Be this as it may, there is still another class of pietists whom my patient even more closely resembles. I allude to the more outrageous of the Independent and Fifth-monarchy men who figured during the usurpation of Cromwell. The majority of these fanatics for some are chargeable with gross hypocrisy-appear to have despised all pleasure apart from the activity of their Veneration, Wonder, Combativeness, and Destructiveness. They engaged incessantly in demonstrations of these feelings: they knelt down in the highways and byways, in solitude and in society, armed with a Bible and a naked sword; intending by means of the one weapon to conciliate the wrath of God, and by means of the other to repel the attacks of Satan, with whom they asserted they were called upon to maintain a constant and personal struggle. The frightful" wrestling," of which they so frequently boasted, was unquestionably, in some cases, a term used to represent a mental conflict; but in others the expressions were too explicit, the general demeanour was too much that of a combatant, and the throes and contortions of the body were too violent, to leave any reasonable doubt that the strife in which they were engaged was by them believed to be real, and sustained, hand to hand, with a substantial antagonist.*

Under all circumstances, their lives were a compound of the word and body worship which they condemned in others, and of the dark and malicious ferocity of the demon to whom they supposed themselves to be opposed. Yet these men assisted in subverting one throne, and in erecting another of greater power and more tyrannical sway; and they are even now recognised by many as worthy of a place in the calendar of freedom and religion. Such a title I would be loath to dispute; but it seems fair to claim that my patient, possessing qualities so identical with theirs, should be enrolled beside them.

(To be continued.)

ARTICLE II.

LECTURES ON PHRENOLOGY: Delivered before the Young Men's Association for Mutual Improvement of the City of Albany. By AMOS DEAN. Albany, N. Y., 1834. 12mo. pp. 252.

THE perusal of these lectures has gratified us not a little. Mr Dean has obviously studied the works of the European phrenologists so attentively as to imbue his mind with their ideas and spirit; and, although no pretension is made to originality, the

For a somewhat exaggerated account of the leaders of these enthusiasts, see the novel of Woodstock.

style of his work indicates that he has thought for himself, and is far from being a servile copyist. It is eloquently and vigorously written, though sometimes rather too flowery for the British taste. But the Americans are fonder than we of florid composition.

Mr Dean offers some excellent remarks on the opposition which new doctrines generally meet with, and which he justly regards as positively conducive to the suppression of error and the progress of truth. "It is the safeguard," says he, " against useless and inexpedient innovation. It protects the existing state of things, until a state obviously preferable is offered. It checks that constant tendency to change, which is sufficiently impressed upon all human phenomena. We are far from complaining that the infant science of Phrenology has been opposed. We rejoice that it has been so. We do not, here, even complain of the spirit with which that opposition has been conducted; although we could have wished its manifestations to have been more humanized than they apparently have been. We even pass over the instruments of opposition, assertion and ridicule, after entering our protest against their use generally in the investigation and discovery of truth. What we do complain of is, unfairness of representation. The Phrenology, or rather Craniology, or Cranioscopy, of the Edinburgh Review, just about as much resembles the Phrenology of Gall and Spurzheim, as Paddy Blake's echo did the voice to be echoed. When asked, "How do you do, Paddy Blake?' it would echo back, Very well I thank you, sir!' Our oppo nents have kindly taken it upon themselves to raise up a Phrenology of their own, to clothe it with their own mantle, to invest it with their own properties, and then take to themselves most immeasurable merit for knocking down what could not stand alone."-P. 14, 15.

After narrating the rise and progress of Phrenology, Mr Dean proceeds to lay down and demonstrate its fundamental principles. In adverting to the phenomena of genius, he introduces the following striking observations on the wonderful talents of the father of poetry., "Is genius the result of educa tion? The name of Homer seems destined to run parallel with the course of time itself. And yet such was the entire destitution of the light of literature and science in his age, that we cannot now ascertain the land either of his birth or of his burial. Notwithstanding, however, this obscurity that rests upon his origin; notwithstanding this gloom that settles upon his history; notwithstanding this deep mental and moral midnight, in which all but the name of Homer seems to be involved and enveloped, we do know that he has kindled the purest fire, upon the highest altar that ever yet sent up its incense, even to Grecian skies.

Who, then, were his masters? We answer he had no masters! The same creative power moulded his mighty mind, that moulded and brought within its energetic grasp the mental and material universe. He had no masters. The fountain of light was within him. He found himself in the possession of poetic feelings. Nature's God had bestowed upon him the faculty that gives birth to those feelings. He had only to follow their impulse and immortality was won. He had only to portray the creations of that faculty, and he is exhibited to all after times a solitary beacon on a benighted shore-an oasis amid the desert of ages."-P. 30, 31.

As the objection that Phrenology leads to materialism and fatalism still continues to be urged with amazing pertinacity in many unenlightened quarters, we shall quote the reply given to it by Mr Dean, who treats the subject with conciseness and ability.

