of connection and casuality arise; he loves now to draw inferences which are as easy as they were formerly difficult, and he becomes suddenly a maker of objections and a reasoner. He begins to find pleasure in reflecting on himself, in observing what he does and what he thinks: he is inclined to compare himself with others in respect of these new faculties which he feels an interest in studying as they appear in others; and if he finds he has any advantage, he is much more flattered than by any superiority of strength or address, although he is still more flattered by the latter quality, than he will be by-and-bye. This is a wonderful revolution, which would have been quite impossible to all the common places of wisdom.

The new facility which the youth feels he possesses for all the operations of intellect, seldom fail to lead him astray. He seems to think he invents, he creates what he discovers; it seems to him that thought goes on quicker in him than in men in general; he sees with a kind of disdain the intellectual slowness and circumspection of riper age. He does not perceive that he is only working upon that multitude of ideas, which, during his long childhood, were inculcated with so much pains; he has not yet had time to feel that opposition, and experience alone can give him any just notion of the inconvenience of hasty conclusions, and of that facility which seems calculated to overcome all obstacles.

As muscular force and the feelings of life and health have augmented as well as his intellectual faculties, the young man sees before him an immense prospect; and the generative power with which he feels himself abundantly supplied, adds to his arrogance by multiplying his intellectual enjoyments.

Such is man in the spring-tide of life. The nervous system executes from henceforward all the functions which belong to it but the intellectual faculties do not acquire their full vigor till about the age of thirty; an epoch when the increase in growth has developed the whole brain in every direction to which its fibres can extend. During the space of time which separates the appearance of the last of the intellectual faculties from the full developement of the whole intellect, the judgement goes on toward perfection. The man having been often deceived by hasty conclusions. from first impressions, that is, having been repeatedly com

pelled by the acquisition of new ideas, to correct his first opinions, becomes gradually sensible of this kind of humiliation. The first time he commits these kind of errors, he hastens to correct them without feeling any thing but pleasure at having learnt some thing new; but when he sees the necessity of correction multiply continually, his self-love becomes alarmed, he becomes angry, and employs cunning to maintain the authority of his first conclusions: but internally and privately, he determines to endeavor to spare himself humiliation or anger, and becomes, as we say, circumspect.

It is now that his faculties, if they have been properly cultivated, are carried to their highest perfection. Man is so favored by nature, that he can enjoy them for a long time, and procure an amount of happiness, of which other animals seem to have no idea.

Let us see now to what is it owing that he enjoys all these advantages.

Sec. 3.

Reason of the prerogatives that distinguish man from all other animals.

We have left the youth in connection with every material object, animate and inanimate, distinguishing of his own accord, all their external attributes, and able to discover the most difficult of their physical properties, even to the circumstances that may modify them; but it is only when he is called upon to observe them, that he remembers wonderfully all the signs of his intellectual operations, and acquires in consequence, ideas of abstraction. But we have noticed that he exhibits great repugnance to make an application of these precious signs, to the investigation of those circumstances which produce a variation in the state of bodies, and to the comparison of his own intellect, with that of his equals: that is to say, he dislikes to abandon himself to reasoning and reflection. In other words, we have seen that he learnt easily, not only words,but the formula of ratiocination--that he seemed to understand them, but exhibited no propensity to make others like them, although placed in favorable circumstances; and that an insurmountable force brought back his attention to some order of ideas far less complicated. We have remarked, that at the same time when he acquired the faculty of reflection and of reasoning, a new sense manifested itself, with a new instinctive want. So that there is always the same law of the developement of man: if he acquires an in

crease of intellectual power, and an increase at the same time of instinctive faculties.. But nature seems to have associated the perfection of intelligence with the generative faculty; so that the young man shall not become transformed into the father of a family, before he has acquired the strength and intelligence necessary to provide for all the wants of his offspring. The exceptions of this rule, though rare, sufficiently demonstrate its great importance. We see among male children instances of premature puberty at five or seven years, for instance, which are accompanied with the usual grade of intellect of that time of life; a disgusting and deplorable spectacle. It is by investigating these kinds of subjects, that we can obtain a solution of the question that occupies us. Let them be well examined, and it will be found, as Dr. Gall has well remarked, that the cerebellum is more than usually developed, while the anterior part of the brain, the seat of intelligence, which is always at its full size at the full period of regular puberty, is not larger than what belongs to a mere infant. Dr. Gall concludes that the cerebellum is the special presiding organ of generation; but if we consider, 1st. That the heart, the sanguineous system, the respiratory muscles, those that depend on the will, take their last growth with the cerebellum, as well as the organs of generation; 2dly. That if the testicles are taken away before puberty, the developement of all those organs, as well as of the cerebellum, is deficient; 3dly. That castration, after the age of puberty, diminishes not merely the cerebellum, but all the muscular apparatus, and the sanguineous system-we shall be compelled to allow, 1st. That the cerebellum is not alone appointed to the use of the instinct of propagation, but it is equally connected with that increase. of vital energy that produces the full developement of all the organs; 2dly. That it is not the sole promoter of these changes; 3dly. That the simultaneous developement of the cerebellum, the sanguineous system, and the external muscles, after that of the testicles or ovaries, is the only constant fact; but, that usually the brain receives, at the same time, its last impulse of growth on which the intellectual faculties depend, more especially those of reflection and induction. This suffices to answer the question before proposed. Sec. 4. On what depend, the final developement of the intellectual and instinctive faculties, which accompany the crolution of puberty.

