to build a clipper-ship or to codify the laws of the State would have been as well fitted for the service by their previous habits or pursuits. As a sort of preparatory exercise, they visit similar institutions within a few hours' ride, look at the arrangements, question the superintendents on one point and another, and perhaps take notes of what they see and hear. Apparently, this is a very proper way of attaining their object; but actually it is often useless, and sometimes worse. Not knowing exactly what to observe, or, rather, observing everything with equal attention, having no clew to the points most entitled to inquiry, incapable of distinguishing the essential from the accidental, or a defect from a merit, the result is only an accumulation of irrelevant and undigested facts. Puzzled and perplexed with conflicting views, unable to analyze the evidence before them, and to fix its relative value, completely bewildered in a maze of new and peculiar facts, they become ready at last to catch at any suggestion that promises, in any way, to extricate them from their embarrassment; and the conclusion of the whole matter is a patched-up plan for which nobody is willing to be responsible. The physician appointed to take charge of the institution, finding arrangements totally unsuitable for certain purposes, in addition to general unfitness and deficiency, calls upon the Directors, or Trustees, to whom the committee have given up the building, for alterations absolutely necessary, in his opinion, to render the inmates safe and comfortable. Of course, something is done, but an ungrateful work like this is never thoroughly effected, and thus every year brings with it a host of fresh wants which should have been provided for in the beginning, and many of which can never afterwards be properly met. Water-closets and wash-basins that would be torn up within a week can be easily replaced by more substantial fixtures; but many a blunder embodied in brick or stone will always remain, defying every attempt at change. All this arises from a fundamental mistake of the building-committee, in supposing that the proper discharge of their duty requires that they should make themselves acquainted with points of a strictly professional nature. These personal investigations, as they are usually and almost necessarily pursued, may afford some gratification,

but can never accomplish the object sought for. It is a very significant fact, that some of the most imperfect lunatic hospitals in our country were preceded by the most diligent and extensive personal investigations on the part of the buildingcommittee. True, no other method would be likely to be followed by entire success, but flagrant and intolerable errors might be avoided. Let building-committees advertise for plans, submit them, when offered, to the examination of men practically conversant with these institutions, and obtain their views respecting the plans, and their reasons for or against each of them; and then they are in a position to decide satisfactorily upon conflicting opinions. Their decision may be erroneous in many respects, but it will have the merit of being intelligent and well matured. This is the course adopted with regard to other edifices, and we see no reason to believe that it is not equally applicable to hospitals for the insane.

ART. V.-1. The Works of JOSEPH ADDISON. Edited, with Critical and Explanatory Notes, by GEORGE WASHINGTON GREENE. New York: G. P. Putnam & Co. 1854. 5 vols. 2. The Spectator; a New Edition, carefully revised, with Prefaces Historical and Biographical, by ALEXANDER CHALMERS, A. M. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 6 vols.

1853.

THERE is not a name in the annals of English literature more widely associated with pleasant recollections than that of Addison. His beautiful hymns trembled on our lips in childhood; his cheerful essays first lured us, in youth, to a sense of the minor philosophy of life; we tread his walk at Oxford with loving steps,-gaze on his portrait, at Holland House or the Bodleian Gallery, as on the lineaments of a revered friend, recall his journey into Italy, his ineffectual maiden speech, his successful tragedy, his morning studies, his evenings at Button's, his unfortunate marriage, and his holy death

bed, as if they were the experiences of one personally known, as well as fondly admired; and we muse beside the marble that designates his sepulchre in Westminster Abbey, between those of his first patron and his most cherished friend, with an interest such as is rarely awakened by the memory of one familiar to us only through books. The harmony of his character sanctions his writings; the tone of the Spectator breathes friendliness as well as instruction; and the tributes of contemporaries to his private worth, and of generations to his literary excellence, combine with our knowledge of the vicissitudes of his life, to render his mind and person as near to our sympathies as they are high in our esteem. Over his faults we throw the veil of charity, and cherish the remembrance of his benevolence and piety, his refinement and wisdom, as the sacred legacy of an intellectual benefactor.

