a knowledge of the natural laws relating to that with respect to which it was his duty to act. The intellect alone, and then only when rightly and sufficiently trained and well informed, can guide; the moral and religious sentiments should supply the motive power. He maintained further I. That activity was the source of all enjoyment. II. That the faculties must be gratified harmoniously. III. That the laws of external creation must accord with Man's whole faculties, and he must be capable of learning and obeying them. IV. That all the calamities of society arise from a disregard of the physical, organic, moral, religious, and intellectual laws of our being, and are capable of being prevented by a knowledge of, and obedience to, these laws. And he also maintains that the study of these laws not only repays the effort by the valuable practical knowledge thus acquired, but pre-eminently in the enjoyment induced by the activities of the faculties exercised in the pursuit; that is that the subjective are at least equal to the objective advantages of the intellectual activities evoked. Speaking in this sense he says:-

A few years ago, when hearing Paganini play on the violin, the subject of wonder with me was the exquisite fineness of his notes. The sounds fell on the ear as if their cause had been purely ethereal. No indication of their origin could be traced. An angel might be imagined to send forth such strains to mortal ears. The extraordinary development of Paganini's organs of tune and time, with the extreme sensibility of his nervous system, strongly indicated in his countenance and figure, seem to have been the causes of his attaining this exquisite power. In reflecting on his performance, the idea forcibly struck me that, until a being constituted like Paganini appeared, we had no means of discovering that the substances composing the violin and the bow were capable of emitting such pure and dulcet sounds; and that a similar reflection may probably be applicable to the entire sublunary creation. This world may be full of divine qualities and delicious harmonies, if we had only superior men to evoke them! And if this be so, how truly admirable is that constitution of nature which furnishes us with every possible inducement, not only to study itself, but to improve our own qualities; and which presents us with richer treasures the farther we advance in the discharge of our most pleasing and profitable duties !

According to George Combe there can be no permanent progress or real happiness in a community where the intellect and the moral faculties are not trained to lead and govern, and where the selfish and animal propensities are not equally trained to obey. George Combe is to many best known as a phrenologist. It is not, however, as a phrenologist that I wish to speak of him this evening. With him phrenology was the provisional theory through which he worked out most important principles and steps in social progress. I simply allude to this point here, in order to be enabled to show with what advantage in point of lucidity phrenological terms may be frequently introduced in speaking of problems into which the mental faculties enter as chief factors. Speaking of the mercantile distress of 1825-6, he says:

I have traced the origin of that visitation to excessive activity of acquisitiveness, and a general ascendency of the animal and selfish faculties over the moral and intellectual powers. The punishments of these offences were manifold. The excesses infringed the moral law, and the chastisement for this was the deprivation of the tranquil steady enjoyment that flows only from the moral sentiments, with severe suffering in the ruin of fortune and blasting of hope. These disappointments produced mental anguish and depression, which occasioned an unhealthy state of the brain. The action of the brain being disturbed, a morbid nervous influence was transmitted to the whole corporeal system; bodily disease was superadded to mental sorrow; and in some instances the unhappy sufferers committed suicide to escape from those aggravated evils. Under the organic law, the children produced in this period of mental depres sion, bodily distress, and organic derangement will inherit weak bodies and feeble and irritable minds-a hereditary chastisement for their father's transgressions.

Further on he says:—

The institutions and manners of society indicate the state of mind of the influential classes at the time when they prevail. The trial and burning of old women as witches point out clearly the predominance of destructiveness and wonder over intellect and benevolence in those who were guilty of such cruel absurdities. The practice of wager of battle, and ordeal by fire and water, indicate great activity of combativeness, destructiveness, and veneration in those who permitted them, combined with lamentable ignorance of the constitution of the world. In like manner the enormous sums willingly expended

in war, and the small sums grudgingly paid for public improvements—the intense energy displayed in the pursuit of wealth, and the general apathy evinced in the search after knowledge and virtue-unequivocally proclaim activity of combativeness, destructiveness, acquisitiveness, self-esteem and love of approbation, with comparatively moderate vivacity of benevolence in the present generation. Before therefore the practices of mankind can be altered, the state of their minds must be changed. It is an error to impose on a people institutions greatly in advance of their mental condition. The rational method is, first to instruct the intellect, then to interest the sentiments, and, last of all, to form arrangements in harmony with these faculties, and resting on them as their basis.

