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one must accord with them, that all plans for improvement in the management of the insane, must, to be fully efficient, have respect to some device for an improvement in the qualifications of keepers.

I have dwelt much (says Dr. B.) upon the character and situation of these people, because it is impossible to estimate too highly their great importance to the physician and superintendant; nor can any but those who have felt the severe disappointment and perplexity arising from the deficiency of their qualifications, conceive how frequently the wisest plans and best intentions are frustrated by their ignorance and want of principle.'

On the subject of classifying insane individuals, Dr. Haslam does not advance any thing that is particularly worthy of notice. His subsequent section, entitled, Diminished Sensibility of the Insane,' treats of a phenomenon often attendant upon an alienation of mind, which shews the very extraordinary and important changes that the nervous system undergoes under circumstances of mental abstraction or aberration. Without any apparent alteration of structure, those organs whose office it is to convey sensations to the mind, are liable, in insanity, to the utmost variety of condition; sometimes possessing an acuteness of feeling which renders existence in the highest degree distressing, and at others, displaying such an entire torpor, that operations of the most painful kind shall be performed upon the body without occasioning even an unpleasant feeling, and not unfrequently, the whole system obsti nately refuses to be affected in any manner, by agents otherwise of a most powerful nature.

A short time since, I attended a Lady (says Dr. H.) who had, in various ways, attempted suicide on one occasion she had concealed a piece of window glass in her mouth, with which she mangled her throat in a dreadful manner; her endeavour to effect her destruction with this instrument, continued more than half an hour, but she denied that the process was painful. I recollect a female, who, some years ago, with a pin, contrived to dissect or scratch out a piece of the upper jaw, with two teeth attached, but she maintained that she had suffered no pain.'

And such instances as these, more or less marked, are daily occurring to the medical practitioner. Were we to be guided in our judgement on these cases, entirely by the patient's own testimony respecting the absence of feeling, there would perhaps be some room for error, since the accuracy of his recollection might be suspected; but, as above hinted, we sometimes actually witness this state of insensibility, by the ineffectual ad ministration and application of remedial and other substances, otherwise possessing a very considerable activity. The German

professor Hufeland records an extraordinary circumstance of this kind, which is inserted in a contemporary journal. In this case, the individual, labouring under a disease of the imagination, but perfectly resigned to every trial that was made for his recovery, took strong emetics without any effect, and had blisters applied to the skin, without their producing the smallest cutaneous irritation. Such cases, we say, in a greater or less degree, are of every day occurrence; and it would seem well for medical men to consider even more than they do, the state of the mind and nerves, when endeavouring to ascertain the physical effects of medical plans of treatment.

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The last particular to which we shall advert, in Dr. Haslam's tract, is the reply which he gives to the important inquiry, how far the hereditary tendency to insanity may be counteracted by early endeavours to cultivate and discipline the 'intellect. We do not approve of our Author's sentiments on this head, convinced as we feel that much may be done towards checking baneful propensities by a vigilant attention to an early direction of the passions and the intellect. education will do every thing for the human mind is a position that no one who knows any thing of human nature will be disposed for one instant to maintain nor will any one, who has at all studied the laws of animal and intellectual being, be Utopian enough to imagine, that impending insanity can always be averted by human agency. We are, nevertheless, persuaded, that much may be effected by early and careful cultivation, without rendering the subject of such cultivation coldly rational and tamely benevolent;' without superinducing 'actions regulated too much by solemn propriety,' or 'friendships and affections bounded and measured by cautious 'calculations.' Indeed, our objector to restraint is somewhat inconsistent with himself, for he allows that some experience has convinced him that an early and persevering attention to the child may superinduce an ameliorated condition both of the physical constitution and moral character.' And this surely is conceding the point of the utility of early discipline.

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We have left ourselves just space enough to notice the tenor and tendency of Dr. Burrows's pamphlet. His objections to Mr. Rose's bill, as it is called, are of a very similar cast to those contained in a pamphlet which we some time since noticed, under the title of Observations on the Laws relating to private Lunatic Asylums.' Indeed, there is such a coincidence of sentiment in the two objectors, that we are surprised a man of Dr. Burrows' respectability and candour should not have referred to this tract. Although we differ in some essential points from the Author of that pamphlet, and from Dr. Bur

rows, we think our legislators would do well to consider the. objections of these writers before the bill be passed into a law. The act certainly requires some very material modifications, and some of its clauses are evidently calculated to increase the evil they are intended to diminish. We sincerely wish that all who undertake the management of mental hallucination were possessed of the intellectual and moral qualifications with which we believe Dr. Burrows to be endowed, for then there would be comparatively little need for the interposition of the legislative authority, to check the disposition to a dereliction of duty. Dr. Burrows's pamphlet is throughout well written and ably argued; it is always, however, necessary for the reader to think of the granum salis, when an individual canvasses a public question in which he is personally con- . cerned.

Art. VIII. 1 Memorial Sketches of the Rev. David Brown. With a Selection of his Sermons preached at Calcutta. 8vo. pp. xviii., 495, Price 12s. Cadell and Davies London. 1816.

2. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, D.D. late Vice Provost of the College of Fort William in Bengal. By the Rev. Hugh Pearson, M.A. of St. John's College, Oxford. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. xii, 782. Price H. Is. Cadell and Davies. London, 1817.

