418 



ON ANCIENT AND MODERN SKEPTICS. 



systems of action or relation, each of which has its separate and peculiar 

 functions, a system of nutritive action or relation, and a system of vita). 

 To which is added, by way of appendix, another system,' comprising the 

 functions of generation.* Here, however, the brain is not only the seat, 

 but the organized substance of the mental powers : so that, we are expressly 

 told, a man must be as he is made in his brain, and that education and even 

 logic itself is of no use to him. ' There are,' says M. Magendie, 'justly cele- 

 brated persons who have thought differently ; but they have hereby fallen 

 into grave errors.' A deity however is allowed to exist, because, adds the 

 writer, it is comfortable to think that he exists, and on this account the 

 physiologists cannot doubt of his being. ' L'intelligence de Thomme,' 

 says he, ' se compose de phenomenes tellement differens de tout ce que 

 presente d'ailleurs la nature, qu'on les rapporte a un etre particuliere qu'on 

 regarde comme une emanation de la Divinity. II est trop consolant de 

 eroire u cet etre^ pour que le physiologiste mette en doute son existence ; 

 mais la severite de language ou de logique que comporte maintenant la 

 physiologic exige que Ton traite de l'intelligence humaine comme si elle 

 etait le resultat de Taction d'un organe. En s'ecartant de cette marche, 

 des hommes justement celebres sont tombes dans des graves erreurs ; en 

 lasuivant, on a, d'ailleurs, le grand avantage deconserver la mememethode 

 d'etude, et de rendre trcs faciles des choses qui sont envisagees generale- 

 ment comme presqu' au-dessus de I'esprit humain.' — ' II existe une science 

 dont le but est d'apprendre a raisonner justement : c'est la logique : mais 

 lejugementerrone ou I'esprit faux (for judgment, genius, and imagina- 

 tion, and therefore false reasoning, all depend on organization,) tiennent 

 a I'organization. 11 est impossible de se changer a cet egard ; nous 

 restons, tels que la nature nous a faits."t 



Dr. Spurzheim has generally been considered, from the concurrent tenor 

 of his doctrines, as belonging to the class of materialists ; but this is to 

 mistake his own positive assertion upon the subject, or to conclude in op- 

 position to it. He speaks, indeed, upon this topic with singular hesitation 

 and reserve, more so, perhaps, than upon any other point whatever ; but 

 as far as he chooses to express himself on so abstruse a subject, he regard? 

 the soul as a distinct being from the body, and at least intimates that i, 

 may he nearer akin to the Deity. Man is with him also possessed ot two 

 lives, an automatic and an animal : the first produced by organization 

 alone, and destitute of consciousness ; the second possessed of conscious- 

 ness dependent on the soul, and merely manifesting itself by organization. 



We do not,' says he, ' attempt to explain how the body and soul are joined 

 together and exercise a mutual influence. We do not examine what the 

 soul can do without the body. Souls, so far as we know, may be united 

 to bodies at the moment of conception or afterwards ; they may be dif- 

 ferent in all individuals, or of the same kind in every one ; they may be 

 emanations from God, or something essentially different.':!: The mind of 

 this celebrated craniologist seems to he wonderfully skeptical and bewil- 

 dered upon the subjectvand studiously avoids the important question of the 

 capacity of the soul for an independent and future existence ; but with the 

 above declaration, he cannot well be arranged in the class of materialists. 



The hypothesis which has lately been started by Mr. Lawrence§ is 



* Precis Elementaire de Physiologie, torn. ii. 8to. Paris, 1816, 1817. 



t Precis Elementaire, &c. ut supra, passim. 



t Physiognomical System, &c. p. 253. 8vo. Lond. 1815. 



§ Introduction to Comparatiyo Anatomy and Physiology, &Co 8vo. 1816, ^ 



? 