The book from which I have quoted these passages—a book to which I shall have frequent occasion to refer in the course of this paper-is entitled An Essay on the Constitution of Man considered in Relation to External Nature. It was originally published in the year 1828, and brought the philosophic writer under much bitter, social persecution; but notwithstanding this it had in the year 1860 reached a sale, in Great Britain alone, of about 100,000 copies, besides having met a large sale in America, and having been translated and published in France, Germany, and Sweden. Notwithstanding the great lucidity, the moderation, and the tenderness to the feelings of his opponents with which he treated his subject, attempts were made to ostracise, or, in accordance with a more modern phrase, "Boycott," him-ministers of religion would not meet on the same platform with him, but described him as a dangerous infidel, and would not hire public rooms from parties who continued to let them to Mr. Combe. Thus did they vainly attempt to prevent the advocacy of the principles he sought to inculcate.

Mr. George Combe was a most industrious, versatile, and voluminous writer. He wrote on nearly every subject of social interest and importance, all his writings being marked by great lucidity, earnestness of purpose, and philosophic thoroughness; and also in a very marked degree by their tenderness and consideration for the errors

and prejudices of his, in many cases, too unscrupulous opponents. From ministers of religion, whom on principle he treated with the greatest possible courtesy and deference, however, he received most vindictive treatment.

The chief work written by Mr. George Combe was The Constitution of Man considered in Relation to External Objects. Of this work at the time of its publication the Scotsman newspaper spoke as follows:

This work we regard as a contribution of high value to the philosophy of man; and though the author modestly states in his preface that it contains few or no ideas which may not be found elsewhere, we persist in thinking that it is one of the most original books produced in modern times.

His next most important work, probably the one he regarded as the most important of all his works, was a treatise on the Relation between Science and Religion. This work was speedily translated into German. He also wrote an important and valuable work, entitled Moral Philosophy; or the Duties of Man, Individual, Domestic, and Social, which met with a large sale. It is a work based on the principles of phrenology, and displays great originality. He likewise published the largest and most important treatise on Phrenology that has yet been issued, entitled A System of Phrenology. This work, which I believe has long been out of print, went through five or six editions. He also published two smaller works on Phrenology, namely, The Elements of Phrenology and Outlines of Phrenology, which ran through ten editions. He travelled much in America, the outcome of which new experience was a large, important, and most interesting work, which retains its interest down to the present day, entitled Notes (Moral, Religious, Political, Economical, and Phrenological) on the United States of America. This work, in three volumes, is one of the most interesting, readable, and suggestive books of travel, especially to those

interested in the mental side of nature, that I have ever read. Mr. Combe also published a work, entitled Phrenology applied to Painting and Sculpture, which may, I think, be read with great advantage by both artists and art critics. He also published a most readable and lovable book, entitled The Life and Correspondence of Andrew Combe, M.D. Dr. Andrew Combe, as of course you all know, was the scarcely less celebrated brother of Mr. George Combe. He also wrote a somewhat technical work, entitled The Functions of the Cerebellum, and also three works of special value in their day, entitled respectively The Principles of Criminal Legislation and Prison Discipline Investigated; Lectures on Popular Education; and a series of tracts on Capital Punishment, on Secular Education, and on National Education. Mr. Combe was also a writer of great clearness and perspicacity on the "Currency Question," when it was far less understood than it is at the present time, and in this capacity, I believe, supplied leaders to some of the chief newspapers, and also articles to some of our leading reviews. Mr. Combe regarded "currency," as he regarded other social questions usually delegated to the region of mere opinion, as questions of natural law.

In a sketch article, entitled "John Bull in the Bank Parlour," published I believe in the Scotsman of December 29, 1847, he makes John Bull meet in the bank parlour a number of merchants and manufacturers, who are urgently begging for more paper accommodation, when John Bull soundly rates them for setting afloat air bubbles, which are quickly extinguished by the first puff of adverse wind. In this sketch he gives a clear, popular explanation of the why of the specic currency, and shows not only that it is the safest, but also the most honest, and the one the best adapted to meet the fluctuations of trade. He advocated