own selves, as the nearest and dearest relative to ourselves. But we have this species of contemplation altogether to ourselves, and other people are but very little interested in the matter of yourself and myself. Fact, we assure you -fact as we have observed it and found it out. There are not many who care about any of us, further than we choose to play the agreeable to them; for they, like us, are mainly absorbed in contemplation of themselves-all selfadmiring, self-condoling, self-applauding-and there are very few who ever give us more than a passing thought, unless their interests are in some way bound up in ours. It is wise then, dear reader, to jog along at your own convenience, and not fret yourself to ribbons, solely to please the world. Shape your own conduct and character for yourself independently, instead of fuming to gain applause that never can be yours, unless obtained by your honest, virtuous, upright self-reliance. Satisfy your inward monitor first; all else is secondary.— The late Joseph C. Neal.

PROGRESSION, OR NOT.

PROGRESS. If there be one thing which, above all others, and almost to the exclusion of all others, is dinned into our ears, until we are sick at heart, and almost sorry that we can hear at all, it is that this age in which we live is an age of PROGRESS.

Now what we would ask-what we would, with all the influence of our sweetest and most humble voices, inquire-is this: toward what, in the name of heaven, is this age progressing? in what has it progressed thus far? when will it cease from progressing? Is it toward universal knowledge, universal happiness, universal freedom? And if it be so, where are the evidences that we are on the road to attain one of these things? Is this age wiser, is it happier, is it more free, than the age of Ann, of George the First, and George the Second; than the age of Charles the First; than the age of Elizabeth; nay, than the age of Augustus Cæsar, of Sesostris, of Memnon? (a)

Is it wiser? How can this question be debated for a moment? who so mad as to moot it? we shall be asked, by some of the omniscient quacks, the oneideaed, universal panacea philosophists of to-day, with a thorough contempt for a thorough knowledge of any thing, especially any thing OLD, and a full conviction of his own infallibility in judging of any thing, reforming every thing, and righting every thing; and very naturally supposing himself to be a great discoverer, because he never read, or heard, or suspected, that any one had ever discovered any thing before him.

"Have we not the press? have we not gunpowder? have we not steam? have we not electricity? and have not all our people family libraries, and penny magazines, and lectures, daily and nightly, of every class and calibre, from Daniel Webster to George Washington Dixon?"

Mr. Windbag, we have all this, and much more also; but thence it does NOT of necessity follow that we are wiser, much less that we are happier or more free.

If we have gained some arts, we have lost others. The Chaldeans, the Egyptians, could have taught our Herschels and our Newtons astronomy, perhaps taught our greatest chemist chemistry; traces of railroads have been found in Egypt; no man can show us, had we the means, the men, and the money, how to reconstruct the pyramids, how to render glass malleable-nay, how to stain it as the ancients did-nay, even how to make the ink we write with, as the Romans did, of charcoal (b). But Windbag will perhaps object, "these things are arts and sciences, not wisdom." Are we, then, wiser unto great ends wiser unto salvation? Are we not still battling with one another in the mart for a few paltry bits of gold? still cutting our throats in the field for a few dirty acres? still wasting all that there is good or great in our faculties or energies in the pursuit of the same precise objects which led men headlong

after shadows three thousand years ago-personal interests, personal ambitions, personal vanities, self, self-miserable self? (c)

When they believe, that this progress, which is sweeping us all away, like the mad votaries of Juggernaut, is leading us to a future, the promise of which is so different from its present?

Yet this is what all those new philosophers, new philanthropists, new prophets, who are not wise as Jesus was, and love not men as he did, and prophesy not in his name, would compel us to believe, on pain of being held the enemies of mankind, and the obstinate opposers of the world's welfare.

In truth, the most provoking part of the whole conduct of these ignorant, presuming, superficial creatures, blind leaders of the blind, is the arrogant insolence with which they assume their unproven and crude systems to be absolute truths, and denounce all who doubt this fact as enemies of the right; the prosecuting spirit with which they assail all who protest against their doctrines because NOT CONDUCING to the happiness of the masses, as if they protested against them because they DID CONDUCE to that end.

We shall find space to make ourselves heard again on this subject. In the meantime, we avow ourselves hostile, ab initio, to all the isms, and, their propagating ITES and IZERS.-American Mail.

(a) Yes, all three. What did these ages know of chemistry? And who so "mad" as to "moot a doubt of its incalculable utility in art, science, and, above all, agriculture? Are the discoveries of Liebig valueless? Don't, Mr. Mail, ever light your office taper or cigar-and we'll stake a lucifer match against a chewed quid, that the writer of this article chews, smokes, and snuffs-with that convenient invention of modern science and art, the lucifer match. Why use type or the printing press, you “mad’ user of "new things? Go back to parchment and scribes. Think of it, an editor calling the

press a nuisance!

