Living Authors. 1820. shrewd look, begged to ask him one question, to which he bowed with an attent' ear." She wished to be informed whether he was the author of those Scotch novels, which she had read herself with delight in spite of her antipathy to prose. Walter smiled,-shook his head,-was sorry to refuse a lady any request, and made the best of his way from the Spirit's presence. Next came Thomas Moore. With the pleasantest eye in the world, and with an air of freedom quite enchanting, he came laughing onward. The Spirit similed at him; and he winked at her. He gaily dipped his goblet, and protested he would turn its contents to sherbet or nectar. The Spirit asked after the Fudges: Moore said he had more Rhymes on the road. Exit laughing. 139 intention was to make weak tea of Crabbe, with a firm and steady Montgomery advanced to the water in a pensive and sincere mood. With a firm hand he reached for the water-and with a manly step he retired. a man Campbell approached the stream as Lord Strangford would have advan- I now perceived a person advance, whom I knew to be Southey. He looked like an eagle without its eyes. His brow was bound in an awkward manner by a wreath of faded and scanty laurel, which lrad all the marks of a Manchester Square growth, or of having been reared in a pot at a window at Carlton Palace. He appeared quite bewildered, and scarcely could remember his way to the inspiring stream. His voice was chaunting in maudlin tones the praises of courts and kings, as he advanced;-but he dropt from his coat pocket some little poems, as he passed me, which were Coleridge, Lamb, and Lloyd, walkof a very opposite tendency to those which he was now so piously and ed forth arm in arm, and moved plamournfully hymning. He was com- cidly to the water. They conversed pelled to stoop before he could reach as they passed on the beauty of the the water, and the gilded vessel country, on its peaceful associations, which he had brought for use pro--and on the purity of the domestic cured but little at last. The sensitive and tremulous water ran out like quicksilver; but he said common water would suit him as well. His intention was, as he declared, to make sack of what he obtained. On retiring, he mounted a lame cream-coloured horse, and set off in bobbling paces to St James's. Rogers appeared next with a glass in his hand, which had the cypher of Oliver Goldsmith engraved upon it. It had evidently belonged to that sweet poet, but to have been much ill-used by its after possessor. He caught but a few drops, but these were enough, for, as he declared, he could borrow from his friends. His affections. Coleridge talked in the grandest strain, and his voice was as deep and melodious as mournful music. His own conversation involved him in a web of magic thoughts. He passed from poetry to metaphysics, and lost himself in the labyrinths of abstruse systems. Lamb remarked, that he should prefer one of his affecHe tionate and feeling sonnets to all his learned wanderings of mind. thought that the rose that peeped at his cottage window suited Coleridge better than the volume of Jacob Behmen that encumbered his book-shelf. Each of these poets held in his hand a simple porrenger, such as is used in the Lyrical Ballads,-declaring that use. it was a homely and natural vessel borrowed from the utensils of daily life, and, therefore, fitted for poetical Lamb and Lloyd dipped in a bright but in a shallower part of the stream. Coleridge went to the depths, where he might have taken the purest water, had he not unfortunately clouded it with the sand, which he himself disturbed at bottom, by dipping too deeply. Lamb and Lloyd stated, that they should take their porrengers home, and share the contents with the simple and amiable hearts that were dear to them there. Coleridge was not certain as to what use he should apply his portion of the waters, till he had ascertained what were the physical reasons for the sand's propensity to mount and curl itself in the stream. The Spirit declared he might and could do what he pleased with it, -and then uttered to him with a smile" Remember poetry!" Coleridge, Lamb, and Lloyd, separated by mutual consent, when they quitted the margin of the water. Wordsworth, with a confident step, next advanced. The Spirit said, as she saw him, that no one had a greater right to approach her than himself,that no one had so great a natural right to the water, but that he applied it to such inferior purposes, and calumniated her favours by such fits of childishness and vanity, that she loved and yet regretted to see him. He began a long and very prosaic defence of his system; but in the course of it he became so egotistical, mystical, and abusive, that she reproved and silenced him. He made a bowl of the crown of his hat,* (it was so natural!) and scooped up the water with it. The Spirit smiled at his folly, but the poet preserved a serious countenance, and pronouncing certain lines from his own Excursion, he quitted the place. The sound of stirring wings now subsided, the air became less bright, and the flowers on the bank became less odorous and less beautiful. No other poet approached to obtain water from the Castalian stream. But still it sparkled and played along with a melodious and a soul-like sound. On a sudden I heard a confusion of tongues behind me. On turning round, I found See the Excursion. that it arose from a mistaken set of gentlemen