Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by LYDIA D, PARKER, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. THESE lectures were prepared in 1858, for the Fraternity Course, which had been instituted that year. They were carefully elaborated, being written out in full, and partly rewritten with a view to publication. The lecture on Franklin was written over twice,* three times, in fact, though the last reproduction was rendered necessary by the loss of the original manuscript. But three of them, however, were delivered in Tremont Temple; and these were more than should have been attempted, for Mr. Parker was already so weak in this last autumn of his public service, that he made his way to the hall with difficulty, and barely sustained himself through the effort he was making. The lectures are printed from faithful copies of his manuscript, with no more correction than was actually required by occasional omissions that had to be made * Weiss's Life of Parker, i. p. 432. (3) good, by very infrequent defects that were easily repaired, or by misplaced references, which, it is needless to say, were here, as elsewhere in Mr. Parker's writings, exceedingly few. The lectures were prepared at a time when the antislavery agitation was at its height; when, in Mr. Parker's judgment, it distinctly menaced war. The subject naturally occupies a large space in the biographies; indeed, it furnished, probably, one of the motives for preparing them. That issue is dead. The war, to which the evil succumbed, broke out almost immediately after his decease, and accomplished by force what he hoped might be accomplished peacefully. A few passages, containing allusions to the ethics and politics of that by-gone epoch, would not be penned to-day; but none will be sorry to read them who can weigh their importance as contributions to history, or can estimate their value as illustrations of character. Mr. Parker's religious opinions were too vital to him to be excluded from any kind of discourse, and the reader of this volume may occasionally come across a phrase, or possibly a sentence, that will seem intrusive and objectionable. But such sentences and phrases are singularly rare, scarcely more frequent than the subject. demanded, no more frequent than was demanded by his favorite method of treatment. That method is simple, clear, and exhaustive. Mr. Parker never wrote without a direct purpose, and the purpose was always serious enough to engage the earnest exercise of his ability. When he selected the characters of Historic Americans as themes for the lyceum, his object was not, as with most lecturers it is, to amuse an audience for an hour; it was not to convey biographical information in a popular form; it was not to "do good" in a general sense; much less was it, in a specific sense, to do evil by affronting the reverence of his contemporaries, or diminishing the reputation of eminent men whom people far and near had lifted to a pedestal of honor. His design was to trace back to their sources, in the creative minds of the nation, the principles that have exerted a controlling influence in the nation's history, and are still active in the institutions and the politics of the hour. He would discuss great issues in a concrete form, showing how they were associated with character for better or worse. A further intention he doubtless had, such an intention as Mr. Everett had in the delivery of his oration on Washington, to bring the power of great historic -- |