ances, and contains a brief account of his closing years.

The chief storehouse of knowledge concerning this remarkable man is found in the "Biography of Henry Ward Beecher," by William C. Beecher and Rev. Samuel Scoville, assisted by Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher (Charles L. Webster & Company, 1888, now owned by Bromfield & Company). In the notes I refer to this book as the "Biography." It should be read by all who are interested to possess a full account of Mr. Beecher's life as seen by his own household. In the Ladies' Home Journal for 1891-2, Mrs. Beecher has furnished a series of pleasant papers on "Mr. Beecher as I Knew Him." They are full of interesting anecdotes, for a few of which I have been able to find room in this volume.

"The Autobiography and Correspondence of Lyman Beecher," two volumes, edited by Charles Beecher (Harper & Brothers, 1865), must be carefully read by all who wish to understand what Mr. Beecher inherited from his remarkable ancestry.

In the Preface to "Patriotic Addresses," by Henry Ward Beecher (New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1887), there is an admirable and discriminating review of Mr. Beecher's personality and influence in public affairs, by John R. Howard. The "Life of Henry Ward Beecher," by Joseph Howard, Jr., and "The Life and Work of Henry Ward Beecher," by Thomas W. Knox, contain miscellaneous information, not elsewhere found. "The History of Plymouth Church," by Noyes L. Thompson (New York: G. W. Carleton & Company, 1873), is not without use to the student of Mr. Beecher's life.

The "Beecher Memorial," compiled and edited by Edward W. Bok, gives a great number of contemporary tributes, some of which the writer has found of interest and value. Joseph Parker's "Eulogy (New York: Bachelder & Company, 1887), is a magnificent tribute to the genius and character of his illustrious friend.

A chief source of our knowledge of Henry Ward Beecher is the books which he published, or which friends have compiled from his writings and addresses. Foremost among these I mention "The Yale Lectures on Preaching," which remain unsurpassed in suggestiveness and stimulating power; the "Lectures to Young Men," "Plymouth Pulpit Sermons," "Patriotic Addresses," containing the complete publication of Mr. Beecher's most important speeches on subjects connected with slavery and the Civil War; "Evolution and Religion," "Norwood," "Comforting Thoughts," "A Book of Prayer," "Royal Truths," "Beecher as a Humorist," "A Summer in England with Henry Ward Beecher," "Bible Studies," all of them published by Fords, Howard & Hulbert, and two volumes of Mr. Beecher's sermons, edited by Lyman Abbott and published by Harper Brothers. The English publication of Mr. Beecher's sermons (London: R. D. Dickinson) has been placed at my service by the kindness of Dr. Hillis, and also the sermons delivered during the last year of his life and published in The Brooklyn Magazine."

Probably the most famous of the compilations from Mr. Beecher's works is "Life Thoughts," which had an extraordinary sale. An interesting selection from his writings is "The Crown of Life" (Boston:

D. Lothrop Company), with Introduction by Rossiter W. Raymond. This Introduction contains the best account ever given of some of the peculiarities of Mr. Beecher's mind, particularly its periodicity. Mr. Raymond explains how Mr. Beecher's fruitful genius remained dormant or inactive except at special recurring times, and how he brought about, with astonishing regularity, these periods of creative productiveness, which seldom lasted more than a few hours, but which he was usually able to make synchronous with his Sunday services.

Some of Mr. Beecher's very best writing is found in the "Star Papers," first and second series, and in "The Life of Jesus, the Christ," the first volume of which was published by J. B. Ford & Company, 1871, and the second by Bromfield & Company, 1891. The "Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit" (A. C. Armstrong & Son) must not be omitted by any student of Henry Ward Beecher.

There have been many other volumes, besides addresses, pamphlets, reviews, and newspaper articles which I have consulted, and which have thrown important side-lights on Mr. Beecher's career.

While a student in the Union Theological Seminary in 1868 and 1869, it was my good fortune to be a listener to his preaching, and in what I have written of his unsurpassed pulpit eloquence I have freely drawn on my own vivid recollections. Mr. T. J. Ellinwood, who for so many years reported Mr. Beecher's sermons, has very kindly sent me a number of Mr. Beecher's unpublished sentences. Mr. N. D. Pratt, of Chicago, a valued friend of Mr. Beecher, has very courteously allowed me the free use of his

unpublished reminiscences. A number of friends have furnished unpublished letters of interest and incidents connected with Mr. Beecher's remarkable personality.

"Biography," says Mr. Lowell, "in these communicative days has become so voluminous that it might seem calculated for the ninefold vitality of another domestic animal than for the less lavish allotment of man." I hope that this book will seem to many of the friends of Mr. Beecher too short rather than too long. If it shall be deemed by those who were personally familiar with him a truthful picture of this wonderful man, and if my estimate of his character and genius, and of the influence of his teaching, shall commend itself to the judgment of fair-minded Christian readers, I shall be greatly pleased. I shall be still more pleased if this account of a richly-gifted, heroic, and muchsuffering servant of Christ, and apostle of humanity, shall kindle in other hearts a new faith in that Divine Redeemer, who was the strength and glory of Mr. Beecher's great career.

JOHN HENRY BARROWS.

CHICAGO, August 1st. 1893.