an agency similar to that of an electric telegraph. The will being capable of moving this agency and of being moved through it, may we not reasonably imagine it possible that the soul is to be for ever associated with it in some specific and identical form? This agency is probably one with the all-penetrating medium of the universe, called, for lack of a name sufficiently definite, ether. It is calculated to serve as a spiritual body, which, taking direction and impression as the vehicle of the soul, might be capable of influence and action in sympathy with all the changes, mental and physical, of the universe.

man.

The Power evinced in and to conscious beings is also acting everywhere. As the composition and decomposition of all matter, and even the differences of the elements and all we mean by form and force, may be due only to changes brought by Will and Thought in the universal substance, so the intimate relationship of soul to soul, spirit to spirit, life to life, may be no mere figure of speech, but in verity the grandest of realities, the consummating truth, the eternal fact, not fully to be felt until we know our Maker as we are known by Him, and find that He is indeed the all in all, the Indweller of eternity and It is then no useless speculation to reflect on the mysterious connection of mind with matter; for though we are left, after all our efforts, in palpable obscurity, yet we acquire in the midst a sublimer consciousness of being. All we learn indeed from experiments on the brain, and from observing the effects of its diseases on the mind, amounts only to this-it seems requisite to sensation, that the nerves of sense should transmit impressions to the brain. This does not in any degree help us to understand how the matter of the brain becomes instrumental to the mind, nor how the being that perceives, wills, and thinks is located in the body. Anatomy and physiology only show us that the more we

unravel the nervous organisation the more we disconnect the mind from all material functions, for it is impossible to believe that the function of the nerve-fibres which we dissect is in itself a mental action. The mystery of the investigation is such, that if we continue to think on it we are obliged mentally to resign ourselves to the Wisdom that leaves us thus ignorant of the mode of our existence. We safely depend on that Wisdom. We feel ourselves existing, so to say, in two worlds at the same time, with only light enough upon us to discover that the profundities in which we live extend into infinite darkness on either side, so that our safety is felt and found only in trusting to the guiding Hand that made us; for it is only as God leads us into the knowledge of His own attributes that we enter into the light which is life. It is enough for us to rely on the love and power so abundantly revealed to us by the word and the works of our Maker.

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CHAPTER VIII.

PHRENOLOGY.

WE INTERPRET all new ideas presented to us according to our previous faith. Hence those who believe in the existence of the soul, and at the same time in phrenology, endeavour to reconcile the one with the other, by regarding the brain not as the cause of mind, but only as the instrument or medium of the soul's operations. Many believers in phrenology, however, renounce the idea of a soul altogether, and carry the material theory to its proper conclusion; and yet probably there is not one such who does not feel some respect for the divine law written in the heart of man. But this is inconsistent in them; for if a man's reason and will have no source or ground but in his bodily organs, then there can be no real permanent self-hood; and if there be not, what relation can there be between a man's mind and any law demanding obedience for the sake of improving one's own being and for the common good? What good can there be to a mind unassociated, and indeed not existing, but with the body, except transient physical good? What real community of interest can there be except among spiritual beings, that exist, reason, love, and hate on principles and under laws altogether distinct from any that regulate material combinations and results ?

It is immortality that gives life and meaning to morals. The bare material notion does not agree with the conduct of the extreme phrenologists, either in their civil, social, or domestic relations. Their practice does not

accord with their theory; they do not prove their faith by their works. When they wish to persuade a man to shun vice and pursue virtue, they appeal to some principle within-to the discrimination of a conscientious, rational, moral being. They know that it is as vain to argue with self-acting organs as it would be to talk to a steam-engine. And what man loves his child as a mere series of phenomena, or educates him as if that which thinks had but an imaginary, or at best a dissoluble existence? Our affections will not allow us to act as mere materials, the accidents of which are sentiments and reasonings. We must struggle most stoutly to smother our convictions, in order to behave as if we felt no responsibility, and feared no result, when earthly appearance shall terminate.

If degrees of criminality, as some men teach, be determined by the relative development of portions of our brains, and not according to the degree of our knowledge, and the kind of motives presented to our reason through our affections in our training, then the language of the Great Teacher is a violence to our nature,If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin : but now they have no cloke for their sin.' These words appear to have no meaning, unless they signify that the extent of man's accountableness is commensurate with the degree of holy truth applied to his understanding, and that conscience is not the attribute of a set of organs, but of a being capable of feeling that the Supreme is good, and therefore to be honoured, loved, and obeyed.

It is not possible too strenuously to insist on the responsibility of the rational will—that is, the instructed spirit, when we consider that some phrenologists, who consider themselves the most consistent, teach a novel and outrageous doctrine of necessity in such language as this: Man's organs are made for him, therefore

the responsibility of his actions rests with his Maker.' (Zoist.)

Is not the principle on which we shall be judged plainly revealed, and is it not most perfectly consonant with the dictates of our own consciences? As there is no rational will either to do good or to do evil without knowledge, so He who cannot err, educates His intelligent creatures by placing before them things of opposite qualities, that intelligence may be based upon experience. Reason is free to choose according to knowledge, whatever be the state of the conscience; and even when, perverted by pride and selfish determination, men wander into a hell of their own making, they may still learn the truth of that perfect law of liberty which says, Si hæc scitis, beati estis, si feceritis ea. The manner in which the theorists lead astray will be demonstrated by referring to one instance amongst thousands. It appears that Thurtell, the cold-blooded murderer, had a fine head, since veneration was large, benevolence very large, and adhesiveness, or attachment, very large; therefore, according to theory, he ought to have been a religious, pious, sincere, and friendly man. Now see how a phrenologist converts benevolence into the active cause of murder, in order to explain this palpable difficulty:-There is every probability that Thurtell laid the unwarrantable unction to his soul that he would do a service to others by destroying Weare. He considered Weare as a complete rascal, one who had robbed many, and who, had he lived, would have rovbed many more. If this mean anything it means that Thurtell was justified, at least phrenologically, in being both judge and executioner of Weare, although he sought his company and used him while he wanted him! Thus some phrenologists would rectify the final judgment, and

* Phrenological Journal, vol. i. p. 331.

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