492 
guinary. They are much under the do- 
minion of hereditary cuftoms, and from 
the example of ther anceftors are ex- 
tremely partial to a fea-faring life. Few 
of them cultivate a knowledge of the arts 
and fciences, and, as to the women, their 
time is chiefly occupied in {pinning cot- 
ton. The manners of thefe iflanders are 
very licentious, the females are extremely 
voluptuous, and concubinage is common ; 
before marriage they are indeed more 
guarded in their condu&, but afterwards 
they take the mcft unbounded liberties. 
The Maltefe hufbands are by no means 
jealous, except in the country, where this 
paflion is extremely prevalent, as feveral 
of the Knights have oftener than once had 
occafion to witnefs. The inhabitants of 
the city are, as might be expected, much 
more civilized than thofe of the country, 
who appear little lefs ferocious than Afri- 
can favages ; they fpeak the Arabic lan- 
guage, but can neither read nor write. 
The Maltefe profeis the catholic religion ; 
they are extremely devout, even fuperfti- 
tious and fanatical. In the ifland there 
are a gredt number of priefis or monks, and 
each family confiders it an hcnour to have 
one or more of them as inmates. 
The Grand Mafter of the Order of 
St. John of Jerufalem is fovereign of 
Malta; but the Knights, who all concur 
in his nomination, the commanders, the 
judges, and the hereditary members of the 
council have the greateft influence in pub- 
Jic affairs. Each individual, before the 
' taking of Malta by the French, exercifed 
a {pecies of government over the Malrefe. 
Formerly they paid ne taxes, but neither 
commerce, induftry, nor the arts were 
protected by the government, whofe in- 
tereft it was to keep the people in the 
grofie ignorance; they were rot per- 
mitted to hold any civil or military «m- 
ployment, as thefe were wholly engroffed 
by the Knights themfelves. The celibacy 
of this body of men was likewife another 
principal caule of the depravation of morals 
fo conipicuous in this ifland. (To be con- 
tinued.) i 
ES 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
EXPLANATION of and CRITICISMS on 
the SYSTEM cf DR. GALL, relative to 
the CAUSE and EXPRESSION of the 
principal DIFFERENCES of the UNDER- 
STANDING and Passions. By J. L. 
MGREAU DE LA SARTHE. 
CRANIOLOGY. 
be ecb 3 who was for denying 
every thing to natufé, in order to 
grant the more to the power of education, 
Explanation of Dr. Gall’s Syftem of Craniology. 
[Jan. 1, 
thought it poflible to demonftrate that the 
organization of every individual, as far as 
relates to the underftanding, is originally 
the fame; that it differs only in confe- 
quence of the accidental caufes of im- 
provement and alteration, and that, ac- 
cording to circumflances, every well- 
formed perfon may become, indifcrimi- 
nately, a great poet, a diftinguifhed phi- 
tofopher, or a man of profound learning. 
Dr. Gall, a German phyfioiogift, who 
has, within thefe few years, obtained great 
celebrity by the fingularity of his opini- 
ons, hasadopted ideas direétly contrary te 
thofe of Helvetius, as the bafis of a fyf- 
tem to which he has given his name. He 
not only thinks that the differences in the 
nature of the underftanding and the paf- 
fions depend on the organization, but he 
likewife pretends to demonftrate, that the 
intellectual functions and inclinations are — 
faculties as diflinét as thofe of fight and 
hearing; that thofe faculties have their 
feveral organs in the interior of the head 5 
that the variations of underftanding and 
character refult from the different deve- 
lopment of thofe organs, the combina- 
tion of which forms the brain; and laftly, 
that as the fkull exhibits externally, and, 
as it were, in relief, the exprefiion of thofe 
internal differences, you may, by infpec- 
ting it, difcover great energy of vital 
power, a propenfity to fenfuality, coquetry 
and cunning, conftancy and affection, cou- 
rage and prudence, imagination,. the dif- 
ferent kinds of memory, uncommon apti- 
tude fer the erts of drawing and mufic, &. 
The manner in which Dr. Gall diftri- 
butes thefe different faculties in. the brain 
is very ingenious; vital power occupies 
the center, the part which is moft pro- 
found and beft protected; the organs of 
fenfe are nearly in the fame direétion. 
Thofe of the other intelleétual_funétions 
are placed fucceflively, and from. the in- 
terior to the exterior. The intelleG&ival 
fundétions being, according to this arrange- 
ment, the moit external and the moft ele- 
vated, their development is necefiarily 
announced by the great convexity of the 
forehead, and the obtufenefs of the facial 
angle, which the Greek artifts have not 
ircreafed in their ideal beauties, without 
giving them the expreffion of a divine in- 
telligence, and all the appearances of a 
fuperior nature. ; 
Dr. Gall, in particular, afferts, that the 
portion of the brain forming what is 
termed by anatomilts its circumvolutions, 
appears proper to fupport his new doctrine ; 
and, without fuffering himfelf to be guid- 
ed by the opinions of thofe phyfiologifts 
who 
yw 
