BUCHANAN’S
JOURNAL OF MAN.

Creation’s Mysteries

Dr. B. Cyriax, editor of the Spiritualistische Blätter , published at Liepsic, Ger., has given in the issue of March 31st the following communications from Dr. Hahnemann and Dr. Spurzheim, delivered through a trance medium. They are valuable essays, whatever may be their source, and the reader will not fail to observe their general coincidence with the doctrine presented by myself in the May number of the Journal of Man in the article on the “Genesis of the Brain.”

Wishing to have a psychometric test, I placed in the hands of Mrs. Buchanan a portion of the manuscript of Spurzheim, who died fifty-five years ago, to see if her conception of his thought would coincide with the report from the trance medium. Her nervous system being somewhat disturbed at the time, she was unable to go as far as I wished, but she gave the following impressions:

“This has been written sixty or seventy years ago, written by a person of very broad, elevated mind, progressive, a teacher or writer—perhaps both. He had a great deal of will power, strong, and decisive, was very independent, not afraid to give his views, but had a great deal of opposition to his sentiments. He was of a scientific cast of mind, was acquainted with medical science, and was more interested in the brain than anything else. He would talk, lecture, and write about the brain, and had very correct views in advance of others. He is in spirit life now. There is a warmth and nearness in the impression as though he would be attracted to the science you are engaged in. His mind broadens out into different lines of thought in spirit life—things appertaining to what he was interested in here, and kindred subjects. He thinks you are developing in the right direction. I think he has communicated with you. I think he has an overshadowing approval of your work. He feels that you are in an original line of thought, not dominated by any other minds. There seems an overshadowing influence that stimulates you.”

As to his having communicated with me, it is true that over thirty years ago I received some remarkable communications from him, through a rapping medium, the messages being spelled out by the alphabet, and his suggestions entirely in consonance with my teachings.

I then asked, “What views does he have of the process of creation and development of life on the globe?” Which was answered “His views are such as have been expressed by the believers in evolution, from the lower to the higher orders of creation. I feel a pressure of intellectual conceptions, but my nervous system is not in a state to express it.”

I then read through the statement of Spurzheim’s views (his name being still unknown to Mrs. B.), and asked how they coincided with the sentiments she perceived in the person she described. She replied, “I think he accepts or approves it generally. He would certainly sanction such ideas. I think he has communicated, and that he would, in control of a medium, express such ideas.”

The messages of Hahnemann and Spurzheim have been so well translated by a correspondent of the Golden Gate , that I reproduce them as given in that journal, as follows:

“If you consider the high development of the Caucasian race, it is repulsive to your sentiments to believe that man belongs to the animal kingdom as its highest link, and springs from this kingdom. Yet this feeling is false, and must be destroyed, since it originates only in self-conceit and it is not so very difficult to arrive at a juster view. Only go back to the time of Charlemagne or to that of Augustus, and observe the great mass of your forefathers, and you will find so great a difference, that you will be as much alarmed as if in the presence of Indians, when such a tribe of Germans is brought before you. Then go still further back into the pre-historic times, and form an image of the pile-builders and their mode of life, and of the cave-dwellers and their imperfect weapons and tools, and you will have to confess that these are separated from the present Europeans by a greater gap than are the uncultured inhabitants of the earth of to-day. And yet these cave-dwellers and pile-builders had already reached a high degree of culture in comparison with those who had preceded them by thousands of years; and if we thus join link to link in the chain backwards, we must come to the conclusion that the original men were but little distinguished in form and bodily structure, as well as in intellectual capacity, and at first hardly at all, from the animals standing next them, the four-handed ones.

“The assumption that God has created man perfect, i. e. , in body, but without power of judgment, and that he obtained this only by transgressing a command and a prohibition, and thus by a crime, so that he first began to degenerate upon the awakening in him of the divine intellect and reason, we leave wholly one side as absolutely contradicted by positive science, and only inquire, how, then, did man originate in so low a form? There are but two answers to this question. The one is, that man was placed upon the earth by an outside power in full size, rudeness and stupidity, in order to be left to his fate there in an unknown land, and to struggle for his existence with unknown animals. Or, on the other hand, that man was developed in a quite natural way, according to the law of evolution, out of the class of animals standing next below him. You are aware that we do not favor the first view, but so much the more earnestly embrace the latter. According to the law of evolution and adaptation the talents and capacities of animals were steadily changed in the course of thousands of years, following the changed relations of climate and soil, so as to fit themselves for the new conditions of sustenance and existence. In proportion as all nature became changed, so that at the end of a so-called geological period no comparison could be made with the beginning of the next preceding one, in that same proportion and measure the plants and animals had also changed, so that scarcely any more resemblance existed between these and those from which they originated. It is self-evident that amid such changes only those specimens continued to exist, which had adapted themselves in their progressive development in their organs and capacities in the best way to the new conditions of their existence. All those which had not thus changed lost the conditions of their existence and died out. But where did these organs and capacities, fitted to the newer relations, gain their form and development? In the mother-pouch of the female, undoubtedly! And of course this improvement advanced with each succeeding generation, so that animals which originally only lived in water, through gradual efforts to go on dry land also, to which, perhaps, they were forced to preserve their species, thereby changed the original fins into legs and later into web-feet by which they were adapted to live in water as well as on land (amphibia).

