"Thus without any premeditated plan or theoretical assumption at the outset, we arrive by a patient observation of facts at a multiplicity of sentiments, propensities, and faculties in connexion with the exterior forms of the cranium, presenting in themselves if not a complete congeries of mental phenomena, yet a fair approach to it; and a methodical exposition of the results so attained may justly claim to be styled a philosophy of the human mind."

In looking at this argument, which I have endeavoured to put in its most forcible form, it must be admitted that whatever mental qualities or characteristics have been proved to be indicated in human beings, must be possessed, and so far form a part of the material of mental philosophy.

But it is also true that all which there is in this proceeding peculiar to phrenology is connecting them with certain forms or developments in the eranium.

The moral and intellectual phenomena themselves have not been brought to light by the establishment of the connexion, but are presupposed by it; and would have been just the same as objects of knowledge, and been susceptible of the same discrimination and arrangement, had the connexion never been established or imagined.

Showing that certain forms indicate certain characteristics, supposing it to be perfectly accom · plished, discovers nothing new in what is indicated;

and the whole of the facts relating to the human mind and character, adduced by the phrenologist, are such as are open in common to every speculator in human nature, and such as must be learned by every one in the same way, whether he is cognizant or ignorant of the part played by the brain.

In accordance with the preceding representation it will be manifest to the careful inquirer that phrenological disquisitions are for the most part, when they are well founded, made up of either facts of consciousness or facts of observation, which might have been collected without the knowledge of a single cerebral organ. Of this remark I shall take occasion in a subsequent letter to furnish abundant elucidations.

What is peculiar to phrenology, I repeat, is simply the establishment of the connexion between certain cranial forms or developments and certain mental characteristics.

It is true in this and in other instances, as already pointed out, where two sets of facts resting on independent evidence, or known through different channels, are shown to be connected as causes and effects, or concomitant phenomena, that facts belonging to one set may be highly serviceable in stimulating inquiry and in directing attention to facts belonging to the other, which might have else escaped observation, or not have been so promptly noticed.

The endeavour to establish a connexion between cranial developments and mental characteristics, has undoubtedly been serviceable, not only in raising the importance of the nervous structure as an object of investigation, but in bringing to light many curious facts in human nature; and in collecting a great number and variety of grounds for concluding that there are original differences, frequently of an extraordinary kind, in the constitutional qualities of individuals and races.

Although it is true that all these facts might have been observed without reference to the brain, or its configuration, or its exterior covering, still to phrenology as actually prosecuted must be awarded the merit of strongly directing general attention to many of them; and also of hastening, confirming, and disseminating views regarding the constitution of human nature which, notwithstanding they were once warmly contested, and are yet not universally received, the philosophical observer, without such assistance, would doubtless have finally reached.

A century or half a century ago, it seems to have been a prevailing notion that men are not naturally adapted by mental constitution to one pursuit more than to another; but that when any such peculiar aptitude is evinced, it is due to the direction given to the mind by casual events or surrounding circumstances. In unison with this view, it was expressly maintained by Dr. Johnson, in a well-known passage, that the true genius is a

mind of large general powers accidentally determined to a particular direction.*

Phrenology, while failing in its more ambitious attempts, has greatly assisted in dissipating such erroneous views of human nature, and by the instances which, partly in the mistaken estimate of its own proper scope, it has industriously brought together, of extraordinary aptitude for music, mechanical invention, calculation, language-learning, and other pursuits, as well as of peculiar proneness to certain emotions and sentiments, it has widely spread the conviction that there is an infinite variety in the degree and combination of constitutional qualities by which men are adapted to as great a variety of functions and fortunes.

The passage occurs in the "Life of Cowley: "-"In the window of his mother's apartment lay Spenser's 'Fairy Queen,' in which he very early took delight to read; till, by feeling the charms of verse, he became, as he relates, irrevocably a poet. Such are the accidents which, sometimes remembered, and perhaps sometimes forgotten, produce that particular designation of mind, or propensity to some certain science or employment, which is commonly called Genius. The true Genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great painter of the present age, had the first fondness for his art excited by the perusal of Richardson's treatise."— Lives of the Poets.

LETTER XVIII.

THE PHRENOLOGICAL ORGANS CONSIDERED AS INDICATIONS OF MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.

IT is sufficiently apparent from the preceding exposition that if phrenology has any value at all, it must mainly, if not wholly, consist in furnishing a series of physical facts corresponding to a series of mental facts, so that one shall indicate the other.

This it has in a measure accomplished by establishing (according to the hypothesis I have assumed) that certain cranial developments indicate certain moral and intellectual characteristics. But there are several reasons why this business of indication is very imperfectly done, and exceedingly limited in its scope and why, notwithstanding the pretensions of phrenologists, it cannot be either minute or precise. Where two series of facts are perfect indications of each other it is obvious that both must be known in detail; that the facts of each series must be susceptible of precise ascertainment and exact definition, and that each particular fact or set of facts in one series must indicate a