life he wrote freely for the press. From 1836 until 1839
he was editor of the _Western Messenger_, a magazine intended to carry
to readers in the Mississippi Valley simple statements of "liberal
religion," involving what were then the most radical appeals as to
national duty, especially the abolition of slavery. The magazine is now
of value to collectors because it contains the earliest printed poems of
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was Clarke's personal friend. Most of Clarke's
earlier published writings were addressed to the immediate need of
establishing a larger theory of religion than that espoused by people
who were still trying to be Calvinists, people who maintained what a
good American phrase calls "hard-shelled churches." But it would be
wrong to call his work controversial. He was always declaring that the
business of the Church is Eirenic and not Polemic. Such books as
_Orthodoxy: Its Truths and Errors_ (1866) have been read more largely by
members of orthodox churches than by Unitarians. In the great moral
questions of his time Clarke was a fearless and practical advocate of
the broadest statement of human rights. Without caring much what company
he served in, he could always be seen and heard, a leader of unflinching
courage, in the front rank of the battle. He published but few verses,
but at the bottom he was a poet. He was a diligent and accurate scholar,
and among the books by which he is best known is one called _Ten Great
Religions_ (2 vols., 1871-1883). Few Americans have done more than
Clarke to give breadth to the published discussion of the subjects of
literature, ethics and religious philosophy. Among his later books are
_Every-Day Religion_ (1886) and _Sermons on the Lord's Prayer_ (1888).
He died at Jamaica Plain, Mass., on the 8th of June 1888.

His _Autobiography, Diary and Correspondence_, edited by Edward
Everett Hale, was published in Boston in 1891. (E.E.H.)

CLARKE, JOHN SLEEPER (1833-1899), American actor, was born in Baltimore,
Maryland, on the 3rd of September 1833, and was educated for the law. He
made his first appearance in Boston as Frank Hardy in _Paul Pry_ in
1851. In 1859 he married Asia Booth, daughter of Junius Brutus Booth,
and he was associated with his brother-in-law Edwin Booth in the
management of the Winter Garden theatre in New York, the Walnut Street
theatre in Philadelphia and the Boston theatre. In 1867 he went to
London, where he made his first appearance at