it will not stand in our days. At present man in society should know why he ought to obey, and whence comes the authority of those who govern him. The maxims of former times, I repeat, are no longer applicable to our times in France. Every injustice exercised against us, or our fellows, revolts us and fills us with indignation.

Perhaps the education of the sentiment of property would suit them? Observe, Gentlemen, that I am passing in review only a few of our fundamental faculties. It would occupy us too long to consider them all, and I will not abuse your kind attention. I maintain that neither ought the sentiment of property to be confided to them. They would turn it to their own account. Is it not true that, after preaching poverty and contempt for the things of this world, they have built magnificent palaces, and possessed themselves of equipages, servants, and all the luxuries of worldly life? Do they not obtain possession of numerous freeholds and wealth under a thousand forms and a thousand different pretexts? The churches have positively become market-places; everything is paid for, everything is tariffed, even down to the space we occupy in praying to God.

There is indeed one propensity, Gentlemen, which a branch of the sacerdotal tree educates wonderfully-that of Cunning. This faculty is put into admirable cultivation by the Jesuits. They have established for this faculty maxims and principles which tend to accomplish the ends of those who practise them in the quickest and most certain manner. They choose for their scholars those whom nature has already organized favourably for this propensity; then they instruct them in the most peculiar way, and distribute amongst them the parts they are to play in the world, and ingeniously turn to profit their long experience of human affairs. This special education of the organ of Cunning, this association for exercising it in common, is the more to be regretted because there exists nothing in society to counterbalance its influence. The men in power, partly dupes, and partly accomplices, leave society totally unprotected before them, unless God by some great popular event should interfere to make them disappear for ever. It is not therefore for the education of this faculty that we will confide to them the education of our children.

However, some will say, To what will you reduce the influence of the clergy in this world? What is the mission which they have to fulfil in terrestrial affairs?

There is certainly one human faculty whose education devolves upon them; the sentiment of Veneration, which is the

VOL. II.

M

basis of all religions, and innate in man like all our other sentiments and faculties. The mission of the priesthood is very grand, very beautiful, if it confine itself to its true purposes. The priest ought to practise theology; he should occupy himself with human souls; make known the relations existing between them and God; he ought to prepare them for and lead them to eternal happiness, by respecting and leaving in repose the bodies which are upon the earth. But the education which establishes the relation between man and man ought not to be confided to them. Not only are churchmen incompetent to this task, unless they are willing to leave the sphere of their functions, but they are incapable. They live in a state of isolation from society; they know little, or nothing, of what constitutes our social life; they necessarily become misanthropical, fanatic, and intolerant. The compulsory violation of the rights of nature contributes to render them such.

It is to the University, therefore, that we should entirely confide the education of youth,-to the University, according to the modifications and ameliorations which liberty calls for. For it is she who represents progress and to whom is confided that future which must inevitably effect a reform in all social institutions. The University represents the state in this mis- . sion, and it is for the state, the aggregate of the citizens, for us all, carefully to consider matters.

The professors of the University are therefore our representatives for instruction and education, as the judges of the tribunals are the representatives of the state for the administration of justice, and the deputies of the departments for legislation.

It remains for us to examine one part of the question which we have entered upon, that of learning how we are to put an end to the immorality and corruption which positively do exist in society and which spread in every direction among all ranks. I have already shewn you that education committed to the clergy as they are at present will not procure us this reform. We should have nearly the same disorders, and also stupid, hypocritical beings, incapable of living in the world such as the progress of intelligence has now made it. I allow, however, that a genuine reform of our morals is necessary and even pressing.

Though the intellectual faculties, as I have said above, can receive by transmission the knowledge acquired in times passed, and preserve and appropriate it, the same does not hold good in the case of the moral faculties. These require to be constantly exercised in a determinate sense; that is to

say, by the constant practice of virtuous actions and abstinence from everything acknowledged to be vicious. The moral maxims which are laid down and to which great importance is attached, arrive and stop at the intellectual faculties, fortify the reason and content good men but change neither the nature nor the activity of the inclinations. This is so true, that a man, badly brought up, who has learnt these moral maxims by art, will reason very well when he has to speak of morality; but will conduct himself very ill and will be vicious, because precepts do not change habits.

