persons, &c. do not at all prove the identity of both mentioned organs. Examine what kind of proud children mount upon chairs and tables in order to shew their height. I am sure they are children to whom certain things have been interdicted because they are still little; or in general, children who have observed the advantages of grown up persons, in whose presence adult age has been praised. Say to such individuals, that those who are placed at the head of the company, or at its lower part, occupy their places by way of distinction, and they will endeavour to occupy the place which is praised. Thus I separate the instinct which carries animals to physical elevation from the sentiment which produces self-love and pride, and I seek for two different organs.'-367, 368.

We have given these quotations, not merely by way of shewing the exquisite absurdity of the method by which Doctors Gall and Spurzheim reason, but also as a fair specimen of the general style and manner in which the volume before us is written; and we will ask Dr. Spurzheim's own admirers, whether such strange nonsense was ever before put to paper. Because proud people get upon chairs and tables, and kings and emperors sit upon elevated thrones, therefore they must be endued with an organ in common with rats who live in hay-lofts!

Again, we are told, that

Dr. Gall observed a distinct protuberance on the posterior part of the sculls of women, and, in comparing the sculls of his collection, he found a similar elevation in the sculls of children and on those of monkies; consequently it was necessary to point out a faculty common to them all. During five years, he was occasionally occupied with this consideration. He was in the habit of suggesting his difficulty relative to this protuberance to his auditors, and a clergyman who attended him observed that monkies have much attachment to their offspring. Gall examined this idea. In fine, he found that this protuberance, which is situated immediately above that of physical love, or amativeness, corresponds with the general protuberance of the occiput, and is the organ of philoprogenitiveness.'-361.

Now this, we are inclined to think, far surpasses even the rats: because monkies, women, and children have a protuberance above the occiput, it was consequently necessary to point out a faculty common to them all; and this faculty, which is common to monkies, women, and children, is the love of their offspring! Be it observed, that Dr. Gall does not pretend to say that all grown up people possess this faculty, but only women; it must therefore be a faculty which leaves the other sex, when they come to years of ma turity; but why Providence should bestow upon us a faculty at an age when it can be of no possible use, and take it away just at the very time when it would be wanted, is a difficulty which can be explained only upon the principles of cranioscopy.

Enough

Enough has been said, we trust, to shew what degree of faith is to be placed on the evidence adduced from comparative anatomy, in favour of Dr. Gall's system. Supposing, however, that this part of the subject had been managed with the greatest prudence and good sense, still, as we said before, it is plain that comparative anatomy furnishes a sort of evidence which cannot be received until the general theory of Dr. Gall, respecting the functions of the cerebral parts, has been fully proved. It is not necessary to say, that this has not, in any degree, been accomplished; but even allowing that the arguments of Doctors Gall and Spurzheim, instead of being sheer nonsense, had been ever so ingenious and acute, still they could not throw the slightest probability upon the doctrine which they wish to establish; because that doctrine is matter of fact, and matter of fact never can be proved by reasoning à priori. It is always a sufficient refutation of opinions which can be verified only by reference to facts, when it can be shewn that it was not from facts that they were, in the first instance, deduced. Nothing, it is plain, can be more easy than to construct theories upon mere abstract possibilities, in such a manner as that they shall not be manifestly contradicted by experience; and, when this is the case, it may sometimes be difficult to refute them by general reasoning. But the chances against any such theory being really conformable to truth, are, from the very nature of things, necessarily so great, that a sober mind will seldom require any other evidence than the history of its origin for rejecting it. Thus, in the present instance, whether every protuberance upon the head be or be not the sign of some particular character of the mind, is clearly a question of fact; let it therefore be proved to be a fact, as all other facts are proved; it will then be time enough to investigate the theory of it: in such a case, the explanation which Doctors Gall and Spurzheim propose would at least have a fair claim to be heard. But these ingenious personages, instead of founding the theory which they propose, upon the fact in question, actually attempt to prove the existence of the fact itself by the mere abstract probability of their theory. What the value of this probability may be, we will not now inquire; but the procedure itself is so flagrant a departure from all the rules of just reasoning, and even of common sense, as would be sufficient, independently of all other objections, to justify us not only in refusing to give any credit to their pretended discoveries, but almost in refusing to take the proof of them into consideration.

Perhaps this is the plan which we should have adopted; and but for the disgraceful circumstance that there are some, even of the faculty, in this country, who profess the faith of this New Jeru

'salem

salem in philosophy, we should certainly owe some apology to the more sensible part of our readers, for having so long detained their attention, upon a book so utterly unworthy of their notice. Possibly Dr. Spurzheim may think that some apology is also due to him for the freedom of our remarks. Now we shall be sorry if we have given offence even to Dr. Spurzheim: but misfortunes which have been anticipated fall only with half their force. Our author tells us, that there is a certain description of persons who become fierce whenever they see an ingenious and penetrating man,' and that therefore he is far from expecting that ignorance and knavery will not attack his doctrine with abuse; but what does not man abuse?' Now when an ingenious and penetrating man thus roundly accuses his adversaries of ignorance and knavery, he can have no very just right to complain of those who merely charge him with folly. This then we sincerely believe to be the head and front of Dr. Spurzheim's offending:' for notwithstanding the sovereign contempt which he seems to entertain for all those who differ from him in opinion, and the very erroneous estimate which he has formed of his own capacity, we take him to be a simple, good-natured man; and as he is clearly gifted with no greater share of sense than we should suppose indispensable for the common purposes of life, make no doubt that he devoutly believes in all the amazing absurdities which he preaches: a merit, by the bye, which from certain crumbs of information that we have picked up here and there in the volume before us, is a good deal more than we feel disposed to allow Dr. Gall.

