refer only to the feeling and conduct of parties privately affected by such exposures. Others are bound to care for them as they are not bound to care for themselves. If a finished portrait of one, in whom they are nearly concerned, is due to the world, they alone can be the debtors, for the property by inheritance is in them. Other persons, without their leave, should not _undertake_ to give any such portrait; _their_ duties move on a different plane; nor can they rightly feel themselves "entitled" (to borrow the language of Mr. De Quincey, while I venture to dissent from his judgment), "to notice the most striking aspects of his character, of his disposition and his manners, as so many reflex indications of his intellectual constitution," if this involves the publication of letters on private subjects, the relation of domestic circumstances and other such personalities affecting the living. I am sure at least that conscience would prohibit _me_ from any such course. I should never think the public good a sufficient apology for publishing the secret history of any man or woman whatever, who had connections remaining upon earth; but if I were possessed of private notices respecting one in whom the world takes an interest, should think it right to place them in the hands of his nearest relations, leaving it to them to deal with such documents, as a sense of what is due to the public, and what belongs to openness and honesty, may demand. * * * * *