At Hermiston, Mr John Newton, merchant in Leith, youngest son of the late John Newton, Esq. of Curriehill.

At Dumbarton, Mr John Laird, aged 79 years.

At Arbroath, Miss Mary Fraser, daughter of John Fraser, Esq. late of Greenlawhill, and grand-daughter of General Sir James Wood of Bonnington.

17. At London, Mr George Garrick, nephew to the late celebrated David Gar. rick, and husband to Mrs Garrick, of the Liverpool Theatre.

At Edinburgh, Mrs Johnston of Lathrisk, widow of the late David Johnston, Esq. of Lathrisk and Bavelaw.

At Edinburgh, in her 86th year, Mrs Constable, widow of the late Thomas Constable, Kellie.

23. At Castleton, Caithness, aged 57, Alexander Coghill, Esq. merchant, much and justly regretted by a numerous circle of friends and acquaintances.

At Leckie, Robert Moir, Esq. of Leckie, M. D. aged 88.

At Dalkeith, Mr D. Chalmers. 25. In the 84th year of his age, James Watt, Esq. (For a character of this very eminent man, see p. 203.)

At Edinburgh, Mrs Janet Hannay, wife of James Ogilvy Mack, Esq. writer in Edinburgh.

27. At Kelso, Mr Alexander Dove, innkeeper.

At Hillhead, Mr John Sommerville, sen. merchant, Glasgow.

28. At Paisley, Mrs Mary Thomson, relict of the late Mr Thomas Kirkaldie, manufacturer, Dunfermline.

Lately. At Port Royal, Jamaica, William Monro, Esq. Captain in the Royal Artillery, and Lieutenant of Fort Charles and the fortifications of Port Royal.

At Vera Cruz, Lieutenant Gee. Beckwith, Royal Navy, second son of John Beckwith, Esq. and great-grandson of the late Rev. Dr George Wishart, one of the Deans of the Chapel Royal, &c.

John Lachlan, shoemaker in Ayr, known as an intelligent, lively, and facetious companion. He was better known by the epithet of Sutor Johnnie, by which title he is immortalized by Burns in his exquisite poem of "Tam o'Shanter."

At Carmarthen, Lieut.-Colonel Stewart, one of the Deputy Lieutenants of that county.

At Rotherhithe, Captain John Boyd, many years commander of the ship Hibberts, in the Jamaica trade.

At Penang, Mr Adam Gordon, seventh son of the late Rev. Dr Gordon, one of the ministers of Aberdeen.

At his house, in Gloucester Street, Dublin, in the 61st year of his age, Sir Thomas Featherstone, Bart. M. P. for the county of Longford.

At Durham Place, Chelsea, Thomas Richardson, Esq. in his 81st year.

At Clifton, Mrs Spear, the Lady of Capt. Joseph Spear, of the royal navy. She was the second daughter of the late Ludovick Grant, Esq. of Knockandow, and a near relative of the Duke of Gordon and the Earl of Aboyne.

At Linz, the celebrated Austrian General, Count Beaulieu, aged ninety-three years. He retained the possession of his faculties to the hour of his death.

At Limberg, of a dropsy, the Baron Von Hiller, another celebrated Austrian General.

PHRENOLOGY, MORALS, METAPHYSICS.

THE great aim of an enlightened and benevolent philosophy, is not to rear a small number of individuals, who may be regarded as prodigies in an ignorant and admiring age, but to diffuse, as widely as possible, that degree of cultivation which may enable the bulk of a people to possess all the intellectual and moral improvement of which their nature is suscep. tible. The most important of all qualities is a sincere and devoted attachment to truth, which seldom fails to be accompanied with a manly confidence in the clear

conclusions of human reason. It is such a confidence, united, as it generally is, with personal intrepidity, which forms what the French writers call force of character, one of the rurest endowments, it must be confessed, of our species; but which, of all endowments, is the most essential for rendering a philosopher (or any other man) happy in himself, and a blessing to his species.

DUGALD STEWART.

NOTWITHSTANDING the abstruse aspect of our title, we hope to manage this article in such a manner as that the most mercurial of our readers may get smoothly through it; but if it should prove otherwise, we trust he will find something else in our monthly bill of fare not altogether repulsive. A Magazine ought to contain food for various palates, and the more diversified the better, if there be no delete rious or poisonous matter in any one of the varieties. If all be in a good spirit, something may be found acceptable and beneficial to all readers. The most useful work of this nature, we are aware, is that which forms the most faithful record of the times. When that department is well executed, it becomes of permanent value; but then, it is obvious, that, to be a complete record, it must attend to those manifestations of thought and feeling which are peculiar to the age,

as well as to what are more strictly called historical details. The former are to be gathered more accurately, perhaps, from the free and almost unstudied speculations which men of acknowledged powers may indulge in during a leisure hour, or which genius not yet confident in itself may be willing to put forth anonymously, than from those more formal and systematic works which are avowed by: their authors; and every one knows, that such occasional productions are, exactly those which are most likely to be obtained for a periodical publication. It is certainly not wish, whatever may be our practice, to neglect any department or species of literature, which is important in itself, or which may be turned to any useful purpose. present we mean to offer a few remarks on that study, or science, as it is wished to be made, which Dr RoGET calls Cranioscopy, but which its followers denominate by what they consider the more appropriate term of PHRENOLOGY.

