contrast him throughout with his lower fellow-creatures. They study all these, his mental phenomena, thus brought together in every quarter, in connexion with the bodily phenomena which the hand of nature has connected with them; making the philosophy of the mind proceed soberly and steadily with the physiology of the brain, just as the philosophy of the senses does with the physiology of other portions of the nervous system. They have dispensed, too, with all those antiquated speculations of the older school, which the experience of ages has shown to be alike endless and unprofitable; and instead of aiming at vague abstractions, and expressing them by general terms, have sought always for those special truths on which only useful knowledge can be founded. Is all this error?

The results arrived at-are they too monstrous to be credited? Our enemies themselves being judges, do we not hear the system continually depreciated as an ingenious speculation, the organs ingeniously located, the names and definitions cunningly contrived? There has been no ingenuity nor cunning in the matter. Any one who will read may know that of all this supposed tact and felicity of speculation, not a trace was to be found till many years after the patient Baconian system of Gall and Spurzheim had been expended on its discovery, The objectors then used to complain of the unsystematic and irregular form of many of their statements. Now the complaint is in a new form. The plodding practical "men of sculls" are suddenly converted into ingenious theorists, to suit the convenience of those who, per fas aut nefas, are resolved on having an excuse at least for the rejection of what they do not like, because they do not happen themselves to be its discoverers.

But we will not quarrel with the objection. We are willing to take it as it is offered, and to urge it as the strongest proof of the doctrine which it is brought forward to oppose. "The harmony of a science," says Lord Bacon, "supporting each part the other, is, and ought to be, the true and brief confutation and suppressions of all the smaller sort of objections." It was never objected to Reid and Brown, or even to Kant or Cousin, that their doctrines are so ingeniously made to gain support from every page of the historian or dramatist, or to explain the acts and feelings of men, alone or in society, that they deserve to be laid aside unexamined by those who wish to understand and direct their fellows or themselves. The fact, undenied because undeniable, that Phrenology is a system suited to actual life, consonant in its several parts with the thoughts and language of practical men, that those who understand it, all insist on its constant utility to themselves in all their relations of life this fact in combination with its equally notorious history as

being a result of many years of tedious and patient investigation, pursued as Newton, Davy, and Linnæus pursued theirs, is the convincing argument in its favor.

We return to the point from which we started. In our fashionable systems of education, at school, and at college, we neglect those studies which are founded on, and conduce to, the knowledge of human nature. This omission is productive of serious evils, and cannot be too soon corrected. So far as it concerns the doctrine of the metaphysical writers generally, it may be accounted for by the errors into which those writers have fallen. The sources of these errors have been avoided in the course of the phrenological investigations; and the arguments, therefore, recurs, that the omission we have noticed is to be supplied effectually only through its means. When the phrenological views shall have met with the attention their subject requires from the public generally, they will be taught and carried into practice by all, as they now are-we should say, better than they now can be, by the comparatively few who understand them. Knowledge is power." The source of man's greatest power will be found to be the knowledge of himself.

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ARTICLE IV.

CASE OF LAURA BRIDGMAN.

The history and mental developements of Laura Bridgman, a meniber of the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, have already attracted considerable attention. She is now in the twelth year of her age, and has from early infancy been entirely destitute of the sense of hearing and of sight, as well as the power of speech; in other words, she is deaf, dumb, and blind. Her case possesses great interest both in a physiological and phrenological point of view. But as all the more interesting facts in her history and character have been extensively circulated, and freely commented upon, in various works, we shall here refer to only one or two particulars.

In the last annual report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts Blind Asylum, may be found an interesting statement of some facts which occurred in the course of her education during the past year. This account is drawn up by Dr. S. G. Howe, (the Superintendent of the Institution) who is an able and experienced phrenologist, and who has

especially distinguished himself for his inventions and improvements for the instruction of the blind. It is fortunate that Laura Bridgman has fallen into the hands of a teacher and guardian, who is so peculiarly well qualified to understand her physical organization and mental qualities; and can, at the same time, describe and report the facts in her history to the public, in such a manner as to render them most valuable contributions to the cause of true science and philosophy. We apprehend that the more interesting and important points in her character are yet to be developed. Dr. Howe, in speaking of her progress in learning during the past year, says that a "perceptible change has taken place in the size and shape of her head; and although unfortunately the measurement taken two years ago has been mislaid, every one who has been well acquainted with her, notices a marked increase in the size of the forehead. She is now just eleven years old; and her height is four feet, four inches and seven-tenths. Her head measures twenty inches and eight-tenths in circumference, in a line drawn around it and passing over the prominences of the parietal and frontal bones; above this line the head rises one inch and one-tenth, and is broad and full. The measurement is four inches from one orifice of the ear to the other; and from the occipital spine to the root of the nose, it is seven inches."

