in its result has been charitable in its
intention, and the author at once yields his profits to a friend's need,
and his production to the public eye. Thackeray has written well upon
humor and charity, but should he undertake to carry out his idea and
treat of literature and humanity in their vital relations, he would have
his hands and heart full of work for more than a lifetime. Princes who
give their gold to generous uses are worthy of honor; but there is a
coinage of the brain that costs more and weighs more than gold. The
authors of these papers would of course be little disposed to claim any
high merit for their offerings, yet any reader who runs his eye over the
list of contributors will see at once that they are generally writers
whose compositions are eagerly sought for by the public, and among them
are some names whose pens can coin gold whenever they choose to move. All
these articles are original, and nothing is inserted in this book that has
been before published. We are confident that it deserves, and will command
wide and choice circulation.

A word as to the lady for whose benefit these gifts are brought together.
The preface of Mr. Bryant and the letter of Mr. Butler, tell her story
with sufficient distinctness, and the readiness with which our men and
women of letters have so generally complied with her request, shows what
eloquence she bears in her presence and statement. Some certificates from
her pupils in drawing, who testify to her love of nature and her delight
in sketching directly from nature, so greatly to their improvement in this
beautiful art, give peculiar pathos to her case. The organ that was the
source of her highest satisfaction is closed up by this dark sorrow, and
the gate called Beautiful, to this earthly temple no longer is open to
scenes and faces of loveliness. What a fearful loss is this loss of
sight--on the whole the noblest of the senses, and certainly the sense of
all others most serviceable, alike to the working hand and the creative
imagination. The eye may not be so near the fountains of sensibility as
the ear, and no impression reaches the sympathy so profoundly as the
pathos of living speech, but the eye has a far wider range than the ear
and fathoms the heavens and sweeps the earth and sea, whilst the ear hears
distinctly but within a very narrow limit, hardly a stone's throw. When
the eye, then, loses its marvellous faculty and sees no longer the light
of day and the