KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



341 



remarks upon the subject save those I have 

 given. 



As not unconnected with the subject, the 

 paragraph which I borrowed from you, was 

 aptly followed by an appropriate quotation 

 from the Church-yard scene in Hamlet / and 

 I may let the great philosophising poet again 

 speak here : — " To what base uses may Ave 

 return, Horatio ! Why may not imagination 

 trace the noble dust of Alexander, till we 

 find it stopping a bung- hole ? As thus ; 

 Alexander died, Alexander Avas buried, Alex- 

 ander returned to dust ; the dust is earth ; of 

 earth Ave make loam. And Avhy of that loam, 

 whereunto lie Avas converted, might they not 

 stop a beer-barrel ? 



Imperious Caesar dead, and turned to clay, 



Might stop a hole to keep the Avind away." 

 * # * * 



Thos. B. Ryder. 

 Warrington, May 12, 1852. 



PHBENOLOGY FOR THE MILLION. 



"He who opposes his own judgment against the con- 

 sent of the times, ought to be backed with unanswerable 

 Truths ; and he who has Truth on his side is a tool 

 as well as a Coward, if he is afraid to own it because of 

 the currency or multitude of other men's opinions." — 

 Defoe ■ 



No. XL— THE LIFE OF DR. GALL. 



It is now beginning to he perceived that, 

 without physiology, the philosophy of mind 

 cannot advance a single step ; that a thorough 

 knowledge of organisation in general, and of that 

 of the brain in particular, must be the founda- 

 tion of all inquiries of that nature; that every 

 attempt to explain intellectual and moral phe- 

 nomena; Avhich shall not take the principles of 

 Phrenology for its basis, Avill inevitably be fruit- 

 less. On this subject all are agreed, spiritualist 

 as well as physiologist ; for, eA*en according to the 

 vieAvs of the former, the brain is a condition 

 necessary to the manifestation of both intellect 

 and sentiment, Avhile, according to the latter, it 

 is the vital organ of the intellectual and moral 

 powers. It Avere out of place here to attempt 

 to decide upon the superiority of either of those 

 methods of reasoning; suffice it to say, that 

 both are deeply interested in advancing the 

 progress of Phrenology. Besides, this science 

 explains the cause of this very difference of opi- 

 nion on matters Avhich, ever since man began to 

 think and reflect, have divided the Avorld. We 

 cannot at the same time help noticing here, the 

 sure consistency of the ideas furnished by Phre- 

 nology on this subject. How unerring and ele- 

 vated are the views of the philosophical observer 

 who, contemplating man in the midst of his 

 fellow-creatures, recognises and traces the reci- 

 procal actions and reactions of different organ- 

 isations! Should such a philosopher ever be 

 called upon to give laws to his country, he will, 

 far from setting at nought the uniform cravings 

 inherent in certain organisations, be careful to 

 avoid all excitements to infraction of municipal 

 law arising from demanding of man more than 



his organisation is capable of, and from sacrific- 

 ing some of the faculties to the interests of some 

 others: he Avill frame laws Avhich shall be adapted 

 to the real wants of the community, according to 

 the variety of their nature, and not founded on 

 false views of the equality and uniformity of the 

 intellectual and moral faculties; for he Avill be 

 familiar with those varieties of organisation from 

 which the differences of intelligence and resource 

 arise. 



Phrenology will bo consulted, also, in the 

 preparation of a penal code; for the nature of 

 the punishments to be inflicted ought to bear a 

 relation to the possibility, more or less admitted, 

 of correcting and ameliorating the guilty. A 

 great latitude Avill thus be alloAved, in order that 

 he Avhose organisation does not indicate his pro- 

 pensities to be incurably strong, may one day, 

 Avhen their influence shall have been abated by 

 well-directed training, be restored to his place in 

 that society of which he shall be no longer un- 

 Avorthy ; whilst the unfortunate being, in Avhom 

 the excessive and fatal preponderance of certain 

 organs over those of the intellect, or the almost 

 total absence of the latter, shall leave no hope 

 of improvement, Avill be kept separate from the 

 former class of moral patients, and Avill be pre- 

 vented for ever from returning into that society 

 of Avhich he can only be the pest. 



But the department in Avhich Phrenology is 

 most necessary, and is destined to produce the 

 happiest results, is that of Education. Here the 

 extent of its application will be prodigious. 

 How should that science fail to be of primary 

 importance to a teacher, which should enable 

 him to turn the studies of his pupils into the 

 proper channel, and to have a thorough know- 

 ledge of their characters; Avhich should inform 

 him Avith certainty that such a one has a decided 

 talent for drawing, such another for languages, a 

 third for calculation, and a fourth for poetry; 

 and which should warn him, that it Avould be a 

 loss of time to urge the progress of a fifth in a 

 particular direction! Hoav many tears would 

 not be spared to childhood ! Hoav many vex- 

 ations Avould not the teacher himself escape ! 

 And Avho Avill presume to foretel the results of a 

 system of education in Avhich, by proper direc- 

 tion, those dispositions shall be turned to the 

 advantage of an individual, which would other- 

 Avise have been the cause of his inevitable de- 

 struction? When a child is born with a par- 

 ticular development of brain, if he be left alto- 

 gether to himself, he will become cruel and 

 ferocious, and perhaps commit murder. What 

 does an able instructor do in such a case ? He 

 endeavors to place beyond the reach of his pupil 

 all objects calculated to call into action the 

 organs of his most dangerous propensities, and 

 to present to him only those of an opposite ten- 

 dency. He strongly calls his attention to the 

 charms of an amiable disposition, to the affec- 

 tion Avhich it generates tOAvards itself, to the 

 praises which it calls forth; and, above all, to the 

 internal complacency, with Avhich it never fails to 

 bless its possessor. Such representations exhi- 

 bited to the infant's mind incessantly, and in a 

 thousand different Avays, incline him to make an 

 effort at amiability. He is praised for his virtuous 

 acts ; he is skilfully encouraged to persevere in 