“Now likewise there was developed in the gigantic four-handed Saurians such a change in the mother-pouch of the female animals as the ever finer organized brain created, so that in the course of thousands of years, a creature was gradually developed which overstepped the last stage of the sense-developed understanding and comprehension, and was in a position, through the putting into activity of the upper and front brain, to distinguish evil from good and to think independently. Of these creatures, likewise, only those survive that had in themselves the capacity for further development, while the rest perished. The survivors were the original men; those that perished formed the intermediate link between man and the brute. Thus, out of the infinite efforts of nature to create a finer organized species from the four-handed Saurians, came forth not only men, but the failures, the apes. So man does not descend from the ape, but both have only one stock, which is the four-handed animals sprung from the flesh-devouring Saurians.

“Thus we can settle whence man comes and how he arose, but that does not solve the problem whence comes life or how it arose, yet on this point I will give place to friend Spurzheim.

“Dr. Spurzheim then took control and spoke over half an hour in his peculiarly striking, logical and convincing way, yet it is quite impossible to repeat this discourse as it was given. It ran about as follows:

“Worthy friends, friend Hahnemann has just given you an explanation of the origin of man to which I have nothing to add. The question whether the egg existed before the hen or the hen before the egg has often been called an idle one, and yet it obtrudes itself upon everybody. Our eyesight teaches that the egg comes from the hen, but at the same time also that the hen is developed from the egg, and if we go farther back we are lost in infinity. The theological view that God put into the world all that exists, all animals from the smallest seen by the microscope to the largest gigantic creatures in pairs and fully grown, seems to solve the problem of the egg and the hen, but has long since been refuted by science, so that we need not further meddle with it, and so much the less as thereby the question of the origin of life is not even touched. Let us now make a violent leap from man out into infinite space and back millions of years before the origin of man upon the earth. What do we see there? Unnumbered worlds, all which, like the sun, have brought forth other worlds dependent on them, and these by their development taking place according to like uniform laws in their infinite differences in size and specific gravity, yet ever striving after the same great end, the production of beings endowed with reason, offer the most glorious picture of Godlike power and harmony. The worlds born of these suns (planets) all originated in like manner, since the parts lying along the circumference of the suns, by their motion in space cooled off the sooner, broke away in irregular masses, and while contracting into globular shapes and revolving upon their own axis, yet by the force of attraction and their original motion bound to the bodies, whirl around these and with these move on in space. And though these balls of glowing gas, as the earth for example in its origin, in contrast with the mother-body (sun) are somewhat cooled off, yet is the heat of the same still so great (some reckoning it at two or six thousand degrees while others hold it incomputable) that absolutely no life can exist within such balls of fire. But after the more solid parts are formed (granite, porphyry, etc.,) gradually by cooling off and contracting, and these are fused together into larger masses, then begin the ribs of the earth-structure, the rocky foundations of the super-structure, and as soon as the development of the earth is so far advanced that oxygen and hydrogen can be formed into water, which falls down in frightful masses upon the hot rocks and dissolves them on the surface, then begins the condition productive of cells and carbon entering into the connection, and the first plants are brought forth; the algæ first, then the lichens and ferns, which are developed into gigantic dimensions. Prior to and simultaneous with the formation of cells went on the production of crystals and the mineral as well as the vegetable kingdoms were further and further developed. Contemporary with the first plant-cells the conditions were plainly offered for the formation of the first life-cells. And now the question arises, What is life? Whence comes it? Although it is certain that in the process of development of the earth after its separation from the sun no life was present.

“It is asserted that life is motion and is an attribute of matter; yet that is something wholly different from what is understood by the term. Thus far science has pointed out no distinction between dead and living protoplasm, and the affirmation that the primordial cells are the source of life is not tenable, since the cell is an organization that presupposes life, and so, at most, the original cell could be designated as but the first expression of life. For a short time it was assumed that life came to the earth through meteors or parts of worlds that had gone to pieces, but this idea was soon given up, because neither the manifold nature of life nor the origin of the same could thereby be explained or determined, and thus the question was only pushed farther back, since what was desired to be known, was, how life originated on the world that was destroyed.

“When, and under what circumstances, life began on the earth can not be accurately fixed, yet it is clear that at the time when the ocean still covered nearly all the earth and was so hot that not a single one of the now existing plants and living beings could then exist, the life in that ocean and on its bottom was so infinitely grand in its proportions that men can now form no adequate conception of the same. The force of growth as well as of decay was immense, and all that was grown or made by its decay only increased the mass of life-producing substance.

“There are three theories as to the origin of living beings:

“1. God made all animals, including man, in pairs and of full size.

“2. The elements of physical nature and the forces dwelling in matter by a lucky arrangement of atoms developing living organs out of matter.

“3. An intelligent, intellectual force permeates matter, and wherever this in its development attains the conditions for the maintenance of life (and so a higher manifestation of force than in the mineral) it brings forth the intellectual life in the protoplasmic germ for the finest organism. Through the laws of inheritance, of change, of the multiplication of progressive development, of natural selection and of the persistence of the most gifted individuals, living beings are developed through all classes and species up to man.

