nomy is auspiciously modified by the intelligent suggestions of writers on principles of taste and the laws of health. The advantage of ventilation and ablution, the wisdom of inexpensive entertainments and refinement in public amusements, are daily more appreciated through the intelligent advocacy of literature; the architecture and furniture of dwellings cannot fail to become more fit and pleasing by means of the eloquent treatise of Ruskin; while the lionizing and blue-stocking mania is obviously on the decline since it has become the subject of masterly satire. Let us not forget that no small degree of that salutary impulse, which gave this practical direction to literature, is referable to the candid and kindly example of Steele. Women, especially, owe him no small obligation, for advocating the mental capabilities, recognising the social mission, and exposing the baneful follies of their sex. He indicated how they may derive positive benefit from men of letters, by sharing with them the domain of taste and cultivating the amenities of life. Many questions of vital import to their usefulness and satisfaction, previously kept in abeyance through false delicacy or proud indifference, were thus brought fairly into discussion, and submitted to the ordeal of truth; so that we may ascribe, in a measure, the increased consideration the sex enjoy, to this wise application of literature to life. We regard Steele as a kind of bold and graceful steward at the feast of letters; who, uniting intellectual gifts with social instincts,

won the thinker from retirement and the worldling to books, broke the ice of pedantry, melted the reserve of scholarship, and gently led the careless votary of pleasure into the temple of reflection. He was a pioneer in that great achievement of modern civilization-the diffusion of knowledge. He strove to make the acquisitions of the few available to the many; and first successfully established, among the Anglo-Saxons, and indirectly elsewhere, the magnetic telegraph of social literature-now the familiar blessing of the world-the cheapest of luxuries, the most unfailing of resources, and one of the mainsprings of human interest. Not so much by genius and erudition, but through a hearty frankness, a captivating address, and liberal sympathies, he became the favourite companion at every London breakfast-table; and lived in the world "rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species;" and to such advantage, that the list of subscribers to each of his periodicals comprised the most illustrious names in the kingdom. How natural for Lamb to exclaim, with the zest of a contemporary, "O, to read Steele new!" La Bruyère had analyzed character, and Castiglione drawn up a code of manners, but with a more genial and comprehensive aim, the Spectator and Tatler surveyed the whole field of human life, and reasoned of its inward elements and external phases, so that their projector deserved the encomium of one of his biographers, who says that "all the pulpit discourses of a year

scarce produced half the good that flowed from the Spectator of a day." In a purely literary point of view, Steele merits the distinction of having illustrated the availability of our vernacular. He took the language from stilts and placed it on its feet. The most felicitous of his essays are colloquial without any loss of dignity, and expressive without the use of any sonorous or peculiar words. He knew how to write like a gentleman as well as a scholar; reproduced original simplicity of diction, and from a ponderous mace that only the erudite thought of handling, moulded and tempered it into a delicate but keen rapier, light to carry and graceful to wield. Writing became more conversational, and talking more finished, from the easy rhetoric of the old essayists; and, although Steele modestly yields the palm to Addison, declaring himself "undone by his auxiliary;" we are inclined to think, with Swift, that "the ingenious gentleman who did, thrice a week divert and instruct the public with his papers, tried the force and compass of our language with eminent success. ." He had the nature and the independence to print talk, the sense to make it useful, and the fancy to give it a charm; and it has, therefore, been justly said of him and his co-labourers, that for more than half a century they "supplied the English nation with principles of speculation."

Con amore is the secret of eloquent advocacy. Steele loved truth and beauty in form, manners, and action, with an enthusiasm that few divines realized;

hence their exposition was to him a peculiar delight. He lacked the firmness to embody these high principles in his life; but the consciousness of this gave new fervour to the sentiments their contemplation inspired. He had the nobility to appreciate what he felt was beyond his reach; and seemed to atone for personal disloyalty to virtue, by sincere public homage at her shrine. The inconsistency might have been fatal, had he ministered openly at the altar whose secret priest he aspired to be; but addressing his readers under the humorous name of Isaac Bickerstaff, to which the wit of Swift had given the prestige of notoriety, there was no inevitable association of the censor with the man. An universality of aim took away the special intent of his hits at folly; and self-love was not wounded by the judicious advice of a kindly man of the world anonymously tendered. Besides and above all, there was the undertone of genuine affection, to render musical even the hoarse voice of reproof; the satire had too much of pleasantry to embitter its object; and the magnetic touch of that spirit of humanity which lives in the famous line of Terence, and the cherished song of Burns, took the sting of enduring pain from the needful blow of correction.

Che Naturalist.

HUMBOLDT.

THE unclouded and tranquil close of a long and successful career in art, literature, or science, is a phase of human life not less rare than grateful. Misfortune, error, or an unhappy organization, so often render the development of gifted men incomplete or morbid, that an exception to so common a lot deserves earnest attention. It shows that what are called the infirmities of genius are not inevitable; that there is a method of exercising the intellect without compromising health; and that moral integrity may co-exist with the boldest mental enterprise. Perhaps the most illustrious instance, in modern times, of an efficient and genial life of scientific research, is that of Alexander Von Humboldt. His observation is remarkable both for activity and scope. His study of the phenomena of the universe has been habitual; and in the eager pursuit of a special inquiry, he improved even the circumstances that baffled his progress. Thus, when delayed by political events from embarking on his American expedition, he occupied himself in ascertaining the height