ART. IX. An Inquiry into the Effects of the Irish Grand Jury Laws. By Thomas Rice, Esq. F. A. S. late of Trinity College, Cambridge. London: Murray. 1815. 8vo. pp. 120.

THIS

HIS little work is a jewel of its kind-a lucky example of the ease with which a writer of genius may give to the most vulgar or ordinary subject all the graces of eloquence, and all the interest of novelty.

In a former Number we congratulated the Antiquarian Society on the possession of such a miracle of sagacity as Mr. Wansey; we little expected that even this learned body could so soon have produced a rival to that profound and entertaining writer.

A title-page more unpromising of literary amusement we have seldom read; the interior of an Irish Grand Jury room, with its details of presentments, traverses, fiats, and accounting affidavits, seems likely to afford little scope for the elegancies of style. Pro

desse

desse quam placere would have appeared an appropriate motto for such an inquiry. Our readers then will be better able to par take than to measure our astonishment, at finding this hopeless subject adorned with all the beauties of ancient and modern literature-the highest names in poetry and oratory giving their evidence on the best manner of making Irish roads-Cicero going the Munster Circuit with Mr. Baron George, and Cervantes assisting Mr. Justice Day in fiatting the accounting affidavits for the Barony of Lower Connelloe.

We have little doubt that our readers will suspect that in our partiality to this new and splendid phenomenon, we a little exaggerate the wonder which Mr. Rice has performed, but we trust that the extracts we shall make will perfectly justify our admiration of this young author.

Nor has Mr. Rice, however fond of ornament, been wholly inattentive to the more solid object of utility; he has, we shall see, endeavoured to make the subject interesting to those who would otherwise have been little inclined to such discussions; he wins us to his object by the seductions of Virgil and Spenser, and (we may say without a metaphor) absolutely strews the highway with flowers.

The first page offers a happy instance of the use he makes of his literary attainments. His work is preceded by two quotations, one from Lucian in the original Greek; the other, an Italian sentence, judiciously selected from the works of Davila. Mr. Rice does not any where condescend to translate his quotations; which proves, either that the Irish country-gentlemen are educated in a very superior style to ours, or-what may possibly be Mr. Rice's own modest apprehension-that the ancient and foreign languages are quite as intelligible to ordinary readers as any translation he might make of them.

We therefore do not feel ourselves entitled to complain of Mr. Rice's proceedings on this point, yet we cannot but wish, if it were only for our own personal ease and comfort, that he had now and then acquainted us, if not with the meaning, at least with the connexion of the quotation with his subject for instance, the passage from Lucian is- -we quote from the first page

Ακουσαίε ως εκεί υμιν θα πραγματα. Μικρον υμιν ως ορατε το σκαφίδιον και Το υποσαθρον εςί και διαρρει τα πολλα και ην δραση επιβατερα οιχησείαι περιλρασεν. This all learned readers in England, and all country-gentlemen in Ireland, well know is a kind of official memorial, a representation of Charon to Mercury, that his boat is hardly Styx-worthy : 'Hear,' (says the infernal navigator,) how matters stand; my boat is small, as you see, and crazy, and full of leaks; and if not

properly trimmed, she may chance to capsize.' This, it must be owned, does not seem a very appropriate text for a commentary on turnpikes. We suspect, indeed, that Mr. Rice has, besides this treatise on high roads, written another on canals, and that the motto intended for the latter has, by a mistake of the printer, (Mr. Murray should look to it,) been transferred to the former.

The Italian quotation seems, at first sight, equally inapplicable. 'Some nations,' says Davila to his patron, were accustomed to expose their sick in the public way, in order that the pity of the passers-by might supply those medicines or that advice which might be considered as useful in their cases.' This looks like an introduction to a work on hospitals; but on a closer examination, we perceive it to be an occult allusion to Mr. Rice and his Reviewers. This, therefore, is high matter, with which the reader can have nothing to do.

But we have yet a grievance to notice: not content with keeping us in ignorance of the connexion of his quotations,' Mr. Rice commonly contrives to leave us in doubt of their use. Thus, having observed (p. 24) that a landlord may not only assist his tenants' distresses, but enable them to assist themselves,' he gives, as the accompaniment or corollary of this profound axiom, the following distich from Cervantes, which, he tells us, we are never to forget.'

Se yo non me quardo

Mal me quardoreis.'

6

Now whether this memorable' abracadabra is to be repeated forward and backward, or inclosed in a silk bag and worn round the neck, we are not told, and, in its present state, we can make no use of it whatever.

Again; at p. 22, Mr. Rice says

If, by possibility, it happens that men of distressed circumstances and relaxed principles are placed upon the grand jury, (and in what country do not some such individuals exist?) the result becomes more unfortunate.'

Here we flattered ourselves that we had caught his meaning; but the explanation which he immediately subjoins, and which we copy to a letter, convinces us that we are still far to seek in the conclusions of Mr. Rice, and that we neither comprehend his doctrines nor his language. This is the key to the aphorism just quoted" Dautant que ce sont les dames qui out fait la fondation du Cocuage, et que ce sont elles qui font les maris cocus, j'ay voulu mettre ce discours parmy ce livre,-BRANTOINE, Fimmes Galantes,'

We