tinels stationed on the ramparts of a college certainly seem to merit the names we found it necessary to give them. That there exist religious jealousies unfriendly to St. Mary's, we do not see denied; that this college has had liberal donations, is not contradicted; and that the institution has declined, our respected Correspondent seems to take for granted.-After all, we only say that the reasons we gave have been assigned as the causes of its declension; and can the managers of its concerns undertake to allege, that such reasons have not had a disadvantageous operation on its interests? We have not said, that there is, in St. Mary's, a spirit of proselytism to the Catholic religion; but we know, that Protestants have entertained such an opinion; and we think our Correspondent rather admits it. It has even been thought, that the grand object of this seminary, is, to promote the Roman Catholic religion;-an opinion which we do not say is well founded. We have not asserted that there is any literary deficiency in St. Mary's; and we were as much surprised at Mr. Buté himself, to find that we had given his place to M. Du Bourgh. With these remarks we submit a literal transcript of our Correspondent's letter. The Editors of the Analectic Magazine. GENTLEMEN, 6 In the brief account of the American Colleges,' inserted in your number for April, you hold yourselves 'personally responsible' for the correctness of such statements as could not be ascertained from references to well known authors. A degree, indeed, of responsibility must be felt by sensible editors, when they introduce or admit in their publications, any fact or observation which may affect the character and interest of the institutions concerned. For the better discharge of that responsibility, so properly and candidly acknowledged in this very case, we offer you these few remarks, respecting St. Mary's College in Baltimore, to be added to the brief account, &c.' 1. The extensive advertising' or any other effort to render the institution 'popular' indecorously attributed to St. Mary's College, is, certainly, for those to whom it is well known, perfectly in contrast with that highly independant character which has constantly been one of its peculiar features. Its nu merous friends have been uniformly, and still are, persons too respectable to have been so easily and so successfully influenced by mere inferior means and arts. If they have so zealously cherished and encouraged the institution it is because they have judged its real services worthy of their perseverant patronage. The insinuation has been strongly reprobated by them and the whole article considerd as greatly improper. 2. The account refers to 1806 at the epoch of a 'declension' of the college which, in the manner it is represented and explained, might rather be considered at its doom-Whilst the truth is that if the college could not fail to experience the same vicissitudes to which the most ancient establishments, and even those supported by their respective states are subject; if during the war, it must have particularly suffered, it has since prospered anew, and it now contains above one hundred students. As for the character of its pupils, St. Mary's, considering its time of being and its peculiar circumstances, has certainly returned to society its due proportion of useful and honourable members. Literature and sciences, the fine arts and the learned progressions have welcomed a considerable number of these pupils. Of the many who have embraced the profession of physic, two have obtained the gold medal given at each commencement of the faculty of Maryland to the graduate who produces the best Latin thesis. The diplomatic career has received many others; three young men of the five employed as secretaries during the negociations at Ghent, were pupils of St. Mary's; two others have also followed Mr. Pinkney in his legation. Seven of its graduates, within this year, have travelled to the universities of France and England, a circumstance which at least seems to evince that zeal for information with which they have been inspired, during their exercises at St. Mary's, and which it is so interesting for this country to see extensively promoted. Many of these estimable pupils belong to families so highly respected in these states that their name is, by itself, a kind of strong presumption in favour of the institution to which their education was intrusted. 3. Of that curious military despotism' of the gentlemen of St. Mary's we leave their pupils, now dispersed in every part of the union, to bear the proper witness, or the readers, if they are the best informed, of the mild regulations and kindly temper of the institution, to judge for themselves. Few institutions, we believe, can receive more marks of esteem and affection from their pupils, than have been bestowed on their alma mater by those of St. Mary's-nor have the reverend M. Dubourg and his successors MM. Paquiet and Mareshal so far behaved as 'military despots' as not to obtain an uncommon share in the love of their youthful friends-the present head of the college will probably, after them continue, in its management, to steer between any excess of that discipline considered by the institution as so important to the welfare of the students; and any improper relaxation of it that might impair its usefulness. 