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Life of Thomas Eddy

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ly evaded the subject by leaving it to Peter A. Jay, Esq. then a member of the legislature, a gentleman of talents and weight of character. Mr. Jay went to Albany, hut after a while wrote to Mr. Eddy to come to his assistance. The appeal was made in such strong terms, that he could not resist it, and he set out for Albany, and with the exertions of Mr. Jay, an act was passed, giving ten thousand dollars a year for the support of the insane, and for erecting new buildings. This act was limited by the act for the better support of the hospital, which granted twelve thousand five hundred dollars for fifty years. Probably many members had forgotten when the act would expire, and those who did remember the fact, did not choose to say any thing about it. View-ed in any light, it was a liberal donation for a noble purpose. Nearly eighty acres of land were pur-chased at Bloomingdale, and a fine building erected for the accommodation of the insane. The success of his exertions, and those of his coadjutors, gave Mr. Eddy the liveliest pleasure, which he took nopains to disguise. He always felt himself an in-structor of those whose minds were sickly, and he believed that, though it was difficult, yet it was not impossible to Minister to a mind diseased; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain; And, with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff, That weighs upon the heart. The study of mental derangement is one of deep interest to the philanthropist. To mark insanity in all its various forms, to go back to the cause of its existence, whether moral, physical, or accidental, requires acuteness and constant observation. The wise and the kind feel assured that they carry with them many cures and a thousand anodynes for mise-ry. Those who devote a life to doing good, in cu-ring or soothing the maladies of the mind, improve