this kind would stimulate reflection to discover means | in whom the feeling in question is naturally weak, and of avoiding others. Similar illustrations and commentaries might be given, in regard to the other physical laws to which man is subject; but the object of the present essay being merely to evolve principles, I confine myself to gravitation, as the most obvious and best understood. I do not mean to say, that, by the mere exercise of intellect, man may absolutely guarantee himself against all accidents, but only that the more ignorant and careless he is, the more will he suffer-and the more intelligent and vigilant, the less; and that I can perceive no limits to this rule. The law of most civilised countries recognises this principle, and subjects owners of ships, coaches, and other vehicles, in reparation of damage arising from gross infringements of the physical laws. It is unquestionable that the enforcement of this liability has given increased security to travellers in no trifling degree. SECT. II.-ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND It is a very common error to imagine that the feelings of the mind are communicated to it through the medium of the intellect; and, in particular, that if no indelicate objects reach the eyes, or expressions penetrate the ears, perfect purity will necessarily reign within the soul: and, carrying this mistake into practice, they are prone to object to all discussion of the subjects treated of under the "Organic Laws," in works designed for general use. But their principle of reasoning is fallacious, and the result has been highly detrimental to society. The feelings have existence and activity distinct from the intellect; they spur it on to obtain their own gratification; and it may become either their guide or their slave, according as it is, or is not, enlightened concerning their constitution and objects, and the laws of nature to which they are subjected. The most profound philosophers have inculcated this doctrine, and by phrenological observation it is demonstratively established. The organs of the feelings are distinct from those of the intellectual faculties; they are larger; and as each faculty, cæteris paribus, acts with a vigour proportionate to the size of its organs, the feelings are obviously the more active or impelling powers. The cerebellum, or organ of Amativeness, is the largest of the whole mental organs; and, being endowed with natural activity, it fills the mind spontaneously with emotions and suggestions, the outward manifestation of which may be directed, controlled, and resisted, by intellect and moral sentiment, but which cannot be prevented from arising, or eradicated after they exist. The whole question, therefore, resolves itself into this: Whether is it more beneficial to enlighten the understanding, so as to dispose and enable it to control and direct that feeling-or (under the influence of an error in philosophy, and false delicacy founded on it) to permit it to riot in all the fierceness of a blind animal instinct, withdrawn from the eye of reason, but not thereby deprived of its vehemence and importunity? The former course appears to me to be the only one consistent with reason and morality; and I shall adopt it in reliance on the good sense of my readers, that they will at once discriminate between practical instruction concerning this feeling addressed to the intellect, and lascivious representations addressed to the mere propensity itself with the latter of which the enemies of all improvement may attempt to confound my observations. Every function of the mind and body is instituted by the Creator: each has a legitimate sphere of activity: but all may be abused; and it is impossible regularly to avoid abuse of them, except by being instructed in their nature, objects, and relations. This instruction ought to be addressed exclusively to the intellect; and when it is so, it is science of the most beneficial description. The propriety, nay necessity, of acting on this principle, becomes more and more apparent, when it is considered that such discussions suggest only intellectual ideas to individuals that such minds perceive no indelicacy in knowledge In almost every country, individuals are to be found, who have escaped from sickness during the whole course of a protracted life. Now, as a natural law never admits of an exception, this excellent health could not occur in any individuals unless it were fairly within the capabilities of the race. The sufferings of women in childbed have been cited as evidence that the Creator has not intended the human being, under any circumstances, to execute all its functions entirely free from pain. But, besides the obvious answer, that the objection applies only to one sex, and is therefore not to be too readily presumed to have its origin in nature, there is good reason to deny the assertion, and to ascribe the suffering in question to departures from the natural laws, in either the structure or the habits of the individuals who experience it.