Mr. Geo. Combe, who visited the Institution in the fall of 1838, and then again one year afterwards, says, on the last occasion, in referring to Laura Bridgman, "She has grown considerably in statue since last year, and I observe a distinct increase in the size of her brain. The coronal, or moral region, in particular, has become larger, not only absolutely, but also in proportion to the animal region. Her temperament is nervous with a little sanguine. The head altogether is of full size and well formed. The organs of the domestic affections are amply developed, and in the best feminine proportions. Self-esteem, Love of Approbation, Cautiousness, Firmness, and Conscientiousness, are all large. The anterior lobe of the brain also is large, and both the knowing and reflecting departments are well developed. The organs of Order are large, and she shows great tidiness in all her arrangements. perceive a manifest and important improvement since last year. She manifests the most sensitive delicacy in regard to sex. When I placed my hand on her head, she was troubled and removed it; but she did not interest herself to remove a female hand. The natural language of her countenance expresses intelligence and happiness; and we were told that she is very happy."

I

Dr. Howe concludes his report of Laura Bridgman with some excellent remarks respecting her moral nature or sentiments. These observations

are so truly philosophical, and harmonize so perfectly with the principles of Phrenology, that we cannot refrain from presenting them entire in Dr. Howe's own language. Says Dr. H—There seems to have been in this child no innate ideas or internal moral principles; that is, in the sense in which Locke, Condilac, and others, consider those terms. But there are innate intellectual dispositions; and, moreover, moral dispositions, not derived, as many metaphysicians suppose, from the exercise of intellectual faculties, but as independent in their existence as the intellectual dispositions themselves. I shall be easily understood when I speak of innate dispositions, in contradistinction to innate ideas, by those who are at all conversant with metaphysics; but as this case excites peculiar interest, even among children, I may be excused for explaining. We have no innate ideas of color, of distance, &c. Were we blind, we never could conceive the idea of color, nor understand how light and shade could given knowledge of distance. But we might have the innate disposition, or internal adaptation, which enables us to perceive color, and to judge of distance; and were the organ of sight suddenly to be restored to healthy action, we should gradually understand the natural language, so to call it, of light; and soon be able to judge of distance by reason of our innate disposition or capacity. So much for an intellectual perception. As an example of a moral perception, it may be supposed, for instance, that we have no innate idea of God, but that we have an innate disposition, or adaptation, not only to recognize, but to adore him; and when the idea of a God is presented, we embrace it, because we have that internal adaptation which enables us to do so. If the idea of a God were innate, it would be universal and identical, and and not the consequential effect of the exercise of Causality; it would be impossible to present Him under different aspects. He would not be regarded as Jupiter, Jehovah, Brahma; we could not make different people clothe Him with different attributes, any more than we can make them consider two and two make three, or five, or any thing but four.

But, on the other hand, if we had no innate disposition to receive the idea of a God, then could we never have conceived one, any more than we can conceive of time without a beginning-then would the most incontrovertible evidence to man of God's existence have been wanting, viz. the internal evidence of his own nature. Now it does appear to me very evident, from the phenomena manifested in Laura's case, that she has innate moral dispositions and tendencies, which, though developed subsequently (in the order of time) to her intellectual faculties, are not dependent upon them, nor are they manifested with a force proportionate to that of her intellect. According to Locke's theory, the moral qualities

and faculties of this child should be limited in proportion to the limitation of her senses; for he derives moral principle from intellectual dispositions, which alone he considers to be innate. He thinks moral principles must be proved, and can be so only by an exercised intellect.

Now the sensations of Laura are very limited; acute as is her touch, and constant as is her exercise of it, how vastly does she fall behind others of her own age in the amount of sensations which she experiences; how limited is the range of her thought! how infantile is she in the exercise of her intellect! But her moral qualities, her moral sense, are remarkably acute: few children are so affectionate, or so scrupulously conscientious; few are so sensible of their own rights, or regardful of the rights of others. Can any one suppose, then, that without innate moral dispositions, such effects could have been produced solely by moral lessons? For even if such lessons could have been given to her, would they not have been seed sown upon barren ground? Her moral sense and her conscientiousness seems not at all dependent upon any intellectual perception. They are not perceived, indeed, nor understood-they are felt; and she may feel them even more strongly than most adults. These observations will furnish an answer to another question, which is frequently put concerning Laura. Can she be taught the existence of God, her dependence upon, and her obligations to Him? The answer may be inferred from what has gone before; that, if there exists in her mind (and who can doubt that there does) the innate capacity for the perception of this great truth, it can probably be developed, and become an object of intellectual perception, and of firm belief.

I trust, too, that she can be made to conceive of future existence, and to lean upon the hope of it, as an anchor to her soul in those hours when sickness and approaching death shall arouse to fearful activity the instinctive love of life which is possessed by her in common with all. But to effect this-to furnish her with a guide through life, and a support in death, much is to be done, and much is to be avoided! None but those who have seen her engaged in the task, and have witnessed the difficulty of teaching her the meaning of such words as remember, hope, forget, expect, will conceive the difficulties in her way; but they, too, have seen her unconquerable resolution, and her unquenchable thirst for knowledge; and they will not condemn as visionary such pleasing anticipations.