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tification. But we shall never have done our duty as Phrenologists, or brought the science to perfection, till, as anatomists, we have actually by dissections traced each fibrilla from the centre of the brain to its utmost periphery; what has been already done by Dr Spurzheim leads us to hope that we shall yet accomplish this desideratum, for this is all that is wanted to convince the most bigoted sceptic of the truth of Phrenology, or the ablest metaphysician that the faculties of his system have organs distinctly appropriated. You must, therefore, let slip no opportunity of dissecting the human brain, with this view; at the same time, as every day affords the means of observations, by comparative anatomy, much expertness and much benefit will be derived by frequently unfolding the brain of beasts, and birds, and fishes, in the manner recommended by Spurzheim. We shall then be able to show every discriminating variation between men and other animals, and demonstrate the right to that superiority which we claim as men over every other created being.,

Mr Locke has considered the human brain as a tabula rasa, or single tablet, at birth; but may it not rather be considered as an album, or blank book of many leaves, properly headed, varying in every individual, both in shape and texture, from large to small, from fine to coarse? Not only in the size of the volume does one man's book differ from another, but each leaf in the same volume differs; on one page we observe benevolence marked, on another firmness, on another conscientiousness, &c. One leaf is formed of fine hotpressed paper, capable of receiving and retaining to the latest period of life a distinct and well-defined text, whence nothing is obliterated; though crossed and crossed again, it still retains its first impressions, when they have been traced there from acute observation by a good pen. Another leaf has the texture of mere blotting paper, on which impressions conveyed by the senses are very readily made; but, alas! they are never after legible; others are wholly incapable of

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being impressed at all, from the nature of their surfaces; and from many others, various diseases are daily obliterating by degrees every trace of former acquirements; so that, when the active principle of mind has occasion to refer for ideas to express her will, some link is wanting in the collection, and thus the chain is broken that constitutes reason. Hence insanity, palsy, &c.

Nature has provided her book, after the leaves are formed, with a covering more or less flexile, and thus we daily see, agreeably to our metaphor, one book will open freely, and expose every leaf for inspection; so there are others containing information which we cannot get at when we want. Some men's book is so well bound, that it opens at will, just where the impressions that are wanted are enrolled; whilst some open so slowly, that the possessors are never in time with their argument.

Thus we see the difference of acquirements and talents in different individuals, when placed in the same circumstances and at the same school.

How many leaves or organs each brain contains is more than I know; but I am certain, that there are men who have many a blank leaf in their book until the latest period of time; and we have lately witnessed several who have preferred this perfect ignorance to any further information, at least on the subject of Phrenology. We are also fully convinced, that there are others that require the Indian rubber to obliterate errors and remove infantile prejudices from their leaves of ass's skin.

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Again, let me urge you not to be discouraged in the prosecution of your inquiries, either by ridicule or the charge of irreligion. The acquirement of knowledge can never be ridiculous in the eyes of those whose praise is worth obtaining; and you will always keep in view, that the utmost attention to the philosophy of mind, or the organization by which it is manifested, has nothing to do with religion. As

philosophers, we limit our inquiries into the truth of our opinions and belief to this proposition, that the human mind operates through an evolution of organs or structure, infinitely superior to that of any animal whatever, (for every animal that has a brain at all has a certain degree of mind); and when we, as lovers of natural history, shall have made out our point, when we shall have proved that we are entitled to this high distinction, how much more open will be the path that leads our reason on to the temple of religion, where the Almighty has by revelation shown every true believer the rewards and glories of a future state of existence, "immortal in the heavens !"

When the scientific mind began to expand after the dark ages, had it been deterred by either of these considerations, we should never have been favoured with the discoveries of a Galileo, a Newton, or a Harvey; it was the experiments on the laws of motion which Galileo displayed in his public lectures, that first led the way to the discovery of the revolution of the heavenly bodies in space; and it was the fame of these discoveries that provoked the jealousy of a priesthood, whom we, as Protestants, acknowledge to have been ignorant pretenders. It was the dread of heresy that induced the government of his country to send this great phiJosopher to the prisons of the Inquisition. It was a detestable mendicant friar, that first, by preaching, excited the public to warrant such proceedings by their approbation.

