Robert Burns, 57.-Manchester Idiot, 128.-Rammohun Roy, 128.-John Adam and

John Linn, murderers, 651.-David Haggart, thief, 655.

THE

PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL.

No. XLI.

ARTICLE I.

A DISCOURSE ON THE STUDIES OF THE UNIVERSITY. By ADAM SEDGWICK, M. A., F. R. S., &c. Woodwardian Professor and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Third Edition. Cambridge, 1834. 8vo, pp. 157.

THIS is a work of great merit, and is one of the most pleasing indications with which we are acquainted, of the progress of sound philosophy in the University of Cambridge. Mr Sedgwick enjoys a high reputation as a geologist-second, we believe, only to Lyell; but this Discourse proves that, in moral science also, he possesses extensive knowledge, and powers of profound and correct investigation. A beautiful strain of rational piety and love of truth pervades it, which leads us at once to love and respect the author. It is prefaced by a text (Psalm cxvi. 17, 18, 19,) and contains throughout numerous quotations from Scripture; from which circumstances, and its title, we conclude that it is a sermon. Far from objecting to it on this account, we wish that many sermons of a similar character were preached and published. We have, therefore, much pleasure in introducing some of the author's views to our readers.

The Discourse was delivered on the day of the annual commemoration of the founders of the University of Cambridge, and is published at the request of the junior members of the Society to whom it was more immediately addressed. It contains, not a formal, but a comprehensive and valuable, dissertation on academic studies.

One of the most important features in modern philosophy, is the practical application of the doctrine, that all nature is regulated by laws instituted by the Creator, and that human happiness and virtue are promoted by studying and obeying them. Mr Sedgwick observes,-" We are justified in saying, that in the moral as in the physical world, God seems to govern by ge

VOL. IX.-NO. XLI.

A

neral laws." "I am not now," says he, "contending for the doctrine of moral necessity; but I do affirm, that the moral government of God is by general laws, and that it is our bounden duty to study those laws, and, as far as we can, to turn them to our account." (Pp. 5, 9.)

He classes the studies of Cambridge, as far as they relate to mere human learning, under three heads:-1st, The study of the laws of nature, comprehending all parts of inductive philo. sophy; 2d, The study of ancient literature; and, 3d, The study of ourselves, considered as individuals and as social beings. Under the third head are included ethics and metaphysics, moral and political philosophy, and some other kindred subjects of great complexity.

Under the first head, the author introduces some excellent observations. "By the discoveries of a new science," says he, (the very name of which has been but a few years engrafted on our language), we learn that the manifestations of God's power on the earth have not been limited to the few thousand years of man's existence. The geologist tells us by the clearest interpretation of the phenomena which his labours have brought to light, that our globe has been subject to vast physical revolutions. He counts his time not by celestial cycles, but by an index he has found in the solid framework of the globe itself. He sees a long succession of monuments, each of which may have required a thousand ages for its elaboration. He arranges them in chronological order, observes on them the marks of skill and wisdom, and finds within them the tombs of the ancient inhabitants of the earth. He finds strange and unlooked for changes in the forms and fashions of organic life, during each of the long periods he thus contemplates; he traces these changes backwards through each successive era, till he reaches a time when the monuments lose all symmetry, and the types of organic life are no longer seen. He has then entered on the dark age of nature's history, and he closes the old chapter of her records. This account has so much of what is exactly true, that it hardly deserves the name of figurative description.

Geology, like every other science when well interpreted, lends its aid to natural religion. It tells us out of its own records, that man has been but a few years a dweller on the earth; for the traces of himself, and of his works, are confined to the last monuments of its history. Independently of Independently of every written testimony, we therefore believe that man, with all his powers and appetencies, his marvellous structure, and his fitness for the world around him, was called into being within a few thousand years of the days in which we live-not by a transmutation of species (a theory no better than a phrensied dream), but by a provident contriving power. And thus we at once remove a stumblingblock, thrown in our way by those who would rid

themselves of a prescient first cause, by trying to resolve all phenomena into a succession of constant material actions, ascending into an eternity of past time.

"But this is not the only way in which geology gives its aid to natural religion. It proves that a pervading intelligent principle has manifested its power during times long anterior to the records of our existence. It adds to the great cumulative argument derived from the forms of animated nature, by shewing us new and unlooked for instances of organic structure adjusted to an end, and that end accomplished. It tells us that God has not created the world and left it to itself, remaining ever after a quiescent spectator of his own work; for it puts before our eyes the certain proofs, that during successive periods there have been, not only great changes in the external conditions of the earth, but corresponding changes in organic life; and that in every such instance of change, the new organs, as far as we can comprehend their use, were exactly suited to the functions of the beings they were given to. It shews intelligent power not only contriving means adapted to an end, but at many successive times contriving a change of mechanism adapted to a change of external conditions; and thus affords a proof, peculiarly its own, that the great first cause continues a provident and active intelligence." (Pp. 25, 26, 27.)

Our readers are aware that we have repeatedly and earnestly dwelt upon geological facts as of great importance in forming a correct estimate of the true position of man on earth. We have here one of the first living authorities certifying boldly the great facts-which, indeed, physical evidence renders absolutely indisputable that organic beings lived and died before man appeared on earth, and that there were "not only great changes in the external condition of the earth, but corresponding changes in organic life; and that in every such instance of change, the new organs, as far as we can comprehend their use, were exactly suited to the functions of the beings they were given to." Another point, the importance of which we have frequently advocated, is also discussed by Mr Sedgwick. "Not only," says he, is every portion of matter governed by its own laws, but its powers of action on other material things are governed also by laws subordinate to those by which its parts are held together; so that, in the countless changes of material things, and their countless actions on each other, we find no effect which jars with the mechanism of nature, but all are the harmonious results of dominant laws." "What are the laws of nature but the manifestations of the wisdom of God? What are material actions, but manifestations of his power? Indications of his wisdom and his power co-exist with every portion of the universe." "Yet I have myself heard it asserted, within these very walls,