to help tc pay 
 his college fees, or sometimes went to the 
 great prison near Boston to teach the prison- 
 ers confined within its walls. 
 
 Yet he was always ready at odd times 
 for a talk with other students, and his merry 
 
46 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 laugh and genial ways made him a favorite 
 with every one. At Harvard the students 
 used to meet together for debates. Then 
 they chose a subject, and made speeches 
 upon it. How was it, they wondered, that 
 the new student, Theodore Parker, who at 
 first seemed so shy, was soon the best 
 scholar of them all ? The reason was that 
 he never stopped to think, as some of the 
 others did, which argument would sound 
 best or be most liked. He spoke always 
 straight out of his heart just what he knew 
 was true and right. Therefore his words car- 
 ried weight with them. In everything he 
 said and did, he never forgot the lesson 
 learned so many years before by the pond 
 where the sleeping tortoise lay, and always 
 he listened for the gentle whisper of con- 
 V science as his guide. 
 
 When the time came for him to leave 
 Harvard, and he was ready for new work, 
 he only waited a call to some church to be 
 its preacher. Meanwhile, as he waited, he 
 took a short holiday among his friends. 
 One Sunday he preached for the first time 
 in the village church near his old home at 
 
BARNSTABLE AND WEST ROXBURT. 47 
 
 Lexington. The country people who had 
 known him as a boy, gathered together to 
 listen to him, and his heart was glad when 
 he met his old companions again. They 
 were all proud of his success, and to know 
 that his work so far had ended well. To 
 some of them it seemed that now he had 
 left college his hardest days were over. To 
 himself, however, it seemed that life's work 
 was only beginning, and to himself he said: 
 " Blessed be these iron times in which there 
 is something for a man to do ; something for 
 a man to think. I have sterner deeds to do ; 
 greater danger to bear. I must be about my 
 work." And so, in the midst of holiday 
 time, while enjoying friends and sunshine 
 and flowers, he still longed for work, and 
 often thought, ** I must have something to 
 do. I must be about new work." 
 
 On the sea-coast of the State of Massachu- 
 setts, a small village called Barnstable was 
 growing up at this time. The village road 
 wound among little wooden houses brightly 
 painted green, red, yellow, and white. 
 Behind the village rose a steep, rough hill, 
 and in front lay the wide bay on which the 
 
48 THEODORE PARKER, 
 
 hardy fishermen sailed out in all weathers to 
 make a living for their families. In 1836, 
 just when Theodore was leaving Harvard, 
 the people of Barnstable wanted a minister, 
 and they asked him to come and fill their 
 pulpit for a month. 
 
 He agreed to do so, and one evening 
 reached the bright looking village and looked 
 over the bay far out towards the distant, 
 shining sea. He liked the place at once, but 
 it seemed to him that the fishing-people were 
 too reserved and shy. They had not much 
 to say to him, and even on Sundays in the 
 little church he fancied that their hymns and 
 prayers were cold and dull. But, by degrees, 
 he grew more used to the ways of the people 
 of Barnstable, and they learned to trust him 
 and to feel at home with him. First of all, 
 he made friends, as in old times, of the ani- 
 mals about the place. He liked to climb the 
 hill, too, and to wander among the fields 
 Then one after another he found friends 
 among the men and women in their village 
 homes, and learned to honor them for their 
 patience in their trouble, and for their faith- 
 ful, hard-working lives. 
 
BARNS TABLE AND WES T R OXB UR T. 49 
 
 One day news came to Barnstable that a 
 strange sight was to be seen in the woods 
 across the bay. Theodore Parker, with one 
 of his friends, set sail in a small vessel to 
 make a visit to the woods. His boat was 
 cast upon a sand bank near the shore to 
 which it was bound. Leaving it there, the 
 two men made their way up to the woods, 
 which gave a cool and pleasant shadow from 
 the heat and the midday sun. Quiet and 
 restful places did they look from the shore. 
 But as the travelers from Barnstable came 
 nearer to them the sound of many voices 
 reached them from among the trees; and 
 there when the underwood was passed, they 
 reached a grassy glade where sixteen large 
 tents were pitched round a rough, hastily 
 built pulpit. Behind the tents horses and 
 oxen were tied to the trunks of trees, and 
 strange looking carts and carriages were to 
 be seen, while the whole glade was filled 
 with people who had met together to hold 
 a " camp meeting," as a church held in the 
 open air was called. 
 
 Theodore and his friend listened as one 
 preacher after another gave a sermon to the 
 
50 THEODORE PARKER, 
 
 crowd. Loud hymns were sung, and through 
 the long prayers the people shouted and 
 wept, and even laughed in their excitement, 
 and hoped to hear the " still, small voice of 
 God " in answer to their noisy calls. Theo- 
 dore thought of his quiet fishing-people at 
 Barnstable, whom he had once fancied cold 
 and dull. He pictured them doing their 
 duty fearlessly on the rough sea, and finding 
 the Lord in their work at home, and in their 
 humble prayers and hymns. Their worship 
 seemed to him much holier than that of this 
 ''multitude that kept holiday," and he thought 
 much about them as he walked home to 
 Barnstable along the lonely road for thirty 
 miles under the quiet starlit sky. 
 
 Quickly the days passed by, and the month 
 he was to spend at Barnstable came to an 
 end. The fishermen would gladly have kept 
 their new preacher with them always; but 
 though he had made many friends among 
 them, Barnstable was not the kind of place 
 in which he wished to spend his life. So he 
 took leave of the people and wandered forth 
 again, preaching first in one place, then in 
 another, and longing for some resting-place 
 and for some settled work. 
 
BARNSTABLE AND WEST ROXBURT. 5 I 
 
 In the longest day of 1837, he found both 
 resting-place and work at West Roxbury, a 
 village near Boston. Then he married Lydia 
 Cabot, and together they began the home 
 they had planned to make. West Roxbury 
 was a pretty country place, and the minister's 
 house lay in a pleasant garden, bright with 
 flowers and vines, and sheltered by well- 
 grown trees. Close to the garden ran the 
 long village road, with the homes of the 
 poor people among whom the new minister's 
 work would lie. But very near, also, were 
 the houses and gardens of people who were 
 somewhat better off in this world's goods. 
 They, too, became friends of Theodore Parker 
 and his wife, and with them were spent many 
 happy hours, either in their well-ordered 
 homes or in the sunny meadows that lay 
 round West Roxbury. 
 
 Theodore Parker had a great love for little 
 children. Tiny feet soon learned to make 
 their way from his neighbors' houses to his 
 own ; tiny fingers often tapped at his study- 
 door, and baby voices called out '' Parkie, 
 Parkie," at the key-hole, and made music in 
 his cjuiet home. He had pet names for the 
 
52 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 little visitors — such as "mites o' Teants*" 
 and " pets o' blossom." Stores of playthings, 
 carts and dolls and wooden horses, were kept 
 for them to play with near his writing-table. 
 Even on his journeys he carried little presents 
 in his pockets to charm and soothe any cross 
 little traveler in a railway carriage or steamer. 
 In a year or two after their marriage he and 
 his wife took into their home as their adopted 
 child a little orphan boy named Charles 
 Cabot. By all these means he tried to make 
 up for the want of children in his own happy 
 home, and as months passed by the love of 
 the husband and wife grew daily stronger 
 and more deep. 
 
 But before this life at West Roxbury began 
 dear old ties were broken. There were 
 empty places in the farm-house at Lexington, 
 and it was only on rare occasions that Theo- 
 dore could bear to speak of the old days at 
 home, and of the dear ones whom he should 
 see no more on earth. 
 
 Sometimes the fear came to him that in 
 this quiet village life he was not using all his 
 powers. Really, however, this time, when 
 he seemed to have few chances for work and 
 
BARNSTABLE AND WEST BOXBURT. 53 
 
 Influence, was rich in preparation for the 
 future. He read books of all sorts, and 
 thought much ; and he learned lessons of 
 wisdom from the lives of the ignorant country 
 people about him. Just opposite his house, 
 across the village street, lived a poor farm 
 laborer, with his wife and five young children. 
 This man had hard work to earn money for 
 his rent, and for the needful food and clothes 
 for his family, and while he worked on the 
 farm his wife toiled at home all day. Some 
 new people named Wallace came to live in 
 the village. No one knew anything about 
 them ; yet they sadly needed friends ; for 
 the mother was dying of consumption, and 
 was too weak to take care of her two little 
 children, while the father was away at his 
 work all day. It was not long before Theo- 
 dore's opposite neighbors heard of these new 
 comers. Then the busy mother of the five 
 children left her own home and work to see 
 how she could help in so sad a case. She 
 soon saw what was most wanted, and bringing 
 the baby to her own crowded home, lest the 
 sick woman should be disturbed by its cries, 
 she went back again to wash the clothes and 
 
54 
 
 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 do the work of the neglected house. Then, 
 night after night, when her own children were 
 asleep, she sat up to nurse the stranger who 
 had no friends to look to her in her own 
 home. 
 
 Theodore Parker saw all this done. He 
 saw, too, how another well-meaning person 
 in the village, who cared more for the creed 
 she held than for a loving life, went also to 
 the poor home in this time of trouble. But 
 this second visitor only frightened the poor, 
 weak woman with the views she herself held, 
 and drove sleep from her with tales of a 
 belief which her ignorant mind failed to 
 understand. Most clear it was to Theodore 
 that true religion is shown best by gentle, 
 tender deeds. He thought of the noisy 
 camp meeting in the woods, and of the quiet 
 worship of the duty-loving fishermen of 
 Barnstable. He remembered, too, the city 
 church in Boston, where he had heard the 
 hard, dreary creeds preached, and he taught 
 his people of West Roxbury that " God's 
 Church is to be found wherever his children 
 reach out their loving hands by help and 
 service to each other." 
 
BARNS TABLE A ND WEST R OXB URT. 55 
 
 So the peaceful days passed by, spent amid 
 books and thoughts and experiences of life. 
 By-and-by the narrow village path thus faith- 
 fully trodden led Theodore Parker out into 
 the broad field of the world. In this way, 
 step by step, the best and bravest lives are 
 built up. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 SEEKERS OF THE TRUTH. 
 
 The village church in which Theodore 
 preached each Sunday was only a small 
 building, and he had few hearers. On 
 sunny mornings the shadows of the trees 
 outside were cast through the windows on 
 the walls within, and songs of birds came 
 in through the open doorway, and mingled 
 with the hymns the people sang. For the 
 most part the men and women who came to 
 worship there were simple country people. 
 They walked through the lanes from their 
 cottages and farms, glad to listen to simple 
 sermons about their every-day lives. For 
 in Theodore Parker's eyes even the com- 
 monest work was noble. The milking of a 
 cow, or the brushing of a floor, were great 
 and holy duties — so he thought ; and he 
 used to tell his people of the high aims 
 that may glorify even the humblest lot, and 
 of the strength God gives to lowly souls 
 that obey His guiding voice in little things. 
 
SEEKERS OF THE TRUTH. 
 
