skin that covers the wolf's back; the teeth and the claws are not even well concealed beneath. With the weapons we have named, and with our education societies, theological seminaries, and missionary societies, we need no new organization, no anti-popery union. But we must use our arms, and not rest satisfied with the possession of them. They must be furbished anew, and we must prepare ourselves for a vigorous warfare. We must be stirring, if we mean indeed to be victorious. Not a moment is to be lost. The enemy knows well the importance of the present instant. Hear what he says: "We must make haste, the moments are precious. - IF THE PROTESTANT SECTS ARE BEFOREHAND WITH US, IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO DESTROY THEIR IN

FLUENCE." Ought not this acknowledgment of the enemy to quicken and encourage to instant effort? pp. 121-125.

ART. IV. PHRENOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENTS IN MENTAL SCIENCE AND EDUCATION.

1. The Constitution of Man, considered in relation to External Objects. By GEORGE COMBE. Boston: Allen & Ticknor. 1833.

2. Mental Culture; or the Means of Developing the Human Faculties. By J. L. LEVISON. Boston: Allen & Ticknor. 1834.

3. Necessity of Popular Education as a National Object; with Hints on the Treatment of Criminals, and Observations on Homicidal Insanity By JAMES SIMPSON. New-York: Leavitt, Lord & Co. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. 1834. 4. Article of the Foreign Quarterly Review. By RICH. CHENEVIX, Esq., F. R. S. etc. With Notes. By J. G. SPURZHEIM, M. D. Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 1833.

5. Phrenology, or the Doctrine of the Mental Phenomena. By J. G. SPURZHEIM, M. D. Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon. 1832.

It may look strange to many, to see an article of so little pretense as this, capped with such an array of title pages, and ushered in with so seemingly dreadful a note of preparation. It may, too, strike others, at first sight, that this group of books, if not an inmodestly large, is at least, a motley and incoherent one; it being quite plain, that an article on phrenology and national education, must have about as much unity and mutual connection, as would a treatise on algebra and Latin grammar. The fact, however, is, that these books, "for substance of doctrine," are all one. The treatises on phrenology run out their principles into education. The writers on education and mental culture, borrow their ground-work from phrenology. Both sets of writers belong to the same fraternity, and symbolize together. In this darling science they have an all-comprehensive badge of union. The purpose of the fraternity, if we rightly interpret their writings, is, to re-cast in the phrenological mold, all feelings and principles, all modes of speaking and acting now in vogue. That this idea of theirs is deliberate and well-digested, not a wild dream or momentary phrenzy, caught up for the time being, is manifest from the radical nature and tremendous scope of their plans of improvement. They mean to begin with the babe, at its first entrance into being. No sooner does it breathe the vital air, than it shall inhale the delicious odors of phrenology. They mean to carry this new regimen forward through all the stages of its ascent to the maturity of being; so that all the notions of inen, political, social, moral, intellectual and religious, are to be dyed through and through in the new colors of this science. They intend to root out the old ideas of teaching and preaching from among men; since, in spite of them, we still have the abounding ignorance, iniquity and misery of a fallen world. They see clearly, how their inventions can remedy these disorders. To this end, governments must be torn down and re-constructed, education metamorphosed, and religion new-fangled, according to the latest phrenological discoveries. Thus they stand ready to give, nay, they volunteer lessons of wisdom to parents, rulers, teachers and divines, who, poor souls! have groped blind-fold these sixty centuries, without a gleam of light from the doctors of craniology. We shall verify this statement by and by, in more distinct and formal propositions, when we shall attempt to canvass the justice of these pretensions. We will here briefly notice each of these volumes separately.

