26 THE HUMAN BRAIN. 



Lastly, we shall pursue the analogical method, where it is riot too 

 difficult; and assuming that every principle runs quite through the 

 world, we shall endeavor to show that each organ has kindred in 

 every sphere; and thus, out of the consanguinity of things, we 

 shall try to deduce the fact of a native coherence in the world, whose 

 links are a real logic, and which, when transplanted into know- 

 ledge, will spontaneously constitute the association and unity of the 

 sciences. 



But this will be better understood in the sequel. We now pro- 

 ceed to the facts of the present case, to visit the mind which we 

 have found, in its proper mansion, the brain. 



At the outset, we would guard the general reader against an error 

 which requires to be removed. It is commonly supposed, because 

 anatomy has been cultivated by a class, that it is difficult to learn. 

 On the contrary, any one with a common understanding, and of 

 course industry and attention, may possess himself of the leading 

 parts of anatomy. Ladies may learn them as well and as harm- 

 lessly as the other sex. Plates moreover are satisfactory means of 

 acquiring a view of the human frame which is enough for public 

 education; for although insufficient for the surgeon, the knowledge 

 derived from plates will enable the public to enter upon the study 

 of organization, both with cleaner hands and clearer heads than if 

 they busied themselves with the ever-varying detail of dissections. 

 It has indeed been usual with practical anatomists to decry ana- 

 tomical plates ; and yet they are a degree better and truer than the 

 dead body ; for they contain the mind of the artist, and are superior 

 to any single subject, being not mere copies, but carefully collected 

 from many subjects; and as they are generalizations, they are 

 adapted to be vehicles of general knowledge.* They may be re- 

 garded as translations of the body, available for those who cannot 

 read the original. And indeed those who can only see and not 

 touch anatomy, as they have all power of destruction removed, are 

 favorably situated for constructive truths — for the theories of bodily 



* Many of the current anatomical plates have descended through books for 

 centuries, improving on the way, and may be traced from the masters of the 

 Italian and Dutch schools of anatomy to the present manuals : a plain sign of 

 their truth and serviceableness. 



