criminal legislation; and their principles are appearing in many of the public measures, and much of the current literature of the day. Again repeating my best wishes, I remain, dear sir, yours faithfully, GEO. COMBE.

EDINBURGH, 14th March, 1848.

ROBERT BROWN, Esq. : DEAR SIR-I am gratified to learn by your letter of yesterday that the Phrenological Society has been opened with such favorable prospects of success. Although my letter of the 18th of February was not written with a view to publication, yet if you and Mr. Hedderwick deem it fit to appear in print, you and he are welcome to use it as you propose.

Since it was written, a new revolution has destroyed monarchy in France, and Italy and Germany are in commotion to obtain institutions increasing the power of the people. In short, the reign of democracy has begun; I fear prematurely, for the welfare of the nations. In this country we shall certainly experience the influence of the movement, and when I look to the aid which Phrenology would afford to intelligent men in directing it to good, I cannot help lamenting, as a national misfortune, the opposition which has retarded its diffusion in this country during the last thirty years. Abstract theories and views of human nature and its capabilities, resting on mere individual observation, are foundations of sand on which to build practical institutions for a great nation. At this moment we see the Provisional Government of France proceeding on such data in their interim arrangements; and I fear that the constitution which they will offer to public acceptance will embody only elements of the same partial, and in many respects unsound, description.

Should our movement begin, by what chart shall we be guided? The conflicting creeds, the rival schemes of education, and the contending political codes which characterize our people, high and low, rich and poor, proclaim that in this country also the knowledge of human nature and of its capabilities and laws is still empirical. We need, above all things, to reach to real substantial nature, and to build our political improvements on it. Phrenology would enable us to discern, with some reasonable degree of certainty and precision, what the human faculties are, how far they can go, and what they cannot reach; it would help us to discover the condition, in respect to knowledge, training, and practical evolution, which men must attain before they can successfully govern themselves. By enabling us also to compare our faculties with the natural objects to which they are related, it would place it in our power to distinguish the laws by which God regulates human happiness and misery in this world; and by knowing, perhaps, all the better to obey them.

Persons who have never made a serious study of Phrenology and its applications, do not understand us when we speak to them of human affairs being governed by a regular and intelligible order of secular Providence. They recognize the dictates of experience and common sense as guides to human conduct, but each takes his own experience and his own common sense as his rule; and, because each mind is individual, and is not a standard type of all minds, and the experience of each is necessarily limited, the wisdom of one man does not appear to be wisdom to his fellows; and hence feebleness and opposition infest our councils and obstruct the development of our plans.

Phrenology, by connecting the mental qualities with physical organs, and showing that these differ in size in different individuals, would enable each of us better to understand his own peculiarities. By unfolding the sphere of action and of use and abuse of each faculty, it would render the limits of good and evil more distinguishable; while, by exhibiting the laws which determine the results of every form and degree of activity, it would produce a conviction of our being, both as individuals and as a nation, under a positive, practical, tangible Divine government, which neither thrones, nor principalities, nor powers, nay, nor democracies, nor popular assemblies, can abrogate, alter, or evade.

In my humble judgment, then, a knowledge of Phrenology and of the natural

laws of man, if generally diffused among our people, would at this moment form a sheet-anchor to virtue and to public tranquillity. It would give confidence to the dominant class in their concessions, and set limits to the demands of the inferior ranks in asking for impracticable changes. No concessions, warranted by sound views of the capability of the people for self-government, could be injurious; while none could be beneficial which went beyond that limit.

We cannot judge of that limit without a science of mind, true, intelligible and practical; and if Phrenology does not merit this character, it is desirable above all things that we should now be informed where such a science is to be found, that we may profit by its lights.

I am anxious that your society should consider these suggestions with seri ́ousness. They will do well to give up all anxiety about the opposition of the learned, and the charges of irreligion brought by the devout. I assure them, under a full sense of the responsibility attending the remark, that in all my experience I have never met with a single opponent, either scientific or religious, who had really mastered the science and its evidence. In every instance known to me, the opposition has been the manifestation of a foregone conclusion that Phrenology is not true; and any search into its evidence that had been undertaken by the objector, had been made obviously only with the view of finding plausible grounds for sustaining his anterior opinions. Let the society, therefore, proceed to complete by observation their knowledge of the evidence; and then let them come forward as apostles of a great, important, and most useful system of truth; and they will in due season not only discover their own strength, but earn the gratitude and esteem of their fellow-men. I am, dear sir, yours very faithfully, GEO. COMBE.