4. That the reverend M. Dubourg, now the Catholic bishop of New Orle ans, is not now the president of St. Mary's, is sufficiently implied in the preceding remark; as for the name of the actual president of the other college, the author of the article betrays the same carelesness or want of exact information. The paragraph has been written ex professo to give the present state of the American colleges, these errors, particularly for institutions so near the place where it is published, are more remarkable. We take no notice of those which concern the other colleges mentioned in the brief account.' 5. The respectable patronage alluded to, belongs solely to the college of Georgetown, in the District of Colum bia, chartered by Congress, and more considerable in many respects than some of those reviewed in the account, yet entirely omitted. Of the liberal contributions in like manner alluded to, scarcely any proof, we think, could be furnished-St. Mary's college may simply rely on the public esteem as long as it will deserve it. Rivalships, it entertains none; no institution was ever more free from intrigues or any petty arts of that kind-more exact to confine itself within the proper bounds of self-defence. 6. As for the religious jealousy' with which it is said to be regarded by a portion of the community, the gentlemen of St. Mary's may trust the liberality of the times for its limited effect besides the reproach would but be theirs, for we do not see why a literary institution would not have in Baltimore, its proper degree of respectability and usefulness, in the bounds of catholic clergymen as well as it has it in those of Arian clergymen in Harverd, or Calvinistical clergymen in Yale, as the brief account will have them to be in these most ancient and celebrated universities. We abstain from further remarkswhether the errors of the paragraph concerning St. Mary's College were originally misstatements or mistakes is indifferent, and we ought not to suppose the former in preference, since any ill will to that institution could not have gratuitously influenced the impartial and uninjured editors; to offer the proper corrections was the only object of, Gentlemen, yours, &c. ERRATA. In our last No. Page 441, line, 5, after Trigonometry, insert Mensuration, THE ANALECTIC MAGAZINE. AUGUST, 1817. ART. I.-Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM, M. D. LL. D. F. R. S. F. A. S. F. L. S. &c. &c. &c. with a selection from his correspondence.-By Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, F. L. S. Member of, &c. &c. &c. 3 volumes, 8vo. London. WE E should hardly have deemed this publication worth the pages we have dedicated to it, but from the circumstance of its comprising epistolary correspondence between Dr. Lettsom and many persons of eminence of our own country, both dead and living. To American readers therefore, this collection will be an object of curiosity at least, even if it were worth perusing on no other account. Indeed if it contained nothing better to recommend it than the Biography of Dr. Lettsom by his friend Mr. Pettigrew, and the letters of Dr. Lettsom himself, we might safely consign it to the dust of the shelf, a portion of the literary lumber that adds merely to the inutile pondus. When an author, even in this book-making age, sits down to write the memoirs of the life and writings of his deceased friend, and to present the world with a selection from his correspondence, it is reasonable to expect, 1. That the life of the person in question should be interesting from the great eminence of the deceased-from the remarkable character of the events of his life or instructive, from the moral lessons and conclusions which it affords. 2. The selection from his correspondence should be interesting, either from the novelty of fact, the ingenuity of remark, the literary merit of the letters selected, or the high character and station of the writers, which renders it a matter of public curiosity to know somewhat of their manners and sentiments. 3. Moreover, in selecting the correspondence, much delicacy should be employed in publishing letters which the writers meant only for the private perusal of the deceased to whom they were addressed. Indeed, it behoves every man to be upon his guard in writing letters to those who are accustomed to preserve their episto VOL. X. 12 lary correspondence. To such a person, prudence requires that we should write only what we would write to the public: for although we might venture to unbosom ourselves to a friend, whose character we know and esteem, some book-making executor, may compel us to unbosom ourselves to all the world, and make the public at large our confidants, without our knowledge or consent. Hence it becomes the duty of a man of eminence, to destroy such letters of his friends as do not require preservation from the permanent importance of their contents; for although the communication may be preserved as the writer intended it should be, in the private escrutore of the friend to whom it was directed, yet a legal representative may seize upon it as lawful prey, and expose it for his own purposes to all the world, provided in so doing he keeps within the tether marked out by the law. It would be difficult to assign any one reasonable motive for writing the life and memoirs of Dr. Lettsom, a man in our time generally regarded rather as a licensed quack, than a regular physicianignorant