“With the first theory we need not concern ourselves further, as we have already branded it as hostile to reason and knowledge, although theologians have sought to maintain that Almighty God has made the earth with all that is in it and upon it, just as it now exists, and have even gone so far as to affirm in opposition to the effect of geological discoveries, that God himself had created or deposited the fossil remains of animals found under the bed of the Euphrates (the spot where paradise is said to have been) exactly there and in a petrified condition.

“The second theory seems more probable; it assumes that force and matter are one and the same, matter possessing force as a quality; but overlooks the fact that what is called matter first came forth as a product out of the glowing mass of primary gas or world-material, and hence that matter, or world-material, to which the life-producing force is attached, is to be sought away back before the time when began the formations of worlds in their incandescent state, whereby it is, of course, conceded that life in the ordinary sense was destroyed, if it really subsisted before the heating of the particles of matter.

“Another objection to this theory is this, that if organizations spring from the favorable union of atoms, this surrenders the rule to chance and excludes a unitary order of the world, while failing to explain the origin of thinking, moral and reason-gifted beings; since, if thinking, reason and moral sentiment spring from matter, they must be attributes of the same; and since the product is always less than the producer, it follows that intelligence, reason and ethics must be present somewhere in matter in a concentrated form; and this reflection brings us quite naturally to the third theory.

“The intellectual, divine principle penetrates matter as the positive element, which under definite conditions steadily works upon the negative element of the original substance and forces the same under constant changing of form and combining parts, to realize definite, universally similar ideas, and to attain definite aims; and wherever matter in the process of development offers certain conditions, there the intellectual element produces what is called life. And this takes for granted that life may spring up spontaneously there where there was no life before; and this fact has been established beyond all reasonable doubt. The juice of mutton, beef and a mixture of gelatine and sugar have been put in separate vessels, these made air-tight and exposed for a long time to a heat of as much as three hundred degrees of Fahrenheit, so as to be quite sure that all living germs were destroyed. Yet after the lapse of weeks in some cases and of months in others, living beings were developed in the vessels.

“Under the relation of the earth as existing to-day, life would again be developed, if we were in a condition instantaneously to annihilate all life; yet the same results would not be produced as in the original period, because the needed materials are no longer present in the mighty masses, nor in the requisite fluid and gaseous conditions to attain so powerful effects, to which belong also as necessary conditions the far higher temperature and the greater humidity of the atmosphere of that epoch. In the first creative period the force as well as the material were present in colossal measure and then arose those gigantic plants and animals, which laid the foundation for all later organisms. Without the colossal ferns and lichens and palm-like growths of the early ages, the plants of to-day would have been impossible, and without the monstrous giant creatures of old, which became more and more refined through gradual adaptation to altered relations, the modern animal kingdom could not have arisen. This adaptation is one of the most wonderful phenomena in the history of the development of the earth and is found as well in the realm of plants as in that of animals. Originally there were only aquatic animals, but as the relations changed so that it became necessary, partly for the procuring of food and partly for the safety of the offspring, that animals should go on land, their attempts constantly repeated to do so, gradually produced a change in the limbs fitted for motion, and so came about the transformation of fins into wings in the creatures that wanted to rise out of the water into the air, which then had far more carrying power than at the present day.

“Whatever may be said about the qualities of matter and the force united with it (more truly the force manifesting itself therein), it cannot be denied, that the plan of creation is a unitary one, moving on according to definite laws and striving towards definite final results. This presupposes that a conscious idea lies at the basis of the creative plan, and this implies an original consciousness which we call God. God and nature are one, just as intellect and body are one in man. Nature, i. e. , substance, changes according to the impulses that go out from God, but God remains unchanged. All that possesses form, all organization must be destroyed in the incandescent process of forming world-bodies, but the divine, the intellectual principle is indestructible; and when matter under the impulses that went forth from God, has reached the grade of development at which organization is possible, then the divine principle steps into force as the positive element, and that is life. This positive element works on and on, steadily producing higher forms and higher organizations, until in man it fashions itself into a self-recognizing, conscious and individual essence, which, as derived from God, is indestructible, and after the consummation of its earthly organism, is capable, as an individual, intellectual being, of an infinitely progressive development.

“So far man can attain by a chain of logical deductions; but to define the idea that lies at the basis of the world-order is impossible; just as also a man will never be in a condition to find out or to comprehend how the working of the intellectual element, upon the substance capable of change, is made possible. Life is the self-manifested working of the intellectual element upon matter. Man never understands the laws of life, though he can understand the laws necessary for the preservation of life, since he can deduce them from the outward manifestations of life. Man must be contented with this; he can never understand God; and since life is the expression of the divine activity, its origin must ever remain a mystery to him.”