"This science has no such tendency. It nowhere identifies the faculties with their organs. The faculties, in fact, no more constitute a part of their organs, than the music of a piano-forte constitutes a part of the instrument. The organs are the instruments, and the faculties the musical result of their play. This science simply notes that result, it observes phenomena, and from correspondencies deduces conclusions. The fact is indisputable, that there is a dependence of the entire mind upon the entire brain. That the mind is liable to diseased affection in its manifestations, to the explosion of mania, to the weakness of idiocy, is undeniable. I would refer it to the most rigid antimaterialist to decide which doctrine is the more reasonable-that which refers these mental phenomena to diseased affection of the organ in which the mind is known to exercise its powers, or that which refers them to diseased affections of the immaterial mind itself, implying its liability to maniacal hallucinations, or to the weakness of idiocy. From our knowledge and experience, it is correct to assume, that throughout the ample range of nature, whatever is subject to disease, is also subject to death. They are both parts of one great system. Death is the ocean in which all the rivers of disease find a termination. If disease, therefore, can attach to the mind, what, I would ask, exempts it from the natural termination of that disease, a ceasing to be?

66

Again, if these diseased affections attach to the mind, I can see nothing in the death of the body calculated to divest it of that disease. The only legitimate effect of death is to hush the music of our material organs. If, then, the physic of the tomb is inadequate to afford a restorative remedy, mind must cross the dark barrier, subject to this diseased affection, and exhibit in another world the ravings of insanity, and the vacuity of idiocy. "But if it be conceded that diseased affections of the brain are

productive of diseased affections of the mind, that concession involves the admission that the whole mind is dependent upon. the whole brain. If that be admitted, in what consists the iniquity of making a particular part of the one dependent on a particular part of the other? If the whole of our corporeal acts are dependent upon the action of the whole of our muscles, where is the crying lack of logie in referring a particular act to the exertion of a particular muscle?

"It is farther objected, that this doctrine tends to fatality. What is fatality? A deprivation of will. A rejection of free agency. An absolute necessity of the performance of acts. What is taught by this science? First, That certain intellectual powers, sentiments, and propensities, are incorporated in our nature: and, Second, That each of these possesses for itself a local habitation and a name. Is the existence of these powers, sentiments, and propensities denied? I shall hazard the assumption, that their existence will not be controverted: but their existence being once admitted, whence can result the evil of their distinct and separate locations in different parts of what is conceded to be their general home? Their separate location gives them no new existence, clothes them with no new energy, invests them with no new power, nor imposes upon them any new or additional necessity of acting. It is in the fact of the existence of strong propensities, that the tendency to fatalism, if any there be, is to be sought and found, and not in the mode of explaining it. Until, therefore, it can be shewn that phrenology creates the fact, let it not be charged with the injurious consequences flowing from it, if there be any. But there are none. It would be as unjust to require of a being possessing these strong constitutional tendencies, the same correct course of conduct that would flow from a high moral development, as it would be to require of man, constituted as he is, that he should visit the depths of the ocean with the fish, or penetrate the mid-heavens with the eagle. Man is answerable only for the proper exercise of the faculties he possesses. Hence different degrees of accountability result from different combinations of faculties. It may require as strong an effort in one to prevent the murder of a man, as in another to avoid the killing of a fly. To whom much is given from him much will be required. A less happily constituted organization will be subjected to a less rigid account. This mode of explanation accords to no one the plea of complete exemption from accountability; because no one, on this side of idiocy, is entirely destitute of any one faculty or organ, and the possession of all is coupled with an accountability for the proper exercise of all, according to the different degrees of strength. It is in this way only, that the free and moral agency of man is reconcilable with

VOL. IX.-NO, XLIV.

U

the justice and benevolence of Deity. It is, however, in defence. only of things as they exist, of the general economy of the universe, of the justice and benevolence of Deity, and not of Phrenology, that this or any other explanation of this nature can be demanded.

"So far as regards materialism and fatality, this science leaves mind precisely as it found it. It creates nothing new; it adds nothing to the old. Any objections, therefore, grounded upon these supposed evil tendencies, are valid only against things and phenomena as they now exist, and ever have existed.”—P. 4043, 102-3.

Mr Dean explains in the following manner the mode in which the combative and destructive propensities are made predominant by intoxication. Whatever may be thought of the soundness of his theory, it has at least, if we mistake not, the merit of originality.

In

"The effect of introducing stimulus, in the shape of ardent spirits, or in any other shape, into the system, is to mortgage future energies to supply present exigencies; or, in still terser terms, it is the making a present use of future resources. the same proportion, therefore, in which the energies of the future are applied to the purposes of the present, will that future, when arrived at, be found deficient in its supply of energy. Hence a state of intoxication ends in the profoundest sleep, arising from the exhaustion of every mental and corporeal function. The living system must cease to act, except for the mere purpose of living, because that future has arrived which had already parted with its energies. From this general view, let the science explain the phenomena actually exhibited.

"The stimulus introduced creates an excited action in every organ of the brain, and hence every faculty feels its power, and is disposed to exercise it. A larger quantity of cerebral matter is allotted to the sentiments and propensities than to the perceptive and reflective powers. From the portion allotted to the propensities, the nerves take their departure. The action of the propensities, particularly of Destructiveness and Combativeness, is ordinarily under the influence of the reflective powers. The stimulating material, through the medium of the nerves, or the circulation, or both, excites to increased action the large quantity of cerebral matter allotted to the propensities, particularly to those of Combativeness and Destructiveness. Those propensities are, therefore, clamorous for the exercise of their functions. But the organs of the reflective faculties are also stimulated to excess of action, and hence enabled, for a time, to exert a controlling influence. The introduction of additional stimulus renders the propensities still stronger and more clamorous for exercise; and the reflective powers, in order to restrain them, are