NOTICES OF LECTtJRES. 157 



of a knowledge we did not possess, which was the^case with the theory generally 

 received. Mr. Hall's theory is this :— " External objects produce some unknown 

 change in the organs of sense, which change is the immediate antecedent, or physical 

 cause of the state of the mind called sensaUon." We have no positive proof, Mr. 

 Hall contended, that there is such a transfer as is generally supposed. The sensa- 

 tion is not felt in the brain, but in the part affected, and experiment has faUed to 

 detect the supposed transmission. Why might not the brain act as the generator 

 of influence, analogous to that of galvanism, which would account for all the facts 

 without shutting us up to the admission of the transfer of impressions. Mr. Hall 

 concluded by remarking on the wisdom and benficence of the Deity, in the adaptation 

 of our sensitive organs to external objects and to the perceiving mind, and has 

 thus drawn aside the thick veil which otherwise would have shrouded His glorious 

 universe, and offered to His creatures sources of improvement and delight so nxune- 

 rous and so interesting. A discussion ensued, which we are reluctantly compelled 

 to omit Mr. Hall, in reply to several questions proposed to him, stated that the 

 definition he had adopted was the one given by Dr. Thomas Brown and Dr. 

 Abercrombie. He believed sensation to be an act of the mind entirely, and not of. 

 the body. He was fully prepared to admit the possession of an immaterial spirit by 

 some of the lower animals, but not their immortality. A vote of thanks to Mr. Hall 

 for his very able lecture, was moved by the President, and carried by acclamation. 



December 20. — Dr. Horner read a highly interesting paper " On the Influence of 

 the Mind on the Body," a notice of which we must reserve for a future number, 



MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. 



November 30. — Mr. F. B. Calvert, B.A., delivered a lecture on Oratory, with 

 illustrations from Shakespeare, Cliilde-Harold, and others, in the place of Mr. 

 Francis, who was prevented delivering his lecture on Chess, as announced, in con- 

 sequence of an attack of erysipelas. Mr. C. is well known in Hull as a popular 

 and instructive lecturer on this subject. The lecture comprised a general and com- 

 prehensive view of the principles of the science, and was received with much 

 applause. 



December 7.— Dr. Horner read a paper " On the Pleasures and Advantages of 

 Contemplating Nature." The lecturer commenced by pointing out the effect of the 

 study of the beauties of nature on the mind. Nature at once the building and the 

 book of God extended its lines further than thought could penetrate. Who could 

 number the inhabitants of the globe, or tell the plants that carpet the earth, or count 

 the myriads of insects that wanton in the sunbeam ? Yet vast as is their number, 

 they are but a fragment of created existence. The microscope reveals to us another 

 world, whose inhabitants are more numerous, and certainly more wonderful in their 

 structure, than the members of that world which we can see with the naked eye. 

 The earth too, with all its productions and inhabitants, comprise but a small por- 

 tion of that which the student of nature has to explore and penetrate. With the 

 aid of the telescope, the mighty in creation becomes as sublime as the minute is 



