in the offspring, and nothing but the fear of giving offence induces me to forbear citing many that have come under my own observation. It is well known, that the first born children of very young parents have usually a larger animal and less moral and intellectual developement than the younger branches of the family. Sometimes this is not the case, and the converse happens; but this will be found to be the consequence of straitened circumstances, or other causes rousing the propensities of the parents into a state of unwonted activity, at the time of the production of the younger children. Marriage among near relations is also a breach of an organic law, and a fruitful source of evil; but unions of this class are seldom contracted by individuals of our order. We find this law principally infringed by royal families, and others of the higher and middle classes, who, anxious to keep up their wealth and their caste, intermarry amongst each other, until mental imbecility results.

I now conclude with a few observations to the young of both sexes, founded on the foregoing views.

To my fair hearers, I would take leave to say:-Persevere in the acquisition of orderly, cleanly, and industrious habits;-learn early to accommodate yourselves to the different dispositions of others with whom you may be associated;-strive to acquire a knowledge of your own dispositions, and endeavour, as much as possible, to render your manner habitually agreeable and engaging;-and when your estimable qualities, graces, accomplishments, attract the attention, or rivet the affections, of others, learn to be circumspect-act with great caution-be wary before you give encouragement. Consider that the happiness of yourselves, and the welfare of others, are dependent upon the choice you are about to make. Learn to know your own physical and mental constitution, and to judge of that of others aright. Remember that, if you contract an alliance with any one possessing an unhealthy constitution, that constitution will descend to your progeny, and, in all probability, consign them one by one to the grave, at the very time when they have become most endeared to you. Remember, also, that on the industry, honesty, sobriety, and affection, of him to whom you shall unite yourselves, depends your every temporal felicity. And remember that, unless your feelings, opinions, and sympathies, are in harmony with his, unhappiness will be your inevitable portion. What," says Dr. Johnson, "can be expected but disappointment and repentance from a choice made in the immaturity of youth, in the ardour of desire, without judgment, without foresight, without inquiry after conformity of opinions, similarity of manners, rectitude of judgment, or purity of sentiment? Such is the

66

common process of marriage. A youth and maiden meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness before had concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty." (Rasselas, chap. 29.) What, indeed, can be more productive of misery to a refined and educated woman, than the habitual society of a man addicted to grovelling pursuits, and who laughs at whatever she most highly esteems? Let not the countenance dressed up in smiles, nor the honeyed accents of a lover, enlist your affections in his favour before your judgment has been satisfied of his moral and intellectual worth. Regard not his behaviour towards yourself, but examine into his previous conduct as a son and a citizen. If you find that he has been regardless of the infirmities and wants of those to whom he owed his existence; that he could never brook parental restraint, or listen to the counsel dictated by affectionate regard; that he spends too much of his time in idleness, or that, though industrious, he spends too much of his money in the gin shop; that his associates are unintellectual, immoral, and dissipated;-shun him as you would a pestilence: but if you find that he has been dutiful to, and is esteemed by, his parents and the other members of the family; that he is industrious and sober; and that his associates are men of intelligence and moral worth, then will you have reason to believe that he may prove to you a faithful and affectionate husband, and fulfil all the duties of life with integrity and skill.

To the youthful aspirant towards manly usefulness and honour, I would now address myself. Acquire a knowledge of the physical and moral sciences, to fit you for the proper discharge of the duties of active life. Learn to know yourself, both as regards your physical frame and your intellectual and moral constitution. Physiology will unfold the former, and phrenology the latter. Study the laws which the Creator has established for the government of organised beings, and train your faculties to render them a willing obedience. Learn to look around you in the world, and note the consequences to others of their infringement of these laws, and the benefits that follow observance. Become acquainted with the institutions and laws of your country, and with the principles that regulate the population of a state. Cultivate a love of truth, and the moral courage necessary to follow it; for, be assured, that it can never lead to danger. Cherish a kindly feeling towards the whole human family. Let no distinction

of country or sect be made a pretext for indulging invidious feelings; but remember that it is not given us to be born where we please, and that

"True religion is a boon, which heaven
To man, and not to any sect, has given."

Neither let inferiority of mental endowments in others prompt you to despise them, nor be elated with the idea of your own capabilities and acquirements; remember that the advantages you possess over others in that respect, are purely a gift of the Creator, and that consequently, though you have been more fortunate, you are not the more meritorious. Labour rather to improve those who are behind you, and do not scorn to imbibe instructions from your superiors in moral and mental attainments. Strive to acquire a knowledge of the duties you may be called upon in after life to fulfil, either as citizens, husbands, or parents. Make phrenology in particular your study. Judge not of the importance of the science from what my limited faculties have been able to lay before you, but examine for yourselves the writings of its intellectual and benevolent founders, and then look abroad on society and draw your own conclusions. This you can accomplish with a very trifling sacrifice of time and money, while the benefit you will derive may be the means of insuring much of the happiness of your future life, and will have the immediate effect of exercising and rendering active your moral and intellectual powers. When you have acquired industrious and moral habits, and a knowledge of those laws which the Creator has established for the moral government of the world, endeavour to act in accordance there with. Be especially on your guard that you do not infringe them in forming the social compact; for the consequences will extend beyond yourself, and go far into futurity. And when a choice has been made in accordance with the dictates of your superior faculties, let both parties endeavour, by fulfilling every duty, to render yourselves mutually agreeable; then will the joyful husband find by delightful experience,

"It is to lovely woman given

To soothe our griefs, our woes allay,
To heal the heart by misery riven,
Change earth into an embryo heaven,
And drive life's fiercest cares away."

