were deaf and dumb; and in the family of Aldum, a | children, whose existence dated from periods wher weaver, six out of twelve were deaf and dumb. The result of a table of twenty families, given in the 'Historical Sketch of the Asylum,' published by Powell, Dowgate-hill, is ninety deaf and dumb out of one hundred and fifty-nine children."* A medical friend says, "Several of the children of a clergyman, in the west of Scotland, have been born blind. I know a family of six individuals-four girls and two boys. All the girls were born blind, while the boys see perfectly. Both parents had good eyesight, so far as I can learn. These are curious facts, and not easily explained." Portal states, that "Morgagni has seen three sisters dumb d'origine.' Other authors also cite examples, and I have seen like cases myself." In a note, he adds, "I have seen three children out of four of the same family blind from birth by amaurosis, or gutta serena."-Portal, Mémoires sur Plusieurs Maladies, tom. iii. p. 193. Paris, 1808. Dr Prichard, in his "Researches," already quoted, observes, "Children resemble, in feature and constitution, both parents, but, I think, more generally the father. In the breeding of horses and oxen, great importance is attached, by experienced propagators, to the male. In sheep, it is commonly observed that black rams beget black lambs. In the human species also, the complexion chiefly follows that of the father; and I believe it to be a general fact, that the offspring of a black father and white mother is much darker than the progeny of a white father and a dark mother." Vol. ii. p. 551. These facts appear to me to be referable to both causes. The stock must have had some influence, but the mother, in all these cases, is not impressed by her own colour, because she does not look on herself; while the father's complexion must strikingly attract her attention, and way, in this way, give the darker tinge to the offspring. 4. The idea of the transmission of temporary mental and bodily qualities, is supported by numerous facts tending to show that the state of the parents, particularly of the mother, at the time when the existence of the child commences, has a strong influence on its talents, dispositions, and health. The father of Napoleon Buonaparte, says Sir Walter Scott," is stated to have possessed a very handsome person, a talent for eloquence, and a vivacity of intellect, which he transmitted to his son." "It was in the middle of civil discord, fights, and skirmishes, that Charles Buonaparte married Lætitia Ramolini, one of the most beautiful young women of the island, and possessed of a great deal of firmness of character. She partook of the dangers of her husband during the years of civil war, and is said to have accompanied him on horseback on some military expeditions, or perhaps hasty flights, shortly before her being delivered of the future emperor."-Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, vol. iii. p. 6. The murder of David Rizzio was perpetrated by armed nobles, with many circumstances of violence and terror, in the presence of Mary Queen of Scotland, shortly before the birth of her son, afterwards James the First of England. The constitutional liability of this monarch to emotions of fear, is recorded as a characteristic of his mind; and it has been mentioned that he even started involuntarily at the sight of a drawn sword. Queen Mary was not deficient in courage, and the Stuarts, both before and after James the First, were distinguished for this quality; so that his dispositions were an exception to the family character. Napoleon and James form striking contrasts; and it may be remarked, that the mind of Napoleon's mother appears to have risen to the danger to which she was exposed, and braved it; while the circumstances in which Queen Mary was placed, were such as inspired her with fear. Esquirol, a celebrated French medical writer, in adverting to the causes of madness, mentions that many * Athenæum, 28th May 1825, p. 498. Black hens, however, lay dark-coloured eggs. the horrors of the French Revolution were at their height, turned out subsequently to be weak, nervous, and irritable in mind, extremely susceptible of impressions, and liable to be thrown, by the least extraordinary excitement, into absolute insanity. A lady of considerable talent wrote as follows to a phrenological friend :-"From the age of two I foresaw that my eldest son's restlessness would ruin him; and it has been even so. Yet he was kind, brave, and affectionate. I read the Iliad for six months before he saw the light, and have often wondered if that could have any influence on him. He was actually an Achilles."* " I The following particulars have been communicated to me by the medical friend already alluded to. know an old gentleman," says he, "who has been twice married. The children of his first marriage are strong, active, healthy people, and their children are the same. The produce of his second marriage are very inferior, especially in an intellectual point of view; and the younger the children are, the more is this obvious. The girls are superior to the boys, both physically and intellectually : indeed, their mother told me that she had great difficulty in rearing her sons, but none with her daughters. The gentleman himself, at the time of his second marriage, was upwards of sixty, and his wife about twenty-five. This shows very clearly that the boys have taken chiefly of the father, and the daughters of the mother." In a case which fell under my own observation, the father of a family became sick, had a