336 ON THE TENDENCY AND PROSPECTS OF 



much;" — and this kind of fancy, this conceit, will be less and less 

 prevalent as knowledge becomes more generally diffused. 



The advance of science is rapidly bringing on a state of things 

 which our Mechanics' Institutions are preparing to meet without 

 hazarding the derangement of society. The Rev. James 

 Martineau, at the last annual meeting of the Liverpool Institu- 

 tion, used these remarkable words — " Machinery is rapidly 

 supplanting human labour, and rendering mere muscular force a 

 worthless drug. That natural machine, the human body, is 

 depreciated in the market. But if the body have lost its value, 

 the mind must get into business without delay. The intelligence 

 of man must be brought to the mint and coined, and set in instant 

 circulation." 



I like to hear such sentiments — far better are they than the ad- 

 vice of the speaker's clever sister, and of a whole clan of political 

 economists — to reduce our working population, in order to secure 

 employment to those that remain. The complainers, the well- 

 informed people of the old school, may perhaps beset Mr. 

 Martineau, and rejoin — "But what are we to do, if the dominion 

 of heads be invaded by the desertion of whole legions from the 

 realm of hands ?" And if the question were put to me, I should 

 answer — " That is not the affair of the population of hands." I 

 only feel quite sure that a really well-informed people — a people 

 universally educated, would not long continue to suffer the 

 strange anomalies which now prevail in our social system; and 

 the way to prepare for such change rationally, is to equalize, as 

 far as possible, the advantages of education — to abolish all 

 feelings and prejudices of class or caste — and to encourage all 

 to consider themselves as human beings. 



When the steam engine was perfected, half the external dis- 

 tinctions of rank vanished; — the new power rendering manu- 

 factured articles more accessible. But the effects of scientific 

 advancement will not be branded by the cheapening of silks, 

 calicoes, and hardwares. There is an intellectual machinery, a 

 mental steam power at work, and still rising in its action, which 

 renders education proportionally as cheap and as attainable to 

 the man of small means, as his clothing and his domestic ap- 

 pointments. 



There is a science which, in spite of the sneers of its opponents, 

 — in spite, too, of the extravagance of its supporters, is slowly 

 and gradually winning its way into general respect and estima- 

 tion. I allude to the science of phrenology. The poet sings 



*' Full many a gem of purest ray serene 



The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear ;— 

 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 



And waste its sweetness on the desert air." Gray. 



This may be of little consequence in reference to such things 

 as corals and cowslips — pearls and polyanthuses; but it is 

 another affair when applied to human beings. It is there an 