our

At

We are quite aware that this subject can hardly be adverted to, without exciting the risible faculties of many of our readers. In most minds there is something ludicrous respecting bumps on the head, and manifes tations of singular organs, associated with the names of GALL and SPURZHEIM; but the feeling which arises from this association is soon dissipated, if we begin to look seriously at the new doctrines concerning the brain. We are not ourselves converts to these doctrines; but we are anxious to do them and their professors justice; and the number of the latter, we conceive, is already so great, as to furnish something like grounds of reproach against all those who pretend an entire indifference. It has been remarked by one of our greatest liv

ing metaphysicians, that "when we first heard of the fall of stones from the sky, there was considerable slowness to admit the fact; and this slowness in such circumstances, it will be allowed, was accordant with the spirit of sound philosophy. But, after the concurring reports of many creditable witnesses, have we remained incredulous? There is not a philosopher, whatever theory he may have formed of their origin, who is not now convinced that such bodies have truly fällen on the surface of the earth." Now, it is exactly on account of the number of informed and creditable men, who have adopted the new system, that we notice it ourselves, and recommend it to consideration. We cannot, indeed, assert, that human heads are as rare as meteoric stones; but if the peculiar shape of each skull has not hitherto been attended to, in so far as the developement of its parts coincided with certain manifestations of talent or character in its owner, we are not at liberty to reject the new doctrines without examination. So many individuals, possessed of talents for observation, have declared, that a concomitance is to be observed between the developement of certain portions of the skull, and certain manifestations of propensities and mental powers, that we can no longer doubt the sincerity of their opinions; and if these may be verified by every one possessed of ordinary talent, it is better, we think, to set about the proeess of verification, than to laugh at those who have already attended to it, and who speak from conviction. We are all physiognomists to a certain extent. We can all say of some individuals, that vice is stamped on their faces; that others indicate weakness; and that this or that person has an agreeable or disagreeable expression; but if precision can be obtained, it is surely as philosophical and rational to say what it is in the configuration of the head, that guides us in our judgment, as to ascribe our impressions of character to a vague je ne scai quoi. It has been long, and

Dr THOMAS BROWN, in note F. to his book on Cause and Effect; a note

which forms the ablest Essay on Miracles that has yet been laid before the public. The value of this, and of the succeeding note on a particular providence, do not ap pear to be known.

pretty generally held among naturalists, comparative anatomiste, painters, and others, that the mental energies are proportionate in a great degree to the quantity of brain situated above and before the ears; that a capacious forehead is generally indicative of intellectual capacity; opinions which unquestionably countenance the idea, that more precision may yet be attained, and that some correspondence really exists between external figure and internal qualities.

The great and preliminary question which is at issue between the disciples of the new school and their antagonists, is one of fact; and as such it is a question which may, and which ought to be settled by observation. Those who have taken the affirmative side are, in language at least, sufficiently candid. They desire none to embrace their opinions upon their evidence. They merely state, they say, the result of their own observations, and they anxiously solicit others to observe for themselves. Until this be done both by friends and enemies to a great extent, it will be impossi ble to say that the system is either established or exploded. The ablest antagonist of the new doctrines, Dr ROGET, does not profess to have put them to the test of his own personal experience. It cannot be said, therefore, that his article Cranioscopy is conclusive, though every reader will allow that it is written with great ability, and that, whatever be the fate of the doctrines combated, it must ever remain a most useful caveat against rashness in forming theories on philosophical subjects. The ablest work we have seen in favour of the new doctrines is one which is not yet, but which will soon be, published. Like Dr Roget's production, it is highly creditable to its author, though perhaps chargeable in a considerable degree with a theorizing spirit. This writer, in common with Drs GALL and SPURZHEIM, lays it down, that, as the functions of the brain are not to be discovered by dissection, nor the specific functions of its particular organs by attending to the subjects of consciousness, the facts on which the whole system is built are to be ascer tained by observation alone; but by attending to the configuration of the head, every one, they assert, will be able to discover a uniform correspondence between the size and developement of