partial recovery, but relapsed, declined in health, and in two months died. Seven months after his death, a son was born, of the full age, and the origin of whose existence was referable to the period of the partial recovery. At that time, and during the subsequent two months, the faculties of the mother were highly excited, in ministering to her husband, to whom she was greatly attached; and, after his death, the same excitement continued, as she was then loaded with the charge of a numerous family, but not depressed; for her circumstances were comfortable. The son is now a young man; and while his constitution is the most delicate, the developement and activity of the mental organs are decidedly greater in him than in any other member of the family. A lady possessing a large brain and active tempera. ment, was employed professionally as a teacher of music. Her husband also had a fine temperament, and a well-constituted brain, but his talents for music were only moderate. They had several children, all of whom were produced while the mother was in the full practice of her profession, and the whole now indicate superior musical abilities. They have learned to play on several instruments as if by instinct, and highly excel. In this case the original endowments of the mother, and her actual exercise of them, conspired to transmit them to her children. A friend told me that in his youth he lived in a county in which the gentlemen were much addicted to hard drinking; and that he, too frequently, took a part in their revels. Several of his sons, born at that time, although subsequently educated in a very different moral atmosphere, turned out strongly addicted to inebriety; whereas the children born after he had removed to a large town and formed more correct habits, were not the victims of this propensity. Another individual, of superior talents, described to me the wild and mischievous revelry in which he indulged at the time of his marriage, and congratulated himself on his subsequent domestication and moral improvement. His eldest son, born in his riotous days, notwithstand. ing a strictly moral education, turned out a personification of the father's actual condition at that time; and his younger children were more moral in propor * This lady's head is large; in particular, the organs of Combativeness, Self-Esteem, and Firmness, are very large; those of Destructiveness and Adhesiveness are large; and the temperament is very active. tion as they were removed from the period of vicious thousands of miseries that now render life too often frolics. The mother, in this case, possessed a favour-only a series of calamities! The views here exable developement of brain. pounded also harmonise with the principle maintained in a former part of this work. That, as activity in the faculties is the fountain of enjoyment, the whole constitution of nature is designedly framed to support them in ceaseless action. What scope for observation, reflection, exercise of the moral sentiments, and the regulation of animal impulse, does not this picture of nature present! The Margravine of Anspach observes, that "when a female is likely to become a mother, she ought to be doubly careful of her temper; and, in particular, to indulge no ideas that are not cheerful, and no sentiments that are not kind. Such is the connection between the mind and body, that the features of the face are moulded commonly into an expression of the internal disposition; and is it not natural to think that an infant, before it is born, may be affected by the temper of its mother?"-Memoirs, vol. ii. chap. viii.* When two parties marry very young, the eldest of their children generally inherits a less favourable developement of the moral and intellectual organs, than those produced in more mature age. The animal organs in the human race are in general most vigorous in early life, and this energy appears to cause them to be then most readily transmitted to offspring. Indeed, it is difficult to account for the wide varieties in the form of the brain in children of the same family, except on the principle, that the organs which predo-have exercised a powerful influence over the developeminate in vigour and activity in the parents, at the time when existence is communicated, determine the tendency of corresponding organs to develope themselves largely in the children. The facts illustrative of the truth of this principle, which have been communicated to me and observed by myself, are so numerous, that I now regard it as extremely probable. If this be really the law of nature as there is so great reason for believing it is-then parents, in whom Combativeness and Destructiveness are habitually active, will transmit these organs, in a state of high developement and excitement, to their children; while parents in whom the moral and intellectual organs exist in supreme vigour, will transmit these in great est perfection. This view is in harmony with the fact, that children generally, although not universally, resemble their parents in their mental qualities; because, the largest organs being naturally the most active, the general and habitual state of the parents will be determined by those which predominate in size in their own brains; and, on the principle that predominance in activity and energy causes the transmission of similar qualities to the offspring, the children will in this way very generally resemble the parents. But they will not always do so; because even very inferior characters, in whom the moral and intellectual organs are deficient, may be occasionally exposed to