ledge by the standard of the schools, although the folly of doing so, has been repeatedly rebuked by the greatest of the race. Shakspeare belongs not to the class of partial geniuses. His was a mind, which, though possessed of the greatest facility in acquisition, was not content with the mere exercise of memory-using the word in its phrenologica Isense, as one of the lower modes of action of all the intellectual faculties-but assimilated, and was constantly tending to the higher state of thought-conception, the great creative powerthe peculiar attribute of exalted genius. Man was to the bard of Avon, as a nucleus around which he gathered all that affiliated with the subject; and though in certain departments he was inferior to some of his contemporaries, it is probable that no intellect of his day experienced a higher and more sustained activity of all the intellectual faculties ascribed by phrenology to man. The proper aliment of cach, having undergone the alchymic process of his ever-musing mind, might easily, without the trouble of careful selection, be arrayed before the readers of the Journal; but it would be something worse than supererogatory. We will, however, by short quotations, illustrate the philosopical manifestation of his very large Benevolence; for to the diffused and far-reaching spirit of this organ, united with others, we are indebted for his "language pictures" of the mental miseries of the great, as well as the physical sufferings of the lowest of his race. Thus does he penetrate into the anxious sleeples chamber of a king :— "Oh, sleep! Nature's soft nurse! how have I frighted thee, * * * Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast, Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brain And in the visitations of the winds, That take the ruffian billows by their tops, Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them Canst thou, oh partial sleep, give thy repose And thus he extends his sympathy to an humbler sphere. The lines are spoken by Lear, in the midst of a storm. "Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides, Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you His works teem with similar examples; his benevolence embraced all human things-all suffering, whether it existed in the palace or the cottage whether the heaving bosom was hid by the "robes and furr'd gowns," or exposed to the "peltings of the pitiless storm" by the "loop'd and window'd raggedness" of want. If any student of phrenology wishes to observe and feel the manifestations of Ideality and Tune in their highest modes of activity, let him read certain portions of the "Tempest;" and if he can arouse his own faculties to a perfect sympathy with the scenes, he will be transported to the "Enchanted Isle," the "delicate Ariel" will float in beauty before his eye, Prospero will wave his magic wand, and the air be filled with "all the linked sweetness of sound." (To be continued.) ARTICLE III. PATHOLOGICAL FACT CONFIRMATORY OF PHRENOLOGY. Mr. Editor, Sir,-As surgical and pathological illustrations of phrenology are not only of a more satisfactory character, but rarer than other classes of facts, I send you the following case, which I use in my lectures as a proof of the functions of Combativeness. The facts were communicated to me some years since by the attending physician. It occurred in South Carolina, but as to the exact date and locality, my memoranda are deficient. A boy, nine or ten years of age, was riding a spirited horse. The horse started at full speed, and the boy was thrown off; as he fell, the back of his head struck against a stump, and also received a blow from the hoof of the horse, the effect of which double injury was what might be called an egg-shell fracture of the occiput. The occipital bone was crushed in, and the brain much injured. Dr. Turner was called to attend the case; when he arrived, it presented a frightful appearance, the injury extending to the angles of the parietal bones on each side. The brain was exposed-a portion escaped from the wound, and a portion was removed in the treatment; in all, about a tea-cupful was lost. The case seemed, indeed, a desperate one, but in a few weeks the lad recovered. Dr. Turner, having remarked that the portion of brain which was removed came chiefly from the organs of Combativeness on each side, suggested that the lad would probably become a coward on his recovery. During the first week or two, as he lay in a comatose or oppresed condition, his dreams, or more properly delirious wanderings of the mind, presented images of terror, under the influence of which he frequently started from the bed, as if endeavouring to escape. Upon his recovery, the usual debility of the convalescent probably prevented any particular observations of its effects on his character. Two years afterwards, the doctor saw him. He was perfectly cured, and his mind, intellectually, was unimpaired; but his character was changed. He was timid as the hare. He could not be induced to ride a horse; and even if he saw a horseman approaching in the road, he would run into the woods to escape. At an age at which boys are usually high-spirited and proud to show their independence, he was destitute of the feeling, and seemed to lean upon others. He would not even leave the house, and go a few hundred yards by himself, but was escorted about the farm by the negro women. He was quite intelligent, and able to converse over his own case in a full and satisfactory manner. He told a full story of his dreams of terror during the first fortnight after the accident. He was quite unsocial, and indisposed to mingle in the athletic sports of boys. His cerebellum was undeveloped, his manners were timid and feminine, and his voice like that of the eunuch. If this account should meet the eye of Dr. Turner, I would request him