part of the proposition is equally well proved, not merely by the well-known phenomena of ghosts and apparitions, accounts of which have been handed down to us from the earliest times, and respecting which many learned and scientific treatises have been given to the world by your petitioners, their predecessors and allies; but by the not less incontestable fact, that your petitioners, as well as their brethren the poets, and other men of general views and exalted genius, so far from being chained and bound down to a piece of vile earth, like the " common drudges of business," are capable of sending forth their souls, on voyages of discovery, through the boundless regions of space and time, pervading and per-. meating all actual and possible existence, and darting in a moment" from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven," altogether unshackled by material organs, and not only without assistance from the body, but without any aid from experience, or the observation of dull and uninteresting matters of fact. This power is of eminent service to your petitioners, particularly when engaged in their said transcendent speculations, as, by this mode of proceeding, your petitioners have been enabled to advance their science in the most dignified and mysterious manner, infinitely beyond the range of the present every-day world, or what is by the vulgar called "nature,”—and this independence on fact and observation has been the true cause of all that extraordinary symmetry, beauty, and perfection, perceivable in the several theories of your petitioners, and of the wonderful harmony and agreement which, amidst all their variety, subsist among them. Hence, in the science of mind invented by your petitioners, and their predecessors aforesaid, the body is either necessary or not necessary to the mental manifestations, as best suits the special argument of your petitioners for the time; the philosophy of mind being, in this manner, rendered extremely convertible, and admirably fitted for supporting or subverting, as may be required, all imaginable and conceivable views, systems, hypotheses, opinions, creeds, and theories whatsoever,-to the great benefit and advantage

of the whole human race, and the infinite convenience, accommodation, and satisfaction of your petitioners.

In contemplating the final result of their labours, your petitioners cannot regard without some emotion of envy, the brilliant lot which awaits the sages of future times, by whom this sublime science is to be at last perfected, and their fortunate cotemporaries, on whom the full light and splendour of their ultimate discoveries are destined to fall.

BUT, notwithstanding the brilliant prospects thus held out to mankind by and through the labours of your petitioners' predecessors, your petitioners themselves, and their successors, and IN SPITE of your petitioners' exclusive right, as inventors, discoverers, elaborators, custodiers, and venders, of all facts, doctrines, theories, hypotheses, systems, creeds, notions, dogmas, first lines, and outlines, of and concerning mind and its powers, intellectual and moral, and as the only persons capable, from understanding the said several facts, doctrines, theories, hypotheses, systems, creeds, notions, dogmas, first lines, and outlines, of applying the same to the practical business of life, from which the beneficial results before mentioned will assuredly follow, as aforesaid, to the great delectation, high honour, and immortal renown of your petitioners;-YET TRUE IT IS, that two wicked and evil-disposed persons, F. J. Gall and J. G. Spurzheim, styled doctors of medicine, but held in utter abhorrence by all who exercise power or hold office in our schools, colleges, and universities,* not having the fear of your Profundities before their eyes, and in manifest contempt of your undoubted lawful authority in all matters connected with the said philosophy of mind, aided and abetted by two most seditious, schismatic, troublesome, and disorderly persons, called REASON and EXPERIENCE, and pretending to act under their sole direction and guidance, but without the license, permission, grant, or endowment of your petitioners, the only legal inventors, discoverers, elaborators, custodiers, and ven

"Is there no Arbuthnot now, to chastise the follies of our Craniologists ?"— Stewart's Dissertation, Part II. Note H. H.

ders, as aforesaid, have not only presumed to take upon them to dispute with your petitioners, their said exclusive and undoubted rights and privileges, as inventors, proprietors, and venders of the said philosophy of mind in all its branches, degrees, stages, and relations, but have farther introduced, or attempted to introduce, into the said philosophy, the most abominable, flagrant, and mischievous innovations, to the great and lasting injury of the whole human race, and to the incredible grief, disturbance, vexation, loss, and detriment of your petitioners.

