beautiful objects of inanimate nature, the lovely wonders of the munificence and bounty of God. Yet, in the midst of His blessings, I should be still more tempted to forget Him were it not for frequent nervous headaches and low fevers, which I find to be wonderfully wholesome for my moral health.”*

This passage contains several propositions that merit attention. First, in all well constituted and rightly instructed minds, "the most beautiful objects of inanimate nature," and "the lovely wonders of the munificence and bounty of God," are calculated, according to the natural laws, to invigorate the moral, religious, and intellectual faculties; yet Hannah More's mind "had more languor, and her faith less energy," amidst such objects, than "when beset with snares:" Secondly, according both to the natural laws and to Scripture, "evil communications corrupt good manners;" but I when in the great world," and "in an enemy's country," her faith was improved: And, thirdly, although "nervous headaches and low fevers" are the consequences of departures from the organic laws, and are intended to reclaim the sufferer to obedience, that the pain may cease-yet she "found them wonderfully wholesome for her moral health," and they prevented her from "forgetting God"!

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Only disease, or errors in education, could have induced a woman so intelligent, so pious, and so estimable as Hannah More, to present to the world such a series of propositions. Can we wonder that the profane should sneer, and that practical religion should advance slowly, when piety exhibits itself in such lamentable contradiction to the Divine institutions; and still more so, when, from proceeding on a false theory, it contradicts itself? In her Journal, in 1794, she writes: "Confined this week with four days' headache ;—an unprofitable time-thoughts wandering-little communion with God. I see by every fresh trial, that the time of sickness is seldom the season for religious improvement. This great work should be done in health, or it will seldom be done well."† This passage is full of sound sense; but it contradicts her previous assertion, that "nervous headaches and low fevers are wonderfully wholesome for moral health." If Hannah More had believed that God had instituted the corporeal organs, and imposed on her the obligation of fulfilling the * Memoirs of Hannah More, vol. ii. pp. 110, 111. † Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 418.

conditions of health, she could not, with her strong sentiment of veneration and excellent intellect, have acted and written as she did.

These examples, to which many more might be added, may serve as illustrations of the proposition, That without a philosophy of human nature, even religious authors, when treating of sublunary events, cannot always preserve consistency either with reason or with themselves; and that hence religion can never become thoroughly practical, or put forth its full energies for human improvement, until it be wedded to philosophy. In proportion as men shall become acquainted with the natural laws, and apply them as tests to theological writings relative to this world, they will become convinced of the truth of this observation.

Having traced bodily suffering, in the case of individuals, to neglect of, or opposition to, the organic laws, by their progenitors or by themselves, I next advert to another order of calamities, which may be called SOCIAL MISERIES, and which obviously spring from similar causes. And first, in regard to evils of a domestic nature:

One fertile source of unhappiness arises from persons uniting in marriage, whose tempers, talents, and dispositions do not harmonize. If it be true that natural talents and dispositions are connected by the Creator with particular configurations of the brain, then it is obviously one of His institutions, that, in forming a compact for life, these configurations should be attended to. The following facts I regard as being fully established by competent evidence. The portion of the brain before the line A B, Fig. 1, manifests the intellect, that above BC manifests the moral sentiments, and all the rest the animal sentiments and propensities; and each part acts with a degree of energy corresponding, cæteris paribus, to its size. The following figures exhibit these regions of the head in different proportions in different individuals; and the lives of the persons represented show that their dispositions corresponded with their brains.

The first is a view of the head of William Hare, the associate of Burke, who, acting in concert with him, strangled sixteen persons in Edinburgh, for the purpose of selling their bodies for dissection.*

* See Phrenological Journal, vol. v. p. 570, and vol. vi. p. 1.

In this head the organs of the animal propensities decidedly preponderate over those of the moral sentiments and intellect.

FIG. 1.-HARE.

B

Another example of the same kind is afforded by the head of Williams, who was executed along with the notorious Bishop, in London, for the same crime as that of Hare.*

FIG. 2.-WILLIAMS.

In the head of Richard Brinsley Sheridan (of which a cast was taken after death) we find an example of these three * See Phrenological Journal, vol. vii. p. 446.

regions of the brain existing nearly in a state of equilibrium. The natural tendencies of such a man are equally strong towards vice and towards virtue, and his actual conduct is generally determined by the influence of external circum

stances.

FIG. 3.- -SHERIDAN.

The life of Sheridan shows, that while he possessed some high intellectual qualities, he also was the slave of degrading and discreditable vices.

The head of Philip Melancthon, the illustrious Reformer and associate of Luther, furnishes an example of the decided predominance of the moral and intellectual regions over that of the animal propensities. The figure is copied from a portrait by Albert Durer.

The following description of Melancthon's head and character is thus given by Dr Spurzheim. "It is the brain of an extraordinary man. The organs of the moral and religious feelings predominate greatly, and will disapprove of all violence, irreverence, and injustice. The forehead betokens a vast and comprehensive understanding; and the ensemble a mind the noblest, the most amiable, and the most intellectual that can be conceived. . . . Never was any man more civil and obliging, and more free from jealousy, dissimulation, and envy, than Melancthon: he was humble, modest, disinterested in the extreme; in a word, he possessed wonderful talents, and most noble dispositions. His greatest enemies have been forced to acknowledge that the

...

annals of antiquity exhibit very few worthies who may be compared with him, whether extent of knowledge in things human and divine, or quickness of comprehension and fertility of genius, be regarded. The cause of true Christianity

derived more signal advantages, and more effectual support, from Melancthon, than it received from any of the other doctors of the age. His mildness and charity perhaps carried him too far at times, and led him occasionally to make concessions that might be styled imprudent. He was the sincere worshipper of truth, but he was diffident of himself, and sometimes timorous without any sufficient reason. On the other hand, his fortitude in defending the right was great. His opinions were so universally respected, that scarcely any among the Lutheran doctors ventured to oppose them. He was inferior to Luther in courage and intrepidity, but his equal in piety, and much his superior in learning, judgment, meekness, and humanity. He latterly grew tired of his life, and was particularly disgusted with the rage for religious controversies, which prevailed universally."*

* Phrenology in Connection with the Study of Physiognomy, by G. Spurzheim, M.D., pp. 160-164; London, 1826.