tempt to go through the whole volume. Books of this description are excellently adapted for supplying short quotations, since the individual passages suffer little by isolation, from having no necessary reference to anything beyond themselves. Though we cannot say that there is much novelty in Dr. M'Cormac's pages, there really is much that well bears repetition, much that ought to be better and more widely known by the public. Along with this, there is also a tolerably copious sprinkling of fallacy and errors, such as a writer unavoidably falls into, who neglects system and fixed fundamental principles in his views of moral philosophy. We shall now let the author speak for himself, in examples of the merits and defects alleged to exist in his work, first making one extract as an illustration of a mental peculiarity in the writer, exhibited in his tendency to run through a series of ideas apparently suggested by a single leading one, in this case water, introduced under the more general topic of "the relations of the human frame with the material world:"

"The properties of water are not less striking than those of air, and not less calculated to promote human well-being. Its importance with regard to animals and vegetables is obvious, since it enters largely into their compositions. The greater proportion of flesh and of the pulp of fruits consists of this fluid. Persons subjected to famine survive longer when supplied with it. Owing to the foregoing arrangement, sustenance is facilitated, while decomposition is rendered more rapid. Water constitutes an agreeable vehicle of food, as in soups and vegetable infusions; while milk and wine are largely indebted to it. Heated it affords a pleasant, and often a useful, stimulus to the stomach; and as a detersive, it promotes bodily purity. The bath forms an admirable tonic. The physical properties of water are equally diversified. It is the medium of existence to a multitude of creatures. Perpetual agitation purifies it; stagnant it would be inimical to animated beings. Tides and currents subserve various useful purposes, promoting human intercourse, and enabling maritime nations to form reservoirs for their shipping. The ocean indeed is the high road of nations, while rivers and canals facilitate communication and the transport of merchandize. Hydraulic machines effect an enormous saving of animal power. Without water, chemistry could hardly have reached its present eminence. As a receptacle of latent heat its utility in the economy of nature is unbounded. Thus, when water freezes, a portion of caloric is given out, and when it thaws, a quantity is reabsorbed. In this way, these processes are tempered and made more uniform, while the summer's heat is treasured up against the winter's cold. Without

this amazing provision, water would instantly become solid at the freezing point, to the utter prejudice of animal life; while the slightest elevation of temperature would flood the earth. In the processes of art, the generation and condensation of steam afford analogous advantages. When water is subjected to the operation of cold, the surface sinks, and is replaced by a warmer and lighter layer; a process which continues until the temperature is reduced to thirty-nine of Fahrenheit. If the cold continue, ice will then form, but the main body becomes no colder unless by radiation, and consequently remains fitted for the abode of life."

It will be observed that the only point common to the several links of this chain of details, is the fact that each and all relate to water; the author's purpose here being to show that outward objects have adaptations to human organization. And we shall now be better understood in saying that the work must be read piecemeal for its details, not as a whole. The following are selected examples of ideas and sentiments not very novel, but intrinsically good, and meriting repetition, because yet too little attended to by the public, and even distrusted or rejected by some:"Passion and ignorance along with clashing interests, have originated that scourge of our species-war.- How often did the phenomena which led to the discovery of gravitation and the polarization of light, pass by unheeded until Newton availed himself of them, in the one case, and Malus, in the other?

With existing facilities, a child (were children so taught) might gain information on subjects, the circulation of the blood for example, that required all the intellect of a Harvey or a Servetus to throw light upon. A kind of ignominy, not less absurd than injurious, has been cast upon labour. Most rich men would be ashamed to drive the wholesome plough or ply the axe, yet nature did not give muscles to languish in inaction. -Assuredly, the general prevalence of celibacy, falsely so styled, is in so far incompatible with purity. Can we justly call that prudence, in him who refrains from marriage till he can support an expensive establishment, when the omission is secured by another's misery? These wretched principles have kept thousands apart, who by marriage might have promoted each other's happiness. It would doubtless be most unwarrantable to enter into this sacred contract, without the means of support; but who that is possessed of a sound mind and a healthy organization, could not procure them by honest industry? The earth affords boundless range for human increase; tracts where the joys of independence and of married life may be secured, without incurring the unnatural and criminal union of celibacy and prostitution. It would be desirable if men of cultivated minds

and feelings could be more generally induced by increased consideration, to take charge of schools. Such would best supply the parent's place, and neutralise the disadvantages contingent on public instruction. It can never be reckoned superfluous to turn attention to the works of God, and to lead the child to find pleasure, health, and occupation in the pursuit. It is difficult for those not engaged in it, to imagine the consuming nature of excessive toil, or how hard it is for those who are exposed to it, condemned to ignorance, and perhaps to discomfort, sickness, and privation, to gain that expansion of intellect, and the enlarged benevolence, that would enable them to recognise their own best interests, and to look with sympathy on the progress of their fellows. Nurtured in prejudice as we are, we do not perceive that no human being, morally speaking, is entitled to live at the expense of another.