ARTICLE III.

Lectures on Popular Education.

BY GEORGE COMBE. Second
Published by Marsh,

American edition, corrected and enlarged.
Capen, Lyon & Co., Boston. 12mo. pp. 141.

It is now beginning to be generally admitted, that whatever other merits phrenology may possess, it must have important bearings upon the subject of education. It might be expected, a priori, that a science which unfolds the primitive faculties of the animal, intellectual, and moral nature of man, and their true relations to the 'external world, would shed a vast amount of light on the education of these faculties, both in relation to the means to be employed, as well as the objects to be secured. The cause, which, of all others, has most retarded the progress of education, defeated most frequently its designs, and produced the greatest diversity of opinions on the subject, has originated from the fact, that the true nature of man has not been hitherto generally understood. This remark is more fully elucidated in the following quotation from the above work :

"Owing to the want of a philosophy of mind, education has hitherto been conducted empirically; and, instead of obtaining from it a correct view of the nature of man, and of the objects and duties of life, each individual has been left to form, upon these points, theories for himself, derived from the impressions made upon his own mind by the particular circumstances in which he has been placed. No reasonable person assumes himself to know the philosophy of astronomy, or of chemistry, or of physiology, without study, and without reaching clear, consistent, and certain principles; yet, in the philosophy of mind, the practice is quite different. Every professor, schoolmaster, author, editor, and pamphleteer-every member of parliament, counsellor, and judge-has a set of notions of his own, which, in his mind, hold the place of a system of the philosophy of man; and although he may not have methodised his ideas, or even acknowledged them, to himself, as a theory, yet they constitute a standard, to him, by which he practically judges of all questions in morals, politics, and religion. He advocates whatever views coincide with them, and condemns all that differ from them, with as little hesitation as a professed theorist himself, and without the least thought of trying his own principles by any standard whatever. In short, in the great mass, even of educated men, the mind, in judging of questions relating to morals, politics, and social institutions, acts on its merely instinctive impressions, and exhibits all the confliction and uncertainty of feeling, unguided either by principles of reason, or by facts ascertained by experience. Hence, public measures in general, whether relating to education, religion, trade, manufactures, provision for the poor, criminal law, or to any other of the dearest interests of society, instead of being treated as branches of one general system of economy, and adjusted on scientific principles, each in harmony with the others, are too often supported or opposed on narrow and empirical grounds; and discussions regarding them, occasionally call forth displays of igno

rance, prejudice, and intolerance, at once disgraceful to the age, and calculated greatly to obstruct the progress of substantial improvement. Indeed, unanimity on questions, of which the first principles must be found in the constitution of human nature, will be impossible, even among sensible and virtuous men, so long as no standard of mental philosophy is admitted to guide individual feelings and perceptions. Hence, when a young man educated as a merchant asks the use of any thing, the only answer which will thoroughly interest him, will be, one showing how much wealth may be acquired by it. The devoutly religious professor will acknowledge that alone to be useful, which tends directly to salvation; while the votary of fashion will admit the utility of such pursuits only as are recognised by the refined, but frivolous, and generally ill-informed, circle, which, to him, constitutes the highest tribunal of wisdom. To expound, to such persons, principles affecting the general interests of society, and to talk to them of schemes for promoting the happiness of human beings, in their various conditions of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, teachers and pupils, governors and subjects, appears like indulging a warm imagination in fanciful harangued They think that the experience of six thousand years is sufficient to show that a man is not destined, in this life, to be greatly different from what he has always been, and now is; and that any measures pretending greatly to improve his condition, however desirable, are not at all to be believed in by sensible and practical people. This state of things could not exist, if education were founded on a true system of human nature, and an exposition of its relations to the external world."

The truth and force of these remarks must be obvious to every one. It is quite evident that we have, as yet, but just begun to understand the true nature of education, and the great principles which must be applied in its successful attainment. It would seem to be no less the dictates of reason and common sense than of true philosophy, that the being to be clucated must in the first place be correctly understood. But such a course is very far from being pursued at the present day. Parents, teachers, and guardians of youth, are, to a very great extent, profoundly ignorant of the laws which govern the physical and mental nature of man; and, until these laws are correctly understood and obeyed, any and every system of education must necessarily remain imperfect and empirical. But, in the mean time, these laws cannot be neglected or violated with impunity. Multitudes are still destined to disappointment, misery, and premature death, in consequence of the ignorance and prejudice existing in the community on this subject. It is true, some few are beginning to see a beauty and force, which they never before perceived, in the poet's saying, that

"The proper study of mankind is man;"

and they are compelled to acknowledge, too, that this study can be successfully pursued only by means of investigating the principles of physiology and phrenology. For on these two sciences only, can any rational system of education or philosophy of mind be based.