* The advantage of studying the finest models of the human figure, as exhibited in painting and sculpture, is to raise our ideas of the excellence of form and proportion to which our nature is capable of attaining; for, other conditions being equal, the most perfect forms and proportions are always the best adapted for health and activity. Let us hold, then, that the organised system of man, in itself, admits of the possibility of health, vigour, and organic enjoyment, during the full period of life; and proceed to inquire into the causes why these advantages are not universal. One organic law, I have stated, is, that the germ of the infant being must be complete in all its parts, and perfectly sound in its condition, as an indispensable requisite to vigorous dovelopement and full enjoyment of existence. If an agriculturist sow corn that is weak, wasted, and damaged, the plants that spring from it will be feeble, and liable to speedy decay. The same law holds in the animal kingdom; and I would ask, has it hitherto been observed by man? Notoriously it has not. Indeed, its existence has been either altogether unknown, or in a very high degree disregarded by human beings. The feeble, the sickly, the exhausted with age, and the incompletely developed through extreme youth, marry, and, without the least compunction regarding the organisation which they shall transmit to their offspring, send into the world miserable beings, the very rudiments of whose existence are tainted with disease. If we trace such conduct to its source, we shall find it to originate either in animal propensity, or in ignorance, or more frequently in both. The inspiring motives are generally mere sensual appetite, avarice, or ambition, operating in the absence of all just conceptions of the impending evils. The punishment of this offence is debility and pain transmitted to the children, and re- | flected back in anxiety and sorrow on the parents. Still the great point to be kept in view is, that these miseries are not legitimate consequences of observance of the organic laws, but the direct chastisement of their infringement. These laws are unbending, and admit of no exception; they must be fulfilled, or the penalties of disobedience will follow. On this subject profound ignorance reigns in society. From such observations as I have been able to make, I am convinced that the union of certain temperaments and combinations of mental organs in the parents, is highly conducive to health, talent, and morality in the offspring, and vice versa; and that these conditions may be discovered and taught with far greater certainty, facility, and advantage, than is generally imagined. It will be time enough to conclude that men are naturally incapable of obedience to the organic laws, when, after their intellectual faculties and moral sentiments have been trained to observance of the Creator's institutions, as at once their duty, their interest, and a grand source of their enjoyment, they shall be found in con tinued rebellion. A second organic law regards nutriment, which must be supplied of a suitable kind, and in due quantity. This law requires also free air, light, cleanliness, and attention to every physical arrangement by which the functions of the body may be strengthened or impaired. Have mankind, then, acted in accordance with, or neglected, this institution? I need scarcely answer the question. To be able to conform to institutions, we must first know them. Before we can * See Append. No. IV. know the organic constitution of our body, we must study it, and the study of the human constitution is anatomy and physiology. Before we can become acquainted with its relations to external objects, we must learn the existence and qualities of these objects (unfolded by chemistry, natural history, and natural philosophy), and compare them with the constitution of the human body. When we have fulfilled these conditions, we shall be better able to discover the laws which the Creator has instituted in regard to our organic system.* It will be said, however, that such studies are im. practicable to the great bulk of mankind, and, besides, do not appear much to benefit those who pursue them. They are impracticable only while mankind prefer founding their public and private institutions on the basis of the propensities, instead of on that of the moral sentiments. I have mentioned, that exercise of the nervous and muscular systems is required of all the race by the Creator's fiat; that if all who are capable would obey this law, a moderate amount of exertion, agreeable and salubrious in itself, would suffice to supply our wants, and to surround us with every beneficial luxury; and that a large portion of unemployed time would remain. The Creator has bestowed on us Knowing Faculties, fitted to explore the facts of these sciences, Reflecting Faculties to trace their relations, and Moral Sentiments calculated to feel interest in such investigations, and to lead us to reverence and obey the laws which they unfold; and, finally, He has made this occupation, when entered upon with the view of tracing His power and wisdom in the subjects of our studies, and of discovering and obeying His institutions, the most delightful and invigorating of all vocations. Instead, then, of such a course of education being impracticable, every arrangement of the Creator appears to be prepared in direct anticipation of its actual accomplishment. The second objection, that those who study these sciences are not more healthy and happy, as organised beings, than those who neglect them, admits of an easy answer. They may have inherited feeble frames from their parents. Besides, only parts of these sciences have been taught to a few individuals, whose main design in studying them has been to apply them as means of acquiring wealth and fame; but they have nowhere been taught as connected parts of a great system of natural arrangements, fraught with the highest influences on human enjoyment; and in almost no instance have the intellect and moral sentiments been systematically directed to the natural laws, as the grand fountains of happiness and misery to the race, and trained to observe and obey them as the institutions of the Creator. In cases where physiology, natural history, and natural philosophy, have been properly studied, the objection alluded to is at variance with experience and fact. A third organic law is, that all our functions shal be duly exercised; and is this law observed by mar kind? Many persons are