 57 
 
 A stream flowed down from the hills 
 through the woods and fields near West 
 Roxbury. It leaped over rocks, and rushed 
 down its channel on the steep hillside till it 
 reached the meadows near the village, where 
 ferns and reeds bent over it, and saw their 
 images reflected in the peaceful stream. 
 Happy children used to play beside this 
 brook on summer days, sailing their little 
 wooden and paper boats upon it. In one 
 place on the bank stood an old water mill. 
 There wondering boys and girls used to 
 stand sometimes beside the great wheel, 
 and watch how the running water turned 
 it slowly round to grind the miller's corn. 
 
 Some of these children may have been in 
 the church one Sunday morning when Theo- 
 dore Parker spoke in his sermon of this great 
 mill wheel. Perhaps they knew what he 
 meant when he went on to say that, as this 
 ever-flowing stream from the hills above 
 gave the miller's wheel power to grind his 
 corn, so God's strength would flow into every 
 human soul that turned itself in prayer to 
 Him. In just this sort of way did Theodore 
 Parker find a beautiful meaning in th^ com- 
 
58 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 mon things of life, and try to bring thoughts 
 of Heaven into the daily ways of men. 
 
 It often seemed to him that people made 
 a great mistake in thinking that the Bible 
 told them of lands and times that were 
 holier than their own could be. He wanted 
 them to be sure that God was close to them 
 in their own lives, speaking in their hearts, 
 as he has spoken in the hearts of prophets 
 long ago ; so that when they felt sure a 
 thing was right to do or say, they might say 
 of their own consciences, which told them 
 so, "Thus saith the Lord." 
 
 Such thoughts as these came to him 
 in his quiet country life. They grew clearer 
 and stronger as time went on ; and other 
 thoughts followed them, which he knew he 
 must some time give as his message to the 
 world. The time to do so had not yet come 
 however ; and while he waited he grew 
 strong in faith and courage. It was well he 
 grew thus strong, for great troubles lay be- 
 fore him. By-and-by men were to give him 
 the hard name of heretic, — and names even 
 harder to bear than that, — because he turned 
 from the old ways of thought that the world 
 had so long held dear. 
 
SEEKERS OF THE TRUTH. 
 
 59 
 
 Theodore Parker was not the only man 
 in Massachusetts who began to turn to 
 new thoughts in those days. Books were 
 coming over to America from England and 
 Germany. They brought with them new 
 forms of belief and fresh ideas. People 
 who read these books began to question 
 their own minds afresh, and to turn from 
 the teachings of their senses only, and of 
 old customs, to the teachings of " innate 
 ideas," as they called the reason and judg- 
 ment planted within them. 
 
 These people called themselves ''Friends 
 of Progress." Some of them were young 
 and had made as yet no name in the world. 
 Some were old, and were great leaders to 
 young Theodore Parker. One of these was 
 Dr. Channing, whom we hold in loving mem- 
 ory now for his good words and holy life. 
 Once upon a time, when Theodore's heart 
 was heavy, some words from Dr. Channing 
 cheered him, and sent him bravely on his way 
 again. "Give my love to Theodore Parker," 
 said the wise elder man, "and tell him to 
 preach what he thoroughly believes and 
 feels. Let the full heart pour itself forth." 
 
6o THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 But this happened after the time we are now 
 reading about. Every week these Friends of 
 Progress used to meet in Boston to talk of 
 subjects that were not quite clear to their 
 minds. Theodore was one of the youngest 
 of this band. Before long, however, few 
 of his companions were ready to follow in 
 their thoughts where his words led. 
 
 Nor was it only the wise men of Boston 
 who were thus awake. Across the waters 
 of the sheltered bay, where three hundred 
 years before the Puritan Fathers, persecuted 
 at home, had found a safe refuge for their 
 new faith, lay Cape Cod. Hardy fishermen 
 lived on Cape Cod, who spent their days 
 in fishing on the bay, or on the rough 
 waves of the Atlantic Ocean, which beat 
 upon their eastern coast. Lying out on 
 the waves in their fishing-boats, waiting for 
 wind or tide, these people found time to 
 think. Amid the terrors of the storm and 
 perils of the sea, life was a very real 
 thing to them ; and, like Theodore Parker, 
 they thought men lived too much in past 
 times, and did not feel God present in every 
 moment , of their lives. 
 
SEEKERS OF THE TRUTH. 6 I 
 
 These fishers of Cape Cod called them- 
 selves " Come Outers," because they had 
 come out of all churches to worship God 
 in a way of their own. They used to say 
 that in every home people ought to pray as 
 in a temple ; that all days are the Lord's 
 days — not only Sundays which men have 
 set apart from the rest of the week. Theo- 
 dore went about among the Cape Cod men, 
 and when he saw how they tried to make 
 all life religious, he thought their ways 
 were very good ways, though they belonged 
 to no church and held no special creed. 
 
 Now the village of West Roxbury was, 
 as has been said, a quiet country place; 
 but not many miles away lay the busy city 
 of Boston, and further south the still 
 larger city of New York. News came to 
 the quiet village from these noisy cities, 
 where men lived closely packed in dingy, 
 narrow streets: tales came of sin and sor- 
 row that went on there, and of wars and 
 crimes in the great world beyond. Theodore 
 Parker had a friend named George Ripley, 
 living near Boston in a pretty home with 
 many books and pictures about him, and 
 everything to make life gay and pleasant. 
 
62 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 But it made George Ripley so sad to 
 hear these tales of the sin and trouble 
 among the people in great cities, that he 
 lost all joy in his own happy life, and 
 thought the best way to mend the world 
 would be to set the example of a way of 
 living in which there should be neither very 
 rich nor very poor. So he sold his pretty 
 home, and formed a little colony called 
 Brook Farm, where he and his wife, and 
 some other people who thought like him- 
 self, had all things In common, and worked 
 together on their daily wants. 
 
 Brook Farm lay just one mile from Theo- 
 dore Parker's house. Often he crossed the 
 meadows to see and talk with these friends 
 of his ; there he used to find them busy 
 plowing and sowing, cooking and wash- 
 ing; but they did not forget that their minds 
 must be fed as well as their bodies. And 
 when evening came books and music had 
 their turn, and all enjoyed them together 
 like one large family. 
 
 These people had given up their wealth 
 and pleasant homes to try to teach the 
 world the nobleness of daily toil, and to 
 
SEEKERS OF THE TRUTH. 63 
 
 lessen the great division between the rich 
 and poor. Theodore honored them because 
 they were so nobly true to what seemed 
 right to them ; but he did not think they 
 had found the true way yet in which to mend 
 the sins and sorrows of the world. 
 
 One night a great meeting was to be held 
 at Harvard College. Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
 famous in those days, though he became 
 much more famous afterwards, was going to 
 lecture to the students there. Hundreds of 
 other people went to listen, and Theodore, 
 who loved the long, low% red-brick building 
 in whose walls he had learned so much, went 
 also with his wife to hear what the wise man 
 would say. Mr. Emerson was one of the 
 Friends of Progress, and he had something 
 he wanted to tell the Harvard students about 
 the duties of a Christian preacher and the 
 help the Christian Church should give the 
 world. It would take long to tell all he said 
 that night ; some people were surprised and 
 even shocked, and some were glad. Theo- 
 dore was glad, and as he went home he 
 felt sure that at last the time had come when 
 he must preach his message to the world. 
 
64 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 But he knew that in doing so he should 
 grieve many dear old friends, for people were 
 not then used to hear the sort of things he 
 had to say ; and when he asked counsel of 
 one or two wise and trusted men, they 
 answered him thus: ''Keep silent; you will 
 do no good by telling all you think ; you will 
 frighten your hearers and bring evil on your- 
 self." This was a warning to which many 
 men who longed to live in peace, as he 
 longed, would have listened. But to him 
 another voice seemed to speak, and it said : 
 **Do the best, be the best, and say the best, 
 you can " ; and back to him over the long 
 years came the memory of his mother's 
 words: " Your life depends on your heeding 
 this little voice." 
 
 So Theodore Parker made up his mind to 
 speak out all the truth he knew. First in the 
 village church at West Roxbury he told the 
 simple people some of these thoughts of his. 
 All his words were always good to them, and 
 they came to thank him for the new light he 
 had thrown for them upon the Bible. But 
 it was quite another matter when, in a great, 
 crowded church, in Boston, he preached his 
 
SEEKERS OF THE TRUTH. 65 
 
 mind out to strangers. From that time men 
 gave him the name of heretic and unbeHever, 
 and turned away from him when they met 
 him in the streets. Preachers refused to let 
 him speak in their pulpits, and old compan- 
 ions grieved his loving heart by their cold- 
 ness and refusal of his outstretched hand. 
 And what had Theodore Parker, with his 
 loving, reverent heart, said that could shock 
 and wound the people of Boston in those 
 days ? A few words will tell, and if we 
 cannot now think like him, we must still 
 honor him for his truthfulness, and for his 
 great reverence for God, which the blinded 
 people of his own time could not see. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A BRAVE HERETIC. 
 
 The people who lived long ago among the 
 hills of Greece used to believe that the gods 
 they worshiped lived far away on a glorious 
 mountain-top, and looked down thence 
 upon the distant homes of men. But one 
 day a new fable arose among them. It was 
 said that one of those far-off gods had come 
 down to earth and taken up his abode among 
 men ; for on the flowery fields of Sicily he 
 had entered into the form of a common 
 shepherd-boy and watched the sheep of King 
 Admetus. This fable brought the Greek 
 people just a little nearer to the truth, if it 
 broke down the gulf they made between the 
 gods and men, and made them fancy that the 
 humblest human soul might be inspired from 
 above. 
 
 It was no fable Theodore Parker wanted 
 to tell people, but a truth which yet bore 
 some likeness to this story of the ancient 
 
A BRAVE HERETIC. 6/ 
 
 Greeks. For he thought that men in his 
 own time had poor and narrow views of God 
 and of his deahngs with the world, and he 
 wanted to teach them to find Him always act- 
 ing in their homes and lives. In this many 
 people thought as he did ; but he went 
 further than this, and then they called him 
 heretic and unbeliever. He spoke of the 
 Bible, and said men worshiped it as the 
 unerring guide for all their ways, as the only 
 message given by God to men in distant 
 times when he spoke once for all to a few 
 holy, chosen souls. And in thus doing, he 
 said, they were wrong, for they put a limit to 
 God's love and the working of His Spirit in 
 the world. He said to them : '' the Bible is one 
 thing, but religion is another. If there were 
 no Bible we should still hear God's voice 
 within ; His love is wider than men know, 
 and he still lives and speaks to them as 
 plainly as he spoke in days of old. Let each 
 man, woman, and child keep open soul to 
 receive God's messages, and we shall all be 
 inspired. Let us reverence the Bible for 
 what it is and for all its holy thoughts, but 
 no Bible can tell us so clearly as the voice 
 
68 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 in our own heart what we ought to do and 
 say." 
 
 Now these opinions of Theodore Parker 
 must not be misunderstood. The Bible was 
 dear to him for the sake of the holy thoughts 
 and teachings it held ; but in his view all of 
 it was not equally true and grand, for the 
 men who wrote it were liable to mistakes, 
 and sometimes seemed to read God's lessons 
 wrongly. 
 
