413 



REMARKS ON PHRENOLOGY, AS APPLIED TO 

 EDUCATION. 



** Seek you to train your fav'rite boy ? 

 Each caution, ev'ry care, employ ; 

 And, ere you venture to confide. 

 Let his preceptor's heart be try'd ; 

 Weigh well his manners, life, and scope ; 

 On these depend thy future hope." 



Education has always received a large share of attention from 

 philosophers, and everything has been tried which the learned, the 

 eloquent, and the experienced could suggest for its facilitation. 

 How is it then, it may be asked, that while machinery, rail-roads, 

 and steam-packets have been brought to so high a dei>ree of per- 

 fection, that the ^t of developing the human faculties should have 

 baffled human ingenuity for the last two thousand years ? The 

 answer is easy — the philosophy of the mind has not been under- 

 stood. A new era has now, however, commenced, which may be 

 dated from the discovery of Gall, and the dissemination of the 

 fruits of his observation, in 1796. This discovery — this invaluable, 

 unparalleled discovery — has been ridiculed, derided, trampled on — 

 its expounders have been loaded with every degrading epithet the 

 most unlicensed vocabulary could furnish j they have been insulted, 

 reviled, and calumniated — not merely by small witlings, and press 

 hacks, but by names which adorn the temple of Fame ; and yet the 

 science is at this moment more flourishing than ever — the united 

 efforts of learning, wit, and eloquence have been and ever will be 

 ineffectual to pull it down. In spite of every interested effort of 

 the ignorant and the prejudiced to retard its progress, it is " gra- 

 dually winning its way into general respect and admiration,"* 



The first consideration is whether phrenology be founded in 

 truth. No unprejudiced person who has read the highly interest- 

 ing and valuable work of Dr. Gall,t and made observations of his 

 own, can have any doubt upon this point. It only remains, there- 

 fore, to discover in what way it can be applied to our advantage. 

 Not long ago, hearing a friend talk scornfully of phrenology, I re- 

 marked that if it bestowed no other advantage on the human race 

 it would render education much easier and more profitable to the 

 pupil. To which he rejoined, " I do not see that." What should 



* See page 336. 

 t " Sur les Fonclions du Cerveau," 6 vols. 8vo., 1822. To those who have not 

 leisure for such minute details I should recommend the " System of Phrenology" by 

 George Combe, now in the third edition. As the best work on education with which 

 I am acquainted, I should recommend Simpson's " Popular Education" — a work 

 which is, as Leigh Hunt remarks, indispensable to every lover of his species who 

 can afford to purchase it. 



