The third is devoted to the varieties of the human race. The author adopts the usual distinction of mankind into five varieties; the white, European or Caucasian; the olive, Asiatic or Mongolian; the red, or American; the black, African or negro; and the tawney, Malay or Australasian race. After a few remarks, he enters upon the question, whether all these varieties originated from a single pair. His decision on this point agrees, of course, with the received understanding of the Mosaic account, and with the general opinion of modern physiologists, that all these races are mere varieties, originating from one and the same pair, and not species, implying various ancestry. It is somewhat remarkable, that Dr. Good takes no notice of another interesting question on this subject, namely, to which race our first parents belonged. No light is thrown on this point by the Mosaic history. If our ancestors were Caucasian, it follows, that the other races have degenerated from the original type; while, on the other hand, if they were negroes, there has been, at least in our view of the matter, an improvement in regard to our own race. It would, perhaps, startle a reader, who had never paid any attention to this subject, to be shown the extensive analogy which has been brought forward in support of the latter position; and, though it is certainly of no real importance to decide, whether the "Adam who delved, and the Eve who span," were black, white, red, olive, or tawney, it would certainly strike many Caucasian readers with surprise, to learn, that there was much evidence of their having been of any other color than the second.

The next two Lectures are devoted to the subjects of instinct, sensation, and intelligence, and we cannot consider them as very happy specimens of analytical acumen. The author begins with a statement of the notions of the mechanical philosophers, on the one hand, who suppose animals to be mere material machines; and that of Darwin, Smellie, and others, who have considered instinct as merely a degree of intelligence of the same kind as that of the human species. He proceeds with great complacency to demolish these theories, and thus, if we may admit the position of Mr. Shandy, establishes his own. We are inclined, however, to pay about as much respect in this instance to Mr. Shandy's opinion, as to Dr. Good's, the main difference being, that the latter makes no pretensions to wit. It is difficult to preserve one's gravity at considering the parade of postulates and preparation with which our author introduces his own theory, that the vital, instinctive, and intelligent processes are the result of the separate principles of life, instinct, and intelligence, or, in more direct

phrase, that we live, move, and think, because we are living, moving, and thinking animals. Neither can we admit all the Doctor's instances, any more than his principles. "In like manner," says he, "an infant, in danger of falling from its nurse's arms, stretches out its little hands to break the fall, as though acquainted by experience with the use of such an action." We should be sorry to trust our children with a philosopher, who, in the full confidence of the fact, should allow the principle of gravity to operate upon a falling infant till the principle of instinct should lead it to stretch out its hand to break its fall.

In the sixth and last Lecture of this series, on sympathy and fascination, our author agrees with us in the opinion, that words may sometimes be used without being the signs of ideas.

"Of the immediate cause or nature of this diversity of influencethis discrepancy of action between remote organs, we know no more than we do of the cause or nature of gravitation, of magnetism, or electricity. It has been denominated, indeed, sympathy, fellow-feeling, or consent of parts, in the general language of physiological writers; and so long as we employ these terms merely to import a definite kind or peculiarity of impulse, they may have their use and convenience; but they convey no knowledge, and ought not to be allowed, as I am afraid they sometimes are, to supply the place of knowledge." Vol. i. p. 415.

Doubtless the Doctor is in the right; but, if it be admitted that we live by a living principle, and fall to the ground by the principle of attraction, it will be hard to show, why we should not sympathize by a principle of sympathy. The facts, in either case, are all we do, or can, know about it

We are sorry to find an offset to this good sense and sound philosophy in the instances of credulity, which are to be found in this lecture, and of which the following are specimens.

"In these cases we trace something of the medium by which the irritable or sensorial power is exhausted. There are various other cases, however, in which, to this moment, we are as ignorant, and as little capable of tracing it, as mankind must have been in regard to the animals before us, antecedently to a discovery of the electric aura. And I here particularly allude to the torpid effects produced upon poisonous serpents and scorpions in Africa and America, on their being handled by persons of two different descriptions; the one possessing this torpifying power naturally and hereditarily, and the other, acquiring it by artificial preparation; such as chewing the roots or other parts of certain plants, rubbing them in their hands, or bathing the body in aqueous

infusions of them, and thus impregnating the body of the operator with their virtues.

"There appears to be no country in the world so much infested with serpents of this kind as the ancient Cyrenaica, or that part of Africa which lies northward of the great desert of Sahara. Among the different tribes that formerly inhabited this region, one of the most celebrated was the Psylli; and as this tribe seems to have been in the full possession of this power, either from art or nature, and to have given the strongest and most extraordinary proofs of its having possessed it, all persons capable of exerting a similar effect were denominated Psylli by the Greek and Roman writers. And hence Plutarch tells us, that when Cato pursued his march through the Cyrenaic desert in search of Juba, he took with him a variety of these Psylli to suck out the poison from the wounds of such of his soldiers as should be bitten by the numerous serpents of the country.

"It appears most probable that the Psylli were not naturally protected against this venom, but, from long and skilful practice, were acquainted with the virtue of those plants, which, as I have just hinted, answer both as a preservative against the bite, and as an antidote after the bite has been inflicted; and, being strongly addicted to divination or pretended magic, as all the historians who have given us any account of them, affirm them to have been, affected to derive their power of subduing poison from this preternatural source alone, and inculcated the belief that they could only exercise it, by muttering or chanting some potent verse or spell over the person who was affected. And hence the disarming a serpent of his capacity of poisoning, or disarming the poison itself of its deadly effect after a wound had been received, was denominated charming or incantation. So Silius Italicus, in allusion to the Psylli, or their neighbours, the Marmarides, lib. iii.