The 66 freedom" of any former age was but the shadow of a shade, compared with that of the present; and though the universal happiness of the privileged few may have been greater in other times and nations, yet when and where on earth have the MANY enjoyed a moiety of what they do now in this country?

(b) Undoubtedly past revolutions have swallowed up many valuable arts and discoveries of the ancients, yet along with them have overthrown an incalculable mass of evil. While the Alexandrian Library, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome existed, their old-fashioned doctrines and customs chained mankind to the past; whereas their overthrow allowed a new order of things to be established in their stead.

And what if we can't make ink out of charcoal; we can make it easily and good enough for all practical purposes, and out of what is quite analogous to charcoal-soot, or, as it is called, lampblack, every way its superior.

And suppose we cannot mal glass, yet can we not do with it far more than the ancients? I wish Mr. Mail Editor were for one week allowed no other uses of glass or ink than were known to the ancients. And who would exchange the religion of the ancients for ours? their Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, for the God of the New Testament?

The ancients teach the moderns astronomy, when they did not understand its first principle-that of the motions of the heavenly bodies? Yes, they would have taught us a most mighty "fact," by explaining that eclipses were caused by the gods letting down the curtains of their chariots! Why, the

ancients did not understand one of the first principles of this sublime science!

True, they built great pyramids, and moved heavy stones, but mark-those princes who did this had thousands, probably millions, of abject slaves at work for them. Give the moderns a tithe of the LABOR bestowed on their pyramids, cities, aqueducts, or any thing else, and they will effect a hundred fold more of human happiness and of stupendous public works.

(c) Yes; but are our battles a hundredth part as bloody, or any of our selfishness a moiety as selfish as theirs? No considerations whatever would induce me to exchange modern society or associations with those of the Georges, or Charleses, or Elizabeths, or, much less, of the Cæsars or Memnons of all past ages. The most barbarous things, public and private, now enacted, are petty trifles, compared with the enormities practiced under even Elizabeth, and existing in our own country at the commencement of our Revolution. Would that Mr. Mail would take himself, ideas and all, back to the "fleshpots of antiquity he so loves, instead of thus railing at that progression whose blessing he is perpetually drinking in like water.

QUERY.-Why are conservative advocates of the past like a bark-bound tree in spring?

Because they are so strapped down by antiquated notions, that they cannot GROW in the spring time of human development.

HONOR WHERE HONOR IS DUE.

REFORMATORY INFLUENCE OF PHRENOLOGY.

FEW, even of the advance guards of the various reforms of the day, are aware how many of the souls of their ideas and efforts had their origin in Phrenology. The following gives credit where it belongs:

AMERICAN PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL.

This delightful monthly, edited by Mr. O. S. Fowler, of New York, and published by Fowlers & Wells, to whom communications are addressed, is received. It is filled with highly interesting and useful matter, illustrated with numerous wood cuts, beautifully printed on excellent paper, and furnished at the very low price of One Dollar a year, in advance.

Wherever good and practicable principles are maintained, appreciated, and acted upon, even by a few, the virtuous principles emanating therefrom will be felt, more or less, throughout the community. Although the word Phrenology is not used by every reformer, nor holds any prominent place in the essays on the reforms and improvements of the day, still it is our opinion that the dissemination of a knowledge of this, the only rational system of intellectual philosophy, is the starting place the impulse-the primum mobile of the chaste and generous feelings that constrain the good and virtuous of modern times to exert their influence to promote the welfare of the race. The recently begun, and progressing improvements in Physiology and Medicine, in the treatment of the insane and the criminal, in the training and education of the young, in the development of the true character and sphere of woman, and the growing disposition to more liberal, just, and rational legislation and jurisprudence, we believe, are very much indebted to the promulgation of Phrenology. The good and intelligent are now enabled to devise plans of amelioration applicable to the physical, moral, and intellectual nature of man, thus ensuring success in their praiseworthy enterprises.

Mr. Fowler is a frank, fearless, and independent writer, has done much to

extend the influence of the system, and we perceive no abatement in his zeal or ability in the good work. Those who may patronize the Phrenological Journal, will find themselves amply rewarded by the illustrations of the true principles and springs of human character, which had lain concealed from mortal view, till the veil was withdrawn by the immortal Gall.-Gospel Fountain.

TIME IN A CALF.

THE doctrine, heretofore expressed in the Journal, that all animals possess some of all the faculties, is illustrated by the following. Time and Locality must have been quite powerful to have thus held Alimentiveness in check, even though his tempting repast was before him, till the fixed time and place for satisfying his hunger were presented.

From the Southern Planter.

MR. EDITOR,-A cow belonging to one of my neighbors (Elder William Moore), calved last winter, and the calf, in a short time, was put into the cowhouse, where it remained for about two months, during which time the cow was regularly, night and morning, turned into the house for the calf to suck. At the expiration of this time, the cow and calf were turned into a lot together, where they have been night and day, ever since, except when they have been driven into the house for the cow to be milked, which is the only time and place that the calf has ever attempted to suck. As soon as they are put into the house, the calf seizes the udder with avidity. I consider this the smartest calf that I ever saw. "Train up a calf in the way he should go, and he will not depart from it." SILAS B. JONES.

