which suits the inveteracy of their nature, and not to the weapons of reason. As psychological phenomena, they are, however, well deserving of our study; teaching us among other things, how prone man is to turn his best faculties to evil purposes-and how, at the suggestions of vanity and other bad principles of his heart, he can become so far deluded, as to fancy that he is doing honor to religion, while he is sacrificing the common charities of life, and arraigning the very workmanship of God.' (Pp. 151, 152.)

After the examples which these passages afford, of misdirected zeal for religion leading to opposition to the most useful and interesting investigations, we need not be surprised that the doctrine of the natural laws also has met with a similar reception. The charge is made that it leads to infidelity, and that its principles are irreconcilable with Scripture.

It may be useful to observe, that in all ages new doctrines have been charged with impiety, and that Christianity itself has offered no exception to this rule. The Greeks and Romans charged Christianity with 'impiety and novelty.' In Cave's Primitive Christianity, we are informed that the Christians were every where accounted a pack of Atheists, and their religion the Atheism.' They were donominated 'mountebank impostors,' and ' men of a desperate and unlawful faction.' They were represented as destructive and pernicious to human society,' and were accused of sacrilege, sedition, and high treason.' The same system of misrepresentation and abuse was practised by the Roman Catholics against the Protestants, at the Reformation, - Some called their dogs Calvin; and others transformed Calvin into Cain.' In France, 'the old and stale calumnies, formerly invented against the first Christians, were again revived by Demochares, a doctor of the Sorbonne, pretending that all the disasters of the state were to be attributed to Protestants alone.'

If the views of human nature expounded in this work be untrue, the proper answer to them is a demonstration of

their falsity. If they be true, they are mere enunciations of the institutions of the Creator, and it argues superstitious and not religious feelings, to fear evil consequences from the knowledge of what Divine Wisdom has appointed. The argument that the results of the doctrine are obviously at variance with Scripture, and that therefore the doctrines cannot be true, is not admissible, for,' in the words of Dr Whately, if we really are convinced of the truth of Scripture, and consequently of the falsity of any theory (of the earth for instance), which is really at variance with it, we must needs believe that that theory is also at variance with observable phenomena; and we ought not therefore to shrink from trying the question by an appeal to these.'

Galileo was told from high authority in the church, that his doctrine of the revolution of the globe was obviously at variance with Scripture, and that therefore it could not be true; but, as his opinions were founded on physical facts, which could neither be concealed or denied, they necessarily prevailed. If there had been a real opposition between Scripture and nature, the only result would have been a demonstration, that Scripture in this particular instance was erroneously interpreted, because the evidence of physical nature is imperishable and insuperable, and cannot give way to any authority whatever. The same consequence will vidently happen in regard to phrenology. If it were possible that any facts in physiology did actually and directly contradict any interpretation of Scripture, it is not difficult to perceive which must yield. The human understanding cannot resist evidence founded on nature, and even if it did resist, Nature would not bend, but continue to operate in her own way in spite of the resistance, and a new and more correct interpretation of Scripture would ultimately become inevitable. Opposition between science and revelation I sincerely believe to be impossible, when the facts in nature are correctly observed, and divine truth is correctly interpreted; but I put the case thus strongly to call the serious attention of religious persons to

the mischievous consequences to religion, of rashly denouncing any doctrine professing to be founded on natural facts, as adverse to revelation. Every instance in which the charge is made falsely, is a gross outrage against revelation itself, and tends to lead men to regard Scripture as an obstacle to the progress of science and civilization, instead of being a system of divine wisdom, in harmony with all natural truth.

