the same opinions have been considered at one time as dangerous because they were new, and at another as useful because they were ancient. What is to be inferred from this, but that man deserves to be pitied; that the opinions of con temporaries on the truth or falsehood, and the good or bad consequences, of a new doctrine, are always to be suspected; and that the only object of an author ought to be to point out the truth." "" I

To these extracts many more might be added of a similar nature; but enough has been said to demonstrate, that, by the ordinary practice of mankind, great discoveries are treated with hostility, and their authors with hatred and contempt, or at least with neglect, by the generation to whom they are originally published.

If, therefore, Phrenology be a discovery at all, and especially if it be also important, it must of necessity come into collision, on the most weighty topics, with the opinions of men hitherto venerated as authorities in physiology and the philosophy of mind; and, according to the custom of the world, nothing but opposition, ridicule, and abuse, could be expected on its first announcement. If we are to profit, however, by the lessons of history, we ought, after surveying these mortifying examples of human weakness and wickedness, to dismiss from our minds every prejudice against the subject before us, founded on its hostile reception by men of established reputation of the present day. He who does not perceive that, if Phrenology shall prove to be true, posterity will regard the contumelies heaped by the philosophers of this generation on its founders as another dark speck in the history of scientific discovery, and who does not feel anxious to avoid all participation in this ungenerous treatment,—has reaped no moral improvement from the records of intolerance which we have now contemplated: But every enlightened individual will say, Let us dismiss prejudice, and calmly listen to evidence and reason; let us not encoun

1 Dr Spurzheim's Philosophical Principles of Phrenology, p. 97.

ter even the chance of adding our names to the melancholy list of the enemies of mankind, by refusing, on the strength of mere prejudice, to be instructed in the new doctrines submitted to our consideration; let us enquire, examine, and decide.

These, I trust, are the sentiments of the reader; and on the faith of their being so, I shall proceed, in the second place, to state very briefly the principles of Phrenology.

It is a notion inculcated—often indirectly no doubt, but not less strongly-by highly venerated teachers of intellectual philosophy, that we are acquainted with Mind and Body as two distinct and separate entities. The anatomist treats of the body, and the logician and moral philosopher of the mind, as if they were separate subjects of investigation, either not at all, or only in a remote and unimportant degree, connected with each other. In common society, too, men speak of the dispositions and faculties of the mind, without thinking of their close connexion with the body.

But the human mind, as it exists in this world, cannot, by itself, become an object of philosophical investigation. Placed in a material world, it cannot act or be acted upon, but through the medium of an organic apparatus. The soul sparkling in the eye of beauty transmits its sweet influence to a kindred spirit only through the filaments of an optic nerve; and even the bursts of eloquence which flow from the lips of the impassioned orator when mind appears to transfuse itself almost directly into mind emanate from, and are transmitted to, corporeal beings, through a voluminous apparatus of organs. If we trace the mind's progress from the cradle to the grave, every appearance which it presents reminds us of this important truth. In earliest life the mental powers are feeble as the body; but when manhood comes, they glow with energy, and expand with power; till at last the chill of age makes the limbs totter, and the fancy's fires decay.

Nay, not only the great stages of our infancy, vigour, and

decline, but the experience of every hour, reminds us of our alliance with the dust. The lowering clouds and stormy sky depress the spirits and enerve the mind;—after short and stated intervals of toil, our wearied faculties demand repose in sleep ;-famine or disease is capable of levelling the proudest energies with the earth;-and even the finest portion of our compound being, the Mind itself, apparently becomes diseased, and, leaving nature's course, flies to self-destruction to escape from wo.

These phenomena must be referred to the organs with which, in this life, the mind is connected: but if the organs exert so great an effect over the mental manifestations, no system of philosophy is entitled to consideration, which neglects their influence, and treats the thinking principle as a disembodied spirit. The phrenologist, therefore, regards man as he exists in this world; - and desires to investigate the laws which regulate the connexion between the mind and its organs, but without attempting to discover the essence of either, or the manner in which they are united.

