principle, that human nature is actually a “ruin," and life unavoidably a great scene of endurance, for which man is to be compensated by happiness in a future state; although, to a wellinformed mind, many of the sufferings in question appear to be the direct consequences of ignorance and neglect of the natural institutions of the Creator.

In urging these views, we may be causing uneasiness to some pious, but timorous and ill-instructed individuals. We would willingly avoid doing so; but the imperative dictates of duty impel us to proclaim what we believe to be truths of divine authority and of the highest practical importance, and to protest against the spirit which designedly keeps them in obscurity, as if they were in themselves dangerous and pestilential.

But to return to Mr Sedgwick. He combats Paley's argument that expediency is the measure of right, and endeavours to shew, that, according to this principle, virtue and vice would have no longer any fixed relations to the moral condition of man, but would change with the fluctuations of opinion, and that every one would be entitled to claim the liberty of judging for himself. Christianity, he says, places the mainspring of every virtue in the affections; and Christian love becomes an efficient and abiding principle, not tested by the world, but above the world. "The utilitarian scheme starts, on the contrary, with an abrogation of the authority of conscience-a rejection of the moral feelings as the test of right and wrong. From first to last, it is in bondage to the world, measuring every act by a worldly standard, and estimating its value by worldly consequences." This conclusion" appears, indeed, not only to have been foreseen by Paley, but to have been accepted by him." (P. 66.)

Mr Sedgwick, with great truth, observes, that, as God is a moral governor of the world," in the end, high principle and sound policy will be found in the strictest harmony with each other." "If," says he, "there be a superintending Providence, and if his will be manifested by general laws operating both on the physical and moral world, then must a violation of these laws be a violation of his will, and be pregnant with inevitable misery." "Nothing can, in the end, be expedient for man, except it be subordinate to those laws the Author of Nature has thought fit to impress on his moral and physical creation."

There is much profound truth in these remarks, but they imply the great importance of a knowledge of the natural laws; and as these cannot be accurately ascertained, in as far as regards man, without a knowledge of his constitution, and as Mr Sedgwick does not mention any system of the philosophy of man which he can recommend as worthy of our approbation, we again ask, why is Phrenology, which professes to be the very philosophy wanted, so completely disregarded? In the Appen

dix to Mr Combe's System of Phrenology, 2d edition, an illustration is given of the application of the principles of Phrenology to the solution of questions of expediency, to which we refer. It shews to what a large extent the constitution of individual minds necessarily must enter as an element into our judgments on that subject, before they can become sound and consistent.

In the Appendix to his Discourse, Mr Sedgwick has added some valuable and instructive notes, in the last of which he reproves, with great eloquence and severity, the bigoted and ignorant individuals who dare to affirm that the pursuits of natural science are hostile to religion." He offers a most successful defence of the study of geology, and chastises those writers who have endeavoured to falsify the facts and conclusions of that science, for the purpose of flattering the religious prejudices of the public. "There is another class of men," says he, "who pursue geology by a nearer road, and are guided by a different light. Well-intentioned they may be; but they have betrayed no small self-sufficiency, along with a shameful want of knowledge of the fundamental facts they presume to write about; hence they have dishonoured the literature of this country by Mosaic geology, Scripture geology, and other works of cosmogony with kindred titles, wherein they have overlooked the aim and end of revelation, tortured the book of life out of its proper meaning, and wantonly contrived to bring about a collision between natural phenomena and the word of God." (P. 150.)

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The following observations are exceedingly just, and our readers will not fail to observe how completely applicable they are to Phrenology, as well as to Geology. "A Brahmin crushed with a stone the microscope that first shewed him living things among the vegetables of his daily food. The spirit of the Brahmin lives in Christendom. The bad principles of our nature are not bounded by caste or climate; and men are still to be found, who, if not restrained by the wise and humane laws of their country, would try to stifle by personal violence, and crush by brute force, every truth not hatched among their own conceits, and confined within the narrow fences of their own ignorance." (P. 151.)

"We are told by the wise man not to answer a fool according to his folly; and it would indeed be a vain and idle task to engage in controversy with this school of false philosophy-to waste our breath in the forms of exact reasoning, unfitted to the comprehension of our antagonists-to draw our weapons in a combat where victory could give no honour. Before a geologist can condescend to reason with such men, they must first learn geology. It is too much to call upon us to scatter our seed on a soil at once both barren and unreclaimed-it is folly to think, that we can in the same hour be stubbing up the thorns and reaping the harvest. All the writers of this school have

not indeed sinned against plain sense to the same degree. With some of them there is perhaps a perception of the light of natural truth, which may lead them after a time to follow it in the right road; but the case of others is beyond all hope from the powers of rational argument. Their position is impregnable while they remain within the fences of their ignorance, which is to them as a wall of brass; for (as was well said, if I remember right, by Bishop Warburton, of some bustling fanatics of his own day) there is no weak side of common sense whereat we may attack them. If cases like these yield at all, it must be to some treatment which suits the inveteracy of their nature, and not to the weapons of reason. As psychological phenomena, they are, however, well deserving of our study; teaching us, among other things, how prone man is to turn his best faculties to evil purposes and how, at the suggestions of vanity and other bad principles of his heart, he can become so far deluded, as to fancy that he is doing honour to religion, while he is sacrificing the common charities of life, and arraigning the very workmanship of God." (Pp. 151, 152.)

