Nugae literariae: prose and verse

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A person s self is thus suggested by his appearatace; but when his language, expreSSion, Sentiment8, are disserent froni Whatthey Were, We are staggered as to his identity notwithstanding the corporeat resemblance ;-We say he is not himself, ho is notliko himsolf, he is absent. The appearance of man ChangeS,- in consulting that appearance at remote periods the self could not bo identisied. Is AEneas in his dream could recognise Hector, though quantum mutatus ab illo,V yet Laura kn0w

may escape, and the innocent be implicated: that tho Comodyos Errors, not uncommon in ordinary lila, may be converted into a tragedy Under the purest administrations of justice. An alibi has been proved after conscientiolis oaths have been SWornio inculpate the person. Yet on the other hand Dw havo thoconsummate self-controi to maintain they are Dot thenaseives.

The eye consesses What the longue dentes. The incognito is asomewhat dissiculi part to play : but no inferior taci can sustainit in desiance os criminat evidence. It is no mean illustration of the wisdom which shinos inali the arrangements of nature, that a sensibie index potnis tolliat which could not be the object os sense. A character asvarious as individuality is stamped on the human frame, certainlynot capable of leaving an infallibie impression, but sussciently obviolis for ali the purposes of recognition required by into courso and Diendship. The dumb animal can read it: oston

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exercises a quicher inStinci than ourseives: and the fawning carosses of the old dog Argus hipon his remembered master, though Penelope has forgoiten him, is not more touching in incident than true to naturo. Insanity is supposed to assect identity in a degree to renderit most question te. It may remalia, hoWeVer, though the knowledgo of it may be disturbed. ConsciouSneSS, memory, association, may be vitia ted, as may bodily senses. Yet the substance of mind may be the fame, though it is mi udged,-asis each scene os nature though diseased vision has distortod it. The question is of mind in iis healthy state: the loss of this knowle e, in perfect insanity, is rather a presumption that it is an attribute of undiseased mind. But should we repair to those odos in Whicli this dread malady presenis iis hideous form8,-

we shali see much savourable evidence of our doctrine. When relatives and friends deplore the sudden change of madness uponthe language and temper of a patient, they should reflect thatthose passions, the ebullitioris of Whicli are so amighting, may havo lurhed and may have been fostered long. Their ignorance of the faci, is the most probable thing in the worid, for not onlywould it be studiousty concealed froni them, but their very circumstances Would blind them to it. Even in the wildest hallucination, the maniae observes a method, and should he announce himself the monarch or the Deity, he wili trace the evenis of his life, though With shadowy dimness, as the steps by Whicli hereached those elevations. In the cases in Whicli the intellociseems quite prostrated and lost, sand I Will not say it is impossibio, though Ι do not credit Simon Brown scarcely any operation of mind may be seen: but in ali others there is atteast an image of the remembered Aelf, a trace of consciolas idontity.

This enquiry is not witlaout iis practical applications. In the philosophy of mind, identity holds a sirst consideration. It

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ON PERSONAL IDENTITY.

is tho office of this philosophy to analyse the motions, to obserVethe states, of the intellect; to ascertain in What succession th ariSe, and by What connection they are associaled. But it is acheat is there bo no mirad, but only a rout of lawles8 VagrantS.

In the philosophy of education, it is assumed. Arduo ustask lV might oach paedagogiae sigii, instoad of what he musinow seel deli Vul V were the tyro's identity as osten rubbedout as his state. The word education implies a drawins Out, and it is the pupil's self whicli is educed. In the philosophy of character this is a sirst principie. Itis in ali respecis the scinevolved. It has iis inconsistencies. Nil fuit unquam sic impar sibi. ' A character may PreSentilio imposior and the dupe, may compound the tyrannical and the abjeci, but ait this may be in the modification of the mind. It is so distinct that two characters Were neVer Seen m mi Chalike as somelimes are found two faces. To borrow medicat phrase, it is idiosyncrasous. In the child We prognosticato theman, and see big passions Strutting on a petiy Stage.'' The ruling passion is strong in death. E en in Our ashes livetheir Wonted stres. The character We have worn stili invests iis, and to tho last we sold it around iis, as the dying Caesar his robe. In the philosophy of motive, this cannot be disregarded. Congeniality must exist belween ali motivo and tho mitid it impels. Liberty supposes a law of action us much us necessityitSelf. We may, there re, Surmise, si om a knowledge of the SADSame mind, What, in particular circumstances, and Under particular inducenients, will be iis course. The philosophy of habit pre-supposes it. An aci on repetition hecomes easy, and then ali but in voluntary. Explain the proceSs as you Wili, the repetition must be understood ofone and the SADSame agent.

