256 
Somaiopsychonoologia — showing that the 
Proofs of Body, Life and Mind, considered 
as distinct Essences, cannot be deduced from 
Physiology, but depend on a distinct sort of 
Evidence: —being an Examination of the 
Controversy concerning Life, carried on by 
MM. Laurence, Abernethy, Rennell and 
others. By PHILosPRATUS. 8v0.—This very 
ingenious, learned and argumentative pam- 
phlet may be regarded as a phenomenon in 
the controversial hemisphere, maintaining, 
at once, the freedom of scientific discussion, 
and the infallible orthodoxy of the Roman 
Catholic Church; defending, with the same 
breath, the physiological materialism of 
Mr. Laurence’s anathematized and excom- 
municated Lectures, and the doctrinal de- 
crees of Popes and Cardinals. Where there 
is a startling degree of paradox, however, 
there is frequently, also, a considerable ad- 
mixture of truth; and perhaps Philostratus 
is not far from being right when he main- 
tains, that “ the very inference, that a phi- 
losophical deduction from physiology, in 
favour of an immaterial principle, is neces- 
sary to the support of Christianity,” betrays 
a certain degree of scepticism in those who 
contend for it. Those who are afraid that 
Christianity can be endangered by the re- 
searches of seience, or the results of scien- 
tifie analysis and disquisition, can, in fact, 
he themselves only half-believers in: Chris- 
tianity. 
**In short,” (says our author,) ‘‘ while I believe, 
on the one hand, with MM. Laurence, Gall, Spur- 
zheim and cthers, that every distinct faculty of the 
mind has its appropriate organ, as much as the 
senses have; nevertheless, 1 do not, in limine, mean 
to identify the Organism, either with the Life which 
moves it, or with the Mind, which, by the mysterious 
intervention of the two former, becomes acquainted 
with the external world.” —‘* Imagine, then, my 
surprise,” continues he, a little further on, ‘‘ that this 
doctrine should be declared in danger from any fan- 
cied inferences from a Lecture on Anatomy at the 
College of Surgeons of London! and that the coun- 
teraetion of this imagined danger should be under- 
taken on the half-intelligible principles of psycho- 
logy, which certain ingenious persons have la- 
boured to extract from the medical writings of M. 
Hunter!!!” 
Tn truth, our “ good Catholic’’ would have 
us leave the physiologists to the free exer- 
cise of their material inquiries, and not dis- 
turb, with the hue-and-cry of heresy, the 
dissecting-rooms and schools of anatomy. 
Some of our Protestant readers may, per- 
haps, not be less surprised to hear, from 
the lips of a zealous advocate of the Infalli- 
ble Church, that he ‘‘ questions much whe- 
ther the belief in any doctrine, or abstract 
principle, has much influence on human 
conduct ; or that, at least, the proportion of 
natural benevolence, which any individual 
possesses, furnishes a much stronger mo- 
tive.’ We know not how we should 
answer to conscience for-not quoting the 
whole of the note, p. 91, from which this 
is extracted, if we did not here, as im every 
department of our miscellany; feel the pinch 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
(April 1, 
of that contracted space to which we-are 
limited. But we must not, in justice, 
deny a line or two to the acknowledgment, 
that the better-informed among these bizot- 
ted Catholics are, every now and then, 
putting Protestant liberality to the blush; 
and that, as in the present instance, not 
merely upon topics in which unjust pro- 
scriptions against themselyes can be con- 
sidered as giving them an interested or 
party feeling. 
Observations on the Management of Trusts 
for the Care of Turnpike Roads, as regards 
the Repair of the Road, the Expenditure of 
the Revenue, and the Appointment and Qua- 
lity of Executive Officers. And upon the 
Nature and Effect of the present Road Law 
of this Kingdom; illustrated by Exanyples 
from a Practical Experience of Nine Years. 
By Joun Loupon M‘Apam. 8v0.—What- 
ever may be the advantages and the disad- 
vantages of Mr. M‘Adam’s system of street- 
laying (and these are in a fair way of being 
demonstrated by the best of all logie—the 
test of experience), the superiority of his 
system of road- making (or, at least, the sys- 
tem he acts upon) is now, we believe, but 
little question. ‘There is, however, suffi- 
cient, even in the title-page of this thin 
volume, to account, in some degree, for the 
hostility which every project of his, and 
even his very name, has to encounter. 
Here is an inquiry set.on foot, which affects 
personal. interests, local influences, and 
local prejudices,—from. the squireships 
that preside at boards of commissioners, to 
the very turnpike-men who receive the 
twopenuy or the twelvepenny tolls at the” 
gates. Mr. M‘Adam is a sort of radical 
reformer in the St. Stephens’ of. tolls and 
turnpikes: is it surprising that the whole 
immaculate tribe of commissioners, con- 
tractors, surveyors, receivers, &c. &e. should 
be filled with loyal abhorrence against his 
very name? No doubt,-the system “ works 
well” with them, though millions of publie 
debt have been contracted under its opera- 
tion, and perpetual jobs are draining, for 
the support of it, the public purse, and 
averting into its channels the contributions 
that should relieve the necessities of the 
indigent and the decrepid. Shall not they, 
then, defend the laws and the constitution 
which secure to them such blessings—or, 
if there be a lurking suspicion that such 
defence is impracticable, shall they: not 
endeavour to destroy the daring innovator 
who would impugn them?—Mr. M‘Adam 
is such an innovator. He has the presump- 
tion to think, that our all-perfeet laws, in 
these respects, are not so good as they 
ought to be:~-that they attend to those 
things that ought not to be attended to, 
and leave unattended to those things that 
ought to be attended to. 
He thinks it would be well, 
«« Tf, instead of attempting to regulate the form of 
wheels, and the weights carried, (which every one’ 
who knows-the nature of a good road and its. con- 
struction, 
