The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-01-30 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

all lands. The North American Indian, in his worship, used
altniist the very words, " Our Father who art in heaven." tie
believed in the great spirit, and called him Father. It WAS
clear I bat they only Jul so frotn traditional evidence, not from
any reasoning of their own. When the traditional evidenee of
the Deily was lost, roan's reason set tip degraded notions of the
llt.itv. Tiri e was nut i,ae Deity but inane, as in Greece.
They deified whatever they ad:nit-ed. Reason could not dis-
cover anything relating to the Deity. The Romans had deified
their emperors, and thus became idolaters of the worst kind.
The liindoo betrayed a much higher notion of the Deity. He
was not sufficiently a historian to know how early they had se-
parated from the original stock, but they seemed to have carried
away a much more beautiful philosophy in the Vedas, the scrip-
tures of the Brahmins, which were believed iu by 80,000,000 of
people. "The Supreme Being is not to lie comprehended by
reason, not to be conceived by devotion or virtuous practices
beyond the limits of the explanation of the 'Vedas, and not to
be compassed by any human faculty whatever." They went
further, they defined the Supreme being as being Him from
whom the universe proceeds, who was the Lord of the universe,
and whose work was the universe. This was a far superior doc-
trine to that of the Greeks or Romans. God bad commanded
man to worship him, and had given him the faculty to worship
him. This did not depend on reason it was clear, because
Christ had said, "These things were hidden from the wise and
learned, and revealed unto babes." Therefore, infants had the
faculty to worship Him. This faculty, if not rightly directed,
would just as soon worship a cow as the true Lord, and, there-
fore, the intensity of a man's piety was no proof of the truth of
his religion. In its abuse it led to very great evils. This
faculty, from a singularcoincidence, formed the key-stone of the
arch of the head. They would find that in men who were eminent
for this pious feeling—this impulse, the middle of the top of the
head was very prominent indeed. He instanced a likeness of
St. Augustine as an example. The abuse of this faculty de-
stroyed its object. He knew a lady who was on her kneesseven
hours a day, who had an exceedingly fine mind, and he never
saw her do a kind act, or heard a kind sentiment front her, she
was altogether occupied in the worship of Gud. It excited the
greatest bitterness of feeling; history recorded instances of
children having been dashed brainless on the pavement, and the
mother thrown into the flames, the result of this feeling. In
insanity, veneration frequently occupied the whole mind. This
faculty led to' conscientiousness. Animals had not this feeling.
The horse never refused to take food from his neighbour's
manger; and it was this faculty which essentially distingoished•
man from all created animals. Firmness was the next quality;
and was said to exist most where active courage was wanting.
Give a firm man time to collect his thoughts and to measure his
antagonist, and then he became a man capable of carrying him,
self through danger .as well as the physically brave man. It
was a feelin`g which- would 'be a very gcod substitute for the
physical courage of Sam Scott, who saw no danger, and who
told him that if he would pay him 100 guineas he would jump
from the top of St. Paul's into the area. If a line were drawn
from the chin, through the ear to the salient portion at the top
of the head, there they found the organ of self esteem ; and
firmness was between self esteem and veneration. The North
American Indian was very largely made at that part of the
head, and no torture could make him utter a groan When his
persecutors were blowing -up his skin with gunpowder, instead
of groaning, he was taunting them. Another faculty was hope,
which was situated on either side of veneration. Ile did not
think it a primitive feeling. The sanguine man hoped when
hope was lost ; it was a happy disposition. There was a faculty
in the mind which animals had nut, which gladdened the life of
man; there was an imagination anti a play of fancy which the
money-getting man had little notion of. He could not walk in
the fields but the song of the birds had a sweeter tone for him.
He lived in a world of his own; he lived, and was despised by
the world below him, but the world was immeasurably below
him. This was the faculty of ideality. The poet was born not
made. He might labour for ever at shoe-making. but if he had
nut ideality and because a poet, he (Mr. Rumball) would be-
come a shoemaker. This quality was situated on either side of
their head below benevolence. 'Wonder was a higher order of
ideality, and was situated beside it. More than half the
• suicides of this land were committed under the direction and
orders of what the poor infatuated individual 'thought spirits.