of the common attainments of the well educated medical men who were his cotemporaries-notorious for his vanity, for his perpetual attempts to puff himself into public notice, for his bustling, ostentatious philanthropy, and his popularity and prosperity as a medical practitioner, in consequence of being considered by a particular sect, as the successor of Dr. Fothergill. Of his medical opinions and discoveries, we know none that have survived him; of his writings it would be difficult to point out one that has earned the approbation of the literary world. He was a zealous and active promoter of many liberal and charitable schemes; instigated partly by a desire of being useful, and mainly by a wish that the world should notice him as being so. But though a zealous and an active, he was not an efficient promoter of any of these schemes; for his efforts were not seconded by any weight of personal character. Among those who knew him personally, he was not respected: indeed we incur no risk saying, that his general character was that of a man singularly desirous of popularity, but ignorant, vain, and ostentatious. This may be deemed by some an ill-natured, harsh account of a character made up, like many others, of some faults and more virtues; but it will not be deemed so by those who take the trouble of reading, as we have done, the Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Lettsom, and the Selection from his Correspondence by his present biographer, Mr. Pettigrew: for even Dr. Lettsom seems destined to be served up after death by some "damn'd good natured friend," as Sir Fretful Plagiary expresses it, who, like Bozzi and Piozzi kindly exposes all the failings of his life, to the animadversion of future times. By the assistance of many trifling anecdotes of many trifling characters, the Life and Memoirs occupy about two hundred the first volume. pages of Thus in page 5 we are told that John Coakley Lettsom was born the island of Tortola on the 22d of November, 1744. From thence to page 11, is principally occupied by an account of the school in which he was educated till the age of fourteen:-not for the purpose of marking his improvement there, or of noticing any plan of discipline or instruction worthy to be imitated or avoided; but to give an account of the amusements of the children; to wit, that there was a brook near the school where they fished-that they made several little pools by damming up the water, to preserve their fish in— that bird's-nesting, nutting, sliding, and other country sports, were their common recreations-that each boy had some kind of singing bird, which occasioned a medley of noises sufficient to stun the ears of a person unaccustomed to such music: then follows an episode of two linnets that were very fond of each other:-then the sports of the boys are resumed, and we are informed that they used to jump over hedges and ditches after the hunters, by the assistance of long poles-that in summer they were encouraged to bathe and swim, and to shoot with bows and arrows:-at length, in page 11, Lettsom is taken away from school, on the death of his father. 'Lettsom was so early sensible of the want of a good memory, that at this time (being in his 18th year) he availed himself of notes, and constructed tables, to assist it; and by often reverting to them, the impressions that he wished more particularly to retain, were rendered so strong as rarely to elude recollection. Thus, with moderate powers of mind, he was enabled to supply by industry and art, what nature had denied him. By the construction of tables, he surmounted many difficulties which occurred in the course of his attention to anatomy, and was thus prepared the better to understand what he had collected by reading.' It is a pity we have no specimen of, or any further information concerning these tables or their construction. The contrivances of literary men to abridge labour, and facilitate the means of acquiring knowledge, are of great importance to the literary world, when those means prove successful; and if Mr. Pettigrew had bestowed half the time on this subject that he has done on the common sports of Lettsom's school boy companions, he would have done his friend, his book, and himself more credit, and his readers more service. In pages 18 and 19, notice is taken of some women whom Dr. Lettsom was acquainted with in early life; Mary Morris, Deborah Barnet, and Mary Fothergill; the two latter, female preachers in the society of friends. Of the former Mr. Pettigrew gives the following account: Thus his time glided smoothly away. His chief acquaintances were the Birckbecks, who, from a state of comparative indigence, rose to great opulence; but who never abused or disgraced their riches by pride, extravagance, or want of charity. With Miss Mary Morris, who afterwards married Dr. Knowles, and settled in London, he enjoyed an intimate friendship; and they occasionally interchanged pieces of poetry, in the construction of which she was much the superior. She excelled also in epistolary correspondence; and in her conversation there was a sprightliness and poignancy which riveted and gratified the attention of every hearer. Miss Morris was once introduced to the king, and was rewarded by his majesty, for her great ingenuity in needle-work. She executed an excellent likeness of the monarch in worsted, which is now in one |