Except in the case of our most intimate friends, we never know thoroughly even the religion of our contemporaries. The broad general outlines are commonly accepted by whole nations or numerous sects, but the details are filled in according to the disposition of the individual. Terrible religious wars are, it is true, frequently fought about mere words; but the words are always supposed to represent some very important difference of creed. Subtle, however, as the refinements of language may be, they are not so subtle as the refinements of the human mind, when there is a desire to reconcile interest with faith. The missionary cannot be certain that his proselyte accepts his doctrine in precisely the same sense in which he accepts it himself; and even persons who are in the habit of daily association with each other must always remain in ignorance each of the intricate workings of the other's thoughts. Even when there is no hypocrisy, a formula may be adopted by one person in one sense, by another in another; and a man may be possibly guiltless, even of selfdeception, who adapts his religion to himself, rather than himself to his religion. When this imperfection of language, as an interpreter of thought, is borne in mind, it is no longer very difficult to understand why different races are apparently of the same religion, and why different sections of the same race are apparently of different religions. The facility with which, as history tells us, new religions are accepted by vast masses of mankind, though it may cause us to despair of ever isolating and examining by themselves the race-elements of faiths, affords great encouragement to the hope of discovering what is common to all faiths alike. There must be some mental faculty or faculties shared by all, or nearly all, human races, which must dispose them to accept not any particular creed, but a creed of some kind or other. To follow all the twists and turns of a convert's mind would be, in the present state of science, and probably in any state of science, impossible. It is hardly possible to conceive such an advance toward the perfection, at once, of language, of psychology, and of honesty, as would enable any one human being to know precisely the state of consciousness of another. All that we can hope to do is to agree upon some definition of elementary mental phenomena. When certain divisions of psychical manifestations are admitted, it will be possible to arrive at a definite conclusion upon two points: firstly, whether any, and which, psychical elements are necessary to the development of religion; secondly, whether religion is a necessary function of the human mind in a healthy condition. Upon these two points, however, I do not as yet invite discussion. My object, in the present paper, is to clear off certain prejudices which appear to lie in the way of truth. I found it impossible both to do this and to lay down more positive principles within the limits of a single lecture; and I have, therefore, to apologize for dividing my subject into two parts. In these preliminary remarks, which might have been extended indefinitely, I have endeavored to be as brief as possible, because it seems to me that I have adduced sufficient instances to invalidate any supposed law, according to which race models religion. No set of instances, pointing in an opposite direction, can, I think, establish such a law in the face of these glaring contradictions; and I am, therefore, content for the present to let my opinion rest on the evidence which I have adduced. But, as I am aware that views opposed to my own are entertained by very distinguished anthropologists both here and abroad, I am most anxious to hear all that can be said against the following position: That although there may probably exist certain race-elements in the religion of every people, they are of minor importance, and cannot be defined in the present condition of language and psychology.-Anthropological Review. Analytical Account of the chief Characters tending to separate Man from Animals. By M. ROCHET. Man cannot be defined, as many naturalists have attempted, by a sacramental phrase. His distinctive characters are multiple, and it is by their ensemble that we are enabled to understand him; he is a summary of all living beings, in some respects the conclusion; and his infancy has not yet terminated. From our point of view man may be considered under five principal heads: 1. Man examined externally as regards form.-There is not a single feature in the human face which, examined from an artistic stand-point, does not constitute a character of beauty and nobility foreign to the animal. He alone has an expressive and intelligent physiognomy. This applies also to the body. Thus the trunk of man is both supple and flexible; it rotates on itself in a manner observed in no other animal; like the head, the body is of incomparable beauty, and shows a harmony of proportion not observed elsewhere. The erect stature, the perfection of the hand, and of the foot, are characters of the same value. The hand is especially characteristic. Man alone has a true hand; he alone uses this admirable instrument for creating thousands of industrial and artistic masterpieces. 1 Translated from the Bulletins of the Paris Anthropological Society. This is the summary of the author's important memoir on this subject. 2. The internal, sensitive, or moral man.-Man is endowed with a moral sensibility altogether unknown to the rest of organized beings. Every thing affects and agitates him. He loves, or believes in things animals have no notion of. He possesses the feeling of the beautiful, the ugly, of wrong and right. He alone is conscious of the morality or immorality of his acts. He alone in the whole universe is conscious of his existence, of that of the universe, of extension of space and duration. He knows that he is born, lives, grows old, and dies. Animals know nothing of all this. They feel that they will, but do not know it. Man alone has an idea of God, and is attached to him by feeling and intelligence. By intelligence man arrives slowly at the idea of God. This is one of those sublime abstractions which form the glory of human conceptions. Considered in his social relations, even the most primitive and necessary, man alone of all animated beings forms a complete family, proceeding from the ascendant to descendants and collaterals. The animal takes life as it finds it, without in any way modifying it. Man, on the contrary, takes life according to his will; for all the regions on the globe form part of his domain; and he can in a thousand ways vary the mode of his existence. 