tire to our pages. It would be a far more useful tract, upon the horrible effects of intemperance, than some of the prosing writing, which is published under that form. The catastrophe is truly tragic and thrilling; and although Mrs. Hale says, she does not love bloody stories, is at least as terrible as any of ours, to which she can object. It is useless to wish her that patronage of the public which she already enjoys. We can only desire, that those, who throw away their money, to buy maudlin books of tales delineating English manners, so fade, as the French say, so devoid of heart, so silly, and so made up of cant, slang and Bond street patois, as to be to us unreadable, would pause, and buy instead an American book, which gives us views of our own people, in the felt interest of their actual identity.

The Constitution of Man, considered in relation to external objects. By GEORGE COMBE. First American, from the Edinburgh edition. Boston. Carter & Hendee, 1829. 8 vo. pp. 310.

The author of this work is a zealous phrenologist, a man of clear, broad, discriminating and philosophic mind, in a degree to have few compeers in his age. We have never met with views of the reciprocal relations of man to the universe, and of that to him, more profound, impressive, and useful. He has an eye to look through the creation; and instead of coming to the desolating conclusions of atheism, he has traced new links in that golden chain, which binds man, in common with all things else, to the throne of the Divinity. He has discovered new indications of wisdom and benevolent arrangement, and has inferred merciful intentions in those dispensations, that might most obviously offer to cavillers, as proofs of the contrary. Here is a real philosopher, unfolding the design of final causes with a calm, humble and modest wisdom; finding the Creator every where in benevolence and power, offering new inducements to learn the first and last lesson of religion, and the ultimate attainment of human wisdom, resignation to the will of God. Here is a book, which develops the real laws of our nature, and conditions of our being. Here is an earnest, wise and eloquent inculcation of the necessity of giving the first place in education to the cultivation of the moral faculties, rather than those, which have for final object wealth, pleasure, fame and power. Here is a solemn and emphatic lesson upon the folly and enormity of war, and the misery consequent upon lending the whole efforts of a nation merely to the acquisition of wealth. Here, in short, is an eloquent and profound book, which vindicates the ways of God to man, and proves, that so long as we do not understand the laws of our being, and transgress them ignorantly, or so long as we wilfully and consciously violate them, misery to ourselves must be the inevitable result. In a word, the author has proved, that the Omnipotent has forged every link of the chain, that connects transgression of the laws of our nature with our own misery; and that we can never hope to be happy, till we first understand the conditions of our being, and in the next place conform to them.

That such a writer, as Combe, should be a phrenologist, that he should zealously defend the system, that he should predicate the admirable treatise before us upon the truth of it, that he should insist, that education and human improvement can be based upon no other view of human nature, ought at least to shield the science from the attempted ridicule of sciolists and smatterers, whether God has given them the grace of wit in fact, or only an inward estimation to that amount, received by none but themselves. Let those, who know more, and can write better than Combe, ridicule phrenology, and he will see but very few merry makers in relation to him. We shall deem, that we can perform no more acceptable service to our readers and the community, than by putting down, in our own way, a very condensed abstract of some of the more useful and prominent thoughts and views in this book, not wholly unmixed with reflections of These views and our own, which have been elicited by reading it. thoughts are equally true and important, whether they are predicated upon the truth of phrenology, or on the received mental theories of the day; and although every day's experience and investigation inclines us more and more to believe, that phrenology is the true mental system of human nature, to avoid the introduction of opinions, for which, probably, but a small portion of our readers are yet prepared, we shall construct this article without any reference to the author's phrenological faith. In other words, we shall lay the phrenology of this volume out of the question.

We premise, then, that this work on the constitution of man is intended, as a broad foundation for a true and efficient system of education, embracing its moral, intellectual, and physical departments. These preliminary principles must be invaluable and indispensable to the great point of commencing at the beginning of that all absorbing subject, and enabling the instructers so to commence their rudiments, as not to have to pull down, and build up again and again. Experienced teachers have always found, that to unlearn their pupils was quite as laborious and necessary, as to learn them.

