ciple as a disembodied spirit. The phrenologist, therefore, regards man as he exists in this sublunary world; and desires to investigate the laws which regulate the connexion betwixt the organs and the mind, but without attempting to discover the essence of either, or the manner in which they are united.

It may be demonstrated, therefore, that the popular notions are founded on an illusion, that, in point of fact, we do not in this life know mind as one entity, and body as another; but that we are acquainted only with the compound existence of mind and body, which act constantly together, and are so intimately connected that every state of the mind involves a corresponding state of certain corporeal organs, and every state of these organs involves a certain condition of the mind. A few remarks will suffice to place this doctrine in its proper light.

1st, We are not conscious of the existence and functions of the organs by which the mind operates in this life, and, in consequence, many acts appear to us to be purely mental, which experiment and observation prove incontestibly to depend on corporeal organs. For example, in stretching out or withdrawing the arm, we are conscious only of an act of the will, and of the consequent movement of the arm, but have no consciousness of the apparatus by means of which the volition is carried into execution. Experiment and observation, however, demonstrate the existence of bones of the arms curiously articulated and adapted to motion, of muscles endowed with powers of contraction, and attached with infinite skill to the bones so as to put them in motion with the least effort, and in the most beneficial manner; and, lastly, three sets of nervous fibres all running in one sheath, namely, one which communicates feeling, a second which transmits motion, and a third which communicates to the mind information of the state of the muscles when acted on by the other two; and all these organs must combine and act harmoniously before the arm can be moved by the will on any one occasion. All that a

person uninstructed in anatomy knows is, that he wills the motion, and that it takes place; the whole act appears to him to be purely mental, and only the thing moved, namely, the arm, is conceived to be corporeal. Nevertheless, it is positively established by anatomical and physiological investigation, that this conclusion is erroneous-that the act is not purely mental, but is accomplished by the instrumentality of the various organs now enumerated. In like manner, every act of vision is connected with a certain state of the optic nerve, and every act of hearing, with a certain state of the tympanum, and other parts of the auditory apparatus, of the existence and functions of which we are altogether uninformed by consciousness.

Now, I go one step farther in the same path, and state, that every act of the will, every flight of imagination, every glow of affection, and every effort of the understanding in this life, is performed by means of an apparatus of organs unknown to us through consciousness, but which are capable of demonstration by experiment and observation; in other words, the brain is the organ of the mind. The greatest anatomists admit this proposition without hesitation. The celebrated Dr CULLEN of Edinburgh states, that "the part of our body more immediately connected with the mind, and therefore more especially concerned in every affection of the intellectual functions, is the common origin of the nerves; which I shall, in what follows, speak of under the appellation of the Brain." Again, the same author says, "We cannot doubt that the operations of our intellect always depend upon certain motions taking place in the brain." The late Dr GREGORY, when speaking of memory, imagination, and judgment, observes, that "Although at first sight these faculties appear to be so purely mental as to have no connexion with the body, yet certain diseases which obstruct them prove, that a certain state of the brain is necessary to their proper exercise, and that the brain is the primary organ of the internal powers." The great physiologist of Germany, BLUMENBACH, says, "That the

mind is closely connected with the brain, is demonstrated by our consciousness, and by the mental disturbances which ensue upon affections of the brain." (ELLIOTSON'S translation, 4th edit. vol. i. p. 196.) MAGENDIE, a celebrated French physiologist, says, "The brain is the material instrument of thought. This is proved by a multitude of experiments and facts."

Dr NEIL ARNOTT, in his recent work on Natural Philosophy, writes thus: "The laws of mind which man can discover by reason, are not laws of independent mind, but of mind in connexion with body, and influenced by the bodily condition. It has been believed by many, that the nature of mind separate from body, is to be at once all-knowing and intelligent, But mind connected with body, can only acquire knowledge slowly, through the bodily organs of sense, and more or less perfectly, according as these organs and the central brain are perfect. A human being born blind and deaf, and therefore remaining dumb, as in the noted case of the boy MITCHELL, grows up closely to resemble an automaton; and an originally mis-shapen or deficient brain, causes idiocy for life. Childhood, maturity, dotage, which have such differences of bodily powers, have corresponding differences of mental faculty and as no two bodies, so no two minds, in their external manifestation, are quite alike. Fever, or a blow on the head, will change the most gifted individual into a maniac, causing the lips of virgin innocence to utter the most revolting obscenity, and those of pure religion, to speak the most horrible blasphemy and most cases of madness and eccentricity can now be traced to a peculiar state of the brain." (Introduction, p. xxiii.) Let it be observed that these authors are nowise inclined to support Phrenology.

