Fluorine), as materials with which to constitute the body and brain, and to endow them, while so employed, with all the vital and mental functions they possess, cerebral matter cannot be to man a fit object of aversion, contempt, and ridicule. I beg religious readers to look on this figure

Here we perceive the nerves of all the senses entering into the brain, and the spinal cord proceeding from it; and we know that the cord sends forth nerves, one set of which conveys the mandates of the will down to, and the other conveys sensation up to it from, all parts of the body. I appeal to every reflecting person who believes in God, whether this complicated structure, with these connections, should continue to be treated only with contumely and aversion, as has been the practice in times past, or whether we should not approach the investigation of it with that seriousness of feeling which we exhibit in studying the other portions of the human structure which we believe to be of Divine origin. This appeal is specially necessary, because it is chiefly through the influence of religious persons that, even in the few schools into which Physiology has been introduced as a branch of instruction, the functions of the different parts of the brain, as organs of particular mental faculties, continue to be deliberately excluded.

This religious opposition to Phrenology appears more strikingly impolitic and absurd when we consider the present state - of the dogmatic faith of the British Empire. The failure of the means of religious instruction hitherto employed has forced itself upon the attention even of religious men. The Rev. R. C. Savage, A.M., Vicar of Nuneaton, &c., in a Letter to the Earl of Denbigh, says: "We find this melancholy fact recorded against us, that on the census Sunday in March 1851, out of our population of 475,013, only 75,706 attended any place of worship connected with the Church of England; and that the whole amount of persons (including the Sunday Schools) attending any place of worship in Warwickshire on that day was only 142,227, leaving 332,786 in this county who were absent from the worship of Almighty God on that day." In Birmingham and Coventry, the proportions of persons absent from public worship on that day to those present were similar to the foregoing; and the Reverend Vicar observes, that "it cannot be said the churches were deserted and the chapels filled; your Lordship will observe there were more vacant sittings in the places of dissenting worship than in the churches" (P.6). "But here is the fearful fact, that out of a population (in Birmingham) of 232,841, only 45,544 attended any place of worship in the morning; only 6877 in the afternoon; and only 33,564 in the evening. And the numbers in the morning and afternoon would include many of the Sunday School children, of whom there are 21,406!" (P. 7.)

Mr Savage adds: "Surely, My Lord, this is a startling fact, which, while it arouses our fears and calls forth our sorrow, should awaken also our deepest sympathy in searching out the cause of this disregard for, and neglect of, the ordinances of religion and the services of the Church." (P. 6.)

"And this leads to our Second point, a consideration of the Remedy most suitable to meet this alarming, but true, representation of our present social condition. The great question doubtless is, how shall this threatening evil be met and be dissipated? how shall the masses of the population be delivered from the spiritual and moral pestilence which is already so fearful, and which by every day's delay grows into more overwhelming certainty of desolation and ruin to all that we hold

London: Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday. 1856.

dear and sacred? An increase of Churches-an increase of the Pastorate-an increase of the means of Education and of children brought under the influence of our Schools, both day and Sunday—the erection of Reformatories for juvenile offenders the establishment of ragged schools-these no doubt are all needed, and are all valuable and indispensable helps to the Church in the great work which is now before her-but these do not accomplish it. These do not reach the evil in all its varied ramifications; some touch it at one point and some at another; but still the evil exists and is daily increasing.—We want an agency which will reach where these do not reach, and which will aid and strengthen them where they do." (P. 16.)

The agency which he recommends is "the employment of pious, sober-minded, and judicious Laymen, properly qualified to work under the Clergyman, in reading the Scriptures and visiting from house to house, and thus to invade and penetrate the dark dense mass of ignorance, prejudice, and irreligion, which exists to the expression of the Church's sympathy and of her care for immortal souls." It is implied that only the old formulas are to be used, and the old doctrines inculcated by these laymen, in the face of all the experience here recorded of the want of power in these to interest and attract the people! As the foregoing representation applies more or less to every part of Great Britain and Ireland, I have taken the liberty, in the following work, to suggest something additional to the means recommended by Mr Savage; and, however erroneous my views may appear, it is clear that something besides the system that has failed is needed, to carry forward the civilization of the country; and, perhaps, in a multitude of counsellors, wisdom may be found.