It is, therefore, by good examples and the constant practice of virtue that moral beings are formed. We must take care, however, not to confound, as is generally done, morality with religious belief, virtuous conduct with the practice of devotion. These are very distinct things; morality regards the duties and relations of man to man; religious belief regards the relations and duties between the human soul and God. Morality is the same for all people and in all ages: the forms of worship vary infinitely and change with time.

at

Examples and the practice of virtue, then, are the means by which moral beings must be made. Here it is, gentlemen, that I feel the difficulty of my task. The social evil which we experience, and which I have pointed out, comes, through a frightful fatality, from above. How can the people become moral, when they see fortune and honors bestowed upon the most immoral men? When they observe that the greatest favours are granted to the perjured, to those who have employed the sanctity of an oath to make dupes, and to arrive When they observe that hypocrisy, vileness, baseness, and servility are the qualities which are fostered, and that independent men, conscious of their own worth, incorruptible and virtuous, are repulsed and set aside; when they observe the greatest social vices rewarded instead of being punished, Gentlemen, I do not clearly see whence reform is to come in a society thus organized; but come it will. As to us, our mission is all traced. Let the men of progress, the virtuous, and the independent, raise their voices and declare to the world the vices and turpitudes of corruption. Let publicity blast both the corrupters and the corrupted: let contempt reach them in the midst of their riches and the enjoyments with which they are gorged.

The voice of the virtuous will be echoed by the people, for the masses are better than they are generally supposed. But the example must be set by the men of the University. For this they are constituted and organized. Let them raise

their voices; let them not be intimidated by the clamours of the clergy. The future belongs to us; and, instead of waging war with us phrenologists, let them come and derive from our doctrines the means of moralizing men and rendering them happier.

We understand that this discourse drew forth repeated applause and electrified the audience, which was both numerous and select.

In a note which accompanied the copy of it, Dr. Fossati remarks that the liberty of discussion ceases to exist in a country where crimes are created, as at present in France, for the press and that therefore he has not said all that it would have been good to say. "He resigns himself to the times in which he lives, contented to lament that poor humanity is given up to the caprices of hypocrites, intriguers, fanatics, and the ignorant."-Zoist.

III. Phrenological Society, 17 Edwards Street, Portman Square. March 6th, 1844.

MR. HANDS brought a cast for the inspection of the Society of a very remarkable individual, Mr. Robert Owen. The head was examined by various members, who pronounced that the moral and social groups of organs were largely developed, the intellect fair. The largest organs were those of Firmness, Self-esteem, Love of Approbation, Love of Offspring, and Attachment: and various persons present gave illustrations fully substantiating the views taken of the character by the Society.

March 20th.

A paper was read by G. R. Lewis, Esq. on the organ of Constructiveness, urging the necessity of a due cultivation of the faculty in question, and its importance more particularly in all the manufacturing departments, as well as to the artist, architect, builder, &c. &c. He stated it as the result of his observations, that the particular kind of activity of the faculty is modified by the particular form of development of the organ; thus, when its size increases towards Tune, Mr. Lewis is of opinion that it prefers exercising itself in making musical instruments, and so on.

Annual General Meeting, April 1st.

The following members were elected officers and other members of the council for the ensuing year :

President.

John Elliotson, M.D., F.R.S.

George Coode, Esq.

R. C. Kirby, Esq.

Vice Presidents.

Professor Wheatstone, F.R.S.
T. L. Murray, Esq.

Treasurer-T. R. Fearnside, Esq.
Librarian-J. B. Sedgwick, Esq.
Curator-George R. Lewis, Esq.
Secretary-E. S. Symes, Esq.

Other Members of the Council.

B. Bernasconi, Esq.
William Kingdom, Esq.
William Hering, Esq.
William Topham, Esq.
Thomas Uwins, Esq. R.A.

William Wood, Esq.

H. G. Atkinson, Esq., F.G.S.
J. G. Graeff, Esq.
Archibald Billing, M.D.
Richard Edwards, Esq.
T. C. Granger, Esq.
Hudson Lowe, Esq.

April 3rd.

Major Bulkley, having been duly proposed and balloted for, was elected an ordinary member of the Society.

H. G. Atkinson, Esq., exhibited a most important group of heads, being the casts of a whole family of idiots at Downham in Norfolk, and said,

It is a grand thing, and should be our first consideration to seek to place ourselves in harmony with nature, and thence in the certainty of truth, to watch as from a tower the glorious event of knowledge making its way over the earth, gently moving through the stream which is opposed, diffusing light and life to all around, for it would indeed be a miracle if the world should rise at once superior to itself, and receive without question or delay novel truths for which as yet it has neither the eye to see, the understanding to conceive, or the heart to feel. Thought arises in the action of matter, and the vis inertia of matter and its accustomed course can only be overcome by the continuous bearing down of the new force, and thus in advancing any truth without proceeding