external influences which, for the time, may excite these organs to unwonted vivacity; and, according to the rule now explained, a child dating its existence from that period may inherit a brain superior to that of the parent. On the other hand, a person with an excellent moral developement, may, by some particular occurrence, have his animal propensities roused to unwonted vigour, and his moral sentiments thrown for a time into the shade; and any offspring connected with this condition, would prove inferior to himself in the developement of the moral organs, and greatly surpass him in the size of those of the propensities. I repeat, that I do not present these views as ascertained phrenological science, but as inferences strongly supported by facts, and consistent with known phenomena. If we suppose them to be true, they will greatly strengthen the motives for preserving the habitual supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect; since by our doing so, improved moral and intellectual capacities may be conferred on offspring. If it be true that this lower world is arranged in harmony with the supremacy of the higher faculties, what a noble prospect would this law open up, of the possibility of man ultimately becoming capable of placing himself more fully in accordance with the Divine institutions than he has hitherto been able to do, and, in consequence, of reaping numberless enjoyments that appear destined for him by his Creator, and avoiding * See Appendix, No VIL I cordially agree, however, with Dr Prichard, that this subject is still involved in great obscurity. "We know not," says he, "by what means any of the facts we remark are effected; and the utmost we can hope to attain is, by tracing the connexion of circumstances, to learn from what combinations of them we may expect to witness particular results." Vol. ii. p. 542. But much of this darkness may be traced to ignorance of the functions of the brain. If we consider that, in relation to mind, the brain has always been the most important organ of our system; that the mental condition of their parents must almost necessarily ment of the cerebral organs in their children; that the relative size of the organs determines the predominance of particular talents and dispositions; but that, nevertheless, all past observations have been conducted without the knowledge of these facts; it will not appear marvellous, that hitherto much confusion and contradiction have existed in the cases recorded, and in the inferences drawn from them on this subject. At the present moment, almost all that phrenologists can pretend to accomplish is, to point out the mighty void; to offer an exposition of its causes, and to state such conclusions as their own very limited observations have hitherto enabled them to deduce. Far from pretending to be in possession of certain and complete knowledge on this topic, I am inclined to think, that, although every conjecture now hazarded were founded in nature, centuries of observation might probably be necessary to render the principles fully practical. At present we have almost no information concerning the effects, on the children, of different temperaments, different combinations in the cerebral organs, and differences of age, in the parents. It is astonishing, however, to what extent mere pecuniary interests excite men to investigate and observe the Natural Laws, while moral and rational considerations appear to exert so small an influence in leading them to do so. Before a common insurance company will undertake the risk of paying L.100 on the death of an individual, they require the following questions to be answered by credible and intelligent witnesses : "1. How long have you known Mr A. B. ? "3. Has he had a spitting of blood, asthma, con- "5. Has he been afflicted with fits, or mental derangement? "6. Do you think his constitution perfectly good, in the common acceptation of the term? "7. Are his habits in every respect strictly regular and temperate ? "8. Is he at present in good health? "9. Is there any thing in his form, habits of living, or business, which you are of opinion may shorten his life? "10. What complaints are his family most subject to? "11. Are you aware of any reason why an insurance might not with safety be effected on his life ?" A man and woman about to marry, have, in the generality of cases, the health and happiness of five or more human beings depending on their attention to considerations essentially the same as the foregoing, and yet how much less ecrupulous are they than the mere speculators in money! "Before the par ties," says Dr Caldwell, "form a compact fraught with consequences so infinitely weighty, let the constitution and education of both be matured. They will then not only transmit to their offspring a better organisation, but be themselves, from the knowledge and experience they have attained, better prepared to improve it by cultivation. For I shall endeavour to make it appear that cultivation can improve it. When a skilful agriculturist wishes to amend his breed of cattle, he does not employ, for that purpose, immature animals. On the contrary, he carefully prevents their intercourse. Experience moreover teaches him not to expect fruit of the best quality from immature fruittrees or vines. The product of such crudeness is always defective. In like manner, marriages between boarding-school girls and striplings in or just out of college, ought to be prohibited. In such cases, prohibition is a duty, no less to the parties themselves, than to their offspring and society. Marriages of the