affords us sensations at our fingers' ends, to which we have long been strangers. Adieu! God bless you! Cripps sends many earnest wishes for a speedy meeting." pp. 348-351.

He was three years on this tour, and returned to England with his health considerably affected by the labors he had undergone. His mother had died just before his arrival, his sister had married, and, on visiting his late home at Uckfield, he found scarcely any traces of the family but his mother's grave. He then went to reside at Cambridge, where, soon after, he married very happily, entered into holy orders, obtained a couple of livings, and began to deliver lectures on mineralogy and prepare his travels for publication. He obtained so much credit by these lectures, that a new professorship, that of mineralogy, was established in the university on his account, and he was promoted to the chair. The activity of his mind seems now to have taken a different direction from that of his early life. His passion for travel had been fully gratified, and his mind had laid up materials for the employment of the rest of his life. His duties as parish priest, the immense labor, for such he made it, of preparing his travels for the press, his devotion to the study of mineralogy, and his assiduity in the duties of his professorship, made his life a scene of vehement and unremitting labor. This, together perhaps with too little bodily exercise, gradually destroyed his constitution and brought on his death. He published the last volume of his travels in 1819, and died in the beginning of 1821. He had directed to his studies the same impetuosity of mind, which the conquerors of the world have directed to the art of war, and he experienced a common fate with them, cut off prematurely in the midst of his triumphs. We have room only for a part of the summary of his character, given us by his biographer.

"The two most remarkable qualities of his mind were enthusiasm and benevolence, remarkable not more for the degree in which they were possessed by him, than for the happy combinations in which they entered into the whole course and tenor of his life; modifying and forming a character, in which the most eager pursuit of science was softened by social and moral views, and an extensive exercise of all the charities of our nature was animated with a spirit which gave them a higher value in the minds of all with whom he had relation or communion.

"His ardor for knowledge, not unaptly called by his old tutor, literary heroism, was one of the most zealous, the most sustained, the most enduring principles of action, that ever animated a human breast; a principle which strengthened with his increasing years, and carried him at last to an extent and variety of knowledge

infinitely exceeding the promise of his youth, and apparently disproportioned to the means with which he was endowed; for though his memory was admirable, his attention always ardent and awake, and his perceptions quick and vivid, the grasp of his mind was not greater than that of other intelligent men; and in closeness and acuteness of reasoning, he had certainly no advantage, while his devious and analytic method of acquiring knowledge, involving, as it did in some of the steps, all the pain of a discovery, was a real impediment in his way, which required much patient labor to overcome. But the unwearied energy of this passion bore down every obstacle and supplied every defect; and thus it was, that always pressing forward without losing an atom of the ground he had gained, profiting by his own errors as much as by the lights of other men, his maturer advances in knowledge often extorted respect from the very persons who had regarded his early efforts with a sentiment approaching to ridicule. Allied to this was his generous love of genius, with his quick perception of it in other men; qualities which, united with his good nature, exempted him from those envyings and jealousies which it is the tendency of literary ambition to inspire, and rendered him no less disposed to honor the successful efforts of the competitors who had got before him in the race, than prompt to encourage those whom accident or want of opportunity had left behind. But the most pleasing exercise of these qualities was to be observed in his intercourse with modest and intelligent young men ; none of whom ever lived much in his society without being improved and delighted-improved by the enlargement or elevation of their views, and delighted with having some useful or honorable pursuit suitable to their talents pointed our to them, or some portion of his own enthusiasm imparted to their minds." pp. 463, 464.

Among the services rendered to science by Dr. Clarke, his biographer has classed the discovery of the gas blow-pipe. This is wrong; the credit of the invention is due to an American chemist, Professor Hare, of Philadelphia, whose experiments were made fifteen years before those of Dr. Clarke, and were already before the world. The claims of Mr. Hare to the invention of of this instrument have been stated, and vindicated, in the second volume of Sillinan's "Journal of Arts and Sciences;" and, after this, it argues either disingenuousness or want of information in his biographer, to speak of certain "experiments" performed "in America, by Mr. Hare, by a different method, but not with the same results."

MISCELLANY..

ON CRANIOLOGY.

THE knowledge of mankind, as it is commonly called, or an accurate acquaintance with the characters, propensities, and ruling passions of our fellow-creatures, is, by common consent, admitted to be most desirable. But the acquisition of any considerable amount of this, requires a degree of experience, observation, and coolness, which belongs to few. It has been a characteristic of those, who have, at various times, made themselves great among mankind; and has been usually shown, in the most striking manner, in their choice of officers, ministers, or coadjutors. The eye of a Cæsar, a Cromwell, a Bonaparte, or a Washington, could single out, almost with a glance, from among the herd of ordinary men, that surrounded them, the master spirits, whose aid was to be secured at any price, or whose opposition was to be crushed at any hazard.

