Theodore Parker, preacher and reformer

Front matter

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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE

Preface

There have been of late various signs of fresh interest in Theodore Parker, and there is this further justification for another life of him after those of Weiss and Frothingham, that the former is out of print and its plates have been destroyed, while the latter, though not so large and expensive as its predecessor, is larger and more expensive than our busier and less-moneyed people can afford to buy and read. Happy are those who have these books in their possession and have read them carefully ! Shoidd any of them propose reading the book which I have written, they must not expect to find in it so much as in their greater bulk. But I have had in mind others who are less fortunate than these. I have hoped to make Parker a reality for a generation of readers born since he died, to many of whom he is little known, or mis-known, which is worse. To compress the story of his life into four hundred pages, and those little ones, has been no easy matter. It would have been much easier and pleasanter to make a larger work than Weiss's two octavos, drawing freely upon the vi PEEFACE

wealth of Parker's journals and correspondence and other writings for the illustration of my theme. And, if not easier and pleasanter, it would hare been easy and pleasant to write a biography of Parker within the limits of the present volume that would have been almost entirely autobiographical, — made up from his own writings of all kinds. But, for better or worse, I have conceived my task in a quite different fashion — as an estimate and criticism of the man and the work that he was called to do, and did — while still frequently availing myself of his own expression of his sentiments and thoughts.

For materials I have had Parker's published works, the fourteen volomes of Miss Cobbe's edition and other special volumes and pamphlets, the biographies of Weiss, Prothingham, EeviUe and Dean, together with some score of manuscript volumes of letters from and to him copied for Mrs. Parker (and to some extent by her) after her husband's death. I have also had Parker's journal and many of his hitherto unpublished letters in his own painfully difficult handwriting, those furnished me by Mrs. R. E. Apthorp and Colonel T. W. Higginson particularly important. Scrap-books and other Parkeriana in the Boston Public Library and in Mr. Sanborn's hands have

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added to the embarrassment of riches. I have also been much served by many books that touch on Parker in an incidental manner. If those well acquainted with the Weiss volumes conceive that I have drawn my illustrative matter too freely from their pages, my answer is that I have pounced upon the best wherever I have found it, in Weiss or elsewhere. Weiss having had the first squeeze of the grapes, and having squeezed them well, has, naturally, much of the best. But everything- has helped, many a phrase and sentence being qualified by manuscript sources which I could not quote at length. I must needs express my gratitude to Parker's publisher, stenographer, and friend, Mr. Eufus Leighton, for much valuable help. To Mr. Frank B. Sanborn of Concord, Mass., I am very greatly obliged for advice on many points, as well as for the use of manuscripts and other material. His recollections of Parker are hardly less rich than his treasury of original documents. To Mr. Whitney of the Boston Public Library I am also much indebted, and to his assistants, especially to Philip Savage, whose last help to me was cheerfully accorded on the last working day of his pathetically brief and lovingly remembered life.

J. w. c.

Contents

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CHAPTEK I.

The Gkowinq Boy 1