kind are rarely productive of any thing desirable. Mischief and unhappiness of some sort are their natural fruit. Patriotism, therefore, philanthropy, and every feeling of kindness to human nature, call for their prevention. Objections resting on ground not altogether dissimilar may be justly urged against young women marrying men far advanced in years. Old men should in no case contract marriages likely to prove fruitful. Age has impaired their constitutional qualities, which descending to their offspring, the practice tends to deteriorate our race. It is rare for the descendants of men far advanced in years to be distinguished for high qualities of either body or mind. "As respects persons seriously deformed, or in any way constitutionally enfeebled-the rickety and clubfooted, for instance, and those with distorted spines, or who are predisposed to insanity, scrofula, pulmonary consumption, gout, or epilepsy-all persons of this description should conscientiously abstain from matrimony. In a special manner, where both the male and female labour under a hereditary taint, they should make it a part of their duty to God and their posterity never to be thus united. Marriage in such individuals cannot be defended on moral ground, much less on that of public usefulness. It is selfish to an extent but little short of crime. Its abandonment or prevention would tend, in a high degree, to the improvement of mankind."* I am indebted for the following particulars to the medical gentleman already repeatedly quoted, who was induced to communicate them by a perusal of the second edition of the present treatise :-" If your work has no other effect than that of turning attention to the laws which regulate marriage and propagation, it will have done a vast service, for on no point are such grievous errors committed. I often see in my own practice the most lamentable consequences resulting from neglect of these laws. There are certain families which I attend, where the constitutions of both parents are bad, and where, when any thing happens to the children, it is almost impossible to cure them. An inflamed gland, a common cold, hangs about them for months, and almost defies removal. In other families, where the parents are strong and healthy, the children are easily cured of almost any complaint. I know a gentleman aged about 50, the only survivor of a family of six sons and three daughters, all of whom, with the exception of himself, died young of pulmonary consumption. He is a little man with a narrow chest, and married a lady of a delicate constitution and bad lungs. She is a tall spare woman, with a chest still more deficient than his own. They have had a large family, all of whom die off regularly as they reach manhood and womanhood, in consequence of affections of the lungs. In the year 1833, two sons and a daughter died within a period of ten months. *Thoughts on the True Mode of Improving the Condition of Man. By Charles Caldwell, M.D. Lexington, Kentucky, 1833, p. 20. The greater part of this eloquent and powerful Essay is reprinted in the Phrenological Journal, vol. viii. No. 40. Two still survive, but they are both delicate, and There is no moral difficulty in admitting and admiring the wisdom and benevolence of the institution by which good qualities are transmitted from parents to children: but it is frequently held as unjust to the latter, that they should inherit parental deficiencies, and so be made to suffer for sins which they did not commit. In treating of this difficulty, I must again refer to the supremacy of the moral sentiments, as the theory of the constitution of the world. The animal propensities are all selfish, and regard only the immediate and apparent interest of the individual; while the higher sentiments delight in that which communicates the greatest quantity of enjoyment to the greatest number. Now, let us, in the first place, suppose the law of hereditary descent to be abrogated al. together-that is to say, the natural qualities of each individual of the race to be conferred at birth, without the slightest reference to what his parents had been or done;-this form of constitution would obviously have cut off every possibility of improvement in the race, by any means within the control of man. Every phrenologist knows that the brains of the New Hollanders, Caribs, and other savage tribes, are distinguished by great deficiencies in the moral and intellec tual organs.+ If, however, it be true that a considerable developement of the intellectual and moral organs is indispensable to the comprehension of science and the practice of virtue, it would, on the present sup. position, be impossible to raise the New Hollanders, as a people, one step higher in capacity for intelligence and virtue than they now are. We might cultivate each generation up to the limits of its powers, but there the improvement, and a low one it would be, would stop; for, the next generation being produced with brains equally deficient in the moral and intellectual regions, no principle of increasing amelioration could exist. The same remarks are applicable to every tribe of mankind. If we assume modern Europeans as a standard-then, if the law of hereditary descent were abrogated, every deficiency which at this moment is attributable to imperfect or disproportionate developement of brain, would be irremediable by human means, and continue as long as the race existed. Each generation might be cultivated till the summit-level of its capacities were attained, but higher than this no succeeding generation could rise. When we contrast with