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bility of benefiting the transgressor by milder means. Should there appear in him any promise of reform, any tokens of a return to a better tone of feeling, by speaking kindly you will soften his anger, if you do not excite his shame. A person possessed of even the slightest sensibility will be disturbed, by seeing his passion put into invidious comparison with your perfect composure and serenity of mind.

There is a story of Julius Cæsar, who was severely lampooned by Catullus. The emperor invited the poet to an entertainment, and treated him with such marked consideration, that Catullus was ever afterward his admirer and friend. Addison relates, also, a similar incident in the life of Cardinal Mazarine, whom one Quillet, a poet of some eminence in his day, had handled rather roughly in a Latin poem then recently published. The cardinal made the poor poet the offer of an abbey, a preferment of great value, and by this kindness so humbled his antagonist, that the next edition of the poem was expurgated of every offensive passage, and was actually dedicated to him who had given the bard the humiliating lesson.

If the lust of power is natural to all men, in what way can an individual acquire or exert it more completely, than in these bloodless conquests of love? In what manner can one person obtain a more absolute ascendency over another? Indeed, should any one think of setting himself up in this way, he might exercise a control over the hearts of both friends and enemies, or rather so rapidly make all men his friends and almost his slaves, that there might be danger of his becoming even proud of his power. We think there have been, and as certainly still are, just such men. Some even counterfeit a love which they do not feel; and by this means wield an influence far beyond what they really deserve. These persons generally treat all characters alike. They will smile on those whom they inwardly despise, and do acts of kindness barely to get the better of their foe.

But it is not difficult to detect the base metal in this sort of coin. There is a want of that open-heartedness in this affected friendship, so marked and unmistakable in the true. Besides, if your friend loves you while you are connected with him, and can render yourself useful to him, but abandons you at the moment of your separation, and endeavors to weaken your influence, and, perhaps, prostrate your power, be assured that that person never truly loved you at all. He only loved himself, when he seemed to be your friend. His affections are concentrated entirely on himself. He treated you kindly only because your services were connected with his success. Set such an individual down as entirely base and ignoble; but if you wish to conquer him, use not his weapon. Look upon him with pity, and conquer him by the force of real love.

DENDY records the fact, as he received it from a book printed in 1687, that the fourteenth of October was regarded by the English as a lucky day for their princes. On that day, it seems, among many other remarkable events, William the Conqueror won the crown, Edward the Third landed, and James the Second was born. This may stand by the side of what we stated, on a former page, of the eighteenth of several months, in relation to Napoleon; and it may help convince some of our believers in dreams, that wonders may happen by chance.

NOTICES.

PHRENOLOGY; or, the Doctrine of the Mental Phenomena. By J. G. Spurzheim, M. D., of the Universities of Vienna and Paris, and Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, of London. Harper & Brothers. 1846. The above work has just been issued at New York. The origin, progress, and present condition of phrenology are matters of historical, if not of scientific interest.

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Dr. Gall, a German physician, was led by several circumstances, to regard the configuration of the human head, as the infallible indicator of the power and liarities of the indwelling mind. When quite a child, he discovered that those of his school-fellows, who were remarkable for their rapidity and accuracy in mem{orizing their daily lessons, uniformly possessed large and prominent eyes. His boyish logic, equal in this instance to that of Aristotle, at once inferred, that if fullness of eyes indicated the power of learning words, other faculties of the mind might be discovered by similar indications. But, as yet, he knew nothing of anatomy; and his new thought grew only by the results of personal observation. At length, resolving to become an anatomist, undoubtedly for the sake of his new idea, he studied under the best masters, and soon became a proficient. Turning his attention principally to the nervous system, but studying less that portion of it pertaining to organic life, he made numerous dissections of the brain. Here he professed to discover, not only lobes corresponding to the larger divisions of the head, but numerous little apartments, something like lumps or ganglia, which he supposed to be the respective organs of the various faculties of the mind. Keeping up his habit of daily observation, and comparing the results of it with his scientific investigations, he soon began to form a system of philosophy founded on the facts in these ways acquired. He divided the skull into two great parts, the anterior and posterior, making the former the seat of the intellectual faculties, and the latter of the propensities or affective states of mind. By following steadily on in the same style of reasoning, he at length made out quite a chart of the human head, designating, by figures, the localities of the different powers and affections of the soul.

