Dr. Ruel Keith, and other distinguished men, prefixed to the volume itself. The Evening Post is, therefore, requested to give it a place in its columns. It is proper to observe that, in the Chinese language, the word 'Barbarian,' which occurs frequently in the letter, has a signification very much resembling the word 'foreigner' in English. All who are not subjects of the Celestial Empire are 'Barbarians,' in the court language of China; and the term is not intended to be offensively applied.

"We, WHANG-HO-CHING, Brother to the Sun and Moon, Cousin of the Stars, Grandfather to the Comets and Meteors, Supreme Ruler of the Celestial Empire, and only Fountain of Universal Truth, to the learned Barbarian Thomas Sewall, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, in the United States of America, greeting:

"Thou hast done well, oh learned Barbarian, to lay at our feet thy production entitled 'An Examination of Phrenology, in two Lectures;' for we are the fountain of all science. Thou askest our judgment on thy grand proposition, the brain is a unit.' We condescend to inform thee that we have never enquired into the dark mysteries of the human skull, but in virtue of our high relationship to the Sun and Moon, it belongs to us to know all things without study; and also, in matters recondite and strange, to judge infallible judgment even without knowledge. Learn, then, that in the Celestial Empire, men distinguished for their stupendous wisdom have no brains at all. It is only in the desolate outskirts of the universe, in regions far removed from the dazzling glories of the Celestial Kingdom, that brains are known to exist; and there they darken the sublime and immaterial spirit. We, and our treasurers and sub-treasurers; our postmasters and collectors; our mandarins and judges, district and supreme, men of surpassing wisdom; our wives and concubines, and the ten thousand millions of subjects who live on the breath of our Celestial nostrils, are all brainless. Hence the greatness and glory of the Celestial Empire. Know, then, that the great son of science, Confucius, before whom all barbarian sages are ignorant as unborn babes, hath written 'a hen's head to a wise man, a big head to a fool; small heads shall be exalted, because they are light; large heads shall be abased, because they are heavy and full of brains.' In the Empire which encircles the Universe, and is endless as time, we cut off all heads that are large, because they are troublesome. Hence our everlasting peace. "But oh, most learned Barbarian, we chide the presumption of thy friends. Know that it belongs to us alone, in virtue of our high prerogative, to judge infallible judgment without knowledge. To Barbarians this is not vouchsafed, yet a certain Barbarian, who, in thy pages, indicates his existence by the hieroglyphic marks, J. Q. Adams,' speaketh as one possessing wisdom, concerning the uses of the brain; nevertheless this barbarian saith, I have never been able to prevail on myself to think of it, as a serious speculation.' We, the great Wang-Ho-Ching, rebuke the barbarian Adams. It belongs to us ALONE to judge infallible judgment without knowledge.

"We rebuke, also, the Barbarian whose marks are 'John M'Lean,' who useth these words: 'I am, in a great measure, unacquainted with the anatomy of the parts involved in the question; but I have always supposed that there was a tenancy in common in the brain.' Make known to this Barbarian that he insults our Celestial Majesty by his presumption, and surely in his brain wisdom has no tenancy. It belongeth to the brother of the sun and moon alone, to judge righteous judgment without knowledge. Thou stylest this Barbarian, 'Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. Truly hath the heaven-eyed

Confucius written, 'Darkness envelopeth the Barbarian.' How otherwise could a Barbarian Judge pretend to judge without knowledge.

"We rebuke, also, those who are known among Barbarians by the hieroglyphic marks, John Sargeant,' 'H. L. Pinckney,' 'S. Chapin,' 'Justin Edwards,' 'Moses Stewart,' and Ruel Keith." Touching the brain, they have all usurped the Celestial prerogative, which belongs to us alone-they have pretended to judge infallible judgment without knowledge. Verily, Barbarian brains obscure wisdom and engender presumption.