SOME of the most interesting details of history, are to be

found only in the form of Memoirs. It is from this source that we can derive the best account of the true spirit and character of past times, as exhibited in the familiar sentiments and actions of the men who were the growth of the institutions then existing, and who reflected back their own character upon society. Ecclesiastical biography is the most valuable species of memoir writing, because it supplies us with exactly those facts respecting which the historian is altogether silent, and because in the religion of a country, or more properly speaking, in the state of religion in a country, we have not only the most important portion of its history presented to us, but that portion which furnishes the key to most of the domestic or political events which distinguish the period in its annals. For want of the accurate information which is to be obtained only from auto-biographical memoirs, or the sketches of contemporaries, impartially collated and compared, respecting the internal religious history of our country, some of the most interesting circumstances of our political history remain still involved in obscurity; for if the characters of men are to be learned from their actions, it is not less true that the real design and reason of those actions are to be ascertained only by a knowledge of their characters; and as the illustration of human nature is the grand moral purpose

of history, it is not what men did, of which it is of the most consequence for us to be informed, but what they were, and what were the principles which gave impulse and direction to their actions.

The memoirs of individuals eminent in respect of their combining talent and station with true piety, are indeed calculated to answer a purpose of more direct, though not more extensive utility. They are Christianity made easy to the learner; and they often give a most potent and beneficial bias to the character of persons to whom it is more natural and easy to imitate, than to obey; less difficult to follow an example, than to adhere to a moral standard of excellence. Who is there indeed, upon whose mind the force of example, in shaming them out of their inertion, in rousing a noble emulation, or in inspiriting them to confidence, has not had at seasons, an efficacy which no other considerations seemed to possess? Of this powerful mode of argument, how strikingly the Apostle has availed himself, in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where he brings before the Christian the whole company of Jewish worthies, as both fore-runners and witnesses of his course, who, having left on record the trial of their faith, look down with attentive interest on those who are still engaged in the combat from which themselves have come off victors.

The names of David Brown and Claudius Buchanan, are familiar to most of our readers, as fellow-labourers in the great cause of advancing the interests of Christianity in our Eastern dominions. We have not classed the two works together for the purpose of instituting any comparison between the characters of these two eminent individuals, but merely because they may be considered as companion works, illustrative of each other. The Memoirs of Dr. Buchanan, are the most replete with historical notices. Mr. Pearson has, however, been very unnecessarily minute in some of his biographical details. The plan too, of combining memoirs of writings with a sketch of the private history, in cases in which the literary character and productions do not form the most distinguishing or interesting fea-. ture of the individual, is not judicious. It adds very unneces sarily to the bulk, and not much to the value of a work. Private letters, indeed, frequently illustrate the character much better than any narrative or remarks of the biographer: but even these, where they are not remarked by intrinsic excellence, should be sparingly made use of, and should be referred to as data, or quoted in the shape of extracts, rather than spread over successive pages, in order to answer the professed purpose of making the deceased his own biographer. It is the business of the writer of such a work, to read over much which it cannot be nocessary or proper to submit to the public eye, and to give the result of that patient reading, and of the deliberative judgement

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which personal acquaintance or the other qualifications requisite in a biographer, shall have enabled him to bring to bear upon those materials. This task may indeed require more talent and more labour to be expended upon it, and it may render more necessary the frank expression of the author's own sentiments and opinions, than the modern and more slovenly method of compiling memoirs. It may also, we are well aware, be less gratifying to private friends and correspondents, who attach to every fragment a value which the public cannot attach, and who are therefore not content that these relics should be consigned to the silent inspection of the biographer, as the final purpose they are to answer. But if utility be the object of such publica tions, that utility would be best promoted by a more rigid adherence to the genuine design and business of biography, which is, to teach by example, and which renders the record of private sentiment proper, only so far as it essentially conduces to the development of character. It is not even the fairest method, to make a man in this way his own posthumous biographer: it is frequently not just, as respects the intellectual character of the individual; and it is not the most satisfactory to the public; for the general tribute of the world, or the testimony of those who knew and loved the man in private, speaks more than a hundred letters, which disclose only what he felt and not how he acted; exhibiting to a certain extent, the qualities of his mind, but not the force, and bearings, and influence of his principles, nor what impression his character produced on that portion of society with which it was brought into collision or contact.

It will not be supposed that we should in any case wish to substitute for even an uninteresting series of documents of this description, pages of less interesting and less instructive panegyric. The delineation of character is not to be entrusted to every hand it requires some degree of penetration and knowledge of the heart, as well as strict integrity. Nor are we fond of sentimental reflections: facts supply their own commentary; and example, exhibited in all the simplicity of history, carries with it its own forcible moral: "Go thou and do likewise."

The memorial sketches of the Rev. Mr. Brown, are edited by the Rev. Mr. Simeon, and to him we are indebted, as appears from the Preface, for the very interesting materials comprised in this volume, which have ben substituted for the original plan of selecting a volume or two of Mr. Brown's Sermons for the press. He wisely determined, that 'to send forth such productions which the Author has never had any opportunity to revise, is, however kindly intended, an injury to the person 'whose name they bear.' At Mr. Simeon's suggestion, therefore, a memoir of her departed husband has been drawn up by Mrs. Brown, which, by the good sense and piety it displays,

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