This posthumous regard is confirmed by the appreciation of his coevals. Not only did Addison find a faithful patron in Halifax and a cordial recognition from the public; but these testimonies to the merit of the author were exceeded by the love and deference bestowed on the man. Sir Richard Steele, with all his frank generosity, was jealous of Tickell's place in the heart of their common friend, to whom Tickell's elegiac tribute has been justly pronounced one of the most feeling and graceful memorials of departed excellence in English verse. When Budgell, a contributor to the Spectator, became a suicide, he endeavored to justify the rash act by the example and reasoning of Addison's Cato. When Pope turned his satirical muse upon the gentle essayist, he polished the terms and modified the censure, as if involuntary respect chastened the spirit of ridicule. Dryden welcomed him to the ranks of literature, and Boileau greeted him with praise on his first visit to France. Throughout his life, the distinction he gained by mental aptitude and culture was confirmed by integrity and geniality of character. Even party rancor yielded to the moral dignity and kindliness of Addison; and his opponents, when in power, respected his intercession, and would not suffer difference of opinion to chill their affection. Lady Montagu thought his company delightful. Lord Chesterfield declared him the most modest man he

had ever seen. When he called Gay to his bedside and asked forgiveness, with his dying breath, for some unrecognized negligence with regard to that author's interest, the latter protested, with tearful admiration, that he had nothing to pardon and everything to regret. Swift's jealousy of Addison is an emphatic proof of his merit; the literary gladiator, unsatisfied with his triumphs, obviously turned a jaundiced eye upon the literary artist, whose object was social reform and intellectual diversion, instead of party warfare and intolerant satire. "I will not," said the cynical Dean, "meddle with the Spectator, let him fair sex it to the world's end." The allusion to the improvement of women, to which this new form of literature so effectually ministered, is unfortunate, as coming from a man who, at the very time, was ruthlessly trifling with the deepest instincts of the female heart. Woman is, indeed, indebted to Addison and his fraternity, for giving a new impulse to her better education, and a more generous scope to her intellectual tastes. So much was this aim and result of the Spectator recognized, that Goldoni, in one of his comedies, alludes to a female philosopher as made such by the habitual perusal of it. Johnson's observations on Addison are reverent, as well as critical; he pays homage to his character, and advises all who desire to acquire a pure English style, to make a study of his writings. Nor have such tributes ceased with the fluctuations of taste and the progress of time. Of all the eloquent illustrations of English literary character which Macaulay's brilliant rhetoric has yielded, not one glows with a warmer appreciation, or more discriminating, yet lofty praise, than the beautiful Essay on Addison's Life and Writings, prefixed to the edition before us, which is the most complete and best annotated that has yet appeared.

All the early editions were based upon Tickell's, which was the first published by authority. Subsequent issues differed only in some additional material, as, in one case, the play of "The Drummer," and, in another, the "Comparison of Ancient and Modern Learning,"-until Bishop Hurd's edition made its appearance. He was too exclusively a polemic and verbal critic to be a desirable editor of Addison. Many of his notes are like the corrections which a schoolmaster makes

in a boy's theme. As this edition, however, has been a standard one, the American publisher has perhaps wisely made it the basis of the present; and his choice of an editor is amply justified by the admirable notes appended to the text. The American editor's extensive classical and historical knowledge has enabled him to supply omissions, to explain incongruities, and to illustrate, by reference to the times of Addison, the significance and point of many of his allusions. In these handsome volumes, we have, in addition to the more familiar writings of the author, "The Old Whig," never before included in his works; and to make this more intelligible, Steele's "Plebeian," to which it is a reply, is added. Both of these series of papers are very rare. Johnson had never seen

them. All the letters of Addison that could be discovered have also been collected; and thus we have, for the first time, in a single work, the entire published writings of this favorite British classic. The volumes are neatly printed, but, not being of uniform size, are somewhat inconvenient, and the engraved portrait is unworthy of the work; though in all other respects the edition reflects the highest credit on the judgment of the publisher and the literary skill of the editor.

The new edition of the Spectator, named at the head of this article, is one of the best specimens of typography that has lately appeared; and the work supplies a desideratum, there having been previously no handsome edition of this standard periodical in the book-market. We are gratified to record these instances of good taste and conservative enterprise; and the ready sale which both works have found is a hopeful sign of the times, and evinces a general integrity of appreciation in relation to what is truly excellent in English literature, which should rebuke the less graceful and more piquant school of writers at present so much in vogue.

The tranquil and religious atmosphere of an English parsonage chastened the early days of Addison; and although a few traditions indicate that he was given to youthful pranks, it is evident that the tenor of his character was remarkably thoughtful and reserved. During his ten years' residence at Oxford, he was a devoted and versatile student, and it is to the discipline of classical acquirements that we owe the fastid