We find an existing universe, which all our doubts and disputations cannot alter. We are sure, there are final causes. Why things are, as they are, whence is evil, how benevolence and wisdom are reconcilable with pain and ignorance, are questions which human intellect has not powers in the present existence to solve. But as far as our researches can go, every step opens wisdom, design, order and kindness even in the instances, that ignorance would interpret to contrary conclusions. Right reason, guided by true humility, would infer, that where we cannot discover wisdom and benevolence, it is proof only of our weakness and ignorance. The wisest find most reasons to love, trust, and adore God; and the profoundest philosophy brings the mind and the heart nearest to Him. If we could know more, and were more fully acquainted with the relations of all the parts of God's universe, we should be able to understand, why it rains on the waste ocean, and why there are droughts in populous countries; why there is ignorance, misery and death in this world, and a great many other mysteries to our present faculties. But since, as far as we can understand relations, wisdom, and more wisdom, goodness, and more goodness are continually unfolding upon us, and conducting us always nearer to the righteous throne of the Divinity, surely we ought

thence to infer, that where we cannot see wisdom and goodness, it is owing, not to their not existing in those instances, but to the shortness of our ken, and the feebleness of our mental vision. The natural laws of the universe are invariable, universal, unbending. A ship floats, water descends, and all physical tendencies are the same over the globe.-Wherever men enter life in harmony with the organic laws, and continue to obey them, there is no instance where disease and pain result from that obedience. Men never enjoy health, vigor and happiness, in disobedience to those laws. These laws are in harmony with the whole constitution of man, and the moral and intellectual powers are always supreme. The world abounds with infinite contrivance, which, as far as we are acquainted with it, is always directed to beneficial purposes. The author specifi cally states, that he leaves man's spiritual and future interests out of this investigation, as belonging to the subject of revelation.

The laws of nature, which most directly affect man, are his organic laws. As proofs, that the universe is formed in harmony with those laws, we instance the following:.

In the tropical regions, the muscular energy is less in the same proporLess labor is requisite tion, as the natural fertility of the soil is more. for food and shelter. In colder latitudes muscular energy is increased, and the ruder elements and the more sterile nature have proportioned their claims accordingly. In the arctic regions, no farinaceous food ripens; and the companions of Capt. Franklin, and all sojourners in those countries, concur in finding, that bread and vegetable diet did not answer them for the requisite nutriment; but that pure animal food, and the fatter the better, was the only sustenance, that maintained the tone of the system that the quantity required was much greater, than in milder latitudes, anu that it imparted a delightful vigor and buoyancy of body and mind. Strange as it may seem, those dreary countries abound in infinite numbers The climate favors the drying and varieties of animals, fowls and fish. and preserving animal food, which is thus prepared to sustain the inhabitants, when uature lays on her chains of ice, and wraps herself up in her mantle of snow. In fact, range over the globe, and the food, climate and circumstances, will be found accommodated to the inhabitants; and they, where they obey their organic laws, to their climate and mode of subsis

tence.

In all climates the organic law calls aloud upon man, to range in the open air in cheerful exercise, calculated to develope sound and vigorous muscular and nervous systems. The laborer digs, and the English squire chases for health and cheerfulness. The penalty of indolence, or the violation of the organic law, is debility, bodily and mental, dyspepsia with all its horrible train, and finally death. The penalty of over exertion, or of artificial stimulants, or of debauchery, tend to other forms of disease and misery. These laws, though not so palpable, not so frequently in the mind's eye, are as invariable, and inevitable, as those of attraction, or magnetism. Nine in ten, however, even in enlightened countries, and what we call enlightened days, recognize, and obey them not. The certain penalties which follow from age to age, the disease and misery, that ensue from the constant violation of these invariable and universal organic laws, are the eternal heralds of the Divinity, proclaiming to all people,

in all languages, that his laws carry their sanctions with them. As soon as men recognize these laws, labor, which is now painful and ignominous, will become as pleasant, as it is useful. Circumstances compel what are called the lower classes to labor; and this is another indication of benevolence, that the greater portions of our race have not the choice of destroying themselves by indolence, and are driven to the course of their best interest.

Phrenologists divide the human faculties into 1. Propensities. 2. Sentiments. 3. Intellectual faculties. Of these all are arranged to one great end, and are alike necessary, though not alike useful and important. Every faculty is good in itself; but all are liable to abuse. The law of our nature is framed with reference to the supremacy of the moral sentiments and the intellect. Other things being equal, this supremacy as certainly tends to happiness, as a stone thrown into the air returns to the ground. The animal part of our nature is first developed, and the order of human events, and the misguided blindness of education, as hitherto conducted, has almost uniformly tended to give it the ascendency in our natures. The moral and intellectual supremacy will not be obtained either by instinct or chance. The mind must be enlightened, and trained by a wise and virtuous education to it. When the dictates of the moral and intellectual nature have strength enough to be heard over the clamor of the propensities, then men will be happy; and then man will be in harmony with the law of his nature.

