"The reason," continues Des Cartes, "which induces me to think that the mind cannot have any other seat in the whole body where it can immediately exercise its functions, except this gland, is this, that I consider all the other parts of our brain as double, as we have two eyes, two hands, two ears; and, finally, as all the organs of our external senses are double, and as we have only single and simple consciousness of any one thing at any one time, there must necessarily be some place in which the two images which come from the two eyes, and the double impressions which come from one object by the other, double organs of sense may be united before they reach the mind, lest they should present to it two images in place of one. And it is easy to conceive, that these images and other impressions unite by means of the spirits which fill the cavities of the brain in this gland, whereas there is no other place in the body in which such an union could take place.” He explains how the mind and body act on each other : "Let us conceive," says he," the mind to have its principal seat in the gland which is situate in the middle of the brain, it sends out the impressions over the rest of the body by means of the animal spirits, nerves, and of the blood itself; the latter, participating in the impressions of the spirits, is able to communicate them, by means of the arteries, to all the members." 99

Dr Hartley says: "What sensations or ideas are, as they exist in the mind or sentient principle, we have no more knowledge of than we have of the mind or sentient principle itself; and, in this ignorance of ourselves, the business of philosophy will be abundantly satisfied, if we be able to point out such a probable affection of the brain as will correspond to all the variety of sensations and ideas, and the affections of them, of which we are conscious.

"And is it not most probable, not to say certain, that since the impression is actually transmitted to the brain, it must be by means of the same kind of motion by which the nerve was affected, that is a vibratory one? And since the brain itself is a continuation of the same substance with the nerves, is it not equally evident, that the affection of the brain, corresponding to a sensation, and consequently to an idea, is a vibratory motion of its parts?

* Des Cartes de Passionibus, art. 30. 31, p. 32. and 34.

"The differences of which vibrations affecting the brain are sufficient to correspond to all the differences which we observe in our original ideas or sensations.

"If these original differences in vibrations are sufficient to correspond to all the varieties of our original or simple ideas, the combinations of which they are capable must be equal in both cases; so that the number of complex ideas creates no peculiar difficulty."*

Dr Darwin, in his Zoonomia, informs us, that an idea " is defined,—a contraction, or motion, or configuration, of the fibres which constitute the immediate organ of sense." § 2. 2. 8.

"Our ideas are also associated together after their production, precisely in the same manner as our muscular motions, which will likewise be fully explained in the succeeding section.

"The time taken up in performing an idea is likewise much the same as that taken up in performing a muscular motion." § 3. 5. 1.

Such, then, is a short abstract of some of the principal opinions concerning the brain which had been entertained previously to the time of Dr Gall. They are so absurd in themselves, and so evidently unfounded, that the more philosophical writers, both medical and metaphysical, during the last century, have abandoned the subject in despair, rather than repeat such ridiculous puerilities. Dr Cullen observes:" Although we cannot doubt that the operations of our intellect always depend upon certain motions taking place in the brain, yet these motions have never been the object of our senses, nor have we been able to perceive that any particular part of the brain has more concern in the operations of our intellect than any other. Neither have we attained any knowledge of what share the several parts of the brain have in that operation; and therefore, in this situation of our science, it must be a very difficult matter to discover those states of the brain that may give occasion to the various states of our intellectual functions." †

Dr Reid, Mr Stewart, and Dr Thomas Brown, the great.

Priestley's edition of Hartley's Theory of the Human Mind. Introductory Essays 1st and 2d.

+ Practice of Physic, vol, i. § 1539.

metaphysical writers of the present times, have abandoned the subject of the brain in absolute despair, and make no inquiry into the influence of organization upon the mind. In following this course, however, Mr Stewart at least could not proceed on the notion that such an investigation is unimportant, for he admits its utility while he neglects it.

Dr Brown's observations on the functions of the different parts of the brain are the following:-" In the brain itself, the anatomist is able to shew us, with perfect clearness, many complicated parts, which we must believe to be adapted for answering particular purposes in the economy of life; but when we have gazed with admiration on all the wonders which his dissecting hand has revealed to us, and have listened to the names with which he most accurately distinguishes the little cavities or protuberances which his knife has thus laid open to our view, we are still as ignorant as before of the particular purposes to which such varieties of form are subservient; and our only consolation is -for there is surely some comfort in being only as ignorant as the most learned-that we know as much of the distinct uses of the parts as the anatomist himself who exhibits them to us, and teaches us how to name them.”