To make this knowledge easier of acquisition, has accordingly been, at all times, a favorite project among mankind. It is now about half a century since the appearance of the celebrated work of Lavater, which professed to teach the art of discovering the character, from the form and marks of the countenance. This was received with uncommon avidity, and all Europe longed to believe in it. But it could not stand the test of experience. The science of physiognomy was outlived by its ingenious author; and his book, once so common, is now confined to the libraries of the curious.

When the celebrated Dr. Cullen was reproved by some of his professional brethren, for encouraging among the students, at the university of Edinburgh, a discussion upon some subject that was purely speculative, and seemed unlikely to answer any practical purpose, his reply was; "My friends, there must be a tub to amuse the whale." This maxim has heen practised upon, by more persons than Dr. Cullen; and hardly had public curiosity become satiated with physiognomy, when a new tub was thrown to the whale, with the imposing title of craniology.

This science proposes to substitute a mechanical examination of a man's skull, for a long and tedious course of examination of his actions and probable motives; and to settle, by the application of a graduated arc, or a pair of calliper compasses, what we find

it so difficult to decide by the combined application of our senses and intellectual powers.

"O wad some power the giftie gie us,
To see ourselves as others see us,

It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
And foolish notion."

This, if the craniologist be correct, is no longer the mere wild wish of a poet, but a possible acquirement. We can see ourselves as we are, and as we must appear to others, by the help, not of a magical glass, but a craniological map; save all the labor of selfexamination, by the simple process of passing the hand over the skull; and correct the deceitfulness of the heart, by the tangible testimony of the bones of the head.

We owe the doctrines of craniology, the science of the skull,— or, as its advocates now prefer to call it, phrenology, the science of the mind, to Dr. Gall, a native of Saxony, afterwards a physician at Vienna, and since at Paris.

Of Dr. Gall we are informed, that, in consequence of a particular formation of his head, he was early induced to take great delight in the study of natural history, in collecting plants and animals of every kind, and classing and arranging them, according to their obvious and sensible differences. As he grew up, he was led to notice, what in all probability has been noticed by all persons young and old, before and since, that there was a great difference in the dispositions, characters, and propensities of his acquaintance and companions; that some "affected the sun, and some the shade; "that one liked noise, and another quiet; that one was devoted to tops, while another thought more highly of marbles.

When, in process of time, he was sent to school, the peculiar organization of his brain led him to the discovery, that there were some worse scholars than himself, and some better; and that some, in particular, could repeat their lessons more fluently than himself.

Hitherto the observations of Dr. Gall had been such as to claim no great credit from their novelty. But, at a second school to which he was sent, he observed, that all those persons who could repeat with facility were furnished with prominent eyes; and this coincidence was confirmed by future observations at the university.

"After much reflection,"

This was the germ of craniology. says a grave panegyrist of this science, "he was led to suspect, that if a talent for repeating were connected with a certain prominence of brain, which caused the eyes to project, other talents and propensities might also have their corresponding

The great

eminences. And this he found to be the case."* praise of Gall, according to the panegyrist abovementioned, is, that, instead of being biassed by any system of the older metaphysicians and anatomists, he followed nature, and the evidence of his own eyes; but it must be recollected, that he had a system of his own, which by a common law in such cases, produced a far more powerful inclination of mind, than could easily have been effected by that of any other person. For, though the effect of a talent for repeating upon the eyes, may be doubted by some, that of a turn for theorizing, upon these organs, cannot admit of any question.

In process of time, Gall became a physician, an anatomist, and a lecturer on craniology, in the city of Vienna, where his lectures excited so much attention as to alarm the emperor's court, who began to fear that the loyal subjects of the Austrian empire might discover, what was no secret out of its limits, that the princes and counts of the empire, and even the descendant of the Cæsars himself, were neither wiser nor better than they should be; and that a ministerial hat, or an imperial crown, did not, of necessity, cover an organ of good-government.

Being, accordingly, prohibited from enlightening the people of Vienna, in regard to this matter, he left the place, and commenced his course as an itinerant lecturer, through the various cities of Germany and Prussia; spreading abroad the truths of craniology, and leaving successive audiences in a situation similar to that of the citizens of Strasburgh, upon the departure of the courteous stranger, mentioned by Slawkenbergius, and disputing as warmly concerning the organization of the skull, as the aforementioned Strasburgers did concerning that of the nose.

Dr. Gall finally settled in Paris, where he remains to the present day. His doctrines are best known to the British and American public, from the book of his favorite pupil and coadjutor, Dr. Spurzheim, who delivered several courses of lectures in Great Britain.

Notwith

Of these doctrines I propose to give some account. standing all my endeavours, however, I am not sure, that this will be perfectly satisfactory to any craniologist, who may happen to peruse it, for there is something evanescent and intangible about some of their peculiar notions, which causes them to elude the grasp of the most diligent unbeliever; I say unbeliever, for it is charitably to be presumed, that the adepts always mean something, and always understand what they mean.

* Combe's Elements of Phrenology.