The philosophy of experimental, inductive, obserVation implios it. All We chiesty know, of that which we denominate

cause and effeci, is a series of notices We have taken os certainthingS, Some occurring according to a priority of time to others. But such knowledge, surely, depentis for iis arrangement and comparison Upon the identity of the observer.

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ON PERSONAL IDENTITY.

The philosophy of sel Diove is redeemed by it. It is not

action depends on the disposition of the agent. An action cannot be considered apart. Ιis effect may, hut it cannot be with-drawn Dom iis morat relations. Is mala be alWays a neW being, upon What agenis can his actions be devolved 8 Still this idontityis not at variance With a penitent disposition or a reformed lisse. Such questioris, this is not the time nor place to agitate. Solsmay admit os different exercises under different impressions. Asthe wretched immortals in Vatheli, the harid pressed upon thoheart shows that With the ne elings may be mingled uneffacedrocollections. And only in the boldest poeti y can any say Withour Fifth Henry-

It is in tho sorgetfulness of this invincibie, inevitabie, identity, that sin principalty consists. The thought of such continui ty is shunned. We are held by it to the past and to the

receive the things dolis in Our bodies, according to that We have done, whether it be good or bad. V The transgressor

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But most happy they o terque quaterque beati l) Who cancalmly await, While they considently belleve, tho immortalfuture, Who can realise ii as a condition os consciolis identitywith their present history and being Without dismay, and whocari hail the evolutions of their destiny Without Wishing the Stupor of a II etempsychosis, or the oblivion os a Letho l

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SOPHOCLES Philoci: lin : 1274. Et mala si qua tibi dixit dementia nostra, Ignoscas: capiti sint precor illa meo. TIBULLUS Lib: i. Eleg: 2. Our very priesis muSt become mockers, is they shali encounter suchridiculous subjecis. MENENIUS, IN CORIOLANUS.

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principie, evidently joined together by a Common Creator, sortheir mutuat convenience and their respective ends. Tho Headchiefly, as primari ly, impre8Se8 US in Our furv of the humanstructure. Iis form is rather elliptical, than duly spherical. Thobro v is piled up untii it attains a certain vertex. Here are theseatures and the principat organs. The symbols of intellectualpoWer and dignity are arrayed around this vavit. Α system os Crantoscopy has, Within a feW recent years, been much discussed. We propose a stight consideration of it.

Primroses, they stili resolve to hold up their heads. ' Othors regard it as so uitreasonabie, that they could brain it with alady's san. There exisis a generat opinion that Craniology is an anatomicat study ; that it must bo tost for the scalpet to decide, and bo referred to tho dissector to adjudge, the truth of the case. The surgical and medicat professioris are natural ly regarded astho best qualised to examine the conflicting evidelice. Theyliave constituted the principat circle, hitherio, through which

