"She no longer sought to forget her trials; ('wild wish and longing vain,' as such attempts must ever have proved,) but rather to contemplate them through the only true and reconciling medium; and that relief from sorrow and suffering, for which she had once been apt to turn to the fictitious world of imagination, was now afforded her by calm and constant meditation on what can alone be called the things that are." - p. 262. * We are tempted to exclaim, would that her feelings had been earlier thus disciplined! Then, perhaps, her hand might have still swept its earthly lyre, with less perhaps of melting pathos, but with enough of a seraph's power. Had her life been spared, the devout purposes of her soul would have been carried into effect; and the God of the Christian would have been adored in such strains as have not mounted to the skies, since the royal harper sang the praises of the Holy One of Israel. "I have now," are her memorable words, " passed through the feverish and somewhat visionary state of mind, often connected with the passionate study of Art in early life; deep affections and deep sorrows seem to have solemnized my whole being; and I now feel as if bound to higher and holier tasks, which, though I may occasionally lay [them] aside, I could not long wander from, without some sense of dereliction. I hope it is no self-delusion; but I cannot help sometimes feeling as if it were my true task to enlarge the sphere of sacred poetry, and extend its influence." p. 273.

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The heart melts with vain regrets over the untimely grave in which these blessed purposes were buried; and could almost murmur, did not the ear of Faith recognise some faint, sweet strains from the Spirit-land, telling us that the remainder of her appointed task lay where "the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." Thinking, as we do, that it is no uncommon thing to mistake the love of Nature, or of abstract beauty and purity, for the love of God, to denominate exalted but vague emotions religion, we are anxious to summon the attention of our readers to the difference, as exemplified in the earlier and latter part of Mrs. Hemans's brilliant yet melancholy career. Which was best and happiest, the successful poet, absorbed in following out the impulses of her genius, and swayed by the tyranny of an excited or depressed imagination, or the retired and dying Christian, studying the Scriptures, filled with their holy and soothing inspiration, hourly manifesting their influence in gentle patience, thoughtfulness for

others, serene confidence in her Maker and her Saviour, and expressing the state of her soul in occasional strains of religious aspiration; like the following, which was her last composition a few days before her death.

SABBATH SONNET.

"How many blessed groups this hour are bending,
Through England's primrose meadow-paths, their way
Toward spire and tower, 'midst shadowy elms ascending,
Whence the sweet chimes proclaim the hallowed day!
The halls, from old heroic ages gray,

Pour their fair children forth; and hamlets low,
With whose thick orchard blooms the soft winds play,
Send out their inmates in a happy flow,
Like a freed vernal stream. I may not tread
With them those pathways to the feverish bed
Of sickness bound; yet, O my God! I bless
Thy mercy, that with Sabbath peace hath filled
My chastened heart, and all its throbbings stilled
To one deep calm of lowliest thankfulness."

L. J. P

ART. V.- Fourteenth Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Prison Discipline Society. May, 1839. Published at the Society's Rooms.

THIS valuable document, presented at the annual meeting of the Society in May last, has just been published; and, like all that have preceded it, presents a mass of important information, well deserving the attention of every intelligent and philanthropic citizen. The community, we might rather say the nation, are indebted to the labors of its devoted and indefatigable secretary. The statistics he has gathered by personal observation and correspondence are of unquestionable authority; and on the various topics, of which the Report treats, the condition of "Penitentiaries, of County Prisons, and Houses of Correction;" on "Houses of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents; on "Imprisonment for Debt;" and especially on "Asylums for Poor Lunatics," the public may see what has been done and what still remains to be done for these great objects.

Few of our philanthropic institutions have accomplished so much, in modes so unexceptionable, or with evidence so satisfactory, as the "Prison Discipline Society." During the fourteen years of its existence it has awakened the public attention to interests, vitally connected with the safety and wellbeing of the community, and with the physical and spiritual condition of thousands of individuals. It has mercifully visited the prisoner in his cell; and it has generously pleaded the cause of the "poor debtor." It has fearlessly exposed abuses, where abuses were undeniable; and at one time, by suggesting improvements, and at another, by commending what was already excellent, it has, we believe, exerted a most salutary influence.

There is one subject, however, to which, as we collect from the Reports, its special attention has been directed, namely, the condition of the Insane, and Asylums for Poor Lunatics. It would well nigh break the heart of the compassionate, to think what horrors were formerly endured by this most unfortunate class of our fellow-creatures. The abuses of power committed in private and public asylums for these sufferers, both in our own country and in Great Britain, boasting as we do of civilization and charity, would be absolutely incredible, were they not attested beyond the possibility of denial. "If a faithful picture of the pitiable condition of the insane pauper could be drawn, confined in his lonely cell, deprived of the sweet air and light of heaven, cast off from all the tender charities of life, forced into returnless banishment, the recital, like the lyre of Orpheus, would move the very stones to pity."