 The fact was, Theodore Parker would 
 not make the Bible the only Word of God. 
 That was too narrow a thought for him, and 
 he said the inspiring Spirit of God spoke 
 through all good books and all good souls in 
 all times, for the Father never left his earthly 
 children to themselves. 
 
 But no wonder people were amazed in 
 those days to hear this new doctrine preached. 
 Often in their thoughts, viewing the Bible 
 as the inspired and only guide, they used to 
 search its pages for an answer to their doubts, 
 and twist the Bible words into meanings 
 which suited their own needs. So slave- 
 owners found in the Bible pretexts for 
 slavery, and warriors found examples in the 
 
A BRAVE HERETIC. 69 
 
 cruel Canaanitish wars. Theodore Parker 
 would have had them faithful to the teachings 
 of conscience above all, with all due rever- 
 ence for the Bible where its holy words 
 may speak to us as those of no other book 
 can do. 
 
 It was in this kind of way that Theodore 
 spoke in Boston. He told of the great, 
 wide communion of God with every human 
 soul, and he left the many creeds that men 
 have formed on one side. For he cared 
 little for forms of belief. True religion, he 
 said, was above the changing opinions of 
 men. Yet because he believed in one God, 
 he called himself a Unitarian, as his fathers 
 had done before him, and now the ministers 
 of the Unitarian churches in Boston were 
 shocked by his free speech. They could not 
 see the reverent spirit that lay in all he said, 
 and the dream never crossed the minds of 
 most of them that perhaps, after all, his 
 thoughts of God were wiser and grander 
 than their own. 
 
 So some of these old friends of his called 
 a meeting together, and asked Theodore to 
 attend ; and at this meeting hard words were 
 
JO THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 said of him, and cruel names given to him. 
 Perhaps at this time Dr. Channing's message, 
 " Give my love to Theodore Parker, and tell 
 him to preach what he thoroughly believes 
 and feels," strengthened the young man's 
 courage. The wise old man by this time had 
 died, and the gentle memory of him was all 
 that remained. Well, at this meeting, one 
 man after another rose up to blame Theodore, 
 and he seemed to stand alone, forsaken by all 
 present. At last, in gentler words, one 
 praised his truthfulness, and another fol- 
 lowed in similar strains. Then he broke 
 down, and could bear no more. Worn out 
 and wearied he went weeping from the room. 
 After this came a long, long time when 
 few would speak to him. He was tender- 
 hearted and loving, and this treatment 
 wounded him sorely. Still he was brave and 
 true, and willing to stand alone if need be, 
 and ** to let off the truth just as it came to 
 him." He was still a member of the great 
 church of God, and his message to men he 
 would speak, and no man should silence him. 
 But he often thought that the time would 
 come when no church on earth would be left 
 
A BRAVE HERETIC. 
 
 71 
 
 to open its doors to him. Then he knew 
 what he would do. He would go out into 
 the fields and glens, and on the roadsides, 
 wherever men and women were to be found 
 and he would make the land ring with his 
 voice. 
 
 Many friends had warned him to be silent 
 and hide these thoughts of his. They had 
 said to him: " If you find errors in the Bible 
 you will frighten the world, and bring evil on 
 yourself." Now all these warnings had been 
 realized. Yet Theodore was glad he had 
 spoken, and still he cried: ''Not one book 
 only is inspired, and not a few ancient men 
 alone; but all may be inspired, for still God 
 lives and loves." 
 
 Two hundred years previous to Theodore 
 Parker's time, kings and princes had gathered 
 together in Germany to silence Martin Luther 
 when he proclaimed the need of reformation 
 In the Church. All in vain. Fearless he rose 
 up and spoke the truth from his heart, saying, 
 *' Here I am, God help me, I can do no other." 
 Where would the world have been if Martin 
 Luther had kept silence because he was 
 afraid of what men might do or say? So 
 
72 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 with Theodore Parker ; the boy was father of 
 the man, and he was still determined to be, 
 and do, and say, the very wisest and best he 
 could. Yet it was hard for him to do so ; for 
 it seemed as if no place would soon be left 
 where people would be able to listen to him. 
 Still he trusted the way would open in good 
 time, and his sad heart found comfort in his 
 home, in the love of little children, and his 
 work and books. 
 
 Time passed, and by-and-by the lonely man 
 was asked by some brave people to give some 
 lectures in Boston. He agreed at once to do 
 so, and the doors of a great building in Bos- 
 ton, called the Masonic Hall, were opened to 
 him. A crowd of curious people flocked to 
 hear, and went home again, it is said, ''with 
 their hearts aflame." The next winter he lec- 
 tured again, and after this he resolved to have 
 his lectures published, that what he believed 
 and spoke might be more widely known. But 
 he had to seek long before he found a pub- 
 lisher willing to help forward such a book. 
 When at last it came out, it quickly traveled 
 far and wide through America, and crossed 
 the sea to the English shores. Thus the seed 
 
A BRAVE HERETIC. 73 
 
 he sowed was springing up ; but Theodore 
 did not yet guess the harvest that should 
 be reaped. Long afterwards he heard the 
 following story of a boy who read that first 
 book of his. 
 
 One Sunday, an idle youth in a country 
 house, who found time pass slowly, looked 
 for a book to help to while away the hours. 
 Some one gave him that new book by 
 Theodore Parker which was still almost un- 
 known. Nothing better was at hand, so 
 he took it, fearing, however, to find it very 
 dull. Some days afterwards the youth 
 brought back the book to its owner, and 
 said to him : — 
 
 ''Will you sell me that book? I want to 
 own it." 
 
 It was given to him, and he went away. 
 Years after the idle youth had become an 
 earnest, noble man, the helper of every 
 good cause he met with. The book, which 
 he still owned, was bound in leather to 
 preserve it, but the pages were loose and 
 falling out, so often had he read it himself 
 and lent it; and all that was worth having 
 in himself he traced to the influence of 
 
74 
 
 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 those brave teachings of the heretic Theo- 
 dore Parker. 
 
 But, meanwhile, the preacher himself was 
 walking in the dark. He seemed to be 
 breaking away from all the quiet old ways 
 and thoughts into some unknown field of 
 work, and it was a comfort to him now 
 and then to go back to Lexington to see 
 the old haunts of his boyhood, and pluck the 
 violets on his mother's grave. He grew 
 worn and thin, and kind friends who were 
 still left to him joined together to send 
 him to Europe for rest and change of scene. 
 So one day, his wife and he said their good- 
 byes to West Roxbury for a year, and 
 sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in search 
 of health and peace. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SCATTERING BROADCAST. 
 
 A JOYFUL welcome met him at West Rox- 
 bury, when, strong and ready for new work, 
 Theodore Parker set foot again at home. 
 He had been among the grand Swiss moun- 
 tains and the ItaHan lakes, and he lived in old 
 cities which spoke to him of the great deeds 
 of the past ; and best of all, he had met with, 
 and talked to, wise and noble men whose 
 words gave him courage to follow after truth, 
 and give his best thoughts to the world. 
 
 West Roxbury had missed his kindly words 
 and deeds, and the cheerful voice and 
 presence that made the world bright to 
 others, however sad he might be himself. 
 Now he was strong and able to bear the cold- 
 ness which began again to meet him in 
 Boston on every side. Sunday after Sunday 
 he spoke to the few listeners in his village 
 church, and longed to be of wider use among 
 
76 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 his fellow-men ; but there seemed to be no 
 further opening for him. 
 
 Now, there was at this time in Boston, 
 away from the great city churches where the 
 rich and well-born people flourished, a mis- 
 sion church hidden away in a poor part of 
 the town, where working men and women 
 flocked together to find the bread of life. 
 The preacher in this church was a Mr. 
 Sargent, a good friend to his people, who 
 used to seek them out in their poor houses, 
 and try to help and comfort the sins and 
 sorrows of the Boston back streets and 
 courts. He knew that Theodore's words 
 were such as his people needed ; for they 
 told of the love of God, and of hope for 
 every down-trodden, sinful man. So one 
 day he asked him to preach to the people in 
 the mission church, and poor, weary men 
 and women came from their hard, sad homes 
 to listen, and went back with new strength. 
 But Mr. Sargent forfeited his church by this 
 act. The people who had placed him in his 
 mission work were among the men who 
 called Theodore Parker a heretic and 
 ** unsound " in belief ; so the poor people 
 
SCATTERING BROADCAST. 
 
 n 
 
 lost their preacher and friend. Yet some 
 good arose out of this wrong. The story 
 went abroad ; and certain young men who 
 loved justice and fair play resolved that 
 " Theodore Parker should have a chance to 
 be heard in Boston." 
 
 In those days a great gloomy building, 
 called the " Melodeon," was standing in Bos- 
 ton. Because no church would open its 
 doors to such a preacher, these young men 
 hired the Melodeon, and asked Mr. Par- 
 ker to preach there every Sunday morning 
 to such people as would come to listen. 
 This chance could not be lost, and it was 
 settled he should preach in Boston every 
 Sunday morning, and return to his own 
 church and people at West Roxbury for the 
 evening service. 
 
 It was a cold wet morning in 'February, 
 1845, when Theodore Parker first spoke in 
 the Melodeon. Snow lay on the streets 
 and roofs, wind and rain blew and splashed 
 against the gloomy building, and the dark 
 sky threatened storm. Surely only a few 
 hearers would venture out on such a day ! 
 Not so ; careless of rain and snow, people 
 
78 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 crowded in till the great hall was full. Sun- 
 day after Sunday they came together, and 
 some of them had never been in a church, 
 and some were tired of creeds they could not 
 believe, and all came gladly to hear one 
 speak who gave them faith and hope once 
 more. There was always one spot of beauty 
 in this ugly building. Before the preacher, 
 on his desk, stood flowers in water, — wild 
 flowers as the spring advanced, — violets and 
 lilies and gentians from the brook near his 
 old home ; and these country messengers 
 helped him to tell his message to the dwell- 
 ers in the city of the ever-present love of 
 God. 
 
 Before long a new step in life's pathway 
 opened out to Theodore Parker. It was 
 plain that all Sunday must be given up to 
 the crowds at the Melodeon. He must leave 
 West Roxbury, and use all his time and 
 strength in the new work in the city. So 
 there was a sad farewell sermon to his village 
 friends, and a sad farewell also to his pretty 
 country home. Then life began for him and 
 his family in Boston. The new house was in 
 a street. Meadows and trees were changed 
 
SCATTERING BROADCAST, 79 
 
 for houses, and the birds' songs for the noises 
 of city life. But every room was kept bright 
 with flowers, creeping plants were trained 
 in his study window, and playthings for the 
 children still found room near his desk, 
 though books covered shelves and tables 
 and spread themselves over the rest of the 
 house. What a change from the day when 
 the farmer's boy had earned his first book 
 by picking whortleberries in the early morn- 
 ing in the Lexington fields ! Every day 
 his life became more full of work. He 
 began to travel over the country to lec- 
 ture in distant towns, and in lonely places 
 where settlers still lived in their rough log 
 huts. On such journeys he used to carry a 
 bag of books with him to read on the way. 
 Often, however, the books were laid aside, 
 that he might talk with his fellow-travelers. 
 In this way he sowed good, brave thoughts 
 among the young, and gave comfort to sad 
 people and never knew at the time what 
 became of the seed he sowed. 
 
