dismounted from their horses, and began to address me. I did not attend to what they said, but proceeded in my course, and, entering a glen, I began to ascend it, and went on till about bed-time prayers, when I reached a large rock, about the size of a house. I went behind it, and came to an ascent of steep ledges, where the horse could not keep his feet. They also dismounted, and began to address me in a still more courteous and respectful style, expostulating with me, and saying, "What end can it serve to go on in this manner, in a dark night, and where there is no road? Where can you possibly go?" Both of them, with a solemn oath, asserted, "Sultan Ahmed Beg wishes to place you on the throne." "I cannot," i replied, "confide in any thing of the sort; and to join him is for me impossible. If you are serious in your wish to do me an important service, you have now such an opportunity as may not occur for years. Point out to me a road by which I may rejoin the Khans, and I will shew you kindness and favour, even beyond your highest wishes. If you refuse this, return by the way you came, and leave me to fulfil my destiny-even that will be no mean service." "Would to God," they replied, " that we had never come; but, since we have come, how can we desert you in this desolate situation? Since you will not accompany us, we shall follow you and serve you, go where you will." I answered, "Swear, then, unto me, by the Holy Book, that you are sincere in your offer." And they swore the heavy and awful oath.-pp. 117-119.

These wretches only perjured themselves to betray him, and he is soon delivered into the hands of his enemies. When, after dreadful suspense, he discovers their design, he confesses with his usual naïveté, 'On hearing these words, I was thrown into a dreadful state of agitation. There is nothing in the world which affects a man with more painful feelings, than the near prospect of death. "Tell me the truth," I exclaimed, "if indeed things are about to go with me contrary to my wishes, that I may at least perform my last oblations." Yûsef swore again and again, but I did not heed his oaths. I felt my strength gone. I rose and went to a corner of the garden. I meditated with myself, and said, "should a man live a hundred, nay, a thousand years, yet, at last,

he

And it is at this interesting crisis, as upon another and similar occasion, that the narrative is interrupted by a sudden and provoking chasm, in the manner before referred to. At the same point, we shall break off our specimen of the memoirs. For longer extracts from the narrative, we cannot afford space; and it is only by such passages that the spirit of a work of the kind can be adequately shewn. But we have probably given a sufficient account of the book, to attract to its contents the notice of those readers who are curious in the details of oriental life.

265

ART. VI.--Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. By Dugald Stewart, Esq., F. R. R., &c. Volume Third. 4to. pp. 567. £2.2s. London: Murray. 1827.

A GENERATION may be said to have passed away, since Mr. Stewart gave the first portion of this valuable work to the world. We say literally to the world, for there are few enlightened men in any of the civilised nations, who are not acquainted with the two first volumes of these elements. In fact, there is no name which has worn so well through the period that has elapsed since it first became known to the public, as that of Dugald Stewart. It is intimately associated with a school of philosophy, which, though it has attempted to propagate some erroneous doctrines, has, on the whole, we think, conferred signal benefits on the community-a school, against which the singular reproach has been made, that it referred its principles to the common sense of mankind, as if that were a fallacious and unsatisfactory test of truth, in researches, having for their object the elucidation of the human intellect, and the modes of its operation.

To Professor Stewart, the generations now existing, and those which are to follow, must feel that they owe the greatest obligations, for having devoted his life to this most important science. If he have not succeeded in it, to the extent of his own ambition, he has at least divested the pursuit of the numerous technicalities by which the ancient philosophers, and their followers-the mere scholastic professors of modern times, had perplexed and obscured it. We feel that much still remains to be done, towards raising this science to the perfection of which it is susceptible; but to Mr. Stewart belongs, in a great measure, the enviable merit of having opened those prospects of improvement, in the study of the human mind, of which we are now possessed; and of having rendered them eminently attractive, by the many felicitous ornaments of diction and thought, which they have received from his hand.

But although we thus cheerfully applaud Mr. Stewart's exertions for the improvement of this most interesting, and most valuable of all studies, yet we have never been blind to his defects, nor slow to caution our readers against them. Prominent amongst those faults, appears to be his habit of giving expression to all the vague ideas that he finds floating in his mind upon the subject under his consideration, without at all considering whether they cast upon it the slightest gleam of light. Hence it is, that many students have complained, and we do not hesitate to acknowledge ourselves of the number, that they have often risen from the pages of this writer, captivated by his enthusiasm, and charmed by his style, but unenriched by a single clear perception, as to the meaning of the author, or as to the conclusions which he would wish to establish. The suavity and eloquence with which he addresses us,

seem to aim at something very profound, something hitherto concealed in the interior of the mind, which he has had the good fortune to discover, and the benevolence to disclose. But after we arrive at the end, and reflect on all this fine array of language, we feel disappointed that promises so specious and so engaging, dwindle into mere conjecture, or vanish in some airy vision, upon which no sound superstructure of knowledge can be erected.

That this fault is to be imputed to the subject, more perhaps than to the author, we admit. After all that has been, or may be, written, about the operations of the mind, where is the eye that can trace, or the faculty that can detect them? We can only know them from their external effects; and these are so various, often so contradictory in their nature, that they seldom afford good ground for the formation of a general rule. The subject, however, is always fascinating; and however vague and unsatisfactory the conclusions to which the study of it may lead, it will always be deservedly ranked high among the occupations of intellectual men. So far as it tends to the improvement of logic, it can hardly fail to be of real utility, and, in this respect it cannot be denied, that Mr. Stewart's two former volumes, especially the second one, have contributed to the diffusion of more accurate habits of reasoning, and of greater precision of language amongst us, than prevailed before our times. We fear that we cannot predict results quite so important from the volume now before us: yet we may safely announce, that it contains several disquisitions, eminently calculated to awaken our own thoughts to greater vigilance of observation as to the operations of the mind, than the general heedlessness of mankind on this subject permits them to entertain. It is true that we have here a great deal of conjecture, a great deal of mysticism, many references to the professor's former works, not a few repetitions, some gleanings from his study, some hints of subjects and publications still in embryo, a great mass of foot notes, together with an appendix, and addenda and corrigenda in abundance. We feel perhaps upon the whole, that all that is useful in this volume might well be compressed within less than half the number of its pages, and compressed with advantage both to the author and his readers. Yet there are few of those readers who will not be inclined to overlook the faults of garrulity and occasional whimsicality, which they will encounter in this volume, particularly as even in his highest flights of complacency, the author still expresses himself in the elegant and engaging style, which has obtained so much celebrity for his writings.