At this stage in the proceedings of this new idea, Dr. Spurzheim became associated with its discoverer as a pupil. After completing his studies, and graduating at a learned university, Dr. Spurzheim applied himself to these investigations with the zeal of a young enthusiast in a new field of study. To him the world is indebted for the term phrenology, which signifies simply the science of mind; and, taken in its original sense, it embraces all mind, human, brutish, angelic, and divine. Dr. Spurzheim was not ignorant of the breadth of meaning possessed by his new word; and, consequently, included under his researches the mental manifestations of all known beings endowed with sensitive, intellectual, or moral powers. By more complete dissections of the brain than had been made by his associate and predecessor, he prepared a more accurate chart of the human skull, making his divisions upon it minute and intelligible. Having thoroughly satisfied himself as a discoverer, he next became a propagator of his new theory. After visiting, with various success, the principal European capitals, he at last embarked for the United States, and landed at Boston. In that city, after a brief but brilliant career as a lecturer, he died, and

was buried in the cemetery at Mount Auburn. On entering the cemetery, the first monument you meet is an upright shaft resting on a large pedestal, on which you read the sole but sufficient inscription-SPURZHEIM.

But the new opinion did not die with its apostle. Many individuals in Boston, in New York, and in numerous other places, received his doctrines; and even phrenological societies were very generally formed throughout the country. Dr. Combe, of Edinburg, took up the subject; and in a variety of able works, gave it his learned approval. His books possess great philosophical merit, apart from the theory maintained by them, and have been read with both pleasure and profit by tens of thousands of the first men, on either side of the Atlantic.

With Dr. Combe phrenology reached its zenith. In the hands of the Fowlers, and many other itinerant self-seekers, it has degenerated to the reputation of a humbug; and it is now regarded as such by the best minds of both hemispheres. If phrenologists should ever see fit to complain of the treatment, which the public has more recently given them, they owe it chiefly to their own folly. So long as they were content to investigate and publish, their theory was making rapid advances in every quarter: men of character, and even some medical writers, such as Dunglison and others of the school at Philadelphia, had adopted it as a new science, and were doing much to establish it in this capacity. But, alas for phrenology, its best friends, like the murderers of Cæsar, gave it the death-stroke of their own daggers. Dr. Sewell, of Washington, performed the funeral obsequies, and, like another Anthony, "put a tongue" into its wounds, and made them "eloquent" against it.

Such, in brief, are the origin, progress, and present condition of phrenology. To insure it an everlasting burial, our opinion of its merits and demerits is not needed; nor do we feel any disposition to kick a dead dog merely because he is dead. But the dog has had his day; and we only record a few objections, by way

of memorabilia.

1. The first and leading objection we have against phrenology is, that it is not true. It does not accord with facts. Having, in our college days, turned some attention to the "science," we took some pains to test it by the infallible rule of application; and for several years afterward, while engaged in different seminaries of learning as a teacher, we made it a practice to try the doctrines of Gall by the heads and comparative mental powers of our numerous pupils. These doctrines frequently received confirmation; but, after years of examination, our list of exceptions became numerous and conclusive. The poorest reciter, except one in our class at college, had the largest and most prominent eyes we ever beheld in the head of any mortal. Afterward, while teaching, we had a pupil, whose head was of Websterian dimensions, large, prominent, and full, with intellectual faculties roundly developed, especially his language. After he had enjoyed three years of daily instruction-and my associates in teaching were men of rare qualifications-his proficiency in human learning may be gathered, from the manner in which he once read, during religious worship in a family, a well-known passage in the Bible-"Besides all this, between us and you is a great calf fixed"-and so on. We doubt whether, at this day, he can read five lines of his mother tongue correctly; and yet, in

every way, he not only then was, but ever had been sound and healthy. About that time, also, we borrowed a human skull from Dr. Cyrus Knapp, then and afterward the able superintendent of the Insane Hospital of Maine, but now successfully engaged in treating curvatures of the spine and similar diseases, in Cincinnati. In this skull we discovered, that some of the outside projections had corresponding ones directly underneath, on the inside; and from this fact we took the hint to make more extended examinations. From what investigations we have been able to make, we have drawn the following conclusion--that the exceptions to phrenology are altogether too numerous for the rule.

