AND LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 



77 



doing this, and of earning peace, self-approbation, the commendation 

 of all around them, sound sleep, and sometimes a small remuneration, 

 a difficulty is found in restraining their eagerness and moderating 

 their exertions. There is in this community no compulsion, no 

 chains, no whips, no corporal chastisement, simply because these are 

 proved to be less effectual means of carrying any point than persua- 

 sion, emulation, and the desire of obtaining gratification. But there 

 are gradations of employment. You may visit rooms where there 

 are ladies reading, or at the harp or piano, or flowering muslin, or 

 engaged in some of the manifold ornamental productions in which the 

 female taste and ingenuity are displayed. You will encounter them 

 going to church or to the market; or returning from walking, 

 riding, and driving in the country. You will see them minister- 

 ing at the bed-side of some sick companion. Another wing is 

 occupied by gentlemen who can engage in intellectual pursuits, or in 

 the amusements and occupations of the station to which they belong. 

 In all probability, the billiard-room will present an animated scene. 

 Adjoining apartments are used as news-rooms, and the politicians will 

 be there, under restrictions from disputation. You will pass those 

 who are fond of reading, drawing and music, scattered through hand- 

 some suits of rooms, furnished chastely but beautifully, and looking 

 down upon such fair and fertile scenes as harmonize with the tranquil- 

 lity that reigns within, and tend to conjure up images of beauty and 

 serenity in the mind which are akin to happiness. But these persons 

 have pursuits, their time is not wholly occupied in the agreeable trifl- 

 ing of conning a debate, or gaining so many points. One acts as a 

 transcriber, another is engaged in landscape-painting, a third under- 

 takes a course of historical reading and submits to examination on the 

 subject of his studies, and a fourth seeks consolation from binding 

 the books which he does not read. All, in short, are so busy as to 

 overlook, or are so contented as to forget, their misery." 



With the preceding account of his Lectures for testimony, it may 

 be affirmed that this work of Mr. Browne's is excellent in all respects : 

 both in design and execution, it justly merits the highest commenda- 

 tion : to general readers, it discloses and offers a rich treasure of phi- 

 losophical and medical instruction : and it is with extraordinary zeal, 

 as well as extraordinary success, that he has executed his self-allotted 

 endeavours to excite and guide the sympathy of those who are bless- 

 ed with a sane, a benevolent, and a cultivated mind, to assist in ame- 

 liorating the condition of their fellow-beings who may be suffering 

 the afflictions of Insanity. He has been the first to engage in an 