Why should this bigoted hostility to science coexist so extensively with pretensions to religious earnestness? and why should it be so generally received by the people as a proof of superior sanctity? Christianity itself is not to blame. It is in accordance with the best and profoundest interpretations of the divine workmanship exhibited in nature. The fault lies in the system of clerical instruction; which not only excludes all regular instruction in the constitution of the external world and its relations to human nature, (although these abound with the most delightful and impressive examples of God's power, wisdom, and goodness), but sedulously confines itself to the teaching of dogmas. These dogmas are in general merely the prominent tenets which distinguish the sect of the preacher; the great practical precepts of the New Testament being often allowed to sink into comparative obscurity. The consequence is, that individuals who confine themselves to religious studies are grossly and deplorably ignorant of at least one-half of divine revelation, that which is addressed to the human faculties in the great book of Nature; and they entertain extremely contracted views even of Christianity itself. They are, therefore, the easy dupes of every ignorant zealot who desires to attract notoriety by defending Christianity from what he calls the inroads of in fidelity; in other words, who is ambitious of gaining a name, for himself at the expense of Divine truth and of the real welfare of the community. The proper education of the people is the only remedy for this disgraceful evil.

Our extracts present but an imperfect outline of the contents of Mr Sedgwick's volume. We wish that it had been printed in a cheap form, and that it were diffused over the whole kingdom.

We trust that no one will imagine, that by addressing so many of the foregoing remarks to Mr Sedgwick, we mean to shew him any personal disrespect. Our object is exactly the reverse. We perceive in him moral and intellectual qualities that place him in the higher class of minds, and set him above low and degrading prejudices. We discover in him moral intrepidity, as well as depth and comprehensiveness of intellect; and it is only on such men that we have the least chance of making an impression. Our science teaches us, that unless the higher qualities of mind are possessed by those to whom we address our arguments in favour of a new and despised system of truth, we may, in the words of Mr Sedgwick, as well waste our breath on the stones of the wilderness."

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ARTICLE II.

AFFECTION OF THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGE FROM INJURY OF THE BRAIN.

A CURIOUS case of injury of the brain has been published in No. 117 of the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, by Professor Syme. It is worthy of the notice of phrenologists on account of the defect in the faculty of Language which accompanied it. The principal facts are as follows.

George Moodie, aged twenty-eight, was admitted into the Royal Infirmary on the 6th July 1833, on account of an injury of the head, which he had sustained nineteen months before, and from the effects of which he had not recovered. It was stated, that, on the 4th of January 1832, he had been found lying insensible at the foot of a high wall, from which he must have fallen. He remained unconscious of external circumstances for four days, during which he occasionally moved the different parts of his body, and expressed by cries and unconnected sentences that he was suffering uneasiness. At the end of this period he regained his intelligence, but was found to have lost the power of moving the left side of his body, and of articulating words, with the exception of one or two of the simplest monosyllables. He was, however, quite aware of his situation, and

understood all that was said within his hearing; while, at the same time, he retained hardly any recollection of written or printed words." This state having continued for some months, his head was carefully examined, and a slight semicircular ridge was perceived a little above the forehead, on the left side of the head, below which the bone seemed somewhat flattened. He then came to town to get the depressed portion of the skull re

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moved; but Dr Abercrombie and Mr Syme considered an operation unadvisable the former regarding the symptoms as "indicative of a much more serious derangement of the brain than could be supposed to result from so very slight a depression." On 6th July 1833 the patient, who had now become subject to epileptic fits, again came to town, with the determined resolution of having an opening made in the injured part of the bone; and, after due consideration, it was resolved to remove a portion of the skull. The operation was performed on the 22d July, when it appeared that the internal table was not affected, and the dura mater presented a natural aspect. It was thought unnecessary to carry the operation farther, and the edges of the wound were brought together and stitched. The health of the patient improved, with little interruption, till the ninth day: he then had a severe fit; after which he remained pale and almost In the evening he had two fits. On the following day he had four attacks in rapid succession; and on the eleventh day he died.

comatose.

"On dissection, the cranium and dura mater were found to present nothing remarkable. When an opening was made into the dura mater of the injured side, three or four ounces of turbid serum gushed out, and the membrane collapsed upon the middle lobe of the brain,-the surface of which, instead of being convex, was concave, and very irregular, displaying a number of small elevations and depressions. A section being made through this part, it was observed that the entire substance of the middle lobe possessed an unusually tough consistence, and was, throughout its whole extent, from above downwards, converted into a cavernous structure, the interstices of which were occupied by serum. The lateral ventricles contained more fluid than usual; and the inferior surface of the middle lobe was discoloured and soft. The only other morbid appearance observed, was a very distinct ramollissement, to the extent of about a shilling, but of little depth, on the inferior surface of the anterior lobes, corresponding with the bulbs of the olfactory nerves, and the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone.

"There can be little doubt that the morbid appearances which have been mentioned, with the exception of the softening, which may be referred to the effect of inflammation, depended upon the effusion of blood, which, being afterwards absorbed, had its place occupied by serum. It is certainly remarkable that so extensive a derangement of the cerebral structure should not have been attended with more imperfection of the bodily or mental faculties. Perhaps this may be accounted for in some measure by the integrity of the right side of the brain, which seemed to be perfectly sound every where, except the small part corresponding with the cribriform plate, where it was diseased on both sides."