such a prospect the very opposite effects flowing from the law of hereditary transmission of qualities in *See Appendix, No. VIII. †This fact is demonstrated by specimens in most Phrenological Collections. an increasing ratio, the whole advantages are at once perceived to be on the side of the latter arrangement. According to this rule, the children of the individuals who have obeyed the organic, the moral, and the intellectual laws, will not only start from the highest level of their parents in acquired knowledge, but will inherit an enlarged developement of the moral and intellectual organs, and thereby enjoy an increasing capability of discovering and obeying the institutions of the Creator. .... It appears to me that the native American savages, and native New Hollanders, cannot, with their present brains, adopt Christianity or civilisation. Mr Timothy Flint, a Presbyterian clergyman, who passed ten years, commencing in 1815, in wanderings and preaching in the valley of the Mississippi, says of the Indians among whom he lived, "that they have not the same acute and tender sensibilities with the other races of men. They seem callous to every passion but rage.". "Their impassible fortitude and endurance of suffering, which have been so much vaunted, are, after all, in my mind, the result of a greater degree of physical insensibility." "No ordinary stimulus excites them to action. None of the common excitements, endearments, or motives, operate upon them at all. They seem to hold most of the things that move us in proud disdain. The horrors of their warfare the infernal rage of their battles-the demoniac fury of gratified revenge-the alternations of hope and despair in their gambling, to which they are addicted far beyond the whites the brutal exhilaration of drunkenness these are their excitements." He concludes, "It strikes me that Christianity is the re. ligion of civilised man; that the savages must first be civilised; and that, as there is little hope that the present generation of Indians can be civilised, there is but little more that they will be christianised.” The reader will find, in the phrenological collections, specimens of the skulls of these savages; and on comparing them with those of Europeans, he will observe that, in the American Indians, the organs of reflecting intellect, and of all the moral feelings, are greatly inferior in size to the same organs in the Europeans. The moral and intellectual organs are decidedly larger in the Sandwich Islanders than in these Indians, and they have received European civilisation with greater cordiality and success. If, by conforming to the organic laws, the moral and intellectual organs of the American savages could be considerably enlarged, they would desire civilisation, and would adopt it when offered. If this view be well founded, every method used for their cultivation, which is not calculated at the same time to improve their cerebral organisation, will be limited in its effects by the narrow capacities attending their present developement. In youth, all the organs of the body are more susceptible of modification than in advanced age; and hence the effects of education on the young may arise from the greater susceptibility of the brain to changes at that period than in later life. This improvement will, no doubt, have its limits; but it may probably extend to that point at which man will be capable of placing himself in harmony with the natural laws. The effort necessary to maintain himself there, will still provide for the activity of his faculties. 2dly, We may suppose the law of hereditary descent to be limited to the transmission of good, and abrogated as to the transmission of bad qualities; and it may be thought that such an arrangement would be more benevolent and just. There are objections to this view, however, which do not occur without reflection to the mind. We see as matter of fact, that a vicious and debased parent is actually defective in the moral and intellectual organs. Now, if his children should take up exactly the same developement as himself, this would be the transmission of imperfections, which is the very thing objected to; while, if they were to take up a developement fixed by nature, and not at all referable to that of the parent, this would render the whole race stationary in their first condition, without D the possibility of improvement in their capacities which also, we have seen, would be an evil greatly to be deprecated. But, 3dly, The bad developement might be supposed to transmit, by hereditary descent, a good developement. This, however, would set at nought the supremacy of justice and benevolence; it would render the conse quences of contempt for and violation of the divine laws, and of obedience to them, in this particular, precisely alike. The debauchee, the cheat, the murderer, and the robber, would, according to this view, be able to look upon the prospects of his posterity with the same confidence in their welfare and happiness, as the pious intelligent Christian, who had sought to know God and to obey his institutions during his whole life. Certainly no individual in whom the higher sentiments prevail, will for a moment regard this imagined change as any improvement on the Creator's arrangements. What a host of motives to moral and religious conduct would at once be withdrawn, were such a spectacle of divine government exhibited to the world! 