able, from experience, to attest the severity of the punishment that follows ne. glect to exercise the muscular system, in the lassitude, indigestion, irritability, debility, and general uneasiness that attend a sedentary and inactive life: But the penalties that attach to neglect of exercising the brain are much less known, and therefore I shall notice them more at length. The following is the description of the brain given by Dr A. Combe, in his work on Physiology applied to Health and Education, already alluded to. "The brain is that large organised mass, which, along with its enveloping membranes, completely fills the cavity of the skull. It is the seat of thought, of feeling, and of consciousness, and the centre towards which all impressions made on the nerves distributed through the body are conveyed, and from which the Combe, to which I refer, the organic laws are expounded in detail, and many striking examples are given of the infringement of these laws, and of its injurious consequences. * In "Physiology applied to Health and Education," by Dr A. commands of the will are transmitted to put the varius parts in motion. "The structure of the brain is so complicated, that less is known of its true nature than of that of almost any other organ. It would therefore be entirely out of place to attempt to describe it here, farther than by stating generally its principal divisions. On sawing off the top of the skull, and removing the firm tough membrane called dura mater (hard mother), which adheres closely to its concave surface, the cerebrum or brain proper presents itself, marked on the surface with a great variety of undulating windings or convolutions, and extending from the fore to the back part of the head, somewhat in the form of an ellipse. The annexed cut Fig 1. represents the convolutions as seen FIG. 1. UPPER SURFACE OF THE BRAIN. forms the last great division of the contents of the skull. Its surface is marked by convolutions, differ ing, however, in size and appearance from those observed in the brain. "Adhering to the surface of the convolutions, and consequently dipping down into, and lining the sulci or furrows between them, another membrane, of a finer texture, and greater vascularity, called pia mater, is found. The blood vessels going to the brain branch out so extensively on the pia mater, that, when a little inflamed, it seems to constitute a perfect vasThis minute subdivision is of use cular network. in preventing the blood from being impelled with too great force against the delicate tissue of the brain, "A third covering, called the arachnoid membrane. FIG. 2.UNDER SURFACE OF THE BRAIN. on the upper surface of the brain. In the middle line, from A to B, a deep cleft or fissure is perceived, sepa-from its fineness resembling that of a spider s web, is rating the brain, in its whole length, into two halves, interposed between the other two, and is frequently or hemispheres, as they are called. Into this cleft dips the seat of disease. a tight stiff membrane, resembling a scythe in shape, and hence called the falx (scythe), or sometimes, from its being a mere fold of the dura mater, the falciform (scythe-like) process of the dura mater. From its dipping down between the two halves of the brain, the chief purpose of this membrane seems to be to relieve the one side from the pressure of the other, when we are asleep, for example, or have the head reclining to either side. The membrane does not descend to the bottom of the brain, except in a small part, at the front and back, G G in Fig. 2. It descends about two-thirds of the depth of the whole brain. At the point where It terminates, a mass of fibres, named the corpus calloum, passes between and connects the two hemispheres. The convolutions represented in Fig. 1. belong chiefly to the coronal region, and manifest the moral senti ments. The cut Fig. 2. represents the convolutions lying at the base of the brain. "Each half or hemisphere of the brain is, in its turn, divided-but in a less marked way, as the divisions are observable only on its inferior surface-into three portions, called, from their situations, the anterior, middle, and posterior lobes, each occupying nearly a third of the whole length of the brain. The anterior lobe, being the portion lying before the dotted line E E, accupies the forehead; the middle is all the portion lying between the two transverse lines E E and F F, above and a little in front of the ears; and the posCarior lobe is that portion lying behind the transverse line F F, and corresponding to the back part of the head. "On examining the convolutions in different brains, they are found to vary a good deal in size, depth, and general appearance. In the varicus regions of the same brain they are also different, but preserve the same general aspect. Thus they are always small and numerous in the anterior lobe, larger and deeper in the middle, and still larger in the posterior lobe. The thick cord or root C, springing from the base of the brain, is named the medulla oblongata, or oblong portion of the spinal marrow, which is continued downwards, and fills the cavity of the spine or back-bone. At one time the brain has been regarded as proceeding from, and at another as giving rise to, the spinal marrow; but, in reality, the two are merely connected, and neither grows from the other. The false analogy of a stem growing from a root has led to this abuse language. The small round filaments or cords seen to proceed from the sides of the medulla oblongata, and from near the base of the brain, are various nerves of sensation and motion, some of them going to the organs of sense, and others to the skin and muscles of the face, head, and other more distant parts. The long, flat-looking nerve a a, lying on the surface