the phrenologist, whether the head changes to a corresponding extent? This question requires a very candid and considerate

answer.

1. It is important to remark upon the nature of the change which takes place in character, before we attempt to account for it by a change in the size of organs.

The first change is that which takes place before the individual arrives at maturity. During this forming period of character great changes often take place, especially in those who are about equally inclined to good and to evil practices. The different parts of character develope themselves just as circumstances draw them out at the usual age of their manifestation. More than twenty-five of the primitive faculties shew themselves during the first eighteen months, others appear at subsequent periods, and different groups claim ascendency at different times. As to all the changes of this period, there can be no question that the shape of the head will change as the character changes. However, at this period the organs change much in relative activity, without an equally corresponding change in size. Those organs which have never been excited by their appropriate objects will have been less active than those which have had abundant exercise; but commence the exercise of the organs by the stimulus of their own objects, and you draw them at once into activity, and as they become active the structure improves as well as increases in size. We must not suppose that there is no other difference in cerebral organs but that of size. The differences in perfection of structure and tendency to activity, arising from habits of exercise, are quite as great as those of activity. Hence, judgments formed of the strength of particular faculties, without inquiry as to the education they have received, are liable to error.

2. Alterations which take place in the character of individuals after they arrive at maturity, are seldom any more than a change in the objects on which the faculties act. When this is the case, no change in the form of the head is to be expected. The faculty which respects talents, office, rank, and wealth, adores the Deity; and he that has turned from the worship of idols to the worship of the only true God, has brought into action no new organ; and unless he worship with more fervour, his reverence will not be increased in activity.

3. Changes in the form of head are only to be expected where there has been a great change in the degree of activity of organs. If organs which have been very active cease to be so, while others which have been idle are drawn into great activity, then, in a few years, we may, in many instances, be able to notice a change. This embraces the several classes of cases.

1. Where an individual is not advanced beyond the meridian

of life, and has become very thoughtful and studious for a few years, giving great exercise to the reflective organs, they will perceptibly increase in size. There are several facts which go to prove this. So, where individuals have been suddenly changed from situations which did not give much exercise and excitement to the perceptive organs to those which required great exercise and activity of them, we may expect a sudden growth of those organs.

But these cases are so rare, and the changes are so gradual, that much pains should be taken to collect the facts with accuracy. Mr Deville has been engaged in taking casts of individuals at different periods and ages, for the purpose of making comparisons.

I have several facts, founded not upon observations made from comparison of casts, but still they are such as to be entitled to our confidence. A young artist of my acquaintance had formerly been a dealer in dry goods, and a few years since commenced the business of portrait-painting. He had been absent for several years from his mother; when on a visit to her, she called him up to her, and observing every part of his countenance carefully, said, "Your forehead has altered in form since I saw you, all the lower part of it seems to be pushed out." This was the careful observation of a fond mother, when tracing out the lineaments of a beloved son. It was no doubt true. Nearly all the perceptive organs are now very decidedly large; and he says they have increased in size since he commenced his new vocation. Young men in cities, it will be found, have greater power and activity in the perceptive organs than those who have always been in country situations. There is a constantly changing succession of objects in cities, which give ample scope and stimulus to these organs. These rapid changes are unfavourable to quiet reflection, hence the knowing organs acquire a great ascendency.

I have noticed in very many instances that experienced navigators have the organs of Locality very prominent, and probably in consequence of great exercise of them. So with blind people, these organs become very large. It is the case of a blind man in Boston, who travels in every part of that city without a guide.

3. A third class of cases is that in which a change takes place in the feelings, as where some one or two feelings become exceedingly, and almost morbidly, active for many years, as in the case of Destructiveness and Secretiveness in G. M. Gottfried. Also, in consequence of some great shock to some feeling, as to Adhesiveness, Self-Esteem, Hope, or Love of Ap

* See Phrenological Journal, vol. vii. p. 373.7

probation, there may be a change in the form of the head in the regions of those organs.

I have in hundreds of instances seen very striking depressions in the heads of persons of mature years, but seldom in the heads of children. These depressions are most frequent at the localities of those organs which are most liable to great neglect or suffering.

It is not to be supposed that changes in the form of the skull externally, will be co-extensive with every slight change in the habits of thought and feeling. The organs may change greatly in activity without such a change in volume externally as to be noticeable. The organs most used may be contiguous to others most neglected. In such a case, the one would be diminished as the other increased. Neither protuberances nor depressions are to be looked for in ordinary cases. The practised phrenologist does not need them to enable him either to find the location of the organs or the innate dispositions and talents. They are rather to be regarded as rare occurrences and curiosities, which have enabled Gall, Spurzheim, and others, to conjecture the location of organs, which have since been proved by thousands of well observed facts, not less conclusive, although less peculiar.

ARTICLE IV.

A POPULAR VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF PHILOSOPHY AMONG THE ANCIENTS: including the Early Barbaric Philosophy; the Ancient Jewish Sects; and the Grecian Philosophic Schools of the Ionic division-with notes. By JOSHUA TOULMIN SMITH of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Member of the London Phrenological Society, and Author of Introduction to the Latin Language, &c. London: Longman & Co. 1836. 12mo. Pp. 454.

