594 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. . 



labourer in that vocation to which his mind is disposed. This, we 

 think, would effectually rid the world of the peevish complaints and 

 petulant murmurings we are almost daily doomed to hear. Again, 

 if the subject shall exhibit upon his young cranium such signs as in- 

 dicate a blood-thirsty or a treacherous spirit, let the professor be in- 

 vested with powers to hang the murderous wretch at once, upon that 

 principle in jurisprudence that justifies strong measures where cri- 

 minality is to be prevented ; and what more efficacious to that end, 

 seeing that the monster bears, in phrenologic letters written, "a thou- 

 sand mortal murders on his head," than to prevent the horrid deeds 

 by hanging him before they are committed ! We have often wondered 

 that, in cases of a doubtful kind, even in the present barbarous state 

 of things, a professor of phrenology has not been called in to settle 

 the point, as in every case of murder, within our memory, it has been 

 infallibly determined, after the death of the culprit, that the crime, as 

 well as the punishment, was " on his own head/' as plain as a pike- 

 staff. This could surely have been determined before the rope had 

 done its office ; and, therefore, may be considered an unfailing resource 

 in doubtful cases and complicated homicides. 



We would suggest also, a reform in our mode of conferring honours 

 upon genius and learning, especially at our colleges. There is no 

 doubt that interest supplies the place of capacity in many of the ap- 

 pointments. What would we do ? Would we idle away our time in 

 putting questions to the candidates to fathom the depth of their 

 knowledge ? No, submit them to a phrenologic examination, as in 

 the first case we have mentioned. Then would corruption receive 

 such a blow on the organ of sensitiveness (if such it have), as to make 

 it an invalid for life. Further, we would have no degree of M. A. 

 and D. D., and D. L.L., and so forth, but, according to the organic 

 power of the party, confer upon him the honours, either of doctor of 

 a bump of the first degree, master of a full mathematical develop- 

 ment, bachelor of a bump of the second degree, and so on. We leave 

 these suggestions to the consideration of Mr. Levison, with the full 

 persuasion that, however the plan may become matured under his 

 hands, the credit of the invention, and the honour of its philanthropic 

 service to humanity, will conscienciously and cheerfully be acknow- 

 ledged due to the heart and to the efforts of the ' ' Monthly Magazine. 



LIBRARY OF ROMANCE. EDITED BY LEITCH RITCHIE. WALDEMAK. 

 VOL. VIII. SMITH, ELDER, AND Co. 



ANOTHER of these very excellent and interesting tales, forming 

 the eighth of that fund of fiction, the Library of Romance, which, 

 under the management of its accomplished and gifted editor, gives 

 earnest of a long life to come of amusement and edifying interest. 



Waldemar is a story of the thirty years war, written at once with 

 the boldness of history and the imaginative fervour of romance. 

 Schiller's pen has lent a lustre to this period, which, playing upon 

 the stirring and exciting incidents of the time, gives an imposing 

 grandeur to the scene, with which our minds can never for a mo- 

 ment dispense or part. Love, of course (the urchin's ubiquity is 



