KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



215 



took care not to admit any one who kept them 

 among us. All these gentlemen are adroit, speak 

 well, excite that fondness for the marvellous 

 which the vulgar experience, and give an appear- 

 ance of truth to theories the most false and un- 

 founded. Nature does not reveal herself by 

 external forms. She hides, and does not expose 

 her secrets. To pretend to seize and to penetrate 

 human character by so slight an index is the 

 part of a dupe or of an impostor; and what else 

 is that crowd with marvellous inspirations, which 

 agitates the bosom of all great capitals? 

 The only way of knowing our fellow-creatures 

 is to see them, to haunt them, and to submit 

 them to proof. We must study them long if we 

 wish not to be mistaken; we must judge them 

 by their actions; and even this rule is not in- 

 fallible, and must be restricted to the moment 

 when they act ; for we almost never obey our 

 own character; we yield to transports — we are 

 carried away by passion ; such are our vices and 

 virtues, our perversity and heroism. This is my 

 opinion, and this has long been my guide. It is 

 not, that I pretend to exclude the influence of 

 natural dispositions and of education; I think, 

 on the contrary, that it is immense; but beyond 

 that, all is system, all is nonsense." 



Sovereigns, remarks Di% Gall, are always 

 deceived, when they ask advice from the igno- 

 rant, the jealous, the envious, the timid, or from 

 those who, from age, are no- longer accessible to 

 new opinions. Napoleon acquired his first 

 notions of the value of my discoveries during his 

 first journey to Germany. A certain metaphy- 

 sical jurisconsult, E , at Leipzic, told him 



that the workings of the soul were too mysterious 

 to leave any external mark. And, accordingly, 

 in an, answer to the report of the Institute, I had 

 this fact in view when I terminated a passage by 

 these words: — " And the metaphysician can no 

 longer say, in order to preserve his right of 

 losing himself in a sea of speculation, that the 

 operations of the mind are too carefully conceal- 

 ed to admit of any possibility of discovering 

 their material conditions or organs." At his 

 return to Paris he scolded sharply those members 

 of the Institute who had shown themselves en- 

 thusiastic about my new demonstrations. This 

 was the thunder of Jupiter overthrowing the 

 pigmies! On the instant, my discoveries were 

 nothing but reveries, .charlatanism, and absurdi- 

 " ties-; and. the journals were used as instruments 

 for throwing. ridicule — an all-powerful weapon 

 in Erajace — on the self-constituted bumps ! 



We should here remark, -that although Gall, 

 merely from seeing the bust of Napoleon placed 

 along side of those of the generals of the Aus- 

 trian armies, predicted the immortal victories of 

 Italy, yet he never received from the Emperor 

 the smallest mark of attention ! ' 



•Keeping in view the strong and adverse feel- 

 •.ings of Napoleon, in relation to Phrenology, we 

 may. account for the imperfect Report of Cuvier. 

 The report, it should be .observed, related only 

 to the*anatomical discoveries of Gall and Spurz- 

 . heim; — not to their peculiar doctrines of the 

 functions of the brain. Cuvier, however, ad- 

 mitted/ in the Annual Report, that their ".Me- 

 moir was by far the most important which had 

 occupied the attention of the class." 



That Cuvier was a phrenologist, there can be, 

 if any, little doubt ; neither his Report, nor any of 

 his works, warrant us in supposing the contrary. 

 Although political causes had a tendency to in- 

 fluence Cuvier against the doctrines of Gall, — 

 nevertheless, these two celebrated men were made 

 to understand and esteem each other, and, towards 

 the end of their career, they did each other jus- 

 tice. Gall had already one foot in the grave 

 when Cuvier sent him a cranium, " which," he 

 said, " appeared to him to confirm his doctrine 

 of the physiology of the brain." But the dying 

 Gall replied to him who brought it, " Carry it 

 back, and tell Cuvier, that my collection only 

 wants one head more — my own, which will soon 

 be placed there as a complete proof of my doc- 

 trine." 



(To be Continued Weekly). 



11 Five Sundays in February." 



It has been recently stated, that " there 

 would not be such an event as five Sundays 

 in February for seventy years." But I can 

 with confidence affirm that it is " incorrect," 

 and that Sunday falls on the 29th of Fe- 

 bruary every 28 years (or as I call it every 

 septennial leap-year, as there are seven leap 

 years in the above-mentioned time). To 

 find when the 29th of February is Sunday, 

 divide any year you like by 28 ; and if 

 nothing remains, there want four years to 

 the time when it will so happen ; but if the 

 remainder is four, that year on the 29th of 

 February will be Sunday. Thus the 29th of 

 February, 1 824, was Sunday, as was also the 

 29th of February this year ; and the 29th of 

 February, 1880 and 1908, will be Sunday ; 

 and every 28 years the calendar of the al- 

 manac is exactly the same as it was 28 years 

 previously. Thus the months and years roll 

 onward till they arrive at " the septennial 

 leap-year," whence they stop, and again 

 their course pursue ; every event (of course 

 not moveable feasts) falling on the same 

 day and date of the month, as it did 28 years 

 before. Thus St. James's day was on 

 Thursday, July 25, 1811 ; and on the same 

 clay and date of the month, in 1839. St. 

 James's day was on Sunday, July 25, in 1824, 

 and will be on Sunday, July 25, this year 

 (1852), there being just 28 years between, — 

 T. Golding. 



% ' — — — 



The Mastodon. 



A nearly perfect skeleton of that extinct 

 creature, the Mastodon, is now being exhibited 

 in the Islington Bazaar. The bones were dug 

 up, many years ago, in the State of New York; 

 and the deficiencies, which are but trifling, having 

 been supplied by wood, the skeleton appears per- 

 fect. The huge structure of bones stands fully 

 fifteen feet high, and the general impression con- 

 veyed is that the living creature must have been 

 nearly double the size of an elephant. 