They now came to Sam Scott, and he bad done what no other
individual had done with impunity, and did it because he was
insane. lie had told him, that one night at twelve o'clock, a
spirit came to his bed side. and told him he was to go through
those exercises and take those ;Limps, and that be could do it.
The spirit came to him over andj over again, and at last he did
it, and now he was constantly doingit. -These were the moral
facultieS given by God to repress the lower propenSities.*

* We have so many points to notice in the preceding, lectures'
and the space allotted to us is necessarily so confined, that we
hardly know where to begin or which to cull. Passing over
Mr. Itumbail's introductory observations in his second lecture,
as introductory, we come to his arguments. He first strenuous:
ly contends that phrenology is a science—one " that goes on
the Newtonian doctrine of deductions from facts," and that it
is not any argument against a science because it is imperfect
Both these positions we take leave to deny. What is the mean-
ing of the science of any thing, but that all about that thing is
known and understood, or, at least, that that which is con-
fidently spoken of is fully known and understood ? Would the
mathematician call mathematics a science if be could only
demonstrate one-third of a problem, and come to no conclusion
whatever as to the other parts, whether they bore out his de-
monstration of the one part or subverted it, and thereforearrive
at no mathematical certainty as to his right demonstration of the
whole problem ? Why, the mere tyro mathematician of a day
would laugh at the absurdity of such a proposition. And we
maintain that the cases are parallel. The
.phrenologists hold
that the convolutions of the brain are the organs of it, and that
on their relative fullness depends the'strength,of the faculties
attributed to those organs. Take this theory. The convolutions
of the brain denote its organs. Mr. Itumball instanced a con-
volution, as being under the organ of combativeness. Ile also
instanced that where the convolution to which phrenologists have
given the faculty of veneration was wanting, the man was not ne-
cessarily destitute of religion, as other faculties might in a great
measure supply its wants, of which the phrenologist on exami-
nation would judge, by the devempement of the other higher
faculties, benevolence, conscientiousness, self esteem, &c. The
phrenologists have two-thirds of the convolutions of the brain
only, from which to draw conclusions. There is an extensive
surface of inure intricate and larger convolutions—therefore, it
is fair to presume, on this mode of reasoning, of faculty de-
pending on convolution, of more intricate and extensive
faculties—on the surface of the cerebellum. of which the phreno-
logist cannot take any cognizance. Therefore, he demonstrates
the whole from its part; and does this leaving out all the intri-
cate and interior structure of the brain. But, if the man desti-
tute of the faculty of veneration must not necessarily be devoid
of religion because other moral faculties may supply the
deficiency, the opposite argument must also be allowed that a
man with immense combativeness, acquisitiveness, secs etiveness,
togather with the want of benevolence, must not necessarily be
a villain, a thief, or a murderer, because other faculties may
overpower these so largely developed; and whether other facul-
ties do so overpower them or not, the phrenologist cannot tell,
because he cannot see, nor know all the faculties. Then
what becomes of the demonstrated certainty of character
from phrenological observation ? Why there is no certain
knowledge; all is guess work and "supposition," and phrenology
is, therefore, no science at all. Mr. Rumball says, "inour
last arguments we spoke of craniology not of phrenology."
This is a distinction without a difference; for both words
. are
the same essentially in meaning, and are used indiscriminately
by most writers on this subject for the same thing. The cra-
niologist mans out the cranium into faculties, and the phrenolo-
gist by a different name does the same thing. We do not un-
derstand what Mr. Itumhall means by "if men's heads were
buried in a fur cap you might be an accurate phrenologist;"
and to be a phrenologist he further on explains to mean to have
"a knowledge of mind as manifested by organization." We
think it would puzzle Mr. Rumball to find out a man's amount
Of reiteration for instacce, on the principles of phrenology if he
had a fur cap on his head! We will stay a moment, however,
before we proceed further, or we shall trespass beyond our li-
mits, and revert to the convolutions of the brain, and to the
phrenologists' "Newtonian doctrine of deduction from facts."
