faculty. But we also know that is one step, of such importance that it ought not to be neglected. If we are conscious that we possess a certain sentiment or propensity, no argument from without can convince us to the contrary. Nor can we be convinced, by such argument, that we do possess a sentiment of which we have no evidence within ourselves.

Thus we know that we possess, as elements of our nature, the sentiments of Hope, Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Wonder; because we feel their existence and action, and recognise them as primitive feelings, apart from each other. And if our testimony within does not deceive us, we are equally conscious of the existence in us of a love of power, in the capacity of a distinct and primitive feeling. But we must have done with this discussion, which is perhaps too metaphysical for a popular work, and has already, we fear, been unallowably protracted. We must also bring to a close our article of review, but not without referring our readers to lecture sixteenth of our author's work, which we are now considering, for some most important matter on the subject of government-especially of the fitness of any given form of government to the character and condition of the people whose movements it is to regulate, and by whom it is to be administered.

The absolute necessity of a sound and well digested system of education, especially of moral education, to the successful administration of a deliberative form of government, is fully demonstrated in the following instance :

--

"It is well known,' says Mr. George Lyon, that during the late war, the island of Sicily was taken possession of by Great Britain; and, with a magnanimity peculiarly her own, she resolved to bestow on her new ally that form of government, and those laws, under which she herself had attained to such a pitch of prosperity and glory. Whether the zeal thus manifested to the Sicilians was a zeal according to knowledge, will immediately appear; but there can be no doubt that the gift was generously, freely, and honestly bestowed. The Sicilian government was, therefore, formed exactly after the model of the British. The legislative, executive, and judicial powers were separated; vesting the first in a parliament composed of lords and commons, the second in the king and his ministers, the last in independent judges. Due limits were set to the prerogative, by not permitting the sovereign to take cognisance of bills in progress, or to interfere in any way with the freedom of debate, or the purity of election.'

"Such is the outline of the Constitution, given to Sicily by the British, and the result of this experiment is contained in the follow

ing quotation from travels in Sicily, Greece, and Albania, by the Rev. Mr. Hughes :

"No words,' says he, can describe the scenes which daily occurred upon the introduction of the representative system in Sicily. The House of Parliament, neither moderated by discretion, nor conducted with dignity, bore the resemblance of a receptacle for lunatics, instead of a council-room for legislators; and the disgraceful scenes so often enacted at the hustings in England, were here transferred to the very floor of the senate. As soon as the president had proposed the subject for debate, and restored some degree of order from the confusion of tongues which followed, a system of crimination and recrimination invariably commenced by several speakers, accompanied with such furious gesticulations and hideous distortion of countenance, such bitter taunts and personal invectives, that blows generally ensued. This was the signal for universal uproar. The president's voice was unheeded and unheard; the whole house arose, partisans of different antagonists mingled in the affray, when the ground was literally covered with combatants, kicking, biting, scratching, and exhibiting all the evolutions of the old pancratic contests. Such a state of things could not be expected to last a long time; indeed, this constitutional synod was dissolved in the very first year of its creation, and martial law established.' Mr. Hughes thus concludes: That constitution, so beautiful in theory, which rose at once like a fairy palace, vanished also like that baseless fabric, without having left a trace of its existence.'

Of these scenes of turbulence and outrage, the cause is obvious. Those persons engaged in them had not been so mentally trained and instructed, as to confer on their moral and intellectual, the requisite control of their animal faculties. Hence their unfitness for the privileges bestowed on them. Though generally regarded as a civilised people, they had still in them such an amount of the relics of barbarism, as to call for the restraints of a despotic government.

Of the inhabitants of Spanish America, the same is true. The lower faculties of their minds have such an ascendancy over the higher, as to unfit them to be citizens of a free government. They are still ruled by the crosier and the sword, as they were when subject to the sceptre of Spain. Nor can they ever be otherwise ruled, or be made to taste of prosperity, under the enjoyment of peace, until, by means of a well-directed education, they shall have been fitted for rational freedom, calm deliberation, and self-government.

From facts like these, (for they are calculated to alarm,) let the people of the United States take warning. True, we do not apprehend that a people so enlightened, by multiplied and fruitful sources

of instruction, as we already are, will be likely to bring down on themselves the curse of despotism. But the evil may approach in ambush and concealment, and do immeasurable mischief.

We are

still, as a nation, most deeply and dismally wanting in moral education. And it is as a nation, not as individuals, or even as small communities, that we administer the government. And, in too many of the scenes connected with the government, there is manifested an awful predominance of animality and violence over morality and reflection. Of these scenes, not a few have occurred in the capitol of the nation. And a lack of moral education is the cause. And from that cause, unless it be removed, or at least greatly abridged and weakened in its action, more fearful disasters will yet occur, as certainly as day and cheerfulness succeed the rising, and night and gloominess the going down, of the sun.

We regret exceedingly that we must here conclude our remarks on the interesting and invaluable volume before us. For, protracted as our discussion of it has confessedly been, we have been able to set forth in but a very limited degree the length, and breadth, and fulness of its merit.

We have spoken briefly of our author's views of man, and of his duties as an individual and a social being, and also in his capacity as a subject of government; and as possessing, in different conditions, and different states of mental cultivation, a fitness for different forms of government. Of his remarks on him as a religious being, we shall only so far speak as to say, that they are among the most interesting and important in the volume.