We are now prepared to inquire how Dr Gall has succeeded in an undertaking in which so many distinguished men had previously laboured in vain. Dr Gall did not make use of his imagination, and form theories about animal spirits; neither did he attempt, like Des Cartes, to fix upon the portion of the brain which was most proper for the reception of the mind, merely by contemplating its position or structure; nor did he, like Hartley and Darwin, make the smallest inquiry, whether, in the operation of the mind, the brain performed its functions by vibrations, by contractions, or by any other motions. He saw that all such inquiries were absurd. Nor does he pretend to have arrived, by the exercise of a superior sagacity, at the discovery which he claims as his own. He admits that it was accident alone, the true author of so many important discoveries in human affairs, which led him to the principle on which his whole philosophy is founded. He perceived, that a boy, at the school which he attended, had a peculiar development in

Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. i. p. 420.

one part of the head, and he observed that he had a peculiar mental power. This led him to compare development of brain with manifestations of mind, and he soon arrived at conclusions totally different from those of his prede

cessors.

ON THE ADVANTAGES OF EDUCATION.*

THE human faculties consist of animal propensities, moral sentiments, and intellectual powers: they have a natural tendency to activity, greater or less in proportion to the size of their organs; and, being active, each serves to engender certain desires, emotions, or intellectual conceptions, in the mind. The organs of the propensities, namely, Amativeness, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Secretiveness, &c., are the largest; those of the moral sentiments the next in size, and the intellectual organs the smallest. Farther, the propensities and sentiments are mere blind impulses, which lead to happiness and virtue when well directed, and to misery and vice when misapplied. Thus, Combativeness and Destructiveness, when directed by Benevolence and Justice, give boldness, enterprise, and energy to the character, and fit a man for becoming the terror of the wicked and the foe of the oppressor; when left unguided, they may lead to furious contention, indiscriminate outrage, cruelty, and murder. In like manner, the moral sentiments require direction: Benevolence, unenlightened by intellect, may lead to hurtful profusion; Veneration, unguided by reflection, may degenerate into superstition. Lastly, the intellectual powers, having the smallest organs, possess the least natural energy, and not only require the most assiduous cultivation to give them activity, but, being in their own nature mere general capacities of observation and reflection, demand a vast store of knowledge as materials for their exercise. Not only, for example, does the organ of Language require to be vigorously exercised to produce facility in writing or speaking; but, as the mind is not informed by instruction of the meaning of words,-labour and attention must be bestowed to acquire a knowledge of terms, By George Combe.-Vol. ii. No. 7, p. 432.

as materials on which the faculty of Language may exercise its powers. In short, Nature, by means of this organ, gives the mind a capacity to learn words, and, after they are learned, to use them; but she does not inspire us with a knowledge of their signification, in the same way as she implants in the bee an instinctive tendency to resort to particular flowers that contain honey. By means of the organ of Causality she enables the mind to reason, and to anticipate results; but this also is a mere general power, and requires for its successful exercise an extensive observation of occurrences and their effects: it does not intuitively anticipate the future; but, after the mind has discovered, by observation, that fire applied to gunpowder produces explosion, it gives the feeling that the same train of occurrences will happen again, and enables the individual to regulate his conduct by the knowledge of this result.

An uneducated mind, therefore, is one in which animal impulses run riot,-strong, vivacious, and undirected; in which moral sentiments sometimes shed the benign influence of their proper nature, but oftener suggest wild wanderings by their misdirected energy; and in which the intellectual powers are obtuse through want of exercise, and inefficient in consequence of the absence of knowledge.

This is a correct picture of a mind entirely in a state of nature. In civilized society some extent of education is forced upon every individual by the intelligence and example of others; but in proportion to the scantiness of his cultivation is his approach to the condition now described.

An educated mind presents a different picture. Happiness results from the legitimate use of all the mental faculties; and the constitutions of the moral and physical worlds, when thoroughly understood, are so admirably adapted to each other, that full scope is afforded in nature for the legitimate gratification of every faculty of the human mind. The first effect of education then is to present the intellectual faculties with materials on which they may act; that is, persons who have received stores of hereditary information, and acquired additional ideas by experience, communicate to the young mind a knowledge of the objects and creatures which exist, and which are the sources of good and evil to mankind. This knowledge constitutes the ma