been improved by toning them down to the strict de-
corum of matter intended for publication, by excluding
from them the forms in which audiences are addressed
or appealed to, as well as certain familiarities and play-
fulnesses of phraseology--all quite fitting in a lecture,
and enjoyable by the hearers;--yet we felt a reluctance
to touch the text of Taylor with irreverent hands, or to
tear to pieces even that which we meant to reconstruct,
or to assume a responsibility in the act which the pub-
lic might not be disposed to tolerate. Taylor was too
high a character, and he filled too large a place in our
literature, to be subjected, in the helplessness of death,
to the wrong of having his work tampered with, even
by tender hands, devoted to fulfilling a purpose of his
own. The master's hand is as stiff as the pencil which
he held, his blood is as dry as the colors upon his
palette: let the pupils stand before his unfinished work
in the stillness of reverence; but let no one impose a
tone or a tint upon the canvas, lest the world of to-day
and the world of to-morrow should say that the picture
is not his.

G. H. B.

-viii-