In nothing have the labors of humanity, in times distinguished as are these by philanthropic effort, been more judiciously exerted, or more signally blest, than in efforts for the relief of the insane. They have prevailed to expose the utter uselessness and absurdity, not less than the cruelty of the system common in Great Britain and in this country, till within a few years past. When the Archbishop of York, (Dr. Venables Vernon,) with the help of the municipality of that city, actually

* See an eloquent speech of Dr. Collins, of Baltimore, before the Legislature of Maryland, urging an appropriation for the completion of the Insane Hospital in that State. But for the fullest exhibition of the cruelties, and dreadful abuses of power in institutions of this class, public and private, see the Examinations and Reports, by the Committee of the House of Commons, 1816-20.

forced open the cells and dungeons of a large establishment for lunatics, in that neighborhood, (entrance to which, though it was demanded by authority of Parliament, had been previously refused,) spectacles of misery were exhibited too appalling for recital, and almost surpassing imagination. The wonder was, and it was expressed by that committee in terms of eloquent indignation, that they had not surpassed human endurance; or that life could have been sustained amidst cold and damp, nakedness and filth, confinement without relief and barbarous inflictions, such as were there in multiplied examples exposed. The secrets of those prison-houses would

"A tale unfold,

Whose lightest word would harrow up the soul."

It is truly delightful to contrast a condition of things, at the very thought of which humanity sickens, with the wise, humane, considerate, and we might almost say, affectionate system, now so generally adopted and successful. Take, for examples, our State Asylum at Worcester, under the superintendence of Dr. Woodward, or the excellent establishment for the insane, at Charlestown, under Dr. Bell, and let a stranger visit them on a Sabbath-day, or any day, in their chapel, at the hours of prayer; let him observe this congregation of patients, not only clothed, and apparently in their right minds, but listening with attention and satisfaction to the service, maintaining a decorum, such as we should be happy to see in some of our sane assemblies, and he would wonder at the power of medical skill, and the blessed efficacy, which God gives to kindness, to calm the tempests, and heal the diseases of the mind.

Just as we were penning these few remarks, it happened to us to glance at an extract from a letter recently published in one of our daily journals,* written by a young lady, one of the patients of the Worcester Asylum, describing the manner in which the late annual Thanksgiving was observed in that institution. The letter itself is valuable, were it only to show the method in which "the intelligent superintendent of that Institution continues to acquire an ascendency over the minds of his patients." But as exhibiting also the quiet, rational, grateful, and even devout frame of an individual, whom it was still deemed needful to continue there, it must be read with

* See Daily Advertiser, for Dec. 4, 1839.

the highest satisfaction by all who have been, by any circumstances in their own families or others, led to witness or contemplate the ravages of the most awful malady, to which a human being can be subjected.

Now, of the needless sufferings and abuses, to which the insane were formerly exposed, the "Prison Discipline Society" has done much for the alleviation. As will abundantly appear by reference to its Reports of former years and of the present, it has called the attention of the humane in general, but particularly of the state legislatures to the subject. By the exposures and statements it has made, it has proved the necessity, and in many instances actually effected the establishment, of public, liberally founded, and what is quite as indispensable, vigilantly superintended hospitals. This it has accomplished, partly, by the good influence of the respectable names which have always been connected with the government of the corporation, inspiring a general confidence; but chiefly by the personal labors, the intelligent and unwearied zeal of Mr. Dwight, its secretary. And it is grateful to us to reflect, that a society, unaided by any permanent funds, absolutely dependent for its resources on annual subscriptions and donations, and these gathered for the most part by the personal application of the individual who conducts its general interests, should have accomplished so much in a cause so deeply interesting and important. We earnestly trust that it may find encouragement to do still more. There are not many objects more worthy the attention or the patronage of the enlightened and humane.

Under the last head of this Report are several valuable communications from correspondents, in reply to inquiries proposed by the Secretary, touching some difficult points of Prison Discipline. Among these is a letter of Rev. J. Curtis, the faithful and assiduous chaplain of the Massachusetts State Prison. His remarks on the question, "Whether stripes or the infliction of corporal chastisement can with propriety ever be resorted to, in the government of a well regulated prison,' are creditable alike to his judgment and humanity. The result, to which he cautiously but without hesitation arrives, is that which we might easily anticipate, and which the experience of teachers in public schools and others, called to exercise authority over mixed and numerous assemblages of old and young, abundantly confirms, namely, that there are cases of peculiar obstinacy, which will yield to nothing else than corporal chas