402 MENTAL FUNCTIONS OF 



tined not to feel ; a fish is destined to swim, and a vulture to be 

 a bird of prey ; man is destined to be 



What I experienced during many years for my humble and conscientious efforts 

 to propagate the advancement of whatever, by zealous and dispassionate observ- 

 ation I knew, within my own experience, to be true and useful, distressed me 

 greatly, till I rose in spite of it in my profession. I am aware of the injuries I still 

 suffer from the bad feeling of those who are not so devoted to the profession as 

 myself and yet envy me. But I now smile at it, and forgive all ; and shall firmly 

 persevere, never withholding my aid to useful truths nor shrinking from conduct 

 which I consider my duty. From this narration I trust that young men will never 

 be deterred from an industrious and conscientious course, but be prepared to 

 expect all that I have experienced, and remember the advice of the Sibyl to 

 Eneas, " Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito." We thus find the fate of 

 the little to be the same as of the great, if they humbly take these for their guide. 



But the most notorious modern illustration of the aversion to improvement is 

 the history of lighting with gas. When I was a student, I recollect often going 

 from the Borough Hospitals in the evening to see Pall Mall, which only, of all the 

 streets of London, was so lighted. For many years a person named Winser, 

 and a company which he established, lighted that single street, I believe gratui- 

 tously. This was a bright spot in London, for comparative darkness prevailed 

 in every other street. For many years, the general adoption of the plan was con- 

 sidered impracticable and therefore absurd. At length, another street was lighted 

 and another and another and now that the poor man is dead, all London is 

 become Pall Mall, with one exception. Year after year have I amused myself with 

 watching the progress of illumination, and comparing it with the history of the 

 progress of great truths in physical, moral, and political science. Yet not even 

 is it at this moment universally adopted, any more than many obvious truths. 

 Darkness is still cherished in that very spot of London, where the greatest riches 

 and the highest rank, both transmitted hereditarily in the longest succession, 

 ought to have secured, with Oxford and Cambridge education and every ad- 

 vantage of mental cultivation, from generation to generation, the highest know- 

 ledge and discernment. No house in Grosvenor Square has any other than 

 the greasy, dull oil lamps, notwithstanding ail the streets opening into it and even 

 the centre of the square which the parish lights, are brilliantly illuminated with 

 gas. I have taken foreigners into Grosvenor Square to exhibit this moral phe- 

 nomenon. 



These are all remarkable facts in the history of human nature ; and make me 

 quite indifferent to the opinions of people, whether in my own profession or 

 not, upon the subject of phrenology. Yet its progress has of late been most 

 satisfactory. When I wrote advocating phrenology, in 1817 *, the year of my 



* Annals of Medicine and Surgery, vol. ii. March 1817. I believe I was the 

 first reviewer who defended phrenology in Great Britain. I subsequently wrote 

 a review of the Ed. Phr. Trans, and of the first Number of the Ed. Phr. Journ. 



