_Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker. By John Weiss. (Long
man and Co.)—Two enormous octavo volumes which might well have been compressed into one-fourth of the space. Parker's life was un- eventful, and the beat biography of a literary man is to be found in his works, two collected editions of which are either already before the public or now issuing from the press. The life of Dr. Arnold may be cited as an instance to the contrary ; but it is, in fact, by virtue of what he did, not of what he wrote, that Arnold influenced his contemporaries and will be remembered by posterity. We are bound also to say that Mr. Weiss writes a thoroughly bad style. He deserves, however, the praise of diligence, and has brought together here the materials from which a readable biography of a good man may easily ho compiled. We say a good man, because the perusal of his letters, of which a copious selection is given, compels one to recognize with sadness how possible it is for one, whom even the Unitarians, among whom he was bred, stig- matized as an infidel, to possess more of the Christian spirit, more faith in God's love, more hope in the future of man, more charity towards his opponents, than those who hold a truer and more definite creed. In point of style the letters are, we think, better than his pub- lished writings. The latter are often disfigured by bad taste, but his correspondence is easy and colloquial. His chief mental characteristic seems to have been width, which often led him into considering repul- sive subjects, and sometimes into coarseness (p. 308), or what looks like it, especially when addressed to a woman. But ho was always zealous for truth and justice, and was above fear.
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