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I am fully sensible that the paper is meagre and trifling ; too much so, indeed, for any important use. It was sketched, chiefly to draw Combe's attention to one means of advancing phrenology, which appears to me of the first consequence. It is now submitted to you with a similar view; and, though a trifle, it will not be valueless if it incite some more able advocate to do justice to the subject. Nothing would gratify me more than to see a good Essay illustrating the accordance of phrenology with the truths of revelation; for, after all, however attached we may be to our science on its own merits, the connexion to which I refer is that from which it must ever derive its deepest interest. For mere worldly purposes its value is great; it becomes inestimable when we appreciate the services which it is capable of rendering in promoting a more perfect obedience to the law of God.

EDWARD BARLOW.

ESSAY.

THE progress of truth is ever slow; in the pride, the ignorance, and the prejudices of mankind it has obstacles to encounter, which unhappily are but too successful in marring its advancement. Even in physical science, the proofs of which are demonstrable, what great discovery has ever yet been made which had not hostility--nay, even malevolence and persecution to contend with? In this respect phrenology shares but the lot of all the distinguished illustrations of nature's laws, and to Gall and Spurzheim have been dealt forth the injustice and the obloquy, which Galileo, Newton, with many others, had experienced before them. At the perverseness thus evinced it is vain to repine, and the only rational course for phrenologists to pursue is to meet each objection, however trivial, with dispassionate refutation.

Thus impressed, it occurs to me to notice an objection which I have of late heard urged against the ethics of phrenology.

One of the earliest imputations cast on phrenology was that it led to fatalism, subverting human responsibility, by tracing the vices of our nature to causes congenital and irresistible. The

weakness of this charge was readily exposed, by showing, that, if peculiar organisation subjected man to bad passions, controlling powers were similarly possessed, by which his spiritual part was enabled to restrain his grosser propensities, and for the exercise of which he was morally accountable.

A charge of an opposite nature is now preferred.

By looking to these controlling powers for resisting evil, his virtue is regarded as too self-sufficient, no longer dependent on the Holy Spirit of God, whose support and assistance religion pronounces to be ever necessary, and for which it directs us incessantly to pray. The following remarks are intended to show, that this charge is equally groundless.

To render the argument clear, it is necessary to premise what phrenology actually teaches. By extensive observation, and cautious induction, it has traced the several propensities, sentiments, and faculties of the mind to the different parts of the brain, as the material organs through which they exist. On the uniform coincidence of mental function and physical organisation its claims as a branch of physical science are founded; and, until the alleged facts are disproved, or the conclusions shown to be false, these claims cannot be disallowed.

Engaged in observing the phenomena of mind, phrenology meddled not with the intimate nature of this inscrutable existence, content to limit its researches by what human intellect is permitted to explore. Confining itself also to its proper province, the connexion of mental qualities with cerebral organisation, it entered not into spiritual disquisitions, but left the principles of religious faith precisely where it found them. If it did not allege the dependance of all mind on the spiritual part of man,-if it omitted to display the several mental powers as the agents of our incorporeal being, it, at least, left this established truth unaffected by any of its doctrines. Indeed, to be at all intelligible these doctrines involve the existence of a spiritual principle, for whose use the several powers exist, and to whose authority they are subservient. In calling on man to exercise the higher faculties in keeping the lower in subjection, TO WHOM is the appeal made? Surely not to the corporeal frame, which to day is, and to-morrow becomes resolved into its

pristine dust,—but to the spiritual inmate, which is to outlive its earthly tenement, and which will hereafter be held accountable for the deeds done in the flesh. Phrenology, then, cannot

be accused of supporting the cause of irreligion.

But dismissing this charge, opponents shift their ground and allege, that phrenology leads to self-righteousness, withdrawing our minds from that dependance on spiritual support on which alone we are taught by our religion to rely. A very little reflection will, I trust, suffice to absolve it from an accusation so injurious.

Having classed the several powers of the mind, and shown the subordination in which the higher faculties should ever hold the lower, it calls on man, that is his spiritual part, to exercise that control which his Creator has placed in his hands.