Though concurring generally in the foregoing views (which may have been materially modified by their channel) I do not accept them as a finality. That a brooding spiritual power has to do with all development and progress I do not doubt. But this power is not necessarily a monotonous and universal influence like gravitation or caloric. There is no reason to forbid special acts of the creative spiritual energy, for we observe to-day the production of plants and of beautiful fabrics by spiritual power where the necessary conditions exist. Moreover, the greatest potency of spiritual power is at the beginnings in the most plasmic conditions of matter. It is in the animal germ and the vegetable seed that the invisible world is most potential, and I am inclined to think that naturalists have attached too much importance to the exterior environment, and too little to the interior conditions in which the higher potencies of organization are to be found, and in which alone we may find the entrance of life from the true world of life.

The hasty conclusions of naturalists as to evolution do not explain the evolution and the vast variety of the vegetable kingdom. To attribute this to any power of modification by environment, when we see how little environment can do to make any essential change in vegetation, would require more credulity than I would consider justifiable in the pursuit of scientific truths. So in the evolution of the animal kingdom, I believe the power of the physical environment has been greatly overrated.

A True Poet—the Poetry of Peace and the Practice of War.

It is nearly thirty years since I met the English poet, Charles Mackay, at Louisville, on his travels in America. At that time he gave me the following poem suggested by our conversation. I do not think that he has ever published it:

It is the function of the poet to realize and revere the mystery, but it is the duty of philosophy to explore and dissipate it, as far as possible, for mystery is the foe of human progress .

Mackay, though not the poet of psychic science, is profoundly the poet of practical, humanitarian progress, as was shown in his sublime poem, beginning,

The psychometric impression from the manuscript of the foregoing poem was as follows:

“This seems like a poetical influence. I think the person who wrote this, was adapted to intellectual pursuits,—a man of fine powers of mind, but not fully progressed in thought. As far as he knew, at the time of this writing, he was appreciative of your suggestions, and of scientific progress. He was a cool-headed man,—not a light or superficial thinker, but thought on deep subjects. He was a brain worker; it makes my brain tired. I think he published books—poems. I think he was more a poet than a prose writer. He was not like Tom Moore—there was nothing light or superficial—his poetry was grand, solid, deep, stirring. He could write upon warlike scenes, vividly and descriptively, but was not in favor of war. He would deplore any appearance of war, but he had a patriotic spirit, a proud spirit, and would defend the right and assail the wrong.”

This description was verified in his numerous volumes of poetry, such as “Legends of the Islands,” “Poetry of the English Lakes,” “The Battle,” “Town Lyrics,” etc. He also published three volumes of “Memoirs of Popular Delusions,” edited the London Review , and was the war correspondent of the London Times from this country during the rebellion.

His opposition to war is shown in the following admirable poem, the reading of which revived my recollection of its author.

FREEDOM’S WARFARE. By Charles Mackay .

This poem expresses the sentiment and policy of the Journal of Man . But, ah, how utterly antagonistic to these noble sentiments is the way of the world at present, and the policy of the world’s strong governments, upheld as they are by the so-called church of Christ, which is not the church of Christ but the church of Athanasius.

Everywhere men are trained with skill and perseverance for the work of homicide, as if murder were the most glorious work in which man could be employed.

Every Frenchman in his twenty-first year is held by the government (with very few exceptions) to five years service in the active army, four years in the reserve of the active army, five years in the territorial army, and four in the reserve of the territorial army—eighteen years altogether! Could his Satanic Majesty have devised any better plan for destroying the moral distinction between men and carnivorous beasts? The only mitigation of this horror is that college students are allowed to pass by one year’s service, and a lottery of long and short terms allows a large number to escape with terms of abridged length.

Germany, like France, forces everybody through the army, and it is but five months since the continental governments were buying in England millions of cartridges for the expected war which psychometry pronounced a terrible delusion.

All governments are busy in preparing the deadliest possible weapons. European nations have generally adopted magazine guns for their soldiers. France has adopted the Kropatochek magazine rifle, Germany the Manser rifle, Austria the Mannlicher magazine rifle, Italy the Bertoldo magazine rifle, Russia the Berdan breechloader, Turkey the American rifle. The magazine guns seem to have almost unlimited capacities—firing 30 to 50 shots per minute which are fatal at a mile distance. The only mitigation of these horrors is that of a German chemist’s invention—an anæsthetic bullet which is claimed to produce complete insensibility, lasting for hours.

Explosive shells of melinite are the leading idea in France. It is manufactured at Bourges and is said to be a hundred times as powerful as gunpowder, or ten times nitroglycerine, and reduces what it strikes to a fine powder. They have also a new rifle powder which explodes without smoke.

Russia has a new explosive, fifteen times as strong as any gunpowder, which produces no smoke.

America is not behind in explosives. Lieut. Graydon has been giving exhibitions near Washington of a new patent shell said to be seven times more powerful than dynamite, and yet so safe that it can be fired with powder from a common gun. Mr. Bernard Fannon of Westboro, Mass., has invented and patented a shell of terrific power. It is made of iron, three inches thick, and weighs 540 pounds. The effects of its explosion in a swamp near Westboro were wonderful. It is also said to be perfectly safe.

The rivalry of cannon and armor plates is going on, the development of torpedoes and shells is reaching its maximum, and the power of taking a nation to the edge of starvation, for the building of monster ships, costing each millions of dollars, is the study of Christian (!!) governments.