For example: a variety of the propensities are gratified in conjugal union. But this union must be such, that one, or more shall not militate with the rest. That feeling, that we call love, inclines to the union. The one party surveys in the other marks of improvidence and immorality, indications of error, which the moral and intellectual nature cannot approve. But under the impulses of the propensities, which are honored, and veiled with the nature of love, the union is consummated. The propensities are satiated and languish. Who could not foretell, that repentance, and disgust and disaffection and loathing, in proportion to the remembered raptures forever past away, should fill tha tunion with discord and misery, by a law as certain, as that, which propels water down the precipice?

The perfidy and the inconstancy of friendship has been sufficiently said, and sung. Examine our nature, and see whence it is. One person contracts a friendship for another, founded on the love of approbation and self esteem. There was little of moral consideration, and less of moral and intellectual preference in the tie. So long as both are prosperous, and none of the circumstances of the original compact changed, the sympathy of selfesteem and love of approbation remains. But one, instead of remaining a rich and popular friend, becomes poor and forsaken; and the harmony between the selfish faculties, on which the union was formed, is broken. Is it strange, that the remaining rich and esteemed partner will transfer his friendship to another individual who will restore the balance of sympathy and gain? Is it strange, that he should forsake the poor and attach himself to the genteel friend? The cast-away will find, if he examines his own mind and heart, that in the reverse of cases, he would have taken the same steps with his perfidious friend. In other words, a friendship founded simply on selfish considerations, can exist no longer, than the existence of the causes, on which it was based.

The author exemplifies a similar principle in the case of Sheridan, and in the language of phrenology. If,' he says, 'we examine the head of Sheridan, we shall perceive large adhesiveness, self esteem and love of approbation, with deficient reflecting organs and moderate conscientiousness.' He abounded in those organs, which gave him talents for observation and display. His reputation was brilliant, and he was surrounded by friends, to whom he probably felt attachment in return. Destitute of morality, his regard was neither true, disinterested, nor honest. He abused their kindness, became poor and wretched, and ceased to confer honor, or gratify their love of approbation. They all forsook him; and what marvel, that a connection, founded on selfish principles, should terminate with the annihilation of the basis, on which it was founded?

Again a manufacturer became rich, and built a princely mansion, and furnished it in appropriate splendor. He invited all his customers and humble friends to see it. He led them through the numerous apartments, and dazzled them with the splendor and magnificence, and displayed, in its full blaze, his grandeur and taste. He imagined, that he was confering a pleasure, and filling their minds with admiration of his greatness. What was the result? Their selfishness was revolted by his. They saw no love, no benevolence to them, no regard to the general good in the grand fabric. They were all aware of the motive, from which it sprang. His humble brethren walked through the princely halls, saw the rich carpets, mirrors, gilding, burnishing and array, and read his exultation, his consciousness of importance of his claims upon their admiration, and his desire, that they would minister food to his vanity. The worst portion of them hated him. The better pitied his folly, and the silliest were the only party gratified; and their pitiful pleasure arose from a source as selfish, as his. In their own circle they could boast, how great a friend they were intimate with, and in how grand a style they had been entertained. Who, that has seen such scenes, cannot remember similar displays at least in kind? One ray of real and genuine benevolence in the rich man would have reversed the whole effect.

tem.

In investigating the sources of human happiness, the first and most obvious circumstance of the condition of man is, that his enjoyment must arise, in a great measure, from the activity of every constituent of his sysThe wisdom and benevolence of the laws of nature must then appear in the arrangements of creation, to excite the various powers, corporeal and mental, to activity. This is actually the case. A certain portion of nervous and muscular energy is infused every twenty four hours into the human frame, and there is a positive pleasure in expending it. The whole frame, every thing within and around it, are continually inviting to this expenditure. Gaining knowledge is delightful for its own sake. Novelty gratifies, because it is novelty and therefore exciting. Comparison furnishes an agreeable mental occupation; and thus there is spread before us the causes of continual excitement and occupation. Suppose every thing, we comprehend, and acquire, had been infused into our minds at birth by intuition. Suppose the first meal, we had ever eaten, had prevented forever the recurrence of a second hunger, would our condition have been happier? Does the acquired wealth of the avaricious yield him the same enjoyment, as that, of which he is still in