In the economy of this world, the will of the Deity, save in the instances of miraculous interposition, acts invariably through the ordinary operation of secondary causes. The higher faculties are the agents by which the lower propensities are to be controlled, and however the aid of the Holy Spirit may, through fervent prayer, be vouchsafed to erring man, it is still through the medium of the higher faculties that the victory over criminal passions is to be gained. In directing him, therefore, to avail himself of their powers, the phrenologist merely points out the means by which obedience to the law of God may be best rendered. He presumes not to say that each individual can, of himself, so exercise this control as to ensure its effect; nor does he make any representation tending to set aside that dependance on Divine support, which the scriptures declare to be indispensable. Leaving men to seek devoutly that aid, by which alone they can purify their hearts, and expel the grosser passions, it only indicates the means by which self-correction can be most directly and effectually attained. In this I can discover none of the self-righteousness with which phrenological ethics are charged. If the morality thus taught be in conformity with that of pure religion—if the precepts of phrenology harmonize in all things with those which the gospel teaches, I recognize in phrenology, not a presumptious rival, but a humble handmaid, ministering to the cause of truth and virtue.

It has been further surmised that phrenological ethics are at variance with that fundamental principle of our faith which regards man as by nature reprobate and prone to evil. I own I am at a loss to discover how such a suspicion could be entertained. The internal impulses, which incline to evil, are recognised by all, who admit the doctrine of original sin. Whatever notion they may entertain of man's natural depravity in the abstract, they invariably embody their conceptions in some or other of the vices to which human nature is prone, and to which it is impelled by unrestrained passion. In what does the phrenologist differ from this view? or how does he contradict it by merely tracing those passions in their connexion with physical organisation? Does he not rather give it force and consistency, by showing, that man brings into the world an organisation subjecting him to base passions, which, if not restrained by reason and religion, cannot fail to plunge him into iniquity? Does not phrenology, in this, support the doctrines of religion and incite to constant vigilance, by demonstrating, that these passions have a source, which must continue while life subsists, and that no security can be attained against their influence but by keeping them in continual subjection? That he can effect this only through Divine aid, that man of himself can do no good thing, is the established doctrine of Christianity, which the staunchest phrenologist may consistently believe, and which his science has never impugned. The applications of the scriptural doctrine he leaves to divines, confident that the moral principles deduced from his science can never contravene the truths which Divine revelation has proclaimed, and assured that whatever a sound and unbiassed philosophy has discovered, must be in perfect accordance with that gospel, which has flowed from the fountain of all truth. In its pure stream phrenology may mingle, and both glide in one peaceful current until they finally and conjointly merge in the ocean of Eternity.

THE USES OF STUDIES.-" Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in judgment and disposition for business."-Thoughts by Bacon.

THE

Journal of Health and Disease.

AUGUST, 1845.

PHYSIOLOGY IN REGARD TO THE LAWS OF INCREASE, AND THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTS ON OFFSPRING.

CHAPTER I.

SECTION II.-The vegetable kingdom and its laws of increase.-Linnæus's discoveries. Stamens and pistils.-Pollen, its essential necessity to give life to the seeds.-Means by which its contact with the seeds is ensured. The palmtree.-The hop plant.-Pollen of the same species modifies other plants of the same species.-Tulips.-Power of regulating the formation of leaves or of fruit.-Melon and cucumber seeds.-The sexual system of Linnæus.-The tree of life.-Double flowers.

THE vegetable kingdom presents some interesting facts in regard to the laws of increase.

Linnæus removed the obscurity which, till his time, pervaded this subject, and unfolded the laws existing in relation to the increase of the objects belonging to the vegetable kingdom.

Take a flower-a geranium. See in its centre a stalk consisting of three parts: a part at the top, cleft as it were into three, each cleft portion turned round into the shape of a horn; this part is called the stigma. See, also, supporting this stigma, a second part like a delicate thread, called the style; and, at the base of this stalk or style, see a third part, containing seeds, called the germen, or germ. These three parts constitute the

pistil, or the pointal.

Look again at the flower. Surrounding this central pistil, there are other bodies, each consisting of a thread, called a filament, and of a body at the top of that filament, like a little box-this box being called an anther. This box contains a fine powder, called pollen. These bodies form the part of the flower ealled the stamen.

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