large would read the marks set by Providence on men, and act according to reason and sound morality, then, instead of giving false characters of vicious individuals (through Benevolence acting without Conscientiousness), and, in consequence, exposing each other to loss of property and life by criminal depredations, they would see the propriety of treating, as moral patients, those persons whose mental deficiencies render them incapable of guiding themselves to virtue. !

The principles now expounded, apply to the selection of individuals to fill every situation in life. In my separate work, on "the Constitution of Man," the application of Phrenology to morals and practical conduct, is farther elu

cidated.

ON THE COINCIDENCE BETWEEN THE NATURAL TALENTS AND DISPOSITIONS OF NATIONS, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR BRAINS.

THE mental character of an individual, at any given time, is the result of his natural endowment of faculties, modified by the circumstances in which he has been placed. The first element, or natural constitution, is admitted, by most thinking men, to form the basis of, and prescribe the limits to, the operation of the second. If a child is by nature extremely combative, and very little cautious, highly prone to covetousness, and very insensible to justice, a reflecting guardian will adopt a different method of education, and expect different consequences, than if his natural dispositions were exactly the reverse.

A nation is composed of individuals, and what is true of all the parts (which in a nation preserve their individuality), must hold good of the whole ;-nevertheless the fashionable doctrine is, that national character depends altogether on external circumstances; and that the native stock of animal, moral, and intellectual powers on which these operate, is the same in New Holland and in England, in Hindostan

and in France. Mr STEWART informs us, "That the capacities of the human mind have been, in all ages, the same; and that the diversity of phenomena exhibited by our species is the result merely of the different circumstances in which men are placed." "This," says he, "has long been received as an uncontrovertible logical maxim ; or rather, such is the influence of early instruction, that we are apt to regard it as one of the most obvious suggestions of common sense. And yet, till about the time of MONTESQUIEU, it was by no means so generally recognised by the learned as to have a sensible influence on the fashionable tone of thinking over Europe

There is some ambiguity in this passage. The proposition, that "the capacities of the human mind have been, in all AGES, the same," does not necessarily imply that they have been alike in all NATIONS. The Hindoo mind may have been the same in the year 100 as in the year 1800, and so may the English and all other national minds; but it does not follow that either in the year 100 or 1800 the English and Hindoo minds were constituted by nature alike; and yet this is what I understand Mr STEWART to mean ; for he adds, "that the diversity of phenomena exhibited by our species is the result merely of the different circumstances in which men are placed;" embracing in this proposition men of every nation as equally gifted in natural powers. Now, there is reason to question this doctrine, and to regard it as not merely speculatively erroneous, but as laying the foundation of a great deal of most hurtful practice.

When we regard the different quarters of the globe, we are struck with the extreme dissimilarity in the attainments of the varieties of men who inhabit them. If we glance over the history of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, we shall find distinct and permanent features of character which strongly indicate natural differences in their mental constitutions. The inhabitants of Europe have manifested, in all ages, a strong tendency towards moral and intellectual im

provement. As far back as history reaches, we find society instituted, arts practised, and literature taking root, not only in intervals of tranquillity, but amidst the alarms of war. Before the foundation of Rome, the Etruscans had established civilization and the arts in Italy. Under the Greek and Roman empires, philosophy, literature, and the fine arts, were sedulously and successfully cultivated; and that portion of the people whose wealth enabled them to pay for education, attained a high degree of intelligence and refinement. By the irruption of the northern hordes, these countries were subsequently involved in a chaos of ignorance ;—but again the sun of science rose, the clouds of Gothic darkness were dispelled, and Europe took the lead of the world in science, morals, and philosophy. In the inhabitants of this portion of the globe, there appears an elasticity of mind incapable of being permanently repressed. Borne down for a time by external violence, their mental energies seem to have gathered strength under the restraint, and, after a season, to have burst their fetters, and overcome every obstacle opposed to their expansion.

When, on the other hand, we turn our attention to Asia, we perceive manners and institutions, which belong to a period too remote to be ascertained, and yet far inferior to the European standard. The people of Asia early arrived at a point comparatively low in the scale of improvement, which they have never passed.

The history of Africa, so far as Africa can be said to have a history, presents similar phenomena. The annals of the races who have inhabited that Continent, with few exceptions, exhibit one unbroken scene of moral and intellectual desolation; and in a quarter of the globe embracing the greatest varieties of soil and climate, no nation is at this day to be found whose institutions indicate even moderate civilization *.

Since the observation in the text was written, accounts have appeared of a people discovered by Major CLAPPERTON in the interior of Africa, in a state of comparative civilization. It is said, that, although they are

may

The aspect of native America is still more deplorable. Surrounded for centuries by European knowledge, enterprise, and energy, and incited to improvement by the example of European institutions, they remain, at the present time, the same miserable, wandering, houseless, and lawless savages as their ancestors were, when COLUMBUS first set foot upon their soil. Partial exceptions to this description be found in some of the southern districts of North America; but the numbers who have even attempted to adopt the modes of civilized life are so small, and the progress made by them so limited, that, speaking of the race, we do not exaggerate in saying, that they remain to the present hour enveloped in all their primitive barbarity, and that they have profited nothing by the introduction amongst them of arts, sciences, and philosophy. The same observations have occurred to a writer in the Edinburgh Review. The following remarks, on the native American character, appeared in that work in an article on "Howison's Upper Canada," June 1822" From all that we learn," says the Reviewer," of the state of the aborigines of this great continent from this volume, and from every other source of information, it is evident that they are making no advances towards civilization. It is certainly a striking and mysterious fact, that a race of men should thus have continued for ages stationary in a state of the rudest barbarism. That tendency to improvement, a principle that has been thought more than perhaps any other to distinguish man from the lower animals, would seem to be totally wanting in them. Generation after generation passes away, and no traces of advancement distinguish the last from the first. The mighty wilderness they inhabit may be traversed from end to end, and hardly a vestige be discovered that marks the hand of man. It might naturally have

jet black, they are not Negroes, and it is conjectured that they are the descendants of the Numidians of ancient history. If the representations of their attainments be correct, I anticipate in them a brain developed like the European.

been expected, that, in the course of ages, some superior genius would have arisen among them to inspire his countrymen with a desire to cultivate the arts of peace, and establish some durable civil institution; or that, at least, during the long period since the Europeans have been settled amongst them, and taught them, by such striking examples, the benefits of industry and social order, they would have been tempted to endeavour to participate in blessings thus providentially brought within their reach. But all has been unavailing; and it now seems certain that the North American Indians, like the bears and wolves, are destined to flee at the approach of civilized man, and to fall before his renovating hand, and disappear from the face of the earth along with those ancient forests which alone afford them sustenance and shelter."

The theory usually advanced to account for these differences of national character is, that they are produced by diversities of soil and climate. But, although these may reasonably be supposed to exert a certain influence, they are altogether inadequate to explain the whole phenomena. We ought ever to bear in mind, that Nature is constant in her operations, and that the same causes invariably produce the same effects. Hence, when we find exceptions in result, without being able to assign differences in causes, we may rest assured that we have not found the true or the only cause, and our diligence ought to be quickened to obtain new light, and not employed in maintaining the sufficiency of that which we possess.

If we survey a map of the world, we shall find nations whose soil is fertile and climate temperate, in a lower degree of improvement than others who are less favoured. In Van Dieman's Land and New South Wales a few natives have existed in the most wretched poverty, ignorance, and degradation, in a country which enriches Europeans as fast as they possess it. In America, too, Europeans and native Indians have lived for centuries under the influence of the same physical causes, the former have kept pace in