98 REMARKS ON DR. CALDWELL S 



education consists in the proper management of these several sets of 

 organs : train them in the best manner, and to the highest pitch, 

 and the individual has arrived at his greatest attainable perfection. 



Having treated of the other influential organs, Dr. C. proceeds to 

 make the physical education of the brain the subject of some most 

 important remarks. Like all other parts of the animated system, 

 he says, the brain is enlarged, invigorated, and rendered more dex- 

 terous in action, by suitable and well-regulated exercise ; and by 

 this also it is improved, in every respect, as the organ of the mind. 

 As is the case with other organs, the brain may be exhausted and 

 injured by too much, and enfeebled by too little, action ; for it 

 should never be forgotten or neglected as a practical truth, that as 

 action strengthens and improves living matter, so inaction deterio- 

 rates and weakens it. This is one of the elementary principles by 

 which physical education ought to be directed ; indeed, it constitutes 

 its foundation. 



According to Dr. C , the brain is not a simple, but a compound 

 organ ; it is an aggregate of many smaller organs, distinct from 

 each other, yet closely linked in their condition by sympathy : 

 hence, the soundness of one of them aids in giving soundness to the 

 rest, and the converse. Being the instruments of separate mental 

 faculties, these organs are destined to the performance of separate 

 functions, no one of them being able to perform any other function 

 than its own ; as the eye sees but cannot hear, and the ear hears, 

 but can neither taste nor smell. As these organs, which unite in 

 making up the cerebral mass, execute different descriptions of work, 

 so can they work at different times, some of them being active 

 while others are at rest ; and in this they resemble the external 

 senses, for the ear may be impressed with sound while the eyes are 

 closed, and the sense of smell may be active while that of touch is 

 dormant. Moreover, like those of the external senses, the cerebral 

 organs are excited to action by different objects and kinds of im- 

 pression : thus, the eye is acted upon by light alone, the ear by 

 sound, and the organs of smell, taste, and touch, by odorous, sapid, 

 and tangible matter. In like manner, one cerebral organ is acted 

 upon and exercised by attachment, another by resentment, another 

 by justice, another by benevolence, another by the religious senti- 

 ment, another by music, another by colours, another by objects and 

 events, and so on ; while each organ can be acted on and exercised 

 only by things whereof the perception constitutes its exclusive and 

 appropriate function. 



Dr. C. represents the human brain as consisting of three com- 



