Nugae literariae: prose and verse

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ON CRANIOLOGY.

tard, recreant; the bay of the bloodhound , and tho toti of thogold-mine, Would soon change the proiadest nationat character, and quench the sanest native spirit. I recollect an experiment or tWo of a Singular nature, ofwhich there furvive not a DK Wit esses. Craniologi sis areanxious to bring their system Within the operations os conscious-neSS. The Worthy lecturer gave iis specimens how the head was managed by US, in Varioris instances of conduci. In pridewe tossed our head . In cunning We stanted it. No globocould bo worked with greater exactness than his own exempli

gratia heta. But in bringing any place on a globe to the meridian, We Very rudely send many others below the horizon. And, in his case, having only a vertical hemisphere toalust, While it Was day with one set of powers, it Was night

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Ut supra, P. 443.

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Another expedient is soland of great utility in these lectureson heatis. Such dispositions are attributed to the party undereXamination, as no One Would renounce, or could disclaim.

What ars callod in this system fundamental powers,V are of course acknowledged by all. The most excellent, being themost humbie, Will admit their fatalis and temptatioris, thoughthey maintain the strictest Self-goVerriment. The inspector cannot sati in his generalfhip or generaliZation. -The PhySiognomy, as the word is commonly employed, Will len d most valvableaid. The idea of the disposition is obta inod besors tho hoad is explored. Hut never is the inquisitor so accurate as when he istho bosom Diond or familiar companion of him Whom he tries. He seldom, in these cases, misapprehend8 l It is Wondormiwith what divination he hiis Osr the character i Is you will givo the lines of Catullus a rather punnins translation, they Willmost satisfactorii 3 explain the intuitive knowledge whicli these

Risi nescio quem modo in Corona Qui, cum mirifice Vatiniana Meus crimina CALVUS explicaSSet, Admirans ait haec, manusque tollens lVIt is asserted that as certain organs of the human body per- forin their separate functions, so it is equalty evident that judg-ment and memory are the functions of an appropriate apparatus, the centrat organ of the nervous system. We Will not quarret with tho position Of such centraligation. Let ias simply dealwith this hardy assertion. The glands are ordained for particular secretions. ΝοW in their ducis ali these secretions havo boon detectod throughout their Severat stages. The mechanismof the heari is known, and iis ossice in the circulation of thoblood. Wo can exploro the causes Whicli modisy that circula- ting fluid. The alimentary canat has been laid open, and tho Successive processes of digestion have been minutely tracod. This is intelligibio. But who can apply these Statemenis totho mind 8 Whon wero brought to light the disserent progressions of mental maturity Θ When M us seen the half- rmodihought, me embryo idea, in the duplicatures of tho bra in p

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it in operationi Is thinhing result Dona matter, it can onlybe in tWo Ways. It must, in the sirst place, he an essentialproperty of it. But this no one Will maintain. Alalter issound in ali hin is and fornas where there is no accompuniment nor effect of intelligeiace and reason. Or the alternativeis, that thought may be produced in matter by resinemenis and combinations of certain paris. It is not dented that substances in compound osten elicit that Which seems wholly ne . But a third can never spring froin the two Without being per fectly similar or Without changing the one or the other. Acompound may be disintegraled by the addition os another ingredient Whicli, forming a new compotand with the sirst,

liberates the second. No union os paris Can Crente a neW and

permanent property Whicli is oppoSed to those Paris When Separate. By What analogies is it, then, contended that materialchangeS can Create a neW element or quali ty Whicli is notther aliks nor a hybrid 8 Where is, indeed, the compotand 8 Whereare any two things to constitute it 8 Μalter there is, but it is

and practised his Animal Magnetism in France, he was tho idolos the multitude. Testimony Was horne to his candour and acutoness by the leariaed. Ηe declared that there must be arovolution in philosophy as Weli as medicine. Thousantis gaveoxporimonial evidence in his favour by the most Singular cures. Μan was represented by him aS haVing the potes of the magnet, and animal magnetisin Was deScribed as a most Subile, circum- ambient, fluid, connecting the starry influences With our Danae.

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I am prepared to expect, is this hypothesis be triae, that Some great end is to be answered by it. These are goiden Word si of Warbitrion- Truth is producive os utility, and utility is indicative os truth. Is it bo a Work of nature, What does itintend 8 The organs struggle to the sui face of the Shuli, and contend for pro eminence. Is it not that they may be exhibitod ΘWhy, then, the thicli integument and over-sprea ling hair of tho pericranium 8 How can we learn the human tende cies 8 By

