KIDD'S JOURNAL. 



Ill 



greatest efforts, but remain for ever condemned 

 to a humiliating mediocrity. But this is not all. 

 When we are thoroughly convinced that those 

 differences of disposition are the results of organ- 

 isation, we will congratulate the man whom 

 nature has constituted favorably in that respect ; 

 and we will, on the other hand, regard with 

 compassion him who has been less felicitously 

 endowed. The same considerations will strengthen 

 our feelings of indulgence towards the failings of 

 our fellow-creatures, at the same time that they 

 will show the importance of an enlightened 

 education, which shall aim at counterbalancing 

 the depraved dispositions of a child, by exercis- 

 ing those organs and faculties which may tend 

 to'destroy their effects, and which may even fre- 

 quently turn them to the advantage of the_ indi- 

 vidual who would otherwise have been their victim. 



Such is the importance of Phrenology; but, 

 at the same time, can it be said that the man 

 whose genius has given it birth has succeeded 

 in bringing it to perfection ? Little attention, 

 indeed, would, in these days, be paid to the man 

 who should pretend to prescribe limits to any 

 one of the sciences. No ! Phrenology, like all 

 the branches of medicine, is still imperfect ; but, 

 like them, it lays claim to stand on certain 

 positive data, on fixed principles, and funda- 

 mental doctrines, which cannot be called in 

 question, as being the results of testimony a 

 thousand times repeated, of the whole united 

 senses, elucidated by the simplest reasoning, and 

 proved by the severest induction. So fuily is 

 this admitted to be the case, that now a-days the 

 study of Phrenology is no longer considered to 

 belong exclusively to the physician, but begins 

 to be looked upon as common to all the world. 



Artists were perhaps the first to perceive the 

 importance of our science; for it is a striking 

 fact, that in the models of antiquity the forms 

 of the head are very often found in the most 

 exact relation to the faculties of the gods and men 

 whom the chisel of the artist has handed down 

 in sculpture to posterity. What sculptor will 

 not comprehend, that by means of Phrenology, 

 he may be able at a single glance to obtain a 

 key to individual character? and that, in creating 

 an ideal subject, he must be guided by the same 

 principles ? Will it ever occur to him to give to 

 the figure of a Hercules the forehead of an 

 Apollo ? or would he place the head of a demon 

 of cruelty on a statue intended to represent a 

 character of pure benevolence ? Were an artist 

 to commit such an error, he would be considered 

 a man of superficial mind; and though, as a 

 mere workman, he might be more or less rewarded 

 for his skill, he would be treated as one who had 

 not an idea of the true nature of his art, and of 

 accomplishing it. The same remarks are equally 

 applicable to the kindred art of painting. The 

 painter cannot too strenuously pursue the study 

 of Phrenology ; for he has only an even surface 

 on which to delineate his objects, and he may 

 fail in giving them the necessary expression, by 

 neglecting those traits, which, however slight, 

 are characteristic and necessary to bring out the 

 distinguishing peculiarities of his subject. More- 

 over, Phrenology recognises a uniform relation, 

 an intimate connection between the habitual 

 attitude of individuals and their predominant 



dispositions; and the painter who knows how to 

 appreciate this influence of the cerebral organi- 

 sation upon the movements of the body, will be 

 distinguished for the naturalness of the deport- 

 ment and action of all his personages; while he 

 who is a stranger to Phrenology runs a continual 

 risk of falling into the grossest inconsistencies. 

 What would be thought of a medallion, in which 

 the predominating organs of its subject were not 

 more strikingly developed than the rest? In 

 this way, to all those arts which profess to pre- 

 sent the exact image of man to the eyes of his 

 survivors, Phrenology is most useful, and will in 

 future be considered indispensable. 

 (7o be Continued.') 



THE TWO UNKNOWN SHIPS. 



Slowly drifting down from the frozen seas of 

 the North, to lose themselves in the waters 

 towards the Equator, annually come vast herds 

 of icy rocks; crags that would be immortal in 

 their native deserts, where land and water forget 

 their separate nature in the common rigor of the 

 iron frost; but, wandering down to more living- 

 waters, those rock pinnacles melt and die. 

 Among the herd last year was a field or floe of 

 ice; and on that floe were two ships, idle 

 and deserted, performing a strange helpless 

 voyage. One smaller vessel going to Quebec, 

 sails near them, and they pass on their way, not 

 unseen, as well they might have done; but they 

 were neglected. Many in the Quebec-bound 

 vessel wished to explore those deserted wander- 

 ing homes, but the master was sick and listless 

 and would not be disturbed. Were they Frank- 

 lin's ships, the Erebus and Terror? the question 

 occurred to one person on board, but it was un- 

 solved; and now a year after the event, Admi- 

 ralty and public are engaged seeking evidence! 



At first the story was point-blank disbelieved ; 

 then it was credited as a tale of a delusive appa- 

 rition, a mirage; then it was thought possible 

 that ships there might have been, but not Frank- 

 lin's — oidy wrecked whalers. Now, however, 

 the details of a minute examination strengthen 

 the probability that the ships were Franklin's. 

 No one can know ; no one can as yet deny it. 

 It is mournful to reflect, that if they were the 

 historic ships Erebus and Terror, the last known 

 of them should be that passing sight on their 

 voyage of mystery. 



How much one would give to know all that 

 might have been learned, positively or even 

 negatively, from those ships ! There were men 

 on board the brig who felt the impulse, although 

 they did not know that a reward had been 

 offered for the discovery. The mate, with laud- 

 able curiosity, wished " to rummage the cabins." 

 Had he done so we should have known what the 

 vessels were. But he did not obtain permission 

 from the sick and listless master. Perhaps, if 

 the reward had been known, the listlessness of 

 disease might have been roused to animation at 

 the report of two ships so strangely stranded. 

 But the golden incentive was wanting, and the 

 ships were abandoned to drift clown to the sunny 

 seas where the floating ice-dock would melt, and 

 its burden be yielded to the waters for the quiet 

 consummation of fate. 