The first chapter of the volume treats of language; a subject upon which Mr. Stewart might have thrown great light, had he been acquainted with more of the living languages of Europe or the East, than he appears to have mastered. He has, indeed, collected from other writers several curious facts, upon which he reasons with his usual ability, though, we regret to say, rather with

too marked a disposition for theorizing. He divides languages in general into two heads, natural and artificial: the former consisting in the play of the muscles of which the face is composed, particularly of those connected with the eyes and the mouth; in the change of colour arising from the motion of the blood, &c. Writers on physiognomy insist, that every emotion and every operation of the mind has a corresponding expression of the countenance, which seems to be borne out by the fact, that the passions we most indulge in, and the intellectual pursuits in which we are most frequently engaged, leave traces on the countenance which a close observer cannot fail to distinguish. But, independently of those traces, there are many natural signs, such as smiles, frowns, and tears, which even children understand, and which they use for the purpose of expressing their feelings, before and after they have acquired the power of uttering articulate sounds. Nay, there is even good reason to think, that some of the lower animals, particularly dogs, understand the natural language of the human face, and that, in fact, they are great physiognomists. However this may be, it seems reasonable enough to admit, that the constant operation of the mind on the body should produce other counections, somewhat akin to those for which the phrenologists of our day so stoutly contend. Mr. Stewart considers it a fair object of inquiry, to ascertain how far the opinion of those enthusiasts is correct, that corresponding to the varieties of intellectual and moral character, there are certain inequalities or prominences on the surface of the scull.' He justly observes, that

Hitherto the inquiry has produced nothing more than bold and gratuitous assertions; and the little we know with certainty of the indications of character, as they are exhibited on the exterior of the head, has been inferred, not from the surface of the cranium, but from the forms which the face assumes from the play of the muscles. How far the particular rules on this subject, given by Lavater and others, have a solid foundation in experience, I do not pretend to decide. I confess, indeed, I strongly suspect that it is only very gross estimates which can be formed on those mathematical proportions which can be measured by a pair of compasses; and that the traces of the more delicate peculiarities of the mind are too complicated and too fugitive to be comprehended in the terms of any verbal description. On the other hand, I will not affirm, that these traces may not be distinctly visible to those who, by long practice, have acquired a sort of new sense, or rather a new perceptive faculty, analogous to what physicians acquire by long experience, for the more delicate and evanescent symptoms of disease. It seems to be owing to this that so little satisfaction can be obtained from the writings of the ancients, concerning the principles on which their art of physiognomy proceeded; while we have complete evidence of the great success with which they cultivated the study.' -Pp. 12, 13.

Besides the natural signs already mentioned, there are several others which will occur to every body. It is a curious fact, that among the American Indians there is a class of visible signs, partly

natural, but chiefly conventional, by which the different tribes understand each other, and to which they have recourse when, under any circumstances, they do not wish to speak aloud, or when one tribe is ignorant of the spoken language of another. These signs form for them a sort of Lingua Franca, bordering very closely on the second division of this subject-artificial language.

Artificial language is divided into the visible and audible: the former consists in conventional signs, addressed to the eye, such as signals by fire, which were in use amongst the ancients; those by flags, said to be introduced into the British navy by James II.'; those used in the telegraph, and other preconcerted combinations; all of which bear no comparison in point of importance to those signs which are addressed to the ear, through the medium of speech.

Upon no one subject have philosophical theorists been more at variance with each other, than that of the origin of the various languages which are spoken on our planet. Some insist that the gift of speech was the immediate result of divine revelation. Mr Stewart agrees with those who contend that the human faculties are capable of forming a language, without the immediate interposition of the Deity; a position which assuredly we may admit without the least impiety. Our author here chiefly follows the theory of Adam Smith, as explained in a dissertation appended to his "Theory of Moral Sentiments," in which that ingenious philosopher endeavours to form a systematic history of the rise and progress of language, according to the growing wants and ideas of mankind. Thus he accounts, from the necessity of the case, for the invention of names, adjectives, prepositions, and most of the common parts of speech. It is evident at once, that mere systematic histories must be, of all others, the most fallacious. For instance, it has been ascertained by Dr. Edwards*, that the tribe of American Indians, now called the Mohicans, have no adjective in their language at all; and though this is undoubtedly a defect in their dialect, yet it is one which Mr. Horne Tooke (Grammatica Linguæ Anglicana) supposes was originally the case in the rude state of all languages. Thus hypothesis wars with hypothesis, and volumes have been filled with such conjectural disquisitions, without the development of a single fact that can be depended upon.

Mr. Stewart, however, borrows one observation from Smith, which deserves some notice. After shewing that the original languages, at least those of Europe, are extremely complicated in their declensions and conjugations, Smith suggests, that when the different nations came to mingle together, in consequence of conquest or migration, they would naturally endeavour to acquire each other's

Observations on the Language of the Muhhekaneu (Mohican) Indians. 1788.