For the American Phrenological Journal

ARTICLE LVII.

A YOUTH VICTIMIZED BY GAMBLING. BY J. H. GREEN.

In the year 1840, in company with several others of the gambling fraternity, I took passage at Louisville, Kentucky, on board a steamer bound to New Orleans. The boat was crowded with passengers, but there seemed to be very few which gave promise of being profitable to me or my companions. It was therefore determined that seven out of the party should return, and await the departure of another steamer. I went to the hurricane deck to observe their departure. As the boat left the steamer, I discovered a very young man anxiously gazing upon the party in the boat. He maintained this position till the boat returned to the steamer, when, turning on his heel, he exclaimed, "I am ruined! I am lost!" and hastened into the cabin, wholly unconscious of observation. I followed him into the cabin, and renewed my observations. He was apparently about eighteen years of age. His countenance was pleasant and his features delicate. As he abstractedly walked backward and forward in the cabin, AGONY was depicted on his countenance, in marks too decided to be mistaken.

I approached and addressed him as follows: "Are you oound for the

South?" He replied, "I do not know where I am bound ;" and turning away from me, resumed his walk.

I approached him a second time, and remarked that he appeared to be in ill health. "I am, sir-I am sick," he replied, turning upon his heel, and walking into his state-room. In a few moments he approached me and said it was strictly true, that he did not know where he was going; and if I would hear him, he would give me a full account of his troubles, and his reason for answering me in the manner he had. We sat down, and he gave me the following narrative. "I am a native of one of the Eastern States; my parents now reside in an Eastern city. I have a sister residing in Louisville, Kentucky, whom I have never seen. and removed to Louisville, before my birth. Her husband died a few months since. Shortly after her husband's death, my sister wrote to my father, requesting him to send her eldest brother to live with her.

She married

"The request was granted, and he fitted for the journey. Before his departure, his parents gave him strict caution concerning the vices of the day. He received sufficient money for the expenses of his journey, and permission to spend a few days in any of the larger cities on his route.

"His first delay was in Philadelphia, where he spent some ten days, during which time he formed se very pleasant acquaintances, among whom were two of those gamblers who but now left the steamer. Shortly after his acquaintance with these persons, he was invited to a card party, where whist was the game introduced. This was a game taught him by his parents, and their strict cautions had not interdicted it. He was induced to make the small bet of twenty-five cents a corner during the evening. The party had several similar meetings. At the latter of these meetings he made known his intentions of leaving the next morning. The two persons before referred to, immediately proposed to accompany him if he would remain one day more. He readily acceded to their proposal. On the day appointed, they left by way of Pittsburgh, and the canal. They had scarcely left, when cards were introduced; they played for small stakes, until he found himself minus some twenty-five dollars. He became excited, and enlarged his bets, with a hope to regain what he had lost. He continued to lose, and on his arrival at Pittsburgh, had barely sufficient money left to pay his passage to his destination. He paid his fare immediately on going on board for Louisville, and the boat had scarcely left the wharf, when the two gamblers proposed a game, that he might make himself whole. When they found he had no money, they proposed to stake money against his watch; still hoping, he again played, losing his watch. His breast-pin, rings, etc., were disposed of in the same manner. Becoming desperate, he sought his trunk, where he had a package in charge to carry to his sister. He forced open the casket, which contained a bracelet, with a beautiful gold chain, sent as a present by the mother to her daughter. He discovered an unsealed letter,

The letter was from his

which contained a hundred-dollar bank note. father to his sister, directing her to give the money to the brother when she should deem it proper to do so. He seized upon the note, and soon the gamblers fleeced him of that. He again resorted to the casket, and lost the jewelry it contained. Desperate in every respect, when he arriv ed at Louisville, his destination, he called at the door of his sister's house, rang the bell, and leaving the package he had robbed on the threshold, hastened on board the boat where the two villains who had robbed him had taken passage. They appeared glad that I came on board," said he, "and I felt confident that I should be assisted by them. They both left in that yawl, and without even bidding me farewell; and that, sir, was what caused me to weep." I looked at him-desperation was painted in every feature. I was then a hardened gambler, and had been for eight years; but this tale of sorrow made me feel that if the curse of heaven ever fell on wicked men, it would descend and rest upon the gambler.