4thly, It may be supposed that human happiness would have been more completely secured, by endow ing all individuals at birth with that degree of deve lopement of the moral and intellectual organs which would have best fitted them for discovering and obeying the Creator's laws, and by preventing all aberrations from this standard: just as the lower animals appear to have received instincts and capacities adjusted with the most perfect wisdom to their conditions. Two remarks occur on this supposition. First, We are not competent at present to judge correctly how far the developement actually bestowed on the human race is, or is not, wisely adapted to their circumstances; for possibly there may be, in the great system of hu man society, departments exactly suited to all existing forms of brain not imperfect through disease, but which our knowledge is insufficient to discover. The want of a natural index to the mental dispositions and capacities of individuals, and of a true theory of the constitution of society, may have hitherto precluded philosophers from arriving at sound conclusions on this question. It appears to me probable, that while there may be great room for improvement in the talents and dispositions of vast numbers of individuals, the imperfections of the race in general may not be so great as we, in our present state of ignorance of the aptitudes of particular persons for particular situations, are prone to infer. But, secondly, On the principle that activity of the faculties is the fountain of enjoyment, it may be questioned whether additional motives to the exercise of the moral and intellectual powers, and consequently greater happiness, are not conferred by leaving men (within certain limits) to regulate the talents and tendencies of their descendants, than by en dowing each individual with the best qualities, inde pendently of the conduct of his parents. The actual law, On the whole, therefore, there seems reason for concluding, that the actual institution, by which both good and bad qualities* are transmitted, is fraught with higher advantages to the race, than the abrogation of the law of transmission altogether, or than the supposed change of it, by which bad men would trans mit good qualities to their children. when viewed by the moral sentiments and intellect, appears, both in its principles and in its consequences, beneficial and expedient. When an individual sufferer, therefore, complains of its operation, he regards it through the animal faculties alone; his self-love is annoyed, and he carries his thoughts no farther. He never stretches his mind forward to the consequences which would ensue to mankind at large, if the law qualities," I do not mean to insinuate that any of the tendencies * In using the popular expressions "good qualities" and "bad bestowed on man are essentially bad in themselves. Destructive ness and Acquisitiveness, for example, are in themselves essential to human welfare in this world, and, when properly directed, pro duce effects unquestionably good; but they become the sources of evil when they are ill directed, which may happen either from being too large in proportion to those of the superior sentiments moral deficiency, from intellectual ignorance, or from their organs and intellect. which grieves him were reversed. The animal faculties regard nothing beyond their own immediate and apparent interest, and they do not even discern it correctly; for no arrangement that is beneficial for the race would be found injurious to individuals, if its operations in regard to them were distinctly traced. The abrogation of the rule, therefore, under which they complain, would, we may be certain, bring ten thousand times greater evils, even upon themselves, than its continuance. On the other hand, an individual sufferer under hereditary pain, in whom the moral and intellectual faculties predominate, and who should see the principle and consequences of the institution of hereditary descent as now explained, would not murmur at them as unjust: he would bow with submission to an institution which he perceived to be fraught with blessings to the race when it was known and observed; and the very practice of this reverential acquiescence would be so delightful, that it would diminish, in a great degree, the severity of his misfortune. Besides, he would see the door of mercy standing widely open, and inviting his return; he would perceive that every step which he made in his own person towards exact obedience to the Creator's laws, would remove by so much the organic penalty transmitted on account of his parent's transgressions, and that his posterity would reap the full benefits of his more dutiful ob servance. It may be objected to the law of hereditary transmission of organic qualities, that the children of a blind and lame father have sound eyes and limbs. But, in the first place, these defects are generally the result of accident or disease, occurring either during pregnancy or posterior to birth, and are seldom or never the operation of nature; and, consequently, the original physical principles remaining entire in the constitution, the bodily imperfections are not transmitted to the progeny. Secondly, Where the defects are congenital or constitutional, it frequently happens that they are transmitted through successive generations. This is sometimes exemplified in blindness, and even in the possession of supernumerary fingers or toes. The reason why such peculiarities are not transmitted to all the progeny, appears to be simply that, in general, only one parent is defective. If the father, for instance, be blind or deaf, the mother is generally free from that imperfection, and her influence naturally extends to, and modifies the result in, the progeny. If