Thirty years ago, the largest British cannon was a sixty-eight pounder, costing $561, which might be fired for $275. Now they have a 110-ton gun costing $97,500 to manufacture, and $935 to fire once.

The British government has gone into such matters deeply, paying Mr. Brennan over half a million dollars for his torpedo invention.

The British ship “Victoria” uses 900 pounds of powder to one of its 110-ton guns which send a missile of 1,800 pounds.

Nelson’s flag ship “Victory” used no larger powder charge than eight pounds, and its heaviest shot was only sixty-eight pounds. A broadside upon the “Victoria” consumes 3,000 pounds of powder. Its 110-ton gun is moved by hydraulic machinery. Such a metallic monster would seem almost incredible, but Krupp has constructed a still larger gun for Italy, 46 feet long and weighing over 118 tons.

It could not be sent overland by railway, but was sent to Antwerp for shipping on a specially constructed carriage 105 feet long, running on 32 wheels.

The American steel cruiser “Atlanta” has two guns of eight-inch bore, 24 feet long, sending out a projectile of 300 pounds which explodes on striking,—firing correctly five miles. It costs $150 to to fire once.

Lieut. Zalinski is using a light steel tube, sixty feet long and one foot in diameter, to fire explosive shells by air pressure. Great results are expected from it, and it would save us from the enormous cost of modern cannon.

Fortunately, America, being out of the great maelstrom of war, can cultivate humane sentiments and abolish the barbarism of dueling, which still holds its ground in France and Germany in the highest ranks of society.

We have had one terrible war to demoralize our nation, but now peace is secure and the old Federal and Confederate soldiers are active in exchanging visits and generous hospitalities North and South in a permanent and peaceful Union.

A re-established Union saves us from the wars and the military despotism in which other republics have perished, and all can unite now in the following beautiful tribute to the dead heroes:

The Gospel of Peace has been illustrated in a Chattanooga Journal by a beautiful incident, the meeting of the blue and gray in church, during the war as follows:

“At the bar banquet given Saturday night in honor of Judges Key and Trewhitt, Mr. Templeton of Knoxville related an incident which occurred during the war at a revival service held by his father in North Georgia.

“About the time that Sherman was driving Johnson toward Atlanta,” said he, “some time in the early part of August, 1864, my father was conducting a revival at a little house called Pine Log Creek Church, about ten miles from Calhoun. The times were most terrible about then; murder, robbery and rapine were of daily occurrence, and the whole country was subject to visitations by marauding parties from both armies. One day the old gentleman was preaching a sermon of unusual power, and before he had gotten well under way a gang of Confederate soldiers rode up, and, dismounting out back of the church, asked if they might be admitted to the church. Of course they were cordially invited in, and took prominent seats in the church.

“Not long afterward a cloud of dust was seen in the road from the opposite direction to what the rebels had come, and pretty soon the tramp of horses’ hoofs was heard, and it was soon discovered that it was a squad of Federal troops, and before the Confederates in the church could be apprised of the approach, they had ridden up to the door. Perceiving that religious services were being held, they alighted and asked to be admitted. They were told that there were Confederate soldiers in the church, but they insisted on going in, and they were admitted.

“Naturally the strange spectacle created some consternation in the congregation, and for a time it seemed as if the confusion would break up the meeting. But my father raised his voice and began most fervently to plead a better life, beseeching his soldier hearers to become religious and abandon their sins. He preached with unusual force and power, the strange scene lending him inspiration. When he had concluded his sermon, as was the custom then, he invited those who were converted to come forward to the mourner’s bench and pray and talk with him on the all-important subject.

“Then it was that one of the grandest sights ever witnessed occurred. Those soldiers, enemies to each other, engaged in a bloody war, arose as one man, friend and foe together, and marched to the front of the church and kneeled together, Confederate by Federal, their muskets joining and crossing each other; their revolvers touching each other as they kneeled; their heads bowed upon the same altar, and their tears mingling almost in their deep contrition and profound feeling. All animosities were forgotten, all strife forgotten—they were together as brothers around a common altar.

“After the service they met on the outside of the church, shook hands, pledged fraternity, and each party went off, taking opposite directions. They had been looking for each other, perhaps with murderous intent. They found each other, but they separated with love instead of hate, friendly instead of angry.”

The Volapük Language.

In the attempt to form a universal language, no one has proceeded more philosophically than the late Stephen Pearl Andrews, who attempted to construct a language in which all the sounds should be selected in accordance with nature, being such as are naturally associated with the ideas they are used to express.

Mr. Andrews, by his personal amiability, enthusiasm, and lucid intelligence, interested a number of disciples who have studied his language called the Alwato , and it may be hoped will not allow it to disappear with the life of its highly gifted and philosophic teacher.

