known circumstances. This is the great law under which we are born, and live from the first to the last moment of rational life. All the evils we encounter, physical and moral, result from our either having ignorantly failed to put ourselves in accordance, or wilfully put ourselves in discordance, not with the general laws, for to these we must always be subject, but with the beneficial course of nature. It would require vast and comprehensive knowledge to be aware of all possible relations of things and events to our own happiness; but improvement in this knowledge will continue education to the last moment of life and reason. "It is one of the "vanities of full-grown folly to imagine that the benefits of instruc"tion are confined to a more tender age; and there can scarcely a "delusion exist more injurious to happiness, or the welfare of man"kind, than that our nature ever arrives at a point when all re"medial treatment may be safely superseded, and every labour to "accommodate man to foreseen destinies abandoned to the intrusion "of disorganizing agents."-Dr Poole's practical principle consists of three parts-Knowledge of existing and foreknown circumstances;-Obedience to that knowledge;-and Resignation, or acquiescence in the dispensations of Providence, produced by the control of all our opposing faculties. But it is great injustice to abridge the exposition of his views, in which there is much original thinking, and as profound as novel speculation. We shall long for the author's second volume, and can safely hold out to him the encouraging prospect of sharing with Dr Spurzheim the honours of unquestionable authority in the philosophy of education.

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ARTICLE II.

CASE OF A MECHANICAL GENIUS.

To the Editor of the Phrenological Journal.

SIR,-The 12th article in your 7th Number, that on the organ of Weight, gave me the highest pleasure, and also much information. There was no part of the science of Phrenology that so much perplexed me as the functions of the minute organs in the middle of the forehead; and, of them all, I could make the least of the organ of Weight in the economy of nature. But on this subject your observations are completely satisfactory to my mind, and they have opened the way to the explanation of many highly-interesting and important facts. I have good reason to know that the article in question has been much and deservedly admired, and that it has done not a little to promote the interest of the science.

As soon as I read the paper alluded to, my thoughts im mediately recurred to a friend of mine, who is famous for his mechanical skill, and in the configuration of whose forehead I had always remarked something peculiar. With joy I perceived, on seeing him, that your theory was not only confirmed, but illustrated in the most unequivocal manner;and I would have sent you this notice for your last Number, had I not delayed till too late, in the hopes of procuring a mask of his face to accompany it. In this I have still been disappointed, but if you wish it, I shall lose no opportunity of having it done.

Mr is a very respectable farmer in the county of Forfar. In his youth he received just such an education as was proper for his sphere in life; but no part of it had reference to mechanical pursuits. When a boy, he was fond of handling edge-tools, and of executing little contrivances of his

own; but this his parents as much as possible prevented, in all probability because they perceived it would engross too much of his time and attention. He therefore saw just such a portion of work executed as boys in the country are in the habit of seeing; nor was it till settled in life, about his twenty.. first year, that he could ever be said to have had an opportunity of gratifying his ruling passion. Then, however, his mechanical organs got scope, and sought and found their own gratification. He fitted up a work-shop, in which is a forge, where he does all his own smith-work except horseshoeing, and that not because he cannot, but because he considers it too clumsy work. He has a lathe, and turns with wonderful nicety; and he handles any kind of carpenter's tools with greater dexterity than nine-tenths of those who are brought up to that business. But his great delight is in machinery ; and although living in a remote part of the country, and seeing no more than any man may see who chooses to open his eyes, and having never read any book on the subject of machinery, he is consulted by practical mill-wrights, and his suggestions are often found useful. Nor is it that he can work at these trades in a coarse manner; his delight is to work neatly, and, from frequent personal observation, I can attest that he succeeds admirably; and he says, that nothing gives him such positive pain as to see the awkward bungling manner in which many set themselves to work. No person that knows him fails to remark the kind of intuitive perception with which he at once seizes upon the means that will accomplish the end he has in view.

Now, as to the development, the head is altogether large, as you will see from the following measurement; but the mechanical organs have a decided preponderance :

It is, I am aware, very difficult to convey an accurate idea of development by words; but as I cannot at present send you a cast, I may remark, that the inner part of the eyebrow has a heavy appearance from the very peculiar configuration; and the arch of the eyebrow, instead of springing, as generally, from the root of the nose, commences nearly over the middle of the eye. From that to the root of the nose is nearly a straight line. Upon the whole, it is the most decided case of development in this organ that I have seen; and though this communication appears anonymously, I leave the designation of both the subject and writer of it with you, Mr Editor, and either of us will be very happy to answer any inquiries that are made for philosophical purposes. I am yours respectfully,

J.

ARTICLE III.

An Apology for the Study of Phrenology. Wood and Cunnigham, Bath; Longman & Co. London; and John Anderson, Junior, Edinburgh.

THIS is a well-written and unassuming pamphlet, the object of which is explained in the following extract :-"The ob"ject of these pages is to represent Phrenology so as to vindicate its "claim to candid examination, rather than to furnish any complete

"development of its principles; to shew, that, as a branch of na"tural science, it rests precisely on that foundation by which all "natural truth is upheld, namely, induction from well-established "facts; and to obviate certain prejudices hastily urged and heed"lessly admitted, by which irreligious tendency has been groundlessly imputed to it." It consists of four sections containing, 1st, Introductory Remarks; 2d, Phrenology founded on Observation and Induction; 3d, Phrenology not at variance with Religious Faith; and, 4th, Uses of Phrenology.

"

The following passage is from section 3d.-" What does "Phrenology profess? Not to investigate the abstract nature of "mind, but merely to develop its phenomena, and to establish, by "observation and induction, the real faculties which it possesses, together with the dependence of those faculties on the conformation "of the brain. In representing the brain as the organ of thought " and moral feeling, the Phrenologist never dreams of attributing to "it an independent agency; nor ever regards it save as the instru"ment by which the spiritual principle exercises its powers."

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"It is almost descending too much to advert to the close analogy "that subsists between the general doctrines of Phrenology and those "which have ever been maintained with respect to the external senses. We see with the eye, hear with the ear-who, in pursuing "the studies of optics or acoustics, ever imagines that these organs " alone are capable of such functions, or conceives otherwise than "that they make returns which are perceived by the intelligent in"mate to whom they are subservient? Phrenology does no more; "it traces to the brain, by a close induction from innumerable facts, "an agency by which thought and feeling are exercised. It esta"blishes a direct connexion between the several faculties of the mind "and those respective portions of the brain with which it has found "them uniformly to co-exist, and it denominates these portions the organs of the respective faculties. The peculiar mechanism of the eye and ear, so directly suited to their respective functions, procures an unreluctant assent to the conclusion that they are the proper organs of sight and hearing. The mode in which the brain "exercises its functions of thought and feeling is less obvious: but "when the fact, that it is essential to their manifestation, is esta"blished by such proofs as are deemed sufficient in all other physi"cal investigations, why should we rely on its truth with less con"fidence? Are no truths demonstrable or capable of proof, but "such as are displayed in all their intimate operations to our view? "The advocates of religious faith will do little service to the cause "which they espouse by maintaining such doctrine. We have in "the inductions of Phrenology the only proofs which the nature of "the inquiry permits; the intimate operations of the brain in the "exercise of the alleged functions we cannot see, and most probably "never shall discover. In all human inquiry into the laws esta"blished by the Creator in the economy of this world, there is a "point beyond which we cannot soar; but so far as we are permit