 Perhaps if such people had known the 
 name of the stranger who cheered their 
 lives, and gave them fresh hopes, they would 
 
8o THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 have shrunk away from him ; for report was 
 busy with his name, and news of his heresies 
 spread quickly over the land. But, un- 
 known, he made his way at once to the 
 hearts of all he met. '* Ah ! " said an old 
 lady one day who chanced to hear him 
 preach as a stranger in a country place — 
 "Ah! if that infidel, Theodore Parker, 
 could only have heard this man preach ! " 
 It was no easy life to travel and lecture 
 in this way. Often he was wet through ; 
 often without food when weak and weary ; 
 and often he came home worn out and ill. 
 At home, too, he was always busy. About 
 this time he began to write a book on the 
 growth of religious ideas in the world ; and 
 this book he planned to finish in ten years' 
 time, if he lived so long. But he had few 
 quiet minutes without interruption. Up 
 into his study from early morn till late at 
 night came all sorts of people, wanting all 
 sorts of help and advice ; and every day he 
 wrote many letters. But through all this 
 busy life, Theodore Parker's was a pattern 
 home ; and every person who came there 
 felt its peace and the sunshine he spread 
 within it. 
 
5 CA TTERING BR OA DC AST. 8 I 
 
 Strange to tell, pictures of bears and 
 carved Images of bears, little and large, 
 were to be found in every room in his house, 
 and his wife's pet name was " Bearsie." One 
 day, in the Swiss town of Berne, he had 
 seen the patient, pitiful bears in their deep, 
 dreary pit, and had thought of the great, 
 powerful creatures ever after. 
 
 Through the noisy, dirty streets of Boston 
 visions of the fair country home he had lately 
 lived in went with him constantly ; and some- 
 times he and his wife took holiday together, 
 to see the early apple blossoms at West Rox- 
 bury, or the flowers in the fields round the old 
 farm at Lexington. But even better visions 
 than those of country sights and sounds went 
 with him wherever he went ; — holy thoughts 
 and high ideals, which he put forth into his 
 daily life, and thus made it rich with noble 
 deeds. Some of these thoughts now and 
 then took the form of poems, and he said 
 one day to an old friend : "I sing prayers 
 when I loiter in the woods or travel the quiet 
 road." Read one of these prayers thus sung. 
 No wonder a grand life grew out of such 
 thoughts, when every little chance for work 
 was used, and every little duty was done. 
 
82 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 " Father, I will not ask for wealth or fame, 
 
 Though once they would have joyed my carnal sense. 
 I shudder not to bear a hated name, 
 
 Wanting all wealth, myself my sole defence. 
 But give me. Lord, eyes to behold the truth — 
 
 A seeing sense, that knows the eternal Right ; 
 A heart with pity filled and gentlest ruth ; 
 
 A manly faith that makes all darkness light. 
 Give me the power to labor for mankind ; 
 
 Make me the mouth of such as cannot speak ; 
 Eyes let me be to groping men and blind ; 
 
 A conscience to the base : and to the weak 
 Let me be hands and feet ; and to the foolish, mind ; 
 
 And lead still further on such as Thy Kingdom seek." 
 
 Day by day his influence spread more 
 widely. There was no fear now, as there had 
 been at West Roxbury, that he was not using 
 all his powers. In doubt and danger he had 
 sown his seed, and God had sent the winds to 
 blow it far and wide over the land. Well for 
 him that he had said in faith what he thought 
 right ; for now, in distant lands, his words 
 brought help to many thirsty souls, though 
 still at home in Boston he was often met by 
 anger and scorn. 
 
 Hundreds of miles away, in the wild lands 
 of Minnesota, where the great River Miss- 
 issippi takes its rise, a working man had 
 gone out from Boston in those days to make 
 
SCATTERING BROADCAST. ^2) 
 
 a new home in the lonely plains. There 
 was a hard fight to be fought with treacher- 
 ous Indians : forests to cut down and swamps 
 to drain : and the sharers of his toil were a 
 few workmen like himself. By degrees they 
 built a saw-mill and a blacksmith's forge, and 
 two or three wooden huts to live in. But 
 they had brought little besides their tools 
 from the distant city. One possession more 
 this unlearned leader of the little company 
 had with him. This was a volume of Theo- 
 dore Parker's sermons ; and at night, when 
 work was over, he and his comrades used to 
 gather round the log-fire, and the best reader 
 among them would spell out the sermons ; 
 and then all talkeci over their meaning, while 
 the stormy winds howled round this little 
 church in the wilds. 
 
 By-and-by Theodore Parker had a letter 
 from these camp-men, asking him to send 
 them out some more of his sermons — such 
 as would suit a rough settler's mind the best. 
 His words had taught them to work with 
 a will, and to see a holy calling in the labor 
 of turning the wilderness into a garden. 
 
 Another day a letter, badly spelt and hard 
 
84 THEODORE PARKER, 
 
 to read, came to him from the Far West. A 
 
 poor farm-boy sent it. He told in it how 
 years before he had lost his left hand. Then 
 brothers and friends clubbed together to 
 send him to school, where he learned to 
 read, and came upon Theodore Parker's 
 first published book, ** The Discourse on 
 Religion." Then he was made a teacher, 
 and when he had earned enough money, 
 he sent to Boston for more sermons. These 
 he lent to other people, and could not 
 keep to himself the new thoughts they 
 taught him. So a cry rose against him in 
 the village where he lived. He was called 
 an infidel, and old friends and brothers 
 forsook him. All this he wrote, ending his 
 letter thus : "I expect in a few days to 
 have no home. I am poor. Last summer 
 I was a day-laborer. Now no one will 
 receive ' an infidel ' on his farm. I want 
 to get work in Boston, where I can clasp 
 you by the hand, and listen to your noble 
 words, and take example from your manly 
 life. Write brave words to me and I will 
 try to live down all this opposition." There 
 is no need to tell that Theodore Parker 
 
SCATTERING BROADCAST. 85 
 
 Stretched out the strong right hand of help 
 to this new disciple, and the youth became 
 another centre of influence to many others. 
 
 Now, what Theodore Parker did that so 
 changed the current of the thoughts and 
 lives of the men and women who listened 
 to him, was this : He taught them to look 
 within for the clear voice of God, and to 
 believe that endless grace and strength 
 might be their own if they sought for them. 
 So will and faith grew strong in his hear- 
 ers ; and, instead of searching always into 
 the past for a dead message which moved 
 the souls of others once long ago, hard- 
 working men and weary, burdened women, 
 and youths and maidens, meeting the cares 
 and puzzles of life, learned to say, '' The 
 Lord is on my side now, and I will listen 
 to His whisper in my soul, and will follow 
 wherever it may lead." 
 
 This was Theodore Parker's idea of inspi- 
 ration, and this was the message he gave to 
 the people of his own time, who were so apt 
 to think the Bible was the only Word of 
 God, and to twist its precepts, drawn from 
 any page, into guides for their own blind 
 
86 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 lives. No wonder the rough settlers blessed 
 this man, who taught them their true source 
 of strength as they gathered round the camp- 
 fire at night ; and no wonder he himself had 
 no fear of the hard names given to him by 
 his fellow-men. The wonder is that they 
 could not see how much grander and truer 
 his view of inspiration was than their own. 
 
 On the last night of the year 1852, Theo- 
 dore Parker wrote thus in his journal : 
 " Forty- two years ago, my father, a hale man, 
 in his fifty-first year, was looking for the birth 
 of another child before morning. Poor 
 father ! and poor, dear mother ! You little 
 knew how many a man would curse the son 
 you brought into life and piously and relig- 
 iously trained up. Well, I will bless you. 
 True mother and father were you to me — 
 the earliest thing you taught me was duty. 
 Duty to God, and duty to man ; that life was 
 not a pleasure and not a pain — but a duty. 
 Your words taught me this, and your indus- 
 trious lives. What would I not give that I 
 could have added more gladness to your life 
 on earth — earnest, toilsome, not without 
 sorrow. As you look down from Heaven — 
 
. 5 CA TTERING BROADCAST. 8 / 
 
 if indeed you can see your youngest child — 
 there will be much to chide. I hope there 
 is something to approve. Dear, merciful 
 Father God, I would serve Thee and bless 
 mankind ! " 
 
 So he looked back over forty-two years, 
 and saw the ever-widening path which he 
 had trodden step by step in faith. No early 
 struggles were forgotten ; and because he 
 remembered so well those hard days of work 
 that he had gone through when he first 
 entered Harvard College, therefore he had 
 kindly thoughts for youths who were now 
 in similar case. So he wrote each year to 
 the principal of the college, and asked him 
 for the names of any new comers who were 
 poor, and in need of help to pay their college 
 fees. Then followed unexpected presents 
 to cheer those downcast hearts. His house 
 in Boston, too, was always open to lonely 
 students far away from their own homes. 
 
 One day the son of an old friend of Mr. 
 Parker entered Harvard. His home w^as in 
 the country, and his family so poor that 
 great efforts had been required to find the 
 means to send him to college. Theodore 
 
88 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 Parker guessed that the mother and sisters, 
 in their poverty at home, were grieving that 
 they could do no more for the boy they had 
 sent out into the world. Accordingly it was 
 not long before their home was gladdened by 
 the news that a valuable book the young 
 student needed, and could not buy, reached 
 him with the following little note: ''Dear 
 Jo : This book is from one who loves your 
 father very much, and hopes to like you 
 equally well: so be a good boy." More 
 books and other comforts followed this first 
 gift ; and the youth became one of many 
 who would not for the world have disap- 
 pointed Theodore Parker's hopes for their 
 future. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM. 
 
 In the year 1852 came another change. 
 " The heretic, Theodore Parker," gathered 
 such crowds of Hsteners round him each 
 Sunday that the Melodeon was no longer 
 large enough to hold them. The great Music 
 Hall in Boston would admit three thousand 
 people ; and that building was now chosen 
 for his use. There every seat was filled ; and 
 before the vast, silent crowd stood this man, 
 who had once been a farmer's boy in Lexing- 
 ton — and three thousand souls waited for 
 him to speak. 
 
 '' How can I feed so great a multitude?" 
 he thought ; " I am but as a boy with five bar- 
 ley loaves and two small fishes." Yet, true 
 to his own doctrine of inspiration, he listened 
 while God spoke to him ; then forth came 
 his message to the waiting crowds, and he 
 never failed to touch their hearts. The fact 
 was, all he said had first come home to him- 
 
90 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 • 
 
 self so clearly that it presented itself to his 
 hearers as a living truth that could not be 
 gainsaid. 
 