to make out and publish a more complete account of the foregoing case, and his subsequent observations. Permit me to suggest to practical phrenologists the importance of another class of facts which may easily be collected, and which are sometimes not less valuable than those furnished by pathology. I refer to the materials to be collected from an accurate study of the various sensations in different regions of the head, connected with cephalic action. The other day, a young man gave me a minute account of an apparition which he had pursued, until it made a mysterious escape, and of others which followed him until he became familiar with them. Seeing that he was sincere, I inquired into the condition of his perceptive organs, and found that he was at certain periods liable to an affection in which there was pain along the brows and just over the eyeballs. This generally terminated after a free bleeding at the nose. Such affections of the perceptive organs may well be the foundation of popular superstitions, for it is difficult to resist the sincere and graphic accounts of those who are thus deceived, without being able to suspect the source of their delusion. I have been fortunate in obtaining this class of facts; some of which, indeed, might not be credible to those who test every statement by its harmony with their preconceived opinions. I feel confident, however, to assert that peculiar conditions, or excessive action of any organ, will always be accompanied by a sensation of some kind at its site; and that every true principle in the science of phrenology may thus be sustained by the evidence of sensation. Yours respectfully, Jos. R. BUCHANAN. New Orleans, December 20, 1839. ARTICLE IV. ON HUMAN CAPABILITY OF IMPROVEMENT.* Man, existing in a savage state, without arts and industry, can scarcely be recognised as a rational being; he manifests only instincts; and instead of subduing external nature to his will, be picks up from its surface, as the brutes do, whatever enjoyments it spontaneously yields, and submits in sullen patience to its adverse influences, till they pass away. In civilised countries, on the other hand, he presents the most unequivocal evidence of the greatness of his rational faculties, by the sway which he exerts over physical nature; but even in these regions, when we examine closely into the condition of individuals, we discover that although the intellectual powers have achieved admirable conquests over matter, there is a deplorable deficiency of moral enjoyment; that although man has displayed the magnificence of his nature in triumphing over earth and sea, air and fire, and rendering them ministers to his will, he has not succeeded in infusing order and beauty into his moral condi tion; that his heart is often sick with anguish, while his eyes look on a lovely world as his own. Some sects regard this as the necessary result of man's imperfect nature, and disbelieve in the possi *From the 29th number of the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal. bility of his ever advancing by the use of reason so far as to do in the moral, what he has accomplished in the physical, world; call forth order, beauty, and enjoyment, where pain and sorrow at present reign. Other sects not only regard such an advance as attainable, but teach that the Creator has formed man as a progressive and improvable being, with the direct object of his arranging his institutions and conduct in conformity to the Divine law, and thereby attaining to real enjoyment. They maintain, that, without being animated by this conviction in our daily conduct, and without resorting to the study of human and external nature, under the reliance on the divine goodness which it produces, we cannot be said to live with God in the world. Thus, two great parties may be said to divide the religious world. The one, with which we have a great sympathy, believes the physical, moral, and intellectual constitution of this world to be greatly disordered; many and bitter were the proofs of this truth afforded by the pains and sorrows attending our early life and education; and we are still far from imagining that this world is a perfect institution. The burning deserts of Africa, the frozen regions of the poles, the noxious swamps, and the stony wastes every where abounding, proclaim that physical nature is not perfect; while the mental blindness, the heart's sickness, and the body's anguish, prove that human nature requires great amendment. The other party, however, contend, that the opinion generally entertained of the inherent defects and disorders of creation is exaggerated; and that there is a far greater provision made for human virtue and happiness in the functions and capabilities of nature, than is generally understood or believed; and that it is denying the Divine wisdom and goodness, to say that this world is essentially disordered in its constitution; that it is not arranged so as to favour virtue, but the reverse; that it is a world essentially wicked, against the seductions of which the pious. require to maintain a constant struggle. They say, that, if we entertain these views as our theory of human nature, and act consistently, we shall be led to look with little interest on human science, and to listen with much incredulity to schemes for improv. ing the dispositions, capabilities, and condition of the race, by teaching them the laws of the natural world, and inducing them to obey them. No system of political economy, of law, or of education, having for its object the promotion of human happiness and virtue, by a right ordering of the elements of nature, appears to be practical, according to the fundamental doctrine, that nature, physical, moral, and intellectual, is depraved and out of joint. Although extra-natural means of rectifying the disorder be admitted, these |