proper circumstances, would enable him, with ease or with difficulty, to attain either to high or to moderate excellence in any branch of intellectual pursuit; or how far his natural tendencies either to good or to evil are strong or feeble. But whether all or any of the powers and qualities of his mind have had scope and opportunity to exercise and display themselves, whether the mind has been raised and stimulated, and sustained in its exercises; or whether its good qualities have been damped, or its bad qualities disciplined and brought under control, Phrenology does not inform, and the Phrenologists do not pretend to tell.

If there is any strong natural peculiarity, and every person knows what is meant by a natural peculiarity, and how distinguishable it is from what is acquired and artificial,-if there is any strong natural peculiarity in any department of mind, temper, or character, the Phrenologist will have no difficulty in detecting it, though nothing should occur in his presence to call it into play, or though it should be habitually concealed, so as altogether to elude the notice of ordinary observers. And it is thus with every one individual faculty and quality, whose separate and independent existence our science has revealed to us. We can say in what degree any person has the capacity or tendency to exercise or indulge it; but whether it has been manifested according to its native strength,-that depends not only on the capacity-which we know, but upon circumstances and opportunities of which we know, and upon which therefore we will decide nothing.

The doctrine of Phrenology is now, I hope, pretty distinctly understood; and, before proceeding, I will only far-' ther observe in passing, that by thus defining the legitimate province of Phrenology, it must not be supposed that I am leaving nothing in it that is useful and practical. As has just been observed, it always affords the means of detecting decided peculiarities of natural character, however much they may have been thwarted by circumstances or counteracted by education. And although the science does not give

information as to men's circumstances and education, yet, after the Phrenologist is informed of these particularș in regard to any individual, he will be enabled, by the application of the science, to analyse his character with a degree of completeness and philosophical precision of which a person destitute of the science can form no conception. But what is infinitely more important to observe, the high pretensions of the science are grounded upon this, that, if it be true, it presents us with an entirely new and a correct delineation of man's intellectual and moral nature. If it be true, it supplies the greatest desideratum in the whole range of human science; for the human mind, the most noble and interesting of all the subjects of physical inquiry, has hitherto been a mere blank, a barren and unproductive waste, in which men of the most transcendent genius have toiled and laboured absolutely in vain.:

But I must now turn to the doctrines of Christianity, and what I have to show in regard to them is, that the change which they require to be produced upon a man's character and conduct is not of such a nature as to alter any of the original or constitutional properties of his mind; or, in other words, to alter any thing which the Phrenologists assert is ever discoverable from an examination of the cranium. The cranium remains the same, because the man in all his natural powers and tendencies remains the same.

The change which Christianity is calculated to produce, and which it does produce, upon the minds of men, is cer tainly very great. It produces this change sometimes rapidly, or almost suddenly, but for the most part slowly and progressively; but whether the effect is produced in the one way or in the other, I apprehend it to be clear that the change is of a nature which leaves the radical and elementary qualities of the mind just as it found them. It works its marvellous rénovations and transformations by means of a regulating and controlling influence, not by means of eradication; and the great superiority of the change which its discipline and training effects upon the heart and character,

above that which is produced by any other system, arises from the transcendently superior and divine means which it employs for the attainment of its glorious and heavenly object.

What is the great means which Christianity employs at first for changing and afterwards for improving and perfecting the human character? I need hardly say that it is the prin ciple of a true and living faith. Now, observe the nature of this principle, and the mode of its operation. What is faith? The Apostle Paul presents us with a most explicit and pointed definition of it in these words: "Faith is the "EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN ;" an abiding and realiz ing belief of the whole truths of revealed religion. Let a man then have this faith, which is the gift of God, and the means of his conversion, (for "by grace are ye saved "through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of "God;") and observe what a mighty principle you have implanted in his breast, for regulating, controlling, and directing all the principles of his nature. Give a man faith; that is to say, let him have an abiding and realizing conviction of the presence of a God, holy, just, avenging, longsuffering, and compassionate, but who cannot look upon sin, and will by no means clear the guilty; of a Saviour, the Son of God, who abased himself, and died that we might live; that we might rise from the degradation and death of sin, and live to God, and walk with him in newness of life, and be made heirs of immortality. I say, let a man have faith in these, and all the other glorious and affecting truths of revelation; let him have "the evidence of these things "not seen," abiding and prevalent in his mind; why, you have placed the man in a new world; "old things are pass❝ed away, all things are become new;" you have annihilated in a great measure as to him the things of time and sense; or, at all events, you have placed him in the very midst of a new scene, a new creation of high and holy and heavenly realities, which till that moment were to him as if they had had no existence. He was formerly an irreligious

