may still be found who shall secretly indulge in it. This anticipation might be pronounced extravagant, perhaps, if we might not indulge the hope that with the spread of useful and practical knowledge, a spirit favorable to the diffusion of knowledge of a higher character would be proportionately roused to energy and action.

There is a something, it is true, which passes under the garb and name of knowledge, which has been preached in our theatres, and published from the press of late in our country, by a shameless advocate of infidelity, who, regardless of all that the Christian religion has done for her sex in ameliorating their condition, and raising them from slavery and abject degradation to the high rank which they justly hold in the scale of being, would seize, like the strong man of old, the pillars of the temple and bury in one indiscriminate ruin the hopes of the future and the happiness of the present. Let me not, therefore, when I speak of knowledge be supposed to use the term as having any affinity with that cant phrase of modern reformers who would put out the sun at noon day to light the path of erring man by the dim taper of their own creation. I mean such knowledge as has been changing the aspect of human society since the reformation and the invention of printing; which combines natural reason with moral culture, and human science and discoveries with the truths of revelation.

It is by a diffusion of such knowledge as this that public sentiment becomes a powerful moral engine. We have seen its influence in our own day, stemming and almost stopping the tide of corruption, misery, and death which intemperance was pouring over our land; we have seen the course of this stream checked and narrowed in its ravages, and many a fair region saved from its desolating power, not by the aid of government, not by the strong arm of civil power, but by the more powerful, the more resistless influence of public sentiment and popular opinion which has been reached and controlled by well directed appeals to the intelligence and reason of the public.

Here is an instance of the influence and moral control which may be obtained over the public mind by a proper diffusion of knowledge; and where, let me ask, would we seek for a stronger proof of its beneficial results ?

Others may talk of the danger of combinations, and tell of the alarming tendency of associations, where the power of the many may be directed to a single object, when that object may be dangerous in its character. But where can we find any thing to

alarm us in associations which have for their object the diffusion of knowledge? Their bane would carry more than an antidote with it. It was in the days of ignorance that a Papal Hierarchy rivetted her chains upon the minds and consciences of men, and without a return of the days of ignorance, we need not fear the efforts of clerical or political combinations to trample on the rights, the liberties, or the consciences of men. It is to a general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence that liberty and virtue owe their strongest hold on a community. And it is to aid the cause of these, to promote our own and others' welfare that we are called upon to contribute our efforts to spread useful knowledge around us. Little may perhaps be accomplished by individual exertions, if unaided and unsupported. But if united as the plan if these associations proposes, they become the little rills that form the mighty river which flows on resistless in its course, fertilizing, enriching and scattering plenty to wide and distant regions.

Humble, therefore, though our efforts may be, let them be united and unwavering, and other men and after days may feel, though they may never acknowledge the influence of our exertions in the cause of useful knowledge.

ART. VI.-Remarks on the Science of Phrenology.

PHRENOLOGY, is a system of philosophy of the mind, avowed by its advocates to be founded on ascertained facts. It declares that the brain of man is the material instrument by means of which the mind carries on its intercourse with the external world. That it is an aggregate of parts, each of which has a special and determinate function.

We are not among the enthusiasts of this newborn science, but are disposed to state some of the reasons which induce us to believe in some of its doctrines. First, then, all certain knowledge in physical science tends to show, not only that every material thing which exists, exists in organic forms, but that each particular part thereof is perfectly organized also, and that their external forms are derived from their internal organization. This internal organization is primarily determined by the use which nature intends to perform thereby. This we believe to

be universally true; it may be, in some measure, illustrated by the different members of a body politic; while every member adds strength, and increases the perfection of the whole, every member is at the same time a perfectly organized and independent form, having its own peculiar and distinct vocation, and which in general accords with his genius and power. So of the various and minutest parts of each man, each part has its own specific use to perform, and thereby helps to perfect the whole; this is precisely true of the brain, in general, and in particular.