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the modern enquiry has ranged,-and the schoot whicli has furnishod the foremost disputants of the controversy. Whetherilis members of these professions be the only, or the best quali- sed, parties to engage in these lisis, may, Without any depreciation of the healing art, or of the respected class occupied in it, admit os a reason te doubi. That the discipies of the serpent- twined rod are the most silly accomplis ted for the practi alresearch and 8cientsc eXamen, is most cheerfully allowed. Such Peripatetics are Within their oWn Walli amidst these discussions. The descriptions of tho head and the brain are familiar in thoirmouilis as household words. Their prehensile extremities, asHelvetius Would denominate them, have Hready acquired amost delicate taci and sensibilis y; and the rude handling of sculis by an inadept and unprofessional grasp is quite a disserent thing Dom their Weli practiced manipulations. -- Cuiquo in arte sua perito credendum est. But their enquiries, it is probabie, Will be biassed in favour of a system, whicli asseristho dignity of a particular corporeat Substance and Structure; whicli reflecis an honour over their oWn Pursuiis, Whicli, on this hypothesis, associale them With the highest elemenis, and most secret springs, of human nature; and Whicli not only agreesand strilios in with their favourite subject of enquiry, but is calculated to salter them that their oWn seld comprehendsthe very ultimate of Hl the knowledge that can be attainedrespecting man. It is Simply natural that e very professorinould gook the credit and the enlargement of his own sphere: it is only just that he should entertain an enthusiasm for it. And is ilis spirit reside in certain materiai formations topicallydescribed, characteristicatly developed, Ι Wonder not that some ardent youths should Dei exalted by so near an approach totis presence, be consident that soon they shali Dei tho solii asaccurately as they now do the pulse, and seige the trephineas the very hey Which shali lay open the last recesses of thothinhing being. Anatomy is dented, by those Who are called

phrenologisis, to be either the Aource or the test of their science. Vet, they Who have devoted themselves to the dis- Secting-room, have not infrequently declared their approbation

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of it, and the physical impossibility they seli of arri ving at

any other concluSion.

These observations Will, perhaps, acquit me of arrogance inattempting a sketch of the generat controversy, as it relateSto the popular theory of the cerebrat organigation and physiology,-though Ι can pretend to litile technical, and to noprofessional, knowledge. Is I should unfortunately dissor Domany, I hope, as Bacon salii, it is in melius, and not in aliud

with a viow to benest, and sor no purpose of dissen Sion. That tho mind Oxpresses itself through Some externat sensibie manifestations and conditions, is an opinion that has been Very commonly received. The particular devel opinent has been Variousty represented. Cheiromancy, or the inferetice of the character froin the shape of the hanii, once possessed a most

exalted reputation; and long before the triclis of palmistry weroplayed Osr by the impostor, grey-beard-philosophers sisted intellects by shahing haniis. And our contemporary, Dr. Hastam, thinks that idiots have a peculiar construction of hand, thesentient extremities being less pulpy and expanded.V-But thealustinent of the problem, in What part of the interior thesout resides, and on what part of the superficiat volumen it is indicated, has not been remarkably successsul,-of course, Withthe exception of our day l Montaigne gave litile liope of reaching certainty, or acquiring Satisfaction, in these studies; ho hasiost tho following potnted advice: 'T is not in the sphere of the maturest understanding to jud ge of iis Simply by oux externat actions, it must fathom the very foul, and sind out the springs which give it motion; but as this is a dangerous and sublimo undertaking, I Wisti that feWer persons Would

attempt it. Thero has besen, it must be confessed, a common dispositionto elect the human head to this rank and influence: and as it

ing ali their applications with the greatest despalch, using iis franking privilege With the Lindest liberality, and withal hau

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Νo observer of the human figure can remain unimpressedwith the abrupi majesty, the command iug contour, of the head. It is not horigontal, as in sonae animal forins : it is not prone, as in others : but it towers with a mysterious elation. The lineos Horace, Insignem tenui fronte,' Will, hoWever, ShoW adissererico of opinion here. DraWing the faciat line, We markthe obtuso angle that is formed with the one Whicli is carried om the soor and alae of the nose to the passages of the ear. Itis somelimes ait but rectangular, and even the brow occasionalty impends over the face. Woli might the ancient poet sing of the sublime colanteria ce Whicli man uplisis to the stars andour oWn bard assigiis to this front,

Generat consent has associaled with that rounded mass of matter, the actuat seat os four senses,-the reflecting medium os allemotion 8-something indesinably ascendant. Iis very Wrech is

ali proclaim a desertion and abandonment of tho curious

apparatus by a poWer Whicli must have been great iiseis to have employed and wielded it. Αnd in that sensitive and majestic