The Volapük language which has no such pretention to philosophic construction, is coming into such prominence as to deserve the attention of the readers of this Journal , hence I present the following sketch which has been abridged from an article in the American Magazine for June, written by Richard Walker:

“ Volapük is the invention of the Rev. Father Johann Martin Schleyer, of Constance, Baden, Germany. He is an accomplished linguist, having for forty-six years been interested in the study of language. He can speak and write twenty-eight tongues, including the Chinese and three African languages, and is also eminent as a priest, hymnologist and religious editor. He invented his universal language in 1878, announced it in 1879, and had so far perfected it in 1881 as to publish in that year a small book, entitled “Entwurf einer Weltsprache für alle gebildte Erdbewohner” (“Plan of a Universal Language for all the Civilized Inhabitants of the Earth”). Thus the name, Volapük; vola meaning of the world, and pük language.

“Schleyer does not propose that Volapük shall supercede any living language. He has attempted to make it so scientific and natural, so regular in all the rules of construction, and therefore so easy to learn, that every educated person will acquire it next after the mother tongue; and he hopes that it will thus become the accepted medium for all international communications. With this end in view, he has formed it on the general model of the Aryan family of languages; that is, its signs represent letters and words, and not ideas; and the root words of which it is constructed, instead of being arbitrary sounds and signs, as in Bishop Wilkin’s philosophical language, or sounds that have a real or fancied natural meaning, as in Stephen Pearl Andrews’ “Alwato,” are taken principally from living languages, the English being more largely drawn upon than any other.

“The alphabet employed is the Roman with some of the German dotted letters added, and the continental sounds are given to the letters. All words are phonetically spelled, so that there are none of the difficulties of orthography and pronunciation to be encountered which are so formidable in most natural languages.”

In making his Volapük vocabulary, Father Schleyer has sought first for the simplest words now in use. If such words are to be found in the English language, he has adopted them; if not, then he has drawn upon the Latin, German, French, and Spanish languages in the order named. For example, the word man in English, is a sufficiently simple root, and, therefore, man , with the same spelling and the continental pronunciation, is made to signify a man, or the man in Volapük—for the articles a and the are discarded. But house in English is inconveniently long and ends with a silent letter, and therefore the word dom , from the Latin word domus , is taken. In some instances neither of the languages named contains a root sufficiently simple, and then the inventor constructs a new one. But, so rich is the English language in simple Anglo-Saxon roots, that more than one-half of the words in Volapük are derived from them, and the number of new words whose roots are not to be found in any living language is comparatively very small.

To the suggestion that, if the English language was to be drawn upon so largely it would have been better to have adopted that, and induce all educated persons to learn it, the advocates of Volapük reply, first, that its irregularities of construction, orthography, and pronunciation make it too difficult to acquire; and secondly, international prejudice would prevent it from being universally adopted. The use of so many English roots, however, makes Volapük much easier to learn by one whose mother tongue is English, and thus bring it within reach of the largest number of people speaking a common language, while it eliminates irregularities and does not arouse national prejudices.

The names of the cardinal numbers follow the vowels in their regular order, a denoting the first, e the second, etc. Thus: Bal , 1; tel , 2; kil , 3; fol , 4; lul , 5; mäl , 6; vel , 7; jöl , 8; zül , 9; bals , 10; tels , 20; kils , 30; tum , 100; mil , 1,000, etc. The year 1887, written out in Volapük, is Balmil jöltum jölsevel . The Arabic numerals are used as in English.

S added to any word forms the plural, which is never formed in any other way. The first three vowels (a, e, i) added to any noun, form respectively its genitive, dative, and accusative; s added to these forms makes the plurals of the same cases. Man is therefore declined as follows:

Every noun in the language is declined in the same way, so that all declensions may be learned in one minute.

The verbs in Volapük are all regular, and there is only one conjunction. The tenses are denoted by the vowels a, ä, e, i, o, u, placed before the verbs. When these vowels are preceded by p, it shows that the verb is in the passive voice. The personal pronouns are: ob , I; ol , thou; om , he; of , she; os , it; ok , one’s self. S added makes the plurals. Löf , meaning love, löfób , means I love; löfól , thou lovest, etc.; älöfób , I loved; ilöfóm , he had loved; ulöfós , it will have loved, etc.; palöfóms , they are loved; pulöfófs , they will have been loved, etc. As it is only necessary to remember the few particulars named, all conjugation may be acquired in five minutes.

Enough has been given—and there is very little more of it—to show the extreme simplicity of the Volapük grammar. It can be learned in an hour, and, as the variations of the nouns and verbs are indicated by the vowels taken in their regular order, they are not easily forgotten. The principal labor necessary to acquire the language consists, therefore, in memorizing the vocabulary. Since more than one-half the roots are English, a person speaking that language can naturally acquire the new one in less than one-half the time required for any foreign language, and the better knowledge he has of Latin, French and Spanish, the faster will be his progress.

After Father Schleyer published his first book, in 1881, he was soon able to interest a few persons in Germany in Volapük. It next got a foothold in Switzerland, and then in Paris. English linguists are just beginning to give attention to it, the only publication in English until very recently having been a bad adaptation of an abridged grammar. But on the Continent it has gained in popularity very rapidly during the last two or three years, so that there are now at least ten thousand persons who are familiar with and use it. More than three hundred and fifty have received diplomas as adepts. There are eight monthly periodicals printed wholly in Volapük, or partly in Volapük and partly in other languages.