Lecture eighteenth, on Natural Religion, is a masterly production-the ablest and most judicious and philosophical of the kind we have ever read. The liberal Christian will abundantly praise it; while so replete is it with reason and sound morality, that it will command the highest respect, if not the entire assent and approba. tion, of the technically orthodox, while even the hardiest fanatic will scarcely condemn it. His exposition of the Ten Commandments, in particular, showing their entire harmony with the doctrines of phrenology, is peculiarly excellent, and must silence for ever (else their querulous din is destined to be eternal) the doubts of the timid, the snarls of the peevish, and the carpings of the bigot, against the doctrines of the science.

In conclusion: The fundamental principles, and many of the most important details, of phrenology being incontestably established, its application to the advance of knowledge, morality, and religion, and to the amelioration of the general condition of man, constitutes at present the chief desideratum that remains to be accomplished.

And toward that consummation, so supremely desirable, Mr. Combe has made, in his " Lectures," a noble and vigorous, and, if we mistake not, an exceedingly successful effort. A work at once so rich

in matter, so able in composition, and so judiciously adapted to the end at which it aims, cannot possibly fail to be received with a cheering welcome, by the enlightened and the liberal; and to effectuate not a little for the benefit of our race. Our confidence in its success arises from its being armed in the omnipotency of truth. As soon should we expect the elements of heaven, when dispensing their genial influence on a fertile soil, to fail in calling forth the beauties of spring and the glories of summer. For, under circumstances alike favourable, moral and physical causes are equally certain in their operation, and stable in their effects. And we feel convinced that Mr. Combe, in his most instructive course of lectures, has sown his moral seed in a fortunate season, and on "goodly ground." To us, therefore, its manifold product is not doubtful.

Our most valuable communication to the patrons of this Journal is yet to be made. It is an earnest recommendation to them to procure the volume we have so defectively analysed, and not only read, but attentively study it.

C. C.

ARTICLE III.

DR. FOVILLE ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN, AND ON ITS RELATIONS TO THE SKULL.*

*

Dr. Foville, already well known for his valuable researches on cerebral pathology, and also for his inquiries into the normal structure of the brain, has recently presented an important memoir on

* Dr. Foville, as well as MM. Bouillaud and Blandin-whose names are mentioned in the above article-are decided advocates of phrenology, and have long held a high rank in the medical profession of Paris. Gall and Spurzheim discovered not only the fibrous structure of the brain, but that it is chiefly composed of two distinct sets of fibres, which sustain very intimate and important relations to each other: some of these relations they also discovered, and have clearly described in their works. Dr. Foville has followed in the same train of discovery, and in the above article, copied from the July number of the British Foreign and Medical Review, we have the results of his researches. As it contains the substance of the latest discoveries on the structure of the brain, we deem it worthy o insertion in the Journal.-ED.

the latter subject to the French Academy, of which we are enabled, by the report upon it drawn up by MM. Bouillaud and Blandin, to furnish the following account. A more detailed analysis we shall hereafter give, when Dr. Foville's work comes before us for review.

The principal part of the memoir appears to be occupied with an inquiry into the respective course of the two layers of fibres which Dr. Foville had demonstrated in 1825, and which have been since generally acknowledged to exist in the crura cerebri: the one, inferior and anterior, continuous with the pyramids; the other, superior and posterior, and specially connected with the posterior part of the medulla oblongata. These two layers may be traced forwards into the optic thalami and corpora striata, and thence were supposed to radiate to the different parts of the hemispheres. Dr. Foville has since devoted himself to ascertain the course of the fibres proceeding from the several fasciculi contained in the medulla oblongata, with much greater minuteness. According to his present statement, the pyramidal fibres, after passing through the optic thalami and corpora striata, radiate in two planes, which are entirely distributed to the convolutions forming the external and convex portion of the hemispheres. The fibres proceeding from the posterior part of the medulla oblongata also divide into two planes, which encircle the others in a remarkable manner; of these, the superior makes its exit from the exterior of the corpus striatum and thalamus opticus, soon curves upwards and inwards, and constitutes the corpus callosum, the great commissure of the hemispheres. The inferior plane passes out, on the contrary, beneath the pyramidal tract, and gives origin to the optic and olfactory nerves, and then constitutes a white space, superior to the corpus striatum, interior to the fissure of Sylvius, posterior to the frontal lobe, and anterior and interior to the temporal lobe, which is perforated by a number of vascular foramina, symmetrically disposed. According to Dr. Foville, this place is a centre from which proceed, and in which terminate, several sets of arciform fibres, which form circles enveloping the pyramidal portion. of the crus and terminating severally in the hemisphere. To this group belong the tænia semicircularis, and others hitherto undescribed. This part of the description is obscure in the report, from the brevity with which it is rendered; but the following may be regarded as the general results of M. Foville's investigations.

The cerebral convolutions form two distinct classes: one set crowning the summit of the fibres ascending from the anterior periods, and in relation, therefore, with the anterior roots of the spinal nerves; the others upon the course of the posterior fibres of the medulla, and also connected with the three cranial nerves of