the mental qualities transmitted to offspring be, as above explained, dependent on the organs most highly excited in the parents, this will account for the varieties, along with the general resemblance, that occur in children of the same marriage. It will account also for the circumstance of genius being sometimes transmitted and sometimes not. Unless both parents possessed the cerebral developement and temperament of genius, the law would not certainly transmit these qualities to the children; and even although both did possess these endowments, they would be transmitted only on condition of the parents obeying the organic laws-one of which forbids that excessive exertion of the mental and corporeal functions which exhausts and debilitates the system; an error almost universally committed by persons endowed with high original talent, under the present condition of ignorance of the natural laws, and erroneous fashions and institutions of society. The supposed law would be disproved by cases of weak, imbecile, and vicious children, being born to parents whose own constitution and habits had been in the highest accordance with the organic, moral, and intellectual laws; but no such cases have hitherto come under my observation. As rules are best taught by examples, I shall now mention some facts that have fallen under my own notice, or been communicated to me from authentic sources, illustrative of the practical consequences of infringing the law of hereditary descent. A man, aged about 50, possessed a brain in which the animal, moral, and knowing intellectual organs, were all large, but the reflecting small. He was pious, but destitute of education; he married an unhealthy young woman, deficient in moral developement, but of considerable force of character; and several children were born. The father and mother were far from being happy; and when the children attained to eighteen or twenty years of age, they were adepts in every species of immorality and profligacy: they picked their father's pocket, stole his goods, and got them sold back to him, by accomplices, for money, which was spent in betting, cock-fighting, drinking, and low debauchery. The father was heavily grieved; but knowing only two resources, he beat the children severely as long as he was able, and prayed for them: his own words were, that "if, after that, it pleased the Lord to make vessels of wrath of them, the Lord's will must just be done." I mention this last observation, not in jest, but in great seriousness. It was im. possible not to pity the unhappy father: yet, who that sees the institutions of the Creator to be in themselves wise, but in this instance to have been directly violated, will not acknowledge that the bitter pangs of the poor old man were the consequences of his own ignorance; and that it was an erroneous view of the divine administration which led him to overlook his own mistakes, and to attribute to the Almighty the purpose of making vessels of wrath of his children, as the only explanation which he could give of their wicked dispositions? Who that sees the cause of his misery can fail to lament that his piety was not enlightened by philosophy, and directed to obedience, in the first instance, to the organic laws of the Creator, as one of the prescribed conditions without observance of which he had no title to expect a blessing upon his offspring? In another instance, a man, in whom the animal organs, particularly those of Combativeness and Destructiveness, were very large, but who had a pretty fair moral and intellectual developement, married, against her inclination, a young woman, fashionably and showily educated, but with a very decided deficiency of Conscientiousness. They soon became unhappy, and even blows were said to have passed between them, although they belonged to the middle rank of life. The mother employed the children to deceive and plunder the father, and latterly spent the pilfered sums in purchasing ardent spirits. The sons inherited the deficient morality of the mother, and the ill temper of the father. The family fireside became a theatre of war, and, before the sons attained majority, the father was glad to get them removed from his house, as the only means by which he could feel even his life in safety from their violence; for they had by that time retaliated the blows with which he had visited them in their younger years, and he stated that he actually considered his life to be in danger from his own offspring. In another family, the mother possesses an excel. lent developement of the moral and intellectual organs, while in the father the animal organs predominate in great excess. She has been the unhappy victim of ceaseless misfortune, originating from the misconduct of her husband. Some of the children have inherited the father's brain, and some the mother's; and of the sons whose heads resembled that of the father, several have died through mere debauchery and profligacy under thirty years of age; whereas those who resemble the mother are alive, and little contaminated even amidst all the disadvantages of evil example. On the other hand, I am not acquainted with a single instance in which the moral and intellectual organs predominated in both father and mother, and where external circumstances permitted their general activity, in which the whole children did not partake of a moral and intellectual character, differing slightly in degrees of excellence one from another, but all presenting the decided predominance of the human over the animal faculties. There are well-known examples of the children of |