In the United States not more than twenty persons have studied Volapük, and only about half a dozen can read and write it. Mr. Charles E. Sprague, of New York, who holds the diploma of Volapükatidel, reads and writes it with ease, and to him I am under obligations for assistance in preparing this article. There are no Volapükese clubs or periodicals published in the language or in its interest either in this country or in England. A large number of books in Volapük, or about it, have appeared in Germany, including grammars in eighteen languages, a German-Volapük dictionary containing twelve thousand words, a biography of the inventor, Father Schleyer, pamphlets, etc.

Progress of the Marvellous.

Mrs. L. C. Moulton, London correspondent of the Boston Herald , sends the following, published July 17:

“Like every body else, in London they are interested in hypnotism, spiritualism, etc.—interested, I mean, as inquirers, not as believers, and I saw a table move round briskly under the pretty fingers of Mrs. Hunt and a young lady cousin of hers.

“The latest feminine sensation is Miss Ramsey, the Girton girl of twenty, who beat all the men at Cambridge this year in Greek; and what makes her success still more triumphant, is that the pretty little creature had only learned her Greek alphabet four years ago, while the men had all been pegging away at the language for ten years.

“Prof. Stainton-Moses of University College, London, is certainly a trained scientist, and a man accustomed to weigh evidence, and tells me that with him spiritualism is not a matter of mere belief, but of actual, personal knowledge. A great deal of spiritual writing has been done through his own hand; not professionally, but for his own satisfaction. Holding Zoroaster or Aristotle in his left hand, and reading attentively, he has written out most extraordinary things with his right. For instance, one day—in answer, he thinks to a wish on his part for an especially strong test—his hand wrote of the death of a woman of whom he had never heard, giving her name and the time and manner of her passing away, etc. ‘But,’ he said, as he read it over, ‘I don’t see that this is a test. I could find it in a newspaper; I may have read it, and unconsciously remembered it.’ Instantly it was written, ‘No, that cannot be; she died but an hour ago, and when you see it in the paper you will have had your test.’ The next day he searched the papers in vain, but on the second morning, there, in the death column, he found the announcement of the death, corresponding with what had been written through him, in every particular of name, date, and disease. Also he has seen spirits in friendly converse—entertained them at his own fireside.

“I went, by invitation of Prof. Stainton-Moses, to a festal reunion of the ‘Spiritual Alliance,’ of which he is president, and I am bound to say that I met there men and women who seemed to me as sincere and earnest, and intelligent as one finds anywhere. Oh, and I saw Eglinton—the medium who is now what Home was—though he told me last night he meant soon to get out of the professional part of spiritualism. He is a singularly agreeable man, handsome, and with a look in his dark eyes as if they might easily see visions. I am told that he has lately married a very rich wife, and this may account for his intention to withdraw from spiritualism as a profession.”

Mr. Eglinton has published in the London Medium a very interesting narrative of his seances with the Emperor and Empress of Russia, the royal family and nobility. In the first royal seance, the Grand Duchess Vladimir proved to be a medium, and was lifted in the air, screaming the while. ‘As she continued to ascend,’ says Mr. Eglinton, ‘I was compelled to leave her hand, and on returning to her seat, she declared that she had been floated over the table without anything having been in contact with her.’

The Grand Duke Vladimir brought a new bank-note in an envelope to have its number told, which he did not know. The number was correctly written by the spirits, between slates, 716,990.

At the seance with the emperor there were present a party of ten, the empress, Grand Duke and Duchess of Oldenburg, Grand Duke and Duchess Sergius, Grand Duke Vladimir, Prince Alexander, and Gen. Richter. All hands being joined, a spirit voice conversed with the empress in Russian. A female form materialized near the Princess Oldenburg. A music-box weighing about forty pounds, was carried around and placed on the emperor’s hand. Other phenomena occurred, but the chief incident was the levitation. Mr. Eglinton was lifted in the air, the empress and Prince Oldenburg holding his hands and standing on their chairs, until his feet rested on the shoulders of the emperor and the Grand Duke Oldenburg.

Mr. Eglinton was overwhelmed with invitations from the nobility and professors. M. de Giers the great Foreign Minister and his two sons (mediums) were spiritualists of many years standing.

The Journal could not contain half the marvellous things that are happening.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that in Bracken County, Ky., (on the Ohio river, between Louisville and Cincinnati):

“Excitement is at fever heat in the Milford neighborhood, in the southern portion of this county, over the mysterious appearance of the most wonderful faces and figures upon the window glass of the houses in that section. The first appearance of these singular and most extraordinary pictures on the glass was at the residence of William Showalter, where the window panes all at once showed the colors of the rainbow, on which two days later the heads of people and animals were clearly visible. On the glass of another house a head and face resembling President Lincoln’s were to be seen. On another the form of a young girl bending over an infant, the body of a lion, the figures twenty-two, and a landscape were all visible, as distinctly outlined as any artist could have drawn them. Some of the most striking pictures are on the windows of the Milford Baptist Church, which are protected with shutters that are kept tightly closed. The people of Bracken county have not in years been more worked up over anything than they now are over these pictures.”

Glances Round the World.