And first we ask is it a deduction from facts that the convolu-
tions of the brain are the faculties thereof? Certainly, says the
phrenologist, for from observation we find certain faculties in-
dicated by certain enlargements of the head, under which by
anatomy we find convolutions. This we deny, as a false de-
duction and contrary to facts. Because the convolutions of the
brain, according to Spurzheim's own plates, are irregular in size
and form in different heads, and present no more approach.to
uniformity than the windings of the small intestine. Therefore
there can be no comparing of brains in this way, for men have
not all the same convolutions of the brain, differing only in
developement, but have different convolutions. So much for
this deduction. But the organ for combativeness, for instance,
as other organs are said to do, exists on both sides of the head,
and the two organs act the same as the two eves iu the same
way. Now leaving aside the anatomical facts 'that all the dis-
coverable fibres of the brain converge to one centre front the
surface, ensuring, as it were, concord and unity in the whole
brain, that there is no discoverable fibrosis or other connection
between the two organs separately on each side of the head, we
come to the fact that the convolutions of the brain, which are
the developed faculties of it according to the phrenologists,
difThr on different sides o f the same head, and that on the showing
of Spurzheim's own plates ; therefore there must be a difference
of faculties on each side of the head, and not a duplicity pro-
vided by nature to ensure the continuance of function in acci-
dent or disease of the one; so there is an end of that argument,
and so much for that Newtonian deduction from facts. Let
us enquire what are the facts. Man when he decides on any
thing, does it quickly, with his whole mind,- and promptly
follows out his mental decision by action, in numerous
instances of daily occurrence, this is done "as quickly as
thought," showing unity of determination carried out into
action" 'When a' man delays coming to a determination
—.considers a point, his judgment takes cognizance of it in
every shape, and of the impulses and biases of his own mind
also, and decides the question on its whole merits, and on that
decision the men acts, sometimes against his impulses, which
give in to his judgment, showing unity. It is remarkable phre-
nologists have given judgment no place in the head! The ana-
tomy of the brain discovers several series of white fibres, all
converging towards one centre, the spinal mar:aiw ; and the
whole structure of the brain shows indivisible complexity, and
therefore leads to the conclusion of the unity of the organ.
Floureus, a French anatomist, found, by experiments,
that as the cerebrum of a bird was cut away by degrees, by
degrees it lost the power of motion all over the body—not
of 'tarts of the body, bit by bit—proving it to be the organ
of motion, not of sensual passion. On cutting away, in
slices, the cerebrum of a chicken, he found it lose its faculties
by degrees—sight, hearing, smell, taste, perception—that be
could go to a certain extent without destroying the functions of
the hemispheres, that of each hemisphere was enough for the
performance of all its functions, till at last on cutting the whole
away it was found in a state of apathy, but still had the full
pow'er of motion. It could fly when thrown in the air, and run
when impelled forward, but knocked against anything in its
way—was devoid of faculty, and would starve if not fed; " it
was without desiras, without cares, without pains, without
pleasures," and in this state it lived for ten months and. got fat,
and died through neglect. On these grounds may we not con-
clude that the brain is one organ, and that the fact related by
Dr. Macartney may so be explained—that a person may lose
a part of the brain and nut lose his faculties, but only
lose them in degree. According to the phrenologists he must
lose that faculty which was injured only. We have several
cases to quote to prove this portion as well grounded, and as
the only rational position, but time and space will not permit
us now to give them. But we shall recur to this subject. Only
imagine the condition of a man on the phrenologists' theory—
possessed of 24 or 35 distinct faculties, with no bond of union;
now, and at the same moment, impelled by benevolence to charity,
and by acquisitiveness to meanness ; now, and at the same mo-
ment, impelled to fight by combativeness, and witheld by cau-
tiousness; now, and at the same moment, impelled by secretive-
ness, to tell a lie, and by self esteem to scorn it—why a man by
this state of things would be eternally playing at see-saw within
himself, without any fixed principle on which to act, and would
go about a living type of ALitannet' s coffin. ever suspended be-
tween right and wrong. We have a better (and we trust a
well-founded) opinion of our race, and ground it upon the
almost innumerable examples of men having followed out one
strong mental determination through every obstacle that could
oppose or seduce.

A barrister was apprehended a few days since on a charge of
attempting to pick'pockets in the Regent's ['ark.