MENTAL PHYSIOLOGY. 709 



come holy ministrations in a temple consecrated by the felt presence 

 of the Divinity" (p. 428). This, however, is not physiology. 



Outside the narrow circle where Dr. Carpenter treads the barren 

 heath of metaphysics, tethered to his theory of free-will, lies the wide 

 and beautiful world of N'ature which no one knows better than him- 

 self. Naturalist, physiologist, philosopher, philanthropist, there are 

 few men who touch Nature, and human nature, at so many points ; 

 and there are very few who can illustrate their knowledge from such 

 rich stores of reading and research. 



We are not surprised, therefore, to observe an important journal 

 speaking of Dr. Carpenter's new book as being *' as amusing as a 

 novel." Not that novels always are amusing, or that amusement is a 

 proper aim for a scientific work, yet the wealth of illustrative anec- 

 dotes scattered through these pages seems to justify the intended 

 compliment of the Lancet reviewer. The thought, however, most 

 impressed upon ourselves by Dr. Carpenter's wide acquaintance with 

 men and books, and the use he has made of it in his abundant illus- 

 trations of mental phenomena, is that these phenomena are in their 

 very nature so transitory and fluent that they afford most unsatis- 

 factory data for scientific conclusions. Physical facts can be repeated 

 and verified. Even facts of rare occurrence and beyond the control 

 of man do repeat themselves, and can be waited for. The astronomer, 

 or at least astronomers, can wait for the next transit of Venus, or the 

 next appearance of a comet ; but who can be expected to wait for the 

 man capable of " repeating correctly a long act of Parliament, or any 

 similar document, after having once read it?" (p. 457) ; or of that 

 distinguished Scotch lawyer who performed a feat of legal ratiocina- 

 tion while he was asleep, which had baffled the utmost exertion of his 

 waking powers (p. 593). These cases are quoted by the author on 

 the respectable authority of Abercrombie, who recorded them forty 

 years ago, and the time for their repetition has perhaps not yet come 

 full circle round. 



Without the opportunity of a verification, men are apt to accept 

 marvelous statements as to mental facts with a degree of indulgent 

 faith which they would never extend to any physical feats or phenom- 

 ena. No one would accept the statement that a man had run a mile 

 in two minutes, but that a man had performed a prodigious feat of 

 cerebral exertion far surpassing, in comparison with the average pow- 

 ers of man, the excess of power which this would indicate, will gain 

 ready credence, and find record in repetition without end. We should 

 rather have expected that Dr. Carpenter, dealing with the faculties of 

 mind from the scientific point of view, would have had more vividly 

 before him than appears this peculiarity of the evidence on his subject, 

 and that he would have preferred to choose the commoner and more 

 verifiable facts than the curiosities of mental literature ; that he 

 would have directed his research rather to the ocean-currents of 