 One day he spoke of the great love of 
 God, which gives hope of restoration even 
 to the most guilty. There sat in a gallery 
 that morning a poor castaway, who had, per- 
 haps, gone astray and lost himself in the 
 temptations of the city. The better nature 
 of this man, so long asleep, woke up in 
 answer to Theodore Parkef*s words ; and, to 
 his own surprise, he cried out : " I know it to 
 be so ! I feel it to be so ! " 
 
 Theodore Parker stopped and, turning to 
 the place whence the voice seemed to come, 
 he answered : " Yes, my friend, and you can 
 not wander so far off but God can call you 
 back." So came light into the dark places, 
 and so fresh life sprang up in stony ground, 
 because this man from his boyhood had 
 listened to and obeyed the '' inner voice." 
 
 There is a hymn written by Theodore Par- 
 ker that we sometimes sing in our churches 
 and Sunday Schools. No doubt it was some- 
 times sung by the great multitude in the 
 Boston Music Hall. He who was a leader 
 
FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM. 
 
 91 
 
 to SO many people in his own day had a very 
 reverent spirit, and he looked up to many 
 leaders greater and better than himself. Of 
 all these leaders, Jesus Christ was the Head, 
 and so he wrote thus of Christ and loved to 
 hear the people sing these words : — 
 
 " Oh ! thou, great Friend to all the sons of men, 
 Who once appeared in humblest guise below. 
 Sin to rebuke, to break the captive's chain. 
 And call thy brethren forth from want and woe — 
 
 " We look to thee : thy truth is still the Light 
 Which guides the nations groping on their way, 
 Stumbling and falling in disastrous night, 
 Yet hoping ever for the perfect day. 
 
 " Yes, thou art still the Life ; thou art the Way 
 The holiest know : Life, Light, and Way of Heaven ; 
 And they who dearest hope and deepest pray 
 Toil by the Life, Light, Way which Thou hast given." 
 
 It is strange to think that in the Boston 
 churches at this time preachers were preach- 
 ing against the " infidel " Theodore Parker, 
 and praying for his conversion ! Meanwhile, 
 as he prayed in the Music Hall, tears would 
 chase each other down his face, so much in 
 earnest was he ; and as he read the story of 
 Christ's life on earth to the people, at certain 
 
92 
 
 THEODORE PARKER, 
 
 passages he was unable from deep feeling 
 to go on ; yet they were old, old tales to 
 most men, and tales by which they could no 
 longer be moved to tears. 
 
 Here ~ is one more poem by Theodore 
 Parker. Then our story must tell of very 
 different scenes and times ; for stern days 
 were at hand, full of great danger for men 
 like him. 
 
 ** O, Broth jr, who for us doth meekly wear 
 The crown of thorns about thy radiant brow. 
 What gospel from the Father dost thou bear 
 Our hearts to cheer, making us happy now ? 
 'T is this alone the immortal Saviour cries. 
 To fill thy heart with ever active love : 
 Love for the wicked as in sin he lies. 
 Love for thy brother here, thy God above. 
 Fear nothing ill, 't will vanish in its day ; 
 Live for the good, taking the ill thou must, 
 Toil with tliy might, with manly labor pray. 
 Living, and loving, learn thy God to trust. 
 And He will shed upon thy soul the blessings of the just." 
 
 Twenty years had passed away since 
 William Lloyd Garrison, a poor and unknown 
 youth, had set up his printing-press in a 
 gloomy garret in Boston and began to 
 publish the Liberator, his an ti- slavery paper. 
 Week after week, he had worked on patiendy, 
 
rJaiJUNG FOR FREEDOM. 93 
 
 saying to himself, " I am in earnest ; I will be 
 heard " ; and by-and-by the people of Amer- 
 ica were compelled to listen. Slave-owners 
 began to fear the little paper which spoke so 
 bravely against the crime of slavery, and so 
 pitifully of the sorrows of the slaves. They 
 tried to stop it and crush its sale, but in vain. 
 People only began to read the paper the 
 more, and to talk about it. It could no 
 longer be said that people were ignorant or 
 silent about slavery, for the once feeble cry 
 from that poor, dark room began to ring 
 through the land. Then a few men joined 
 Garrison in Boston and formed an anti- 
 slavery society ; and then, in other cities, 
 two or three more followed their example 
 and, fearless of threats, upheld the unpop- 
 ular cause. 
 
 In the year 1845, when Theodore Parker 
 left his quiet country home and work in the 
 village of West Roxbury for the wider inter- 
 ests of city life in Boston, Garrison became 
 known to him ; and just about the same 
 time events took place in America which 
 helped to turn his thoughts to the struggle 
 against slavery which Garrison was living 
 
94 
 
 THEODORE PARKER, 
 
 to uphold. For in that same year, 1845, ^^ 
 i^reat waste lands of Texas were to be added 
 to the United States, and the question arose, 
 Was this new State to be a Slave State or a 
 free one ? 
 
 Theodore Parker's religion was not a reli- 
 gion of creeds. He thought that men must 
 not only believe in God : they must also 
 " do justly and love mercy." He knew that 
 sooner or later the question must be settled 
 whether America should be a free empire or 
 a slave empire ; and if a handful of earnest 
 people, by their earnestness and influence 
 could help to incline a nation towards right 
 deeds, he must be one of the handful. So 
 he made up his mind that life and strength 
 must be given by him, if need be, to this 
 struggle against slavery; and while most 
 other preachers did not dare to speak of this 
 subject in their churches, to him it often 
 seemed there could be no better lesson for 
 the day. 
 
 One morning in the year 1846 a ship from 
 New Orleans, where slave-holders abounded, 
 sailed into Boston Harbor. Boston men 
 owned the ship and Boston sailors formed 
 
FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM. 
 
 95 
 
 her crew. The sun shone brightly on the 
 white sails, as If to welcome her return home ; 
 and the sailors, glad to reach their own shores, 
 sprang joyfully on land. From the ship's 
 hold crawled a poor, wretched slave, half 
 dead with fear and hunger. He had hidden 
 himself away in that dark hole to escape from 
 his master in New Orleans, and hoped he 
 should be set free if once on Boston soil, 
 where no slaves were kept. But the poor 
 fellow was mistaken. The sailors went to 
 their own homes and were welcomed by glad 
 wives and happy children. The sun might 
 shine on free and happy Boston, but the 
 miserable slave was sent back to slavery by 
 the Boston owners o^ the ship. 
 
 Now was a time when indeed Boston must 
 be roused ! Garrison's patient work for so 
 many years had not been in vain. His 
 Liberator had prepared the way, and when 
 Theodore Parker joined with him to summon 
 a huge town meeting in Faneuil Hall and 
 called together a Vigilance Committee to 
 guard that such an outrage should never 
 disgrace the city again, then the people of 
 Boston answered with a will, and the great 
 hall was packed from floor to roof. 
 
96 THEODORE PARKER, 
 
 Hundreds of men never forgfot the noble, 
 eloquent words they heard from Theodore 
 Parker that night. But his speech called 
 forth the rage of the friends of slavery. They 
 mocked at the ** higher law of love" which 
 he said forbade the custom of slavery per- 
 mitted by the law of the land, and they 
 accused him of overthrowing the teachings 
 of the Bible when he proclaimed the crime 
 of making human beings into slaves. The 
 newspapers had bitter words against him, 
 and Boston merchants, who lived by means 
 of slave-growm cotton, upheld a strong party 
 against this handful of workers for the cause 
 of freedom. 
 
 There is a grand old story that tells how 
 an angry king, long years ago, went forth into 
 the lonely desert to rebuke a brave prophet 
 who was trying to rouse the Jewish people 
 to believe in a truer religion than they had 
 known before, and the first words of the king 
 were: "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" 
 Whenever a new teacher wakens the minds 
 of men to higher light, then the old spirits of 
 the king and the prophet meet face to face 
 once more, and the prophet is blamed for the 
 
. FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM. 97 
 
 loss of the old false peace In which the world 
 lay before he began to speak. 
 
 So when Theodore Parker preached his 
 doctrine of inspiration, or when he spoke 
 against slavery, it was said that he troubled 
 America. But the real troubler in that case, 
 as in every other such case, was the spirit that 
 was content with old ways, and would not 
 waken to the new gleams of light that dawned 
 upon the earth. 
 
 Now, one reason why Theodore Parker 
 had the spirit of the old prophet, and not 
 that of the king, was because he always 
 kept before his view a great principle, by 
 which he tried to rule all his acts. Just as, 
 when a boy, he had vowed to be and do 
 and say the very best he knew ; so now that 
 he was a man the same wish was strong 
 within him, and he would take no course, 
 however trifling, but that which he felt to 
 be the most right and true. Whenever he 
 met with any who thus tried to rule his life 
 by such a guiding principle, such an one 
 became a hero and a leader to Theodore 
 Parker. History gave him many examples 
 of this kind ; others he found among people 
 
98 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 living in his own day. In his study was 
 the portrait of such a leader. This was a 
 statesman, named Daniel Webster, whom 
 Boston then sent as her representative to 
 Congress. This man Theodore Parker hon- 
 ored because he believed him to be true and 
 honest, living to help forward whatever was 
 right and just, with no thought for his own 
 gain or loss in the matter. 
 
 But one morning Theodore took down 
 this man's portrait from his study wall, and, 
 kissing it sadly, he turned it away where 
 he could no longer see the once much-loved 
 face. What had happened ? That day 
 America was ringing with terrible news. 
 A bill had been passed in Congress, called 
 the "Fugitive Slave Bill." This bill decreed 
 that any slave fleeing from his owner Into 
 a Free State might be pursued and carried 
 back into slavery. Moreover, it announced 
 that any one who gave shelter In a Free 
 State to a slave thus hiding, would be 
 liable to a fine of $1,000 and six months' 
 imprisonment. Now there seemed small 
 chance of safety for slaves In any part of 
 the United States ; and Daniel Webster had 
 
FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM. 99 
 
 been the chief supporter of this bill ! 
 Theodore knew that his fallen hero had 
 acted thus to please the pro-slavery men 
 and gain their votes for his election as 
 future President. 
 
 The following Sunday the Melodeon was 
 crowded as usual. In his sermon Theodore 
 Parker spoke of the new Fugutive Slave 
 Bill. No doubt his hearers knew beforehand 
 how strongly he would speak against the 
 injustice of the law. But a great awe fell 
 upon the crowd when he said that at the 
 first chance he should break this new law ! 
 For some moments there was silence through 
 the hall. Plainly here was a man who 
 dared be true to his conscience in deed 
 as well as in word. Then what was best 
 deep down in his hearers' souls answered 
 to his words, and the silence was broken 
 by a great outburst of cheers. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 *'A HERO IN THE STRIFE." 
 
 Among the people who used to worship 
 each Sunday in the Melodeon were a carpen- 
 ter and his wife — WilHam and Ellen Craft. 
 They had a nice little home in Boston, 
 where they had lived for many years. Theo- 
 dore Parker knew them well, and went often 
 to see them in their own house, and 
 welcomed them gladly when they came to 
 visit him. He knew the sad story of their 
 past lives, but it was a secret from other 
 people in Boston. Years ago they had been 
 held as slaves (for they had a little negro 
 blood in their veins) by a cruel master in 
 one of the Southern States. They had man- 
 aged to escape from slavery, and had fled 
 a distance of nine hundred miles, hiding in 
 swamps and passing through unknown lands 
 till they found a resting-place in Boston in 
 the Free State of Massachusetts. There they 
 had lived peaceful, hard-working lives till 
 
''A HERO IN THE STRIFEr lOI 
 
 one dreadful day in 1850, soon after die 
 Fugitive Slave Bill had passed Congress. 
 That day Theodore Parker, who had been 
 lecturing in a distant town, came home late. 
 Then he heard that slave-hunters were in 
 the city searching for his friends, William 
 and Ellen Craft. 
 