FLUVANNA, August, 1847.

"PHRENOLOGY IN SCHOOLS."

THIS Science is becoming introduced into many of both the common and the higher schools of our country. The following is an account of its successful prosecution in the Cincinnati High School, already mentioned in the Journal:

66

My principal object in addressing you was to order two dozen of the late work on Physiology and Phrenology, by Mrs. L. N. Fowler, designed for the use of Schools. We have had two classes go through your System of Phrenology, with satisfaction to their instructor, and benefit to the class. This work will allow of more general use, the formation of large classes, as it is fitted for a greater diversity of minds. I could wish that it could be introduced into all the schools and academies of the land. The conservatism that excludes it, must soon give way before the rapidly progressing mind and spirit of the age. It is well for the cause of education among the colored youth of our city, that trustees and boards, or even narrow-minded and self-conceited patrons, do not have to be appealed to before any innovation on the "old, worn-out systems can be made. H. S. GILMORE.”

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT INJURIOUS.

On this point, Richard Webb thus writes:

"Both in England and Ireland, within the last year, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of murders and of hangings. The present Secretary of State for the Home Department, Sir James Graham, who, by virtue of his office, is the head of the police, and the representative of the queen's authority within the kingdoms, is a hard, cruel man he has, with hardly an exception, allowed the law to take its course in every case of capital conviction. Some think that the number of executions has had an effect in brutalizing the public mind, and rendering human life less sacred in the eyes of the ignorant multitude, who form the mass of spectators on all such occasions."

WATER CURE AT LEBANON SPRINGS.

THE increased number of water cure establishments springing into existence in different parts of our country, argues well for that mode of alleviating the ills of humanity. Among these institutions, the one located at LEBANON SPRINGS, N. Y., has extensive facilities for both summer and winter treatinent, as the following extract from a recent notice would indicate :

mer treatment.

"At the principal cold spring, a large bathing house is built, adapted to sumThe water at this spring is at a temperature of forty-six legrees, in midsummer. Another cold spring, at a temperature of fifty degrees, has been improved.

"For winter as well as summer treatment, this location offers every desirable facility. The warm spring throws out sixteen barrels of water per minute, the temperature of which never varies from seventy-two degrees, in coldest weather. The stream courses its way through large plunge and swimming baths; the sight is eligible, commanding the entire stream, where the water has a fall of thirty feet. The cold mountain water, applied to bathing and domestic purposes, has a pressure of from eighty to a hundred feet."

A DISTINGUISHED clergyman in Michigan writes us as follows, in reference to the JOURNAL:

"Without the least flattery whatever, I candidly believe it is worth more than all other periodicals which are published. To any person, it is WORTH

ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD."

****

ONE HUNDRED AND TEN THOUSAND copies of the PHRENOLOGICAL ALMANAC for 1848 have already been sold, and it is confidently expected that not less than 200,000 will be called for during the coming year. PHRENOLOGY MUST BE "GOING DOWN."

THE NEXT NUMBER will close the present volume of this Journal. VOLUME X., FOR 1848, will commence on the first of JANUARY next.

THE phrenological developments of HORACE GREELY, editor of the New York Tribune, will be given in our next number, with a likeness.

VERSES INSCRIBED BY A PHRENOLOGIST ON A SKULL.

Он, empty vault of former glory!
Whate'er thou wert in time of old,
Thy surface tells thy living story,

Tho' now so hollow, dead, and cold.
Old wall of man's most noble part,
In tracing now, with trembling hand,
Thy sentiments-how oft I start,

Dismayed at such a jarring band!
Yet these, forsooth, but seem to be
Mere lumps on thy periphery!

These various organs show the place

Where friendship loved, where passion glow'd, Where veneration grew in grace,

Where justice swayed, where man was proud; Where fair benevolence did grow

In forehead high-and imitation

Adorn'd the stage, where on the brow

Sat sound, and color's legislation;

And circumspection, ever fearing.
Amid its joy, some danger nearing.

And here that fiend of fiends did dwell,
Wild ideality, unshaken

By facts or theory-its spell

Maddens our souls, and fires our beacon ! Here did appropriation try,

By help of secrecy, to gain

A store of wealth to leave and die,
That heirs might dissipate again.
Courage, deceit, destruction, theft,
Have traces on this skull-cap left.

Dear Nature, constant in her laws,

Hath mark'd each mental operation:
Bumps are effects which spring from cause,
Well known in this most fighting nation.
For no deception here can be,

Each little hillock hath a tongue,
Uttering words which all agree

Might save a man, or have him hung!
May future times much wisdom cull
From my own head, when it's a skull t