relics, are described with precision. Dr. Wilson judges that these remains connect them also with the rest of the human family, and he only attributes their presence on the continent to the earliest migrations from the regions which have supplied the rest of the old populations. And whence came they all? Dr. Wilson observes, that the same "characteristic physical traits" are to be found in the American Indian and in the Asiatic Mongolian. (Vol. ii. p. 329.) He says that Asiatic civilization ever travelled westward; but that, from the great steppes of Northern Asia, "where civilization never dawned," the nomade tribes as regularly wandered eastward. So would they find an easy passage, over the unclaimed wastes along the Arctic Circle, to the western hemisphere. He is content to show that access was then possible, not meaning to suggest that this was the only, or even the earliest, route from Asia to America. (Vol. ii. p. 331.) He believes that, in the change of condition of such emigrants, there were sufficient peculiarities to account for "the development of a peculiar type, without the assumption of any primary distinction of species." (Vol. ii. p. 332.) He looks to the "very marked and permanent differences assigned to each" of the sons of Noah; and considers that they point to the subdivision of mankind into diverse varieties, with a certain relation to their primary geographical distribution, which also he traces out. (Vol. ii. pp. 334-40.)

But he inclines to the conclusion that South America was peopled by an Asiatic race, through the islands of the Pacific (vol. ii. p. 437); which is, in fact, to give them a Malay origin. He speaks of philology as being favourable to this belief; "important elements of relationship" being traceable between some languages of America and those of the Polynesian family, while both have affinities with the Tamul, and other languages of Southern India. He conjectures that the descendants of some of these Southern emigrants attained to that degree of civilization of which traces are continually coming to light in various parts of that great continent; and that the tribes which entered by the North were the ruder and the stronger, beneath whose conquests the others, in certain parts, became extinct.

Dr. Wilson is disposed to add to these two principal means of accounting for the peopling of America, "an essentially distinct migration" across the Atlantic, as at least possible; in fact, such as might have been effected by the fleets of Tyre and Carthage.

The whole subject is confessedly obscure; and the help which these volumes bring to throw light upon it, is less available than it might be, owing to the turgid style in which they are written. Amidst such grandiloquence it is sometimes needful to stop and translate a sentence into good plain English. But

we can treat this fault lightly, in consideration of the vast stores of interesting information which are here collected together, and of the important testimony borne by the author, that an independent examination of the facts at present brought to light, shows the archæological history of America to be in no respects at issue with the records of Holy Scripture, and that it raises no difficulty in the way of connecting the American Indians with Adam and Eve, and with Noah and his sons, as their progenitors.

It is with pleasure that we quote the concluding sentences of the work (vol. ii. p. 475) :

"There are indeed difficult questions still requiring the illumination which further observation and discovery may be expected to supply; nor have such been evaded in these researches; but the present tendency is greatly to exaggerate such difficulties. The first few steps in the progress thus indicated cannot be reduced to a precise chronology. The needful compass of their duration may be subject of dispute, and the precise number of centuries that shall be allowed for their evolution may vary, according to the estimated rate of progress of infantile human reason; but I venture to believe that to many reflecting minds it will appear that, by such a process of inquiry, we do in reality make so near an approach to a beginning, in relation to man's intellectual progress, that we can form no uncertain guess as to the duration of the race, and find, in this respect, a welcome evidence of harmony between the disclosures of science, and the dictates of revelation."

It is due to truth that we should add, that we have regretted to meet some sentences in the first volume, with regard to the time of man's earliest appearance upon earth, which are not in harmony with the last quoted words. It is described as a "transitional era, during which the earth was undergoing its final preparation for his presence." (Vol. i. p. 115.) And again:

"His advent on our earth was speedily marked by the disappearance of numerous groups of ancient life which pertain to that transitional era where geology closes and archæology begins; though the more recent discoveries of the traces of human arts, along with the fossil mammals of the drift, confirm, by new and more striking evidence, the fact that man entered on this terrestrial stage, not as the highest in an entirely new order of creation, and belonging to an epoch detached by some overwhelming catastrophe from all preceding periods of organic life; but that, while the earth moved through its orbit, in calm obedience to laws which still govern its course, he appeared as the last and best of an order of animated beings, whose lives sweep back into the shadows of an unmeasured past." (Vol. i. p. 187.)

Here his views of the disclosures of science appear to be at issue with revelation, which evidently places man's creation "in an epoch detached by some overwhelming catastrophe from all

preceding periods of organic life." We should be glad if, on this point, the author might be able to set himself right. Meanwhile we are sure that, on the one hand, the teaching of the first chapter of Genesis is distinct; and that, on the other, the testimony of the rocks is a witness to occasional and mighty catastrophes, and sudden transitions, as well as to the more ordinary sequence of ages of gradual progress, in that mysterious past, in which geology displays so much to astonish and delight us in the wonderful works of God, and to make us rejoice in the confession, In wisdom hast Thou made them all.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THEODORE PARKER.

The Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker. By John Weiss. In two vols., 8vo. London: Longman & Co. 1863.

Ir would be a misuse of language to describe Theodore Parker as either a good man, or a great one. Yet there were many striking, and many estimable, features in his character; and as his career of mischief is now over, we may pause and review the past, regretfully and with sincere pity, but without any taint of passion or of fear. The portrait which faces the first title-page of this book, copied from a daguerreotype taken in his prime, strikingly expresses the character of the man. We see, at a glance, intellect, energy, and decision; we see, also, self-confidence, arrogance, and scorn. There is no

deceit or false pretence, in the picture, or in the man. his own pen we can now give the history of his life.