who were chattering, and bustling, and dipping at a brook, which they believed to be the true Castalian. Their splashing, and dabbling, and gabbling, can only be imagined by those who have seen a flock of geese wash themselves in a pond, and plume their quills with chattering importance. There was the Honourable Mr Spencer with a goblet lent him by Lady Elizabeth Mug,-and Hayley, simpering and bowing, and reaching with a tea-cup at the water, and Bowles, laboriously filling fourteen nutshells,-and Lewis, pompously, mysteriously, and solemnly plunging an old skull in the brook,-and Admiralty Croker swimming a little cock-boat, "by order of the Board," and innumerable ragged young gentlemen fussing, and fuming, and fidgetting, with leaves of the Gentleman's Magazine in their hands, and all to no purpose! Poor Cottle was all abroad; and an obscure youth, of the name of Wiffin, was lost in a maze of bad grammar. There seemed now no encouraging signs in the elements,— no delightful sounds of attending spirits, -no springing up of flowers to cheer these worthies in their pursuits. They were satisfied with their own greatness, and flattered into bustle by their own vanities. I could only hear Folly shaking the bells of her cap to encourage them on. The continual activity of tongues soon fatigued me, and I turned myself from them to look again upon the Spirit. She had put off her bedimming veil, and stood before me bright with excessive beauty. One glance of her eye scared the silly multitude from the brook,—and she ascended into the silent heavens. There, to my astonished and delighted eyes, appeared Shakespeare, surrounded with light, with Spenser on the one hand and Milton on the other, and with the best of our early poets thronging around him. Amidst unearthly music he received the Spirit, and they became all lost in light! I raised my imploring and enraptured hands-and in so doing,-I dropped my common-place-book,—which awoke me. The fire was out, the room was dark, I was excited and happy!-Such is dream the second! P. S.-I have a third very good dream in my head. ESTABLISHMENT GENERAL OF A THE establishment of a General Board of Health is as interesting to the community at large, as it is to the medical profession. In its operation every one is deeply interested, and it may be productive of much inconvenience or of great advantage, accordingly as it is established upon just or false principles. Medical Police is in fact not so much a professional study, as a branch of the science of Political Economy. Its object is the preservation of the general state of health, by obviating the general causes of disease. The state of Medical Police in this empire and in Germany is strikingly contrasted, and in neither is it founded upon sound principles. Except our quarantine regulations, and the inefficient corporation privileges of the various branches of the profession, we have no permanent medical police, and local or occasional circumstances influence its application; while in Germany, a mistaken policy of regulating every thing connected with health, has led to the formation of a cumbrous code of contradictory, and often hurtful enactments. The philosophy of Medical Police does not differ from that of the other branches of Political Economy, and its objects are to be obtained by facilitating the acquisition and dissemination of the relative information, with as little enactment as possible, and no tendency to extend, or create, monopoly. We cannot therefore adequately express the satisfaction with which we have perused the first fruits of the General Medical Board established in Dublin upon the soundest principles of political science. The Board is of a mixed nature, neither consisting entirely of professional men, nor excluding them altogether. The lay members, if they may be so called, are not selected on account of their holding high official situations, which would interfere with their attending to its business, but from those individuals who have, by their past zeal in the service of the poor and the public during the late epidemic, given the strongest guarantee of their future exertions, and whose rank in society is sufficient to give them due effect. The professional members consist of the heads of the Medical Department, for reasons sufficiently obvious, and of some others distinguished by their zeal and activity. It is not a little recommendation of this Board, that, except a bare remuneration to the Secretary for time and labour, it costs the public nothing. It may do much good; it cannot do any harm; for it has no control over the profession, it enjoys no patronage, nor possesses any exclusive rights. But its objects, and the means which it has devised for attaining them, cannot be so well explained as by reprinting both the instructions furnished to the Board by our enlightened countryman, the present Secretary of the Irish Government, and the Queries circulated by the Board; and we trust that, ere long, similar Boards will be established both in Scotland and England, which they might be at no other expence than enabling them to conduct their correspondence free of expence. In the mean time, we shall feel gratified if the circulation of the queries should procure from the readers of our Magazine communications on the causes, progress, and decline, of epidemic diseases in various districts in Scotland, which, if they should seem too professional for our pages, we shall transmit to the Editor of the Medical Journal. Plan of Regulations for the Guidance of the Board of Health; as communicated to the Board by Mr Grant. 