"What did you expect to gain by the course you have taken ?" I said; "why did you not go to your sister-tell her freely what you had done, and ask her forgiveness and protection ?" "Oh! sir," said he, "I can never go to her until I am able to replace what I have lost." Poor deluded youth! thought I, as I discovered the slender point on which his hopes were suspended, you can never recover the money or property those gamblers have smuggled from you; far better if you could think the same. "Where do you expect to go?" I asked. "I don't know, sir," was his reply. "I have no money- -no friends; I am here, and what to do, I know not." “I think, sir," said I," you had better return. I will loan you sufficient money, which you can replace when convenient." "You are very kind, indeed, sir,” said he, "but I cannot return-no, never. But, sir, I will, if you feel safe in loaning me sufficient to carry me to St. Louis, accept it as a great favor." I loaned him twenty-five dollars. When we arrived at the mouth of the Ohio, he left the boat for another bound for St. Louis. In 1841, I was passenger on another steamer, on her upward passage from Orleans to Louisville. Not far from we broke a shaft, which caused several hours' delay. I had been ashore, and as I was returning, a gentleman informed me that he had just witnessed a revolting sight-a number of convicts on the deck of a steamer, under the charge of an officer, who was conveying them to the Baton Rouge State Prison. I went to look at them for a moment. As I approached, I recognized the face of the unfortunate youth. He turned his head, and attempted to evade my notice. He had large irons upon his ankles, and handcuffs upon his wrists. I inquired of the officer what offence he had committed; he said " forgery," and added he was under five years' sen

tence.

In 1845, I was lecturing in one of the principal cities east of the mount

ains, where I gave this same incident, mentioning, as near as I could remember, the name of the unfortunate youth. After my lecture closed, a young gentleman came to me, and asked my address. I gave it, and on the following day he called with a carriage, and invited me to accompany him. I acceded, and we shortly drew up at the door of a handsome house. I entered a parlor richly furnished, where the family were assembled, consisting of the father, mother, two sisters, and three brothers. They were silent; the brother who had accompanied me, addressed me as follows: "Sir, you may think this a strange visit ; last night at the lecture, we learned something of the fate of the son of this old gentleman and lady. We are the brothers of that ruined youth. Five years have elapsed since he left this house, guiltless. The strange deposit of the box, could not permit us to hope any thing but his ruin. Now, sir, could you tell us how to learn if he is living?" I suggested that they should write to the agent of the Louisiana Penitentiary, giving the name the young man had assumed at the time of his conviction. They followed my suggestion, and learned that in eighteen months after his incarceration, he had died of fever.

To the moralist, this incident shall teach a lesson. To the gray-headed fathers and mothers, this young man's ruin and premature death should teach the danger of innocent games of whist. This his unhappy friends acknowledged to be the primal cause of the ruin of one of the members of their family, and their own lasting reproach. We call upon all friends of religion and morality, to decide whether it is not wrong to indulge in any amusement which carries in its train misery and death! May we not safely challenge any man to produce the first instance where one single individual has been benefited, in a moral point of view, by such amusements? Then cast forever from your parlors those gaming implements which, step by step, lead on so many youth of bright promise and high hopes to dissipation, disgrace, and premature death.

For the American Phrenological Journal.
ARTICLE LVIII.

HAVING lately read in your journal and elsewhere of the prejudice existing in the minds of some Methodists against the sciences of Phrenology and Mesmerism, I, being a Methodist myself, feel a little anxious to inform you, that all persons calling themselves by that name, are not so wilfully ignorant of the thousands of striking and incontrovertible proofs connected with those highly important sciences, which are destined ultimately to diffuse such a vast amount of blessing to the human family. It is somewhat strange that men chosen to be the teachers and spiritual