 Now came the first chance for him to 
 break the wicked new law. If he would love 
 his neighbor as himself, he must save his 
 neighbor from being carried off as a slave. 
 No time was to be lost. That riieht he took 
 the poor woman into his own house, and 
 wrote his next Sunday's sermon with a loaded 
 pistol on his desk. Nor did his work end 
 here. Venturing still further, he sought out 
 the slave-hunters in their hotel, and scared 
 them by his scornful words right out of Bos- 
 ton. Before many days were over, William 
 and Ellen Craft were sailing over the Atlantic 
 Ocean to a safe refuge in England. 
 
 Not long afterwards another slave named 
 Anthony Burns, who had sought refuge in 
 Boston, was seized and shut up in the court- 
 house of the city at the time Theodore Par- 
 ker was saying good-bye to some dear old 
 friends who were about to sail for Europe. 
 
I02 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 " I doubt if they will ever see me again," 
 he wrote in his journal; *'for I must not let 
 a fu<Tfitive slave be carried out of Boston, cost 
 what it may. I will not use weapons to rescue 
 a man, but I will go unarmed wherever a 
 reasonable chance of success offers, and 1 
 will make a rescue." Then he made his way 
 to the slave-pen in the court-house, and put- 
 ting his hand into that of the despairing man, 
 bade him have courage for help was at hand. 
 
 That night another great meeting was held 
 in Faneuil Hall. There Theodore Parker's 
 words made many hearts beat quickly ; for 
 he called on the men who heard him to go 
 quickly with only the arms God gave them 
 to rescue this poor slave. *' Men and breth- 
 ren," he cried, " I am not a young man. 
 I have heard cheers for liberty many times, 
 but I have not seen many deeds done for 
 liberty. I ask you. Are we to have deeds as 
 well as words? Be sure the men who kidnap 
 a man in Boston are cowards, every mother's 
 son of them ; and if we stand up and declare 
 this man shall not go out of the City of 
 Boston without shooting a gun, then he 
 won't go back," 
 
"^ HERO IN THE STRIFES 103 
 
 In that great meeting, men were moved to 
 right deeds by Theodore Parker's earnestness. 
 There was a great rush to the court-house to 
 rescue the imprisoned slave. But a report of 
 the meeting in Faneuil Hall had spread 
 abroad, and soldiers were sent down to guard 
 the court-house. The attempted rescue failed. 
 Next day Anthony Burns was carried down to 
 the harbor by a strong guard ; but the Vigi- 
 lance Committee hung with black the Boston 
 streets through which he passed. 
 
 Theodore Parker's promise of help to the 
 slave, Anthony Burns, did not end thus. A 
 sum of money was raised, with which to buy 
 him from his owners. He was sent to college, 
 and the dull, crushed mind slowly wakened 
 up. In course of time he w^as able to write 
 to Theodore Parker, who had never lost sight 
 of him, and had sent him every now and then 
 words of kindly help. The letter told how 
 his thoughts went back to the day in the Bos- 
 ton court-house, when this brave friend was 
 not afraid to push his way into the slave-pen, 
 and take the hand of the runaway, friendless 
 slave. 
 
 Such were some of the ways in which 
 
I04 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 Theodore Parker helped the cause of freedom 
 in America. No time was left now for quiet 
 study, and the hope, which had been so dear 
 to him, of writing a book on the growth of 
 religion, died away. Longer and more fre- 
 quent journeys must be taken. Sometimes 
 he went to lecture against slavery into the 
 very Slave States themselves. He feared no 
 danger while about his duty, and asked not 
 whether he was among enemies or friends. 
 
 One night, while on one of these journeys, 
 he was present at a great meeting of the 
 friends of slavery. He stood in a closely 
 packed gallery, and looked down upon the 
 excited crowd below. Not knowing that he 
 was there to answer him, one of the speakers 
 ended his speech by saying : — 
 
 *' I should like to know what Theodore 
 Parker would say to that ! " 
 
 The hall was filled with men who upheld 
 slavery, and who were ready to lay violent 
 hands on any one who opposed their views. 
 Theodore knew this well ; but he loved justice 
 and right more than he loved his life, and he 
 cried out with a clear strong voice : — 
 
 ''Would you like to know? I'll tell you 
 
''A HERO IN THE STRIFE." 105 
 
 what Theodore Parker says to It ; " and then 
 he spoke out bravely in defence of freedom 
 for the slaves. 
 
 That was the signal for a riot. The excited 
 people knew then who he vv^as, and shouted 
 out his name with cries of: " Kill him ! Kill 
 him ! Throw him over ! " 
 
 It seemed as if nothing could save him 
 Irom their fury, when, wonderful to tell, he 
 calmed the raging crowd by his voice and 
 quiet, resolute bearing. 
 
 "■ You will do no such thing," the people 
 felt, rather than heard, him say — ''You will 
 do no such thing, and I will tell you what 
 I say to this matter." 
 
 So his courage and calmness quelled the 
 tumult, and in the midst of slave-owners 
 and upholders of slavery, he gained a hear- 
 ing for the truths he had to tell. 
 
 More than one such event as this hap- 
 pened. Truly, he was giving up life and 
 strength in the struggle, and far and wide, 
 wherever the great question of freedom or 
 slavery arose, Theodore Parker's name was 
 heard. Into the White House at Washing- 
 ton, where sat the President, Millard Fill- 
 
I06 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 more, who had signed the Fugitive Slave 
 Bill, came his stirring v^ords. He wrote the 
 President a letter, telling him that when 
 fugitive slaves came to his own door seeking 
 help, he could not forget the words of 
 Christ : " Inasmuch as ye have not done 
 it unto one of the least of these, ye have not 
 done it unto me." Therefore, though fine 
 and prison waited for him, he must help 
 such men in their trouble ; he must rever- 
 ence the laws of God ; come what may, he 
 must be true to his religion. 
 
 It is easy to fancy the life of peril and 
 excitement that Theodore Parker lived. But 
 through all, the quieter duties of life were 
 not forgotten, and by words and deeds he 
 taught that a high ideal may glorify any 
 work, however humble, and that a life 
 unknown to the world may be made great 
 and holy by gentleness and truth. So he 
 had help and comfort to give the multitudes 
 who flocked to him, in the Music Hall, from 
 the weary ways and hidden paths of the city, 
 while he was fighting with all his might the 
 wickedness in the high places of the earth. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1854, the 
 
*'yl HERO IN THE STRIEE^ 
 
 107 
 
 results of his struggle against slavery came 
 upon him. He had broken the Fugitive 
 Slave Law, he had hidden slaves in his 
 house, and he had helped many others to 
 escape. He had spoken brave words 
 against the law of the land whenever he had 
 a chance to do so. "What shall I do," he 
 asked himself, ''if I am sent to gaol?" This 
 was his reply: ''I will write one sermon a 
 week and have it read in the Music Hall, 
 and printed next morning. But who shall 
 read it?" Who could take his place and 
 win the hearing of three thousand people? 
 Yet his words must not fail to go forth, for 
 now they were carried far and wide over 
 America; and even across the ocean people 
 learned the lessons that he taught each 
 Sunday in the Boston Music Hall. 
 
 The evening before Thanksgiving Day he 
 sat in his study. A stranger asked leave to 
 speak to him, and was shown in. 
 
 '' I have come to arrest you, Mr. Parker," 
 said the man, showing his warrant, and Theo- 
 dore went with him through the streets of 
 Boston to the court-house. His trial was 
 fixed for the first Monday in April. Three 
 
I08 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 bondsmen were easily found for him, and 
 meanwhile for a few months he was a free 
 man. On the last night of that year, 1854, 
 he wrote this prayer : — 
 
 ** O Thou Spirit who rulest the Universe, 
 seeing the end from the beginning, I thank 
 Thee for all opportunities of usefulness which 
 Thou hast afforded, for all manifold delights 
 which have clustered round my path. But 
 how little have I grown, how little done ! 
 Inspire me to do more, to become nobler in 
 the purpose and motive of my life. Help 
 me to resist new temptation, and do the new 
 duties which the year brings with it. I know 
 not what a day may bring forth — bonds or 
 shame — perhaps a goal. Help me every- 
 where to be faithful to Thee, so may I love 
 and serve my brethren more ; yet still may I 
 love mine enemies, even as Thou sendest 
 rain on the just and on the unjust." 
 
 Spring came, and Theodore Parker's trial 
 was held in the court-house. But it did not 
 proceed, for no case was proved against him. 
 
 *' Mr. Parker," said the Judge, "you have 
 only crept through a knot-hole." And Par- 
 ker answered : ** I '11 knock a bigger hole 
 next time." 
 
"yl HERO IN THE STRIFE." 109 
 
 But no such trial was ever held again in 
 Boston, and another record stood forever of 
 a man who held firm to what was right, 
 rather than to what was worldly-wise and 
 safe. 
 
 Those days which called forth Theodore 
 Parker's bravery are over, and probably the 
 fierce civil war which followed them might 
 have been spared if every man had been as 
 true to the right as he was. Slaves are no 
 longer bought or sold in America, or cap- 
 tured in the streets of Boston, and even the 
 memory of such evil deeds may die away. 
 But the fact remains, that there is always 
 some battle to be fought for the right ; and 
 whether old or young, we need in our lives 
 the spirit that made Theodore Parker what 
 he was and would have made him true and 
 noble, whatever his work had been. 
 
 For about three years longer he thus 
 worked on, and wore life and strength away. 
 Friends besought him to rest, but he only 
 answered in such words as these: " I must 
 work while it is day. God has entrusted me 
 with certain powers, and I must use them for 
 my fellow-men. I come of a long-lived stock, 
 
I I O THE OD ORE PARKER. 
 
 and hope with care to survive ; but it matters 
 little whether I go through or go under, if I 
 do my duty as. I ought." 
 
 At length strength failed, and journeys and 
 lectures and other work must end, for he 
 quite broke down. His illness was the signal 
 for a fresh outbreak of wrath against his re- 
 ligious views, and meetings were held, and 
 sermons preached, and prayers offered against 
 this Boston heretic. Theodore Parker was 
 no longer the almost unknown young man 
 he had been when he first roused the Boston 
 world by the first sermon he preached in the 
 city. Now his sermons were read by tens of 
 thousands ; his words were carried over the 
 land, and he was the leader of reformers. 
 But the lion at length lay powerless. 
 