3. Man considered as an active being.-Even in satisfying the lowest appetites, man differs from animals. He alone prepares his food by cooking it. Man alone provides himself with clothes to protect himself from the elements. When we treat of industry, instruments, and arms, the difference is enormous. The animal has no other weapons than those given to it, by nature; man furnishes himself with a rich arsenal, and this aptitude he possessed when he first appeared upon the earth, as taught us by Archæology. Man finally possesses another important character, articulate speech. Where there is no word there is no idea, no thought, no intelligence. The extensive language of animals consists of simple interjections. 4. Of Man considered as an intelligent being, or of the faculties of the human mind.—Animals possess in principle the same intellectual elements as man, but in a rudimentary state, so rudimentary that all comparison is impossible. Like ourselves, animals possess memory, or rather a memory, a faculty which is the basis of every intellectual operation. But in them it is a faculty founded only on wants, personal utility, without any true notion of the objects; while in man, who, by means of language, acquires ideas, the facts of memory acquire great value. I have no intention of defining memory, but I estimate that a human brain may well contain from 300,000 to 400,000 images of things. Thus the memory of a philologist may contain more than 100,000 words without counting the variations, flexions, etc. The animal possesses nothing analogous to the free-will of man. The choice of an animal is not a real deliberate choice; it is a simple option comparable to the decisions of a very young child or of an idiot. The animal entirely wants imagination. I take this word in its poetical sense. It does not possess this faculty so precious for man's happiness, the charm of life, the consolation and the remedy for his evils. 5. Man considered as a collective being.-I merely here indicate how much man is superior to the animal by the mode in which he occupies the soil. The animal constantly loses territory which man gains. The day will arrive when there will be on the surface of the earth only such animals as are useful to man. The chief reason of man's great superiority over the animal is his faculty of association. Animality has no principle of cohesion in its members. Every animal lives only for itself. But men group together and combine their forces, and, although individually weak, they acquire an immense power. Man transmits his works and his conquests to his descendants. The animal perishes and leaves only his skeleton behind. And, if man has frequently deified himself on the earth, it is because he found nothing on earth that can be compared to him.-Anthropological Review, April, 1869. Is there a Vital Principle?-We make the following extract from a remarkable paper, by Dr. J. D. Rankin, Professor of Materia Medica in the Galveston Medical College, published in the December number of the Galveston Medical Journal. Whether considered in its philosophical, grammatical, or orthographical relations, it is certainly unique. What is this vital principle or vis vitæ ? Some would say it is the soul, others the mind, and some would say one thing and some another; I prefer to say that, that principle which pervades all matter that is in a state of combination, be it organic or inorganic, should be called a vital principle or vis vitæ. This vital principle is endowed with properties which I would designate as perception, reflection, judgment, volition, and so on. It is the properties of this vital principle that enables us to hold our relationship with the external world, and that gives us the power to control and wield the objects that surround us. Man being the highest order of organic life, is possessed with the highest order of this vital principle, and it enables him to fully control all other objects which surrounds him. It enables him to organize society and morals, to appreciate the sciences and learned professions. It was the properties of this vital principle that enabled Fulton to construct the first steamboat, and that assisted Field in stretching the Atlantic cable across the ocean, and in that act annihilating distance, uniting the Eastern and Western world so that there is but a step between them. It was this same principle that enabled our countryman, Dr. Franklin, to stand out with a stern look and command the angry forked lightening of the Heavens to coil themselves in the palm of his hand, which they done as tamely as the cowering cur would kneel at the foot of his master. What becomes of this vis vitæ in the end? It is not for me to say whether it mounts upon the breeze, and makes its way through the Etherial Regions, until it gains its way upon the Golden Pavements of a never-ending Paradise, or whether it takes a tenebrious leap down through the infernal regions, grouping its way upon the waves of the river Styx, for the purpose of lighting the countenance of some mighty Cerberus. System in Recording Medical Observations. By EDOUARD SEGUIN, M. D. In nervous affections, and particularly in the various forms of paralysis, the diagnosis and prognosis of the disease must be completed by a reconnoitring of its track and rate of progression. This cannot always be accomplished by keen questioning or by masterly conjecture; but any ordinary practitioner will readily succeed in it with the assistance of our new instruments of observation. The accompanying table also will be found useful, in that it brings under the observation at a single glance: first, the results of experiments upon which a positive diagnosis may be arrived at; secondly, the results of the treatment as they develop themselves from day to day. In fact, this table gives evidence altogether and seriatim of: 1. The isochronism (or not) of the pulse at the two radial arteries. 2. The difference of strength and of shape of their waves at the right and left wrist in arterial anomalies. 3. A disorder similar on both sides when the anomaly is cardiac. 4. The action of electricity, gymnastic exercise, etc., on the diaphragm and other thoracic muscles, and its reaction on the respiratory functions. 5. The temperature, which will be found higher on the |