"We commend the Barbarian whose marks are 'Daniel Webster.' He judgeth cautious judgment, as behoveth all Barbarians. He saith, "Of the value of the physical and anatomical facts which you state, I am no competent judge; but if your premises be well founded, the argument is conclusive.' Our great interpreter of the Barbarian tongues, Hungi-Fuski-Chang, read to us lately, forth of a Barbarian book, these words-'A second Daniel come to judgment,' We condescend to greet this 'second Daniel.' His wisdom is worthy of a mandarin of the Celestial Empire. If the brain be good for nothing, then good for nothing is the brain!! Has not this Barbarian read the pages of the sublime Confucius? Only from the deep fountains of his inspired volumes could such discreet wisdom penetrate the mind of a Barbarian, obscured by a brain.

"We instruct our interpreter, Hungi-Fuski-Chang, to render this our epistle into thy Barbarian speech, lest our Celestial wisdom, radiating with too intense a brightness, should extinguish thy feeble and Barbarian mind, clouded by that unit' styled by thee a brain.

"Given at our Palace of the Moon, in the year of the Celestial Empire, the seven hundred and fifty-fourth thousand; and of our reign, the 399th year.

Seal of the

FIGURE.

"(Signed,)

A large man, with a small head, sitting on a white cloud, the sun beneath his right arm, the moon beneath his left, a tiara of comets around his head, and a firmament of stars beneath his feet. His countenance is radiant with selfcomplacency, good-nature, and foolishness.

Celestial Empire.

"A correct translation.

WHANG-HO-CHING.

(Signed) FUM, Chancellor.

(Signed)

"HUNGI-FUSKI-CHANG,

แ Interpreter of the Barbarian tongues."

Mr. George Combe, we learn, was to commence a course of lectures on phrenology in Hartford, Ct., September 27th.

We understand that Rev. J. A. Warne is to commence an extended course of lectures on phrenology in this city, October 4th.

Mr. S. Colman, of New York, is about issuing from the press, Mr. Combe's lectures, as reported by Mr. A. Boardman.

Our next number will contain articles from Professor Caldwell, A. Dean, Esq., President Shannon, and others. Several miscellaneous

notices are necessarily deferred.

PHRENOLOGY VINDICATED AGAINST THE CHARGES OF MATERIALISM AND FATALISM.

BY CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D.

PART I.

THE charges of materialism and fatalism, though, when strictly scrutinised and fully understood, among the most groundless and frivolous in their nature that have been preferred against phrenology, are, notwithstanding, the most pernicious in their effects, and have constituted the most stubborn and obstructive barriers to the dissemination of its truths. The reason is plain. They are addressed to the feelings which are blind and credulous, instead of the intellect which, being the mental eye, can see and examine, doubt and determine. Hence they have excited the fears, and awakened and alarmed the prejudices of the community, and called into the conflict an honest conscience (the conscience of the public), without the lights by which it should be guided.

Nor, to the minds of a vast majority of those whose ears they reach, are the charges referred to destitute of plausibility. Far from it. To detect their fallacy, and trace through its ramifications their mischievous tendency, without aid, requires much more of attention and accuracy of research, than the great body of the people will bestow on them; and also, perhaps, more of sagacity and knowledge than they actually possess.

On the community at large, this rooted and pervading dread of the evils of phrenology operates injuriously in a two-fold way. By their groundless fears of its demoralising tendency, thousands and tens of thousands are induced to keep aloof from the science themselves, and to use their influence to make others do the same. It need hardly be observed, that persons of this description, being altogether ignorant VOL. II.-4

of it, cannot rationally entertain in relation to it either opinion or belief. Those states of mind, to be worthy of the names bestowed on them, must be the product of evidence. And, from the individuals alluded to, evidence is excluded by the ignorance which their fears and prejudices throw around them. Notwithstanding this ignorance, however, its concomitant want of evidence, and all other disqualifications which follow in its train, those individuals do entertain and exercise what is to them tantamount to confirmed opinion and belief; because it effectually prevents them from enquiring, and thus shuts and bars against them the door of knowledge. Hence their ignorance of phrenology, reducing their minds, as respects that science, into a state of inaction, perpetuates itself. Artful anti-phrenologists, moreover, constantly resort to it, in their declamations and intrigues, with a view to cover the science with odium.