 So, as he lay stricken down with hemor- 
 rhage of the lungs, the churches of Boston 
 busied themselves against him and his here- 
 sies : but thousands of people mourned for 
 him as their friend and helper ; and messages 
 and inquiries came crowding into his sick- 
 room. On January 2, 1859, he had preached 
 for the last time in the Music Hall, and his 
 subject had been " On what Religion can do 
 
''A HERO IN THE STRIFE." i i i 
 
 for a Man." A week after, a short note was 
 all he could send to the people assembled in 
 the hall. The doctors gave little hope that 
 his life could be spared. Another voyage to 
 Europe was the last chance; and it was 
 settled that in a month's time he should sail, 
 if his strength would permit. Meantime, 
 farewell messages went in and out of the 
 quiet room where he lay ; and among his last 
 short notes, was one of thanks to Dr. Fran- 
 cis, for all the help he had received from him 
 long years ago, when he was a friendless 
 youth fighting the battle of life in Water- 
 town. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE LAST VOYAGE. 
 
 It was no mournful company that set sail 
 with Theodore Parker in a few weeks' time. 
 His wife, and the three friends who went 
 with him, could not despair while he was so 
 full of hope and courage. As he lay on the 
 deck of the steamer day after day, with only 
 sea and sky around him as far as eye could 
 reach, his thoughts went back over the past 
 years which had by degrees led him into a 
 life so full of work; and he longed to find 
 strength for new duties ere he died. He 
 often spoke of the poor people in Boston, 
 and the sad homes he had been used to 
 visit, where illness and trouble were: but 
 always he was serene and cheerful. 
 
 At length they landed at Santa Cruz, in the 
 West Indies, and there he gained strength 
 enough to take walks, and enjoy the new 
 scenes and flowers, and to write letters to the 
 anxious friends at home. After this they 
 
THE LAST VOYAGE. I 13 
 
 visited England and France and Switzerland. 
 For several weeks they made their home on 
 the hillside of Lake Geneva. Sunny meadows 
 lay round them, and the gleaming lake below, 
 while beyond its blue waters rose the distant 
 snow-covered mountains, with their peaks 
 cutting the summer clouds. The bracing air 
 gave him' new vigor, and there seemed sure 
 ground for hope that he might go back to 
 America strong and well. 
 
 But in August the cold winds began to 
 blow, and it was needful to travel further 
 south. So the little party went to Italy. In 
 Rome, old and new friends gathered round 
 Theodore Parker, and he was the life of the 
 circle. Suddenly, however, a change for the 
 worst showed itself: the strength he had 
 gained left him as weak as he had been 
 before he sailed frof home. Swiftly the 
 news spread to England and America, and 
 there was widespread sorrow felt. 
 
 By slow degrees he was removed to Flor- 
 ence. For days as he lay in the beautiful 
 city his thoughts wandered away to his home 
 and work. " Come, Bearsie," he said to his 
 wife sometimes, ** let us go and see our 
 
114 
 
 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 friends." Sometimes he would ask, "When 
 is the vessel going? Will it not go soon?" 
 At other times everything was clear to him, 
 and he knew then that the end was near. 
 Sadly he said one morning to a friend : "I 
 am not afraid to die : but there is much to 
 do. I have had great powers given to me, 
 and I have but half used them." But one 
 strange thought gave him comfort, and he 
 told it in these words: ''There are two 
 Theodore Parkers — one dying in Italy, and 
 the other I have planted in America ! " 
 
 Perhaps he did not know how true this 
 saying was. The influence he had sown in 
 America is bearing fruit to this day; and 
 even we, who now read this story, may learn 
 from him to try to be and do and say the 
 very best we can. A great river can be 
 traced back along its winding course to the 
 tiny mountain brook from which it rose. So 
 with a noble life ; and as we look back over 
 the story of Theodore Parker, we see in its 
 beginning the figure of a boy by a sunny 
 farm-yard pond, listening to and obeying the 
 first whisper of conscience, and find there 
 the original impulse from which his after 
 greatness sprang. 
 
THE LAST VOTAGE. 
 
 115 
 
 The last day of his life drew near — the 
 loth of May, i860. At times he sent loving 
 messages to his far distant friends; leav- 
 ing his wife for comfort to their tender 
 care. His great library he bequeathed to 
 the city of Boston — a free gift. 
 
 '' Lay down your head upon my pillow, 
 Bearsie," he said to his wife, " for you have 
 not slept for a long time." And so, with 
 flowers about him, and filled with a great 
 peace, Theodore Parker passed away. 
 
 THE END. 
 

 
 — — 
 
 ^= 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Twelfth Editic 
 
 CAPE COD FOLKS- 
 
 BY SALLY PRATT McLEAN. 
 
 Volume, x-imo. Price, $1.50. ^2^ Pages. Cloth, gilt. 
 
 •' Those who take up this volume expecting a commonplace story with 
 which to while away a few hours, will find themselves most agreeably sur- 
 prised. It is full, from beginning to end, of the most delicious humor, 
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 tears in the midst of laughter. One feels that the quaint characters described 
 here have their counterparts, that it is real life upon the bleak Cape Cod of 
 which we are reading. The warmest love flows out to Grandpa and 
 Grandma Spicer, whose horizon is bounded by the ocean upon which 
 Grandpa has spent so many years of his life, and who are both so kindly 
 naturcd and full to the brim of goodness. Benny Cradlebow, the unlettered 
 young Apollo, challenges our sympathy from the first to the last, when he 
 loses his life in trying to save that of his would-be rival." — Toledo Blade. 
 
 "There is real power in her characterization. Real eloquence in her ac- 
 count of the uncultivated singing. . . Real pathos in the vague religious 
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 " Her description of the provincial traits of this most provincial of all the 
 outlying New England settlements, are admirable bits of ^t-w/v workman- 
 ship." — Harper'' s Magazine. 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 BY SALLY PRATT McLEAN. 
 
 1 Volume. i2mo. ■^2-j Pages. Cloth, gilt. Price, $i.^o. 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM & CO., Publishers, 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE WRITINGS OF THE 
 NEW AMERICAN HUMORIST. 
 
 " So natural and true to life are some of the characters, localities, and 
 incidents depicted in the book, that the observing reader linds it diflicult to 
 persuade himself that he is not reading the autobiography of a vivacious 
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 no means commonplace, however, and there is just enough of the improb- 
 able and impossible in the story to give it piquancy and thorough zest." — 
 Boston Post. 
 
 ** We rather doubt the justice or policy of ranking the work as a novel, 
 for it is really a triumph of character sketching, witli novelistic develop- 
 ments." — Boston Sunday Times. 
 
 " Every chapter is fresh and sparkling with life and humor, and we can- 
 not help but eulogize the autlior for her masterly hand and genius of story- 
 telling."— A^. Y. Star. 
 
 " Those who take up this volume expecting a commonplace story with 
 which to while away a few hours, will find themselves most agreeably sur- 
 prised. It is full, from beginning to end, of the most delicious humor, 
 while through the whole nms a vein of pathos that touches and thrills to 
 tears in the midst of laughter. One feels that the quaint chanicters described 
 here have their counterparts, that it is real life upon the bleak Cape Cod of 
 which we arc reading. The warmest If)vc flows out to Grandpa and 
 Grandma Spicer, whose horizon is bounded by tlic ocean upon which 
 
Press Notices, 
 
 Grandpa has spent so many years of his life, and who are both so kindly 
 naturcd and full to the briin of goodness. Benny Cradlebow, tlie unlettered 
 young Apollo, challenges our sympathy from the first to the last, when lie 
 loses his life in trying to save that of his would-be rival. 
 
 " The plot is nothing, and yet the reader is not aware of its absence. The 
 book is simply a picture of the events in a few months of the life of a young 
 girl who was seized with the idea of doing missionary work, and goes to 
 Cape Cod as a teacher. It is as crisp as the air in that sea-bound place, and 
 as sparkling as its starry skies. That it is true to nature is evident from the 
 fact that its publishers have had a libel suit upon their hands on its account. 
 Buy and read it. You cannot fail to be entertained." — Toledo Blade. 
 
 " There is real power in her characterization. Real eloquence in her ac- 
 count of the uncultivated singing. . . Real pathos in the vague religious 
 opinions and intense religious sentiment of these simple, brave people." — 
 Boston Advertiser. 
 
 " Her description of the provincial traits of this most provincial of all the 
 outlying New England settlements, are admirable bits of ^^«r^ workman- 
 ship." — Harper'' s Magazine. 
 
 " It is a rarely powerful and realistic picture of simple life." — Buffalo 
 Express. 
 
 " The author has given us a charmingly fresh and thoroughly recogniz- 
 able portraiture." — JV. Y. Traveller. 
 
 " It is a phenomenal work." — Portland Transcript. 
 
 " It is an insult to literature for well-read lawyers to treat this capital 
 novel as if it were a mere vulgar libel." — Boston Transcript. 
 
 "That book has been the means of shaking literary Boston almost to 
 its very centre." — Quebec Chronicle. 
 
 " It is intensely amusing, and portrays vividly and faithfully the daily life 
 of a peculiar people." — Golden Rule. 
 
 *• It contains more and better character-writing than any book of its 
 kind we have seen for many a day." — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 
 
 "There are some delicious bits in 'Cape Cod Folks.' The literary style 
 is excellent, and the book is of a kind to please almost everybody." — iV. Y. 
 Herald. 
 
 " No man reads • Cape Cod Folks ' with more delight than a genuine Cape 
 Codder. As I am one of that ilk, I am, of course, one of her admirers. 
 The bottom fact about her book is that it is true, and paints truth down to 
 its hidden roots, as the wont of genius is. This is the general verdict of 
 those who ought to know. It is an American book, racy of the soil." — 
 Correspondence to Literary World. 
 
 " The touch of a new hand, at once original, intense, and dramatic, with 
 a vein of humor and a power of sarcasm warrantmg the belief that in this 
 work we have the beginning of a career and of a name." — Boston Herald. 
 
THE NEW NOVEL BT THE AUTHOR OF 
 ''CAPE COD FOLKS." 
 
 TOWHEAD; THE Story of a Girl 
 
 BY SALLY PRATT McLEAN, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " CAPE COD FOLKS." 
 
 J Volume. I2m0y cloth. Uniform ivitJt '■'■Cape Cod Folks.'* 
 Price, S/.JO. 
 
 This is a story altogether American in plot and character. It combines 
 the same spirited and humorous style which characterized "Cape Cod 
 Folks," with that pathetic touch so peculiarly her own, which hiis made 
 Miss McLean such a phenomenon in the world of letters. 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 BOSTON. 
 
By the Author of "THE GREEN HAND 
 
 The Deserted Ship. 
 
 A STORY OF THE ATLANTIC. 
 
 Bv GEORGE CUPPLES. 
 
 Author of " The Green Hand," " The Sunken Rock," etc. Illustrated, izmo. 
 Cloth, Brilliant binding. $i.oo. Fourth thousand. New and improved edition. 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM & CO., 
 Publishers, Boston. 
 
CDPPLES, nPHAM & CO.'S SnCCESSFDL BOOKS FOR THE YOUNS. 
 
 Driven to Sea ; 
 
 OR, THE ADVENTURES OF NORRIE SETON. 
 By Mrs. GEORGE CUPPLES. 
 Illuitratcd. lamo. $1.50. Tenth thousand. Mailed on receipt of price, hy 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM & CO , Publishers, Boston. 
 
Sl7 Ballades in Harvard China. 
 
 By E. S. M. 
 
