by an infinity of observations, proves further that the mental manifestations depend on organization.

vi. Exercise.

The possibility of exercising and of training the faculties of the mind, also shows their dependence on the organization; for that an immaterial being can be exercised is inconceivable.

vii. Relation between the Brain and the manifestations of the Mind.

The preceding arguments are founded on reasoning, and prove that all manifestations of the mind depend on organic conditions. In the first volume of this work it is demonstrated, that individual faculties manifest themselves by means of particular cerebral parts, and that the faculties appear, increase in strength, and diminish in vigor, in proportion as the organs on which they depend are developed, increase in size, and shrink again. The brain of the new born child scarcely shows any traces of fibres; these appear, become firmer by degrees, and attain perfection between the twentieth and fortieth year. As years accumulate, its convolutions, which had been plump, become flabby, and are less closely packed together.

In conformity with the state of the brain at birth, animal life is confined to spontaneous motions, to the perception of hunger and thirst, to some obscure sensation of pain and pleasure, and to an imperfect state of the external senses. By degrees the number and energy of the affective and intellectual faculties augment, and the child begins to acquire knowledge and determinate ideas of external objects. Through the periods of boyhood and adolescence the faculties gradually gain strength; and, in manhood, they at length manifest the greatest degree of energy. From this state of perfection, however, they soon begin to decline; and, in extreme old age, the propensities are blunted, the sentiments weakened, and the intellectual faculties almost or entirely annihilated.

If the organs of the faculties, however, do not follow the usual order of increase, but be either precocious or tardy, their respective functions are also manifested with corresponding variations. If the intellectual faculties are often more energetic in rickety children than beseems their age, their brain will also be found extraordinarily developed or irritable. Independently of all disease, however, particular portions of the brain are occasionally developed at too early a period, and then their functions likewise appear prematurely.

On the other hand, when parts of the brain or its whole mass arrives very late at maturity, the mental imperfections of childhood remain longer than usual, sometimes till about the tenth or twelfth year, so that parents despair of the rationality of their children. After this age, however, the cerebral organs will often take on a particular growth, and the faculties then appear with great vigor. One of the most distinguished physicians at Berlin, when ten years old, could not use his organs of speech, and Gessner, at the same age, had made such slender progress in his studies, that his preceptor declared him half an idiot; yet it is known how famous he became afterwards.

If the growth of the cerebral organs be incomplete, the faculties of the mind are equally defective. It is impossible to determine with exactness the degree of organic developement necessary to the due manifestation of the mental powers; for this depends not on the size of the organs alone, but on their peculiar constitution also. A very small brain, however, is always accompanied with imbecility.

Children have sometimes the same organic constitution of brain as their parents, and then manifest precisely similar affective and intellectual faculties. Characteristic forms of head are often transmitted from generation to generation; and thus are mental faculties propagated in families during centuries. It is an acknowledged fact, that children who resemble each other, or their parents, manifest similar faculties, making allowances for difference of age and I have seen twin-boys so like each other that it was almost

sex.

impossible to distinguish them; their inclinations and talents were also strikingly similar. Two other twin sisters are very different; the muscular system in the one being most developed, the nervous in the other; and while the first has little understanding, the second is eminently talented.

To conclude this point, I say that, as the peculiar organs of the affective and intellectual faculties can positively be demonstrated, it is impossible to deny the dependence of mental phenomena on the organization.

The principle of Phrenology, therefore, that the manifestations of the affective and intellectual faculties of the mind depend on the brain, is also ascertained.

SECTION V.

ON THE RELIGIOUS

CONSTITUTION OF MAN.

General view.

THE examination of this subject has been opposed at all times and in all countries by all sorts of obstacles. This higher portion of human nature has constantly been injured, and trampled upon by civil and religious establishments. In this respect, in particular, man has been treated as a beast that stands in need of a master. It may be added that Cicero's sentence- man desires to be deceived' finds its special application as far as his religious dispositions are concerned. Those who dare to think for themselves and to instruct others, must still be prepared to struggle for truth.. The ancient philosophers commonly took care not to offend the ignorant multitude on the religion of the state, but initiated their chosen disciples with their secret thoughts upon these matters.

The religious doctrines in general are involved in numberless contradictions and inconsistencies. The great remedy consists in

the love of truth and free inquiry. Refined ideas are commonly buried under heaps of rubbish and superstition, so that it is extremely difficult to separate the true from false doctrines. We find sublime precepts at the bottom of all the great religious systems among the Indians, Chinese, Roman Catholics and others, though the chief place is occupied by childish, ridiculous, useless and sometimes mischievous observances. No Christian who has arrived at refined notions of an All-perfect Being will object to the Shastra treating of God in the following expressions; He who considers the Being that is infinite, incomprehensible and pure, as finite, perceptible by the senses, limited by time and place, subject to passion and anger, what crime is such a robber of Divine Majesty not guilty of. Acts and rites that originate in the movements of the hands and other members of the body, being perishable, cannot effect beatitude that is eternal. Those who worship forms under appellations continue subject to form and appellation, for no perishable means can effect the acquisition of an imperishable end.' Yet the religion of the common Indians is disfigured by, and almost reduced to, external ceremonies. Similar remarks are applicable to the other great establishments of religion. The sublime principles are too often neglected or even forgotten by the fault of those who teach and of those who are taught. The former commonly lay more stress upon the necessity of belief in the messengers who revealed the doctrine, and upon ceremonious observances, than upon virtuous actions; and the latter find it more easy to follow outward ceremonies than to excel by inward virtue, self-denial and wisdom.

On the other hand, men of disinterested, kind and pious feelings, of amiable and charming habits, great goodness, love of truth and sound judgment, are met with in all countries and under every church-establishment, among the Jews and Gentiles, Mahometans, Roman Catholics and Protestants. These individuals, as St. Paul said, have the law written in their heart, and we are wrong in ascribing their moral perfection to the religious creed in which they are born and brought up. Fenelon, for instance, would have been

mild, amiable, innocent, benevolent and useful to his fellow creatures under any church-government, because his pure mind inhabited a pure body. He therefore preserved his innate goodness and candor in the midst of the selfishness, hypocrisy and intrigue of the French court.

However delicate the object of religion may be, I do not hesitate to examine it, placing truth above any other consideration, relying on the decrees of the all-wise Creator, and being intimately convinced that truth is the corner-stone of human happiness, and that true Christianity will gain by free investigation. The principal points to be considered are, atheism; God's existence; God's attributes; God's relationship with man; the importance of a temporal revelation; the aim of religion; its improvement; and the sublimity of Christianity.

On Atheism.

Atheism is the doctrine which denies the existence of God, the creator of the universe. It has been an object of discussion among thinkers of ancient and modern days. Many ancient philosophers denied the existence of a Creator and Supreme Being that governs the world; they believed in an essence or ether, commonly styled the soul of the world, which as they said penetrated all beings and produced all phenomena. The soul of man was a portion of it, and at the death of every one united with other bodies. Others went still farther by rejecting such a general cause infused into all beings, and by admitting only a certain number of elements and their combinations: mere mixture and form of matter. This sort of atheism then may be confounded with materialism. According to it there is no God, no creator, no soul, no religion, no immortality, no beginning, no end, nothing but matter governed by invariable laws.