The researches of the mineralogist, the botanist, and the physiologist, are daily enriching the mind by discovering the exact adaptation of means to ends in the minutest parts of creation, which the microscope enables them to examine. Is it from these researches that the conclusion is drawn, that the brain of man is the only exception to this general law? Is that part of our material nature which is the habitation and instrument of those affections and powers which constitute the peculiar perfections of man, and render him an image of his creator, the only example of Chaos which is presented to his contemplation? We would rather ask, if it is not more rational and more philosophical to suppose the difficulty to be in its not being understood. In the physical forms of the different natures of men, we observe peculiarities as striking as in their mental and moral character; the same is true in general of the citizens of every community, and of the members of every family. Every skull we meet has as certainly its peculiar form, as its tenant has a peculiar character, each perhaps distinguished by some mental qualities, and perhaps as remarkably deficient in others. In the absence, then, of all contrary proof, is it not highly rational to suppose, either that both are effects of the same cause, or that they are related as cause and effect, to discover by observation and induction, the nature of this relation between the external form of the brain, and the mental qualities and powers of men, is the business and object of the science of Phrenology. Some facts fixing the location of some of the faculties of the mind, are so abundantly attested by repeated observation, as to cease to be subjects of dispute with those who are acquainted with the evidence on which they rest. The subject is in our estimation an interesting one, and one which in its details opens an unmeasured field for daily observation, for curious and philosophical research, and for ourselves, we should be glad to see it one of more general in

quiry. Every accession of established truth helps immediately or mediately in the discovery of more truth; it tends to enlighten and to elevate the mind, and to illumine the path of duty, and while we believe that in the progress of knowledge, and the descent of truth, that every part of the brain which is now view ed as a particular, will be seen to be a general, unfolding within itself innumerable particulars. Yet can we never fully understand how beautifully and how wonderfully we are formed.

ART. VII.-Popular Education in Kentucky.--An Introductory Lecture, delivered before the Lexington Mechanic's Institute, June 20, 1829. By Rev. BENJAMIN O. PEERS. Published at the request of the Board of Managers. Transylvania Press. 1829. pp. 32.

THE topic assigned as the subject of the present Lecture, by the Association at whose request I appear before you, is, the object, plan, and history of Mechanic's Institutes.

'These, as the name imports, are associations consisting principally of mechanics, united together for the purpose of literary improvement in general, but particularly for acquiring a knowledge of those philosophical principles which are receiving constant illustration in the practical operations of the

arts.

The time has been in the history of our forefathers, and that less remote too than might be imagned, when the mechanic was looked upon to be as really a machine as any constructed by his skill, when such societies as those we are about to describe would have been suppressed by law, and when in fact by royal statute, mechanics were forbidden to send their children to school.

'But a new era has dawned upon the world and the English language is not now made the instrument of opposition to the cause of universal education, excepting as it is occasionally used to give expression to the sullen but expiring mutterings of that spirit of ecclesiastical and political misrule which dreads knowledge upon the principle of " hating and avoiding the light because its deeds are evil."

'So complete has been the revolution on this subject that it is scarcely to be credited, that under date of 1825, the follow

ing language should have been addressed to the greatest living champion of popular improvement. "We can," (says a minion of royalty)" regard this scheme only as the baseless fabric of a vision, happily quite beyond any man's power to accomplish on a large and permanent scale but calculated so far as it can be accomplished, to alarm all sober and prudent persons among the middle and upper orders of society and to render the laboring classes uneasy, unhappy, and dissatisfied."

A kindred spirit under a still more recent date makes the following observations in opposition to this "baneful project." "Suppose (says he) that some friend to humanity were to attempt to improve the condition of the beasts of the field; to teach the horse his power, and the cow her value; would he be that tractable and useful animal he is, and would she be so profuse of her treasures to a helpless child?-Could any thing be more impolitic? Yet there is not, that I know of, any express law against it, nor would it be one jot more ridiculous than teaching tailors and cobblers 'the beautiful system of Geometry.'”

'It were superfluous to tell you that such sentiments have never disgraced the American press. The broad bosom of the Atlantic spreads itself out between us and the land in which the tongue or pen of man dares utter them, and I make these extracts at the present time only to show what cause we have to love still more the country of our birth, and to heighten our gratitude to that Almighty Being whose kind Providence has made it our lot to live under a system of government whose policy it is to encourage to, the utmost, rather than depress the diffusion of intelligence.

In this land of freedom the mind as well as the body is unfettered; the fountain of knowledge is open to all, and whosoever will may drink at it.

'Of the ample provision made by some of the members of our Republic for the education of the young, we have long been accustomed to boast, and not without reason; but it is only of late years that the idea seems to have been started, that a system of instruction adapted only to the incipient period of life, and embracing at most only one fourth of our inhabitants, is obviously partial and incomplete as a system of national education.

The utmost that can be accomplished at a primary school (the only school through which a majority of society pass,) in the way of mental culture, is to excite a thirst for knowledge, to impart a small amount of elementary information, and to es