1st. To obtain the earliest information respecting the appearance of Epidemic disease, either of foreign or domestic origin; to trace it in its progress, and to ascertain the causes of its rise and diffusion. 2d. To collect information from intelli gent individuals in every part of the kingdom, including Members of Parliament, the Clergy of different denominations, Magistrates, and Governors of Hospitals, and Dispensaries, on the actual condition of the Poor, and the circumstances which affect their health, as to locality, occupation, state of dwellings, supply of fuel, food, clothing, or education. 3d. To digest the information thus collected into a methodical form, so contrived, that, by contrasting the state of the poor in different districts, it shall afford a just estimate of the operative causes of disease. 4th. To obtain authenticated reports on the measures used in other countries, to secure the public health, together with an account of their success, so that, if it shall be deemed expedient, similar measures occasionally opened? Are the dwellings may be adopted in this country. of the poor in general constructed with chimneys? 5th. To procure statements from different parts of Ireland, on the means which have been lately resorted to, in order to obviate sickness, and to ascertain those causes which have principally contributed to success or failure. 6th. To inquire into the organization of hospitals intended for the relief of contagious disease, in order to adapt them to existing circumstances; and, as far as possible, to bring such institutions under a general system of improved regulation. 7th. To ascertain the places where Dispensaries are established; how they are governed, how the medical duties are discharged, and what benefits the poor derive from them, and to acquire correct information as to the state and management of their funds. 8th. To be a medium of communication between Charitable Institutions for the prevention of sickness in different parts of the kingdom, to supply information as to the best modes of conducting such establishments, so that each may avail itself of the experience of the rest, and be instruct ed as to the best and most direct modes of obtaining its object. 9th. To communicate information to Government on all the preceding topics, and to present a General Report, at stated periods, on the result of such inquiries. 10th. To submit for the consideration of the Government, such measures of police as are likely to improve the public health, and require the sanction of the executive government, or the support of positive law. Queries proposed by the General Board of Health, Dublin. I. Dwellings. 1. Are the dwellings of the poorer classes so situated in general, as to be not unfavourable to health? Is there much bog, or marsh, strictly so called, in your neighbourhood? 2. Is the substratum or rock of the country limestone, slate, granite, or of what other material is it composed ? 3. Does the custom prevail, of forming deposits of putrefying vegetable or animal matter near the dwellings of the inhabitants? Have means been employed with success for the prevention of such nui sances? 4. Do any facts evince the unwholesomeness of the effluvia proceeding from water in which flax has been steeped, contiguous to the habitations of the poor? 5. Of what materials are the cabins mostly constructed? Are they often built in part below the ground? What apertures have they for the admission of air and light? If provided with windows, are these so constructed, as to admit of being 6. What improvements in the construction of their dwellings, conducive to dryness, ventilation, and light, are practicable? Are the poor disposed to adopt such inprovements? Be so good as to describe the general internal state of their dwellings. 7. Are their cabins much crowded, particularly in the night time? 8. Do the inhabitants lie promiscuously; and are cattle sheltered in their dwellings? 9. What is the condition of the poor inhabitants as to bedding? Do they sleep on straw, heath, rushes, or dried leaves? II. Clothing-1. Of what materials does the clothing of the poor generally consist? Is much or any attention bestowed on its renewal or cleansing? 2. Can you adduce any facts in proof of the opinion, that disease is extended among the poor by infected clothing? 3. Are the habits of the lower classes in your neighbourhood cleanly? If not, what methods are most likely to introduce cleanliness? Has any plan for this purpose been put in practice in your neighbourhood with success? III. Diet.-1. Is the diet of the lower classes sufficient as to quantity; and is it of good quality? Does it give origin to disease, or further its progress? 2. Be so good as to state the price of Bread, Potatoes, Oatmeal, Milk, and Salt, generally, in your neighbourhood, with the average price of each of these articles throughout the year. 3. Does fish form a considerable article of dict amongst the people? Are fisheries encouraged? Do any and what obstruc tions exist to the further extension of the fisheries; and by what means are these obstructions likely to be removed? IV. Fuck. Is turf the only fuel in your neighbourhood, or is there any considerable and regular supply of coal? 2. Are the poor well supplied with fuel? Has the want of this article favoured the extension of disease? 