On another portion of the community, the fears and shadowy suspicions which they harbour (in open defiance of the lights which should dissipate them) in relation to the pernicious tendency of the science, produce an effect still more to be lamented. They seduce them to surrender up their judgment and positive conviction, to be made the sport of their vague apprehension of evil.

The persons here referred to, acquire an acquaintance with phrenology sufficient to give them a knowledge of its leading facts and principles, to none of which can they offer an objection. Nor do they even pretend to object. They are really, and in spite of themselves, convinced of the truth of the science; but they shrink, notwithstanding, from what they still regard as its demoralising consequences. They do not, therefore, adopt it as a creed, avail themselves of its benefits, or recommend it to others. On the contrary, their measures are the reverse, signally unreasonable, and culpably inconsistent with moral courage. They allow themselves, by the phantoms of their timidity, to be so far warped and perverted in sentiment, and so deluded in judgment, as to believe that truth, the favourite creation and highest attribute of the God of truth, can be productive of evil! Though I shall not pronounce this irreverent view of things altogether blasphemous, that it is deeply blameworthy will hardly be denied. Those who harbour it through the blindness of fear, seem ignorant of the fact, that all truth is essentially useful, if correctly understood, and skilfully applied. They forget, moreover, that doubt on this subject is virtual infidelity. Yet if reason and common sense do not unite in pronouncing it so, I am mistaken in their decision. In what respect, I ask, is it more erroneous and culpable, to doubt the usefulness or dread the mischief of truth, when revealed in the Word of the Creator, than when revealed with equal clearness in his Works? Let

others answer the question. My skill in casuistry is unequal to the task. That in either case the act is fraught with irreverence toward the Deity, from involving a doubt of his wisdom or goodness, or both, and is therefore wanting in religion, cannot be questioned. Yet, by many anti-phrenologists, who are sufficiently ostentatious in their profession of religion, it is hourly perpetrated.

Of these cases, neither is more strongly portrayed than truth and the interest of science and morals abundantly warrant. In form and colouring, they are depicted as I have witnessed them. Perhaps nine tenths, or more, of all the anti-phrenologists I have conversed with on the subject, have belonged to one or the other of these two classes. They either had not ventured to approach the science as enquirers, and were therefore utterly ignorant of it, or, having acquired some knowledge of it, and been convinced of its truth, they still rejected it in fact, on account of what they dreaded as its hostility to the interests of morality and religion. In illustration of this, and in confirmation of the principle on which it rests, no single incident, perhaps, can be more pointed and powerful than the following one, in which I had myself an immediate concern.

A gentleman of great distinction and worth, and one of the most amiable men I have ever known, after having held much conversation, and attended a brief course of lectures on phrenology, became a proselyte to its truth. At the time of this event, he was distant from home, and had nothing to consult but his own splendid and masterly intellect. Not so, however, on his return to his family. To his wife, a woman of earnest piety, and great accomplishments of mind and person, he was peculiarly attached. To her he communicated his views of phrenology, and attempted to convince her of its truth and usefulness. But the effort was worse than fruitless. It alarmed her fears. She fancied that she detected in the science the fatal elements of impiety and irreligion. The fears of the wife were reflected back on the husband. So deep and tender was his affection, and so manly his magnanimity, that he could not bear to be a source of pain to a being so dear to him. The consequence was, that phrenology lost, through this groundless apprehension, a powerful advocate. From that period, the gentleman could never be induced again even to converse on the science. Yet his regard for truth withheld him from ever assailing its evidences.

Another less numerous, but more passionate and intolerant body of unbelievers, have not confined their assaults to the supposed injurious effects of phrenology. Their warfare has been materially different, in both its form and its object, more vindictive in its spirit and bearing, and pushed to a much more exceptionable extent. It has been rude,