Mark the still further changes. "In many places, where the shifting sands, originally of a moving character, have finally become stationary, and have remained so for a considerable period, their masses have assumed the shape of sandstone, or of firm and fixed rock. In Cornwall, where the moving period can almost be determined, some portions of the dunes are now so indurated as to be used for building purposes. Such is the case, also, in many other places. These mobile sands, therefore, must be viewed as powerful agents in changing, renewing, and re-arranging the solid crust of the globe."

But of all changes the one most interesting is the formation of COAL. Two opinions prevail; both develope the work of the laws which work out the change. "Coal is altogether composed of the matter of a terrestrial vegetation, transmuted by pressure. Some fresh water shells have been found in it, but few of marine origin, and no remains of those zoophites and crinoidea, so abundant in the mountain limestone and other rocks. Coal beds exist in Europe, Asia, and America, and have hitherto been esteemed as the most valuable mineral productions, from the important services which the substance renders in manufactures and in domestic economy.

"Some features of the condition of the earth during the deposition of the carboniferous group, are made out with a clearness which must satisfy most minds. First, we are told of a time when carbonate of lime was formed in vast abundance at the bottoms of profound seas, accompanied by an unusually large population of corals and encrinites; while in some parts of the earth there were patches of dry land, covered with a luxuriant vegetation. Next, we have a comparatively brief period of volcanic disturbance. Then the causes favourable to the so abundant production of limestone, and the large population of marine acrita decline, and we find the masses of dry land increase in number and extent, and begin to bear an amount of forest vegetation far exceeding that of the most sheltered tropical spots of the present surface. The forests or thickets of the period included no species of plants now known on earth. They consisted mainly of gigantic shrubs. That these forests grew upon a multitude of small islands is consi

dered probable, from similar vegetation being now found in such situations within the tropics. With regard to the circumstances under which the masses of vegetable matter were transformed into successive coal strata, geologists are divided. From examples seen at the present day at the mouths of such rivers as the Mississippi, which traverse extensive sylvan regions, it is held likely by some, that the vegetable matter, the rubbish of decayed forests, was carried by rivers into estuaries, and there accumulated in vast natural rafts, until it sunk to the bottom, where an overlayer of sand or mud would prepare it for becoming a substratum of coal. Others conceive that the vegetation first went into the condition of peat moss; that a sink in the level then exposed it to be overrun by the sea, and covered with a layer of sand or mud; that a subsequent uprise made the mud dry land, and fitted it to bear a new forest, which afterwards, like its predecessor, became a bed of peat; that, in short, by repetitions of this process, the ultimate layers of coal, sandstone, and shell, constituting the carboniferous group, were formed."" Such then are some of the changes which take place in the mineral kingdom; changes regulated by laws, of which geological science is merely the collection; and by knowing and attending to which, man can cause nature itself to be his minister.

Phrenological Science.

PHRENOLOGY AS A BASIS OF HEALTH.

Or health in its various forms what can equal in importance the health or THE MIND?

What is more painful than insanity, which is a deviation, of the mind, more or less continuous, from its healthy state ? So painful is it, that nothing is more dreaded. have quailed before even the possibility of this them.

The strongest happening to

But what is thus painful in this its high degree of deviation, is little more or less than the climax of a successive series of deviations from the healthy mental state, beginning in, at first, perhaps, a deviation so slight as to be scarcely perceptible.

Important, then, must it be to become acquainted with the human mind in its healthy state, in its standard condition-in its fairly-balanced-faculties state. Such a knowledge has been errnestly sought by men of strongest minds, and with varying success. Of late years, from the recognition by Gall, aided by Spurzheim, of the scientific method of investigation in reference to mind-namely, connecting the MENTAL manifestation with the CEREBRAL organisation, great has been the progress made in this knowledge.

The collection of the various facts and scientific views connected with this knowledge is usually designated PHRENOLOGY; and illustrations and views of this science will form part of the materials by which it will be attempted to bring mental health within human reach, and to remove the means of access of mental disease from human beings.

A BRIEF VINDICATION OF PHRENOLOGY FROM THE CHARGE OF ITS MISLEADING TO SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND OF BEING, IN THIS RESPECT, AT VARIANCE WITH THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION.