of the anterior lobe, is the olfactory, or nerve of smell, going to the nose. The round thick nerve 4 4, near the roots of the former, is the optic, or nerve of vision, going to the eye. That marked b is the motor nerve which supplies the muscles of the eyeball. A little farther back, the fifth pair c, is seen to issue apparently from the arch D, called pons Varolii or bridge of Varolius. It is a large compound nerve, and di"Beneath the posterior lobe, a strong fold of the vides into three branches, which are ramified on aldura mater, called the tentorium, extended horizon-most all the parts connected with the head and face, tally to support and separate it from the cerebellum, and the upper and under jaw. It is a nerve of both A A, or little brain, lying below it. The cerebellum sensation and motion, and one branch of it ramified on the tongue is the nerve of taste. Other branches supply and give sensibility to the teeth, glands, and skin. The seventh or auditory nerve e, is distributed on the internal ear, and serves for hearing. The eighth, or pneumogastric nerve d, sends filaments to the wind pipe, lungs, heart, and stomach, and is one of great importance in the production of the voice and respiration. It also influences the action of the heart, and the process of digestion. "Such are the principal nerves more immediately connected with the brain, but which it is impossible to describe more minutely here. Those which supply the trunk of the body and the extremities, issue chiefly from the spinal marrow; but they also must, for the present, be passed over in silence, that we may return to the consideration of the brain. "The brain receives an unusually large supply of blood in comparison with the rest of the body: but the nature of its circulation, although a very interesting subject of study, being only indirectly connected with our present purpose, cannot now be dis.. cussed." by explaining to the inquirer the nature and objects of the various organs of the body, such as the limbs, lungs, and eyes, and then asking him, if he could per. ceive any advantage to a being so constituted, in obtaining access to earth, air, and light? He would at once declare, that they were obviously of the very highest utility to him, as affording the only conceiv able means by which these organs could obtain scope for action, which action we suppose him to know to be pleasure. To those, then, who know the constitu tion of the brain as the organ of the moral and intel lectual powers of man, I need only say, that the objects presented by education to the mind, bear to it the same relation that the physical elements of nature do to the nerves and muscles; they afford the faculties scope for action, and yield them delight. The meaning commonly attached to the word education in such cases, is Greek and Latin; but I employ it to signify know. ledge of nature and science in all its departments. Again, the signification generally attached to the word use in such questions, is, how much money, influence, or consideration, will education bring ?-these being the only objects of strong desire with which unculti vated minds are acquainted; and it is not perceived in what way education can greatly gratify such pro. pensities. But the moment the mind is opened to the perception of its own constitution and to the natural laws, the great advantage of moral and intellectual cultivation, as a means of exercising and invigorating the brain and mental faculties, and also of directing the conduct in obedience to these laws, becomes ap. parent The brain is the fountain of nervous energy to the whole body, and many individuals are habitual invalids, without actually labouring under any ordinary recognised disease, solely from defective or irregular exercise of the nervous system. In such cases, not only the mind, in its feelings and intellectual capacities, suffers debility, but all the functions of the body participate in its languor, because all of them receive a diminished and vitiated supply of the nervous stimulus, adueshare of which is essential to their healthy action. The best mode of increasing the strength and But there is an additional benefit arising from energy of any organ and function, is to exercise them healthy activity of brain, which is little known. Difregularly and judiciously, according to the laws of ferent modifications of the nervous energy elaborated their constitution.* The brain is the organ of the by the brain, appear to take place, according to the mind; different parts of it manifest distinct facultles; mode in which the faculties and organs are affected. and the power of manifestation in regard to each is For example, when misfortune and disgrace impend proportionate, cæteris paribus, to the size and activity over us, the organs of Cautiousness, Self-Esteem, and of the organ. The brain partakes of the general qua. Love of Approbation, are painfully excited, and appear lities of the organised system, and is strengthened by to transmit an impaired, or positively noxious, nervous the same means as the other organs. When the mus-influence to the heart, stomach, intestines, and thence des are called into vivacious activity, an increased Influx of blood and nervous stimulus takes place in them, and their vessels and fibres become at once larger, firmer, and more susceptible of action. Thought and festing are to the brain what bodily exercise is to the muscles; they put it into activity, and cause increased action in its blood vessels, and an augmented elaboration of nervous energy. In a case reported by Dr Pierquin, observed by him in one of the hospitals of Montpelier in 1821, he saw, in a female patient part of whose skull had been removed, the brain motionless and lying within the cranium when she was in a dreamless sleep; in motion and protruding without the skull when she was agitated by dreams; more protruded in dreams reported by herself to be vivid; and still more so when perfectly awake, and especially if engaged in active thought or sprightly conversation. Similar cases are reported by Sir Astley Cooper and Professor Blumenbach.