All existing interpretations of Scripture have been adopted in ignorance of the fact, that, cæteris paribus, a brain in which the animal organs preponderate greatly over the moral and intellectual organs, has a native and instinctive tendency to immoral conduct, and vice versa; and that the influence of the organization is fundamental—that is to say, that no means are yet known in nature, by which a brain of the inferior combination may be made to manifest the moral and intellectual faculties with the same success as a brain of the superior combination. Only phrenologists, who have observed, for many years, in various situations, and under different influences, the practical conduct of individuals constituted in these different ways, can conceive the importance of the combinations of the organs; but after it is discovered, the inferences from it are irresistible. The religious teachers of mankind are yet ignorant of the most momentous fact in regard o the moral and intellectual improvement of the race which nature contains. I have heard it said that Christianity affords a better and a more instantaneous remedy for human depravity, than improvement in the cerebral organization; because the moment a man is penetrated by the love of God in Christ, his moral and religious affections and intellect become far stronger and more elevated, whatever his brain may be, than those of any individual whatever without that love, however high his cerebral development, and however much he may be instructed in natural knowledge. I observe, however, that in this life a man cannot become penetrated by the love of God, except through the aid of

sound and sufficient material organs. This fact is directly proved by cases of madness and idiocy. Disease in the organs is the cause of insanity, and mere deficiency in size in them, is one, and an invariable cause of idiocy. In neither of these states can the mind receive the advantages of the Christian doctrine. These facts show that the power of receiving and appreciating Christianity itself is modified by the condition of the brain, and I venture to affirm, that the influence of the organs does not terminate with these extreme cases, but operates in all circumstances, and in every individual, aiding or impeding the reception and efficacy even of revelation. If this were not the case, there would be a power in operation capable of influencing the human mind, during life, without the intervention of material organs; and, accordingly, many excellent persons believe this to be Scriptural truth, and matter of experience also: But those who entertain this opinion are not instructed in the functions of the brain; are not aware of the universally admitted facts, which establish, that while life continues, the mind cannot act or be acted upon except through the medium of organs; nor do they bring forward one example of idiots and madmen being rendered pious, practical, and enlightened Christians by this power, notwithstanding the state of their brains. Cases indeed occur

in which religious feelings co-exis. with partial idiocy or partial insanity; but in them the organs by means of which these sentiments are manifested, will be discovered to be well developed, and if the feelings be sound, the organs will be found to be unaffected by disease.

Serious persons who are offended by this doctrine constantly forget that the reciprocal influence of the mind and the brain is not of man's devising, but that God himself established it, and conferred on the organs those qualities which He saw to be necessary for executing the purposes to which He had appointed them. If the statements now made be unfounded, I shall be the first to give them up; but believing them to be true, I cannot avoid adhering to

them. When, therefore, I add, that I have never seen an individual with large animal, and small moral and intellectual organs, whose conduct was steadily moral, under the ordinary temptations of life, however high his religious professions might be, I merely state a fact which the Creator himself has decreed to exist. Indeed, I have seen several striking instances of persons, who, after making a great profession of religion, ultimately disgraced it; and I have observed, without one exception, that, in all these instances, the organs of the inferior propensities were large, and those of one or more of the moral sentiments deficient; and I am convinced that the same conclusion, after sufficiently accurate and extensive observation, will force itself upon all candid and reflecting minds.

My inference, therefore, is, that the Divine Spirit, revealed in Scripture as a power influencing the human mind, invariably acts in harmony with the laws of organization; because the latter, as emanating from the same source, can never be in contradiction with the former; and that a well constituted brain is a condition essential to the due manifestation of Christian dispositions. If this be really the fact, and if the constitution of the brain be in any degree regulated by the laws of physiology, it is impossible to doubt that a knowledge of the natural laws is destined to exercise a vast influence in rendering men capable of appreciating and practising Christianity. The manner in which it will do so, is explained in Dr. Combe's work on 'Physiology applied to Health and Education,' already alluded to. It contains an exposition of the laws of action of the brain and its connection with and influence on the rest of the system, and therefore its application gen erally to human improvement.

An admirable portion of Christianity is that in which the supremacy of the moral sentiments is explained and enforced as a practical doctrine. Love thy neighbor as thyself;' all mankind are thy neighbors; blessed are the meek and the merciful; love those that hate you and