 Illustrated with head and tail pieces. In delicately tinted 
 turned-in cover, back and front exquisitelj designed by Lam- 
 bert HoLLis, k la Paris. "Amateur Series." Orange edges. 
 I vol., square i2mo, $i. 
 
 Dainty and unique in style, it will provide bright and amusing Summer reading, 
 appealing to the taste of cultivated people of society. The papers are<^uite uncon- 
 ventional, and are treated with a rare sense of humor. The versification has the 
 genuine ring. The volume will undoubtedly make a hit. — Bostoti Saturday Even- 
 Z7ig Gazette. 
 
 Bright and full of fun. — Boston Globe. 
 
 Graceful in fancy, and bright in wit and spirit. The author's drollery is irresistible, 
 and we should think young ladies would enjoy the book as much as the beings of tlie 
 opposite sex. — Quebec Chrotticle. 
 
 The author is anonymous — as usual, now-a-days — but he is known as one of the 
 foremost of a band of clever young writers. — Spring-yield Repiiblicati. 
 
 Writes always like a gentleman. — N". Y, Mail. 
 
 The volume is of a high order. — Boston Herald. 
 
 Suggests Hood at his best. — Boston Joicrnal. 
 
 One of the most charming of Summer books. — St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 
 
 Written in the approved modern Vers de Societie style, with a singular mixture 
 of wit and deep ferliiig. Many of the verses would not be disowned by Praed, the 
 master-genius of witty verse, or by Calverly, who wrote " Fly Leaves," a few 
 years back. — Boston Advertiser. 
 
 Bret Harte created quite a sensation in London society by reading these verses in 
 manuscript. — N. Y. Pub. Weekly. 
 
 The books contain some of the lightest and brightest bits of verse it has lately been 
 our good fortune to read. — The Critic. 
 
Whence, What, Where? 
 
 A VIEW OF THE ORIGIN, NATURE, AND 
 DESTINY OF MAN 
 
 BY 
 JAMES R. NICHOLS, M.D., A.M. 
 
 / Volume. i2mo. ig8 Pages. Cloi/i, gilt. Mailed^ postage paid, on 
 receipt of price ^ $i.oo. 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHx\M & CO., Publisheks, 
 BOSTON. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES BY THE PRESS. 
 
 Fro77i Forney's Philadelphia Press. 
 ** Dr. Nichols* essays will be found stimulating reading. No ono can 
 take up the book without feeling the inclination to read further and to 
 ponder on the all-important subjects wliich they present. Though it is 
 not a religious book in the technical sense of the word, it is a book which 
 calls for the exercise of the religious nature, and it is a book which in 
 diiiusing many sensible ideas will be good." 
 
 From Boston Commonwealth. 
 "The great value of the little book, '"Whence, What, "Where ? ' by 
 Dr. James R. Nichols, is in its suggestiveness. It is eminently provoca- 
 tive of thought. Its value is not to be tested by its bulk. It is full of 
 clear thinking, and of accurate statement. Dr. Nichols is severely sci- 
 entific, and, at the same time, devoutly spiritual. Its philosophy is 
 largely that of Swedenborg, wituout Swedenborg's terrible ditf usiveiiess. 
 We have in it, concisely and clearly stated, all that the strictest sci- 
 entific research warrants us in believing of man's origin, nature, and 
 spiritual destiny. Science is shown to be not necessarily opposed to 
 religion and to spirituality." 
 
 From Boston Christian Register. 
 " The took is written in a clear style, and the author's opinions are 
 readily understood. It is refreshing to have such a Avork from a scientific 
 layman, on topics which too many treat with a supercilious disdain, 
 Tiubecoming both themselves and the subject." 
 
 From Boston Congregationalist. 
 "The topics discussed are handled with a good degree of candor, and 
 give in u small space much interesting information and perhaps some 
 profitable speculation." 
 
 From the Lotrell Mail. 
 " Its truths may bo received as a new revelation from wliioh onn<!oi!itir>n 
 and happiness may bo derived by those who have been irouMcd with 
 doubts and misgivings." 
 
Press Notices. 
 
 Fro7n the Providence Journal. 
 
 " The subjects discussed are those relating to the genesis of man, his 
 spiritual and material nature, death, and the life hereafter. These great 
 themes are treated in a new and independent manner, and in a spirit of 
 reverent inquiry, quite opposed to that generally accredited to one who, 
 like Dr. Nichols, is devoted to the exact sciences. The important results 
 of modern science, and their bearing upon these vital questioiis, are pre- 
 sented in a fair and discriminating manner. ' Whence, What, Where ? ' 
 is a remarkable and impressive work, and will be read with absorbing 
 interest." 
 
 From (he Boston Christian Leader. 
 
 " Dr. Nichols suddenly finds himself famous in a sphere of thought 
 and literary endeavor which he evidently entered with so little self- 
 assurance that he wrote and printed only for a select circle of valued 
 friends. We have read the work Avith constant interest — at tunes Avith 
 startling surprise. As a thoughtful, clear, and solemn protest against 
 the agnosticism and materialism of the day it has a value quite unique." 
 
 From New Orleans Times. 
 " One of the most thoughtful, practical, and successful books of 
 the year, is Dr. Nichols' * Whence, What, Where ? ' He is Avidely known 
 as an able scientific writer and chemist, as well as a successful business 
 man, holding important positions of public trust." 
 
 From Minneapolis Call. 
 " It is devout, it is calm and judicial in tone, and there is an entire 
 absence of the controversial tone. The subjects are treated with great 
 candor and ability, and the book is destitute of all pretence and cant." 
 
 From Portland Transcript. 
 " The book is written Avith great ability, and in a reverent spirit, and 
 in this age of doubt and inquiry Avill afford comfort to many minds." 
 
 From Boston Transcript 
 '* Most heartfully and gratefully do Ave commend this modest, but 
 vigorous and cheering volume to a large circle of readers, confident that 
 it will greatly instruct, inspire, and aid them." 
 
 From Chicago Times. 
 
 " The argument, drawn in large measure from the knoAvn quality of 
 nearly everything Avith Avhicli Ave are acquainted, is exceedingly ingenious 
 and interesting. The whole book, indeed, is curiously ingenious, and yet 
 its ingenuity is of tbat peculiar sort Avhich makes its conclusions appear 
 so simple that one wonders they Avere not long ago reached and formu- 
 lated. It is a ncAV thing to find a man so saturated with science speaking 
 so reverently of religion, — though it must be understood that he distinctly 
 asserts that theology is not religion nor any part of it, — and the fact that 
 so clear and incisive a thinker can strip Christianity of the gewgaAVS and 
 tatters of fable and reverently accept the spirit that is left leads one to 
 Avonder if it can be possible that this is the beginning of that ultimate 
 coherent harmony between religion and science Avhich must come linally, 
 if both have, as Dr. Nichols plainly thinks, a basis in truth. In any 
 event the book is one of the most notable of the day, richly worth 
 reading." 
 
 From Boston Home Journal. 
 
 "Dr. Nichols is well known as an eminent scientific scholar and 
 writer. He is a profound thinker and a clear, terse writer, whose sim- 
 I^licity of expression is as marked as is the beauty and force of his lan- 
 guage. Tlie book presents a model in style Avhich may be profitably 
 studied by the greater portion of clergymen of all denominations. It is 
 devout in "tone, unassuming, and perfectly catholic in spirit, and free from 
 the dogmatism that so universally characterizes the discussion of the 
 subjects here treated by sectarian leaders." 
 
NICHOLS' 
 
 Popular Science News 
 
 AND 
 
 BOSTON JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 S IHontfjIg Journal ai popular ^ctencf. 
 
 CONDUCTED BY 
 
 Dr. JAS. R. NICHOLS and WM. J. ROLFE, A.M. 
 
 Established in t86j. Now in its Seventeenth year. 
 One Dollar per Annum in advance. 
 
 The name Popular Science News has been associated with the 
 Boston Journal of Chemistry, a paper long and favorably known in every 
 State of the Union. The design of this most successful and useful journal 
 has been to furnish in compact form, and at a lowpiice, the new facts in 
 science, mechanics, invention, art, agriculture, and medicine, which it is so 
 important should be widely disseminated among all reading people. 
 
 Its success is due to the fact that it presents in plain language, which 
 all can understand, scientific discoveries and principles which are useful 
 to every one, no matter what may be their vocation or pursuit in life. 
 It is an indispensable 
 
 FAMILY JOUllNAL, 
 
 which should be introduced to every fireside in the country. 
 
 Dr Nichols has edited this journal for a period of more than a sixth 
 of a century, and every number contains many pages of his instructive 
 and pleasant contributions. 
 
 Send One Dollar to Populah Sctf.xck Nkws Co., 1C."> High Street, 
 Boston. You will receive it promptly, and not regret that you became 
 its patron. 
 
THE STORY OF IDA. 
 
 By FRANCESCA. 
 
 WITH A FINE PORTRAIT FftONTISPIECE, AND AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY JOHN RUSKIN, D.C.L. 
 
 I vol. i6mo. Gray cloth and g^ilt. Price, 75 cts. 
 
 'TpHIS reprint of a little book which has been very popular in England is meet- 
 ing with a warm welcome throughout the country. Its popularity is due 
 mainly to the beauty of the story, although attention was called to it, in the 
 first place, by Mr. Ruskin in his lectures at Oxford, and in the preface to the 
 book. The pseudonym, " Francesca," is only a slight change of the Christian 
 name of Miss Frances Alexander, a lady artist of Boston, now living in Florence. 
 The great merit of her paintings won her the friendship of Mr. Ruskin, at whose 
 urgent request "The Story of Ida" — written originally as a private memorial — 
 was published. In his preface Mr. Ruskin says : — 
 
 " Let it be noted ^with thankful reverence that this is the story of a Catholic 
 girl, written by a Protestant one, yet the tw^o of them so united in the truth of 
 Christian faith, and in the joy of its love, that they are absolutely unconscious 
 of any difference in the forms or letter of their religion." 
 
 " ' The Story of Ida ' is a perfect gem of simfle^ unadorned narrative, and 
 the volume is a dainty little specimen of the bookmaker's art.'** — Buffalo 
 Express. 
 
 " The story is very toitchingP — Boston Advertiser. 
 
 "// is tender, loving, and deeply religiousP — Worcester Spy. 
 
 " This exquisite little story, with its preface by fohn Ruskin, depends for its 
 interest upon a certain religious simplicity and refinement of thought and 
 manners, which will coytimend it to those who like the works of Frances 
 Havergal and Hesba Stretton.** — Boston Courier. 
 
 " The story is beautiful and touching in its simplicity, purity, and pathos, and 
 is absolutely true in every particular** — Troy Times. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers, or mailed, postage paid, on receipt of the price, 
 by the publishers, 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM AND COMPANY, 
 
 283 Washington Street, Bostoa. 
 
^K INITIAL FINE OF 2/^f fS 
 
 W.UU BE A«^^n^° Xro^E ?HE PENM-TY 
 THIS BOOK ON THE D''" ^^ THE FOURTH 
 
 ^V^rNO^TO^T^OO ON— — » ''^^ 
 OVERDUE. 
 
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