258 XUG^ ETHNOLOCICAE. 



derance will be much increased in the living body b_v the additional 

 weight of the lower jaw, tongue and other soft parts. It is retained in 

 its position by the great muscles of the back of the neck, which keep it 

 in equUibrio. In animals it is hung by its upper part to the end of the 

 spine, which in them is horizontal, or nearly so. Hence the necessity 

 for the dense and powerful Ugamenfmn niichae, already mentioned. 



The head of man is also pre-eminent in the size of the brain and its 

 enclosing cranium. In him only is this delicate and important organ 

 found in the perfection of its developement. I think it may be said 

 without hesitation, that there is no part of the brain of any inferior ani- 

 mal which is not found more perfect in man, nor is there any which 

 may not be formed from that of man, by abstracting, diminishing, or 

 slightly modifying some of its parts. To him alone has the enjoyment 

 of this crown and master-piece of organization been granted, and to this, 

 again, we must ascribe this grand distinction — the 2^ossession of reason. 

 I know that this is what some have decried as materialism, and dismiss- 

 ed as though that epithet settled the matter. It would be better first to 

 enquire whether it is true. The unanimous voice of the investigators 

 of nature attests its correctness, and it is indeed so obvious that a child 

 may see it. It is no more certain, so far as our observation goes, that 

 we cannot see without an eye, than it is that we cannot think without a 

 brain. If the first of these two propositions does not startle us, why 

 should the second ? The assertion of the absolute necessity of vision, 

 in our present state, to the cognition of form, color and distance, in- 

 volves materialism just as much as the assertion of tlie necessity of vi- 

 tally active nervous matter to the same and similar acts of the mind. — 

 Those phenomena, indeed, which in the aggregate we call mind, such 

 as perception, comparison, memory and imagination, and which, we 

 behold to some extent in animals as well as man, we have never seen 

 except in connexion 'witli nervous matter, and (if we can have any know- 

 ledge of the relation of cause and effect,) as the effect of its vital action_ 

 Physiologically speaking, then, it may be asserted that mind is a mani- 

 festation of a peculiar form of matter in its appropriate state of vital ac- 

 tivity. Every argument which proves that the liver secretes bile, (ex- 

 cept that we can see it spring therefrom.) proves that the brain thinks. 

 Its function is born and grows with the body, is afTected by its diseases, 

 is suspended by fainting, destroyed by wounds, weakened by age, and 

 lost bv death. There is no escaping this conclusion, and those who de- 

 clare it incompatible with their preconceived notions, condemn them and 

 not it. We must take the fact as it is, and if it does necessarily involve 

 materialism, then must materialism be true, or nature is one multilorm 