2. Truth is always salutary-phrenology is decidedly deleterious, in its influence. Its friends have very strenuously maintained, that there is nothing in it which ought to exert a bad influence on the world. But this is not the way men judge of any subject. They never ask what a thing ought to do, but only what it does; and, that phrenology has actually done evil to society, we think there can be no reasonable doubt. Many a young man has turned out of a promising path of usefulness, merely because some itinerant phrenologist has told him he had no bump for it. This we happen to know. Others have gone into vain speculations, and ruined their earthly happiness, because another had assured them that in such a way nature had intended them to exert their faculties. Parents, too, have based the education and professions of their children on this uncertain foundation; and many a sad failure, arising from this cause, might be recorded. The progress of morality and religion has also been retarded, not less than that of science and secular business. Phrenology has armed every impenitent man in the world with the potent though miserable excuse for his impenitence, that his bumps were against his being pious. His "marvelousness," and "reverence," and other organs were too small, or his "combativeness," or "acquisi tiveness, or "destructiveness," was too large, to admit of much prayer to God, or any devout faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The administration of justice, also, in every civilized nation, has received a check from this same source. Not only have criminals pleaded the configuration of their head, for which they were certainly not guilty, in palliation of their deeds; but, what is vastly worse, the great public has learned how to apologize for crime by the same means. But there is an evil inconceivably more terrible than these-an evil that strikes at the root of all progress in man. Phrenology lowers infinitely man's conception of himself, of his capacity and destiny, and thus discourages all effort at what is lofty, spiritual, and good. It materializes, not only the character and operations of the mind, but the entire philosophy of the present life. Every thing pertaining to us is governed by a sort of fatality, over which we have no shadow of control. Man is to look upon himself as a mere machine, operated by forces concealed within his head. That which science, and philosophy, and revelation have done, in elevating and spiritualizing man's opinion of his soul, in enlarging his views of the proper dignity and destiny of mankind, and in deepening our sense of personal reponsibility to God for the degrees of truth and virtue to which we may have respectively attained, all-all is to be given up that phrenology may reign!

3. If the brain governs the mind, and not the mind

the developments of the brain, then man is a slave by the very conditions on which he lives. Slavery, and that of the lowest sort, slavery to matter, is the essence of human life. Plato has been complained of, for representing man as imprisoned in the body; but, if phrenology be true, he is not only imprisoned, but a prisoner in chains! What is the use to discuss questions about intellectual and moral liberty, or to talk of liberty at all, if man, in the laws of his very being, is a slave? Why did our forefathers fight for freedom, or why do their children hold up its banner, if there is no such thing as freedom in the world? It is decidedly unworthy of us, automatons as we are, to bluster any more about human liberty, when there is no liberty to be enjoyed. Let us pull down our useless capitol, burn up our unmeaning constitution, and dissolve the great Republic at a blow, if we live only to be slaves!

4. Phrenology has assumed so many forms, it would be impossible to follow it with any certainty or satisfaction, whatever were its truth. When first started, its cardinal point was, that size of brain was in all cases the measure of mental power. Next, it was size or volume of brain, cæteris paribus, other things being equal; but this "cæteris paribus" covered up a great deal of mystery. At length, however, the mystery was all settled. These "other things" were made to include several important items, such as the healthiness of the subject, the kind and degree of animal temperament, the fineness or coarseness of fibre in the bodily organization, and even early habits, including, we should suppose, the amount of intellectual discipline. In this way it has gradually yielded to public censure, until there is really no novelty in it.