3. In the mode of burning their fuel, are any changes practicable, likely to diminish its consumption and promote ventila tion? V. Employment.1. What are the wages of labour in your neighbourhood? Is there sufficient employment for the poor? Can you propose any means of employment productive to the community or to individuals, suggested by the locality of your district? 2. How are females employed, and what are the daily benefits which may accrue to a family from such employment? State also the effects of different kinds of employment on the health of the poor. VI. Contagion.—1. Do any customs, contributing to extend febrile or other infection, at present exist amongst the poor? If so, can these be opposed or counteracted with any probability of success? 2. Are mendicants numerous? Can you state any facts in proof of the communication of disease, by strolling or other beggars? Can you point out any causes which produce or promote mendicity? 3. Is fever now prevalent in your neighbourhood? If so, does it spread through families? State what has been the general prevalence of fever, within your memory, amongst the poor. 4. Are persons attacked with fever speedily removed to an hospital; and are measures employed to purify the clothing and bedding of such patients, or of their families? and if this is the case, be so good as to state particularly these or other preventive measures. Also, if any mode of cleansing the walls and furniture of infected houses has been resorted to with success. 5. Have the lower classes readily concurred in the measures of prevention which were generally recommended for adoption, during the progress of the late Epidemic Fever? 6. What means appear to you the most likely to remove their prejudices, and to convince the sufferers, that cleanliness of all kinds, free admission of air and light to houses and cabins, warm and dry clothing, the avoiding excessive fatigue and night air, and the immediate separation of the sick from the healthy, during the preva lence of epidemic disease, are their best and surest preservatives from danger? VII. Endemic and General Diseases. -1. Are any other diseases prevalent in your vicinity, and from what causes do they chiefly originate? 2. Does the Small-pox often make its appearance? Does it prove fatal to a large proportion of those whom it seizes? Is Vaccine Inoculation generally and successfully practised? 3. Do any manufactures, peculiarly injurious to health, exist in your neighbour. hood? How do they operate, and how are their bad effects to be remedied? 4. Are spirituous liquors consumed to excess by the middle and lower classes in your neighbourhood? To what extent is malt liquor in use amongst them? Do you think that the habit of intoxication gains ground amongst the poor? If you can devise any practicable means of checking so serious an evil, state them in de tail. 5. Do any Charitable Societies exist in your neighbourhood, for the relief of the poor during sickness, and for the encouragement of good and healthful habits? Can you suggest any mode of extending these Societies, or rendering their operations more efficacious? 6. Please to supply any information which may not be connected with the foregoing Queries, but which you shall judge to be material in elucidating the origin and progress of such distresses of the Poor of Ireland, as have a tendency to produce, to propagate, and to continue disease amongst them. And point out any practicable measures, whether of a general or local nature, which, if duly enforced by Government, and by benevolent individuals or societies, may lay a foundation for the gradual improvement of their condition. This query is not meant to comprehend Education, because it must be alowed, that Schools for the Religious and Moral instruction of the lower orders of Ireland, extensively formed, and carefully superintended, should accompany every measure which may be devised for the permanent advantage of the country. 7. To conclude-As the people of any country can be effectually benefited only by their own exertions; the importance of such exertions ought to be impressed on their minds, by every possible means.-Your opinion is therefore particularly requested as to the measures which have a tendency to excite and keep up such a laudable spirit amongst them, under the varying influence of favourable or adverse circum stances. SECOND LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR MR EDITOR, ANOTHER great advantage attending phrenology is, that it sets the philosopher, in his researches, free from the disturbing influence of his own mental peculiarities. It is amusing to see how many systems of philosophy have been founded on some mode of thinking or feeling, peculiar, in a great degree, to their author. A metaphysician endowed with a strong Benevolence, and feeble Conscientiousness, could scarcely fail, by reflecting on his own consciousness, to resolve the sentiment of Justice into Benevolence. Another to whom nature had denied powerful sentiments either of justice or benevolence, but to whom she had given a vigorous and comprehensive intellect, wouk! be prone to resolve it into perceptions of Utility. On the other hand, those individuals in whom the Sentiments were stronger than the Intellect, would be naturally prone to exalt feeling into supreme authority over judgment. |