THE following paper, treating on the subject headed as above, was forwarded to one of the Editors of this Journal by the late Dr. Edward Barlow, of Bath,-a man, whose talents were of the highest order,-who, as a medical philosopher, had an European and American reputation; and who, better than all, had, with the wisdom of a sage, the simplicity of a child—a man, on whom malevolence never succeeded in affixing its venom.

The beauty of his character, as a man and as a Christian, is rendered strikingly apparent in the following letter, which accompanied the essay.

DEAR SIR,

Bath, Sydney Place, 26th April, 1828.

It would give me real pleasure to comply with your kind but too flattering request, could I hope to present any communication worthy attention, or conducive to the advancement of a science in which I feel the most lively and unabated interest. Circumstances, which I shall briefly notice, will satisfy you that inability, not indolence nor deficient zeal, with

holds me at present from hazarding any weak or unworthy contribution.

In the first place, I have been a severe sufferer from illness. Early in November I was seized with acute disease, which confined me to my bed for a long period, and to my house still longer. It was not until March that I could enter my carriage, or resume, even in part, my professional labours. Though my general health is happily restored, my activity is still sensibly impaired by the consequences of severe rheumatism. This interferes greatly with those intercourses from which phrenological discussions would arise; topics for consideration are thus abridged, and mental activity proportionally weakened.

But, I am sorry to say, that, even if these causes of diminished activity had never existed, I could have little hope of promoting our common cause by any researches or observation on my part, capable of advancing it. Phrenology has as yet made but little way at Bath. Dr. Spurzheim's last visit has done much to remove prejudice, excite interest, and prepare the public mind for the admission of truth; but to such impression is the advantage limited, for as yet no results of practical utility have ensued.

You are aware how much combined exertion, free communication, and, above all, the continual observation of cerebral developements through the medium of casts, are required to mature phrenological knowledge, and prepare the individual for practically applying what he may have attained. In all these advantages we are deficient. I have repeatedly endeavoured to found a society, though on the humblest scale, chiefly with a view to forming a collection of casts, and establishing a congregating point where phrenologists might meet, and communicate freely. Hitherto my efforts have failed, the names subscribed to the proposal being inadequate, while several of them were given rather through my personal influence than from genuine zeal. The want of the latter would be fatal, and I have preferred waiting for a more favourable time to hazarding an abortive attempt. Some future day I hope to realize a purpose of which I sensibly regret even a temporary suspension.

As to my own pursuit of phrenology, it has hitherto been nearly solitary and unassisted. Hence my views are chiefly speculative, my faith being founded on the general evidence, unaided by practical observation. Indeed, I have rather shrunk from the latter, through a full cautiousness, unwilling to hazard mistakes to which my want of accurate experience would have subjected me, and indulging the hope (another inherent sentiment whose organ is well developed) that the deficiencies of which I was conscious would, in some way or other, be supplied. You must thus see how unqualified I am to render any valuable aid, the establishment of facts being that in which societies can most profitably labour; while such speculations as could proceed from so puisné a phrenologist as myself would be of little avail.

On the latter, however, my mind has not been wholly unemployed. With one friend, who is both a practical phrenologist and of intellectual powers capable of embracing all the philosophy of the science, I have occasional intercourse. We talk over its interests and progress, and in one point are agreed, -that the time is come when the former may be fortified, the latter accelerated, by showing the perfect accordancy of its. principles with revealed truth. There are many religious minds and tender consciences, who shrink from approaching the study from apprehension lest any thing bordering on religious scepticism should ensue. To allay this feeling, by showing its utter groundlessness, is surely desirable.

I am fully sensible that phrenology, as a branch of physical science, is perfectly capable of being established on principles of sound philosophy alone, and that no proofs of its truth need be sought elsewhere. The connexion of its doctrines with those of revealed religion, therefore, is by no means a necessary or essential support. Yet, as collateral proof, founded on the axiom that all truth, however deduced, must harmonize, it appears to me that the perfect harmony which subsists between the principles of phrenology and the doctrines of the gospel, may be rendered powerfully influential to many species of intellect which would neither investigate the direct proofs, nor yield conviction to them, however established. These considerations led me to pen the enclosed. Thus to embody the conception was a sudden thought, and hastily executed.