oquence, logic, rhetoric,
or unction might avail in presenting it. But Mr. Robertson rose to a
higher plane, and took a far wider horoscope. His freest ventures
require that he have readers able and willing to share them.

The biographical materials now furnished will afford a high
gratification to readers on this continent, who, after perusing the
sermons of Mr. Robertson, have felt a keen desire to know something
about the man. We believe that very many of those readers, after
availing themselves of the information concerning him imparted in these
volumes, will turn back again to his discourses to give them a more
deliberate study. He was a man to engage the profoundest interest of
those who live to scrutinize the elements of character and the
developments of a life-history and work in an individual whose mission
is that of a reconciler and a reconstructor of opinions, creeds, and
theories, in one of the great transitional periods of thought and
belief.

The biography before us is a model which cannot be too closely followed
by any one who in time to come shall be privileged to have a subject for
his pen at all resembling, or approximating to, the character and career
of this extraordinary man. The editor was himself rarely privileged for
his work in the quality of his materials, and he has shown an admirable
skill in their use. His chapters begin with the statement of dates,
facts, incidents of a biographical or local character, marking the
life-periods, the external relations and positions of Mr. Robertson, and
are then substantially made up of his correspondence. We can recall now
no collection of letters which can be compared with these for
comprehensiveness of matter, felicity of diction, and elevation of tone
and sentiment, in discussing alike the commonplace and the loftiest
themes of didactic and spiritual religion, under the most vitalized and
intense dealing with it in our modern life. If we should utter all we
have felt, as we have lingered as if entranced over many of these pages,
we should fail of carrying with us those who, not having yet read them,
would, after their perusal, pronounce our encomiums inadequate. Mr.
Robertson's life was a short one, covering only thirty-seven years.
There was nothing conspicuous in the sphere of it. He held only the
lower offices of his clerical profession. Yet we believe we can say,
without exaggeration, that no one member of that profession, from its
bishops down to