In

The first work on our list, by Mr. Combe, treats, as its title imports, of the "Constitution of Man, considered in relation to external objects." Hebegins with a chapter on law, which he defines to be " a rule of action." There are three classes of laws, applying to as many different orders of being. First, the physical laws, which govern mere dead inorganic matter. Secondly, the organic laws, according to which, life and organization proceed, and which sway the vegetable and animal creation. Thirdly, the rational and moral laws, which control the intelligent and moral nature. "1st, Their inderegard to these laws, he insists on four points. pendence of each other; 2dly, Obedience to each of them is attended with its own reward, and disobedience with its own punishment; 3dly, They are universal, unbending, invariable, in their operation; 4thly, They are in harmony with the constitution of man." He then, in the second chapter, treats briefly of the physical laws, which relate to man; next, of his organic laws; and thirdly, what is evidently the denouement of the whole, of the mental faculties. These he surveys through his phrenological glasses, and here he appears to be at home. He provides us with no less than thirty-three " fundamental faculties," each of which is domesticated in some corner of the skull. All these faculties have their laws, which rule in the lobes of the brain, where they are seated. Violation of these laws, entails misery on ourselves and offspring: to obey them, consummates our felicity. The third

chapter goes on to show, that the miseries of men result from infringements of the laws of nature. Three sections are devoted to the three kinds of pain following the violation of the three sets of laws, physical, organic, rational and moral. The concluding chapter sums up the whole in an effort to show, that the prevalence of phrenological views will cure all maladies among men, whether of the soul or body. On the whole, if we except Mr. Chenevix, of whom we shall soon speak, Mr. Combe is by far the most respectable and decent writer whom we have consulted on this subject. He is less arrogant and presumptuous than his compeers. He shows none of their overweening vanity. Instead of their reckless contempt for the master-thinkers of the hunan race, he displays a chastened and becoming respect for them. He has all the philosophy and little of the sciolism of phrenology. He is a clear thinker and writer. He shows facility and vigor of style, and encumbers it less frequently with phrenological barbarisms, than most of his co-laborers. Abating the grievous errors which belong to these works as a class, it contains many entertaining and instructive facts, and much judicious and valuable remark.

The volume by Mr. Levison has its contents sufficiently indicated by its title, if we only add to it five words, thus, -Mental Culture; or, the means of developing the mental faculties by the aid of phrenology. Mr. Levison, we suspect, is a physician. At any rate, he is familiar with the anatomy of Gall and Spurzheim. So far as we can judge, he ranks much below Mr. Combe in mental power, discipline and culture, and especially in the range of his reading and acquirements. He has not been humbled in his pretensions, and chastened in his style, by communion with the great masters of thought and diction. Hence his pages bristle too much with self-conceit, dogmatism and denunciation. His composition, too, though not wanting in freshness and vigor, is apt to be clumsy and verbose, entangling itself too much with the contortions of long sentences, and too little redeemed by their inspiration. Like Mr. Simpson, he betrays the want of that classical training which both assail. His book opens with a fierce onset upon current doctrines, and their advocates, imputing to them the most driveling imbecility and malicious wickedness. He insists, that men cling to their ancient beliefs, either from a dogged and willful blindness, or that, seeing the light, they conspire to exclude it from their fellow-men, lest they should be smitten down by its dazzling brightness from their places of authority, honor or emolument. He claims, that the opposition which men show at seeing the phrenological improvements undermining all which they have ever deemed and felt to be true, is malicious persecution. He spices the story well with accounts of the antipathy and contradiction which every important discovery has had to encounter at its first announcement; so that we are left to infer, forthwith, that phrenology, with its whole retinue of contemplated changes, must be a valuable discovery. True discoverers are sometimes driven to the adoption of this plaintive tone. But quacks are generally loudest and most vociferous in wailings of this sort. We confess, we begin to suspect, when we hear them. Having finished his exordium, Mr. Levison brings forward his table of mental faculties, which is substantially the same as Mr. Combe's. His views and explanations are likewise nearly the same, though set forth with less skill and ability than by his master. The subsequent sections apply these principles of mental philosophy to the rectification of prevailing ideas of intellectual and religious education. With much that is judicious and proper, on these things, is mixed much that is weak and foolish, as we shall hereafter see.