It has often struck us, that a work of this nature was a desideratum in the literature of the present day;—a work containing a popular view of the philosophy of the ancients, from the first rude speculations in which any thing deserving the name of the spirit of inquiry could be detected-tracing it from nation to nation and from school to school-distinguishing its various sects-analyzing their often conflicting doctrines, and testing them by the standard of the most enlightened philosophy of modern times. This desideratum has now been supplied by Mr Smith, who has brought to the task a mind not only accomplished in classical literature, but deeply imbued with the true spirit of philosophy. Mr Smith is the first, so far as we are aware, who has tried the systems of antiquity by the standard

of Phrenology. Applying its simple and unfailing tests, he has penetrated, and, as it were, reduced to their original elements, the fanciful theories of some of the schools, while at the same time he has shewn how nearly a Socrates and a Plato attained to the highest truths.

In a popular treatise, it is not to be expected that the author can dwell on many parts of his subject as fully as their deep interest and thorough elucidation require; but, from the clear and well-defined outlines which Mr Smith has given of the doctrines of each school of philosophy, the general class of readers, for whom principally the volume is intended, will derive much sound information,-while those whose time and inclinations lead them to dive more deeply into the subject will find the volume an agreeable provocative to farther researches. Even the mere seeker of light reading will find a large fund of entertainment in the numerous biographical sketches and anecdotes interspersed throughout its pages.

The appearance of Mr Smith's volume is highly appropriate at the present time, when the public mind has received a strong impulse towards the subject of education, and when the spirit of inquiry has been awakened as to the true principles on which it should be based. The whole work, in fact, is an elucidation of, and commentary on, these principles.

Mr Smith's arrangement is simple and methodical; his style clear, copious, and elegant-often, when his subject demands it, rising into eloquence. It is distinguished, moreover, by much purity, except where an occasional transition from the English to the Latin idiom is found; this, although it may give vigour to the style, is apt to do so at the expense of that easy and natural flow in the language, which is so desirable in a popular treatise. These deviations from purity, however, with an occasional excess of involution and redundancy of expression, are minor defects, and indeed such as we should hardly have mentioned, were we not anxious to see the style of those future volumes of the work, which we hope will be called for by the public, in as perfect a form as possible. With these few prefatory remarks, we shall now proceed to impart to our readers, as far as our space will admit, some idea of the general nature of the contents of the present volume.

The great leading object of the author, as stated in his own words, is "to trace and follow with a curious and inquiring eye, the gradual steps by which the progress of the human mind is marked-to perceive its advances and its expanding power through ages of change and varied circumstances, such as the page of history relates"—to scan its operations in endeavouring to penetrate and unfold those hidden but sublime truths, which ever have engaged, and ever must continue to engage, the most profound thoughts of every age, namely, the existence and

attributes of the Deity-the nature of virtue and of vice-the origin and present and future state of the soul of man, and the qualities of all those external objects which surround him. “If,” says Mr Smith, "this investigation has been hitherto unpopular, it is not because the subject itself is uninteresting to the mass of mankind; but because it has been exhibited in an uninviting form, and enveloped in mystery. The obscure, the useless, and absurd, have been mixed up in one confused, impenetrable mass, with the intelligible, the useful and the plain, till the whole has presented such a front as to deter the prudent and the cautious wanderer from seeking to penetrate far into its depths." By separating, therefore, truth from its numberless counterfeits-by placing, so to speak, the window of Phrenology in the breast of each philosopher as he passes in review before us—the author shews us where and why the system of one merits ourhighest wonder and admiration, whilst that of another deserves unqualified reprehension.

In what land, he asks, did philosophy take its rise? Some there are so desirous of finding its foundations in the remotest antiquity that they trace its pedigree up to Adam himself. But disregarding the idle whims and vagaries of such speculators, we shall pass on to the opinions held by those whom the Greeks were pleased to designate the " Barbarians,” meaning thereby all those whose country lay beyond their own small territory.

The ancient Indians appear to have made rapid strides in science and philosophy at a very remote period. Their wise men were named Gymnosophists, of whom the Brachmans formed the chief class. They believed, says Mr Smith, "that God, the creator, the ruler, and preserver of all things, pervades the universe, and dwells within it, as the soul within the body. They believed him to be immortal, invisible, omniscient, and omnipotent; and that from him were derived, by emanation, several inferior deities to whom worship was likewise due." They conceived the earth to be spherical, and its position to be in the centre of the universe. They taught the immortality of the soul. The soul after being freed from pollution by transmigration through the bodies of various animals, was again absorbed in the divine essence. The progress of this nation in many of the arts and sciences, especially in Astronomy, was great; and their code of laws bespoke a highly civilized and commercial people. On the subject of morals, their teachers, like the philosophers of Greece subsequently, were divided into sects; but we learn from Dr Robertson that the distinguishing doctrines of the stoical school were taught in India many ages before the birth of Zeno. We can thus easily understand that many of the learned men of Greece should have been led to visit this famed country in search of wisdom.