man, God was not in all his thoughts ;" and if his mind was unfortunately constituted, he was an immoral man, indulging his natural propensities and passions without restraint; for there was nothing present to his mind calculated to restrain them. But he has now received faith, He "believes in God; he believes also in Christ," and in all the other relative and harmonious truths which go to make up those "glad tidings of great joy," which are proclaimed to fallen, sinful, and abject man. This system of truth is " evidenced" to his mind by faith. It is thereby made pre sent to his mind; it occupies his mind and fills it; calls it off from the world and sin, and fixes it upon God and Christ, and holiness and heaven. No doubt the man is not yet perfect; but he is converted; that is to say, he is turned; his course is changed. He has hitherto gone on in the downward path of sin; he now begins to ascend the upward path of virtue. His descent may have been easy and rapid; his ascent may be difficult and slow. But his face is set heavenward; and he will now go on-shining as he goes, and "shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day."

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Such, I think, will be admitted, by every one acquainted with Scripture, to be a correct view of the general nature of the doctrine of conversion. But before I ask whether it is not consistent with Phrenology, I must clear the ground of a difficulty which arises from the writings of some of the Phrenologists themselves. At one time there was a certain portion of the brain designated as the organ of Faith. It is now, I rejoice to say, a long while since this was altered. But, if I mistake not, in the writings of that individual to whom our science is so greatly indebted, it is still laid down that Faith is connected very intimately, if not exclusively, with the organ of Hope. Now, without taking any other way of removing whatever difficulty might be supposed to arise from this opinion, if it were correct, I must, with great deference, submit, that it is an opinion which must have been taken up without a due consideration of the subject in all its extent. No doubt there is a great deal in the faith of

a Christian to awaken and animate his hope, and to make this faculty dwell with delightful anticipation upon the bright futurity which is opened up to its view, and which it may discern and exult in even in the lowest depths of worldly debasement, and in the darkest hours of this world's sorrow. But has Christianity no truths which speak to the fears of a believer,-which may give exercise to his Cautiousness, his Adhesiveness, his Conscientiousness, his Firmness, his Veneration, his Ideality, and even his Combativeness, seeing he is called to fight and to wrestle? &c. In short, is there one active principle in human nature to which Christianity does not apply itself in the most urgent and affecting appeals, by means of a genuine and living faith in its truths? There is, it must be allowed, a certain degree of intelligence necessary, in order that these truths may be receiv ed into the mind; and without that degree of intelligence there can be no Christian, for there is in fact no man. But if the truths are admitted into the mind, and impressed upon it by genuine Christian faith, it seems obvious that it raises the whole man, and gives ample scope for the exercise of all his natural sentiments and powers.

Having put this matter in what, I hope, will appear to be its just light, I now proceed to observe, that it seems quite manifest, that the principle of Faith, which is the great means of turning a sinner from the error of his way, leaves a man's natural powers and qualities unaltered.

Faith implies that the man who has been made the recipient of it is placed in a world of new circumstances; it consists in this, that these circumstances, which are of the most affecting kind, and address every power and faculty of the soul, are habitually and constantly present to the mind; these affecting circumstances being thus made habitually present to the mind, they solicit all its powers, and exercise them all, habitually, in a new way; but they do not change the nature of the powers, or alter either the absolute or the relative strength of any one of them. It is not of the nature of the faith or belief of any truths whatever to alter or touch

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