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Would resent the contaci, and eXclaim, Touch my earS, FOUtouch my honour lV or are heads to be Ahaved, as is universalin Persia 8 In somo cases of mental hallucination it has been found very service te here; When the theorising epidemicprevatis it may bo sa ly recommendeti l But the Rapo ofilio LockV is always an adventuret The Calch-pole Sometimes comes osy the worsi lIf the mass of the brain cari thus affect the buth and con formation of the shult, it must be possessed of powers whichliave hithorto studed detection. In mechanics it is eaSy to produce a Simple motiora, and to multiply motions in the fame direction; but it requires genius to give compleae and contram

motions. But What an instrument must we have inside ourheatis, perpendicular, horiZontal, rotatory, in iis operations; raiSing, elongating, rotanding, at the Same time the Same substance; gouging out prominences through the whole compassos the periphery; and losing no poWer, though thus extended, multiplied, and inverted. Νo Board of Works could do thobusineses of the cerebrat machino lIt is commonly urged in support of this theory, that it Willhave a favourable effect on education. This must be necessarilydependent on iis truth. But grant that it is triae,-and I have found that iis advocates are very reluctant to eXPreSS an opinionos the juvenile head. A professor of the ari assured me thatho never confideli in a judgment formed of a person underiWenty yearS of age. The Structure of the insani s head maybe so assected by circumstances, and the growth of the headis so peculiar, that Ι am not surpriSed that the craniologistis somewhat chary of his sentiments. Theri how does it assisteducation 8 An assectionate parent Will be too observant of

the early dispositioias, the unsolding faculties, of his child, toliave occasion to grope for them on the shuli. Tho lisp, the look, the manner, Will plainly declare the invisibis mind. One rem k of Gali may servo to illustrate tho utility of this

science in education : Speaking Os certain organs he most com

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I am not to be informed that this system is extolled asthe only solution of the phaenomena of insanity. Believing that insanity is osten produced by animal causes, it is at leastas probable that it is osten a pure, independent, digease of the minii. Why may not intellect have iis idiopathy as weli astho body Θ But surely this pretexi of defence is most luckless; for countless cases of mental derangement might be

association springing Dom morbid habitudo. Whon Induction is pleaded res the basis of this theory, wefeel that there is a very impudelice in the assertiora. There have been living sor ages upon this earth, at any one Period, suo hundred millioris of human beings. Upon hoW many of

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trisses Without regret; in Sorrow more than anger. ρε Hae nugae seria ducunt. I ask, do not these Studies argue a decay and

and the night quickly fall. I am incapable of nationality in

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science; Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur. But I confess that a suspicion haunis me When the importarrives froni a particular land : the bilis of lading domand aquarantine and fumigation. We have had enough already os Transcendental Alysticism, of Antisupernatural Religion, of Μawkisti Sentimentality, froin the German Shores. Our literature, Our metaphysios, have been suffciently infused by Teutonio decoctions. Let Our seuntians for a timo be lest towest iap their own waters. Their health and purity requiretheir unmixod element and undisturbed Sotarce.

I do not retraci a single apology Whicli Ι have both suggested and admitted in favour of this System. I Deely grant that Craniology is not necessarily, in the case of iis partigans, idontisiod with a low animal philosophy. But that thero is Such a grovelling principie at Work, cannot be dented. The

Linnaean arrangement is more calculated to degrade man than

demonstration complete. It now becomes Us to decide whether We mu si succum , t It is for iis now to determine whether

bat pays us the tribute os a common nature, as it Ahims over

aur graVe l-Those resemblances, whicli ali admit, it wero follyto question. But the comparison ha S lately known no prudence. Μan is described as an a meliorated brute. He has made his oWn Way out of the oeconomy of bestiat instincti Not satisfied with this emersion, he is to bo tau ted with his origin. The chance of a foret,ead mahes him what ho is. His intellect is a mero result of organigation. His dispositioris

are bliud and mechanical instincis. Let him think fellowlyof the ape t This philosophy only Wanted the Craniological

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addition to complete the ingredients of iis enchanted cal-

assected by the minit. This is a hypothesis with which weshould have litile quarret. The physiognomical transformation we could heartily abet. But organigation is noW maderestrictive. ερ To expect, ' says LaWreiice, that the Americans and Africans can be ruised by any culture to an equat height in morat sentiments and intellectual energy With Europeans, RPPearS to me quite a S Unreasonable as it would be to hopo that

tho mastiss may rival in talents and acquirements the sagacious and docile poodie. The plot is at last betrayed. This is nosaitery.V The human species is ut a liopetess rest. Advanceis impossibio. The barrier is insurmounts te. Taunt, of CourSe, solioWs When such opinions are broached. The canine ullusionis ali within that velit. It is pleasing to these mi8anthropesto conceive of their selloWs as pactis of so many breeds, and of the earth as u kennel or menagerie. It has boon atready admitted that a bellever in these speculations is not required os necessity to bo a materialist. But Imu si eXpreSS my conviction that they are founded on a low, gross, materialism. Is such be the origin of the theory, such may weli be iis consequence. Perhaps iis suspected or iis realconnection With the system os materialism creates no alarm. Eo it so; Ι am the Leeper of no man's conscience, and judge of no man's creed. Aly OWn Harm is undissembled, and theroare thousandS Who participate it. - Some have supposed thatthey might alloW the facts of materialism, and 3 et reason differently upon them. They feel themselves secure against theundue conclusions of a Spinora or a LaWrence. But it is Untrue that it adducess any facis. It can claim assumptions and finit analogies, to surseit ; but it is destitute os a single credibio