It seems that the developement of the testicles and ovaries, is brought on by the common process of nutrition, which always causes the most important organs of existence in the individual to precede those that are less so; that these organs begin to grow and secrete without any preparatory shock; and that they excite throughout the viscera, whether by the influence of the nerves distributed through the organs, or by the re-absorption of the liquor they elaborate, an excess of vitality which pushes on the whole body toward its last degree of developement. This was nearly the common opinion, prior to the system of Dr. Gall, who referred all these charges to the cerebellum. But why should we impute to it those changes which the cerebellum alone cannot produce? Why does it not grow? Why not determine the forms of puberty among eunuchs, always excepting that which relates to the generative act? Why does it not preserve these forms among youths at puberty, whom we submit to castration? How happens it that it is itself oppressed after this operation, in common with all the muscular system? Will it be said that this cerebellum makes use of the genital organs as an instrument to react on the animal economy? This will admit the influence so long acknowledged, of the testicles on the sanguiferous system, the muscles, and even on the brain. It is easier then to take the facts as they are, and acknowledge that since the cerebellum is incapable of producing changes in the form, in the voice, the color, the muscular force, the character, the inclinations that characterize puberty-these changes are results of the developement of that part of the genital apparatus, destined to furnish the first materials of the embryo; that the cerebellum is thence affected like every other part of the encephalon, but that its developement is more particularly connected with the internal functions which preside over nutrition, and produce the abundance and energy of the fibre.*

We see that the intellectual, like the instinctive faculties, are developed along with the nervous system; that they result from the insensible ampliation or growth that takes place in the encephalon and the distributed nervous system, during the period from the embryo to the adult state; that they are in fact, to the physiological observer, nothing more

I doubt whether these considerations are quite sufficient to set aside Gall's facts.Transl.

than the transmission of nervous encephalic stimulation, considered under peculiar circumstances. The catenation of the facts which we have unfolded, proves this; but to add to this proof, we shall present the following considerations drawn from the same source, a rigorous observation of facts.

1. The quantity of innervation afforded by the instinctive and intellectual phenomena, being of a higher character, and connected also with that which causes muscular motion, is in its degree necessarily a disturber; it would soon terminate our existence, if it were not interrupted at the end of a certain time: hence the necessity of sleep, which substitutes another form of innervation for that of wakefulness. Sleep, when perfect, suspends these two kinds of phenomena, although it cannot prevent some of the stronger stimulations of the nerves from reaching the brain, and being from thence reflected on other nerves. What proves this, is, that the muscular surfaces of the hollow organs, and the respiratory muscles, which cannot act regularly, but by means of the brain, continue their motions, while no instinctive act is manifest, and no thought troubles the repose of sleep.

Dreams do not take place but in imperfect sleep, or at the beginning and the end of usual sleep. But if you awaken suddenly a profound sleeper somewhat fatigued, in the midst of his first sleep, he will tell you he had no dream. Dreams and somnambulism come in aid of our assertion, for they present a feeble kind of rest wherein many stimulations reach the brain, and determine that series of thoughts and acts which always show an incomplete and irregular state of encephalic innervation. Sometimes the regular instinct. brings in subjection the intellect to which it was subordinate during wakefulness; sometimes an irregular intellect provokes instinctive motions which would not otherwise have taken place, &c. but this innervation is always less considerable than what takes place in a state of wakefulness. The fœtus seems to pass through these different shades of innervation. During the first months its sleep is perfect; during the latter months it is often interrupted by perceptions which cannot bring into play any thing but instinct in its most limited phenomena relating to the preservation of the individual; nor do they shew themselves, except by momentary motions produced by pain. These motions are