The next volume in our list is Mr. Simpson's. It professes to relate simply to popular education and criminal law. His treatise might more aptly be entitled, the application of phrenology to these subjects. He is evidently a hearty, downright phrenologist, though he does not avow, or directly recognize, the fact. He seems as shy of such words as "organs," "frontal,” “sincipital," and the like, as if he had constructed an index expurgatorius, containing the whole phrenological vocabulary. The artifice, however, is of no avail. He is too well disciplined under the phrenological drill, not to show his good soldiership, though he hangs out no colors, and flourishes no regimentals. Of course, he feels and writes very much as other phrenologists do.

His first chapter portrays the condition of the laboring classes in Great Britain. Some of their characteristic feelings and vices he describes with uncommon clearness and discrimination. In his second chapter he treats of defects in the education of the higher classes. Here he does not well understand himself. In his third and fourth chapters, he goes through with an analysis of the mental faculties on the phrenological basis. In the succeeding chapters, he applies his scheme to the work of education, first in infancy, and then through the successive periods of growth. There is also an appendix, containing a chapter on "efficient protection from crime," "homicidal insanity," and a report on the conduct of an infant-school at Edinburgh on the new model. His style, though vigorous, shows the want of that classical study which he opposes. His sentences are often trails of cumbrous involution, in direct contrast to the grace, perspicuity and polish, of the classic idiom. His book, however, contains much valuable information.

Mr. Chenevix's article, which first appeared in the Foreign Quarterly, is, on some accounts, the most praiseworthy document in the whole catalogue. It is by far the neatest and most scholarlike in style. Its air betokens more calmness, candor, and self

1

possession, than belong to its partners. He is evidently well drilled in that classical routine, which, unlike most of his fraternity, having enjoyed, he does not despise. In short, he is a scholar and a gentleman. The first part of his article is an interesting delineation of the growth of phrenological science, through its successive stages, from its first crude conception by Gall, in his boyhood, while noticing the fondness for language of his ox-eyed school-fellows, to its supposed perfect demonstrations in the hands of Spurzheim. The latter half is a summary of the phrenological argument, pro and contra, canvassing the reasons of the doctrine, and the benefits likely to flow from its universal reception. Although he wears the aspect of an unbiased judge, yet his prepossessions are all on one side, and he dextrously throws the whole current of the argument into the wake of phrenology. Nevertheless, we know not where else to look for a statement of their doctrines, arguments and pretensions, at once so ingenious, so winning, so compact, yet lucid and complete. None of their works is so free from foolish pretensions, and, on all accounts, so likely to incline a plain man favorably towards the scheme.

The last book on the list is well known. We have brought it forward, not so much for the sake of describing it, as because it is ultimate authority with phrenologists, and contains the germs of all the truth and of all the error which run through the numerous progeny that have sprung from it. If we have occasion to refer to it, we shall feel assured, that we speak from the oracle.

Of the anatomical and physiological relations of the subject, we have spoken out our sentiments in two preceding numbers of our journal. We shall not now meddle with the hobby of these men, as to bumps, organs, etc., since in one of the treatises under review, the thing is not mentioned, though the faculties are, in every case, arrayed in the exact phrenological order; so that on this point, we suppose, there may be doubt or credence salva fidc. But these writers are not content to take the anatomy of the brain as their grand arena of distinction. They ground their claims on the sweeping reform that they have in preparation for mental science, religious doctrines, political economy, and education, both as relates to its nature, extent, and comparative importance. In doing this, they are leaving their proper home for a strange land, to whose atmosphere they are not yet acclimated, of the nature of whose soil they are ignorant, and of whose extent and bearings they have taken no mensuration. They show out all the awkwardness and improprieties of strangers. Here we propose to join issue with them, more particularly since most of their lucubrations have, and are meant to have, a religious (some perhaps might say an irreligious) bearing. Here they tread on sacred ground, which we are set as sentinels to defend. And until they