More particularly, first, the said F. J. Gall and J. G. Spurzheim, aided and abetted as aforesaid, despising the authority of your petitioners, questioning the unquestionable fact that the consciousness of each of your petitioners is an exact and essential type of the minds of the whole human race, a fact, the benefit of which, notwithstanding all the differences in their creeds, systems, and doctrines, your petitioners have always considered to belong to each other as a legitimate patrimony, heir-loom, and property,—and neglecting and vilifying the grand, simple, and transcendental methods of speculation used by your petitioners and their predecessors, time out of mind,―have adopted in its place the poor, low, creeping, pitiful, beggarly method of investigating the subject by the observation of facts, which they are pleased to call "following nature;" thereby, so far as in them lies, degrading the philosophy of mind from its original, grand, lofty, and mysterious character, bringing it down to the conceptions, and levelling it to the capacities of the "common "drudges of business," and voluntarily, and with open eyes, rejecting "all the knowledge which has been accumulated "concerning the mind"* by your petitioners and their predecessors, and resorting, in order to obtain information, to a state of total ignorance,"†—a mode of proceeding which argues either the most consummate folly and stupidity, or else a degree of wickedness and malignity which it is quite

• Blackwood's Magazine, No LXXII. p. 101.

+ Ibid.

5

appalling to your petitioners to think of, and which all the true and loyal subjects of your Profundities regard, or ought to regard, with the utmost horror, detestation, and loathing.

Secondly. The said F. J. Gall and J. G. Spurzheim, aided and abetted as aforesaid, and proceeding by the aforesaid paltry, dilatory, and empirical method of observing facts, have attempted to degrade and vulgarize the mind, by representing it as constantly, and in all circumstances in this life, influenced by the condition of the body, and even dependent on it for the power of manifesting its faculties,—a heresy of the most dangerous nature, leading to materialism, fatalism, the subversion of religion and morality, and even to atheism. itself, in defiance and contempt of the aforesaid mysterious doctrine taught by your petitioners, namely, that although there is a sort of general and philosophical intercourse between the mind and the body, they are by no means joined together, for better for worse, but may be considered either as joined or as disjoined in any particular case, as may happen to be most convenient for your petitioners at the time, to the end of rendering all the actual phenomena of mind explicable on any particular theory that is advanced, or that may be hereafter advanced, by any of your petitioners or their successors, to the great increase of the dignity and mystery of the said science of metaphysics,-to the infinite satisfaction, delectation, and edification of the said human race, and to the unspeakable convenience, comfort, and repose of your petitioners.

1

Thirdly. The said F. J. Gall and J. G. Spurzheim, aided and abetted as aforesaid, in farther prosecution of their said wicked and felonious design to vilify and degrade the mind, for the purposes aforesaid, have dared to affirm, that the brain, a mass of pulpy matter, evidently intended indeed to fill up the cavity of the head, and spare nature the horror of a vacuum, but in regard to the sublime science, the interests of which we now advocate, of a use, if any, by your petitioners, and all regular and legitimate philosophers, utterly inexplicable, and into which they have no wish to inquire,—

have dared to affirm, we say, that the brain is neither more nor less than the organ of the mind, by means of which, the said mind manifests its faculties during life,-a most obviously absurd supposition, inasmuch as it is easy to be perceived, that the said brain is "of a clammy consistence, "and can no more retain motion than a quagmire,”* and so cannot possibly be the organ of any thing;-and, besides other foolish facts and authorities in support of said doctrine, reference has absurdly been made, in evidence thereof, to the writings of one William Shakspeare, a person to your Profundities utterly unknown, ignorant of the sublime mysteries of metaphysics,-destitute of all general views, and a mere drudge, attached to, and deriving his sole merit from, the observation of nature,-who has somewhere asserted, that "when the brains were out the man would die,”—a most false, unfounded, and wicked assertion, as is clearly proved by the facts before referred to, and by divers authentic and well-attested cases known to your Profundities, where various individuals were known not merely to live, but to manifest, in vigour and perfection, all the powers, faculties, and sentiments of the mind, they ever possessed, after every atom of their brains had oozed out, been shot away, utterly wasted, and altogether obliterated;† and which wicked assertion of the said William Shakspeare is not only false, but leads directly to materialism, fatalism, atheism, and the subversion of religion and morality, as aforesaid.

Fourthly. The said F. J. Gall and J. G. Spurzheim, not content with affirming generally a constant and invariable connexion, in this life, between the mind and the brain, have, with an unheard-of perseverance in their aforesaid folly, wickedness, and malignity, collected, or pretended to collect

• Glanvill.

"If it is meant to be affirmed that total destruction of the brain is uniformly "followed by loss of intellect, we demand where the cases are by which that point

has been established? Is there a single instance on record in which complete "destruction of this organ had been observed, and in which a total cessation of "intellect followed as the effect of that destruction? We will not pretend to affirm "that there are no such cases recorded, but if there be any, we are altogether ig"norant of them.”—Edinburgh Review, Vol. XXV. p. 244.