Critical Writings. By Theodore Parker. 2 vols. (Trubner and Co.)
—Selections from Theodore Parker's Unpublished Sermons. By Rufus Leighton, edited by Frances Power Cobbe. (Trabner and Co.)—The first of these titles is rather a misnomer. A considerable portion of the two volumes is not " critical" at all, but merely essays on religious or social subjects, such as were his sermons. We do not know that there is mach in this to be regretted, for Parker's criticism is not, we think, of much value. The essays on Strauss's Life of Jesus and "Emerson" are perhaps the best, as the most conspicuous failures are those on "Prescott" and " St. Bernard," which rather travel over the same ground as the author he reviews, than give a distinct idea of that author's faults and merits. Indeed Parker's mind seems to have been essentially con- structive, and not mach given to analysis. Tho selections from his sermons may be recommended to those who wish to obtain some idea of his teaching without studying his system. Its fragmentary character makes it readable by those who shrink back from eight or ten volumes of theology, with the fundamental conception of which they perhaps entirely disagree.
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