The ancient Greek philosophers had maintained, that smallness and roundness of head were the indications of great genius, and their catalogue of celebrated men, whose heads answered this description, finally became too troublesome for these modern materialists. Their cotemporaneous opposers, however, did not let them rest under the disapprobation of the old philosophers only. They confronted phrenology with an array of great men, of our age and country, such as Canning, of England, and our own Chief Justice Marshall, whose capital measurements were not even of ordinary dimensions. The immortality of the soul is the grandest theme of human contemplation, which has tasked if not exhausted the abilities of a Socrates and a Cicero; but the ablest extant treatise on that subject, is the work of the English cobbler, Drew, whose head was remarkable only for its want of size. The great John Wesley has also given the phrenologists, as well as some theologians we know of, a deal of trouble; but the phrenologists satisfy themselves by saying, that Mr. Wesley was a very small man, and he could not be expected to carry a head of unwieldy volume. But then, say these gentlemen, his temperament was of the first order; and to this it has been more recently added, that his early and constant mental discipline rendered his brain and nervous system uncommonly vigorous and active. Indeed it did; but what has this to do with the fundamental doctrine of phrenology!

Since phrenology has been going into disrepute, we have not always maintained our usual seriousness in contemplating it. We have advised some of our friends, whose confidence in this system outmeasures ours, to try an experiment on their children; and we have gone so far as to invent a small machine expressly for their

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accommodation. It is a little stucco or plaster of Paris cap, made by laying the above-named cement on a perfectly developed head, and then putting it aside to become dry and hard. The head from which the cast or cap is taken should be of a child-like size, and great care should be used to get exact impressions of every bump. This cap, then, would be hard and hollow, having little cavities on the inside for all the good bumps freely to grow into, but a solid substance to keep all the bad ones down. If worn upon the head of a growing child, it would certainly give shape to it, and that would be the very shape of the cast or cap within. Thus, characters might be formed by pattern. These troublesome expenses, in what is called education, would all be lost in a few of these caps, which would cost, perhaps, as many dollars. But a farther use might be made of our invention. These caps could be made to order. They might be so made as to contain in them any desirable character. Should a mother desire to make a poet of her son, let her order a cap with ideality and other necessary organs largely allowed for in it. If another should wish her child to be a mechanic, when he was determined to be a sailor, she must send for a cap with the requisite qualifications. In this way we could take the destinies of our children into our own hands, and those familiar lines of the Twickenham poet might be changed to great advantage:

"Tis Paris caps that form the infant's mind,
Just as they shape its head the man's inclined!

It is true, these caps could not be made of elastic matter, so as to stretch as the head increased. They would necessarily keep the child's cranium to its original size; and this, we allow, is a serious objection to our otherwise useful invention. But, then, the head would be a good one of its dimensions; and the mother might easily console her ambition, by reminding herself of the true proverb, that "it is better to be good than great."

Our estimate of Dr. Spurzheim's book, however, is not to be gathered entirely from our opinion of its subject. The book itself is able. It is written in a clear, neat, unambitious style, and its literary character is quite respectable. It abounds in scientific facts, and its reasoning is ingenious and captivating, if it is not conclusive. There is some truth, also, in phrenology; but, when carried out in detail, and thus applied to practical purposes, it is not only unphilosophical, but ridiculous.

REMARKS. Our first number for 1847 is now with our readers. By a careful perusal of it, they will perceive a change in the length, character, and style of the articles, and will doubtless approve of the unusual variety of matter presented to them. Our new contributors, Dr. Durbin, President Wentworth, Rev. A. Stevens, and others in this number, are among the ablest writers of the country; and their contributions will be frequent in the current volume. We hope, also, that the two new embellishments will be admired by our readers. The flower, we are certain, will be useful, in many ways, to our young ladies; the other ornament is too nearly allied to our own fancy, to admit of many editorial praises. But it will henceforth perform for our poetical writers a peculiar office. Within it we shall hereafter insert the best piece of poetry, of the suitable length, which our contributors may have furnished for the month. Who shall wear oftenest the wreath of laurel? The poesy must be purely Christian; for the EXCELSIOR, you see, is suspended from the hands of angels.