Well-meaning persons are sometimes apprehensive, as to the results that might accrue from the better education of the working classes, but their anticipations are unfounded: it is ignorance and sensuality, not knowledge or refinement, that we have to dread. - Reason is not so much a particular faculty, as the sum of all our faculties. It is the characteristic of human beings, not because animals do not reason, but because their reasoning powers are so far beneath our own. - The wisest and best should be selected for the performance of legislative duties; surely, talent and moral probity afford a better criterion than mere wealth and station? Until they are better informed, the people will not exert the necessary discrimination. - Talk of the expense contingent on the general diffusion of knowledge! Rather let us speak of that which is connected with the jails, the bridewells and the penitentiaries, the enforcement of a sanguinary code, and the loss of property and life.— A few thousand blacks annually distributed over Europe, usefully and practically educated, and furnished with sound moral and religious instruction, would effect changes the most beneficial in the condition of their countrymen.-It is trifling to urge the study of Greek and Latin, as a means of facilitating the acquirement of the languages derived from them. — It is no less singular than true, that most of the moral writings of the ancients are rejected in our schools; while others, some of them most objectionable, are retained. Masters and servants, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children, are expected by each other, to be models of perfection, when they respectively make no sufficient efforts to secure such a result. The expenditure arising out of a single war, would educate the children of a whole people for ever.- Much may be effected if we will but strive; no one should slumber in the

lap of indolence. Every one has some influence, and all that has been done was done by individuals."

The following, on the contrary, are examples selected from different parts of the volume, in confirmation of our remark that several of the author's statements are either positively erroneous or involve fallacies by implication:-" Speech is the result of reason, since organization alone would not suffice to give rise to it. It has been erroneously supposed, that the superiority of man [over other animals] depended on his organization. If our qualities whether for good or for ill, are in no case inborn, it necessarily follows, not only that all are capable of superior intellectual and moral culture, but that all have an unequivocal right to receive it. It would be useless to render the cat as sagacious as the elephant; while the physical powers of the one, would be out of keeping with the limited endowments of the other. The divisions of Gall, and the uses which he has assigned to them, in so far as they refer to alleged organs of thought, are equally imaginary. - Between insanity and morbid alterations of the brain, there seems no necessary connexion. When both sexes receive equal culture, it is not found that there is any difference, whether speculative or practical. We know nothing of the structure of mind, much less are we able to discover any original bias to one occupation more than to another. -The examples of eminent persons are continually brought forward, and it is asked, could others become such as these? Yes, if they will make use of similar exertions, and if they enjoy equal opportunities. The alleged inferiority of African intellect, is a prejudice so barbarous, as to be unworthy of refutation. The powers of individuals are limited, those of governments are unlimited. There is no material organ for the exercise of the affections, feelings, and moral judgments. The brain is not the organ of the mind, consequently, it cannot be the organ of the feelings, since these are but forms of consciousness."

III. On the Causes and Effects of Disease, considered in reference to the Moral Constitution of Man. By H. C. BARLOW, M.D. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black. 1837. 8vo. pp. 87.

IN ages of ignorance and superstition, it is customary for mankind to attribute almost all their sufferings, whether they come as diseases of the body or as afflictions of mind, to the immediate will and agency of the Deity, directed upon indivi

duals independently of any fixed laws, and even in direct opposition to the ordinary course of nature. As knowledge advances, certain antecedent conditions are discovered, which are found invariably to have preceded particular evils whenever the origin of the latter has been sought for. Such antecedent conditions then begin to be regarded as the causes of the resulting evils. On precise investigation, these causes and their results are found to be uniform and inseparable, and the agency of the Deity is then referred to, not as capriciously inflicting particular evils on individuals, but as having established a certain fixed and invariable order in the arrangement of nature (called by us the laws of nature) by which all similar events are determined, and so far as our vision extends, by which all similar events always have been determined in time past and will be so determined in time to come. We thus learn to look upon the Creator of the world in a far more exalted light than that of a being whose works, like those of man, are so ill-constructed as to require constant superintendence and interference, lest they should go wrong and fail to fulfil his design. In the present day, many persons have attained this advanced stage of intelligence and reason. But since the most forward of civilised nations must still include numerous individuals who are far behind their fellows, as well as many who are equally far in advance of the multitude, we may now see representatives of all the different ages of advancing knowledge and civilisation, living at the same time, and in daily intercourse with each other. Probably there are yet tens of thousands of Englishmen, called well-educated, who have no clear notion of what is signified in the expressions "general laws" or "laws of nature," and who attribute almost every event in which they are interested, either to chance (causeless accident) or to the agency of the Deity exercised upon them according to the supposed feeling of the moment, (which is caprice,) as a judge would have to decide a cause brought before him in the absence of any enacted laws in conformity with which his judgment should be guided.

Dr. Barlow is not one of these purblind men, living amongst others whose minds are ages in advance of theirs. It is the high characteristic of his profession, to possess and apply that kind of knowledge which tends so much to fit us for appreciating the certainty and importance of general laws; and in this respect he is already in advance of the majority of his profession, nine-tenths of the senior members of which are still utterly ignorant of the physiology of the brain, and therefore as ignorant of the natural laws relating to the mental department of human nature. We say "already," in the presumption that