+ Those parts of the brain which manifest the feel. ings, constitute by far the largest portion of it, and they are best exercised by discharging the active duties of life and of religion: the parts which manifest the intellect are smaller, and are exercised by the application of the understanding in practical business, and in the arts, sciences, or literature. The first step, therefore, towards establishing the regular exercise of the brain, is to educate and train the mental faculties in youth; and the second is to place the individual habitually in circumstances demanding the discharge of useful and important duties. I have often heard the question asked, What is the use of education? The answer might be illustrated * See Dr A. Combe's Physiology, &c., 3d edit., pp. 147, 100, 27% See American Annals of Phrenology, No. I. p. 37, Sir A. Cooper's Lectures on Surgery, by Tyrrel, vol. i. p. 279, Elliot son's Blumenbach, 4th edition, p. 283. Phren. Journ. vol. ix. to the rest of the body; digestion is deranged, the pulse becomes feeble and irregular, and the whole corporeal system wastes. When, on the other hand, the cerebral organs are agreeably affected, a benign and vivifying nervous influence pervades the frame, and all the functions of the body are performed with increased pleasure and success. Now, it is a law, that the quantum of nervous energy increases with the number of cerebral organs roused to activity, and with the degree of that activity itself. In the retreat of the French from Moscow, for example, when no enemy was near, the soldiers became depressed in courage and enfeebled in body, and nearly sank to the earth through exhaustion and cold; but no sooner did the fire of the Russian guns sound in their ears, or the gleam of their bayonets flash in their eyes, than new life seemed to pervade them. They wielded powerfully the arms, which, a few moments before, they could scarcely carry or drag on the ground. Scarcely, however, was the enemy repulsed, when their feebleness returned. The theory of this is, that the approach of the combat called into activity a variety of additional faculties; these sent new energy through every nerve; and, while their vivacity was maintained by the external stimulus, they rendered the soldiers strong beyond their merely physical condition. Many persons have probably experienced the operation of the same principle. If, when sitting feeble and listless by the fire, we have heard of an accident having oc curred to some beloved friend who required our instan taneous aid, or if an unexpected visitor has arrived, in whom our affections were bound up in an instant our lassitude was gone, and we moved with an alertnessand animation that seemed surprising to ourselves. The cause was the same; these events roused Adhesiveness, Benevolence, Love of Approbation, Intellect, and a wariety of faculties which were previously dar mant, and their influence invigorated the limas. Dr Sparrman, in his Voyage to the Cape, mentions a striking illustration of the principle. "There was now again," says he, "a great scarcity of meat in the waggon; for which reason my Hottentots began to grumble, and reminded me that we ought not to waste so much of our time in looking after insects and plants, but give a better look-out after the game. At the same time, they pointed to a neighbouring dale overrun with wood, at the upper edge of which, at the distance of about a mile and a quarter from the spot where we then were, they had seen several buffaloes. Accordingly, we went thither; but though our fatigue was lessened by our Hottentots carrying our guns for us up a hill, yet we were quite out of breath, and overcome by the sun, before we got up to it. Yet, what even now appears to me a matter of wonder is, that as soon as we got a glimpse of the game, all this languor left us in an instant. In fact, we each of us strove to fire before the other, so that we seemed entirely to have lost sight of all prudence and caution." It is part of the same law, that the more agreeable the mental stimulus, the more benign is the nervous influence transmitted to the body. An individual who has received from nature a large and tolerably active brain, but who, from possessing wealth sufficient to remove the necessity for labour, is engaged in no profession, and who has not enjoyed the advantages of a scientific or extensive education, and takes no interest in moral and intellectual pursuits for their own sake, is in general a victim to infringement of the natural laws. Persons of this description, ignorant of these laws, will, in all probability, neglect nervous and muscular exercise, and suffer the miseries arising from impeded circulation and impaired digestion. In entire want of every object on which the energy of their minds might be expended, the due stimulating influence of their brains on their bodies will be withheld, and the effects of muscular inactivity will be thereby aggravated: all the functions will, in consequence, become enfeebled; lassitude, uneasiness, anxiety, and a thousand evils, will arise; and life, in short, will become a mere endurance of punishment for infringement of institutions calculated in themselves to promote happiness and afford delight when known and obeyed. This fate frequently overtakes uneducated females, whose early days have been occupied with business or the cares of a family, but whose occupations have ceased before old age has diminished