'Ad quorum cantus mites jacuêre Cerastes.
'The horned snake lies harmless at their song.

"This sort of power, derived from art or nature, and probably originating in this quarter of the world, appears to have been known in the remotest ages, and to have been uniformly ascribed to the same influence of certain magical words or verses chanted, or uttered in recitative; and it appears also to have been very generally conjectured, that there exist some kinds or species of poisonous serpents that are capable of shutting their ears against the sounds thus uttered, and that will not hearken to or be charmed by the voice of the enchanter, however skilful the enchantment.

"The sacred books abound in allusions to this popular tradition; they are equally to be met with in the writings of the Greek and Roman poets, and even in the Sanscrit moralists, as, for example, in the Hitopadesa of Vishnusarman, probably of a higher antiquity

than the psalmist himself, who tells us in his book of aphorisms, that as a charmer draweth a serpent from his hole, so a good wife taking her husband from his place of torture, enjoyeth happiness with him.'

"There are some philosophers and historians, who have ventured to disbelieve that any such extraordinary power has ever been possessed by any people. The very cautious writers of the Ancient Universal History express no small degree of scepticism on this point; and M. Denon, one of the chief of the literati that accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt, has been bold enough to laugh at the assertion, and to regard every pretension to such a power as a direct imposture. He offers, however, no sufficient ground for his ridicule, and is flatly contradicted by the concurrent testimony o all the best travellers, both to Africa and South America. Mr. Bruce is very full and very explicit upon the subject. He distinctly states, from minute personal observation, that 'all the blacks in the kingdom of Sennaar, whether Funge or Nuba, are perfectly armed (by nature) against the bite of either scorpion or viper. They take the cerastes (or horned serpent, being the most common, and one of the most fatal of all the viper tribes) in their hands at all times, put them in their bosoms, and throw them to one another, as children do apples or balls;' during which sport the serpents are seldom irritated to bite, and when they do bite, no mischief ensues from the wound. The Arabs of the same country, however, he tells us as distinctly, have not this protection naturally; but from their infancy, they acquire an exemption from the mortal consequences attending the bite of these animals, by chewing a particular root, and washing themselves with an infusion of particular plants in water." Vol. i pp. 423-425.

"What lies the world tells, said Madame Beaumont." "And believes, said Mr. Palmer."

And again;

"Grooms are sometimes found possessed of a similar power over horses. Mr. Townsend, a clergyman of excellent character, and considerable learning, has a striking anecdote to this effect, in his account of James Sullivan, a native of the county which forms the subject of his pen. The man, an awkward, ignorant rustic of the lowest class, was by profession a horse-breaker, and generally nicknamed the whisperer, from its being vulgarly supposed that he obtained his influence over unruly horses by whispering to them. The actual secret of his fascinating power he kept entirely to himself, and it has died with him. His son, who is in the same occupation, knows nothing of it. But it was well known to every one, that, however unbroken or vicious a horse, or even a mule, might be when brought to him, in the short space of half an hour he became altogether passive under his influence, and was not only

6

entirely gentle and tractable, but in a very considerable degree continued so, though somewhat more submissive to himself than to others. There was a little mystery in his plan, but unquestionably no deceit. When sent for to tame an unruly horse, he ordered the stable door to be shut upon himself and the animal alone, and not to be opened till a given signal. This singular intercourse usually lasted for about half an hour; no bustle was heard, or violence seemingly had recourse to; but when the door was opened on the proper sign being given, the horse was always seen lying down, and the fascinator by his side, playing with him familiarly as a child with a puppy. 'I once,' says Mr. Townsend, saw his skill tried on a horse that could never before be brought to stand for a smith to shoe him. The day after Sullivan's half-hour lecture, I went, not without some incredulity, to the smith's shop, with many other curious spectators, when we were eye-witnesses of the complete success of his art. This, too, had been a troop-horse, and it was supposed, not without reason, that after regimental discipline had failed, no other would be found availing. I observed that the animal seemed afraid whenever Sullivan either spoke or looked at him.' In common cases, Mr. Townsend adds, even the mysterious preparation of a private interview was not necessary, the animal becoming tame at once. We have here, therefore, another instance of most extraordinary and instantaneous ascendancy of one animal being over another, without any manifest medium of action, which we are occasionally, but not often, called upon to witness. That it could not have been force is clear; and, though natural firmness and intrepidity may do much, they by no means appear to have been sufficient in the present case, and could, indeed, accomplish but little in the dark. Nor does there

seem to be any mode of accounting for such a control so reasonable as that of a natural or artificial emanation from the fascinator, which we have already adverted to; and, if the last, obtained, perhaps, as in many of these instances, by illining or impregnating the person of the operator with the virtues of various plants unknown or little known to the rest of the world." Vol. i. pp. 432-434.

We would recommend to the Doctor, when he considers this story again, to pay some attention to the words, which we have printed in italics, after deducting a quantum sufficit of exaggeration; to observe, when he has an opportunity, the effect which may be produced on a horse by twisting his ears, grasping his windpipe, and other equally gentle, humane, and harmless modes of reconciling his mind, as the stage-coachmen have it; and to consider, that, whatever the person of an Irish jockey is illined with, his mind is not unlikely to be pretty well impregnated with shrewdness and impudence.