appointed time in this, and rushing immaturely into it, should fail in the desired end." PHRENOLOGIST. This is a gratuitous assumption, irreconcileable with reason, yet according with the views of Lucan, who says that "the gods conceal from men the happiness of death, that they may endure life." To wish for an interview with one of those from whose bourn, it is said, no traveller returns, is a laudable curiosity; but if it be desired for the sake of confirming belief, it savours of infidelity. STEWART. It is questioning the authenticity of Scripture. He who desires it, is wanting in faith. It is not fit you should know the mysteries of another world. You are disqualified, by reason of your nature, to comprehend them, much less to build any species of faith on them. I would have you turn your thoughts to what is revealed. If you believe not this, you will believe nothing. It is the strongest evidence, because it is the word of God. PHRENOLOGIST. Seeing, however, the unbelief of the human heart as regards a futurity-seeing the absorption of the mind in the engrossing vanities of the world, and the prostitution of the noble faculties which Adam has transmitted to us -faculties fitted, when unabused, for the highest destinies, even for eternity in heaven, it were, apparently, to be desired that members of another and a happier world should sometimes appear in that visible, though intangible, shape in which you now stand before me. In this case palpable evidence, such as could not be cheated by a delusive imagination or a perverted reason, would be destructive to that incredulity under which all labour more or less, and be the foundation of a faith from which none would desire to be released. So, at least, it appears to such finite reasoning as the mind here can employ; but a higher testimony, whose authority we dare not dispute, reduces such an argument to a mere fallacy, for we should not believe though one rose from the dead. Reason, it is true, is unwilling to assent to this declaration. Though, like the cameleon, it is constantly undergoing a change, experiencing, like our own planet in its diurnal and annual revolutions, a perpetual change, it rarely becomes subject to the defecating influence of the Sun of Righteousness in his fulness, his strength, and his majesty the mind is comet-like in its movements. But on this one might ponder until the whole catalogue of enormities, deep with the dye of selfishness and scepticism, perpetrated by this monster, human reason, appears before you, sickening and terrifying even to behold. In speaking of the mind, it is the business of the phrenologist to treat of its habits and tendencies. There is a long chain of faculties inherent in man; but if we touch upon its constitution without including the abuses, the vices, it generates, we do injustice to the cause, and leave untouched the most essential feature of the whole. If we talk of the constitution of a government, and say nothing of the habits of the people living under it, and for whom that government was framed, we are guilty of an omission which few circumstances can warrant. In the bestowal of our faculties, the Creator thought little of his work in comparison with the effect it might produce. He gave them that they might burst forth in vigorous obedience, and that the seed they dropped might spring up, yielding a harvest of piety and virtue. When God created the earth, and all things preparatory to the vital part of it, he thought of the happiness he should dispense. He looked forward to the seasons, to the fragrance of flowers, the warbling of birds, the beauties of the landscape, the morning and the evening-in fact, the whole of nature, producing harmony, and love, and unfeigned and pure rejoicings among his rational creatures; affections and rejoicings of which nothing save mind can partake, yet about which the cold, calculating philosopher concerns himself so little. STEWART. So long as religion is not supplanted by metaphysical argument, such as mental discussions usually involve-so long as the tendencies of the mind are moralized upon with the view of discovering of what the faculties, whence those tendencies proceed, consist-so long as the phrenologist, in his hope to elicit truth, does good by commenting upon the prevailing vices, the abuses of nature, it were much to be wished that ridicule should not daunt him, nor indifference paralyze his exertions. But the study of phrenology would seem to hold out no inducement for comments of this nature. I have not of late canvassed my views on the subject; but in by-gone days this study seemed to perpetuate an idea of which I could not divest myself, that it gave the mind a fatal bias which no circumstances had the means of remedying. The principles of your doctrine are plainly these, and upon them I build my creed as to the tendency they appear to have in keeping the will of man subservient to his organic conformation. You say that the brain, which I doubt not is the most delicate and beautiful piece of workmanship belonging to the body, is divided into different portions, which have each a distinct mode of action. If I mistake not, you further declare that in proportion to the number and size of the molecules, or atoms, which each portion contains, so is the strength of the mental emotion, whether it develop itself in motive or action, elicited from them. Upon the strength of these hypotheses I argue thus. The force of any particular emotion of the mind which elicits bad as well as good motives being determined in extent by the size of the medium through which it is given, then that force, whatever it be, that dominance of one mental bias over another, is rendered subservient to the medium, like a vibration to a musical instrument, through which it is displayed. PHRENOLOGIST. With these principles it would be difficult for the most fastidious phrenological writer to find fault. Impartial reasoning will, however, shew how very ill adapted they are to lead to the inference which appears to grow out of them, i. e. the fatality of mind. It is a fond wish, cherished by most phrenologists, that an inference of this kind, so diametrically opposed to the views of a Christian nation, and to that Holy Book by which it is intended the whole mental economy of man shall be governed, should be expunged. Against your early impression there are many arguments to be advanced. I would take your own simile as an appropriate vehicle of defence. A musical vibration is not alone dependent on its instrument. Take a violin for example: first it requires some independent agent to move its springs, and then air to give a vibrating sound. The larger, too, that violin is, the more powerful is the sound it gives forth. It is just so with the brain. It requires some agent apart from itself to move it; and those motions, when given, are under the influence of external means, directed by them, impelled by them, the brain yet having a reserving authority: like the violin, it is passive until operated upon by causes having a stronger impression in proportion to the size the constitution of the instrument which is used as the medium. STEWART. Phrenology viewed in such a light has the effect of dissipating, in no inconsiderable degree, that formidable objection which most anti-phrenologists have been ready to urge against it. The view, I say, cancels a notion which has long darkened the sceptical hemisphere. I doubt not its truth, because I can adduce no cogent reasons to overthrow it. But there are other objections which require some refutation; and as the prejudices which this orb's inhabitants imbibe, will not be removed by the argument involved in your explanation, without other and more cogent ones, it would be well if you more explicitly stated and enforced them. The more opposing forces you provide yourself with, the more formidable will be the station you occupy, and the more likely will you be to come off victorious in the battle which phrenologists have been so long waging, and it would appear without having encroached much hitherto upon their enemies' ground. PHRENOLOGIST. In Mr. Combe's "Constitution of Man," a book of considerable thought and ingenuity, there is, in my opinion, one error tantamount to that which is sufficient to exclude phrenology from the minds of the Christian public. I allude to the declaration, purporting to be a deduction, such as the anti-phrenologist would draw, in reference to the tendency of this science. It is this" a man cannot become penetrated by the love of God, except |