of Wills' Hospital, under the authority of an act of Assembly, passed April 16th, 1838.

CHARLES S. BOKER.

BY JOSEPH R. CHANDler.

Ir has seemed to us that no more rational curiosity can be manifested than that which inquires for the mode by which individuals have gained distinction; and no more commendable use can be made of literature than to satisfy that curiosity by a fair statement of the means by which the gifted mind has developed itself, on some principle of action, and the possessor acquired distinction by the integrity, good sense, and unflagging industry with which he pursued the object to which he had dedicated himself.

This is to present a knowledge of man,-of man as he exists and manifests himself in his domestic and social relations. History abounds with the records of achievements that strike the mind with surprise, as the results of some rash enterprise, or the consequences of some reckless course of speculation. These neither strengthen the good resolutions of the prudent, nor administer monition to the rash. The very success of a wild enterprise, that seems to disconnect cause from effect, begets or encourages a gambling spirit, and the sober order of business comes to be despised by the young aspirant, who thinks to overleap the prescribed landmarks of trade, and possess himself of the vast domain of wealth, as if it were only to risk and to win.

Much less instructive to the toiling many (though always interesting as a record of facts) is the biography of those who, having means, education, friends (altogether one name for capital) commence business with a full knowledge of all its theory and a ready resort in times of embarrassments. They have few of those primary difficulties to surmount, which harden the less fortunate man into economy and enterprise, and compel him to comprehend the whole

nature and risk of a transaction, before he involves himself, his time, and his little means in the undertaking. The distinction at which the true business man aims (for whatever motive he may suppose is influencing him, all his ends are distinction, and generally distinction by wealth), is to be reached, and reached alone by toil, by calculation, by sacrifice; the more direct, the more referable to the single individual are these various desiderata, the more instructive is the biography of that individual.

The young merchant who takes rank with his father or friend, and commences his life of business with all the advantages which establishment gives, may be as useful a member of the mercantile corps, or as valuable a citizen; but his biography is not so interesting to the general reader, and the record of his experience is far less instructive, as including few or none of those incidents which occur in the life of him who has to make his own position, and toil for years to reach the topmost round in the ladder of prosperity and desirable distinction. Such a man achieves little, though he enjoys much: he starts from the highest point which his father or his patron attained, and, before he commences his ascent, he is already above the level of those who surround him. He is distinguished already by the very position from which he begins to mount; and a notice of his progress, and an account of his success, can have little, beyond the power to gratify general curiosity, to render them desirable. To be instructive, to be encouraging, the record must contain the difficulties and the efforts of the first step; it is that which costs, and that which counts. And men desire to know, the moralist desires to recite, those acts and those sufferings about which the mass of the people will say: "That is what we had to suffer, that is what we ought to have done."

However distinguished a community may become by the prevalence of certain sciences and arts, in its midst, those sciences and arts are generally illustrated and developed by a few who are preeminent in their position, and distinguished by the success which is consequent upon their superior gifts and attainments. In another work, of a character kindred to this, we presented sketches of the life and professional pursuits of distinguished living lawyers of this country, and the general approval with which that work was received, satisfies us that, however successful may have been the