SPARKS. JARED, American historian, was b. at Willington, Conn., May 10. 1789: graduated at Harvard university in 1t--15; became tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy, and one of the conductors of the North American Review. In 1819 he was settled as a Unitarian minister at Baltimore, when .he wrote Letters on the _Ministry, Ritual, arid Doctrines of the Protestant Rpiscopal Church. In 1821 lie established a periodi cal called the Unitarian Miscellany and Church Monitor, in which he first published his Letters on the Comparative Moral Tendencies of the Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines. In 1823 he edited six volumes of essays and tracts op theological subjects, and, abandon ing the pulpit, became for seven years sole editor of the North American In 1828 he published a Life of John Ledyard. the American Traveller ; and from 1834 to 1837 edited at Boston 12 octavo volumes of the Writings of George Washington. This important national work was followed by the Diplomatic Correspondenci of the Ameri can Revolution (12 vols. 8vo, Bost. 1829-30), and the Life of Gouverneur Morris (3 vols.
-8vo, Bost. 1832). At this period be commenced the American Almanac of Useful Knoirl edge, and began also his Library of American Biography, first issued in two series of 10 and 18 yob. 18mo. In 1840 was published his collection of the Works of Benjamin Franklin (10 vols. 8vo), after which he visited Europe to collect materials for his Correspondence of the American Revolution (4 vols. 8vo, 1854). He also wrote, in 1852, two pamphlets, in answer to lord Mahon, on the Life of Washington. Besides these multifarious literary labors, combining laborious research with clear arrangement, a sim ple style and accurate statement, he filled, from 1839 to 1849, the McLean chair of his tory, and from 1849 to his departure for Europe in 1852, that of president of Harvard university. Sparks died Mar. 15, 1866.