The fact that the mental phenomena of which we are conscious are the result of mind and brain acting together, is farther established by the effects of swooning, of compression of the brain, and of sleep. In profound sleep, consciousness is entirely suspended: this fact is explicable on the principle of the organ of the mind being then in a state

of repose; but altogether inconsistent with the idea of the immaterial principle, or the mind itself, being capable of acting independently of the brain; for if this were the case, thinking should never be interrupted by any material cause. In a swoon, blood is rapidly withdrawn from the brain, and consciousness is for the moment obliterated; again, where part of the brain has been laid bare by an injury inflicted on the skull, it has been found that consciousness could be suspended at the pleasure of the surgeon, by merely pressing on the brain with his fingers, and that it could be restored by withdrawing the pressure.

A valuable authority on this point is furnished by the Edinburgh Review. The author of the article on the nervous system in the 94th Number of that work, says, "Almost from the first casual inspection of animal bodies, the brain was regarded as an organ of primary dignity, and more particularly in the human subject-the seat of thought and feeling, the centre of all sensation, the messenger of intellect, the presiding organ of the bodily frame." "All this superiority (of man over the brutes), all these faculties which elevate and dignify him, this reasoning power, this moral sense, these capacities of happiness, these high aspiring hopes, are felt, and enjoyed, and manifested, by means of his superior nervous system. Its injury weakens, its imperfection limits, its destruction (humanly speaking) ends them."

In addition to these authorities, I may remark, that consciousness or feeling localizes the mind in the head, and gives us a full conviction that it is situated there; but it does not reveal what substance is in the interior of the skull. It does not tell whether the mind occupies an airy dome; a richly furnished mansion; one apartment, or many; or in what state or condition it resides in its appointed place. It is only on opening the head that we discover the skull to contain brain; and then, by an act of the understanding, we infer that the mind must have been connected with it in its operations.

It is worthy of observation also, that the popular notions of the independence of the mind on the body are modern, and the offspring of philosophical theories that have sprung up chiefly since the days of LOCKE. IN SHAKSPEAre, and our older writers, the brain is frequently used as implying the mental functions; and, even in the present day, the language of the vulgar, which is less affected by philosophical theories than that of polite scholars, is more in accordance with nature. "A stupid person is vulgarly called a numbskull, a thick-head, or said to be addle-pated; badly furnished in the upper-storey; while a clever person is said to be strong-headed, to have plenty of brains; a madman is called wrong in the head, touched in the noddle, &c. When a catarrh chiefly affects the head, we complain of stupidity, because we have such a cold in the head," &c. (ELLIOTSON'S Blumenbach, 4th edit. p. 66).

The principle which I have so much insisted on, that we are not conscious of the existence and functions of the organs by which the mind acts, explains the source of the metaphysical notion which has affected modern language, that we know the mind as an entity by itself. The acts which really result from the combined action of the mind and its organs, appear, previous to anatomical and pathological investigation, to be produced by the mind exclusively; and hence have arisen the neglect and contempt with which the organs have been treated, and the ridicule cast upon those who have endeavoured to speak of them as important to the philosophy of mind. After the explanations now given, the reader will appreciate the real value of the following statement by Mr JEFFREY, in his celebrated review of the System of Phrenology. His words are, "The truth is, we do not scruple to say it, that there is not the smallest reason for supposing that the mind ever operates through the agency of any material organs, except in its perception of material objects, or in its spontaneous movements of the body which it inhabits." And, "There is not the least reason to suppose that any of our faculties, but those which