This preacher of the Gospel disgraced his holy profession by punning on an expression of Scripture, when he took for his text, "Viri Galilei quid statis aspicientes in cœlum;" hence he convinced his audience, that these followers of Galileo, these men of Galilee, as he called them, were acting contrary to Scripture; "thus bad men, when clothed in holy garments, can, at any time, quote, or rather mis-quote, "Scripture for the vilest of purposes."

I remember a story on this subject. A party of ladies and

gentlemen, amongst whom was a priest, once travelled together shut up in a stage-coach. The reverend gentleman displayed, before his admiring auditors, the ladies, his various acquirements, and, as became his cloth, he thought, deduced every fact from, and confirmed every assertion by, some text of Scripture; and so long as he kept himself to moral or religious opinions, no one thought it right to offer the least objection; but, finding he had obtained an undisputed power over his auditors, he ventured into physics; for when one of the ladies expressed her thoughts that the earth was a perfect flat from east to west, and that the sun rose out of the sea in the morning, and set in it again in the evening, he smiled at her ignorance, and assured her that the earth was round, round as an orange, ma'am ! Round, sir! said an old gentleman, who had never spoken before— round, sir! why the earth is square. The better-informed priest now showed his teeth in a most contemptuous grin, and assured the ladies that the old gentleman knew nothing of philosophy. Philosophy, sir, said the old gentleman, I'll prove it from Scripture, from which you have proved every assertion you have made this day. Is it not written, that the Lord called his people from the four corners of the earth." Now, sir, if the earth have four corners, I take it it is square, not round. Such is the power of fanaticism over the hearts of bad men, that they will support their opinions, even on the sacred subject of religion, by the most horrible of means; and many a heretic has experienced, and many martyr to the true religion has been the subject of an buloda-fe, for only asserting opinions on the conviction of reason; and I have no doubt, that there are this moment some who think they are doing God justice, and are promoting the good cause of religion, when they oppose Phrenology, and denounce it as tending to atheism. Such men would, were we inhabitants of Spain at this moment, condemn us all to the stake. Happy are we that we live in a country where

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our persons are safe. But we must be very conduct ourselves, that we have not our reputations placed on gridiron for our philosophy of the brain as the organ of mind. With respect to Dr Spurzheim on the anatomy of the brain, he must be content to bear with the same treatment as the great Harvey experienced. The discoveries of Harvey by inference involved all the then teachers of anatomy throughout Europe, in the reproach that they were all ignorant of the true dissection and office of the heart. In the same manner, Spurzheim has proved that the anatomical teachers in every college were ignorant of the true structure of the brain; hence the virulence of your Barclays and Gordons. Harvey was not only ridiculed by the teachers, but he was so belied as to suffer in his reputation, and was called, as you have lately heard the truly respectable and legitimate professors of Phrenology called, Quack; he lost his practice for a time in consequence as a physician.

Nay, Linnæus lost his employment as a practitioner of physic, because, proh pudor! he talked of the sexes and spermatic vessels of plants, and called the parts by names appropriated to men and women. For our consolation, how ever, and for your encouragement to prosecute your inquiries into the brain, as containing the organs of that prin ciple which governs our actions and thoughts in this sublunary world, we have lived to see even the most bigoted religionists allow that Galileo was justified in asserting that the earth turned round on her axis; that the discoveries of New ton have not injured true religion; and, I trust, you will yet live to see the world do that justice to Dr Spurzheim for his discoveries on the anatomy of the brain, which every ana tomical chair throughout all Europe now does to Harvey for his discoveries of the circulation of the blood. 3. kay

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