A grand obstacle to the discovery of remedies for these evils has been raised by the practice of many religious persons of denouncing as infidels and "bad men" all who dissent from the accredited standards of faith and suggest improvements on them. This conduct has at length led to a reaction, which is constantly gaining strength. Within the last twenty years not only various doctrines, but, in some instances, the whole fabric of Christianity itself, have been subjected to numerous searching, logical, and temperate assaults. In support of this remark, it is necessary only to refer to the following among

many similar works which have appeared within that time: Froude's Nemesis of Faith:-T. Parker's Discourse of Matters pertaining to Religion:-Religious Thoughts of a Believer in Nature-Greg's Creed of Christendom :-Mackay's Progress of the Intellect:-De Wette's Introduction to the Old Testament, translated by T. Parker:-Eichhorn's Introduction to the same-Chevalier Bunsen's "Gott in der Geschichte :"-Macnaught on Inspiration:-Donaldson's "Christian Orthodoxy,' and "Jasher:"-" Hebrew Records," by Dr Giles:-Dr Davidson's vol. in new edition of Horne's Introduction:-Coleridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit :-Jowett's Commentary on Paul's Epistles :-F. Newman's Phases of Faith, and other works:-The Westminster Review, passim :—National Review, January 1857; Article, "Spurgeon and his popularity."

I give this list to impress, if possible, religious persons with a perception of the position of Religion in the present day, in the hope of inducing them to listen with patience and candour to suggestions offered in the spirit, not of destruction* but of improvement. As it is chiefly through the periodical press that they seek to cast obloquy on reformers, I beg to call their attention to the passage quoted from Lamartine on the title page of this work, and recommend the following examples of liberality to their imitation.

In "Lowe's Edinburgh Magazine" for July 1848, said to have been an organ of the Free Church, the following observations occur:-"Now let speculative Philosophy take warning and encouragement from the progress of Geology, if it would assert its own honour, or offer a spontaneous testimony to the majesty of truth. And for ourselves, we hesitate not to aver, that the honest truth-seeking infidel, when handling the pure symbols of some favourite science, which he knows dispassionately

* In a work entitled "At Home and Abroad," containing selections from the correspondence of the late Countess D'Ossoli (Margaret Fuller), lately published in the U. S., we find the following account of Thomas Carlyle and his conversation: "He has touched the rocks, and they have given forth musical answer; little more was wanting to begin to construct the City. But that little was wanting, and the work of construction is left to those that come after him; nay all attempts of the kind, he is the readiest to deride, fearing new shams worse than the old, unable to trust the general action of a thought, and finding no heroic man, no natural king to represent it, and challenge his confidence." In Chap. I. I have freely availed myself of Mr Carlyle's powerful eloquence in exposing error. I should doubly rejoice should he now try to extinguish the foregoing reproach by making equally splendid efforts to build up a new fabric of truth.

and loves disinterestedly, will make a larger contribution towards the advancement of even religious truth, because undesignedly he explores and interprets the operation of harmonious law in the universe of God, than the rigorous and bristling divine, who, with iron tongue and leaden brains, would engulph both science and religion under the crushing terrors of one enormous anathema."

"An Atheist," says the "Nonconformist," a religious newspaper conducted with great liberality and ability, "is not to be tabooed. He is not to be thrust out of the pale of humanity. Our puritan forefathers would have branded and imprisoned him; we would reason and plead with him. To us he is, and to them he ought to have been, a man and a brother. If he really believes there is no God (prove it he cannot), the 'portentous heroism' of such a creed awakes within us thrilling emotions of wonder and surprise. And if with this no-belief he connects a life irreproachable and unselfish, if with this nobelief he associates high patriotic yearnings and generous political sentiments, and if with this no-belief never a word of scorn or cankering hate for those who are entrapped by 'superstition' escapes his lips, then we dare not despise, much less loathe, such a man: we can give him the right hand of true friendship, and not fearing that he will make us worse, we will try to make him better. By all means let the Atheist have free speech, let him address the public ear by the press and by the platform with most unchartered liberty; we would no more denounce him than we would attempt to silence him. He has as much right to speak his conviction as we ours. And not only so, it is his duty to do this. Suppression of thought leads to suppression of truth. Concealment of conviction becomes an extinguisher of truth." (The Nonconformist, Dec. 1852.)

Such sentiments as these do more to sustain Christianity than the most fiery denunciations against Atheists and Atheism. The former proceed from the moral emotions, and are addressed to the same emotions in other men; the latter flow from the animal propensities, which alone they evoke.

In the same commendable spirit writes Dr James Buchanan, Divinity Professor in the Free Church College at Edinburgh, in his late work, entitled "Faith in God and Modern Atheism

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