From

He was one among the myriads of New Englanders who have been fostered and helped into activity and notoriety by the circumstances in which they have been placed. An open course, upward and onward, lay before him;-there were incentives; there were calls; and so we find him, in his nineteenth year, without his father's knowledge, and without any means of maintenance, entering himself at Harvard College; struggling on, there, for four or five years, by the help of pupils and school-teaching; marrying while only twenty-six, and soon afterwards taking charge of a village church or meeting-house in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. All his intimacies had lain among the Socinians of Boston and Harvard College, and it is evident that his course as a minister was commenced as an avowed member of that sect. But there was too piercing an intellect and too decided a character in Theodore Parker to allow him to rest long at any half-wayhouse. The Socinians had taught him an unbridled freedom

of thought, which quickly left Socinianism far behind. He soon began to remark, with contempt, that "some make the apostle Paul a Unitarian, and find neither divinity nor preexistence ascribed to Jesus in the fourth Gospel; and others can find no devil, no wrathful God, and no eternal damnation, even in the New Testament!" He was too honest and too proud to deal with Scripture after this fashion. He did not deny that the whole Athanasian Creed might be found in the Bible; his retort would be, "What then? So much the worse for the Bible!" In short, he learnt to reject the idea of a Trinity, of future punishments, of the Godhead of Christ, and most other articles of the Creed; not because they lacked support in the Bible, but because they did not agree with his inward light, his "absolute religion." Soon his connexion with the Socinians ceased; and he was invited to Boston to become the pastor of "The Twenty-eighth Congregational Society" in that city. A spacious music-hall was taken for his use on Sundays, and here he preached to a large congregation for about fifteen years, until his labours were suddenly brought to a close by a consumptive attack, which terminated his life in about seventeen months afterwards. Of the character of these music-hall services, and of the assemblages there addressed, we catch a glimpse in a single expression of his own, -"I do not like to see people reading books and newspapers before the services commence, and I have been often tempted to ask them to abstain from it."

Let us now, before we enter upon the main question before us, look briefly at one or two points of this remarkable man's character, which may draw forth some natural feelings of respect and admiration. We will notice,

1. His prodigious eagerness in the acquisition of knowledge. He says:

"Homer and Plutarch I read before I was eight; and lots of histories, with all the poetry I could find, before ten. I took to metaphysics about eleven or twelve. At ten I made a catalogue of all the vegetable productions, trees, and shrubs, which grew upon the farm. At ten I began to study Latin, and Greek at eleven. Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, and Chemistry I studied by myself."

He went through a book of algebra in twenty days. While at Harvard college, and while studying for the ministry, we find him commencing Hebrew; then German; soon afterwards Italian, Arabic, Syriac, and a little of Ethiopic. In 1835, when twenty-five years of age, he is reading Greek comedies with German commentaries, Plato, and Eichhorn, and then beginning modern Greek. In 1836 he taught Hebrew in the Divinity school, and began to learn Saxon. In that year he was reading Cudworth, Henry More, Wegschnieder, Descartes, Lessing, Cousin. He was now a contributor to the Scriptural

Interpreter, in which he gave an analysis of the Laws of Moses, extending through several numbers. He wrote for the Interpreter about forty articles, including a translation of Astruc's " Conjectures upon Genesis." He now reads much on Gnosticism, and some volumes of Kant and of De Wette. In this year, 1836, his list of books studied comprised three hundred and twenty volumes. In 1837, he is deep in Fichte, Coleridge, and Descartes; then Gabler, Paulus, and Bauer. It is abundantly evident that he was rapidly imbibing a number of deadly poisons; but amidst all this, we must admire the earnestness, the eagerness in pursuit of knowledge, which marks every step. More than once or twice he breaks down from excessive labour. He is ordered to go away, and discontinue study. He visits Europe, and as soon as he reaches Paris "he begins to attend lectures on Arabic, Corneille, Cicero, philosophy of Gassendi, Descartes, the law of nations, the Alexandrine school, and Italian literature. He makes an analysis of every lecture which he hears. He goes to hear Geoffrey St. Hilaire lecture on vultures, and carries the whole substance home with him." (Vol. i. p. 203.) His whole life is full of proofs of this eagerness for knowledge. He is not alone in this faculty and this appetite, but there have not been many in whom this intense anxiety to be always learning has been equally evident and equally striking.

2. Together with this excellence, too, we discern an equal fondness for imparting knowledge. In his youth, in Sunday schools, and in teaching poor students who could not pay him, we find him always at work. When he becomes a minister, his first charge is small, and his income small also. He soon takes the whole land for his parish, and begins the employment of a lecturer, wherever the people were willing to listen to him. Here is one of his own descriptions of this sort of employment :

"Some weeks since, I went to Western New York; travelled from Monday morning till Saturday night, and expected to have a reasonable dinner each day, and to sleep quiet in my bed at night, and so come home sounder and stronger than when I went away. Man proposes and God disposes.' I had two tolerable dinners, and one night in a bed, four nights in railroad cars. I have not recovered from it since, but have been slipping behindhand more and more each week." (Vol. i. p. 304.)

"In one of the awful nights in winter, I went to lecture at It was half charity. I gave up the Anti-Slavery festival for the lecture, rode fifty-six miles in the cars, leaving Boston at half past four o'clock, and reaching the end of the railroad at half past sixdrove seven miles in a sleigh, and reached the house of engaged me to come. It was time to begin; I lectured one hour and three quarters, and returned to the house. Was offered no supper before the lecture, and none after, till the chaise came to the door to

who had