corporeal vigour: It overtakes men also, who, uneducated, retire from active business in the prime of life. In some instances, these evils accumulate to such a degree that the brain at length gives way, and insanity is the consequence. It is worthy of remark, that the more elevated the objects of our study, the higher in the scale are the mental organs which are exercised; and that the higher the organs, the more pure and intense is the pleasure: hence, a vivacious and regularly supported excitement of the moral sentiments and intellect, is, by the organic law, highly favourable to health and corporeal vigour. In the fact of a living animal being able to retain life in an oven that will bake dead flesh, we see an illustration of the organic law rising above the purely physical; and, in the circumstance of the moral and intellectual organs transmitting the most favourable nervous influence to the whole bodily system, we have an example of the moral and intellectual law rising higher than the merely organic. If, then, we sedulously inquire, in each particular instance, into the cause of the sickness, pain, and premature death, or the derangement of the corporeal frame in youth and middle life, which we see so common around us; and endeavour to discover whether it originated in obedience to the physical and organic laws, or sprang from infringement of them, we shall be able to form some estimate as to how far bodily suffering is justly attributable to imperfections of nature, and how far to our own ignorance and neglect of divine institutions. The foregoing principles, being of much practical importance, may, with propriety, be elucidated by a few actual cases. Two or three centuries ago, various cities in Europe were depopulated by the plague, and, in particular, London was visited by an awful mortality from this cause, in the reign of Charles the Second. Most people of that age attributed the scourge to the inscrutable decrees of Providence, and some to the magnitude of the nation's moral iniquities. According to the views now presented, it must have arisen from infringement of the organic laws, and have been intended to enforce stricter obedience to them in future. There was nothing inscrutable in its causes or objects. These, when clearly analysed, appear to have had no direct reference to the moral condition of the people; I say direct reference to the moral condition of the people-because it would be easy to show that the physical, the organic, and all the other natural laws, are connected indirectly, and constituted in harmony,' with the moral law; and that infringement of the lat ter often leads to disobedience of other laws, and brings a double punishment on the offender. The facts recorded in history exactly correspond with the theory now propounded. The following is a picture of the condition of the cities of Western Europe in the 15th century :- "The floors of the houses being commonly of clay, and strewed with rushes or straw, it is loathsome to think of the filth collected in the hovels of the common people, and sometimes in the lodgings even of the superior ranks, from spilled milk, beer, grease, fragments of bread, flesh, bones, spittle, excrements of cats, dogs, &c. To this Erasmus, in a letter 432, c. 1815, ascribes the plague, the sweating sickness, &c., in London, which in this respect resembled Paris and other towns of any magnitude in those times."Ranken's History of France, vol. v. p. 416. The streets of London were excessively narrow, the habits of the people dirty, their food inferior, and no adequate provision was made for introducing a plentiful supply of water, or removing the filth unavoidably produced by a dense population. The great fire in that city, which happened soon after the pestilence, afforded an opportunity of remedying, in some degree, the narrowness of the streets; and habits of increasing cleanliness abated the filth: these changes brought the people to a closer obedience to the organic laws, and no plague has since returned. Again, till very lately, thousands of children died yearly of the small-pox; but, in our day, vaccine inoculation saves ninety-nine out of a hundred, who, under the old system, would have died. The theory of its operation has recently been elucidated by Dr Sonderland of Bremen, who has ascertained that cow-pox is merely a modification of small-pox, so that in preventing small-pox, it acts in accordance with the well-known law that certain diseases occur only once. A gentleman, who died about twenty years ago at No person, after having his intellect imbued with a an advanced period of life, told me, that, six miles west perception of, and belief in, the natural laws, as now from Edinburgh, the country was so unhealthy in his explained, can possibly desire continued idleness as a youth, that every spring the farmers and their servants source of pleasure; nor can he possibly regard muscu- were seized with fever and ague, and needed regularly lar exertion and mental activity, when not carried to to undergo bleeding, and a course of medicine, to preexcess, as any thing else than enjoyments, kindly vent attacks, or remove their effects. At that time Vouchsafed to him by the benevolence of the Creator. these visitations were believed to be sent by Providence, The notion that moderate labour and mental exertion and to be inherent in the constitution of things. After, are evils, can originate only from ignorance, or from however, said my informant, an approved system of viewing the effects of over-exhaustion as the result of agriculture and draining was established, and the vast the natural law, and not as the punishment for infring-pools of stagnant water, formerly left between the ridges ing it, of the fields, were removed, dunghills carried to a die |