degenerating our aristocracy even more, perhaps, than the lower grades of society. "Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made ; Could we have the old Romans' substratum before their luxuries and superfluities were introduced, as a basis for our superior literature and scientific attainments, and our matchless code of ethics, we should then be on the highroad to human perfectability. We are sorry to see the idea still prevailing in the 19th century, that this ne plus ultra perfectability is unattainable-quite Utopian. Hence we have naturally their consequents-languor, inaction, and stolid apathy. The Romans loaded with honours and rewards-not the mental but the athletic bodily Goliaths, as a precursor, we imagine, to the latter. We, on the other hand, go to the other extreme; treat the physical machinery as a nonentity, and reward far too often with a cypress or weeping willow, those who have arrived at the top of the mental tree at the heavy cost of a life-time. It is not necessary to go into details, to give illustrations of this soul-harrowing theme. Byron asks— “Who'd pique himself on intellect, whose use Depends so much upon the gastric juice?" He might, with equal propriety and force, have added another humiliating couplet Who'd plume himself on wisdom's pen, a feather CHAPTER XI. EMANCIPATION OF INDIVIDUALITY WANTED.-LOVE ITS OWN LEVER, FULCRUM, AND POWER.-WHAT IS, AND WHAT IS NOT, TRUE NOBILITY? THE BRAIN AND ITS WONDERFUL POWERS. WE want emancipation of individuality. Let each man be himself, and not always the reflex of another. Let each keep this giant fact palpably before his mental vision, and then honester purposes, higher aims, and truer impulses will naturally follow. Children are not educated into such self-reliance, nor trained early to the development of their free spiritual and moral nature. Hence such woeful results. What can be worse, excepting it be the antiquated and imbecile idea of keeping people dull, that they may be more easily managed: that, we hope, is now coming to an end. All people profess morality, from the House of Commons to the House of Correction. Few believe the most impenetrable panoply in which to confront error, is the nakedness of truth. At least if they do believe it, their faith and actions are widely at variance. GOD has provided no remedy for wilful obstinacy. Shallow sophisms, from superficial thinkers, however well garnished with soft and honeyed phrases, are of little avail; fair words, if not seconded by actions, are worthless. An act of kindness is worth a volume of sermons in converting the people. An expansive soul is raised above the petty shifts by which great ends are sometimes sought to be accomplished. A good action is never thrown away; and perhaps that is the reason why we find so few of them. The writer is no idolator of intellect. Truly the brain, as before stated, is only an instrument: the use of it alone determines a man's greatness. The brain of man is larger in proportion to any other organ; and yet, but a small part of a man. And if the genus homo have only a large mind, he is after all a mis-shapen creature, whom one would naturally recoil from rather than admire,—particularly if he has inserted betwixt his labials a long tube of dried clay. In any living creature, symmetry-not sizeis the element of beauty; and he who has exercised so fully as to have developed every part of his spiritual nature, he only is a model man. It is not therefore necessary, in our humble opinion, to be a genius, in order to be a great man; nor is every genius necessarily a great man. A man is a dwarf in soul unless he be good, and means to do good; who follows the right and the true, in despite of all difficulties and obloquy; hates the wrong and the false; denies himself for the brethrens' sake; is generous, brave, sincere, hearty, spiritual. We ought to know that under every form, and in whatever guise, self-seeking is meanness; self-sacrifice alone is greatness. Without this, the prima materiam-the first principle, is wanting. The key has not yet been effectively struck; the hoarse trumpet grates harshly on the auditory. When we speak of a great man, we mean one who has deliberately influenced for good the doctrines of some large portion of mankind; who has been the champion of some human truth. To have passed into history as the symbol of wisdom, of glory, or of worth; to have left a name which is henceforth as a "Household Word" in the speech of all civilised men; in fact to have been such a one, and to have done such things as posterity will not willingly let die; this is to have been a great man. Nay, any man who can manage to live in the hearts of a single people, so that his children's children shall rise and call him blessed, —such a man is a great man. By their fruits, then, you may know great men. The greatest and most finished characters never fully emerge; and remind you of Sidney Smith's eulogy of Mackintosh, in whose praise we most cordially concur, and know many such. He says "Mackintosh is a very great and delightful man, and with a few bad qualities added to his character, would have acted a most conspicuous part in life." Truly, the tongue was intended for a Divine organ, but we are sorry to say it to ears polite, a dark personage often plays upon it. But we must fall back on the brain and its wonderful powers. What cannot be woven from this extraordinary organ? It has been likened to a poultice and a very soft poultice too; the antipodes of the skull, which is sometimes thick enough. Just fancy the variety of tunes this organ plays; then look to consequences. What sadness and gloom! what mirth, happiness, and prosperity -all emanating from this source, good or bad, as it may chance to be; the discord or harmony depending upon its being kept in tune: discordant notes so rife, which not unfrequently depend upon lifting the right hand to the labials, soiling the stomach, and its ally the brain. It is easy to trace what follows: through the sympathetic nerve and its satellites it is telegraphed from the victualling office to the seat of intellect. The brain may not inaptly be styled the seat of war; for from hence strife and every other godless thing result. Need we then comment on the propriety-the imperative necessity of keeping this instrument under a most strict and rigid surveillance? While shunning all excess, let ambition more particularly be kept under stringent government. It must be selfevident to all, that if the stomach be soiled and sullied, its co-partner the brain suffers likewise-jars, and is no longer kept in pleasing captivity. It is almost needless to say, that (barring accidents) all the variety of diseases of this sensorial organ, may to a great extent be prevented by a strict adherence to the laws of health, and the science of life and study. It is now generally admitted that the organ of the brain can be increased in size, as well as rendered more adroit and vigorous in action, by a process of training, with as much certainty as the muscles of the extremities can be increased in size; provided the process can be commenced in childhood. On this principle depends the perfectability of man. I mean his susceptibility of the highest improvement compatible with the laws imposed on his nature. Abrogate the principle, and his cause is hopeless. As relates to augmentation and diminution, power and weakness, the brain is governed by the same N |