The popular notion, that we are acquainted with mind unconnected with matter, is therefore founded on an illusion. In point of fact, we do not in this life know mind as one entity, and body as another; but we are acquainted only with the compound existence of mind and body. A few remarks will place this doctrine in its proper light.

In the first place, we are not conscious of the existence and functions of the organs by which the mind operates in this life, and, in consequence, many acts appear to us to be purely mental, which experiment and observation prove incontestibly to depend on corporeal organs. For example, in stretching out or withdrawing the arm, we are conscious of an act of the will, and of the consequent movement of the arm, but not of the existence of the apparatus by means of which our volition is carried into execution. Experiment and observation, however, demonstrate the existence of bones. of the arm curiously articulated and adapted to motion; of muscles endowed with powers of contraction; and of three

sets of nervous fibres all running in one sheath—one communicating feeling, a second exciting motion, and a third conveying to the mind information of the state of the muscles, when in action; all which organs, except the nerve of feeling, must combine and act harmoniously before the arm can be moved and regulated by the will. All that a person uninstructed in anatomy knows, is, that he wills the motion, and that it takes place; the whole act appears to him to be purely mental, and only the arm, or thing moved, is conceived to be corporeal. Nevertheless, it is positively established by anatomical and physiological researches that this conclusion is erroneous-that the act is not purely mental, but is accomplished by the instrumentality of the various organs now enumerated. In like manner, every act of vision involves a certain state of the optic nerve, and every act of hearing a certain state of the tympanum; yet of the existence and functions of these organs we obtain, by means of consciousness, no knowledge whatever.

Now, I go one step farther in the same path, and state, that every act of the will, every flight of imagination, every glow of affection, and every effort of the understanding, in this life, is performed by means of cerebral organs unknown to us through consciousness, but the existence of which is capable of being demonstrated by experiment and observation; in other words, that the brain is the organ of the mind-the material condition without which no mental act is possible in the present world. The greatest physiologists admit this proposition without hesitation. The celebrated Dr Cullen of Edinburgh states, that "the part of our body more imme. diately connected with the mind, and therefore more especially concerned in every affection of the intellectual func tions, is the common origin of the nerves; which I shall, in what follows, speak of under the appellation of the Brain." Again, the same author says: "We cannot doubt that the operations of our intellect always depend upon certain motions taking place in the brain." The late Dr James Gregory, when speaking of memory, imagination, and judgment, observes,

that "Although at first sight these faculties appear to be so purely mental as to have no connexion with the body, yet certain diseases which obstruct them prove, that a certain state of the brain is necessary to their proper exercise, and that the brain is the primary organ of the internal powers." The great physiologist of Germany, Blumenbach, says: "That the mind is closely connected with the brain, as the material condition of mental phenomena, is demonstrated by our consciousness, and by the mental disturbances which ensue upon affections of the brain." According to Magendie, a celebrated French physiologist, "the brain is the material instrument of thought: this is proved by a multitude of experiments and facts."

"I readily concur," says Mr Abernethy, "in the proposition, that the brain of animals ought to be regarded as the organization by which the percipient principle becomes variously affected. First, because, in the senses of sight, hearing, &c. I see distinct organs for the production of each perception. Secondly, because the brain is larger and more complicated in proportion as the variety of the affections of the percipient principle is increased. Thirdly, because disease and injuries disturb and annul particular faculties and affections without impairing others. And, fourthly, because it seems more reasonable to me to suppose that whatever is perceptive may be variously affected by means of vital actions transmitted through a diversity of organization, than to suppose that such variety depends upon original differences in the nature of the percipient principle."

"If the mental processes," asks Mr Lawrence, " be not the function of the brain, what is its office? In animals which possess only a small part of the human cerebral structure, sensation exists, and in many cases is more acute than in What employment shall we find for all that man possesses over and above this portion-for the large and prodigiously-developed human hemispheres? Are we to believe

man.

1 Elliotson's translation of Blumenbach's Physiology, 4th edit. p. 196.