he selected Dr. Miller to write it, and, in the truly liberal spirit that always governed his editorial labors, and, indeed, his whole literary life, published the memoir of the great Calvanist "without the alteration of a single word." It was here, too, in Baltimore, in consequence of a sermon against Unitarianism by the late Rev. Dr. Wm. E. Wyatt, of St. Paul's, that Mr. Sparks published his volume of Letters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It was in Baltimore, in 1822, that he arranged and began the republication of Essays and Tracts in Theology by Wm. Penn, Bishop Hoadley, Newton, Whitby, Evelyn, Locke, and others. It was in Baltimore, also, during his religious ministry, that he received the flattering tribute from Congress of being elected its Chaplain. This was a great honor, won in ten years, by the Harvard student of 1811; and although his election alarmed the clergy and laity of other Christian denominations, and a member of Congress declared they had "voted Christ out of the House," still, in time, Congress learned to know him better, to admit the tolerance of his catholic spirit, and to honor him with increased confidence. But, in 1823, after four years of labor in our city, Mr. Sparks's health became so much impaired that he resolved to retire from the Church entirely, and devote himself exclusively to literature. Yet, he always loved Baltimore; he always met the people with warmth, and recurred joyfully to the happy years he spent in Maryland as teacher and minister. At the beginning of the late rebellion he wrote to me concerning an address published by one of our patriotic citizens: "I could not," said he, "but approve most highly its candor and independent tone, and the enlightened and just views it presented of our public affairs. It furnished a demonstration that there were brave spirits and true in your city, notwithstanding the misgivings which many, in this quarter, had, at that time, begun to indulge. Most heartily do I wish prosperity, good fortune, and success to Baltimore. With no place have I more deeply cherished associations. May peace, quiet, and brotherly sympathies prevail within her borders." And again, at a later day, he wrote in the same strain of affectionate memory of our city and its people: "I take a lively interest in all that concerns Maryland both present and past. I have not forgotten that my home was once there. I have many and deeply cherished recollections of Baltimore, which will remain in my heart and mind while the power of memory continues to act. The order of Providence and strange events have produced changes, but it is Baltimore, still." Such were the sentiments of this excellent man towards our state, and city, and people. They continued to be cherished by him to the last hour of his life, and were warmly repeated to me in one of the last letters he ever wrote, received but a day or two before his death. He left Baltimore reluctantly; his congregation parted with him painfully, and its farewell letter, written and signed by the late Chancellor of our state, Theodorick Bland, bears the most honorable testimony to the success of his pastoral labors.

Yet, probably, it was not ill health alone that determined Mr. Sparks's removal to Boston. I think he had already set his heart on the great themes of National History, and resolved, if possible, to pursue the work faithfully by the acquisition of the vast and scattered materials it needed. Upon his arrival in Massachusetts in 1823, he purchased the North American Review, and became its sole editor from January, 1824, to April, 1830. In these seven years his industrious pen contributed no less than fifty articles, many of profound study, and all adding to the solid critical literature of America. It was in 1828 that he made his first elaborate biographical essay in the attractive Life of John Ledyard, the American Traveller. About this time, too, good fruits were borne to him by his previous residence in Baltimore and the acquaintance he had made with the illustrious men who, in those days, were found every winter in Washington. In that city his worth had been recognized by the descendants of prominent revolutionary personages, by leading legislators and public functionaries from the several States, and, particularly, by such persons as Chief Justice Marshall, the biographer of Washington, and his nephew Bushrod Washington and Mr. Justice Story, both, at that time, Associate Judges of the Supreme Court. Thenceforward, the idea that had taken possession of his mind on the temporary failure of his health at Baltimore—"the city of noble souls, of large-hearted men," as he was wont to call it—became the ruling purpose of his life. He was to run the career of a man of letters, and in a country hardly ripe for literary production. American history was to be his occupation; all things else became subservient to this great purpose. He had conceived the project of collecting the correspondence of Washington, and of gathering all the accessible documents in this country and Europe necessary for an authentic life of the great chief. On his first application for the Washington manuscripts, which Mr. Justice Bushrod Washington had intended to edit, Mr. Sparks was told, much as he was respected, he could by no means have them. Yet, his journal of that date has no complaining, despondent mention of the rebuff, for, on that very day he set forth from the city of Washington on his journey to the South, in quest of other materials; and, with a light, confident, indefatigable spirit, went on patiently collecting them from public and private sources, everywhere finding profitable work, and, with marvellous keenness and sagacity, choosing and appropriating whatever he should want for the great task which it was his destiny to accomplish. Our archives at Annapolis, scant and neglected as they unfortunately are, still bear marks of his diligence; and, years after his task was completed in our State House, I have found, among our documents, the frequent traces of his minute and accurate labors. This, I am told, was a life-long trait of his preparation, for he always provided himself with every species of preliminary information which could lead to what he did not possess, in case, at some future day, it might become useful or necessary. His memorandums, therefore, were copious and explicit. Indeed, he became so familiar with the archives of the several States, that from his study in Massachusetts, he could readily, without a fresh journey, command the desired documents, and always indicate the department, and, generally, the shelf, book, or bundle in which the coveted manuscript was to be found by his correspondents. And, so he went on cheerily from state to state and family to family, increasing his national treasures, until, at last, the richest of the American collections was yielded to him by the Washington family and the government. The manuscripts at Mount Vernon—the entire correspondence of Washington and his papers—arranged by him in more than two hundred folio volumes; the state papers of the "old thirteen," and the private papers of many of the civil and military leaders of the Revolution, were opened to his inspection, and some of them actually placed in his possession for ten years, while engaged in the composition of his great work.

This would have been anxious labor even for a man of leisure, robust health, and a fortune that secured him from all care for present support or comfort. But Sparks was still poor, and, while engaged in this expensive preliminary task of mere accumulation—a task that might produce profitable results after many years—he was also obliged to provide for the needs of the passing day. His ready