PHRENOLOGY VINDICATED,

AND

ANTIPHRENOLOGY UNMASKED.

In the heading of this essay, the term "unmasked ” is used under the entire extent and strength of its signi fication. It embraces in its meaning the detection, in the work of an antiphrenologist, of plagiarism, literary garbling and perverted quotation, fabricated charges, offensive and groundless, against Phrenology and its advocates, and other gross misrepresentations deliberately made for the purposes of deception. It embraces in fact the exposure of a long and multifarious catalogue of studied, artful, and culpable devices, expressly designed by an antiphrenological writer for the suppression of truth, the support, continuance, and propagation of error, and the enhancement of his own spurious pretension to talent and power in controversy, as well as to science and letters. To add to the demerit and offensiveness of the whole, these faults are committed under the show of a puritanical uprightness and candour of intention, and of great extent and accuracy of research. Hypocrisy therefore mingles in the aggregate, and increases at once its amount and disrepute.

Is any one inclined to remark, that these are charges weighty in themselves, and of serious import; and that therefore they ought not to be preferred, without grave reflection, and a full conviction that they are founded in truth? My reply is brief. I am aware of all this, have carefully weighed my responsibility in the matter, and strictly conformed to the requirement just expressed. I not only know that the charges are weighty; my design has been to make them so, and to render them productive of corresponding effects. And some of these effects are, not only to sustain truth, but to imprint an indelible brand of disrespect on a pamphleteer, who has deliberately conspired to suppress it. I have of course reflected on the charges dispassionately and gravely, and am prepared to support them by incontestable proof. And a large proportion of that proof will consist of extracts and fair inferences from the work, against which my charges are directed.

Is any reader moved by the solemnity of this exordium to inquire, who is the antiphrenologist here referred to and what the character of the work he has written? To these questions, the answer will be found in the following title page.

"An examination of Phrenology; in two lectures, delivered to the students of the Columbian College, District of Columbia, February, 1837. By Thomas Sewall, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Published by request."

Such is the production, so thickly studded with literary faults, and so deeply merged in moral delinquencies, which it is my purpose to make the subject of a critical examination. And should I in the course of it ex

press myself in language so plain and strong as to be exceptionable to the author, I have no apology to offer for the offence, nor any but one explanation to give him; and for that he is referred to the contents and character of his own pamphlet. That production merits all the severity I shall exercise toward it. Though it will be treated however unceremonicusly, it shall not be treated unjustly. While no imaginary faults will be imputed to it, those which mark it shall be called by their proper names, provided such names be not deemed offensive to the ear of delicacy, or to cultivated taste. That some of the terms and expressions employed will be stern and condemnatory, is not to be doubted; because, consistently with fitness, they cannot be otherwise. I may not, and will not attempt the language and manner of the "Athenian bee;" because they do not suit my mood, and would not be appropriate to my subject. Though I shall not studiedly embitter my pen, neither shall I dip it unnecessarily in the dews of Hymettus. When detected in the pamphlet, falsehood and deception, rank plagiarism and affected learning, shall be correctly denominated, and censured as they deserve. Nor shall feebleness of authorship, bloated pretension, or blank ignorance be passed unnoticed. As far as my time and resources may avail, the publication I am examining shall be spoken of in strict accordance with its character. My language must if practicable be suited to my theme. Foul looking objects cannot be painted in rain-bow beauty. Nor can things that merit reprobation and rebuke be correctly represented in suavity of tone, and blandness of expression.

That the two lectures, as stated in the title page, were delivered in Washington, in February 1837, is probably true. They were not however then delivered for the first time. Two or three lectures to the same purport were delivered by Dr. Sewall in 1825 or '26; and whatever changes may have been since made in their style and manner, it is presumable that they were, in substance and tenor, somewhat the same with those which he has recently passed through the press. I received indeed at the time a confident assurance that such was the fact. True; he has no doubt during the whole interval been gravely pondering Phrenology, or rather the objections that may be fancied and fabricated against it, by hostile sciolists in it, and patiently incubating fresh matter, for the purpose of enriching and improving his discourses. We are authorized therefore to suppose, that he considers those discourses now mature and perfect-well calculated to dispel error, or what he miscalls so, diffuse the misguiding phantomlight which he loves, and give him a place among the "mighty reformers and conservatives" of the age -perchance even a niche in the "Temple of Fame," by the side of the Stagirite, to whose authority he refers, without, I venture to say, having ever perused a single chapter of that philosopher's writings. That such is his ambition, if not his opinion, may be fairly inferred from a clause near the beginning of his second lecture, p. 35, in which he virtually disparages his predecessors and contemporaries in antiphrenology, by asserting that they have used only such "arguments" against the science, as "have too often been evaded" by their antagonists, and that by the "methods of investigation," pursu

ed by them, "the public mind has not been enlightened, as to the real merits of Phrenology." From these expressions, I say, taken in connexion with what just precedes them, I am justified in alleging, that he considers all other antiphrenologists as inefficient assailants, and himself the Hercules commissioned, and every way fitted, to destroy the Hydra of error, engendered in the brains of Gall and Spurzheim, whom, in imitation of his well-bred brethren in abuse, he designates by the courteous appellation of the "German Doctors."

Be his opinion on this topic however what it may, it is obvious that he has aimed at Prenology the deadliest blow he is capable of inflicting. But mighty as was his effort, in his own estimation, it will be presently made appear, that, not only has he wasted it in air; but that in reality it is as puny and unskilful, as it is ostentatious and laboured. It is essentially a piece of internal vapouring, under a subdued and calm exterior. And if I do not prove it so, I shall submit, without a murmur, to the mortifying appellation of a vapourer myself.

As already mentioned, Dr. Sewall's two lectures, consisting of only seventy pages, very sparsely printed, were conceived about the year 1825 or 1826. Ever since that period, the Professor has been in protracted, and no doubt painful gestation and parturition of them; and his safe delivery is but of recent date. What less then could he expect of them, than that they would issue from the travail of his aching brain, like Minerva from the brain of the ruler of Olympus, adult in stature, full fraught with wisdom, "clad all in steel," and prepared for the highest and deadliest doings! And how miserable must be the disappointment, and how piteous the