attain.

"There are few subjects," says DUGALD STEWART, "more hackneyed than that of education, and yet there is none upon which the opinions of the world are still more divided. Nor is this surprising; for most of those who have speculated concerning it, have confined their attention chiefly to incidental questions about the comparative advantage of public or private instruction, the utility of peculiar language or sciences, without attempting a previous examination of those faculties and principles of the mind, which it is the great object of education to improve."(Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, p. 62.)

Another great error in education, also founded on our ignorance of the human nature, is, that every teacher takes himself as a model for his pupils. What he likes and learns with facility, he supposes ought to be equally liked and learned by every other person; while in every child, the feelings and intellectual faculties, though essentially the same, are modified in quantity and quality. Hitherto, on account of none of the systems of education being founded on a correct analysis of the faculties of man, education has been conducted altogether in a general way; and hence almost every individual who thinks for

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himself when arrived at the age of maturity, has found it necessary to begin a new course of education, according to his individual character and talents.

Still another point, hitherto not sufficiently understood in education, concerns the organic conditions on which the manifestations of the mind depend. This is the object of a new doctrine, and is detailed in my work on Phrenology.

Thus education, though it does not create any power whatever, may produce great effect; but to that purpose its whole system must be changed, and this will be done in proportion as the nature of man becomes known, and as it will be acknowledged that man must be perfected like other created beings. He is the disciple of nature, and must submit to the determined sway which prevails in her government. He errs the moment he ceases to observe, and begins to excogitate. The construction of a system of education cannot be a creative but an imitative process, which must be founded only on the lessons of experience. Here, as in the cultivation of every other science, it is not by the exercise of a sublime and speculative ingenuity, that man arrives at truth, but it is by letting himself down to simple observation,

by rejecting equally the authority of antiquity, and of eminent contemporaries, when in opposition to nature;-by sacrificing every consideration that opposes the evidence of observation, and its legitimate and well established conclusions;-by being able to renounce all the favourite opinions of infancy, the moment that truth demands the sacrifice;-in short, by following only the lights of observation and induction. "Does not our happiness depend," says a contemporary writer, "on the knowledge of the various relations which man bears to his fellow man and to his God, and the practice of the duties which they impose; and how are we to discover these relations, except by the assistance of reason, operating on experience? Can false views of human nature, and its attributes, increase the happiness of the human race individually; or can political society, framed on such erroneous principles, attain the end for which alone society was framed? Deception and mendacity are always regarded in the common and every day intercourse of life as base and odious,-Is it then only upon subjects of the highest importance to man, that he may be deceived without danger or detestation?'" (Retrospective Review, No. I. p. 71.) I concur entirely in these sentiments.

My ideas on the nature of man, on his fundamental powers; on their innateness; on the conditions of their manifestations in this life; on the moral liberty, and several other points, are exposed, with details, in works entitled, Phrenology; and, Philosophical Principles of Phrenology. suppose these points to be known to those who take up this volume, composed merely with phrenological views, and founded on mere phrenological principles.

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In treating of Education and Legislation, it seems important to examine, Whether there is only one species of the human race, or whether there are several? The great variety of bodily and mental appearances;-of features, complexion, size and configuration;-of feelings and intellectual powers,-must strike the most superficial observer. The causes of these differences have been examined, and various hypotheses have been invented to account for them. Some authors have had recourse to different original species; others have accounted for these modifications, by the common laws of nature. It is indeed natural to ask, Whether a Negro and a White Man, a Dwarf and a Giant, a Hottentot and Lord BACON, are of the same species? Whether the Cannibal, whose earthly and expected heavenly

pleasures are gratifications of the low animal passions, and the true Christian, full of kindness and benignity; whether he whose ingenuity is exercised merely in destruction and devastation, and he who beholds all creatures as objects of Divine providence and beneficence, were originally formed after the same image?

If there be several species of Man, there can be no universal principles of human conduct;human nature cannot be included in any one system; and the rules which are suitable for one nation will not be fit for another. If, on the contrary, there be only one species;-general principles of education, general rules of conduct, and national laws, may be established. Moreover, if there were several species, and one superior to the others, the White to the Negro, for example, slavery might be contended for as an institution of Nature; but if the species be only one, neither the primitive moral character, nor Christianity, can excuse this most selfish of all barbarities.

I will not consider the arguments of those who, from inferior motives without any respect for human dignity, and without any religious or moral principles, or reproaches of conscience, force