The contempt with which Comte and many other philosophizers have treated the press which tells of the progress of mankind is an example for all good men to avoid. If we recognize the brotherhood of humanity, we cannot be indifferent to the passing lives, the joys and misfortunes of our brothers. Let pedants and philosophasters bury themselves in the writings of the dead, the good man prefers to know something of the living, and he finds it in the daily, weekly, and monthly press.

At our first outward glance, we are struck with the elevation of our standpoint. This great republic has attained an elevation in intelligence, wealth, and power, which enables it to look down on the lands that are overshadowed by the darkness of the past, and to anticipate the time when American pre-eminence shall be universally acknowledged. The condition already attained was eloquently stated by Chauncey M. Depew, in a recent address at New York, which gave a startling view of

AMERICAN PROGRESS.

“Last summer I stood upon the White Hill at Prague, in Bohemia, where the thirty years war began and ended. There is no more suggestive spot in Europe. It recalled a picture of the horrors and desolation of war unequalled in history. The contest began when the continent was dominated by the German empire, and ended with the magnificent creation of Charles V. broken into numberless petty principalities. Like the contest of the 17th century, ours was both a civil and religious war. But the country came out of the conflict not like the old German empire, but a mighty nation.

“Vapid sentimentalists and timid souls deprecate these annual reunions, fearing they may arouse old strifes and sectional animosities. But a war in which 500,000 men were killed, and 2,000,000 were wounded, in which states were devastated and money spent equal to twice England’s gigantic debt, has a meaning, a lesson and results which are to the people a liberal education. We cheerfully admit that the Confederate, equally with the Federal soldier, believed he was fighting for the right, and maintained his faith with a valor which fully sustained the reputation of Americans for courage and constancy. The best and bravest thinkers of the South gladly proclaim that the superb development which has been the outgrowth of their defeat is worth all its losses, its sacrifices, and humiliations.

“In 1860 the developed and assessable property of the United States was valued at $16,000,000,000. One-half of this enormous sum was destroyed by the civil war, and yet so prodigious has been the growth of wealth that the estimate now surpasses the imperial figure of $60,000,000,000, and the growth at the rate of nearly $7,000,000 a day. Our wealth approximates one-half of that of all Europe.

“These unparalleled results can be protected and continued only by the spirit of patriotism. This is a republic, and neither Mammon nor anarchy shall be king. The ranks of anarchy and riot number no Americans.”

We realize more fully the future magnitude of our country, when we look at the wealth of its soil and mines, already developed, and the magnitude of its still untouched resources. According to the estimates of Dr. A. B. Hart, of Harvard University, as laid before the American Statistical Association at their last meeting in the Boston Institute of Technology, the total territory of the United States contains 3,501,409 square miles. Of this entire amount Dr. Hart believes there remains unsold in the hands of the government, public lands amounting to 1,616,101 square miles, or 1,034,330,842 acres, which is almost one-half of our entire territory. Such a realm as we have could comfortably sustain between two and three thousand millions of inhabitants, while the entire population of the globe is at present less than fifteen hundred millions.

Our present population is over 60,000,000, and if it goes on duplicating every thirty years, it will be in 1917, 120,000,000; in 1947, 240,000,000; in 1977, 480,000,000; in 2,007, 960,000,000; in 2,037, 1,920,000,000; 2,067, 3,840,000,000. Thus in 180 years we shall have reached the limit where population, being over 1,000 to the square mile, must emigrate or be arrested by the difficulty of obtaining food, and the absolute necessity of reducing to a small number our stock of horses, cattle, and hogs, that human beings may have food,—vegetarian diet thus becoming a necessity, and bringing with it a great diminution of intemperance, and the crimes produced by the animal passions; for it is well established that vegetarianism restrains intemperance.

BRIGHT PROSPECTS.

Among the bright indications for the future are the increase of industrial education, the beginning of cooperation between capitalists and employes, the increasing intelligence and combined strength of the laboring class, which give assurance of good wages, and the subdivision of the land into smaller farms, which substitutes an independent yeomanry for the landlord and tenant relation. Thus, in the thirteen States, formerly slave-holding, the average size of farms in 1860 was 346 acres, but in 1880 it was 146.

We have vast mineral resources as yet untouched, of coal, iron, and other metals far exceeding all that has yet been reached in the old as well as new regions. The marbles of Inyo, California, are more than twice as strong as the best marbles of Italy.

“Astonishing as the statement may appear,” says the Denver News , “it is nevertheless a fact that there are here, within the borders of Colorado, the wealth in coal of two or even three States like Pennsylvania. For the vast trans-Missouri country, eastward, even to the valley of the Mississippi, Colorado is the great present and future storehouse of the fuel which the demands and necessities of its varied commercial and industrial life will require. Many generations hence, when Colorado shall have become an old State, when the frontier days shall have been forgotten, when gold and silver mining shall have ceased to be profitable, even then will the coal fields of Colorado be yielding their hidden treasures of fuel to supply the demand.”

We have no territory which sanitary science may not render a healthful home, and we have millions of acres of elevated territory, where the highest conditions of human health and happiness may be attained in connection with the highest spiritual development. But these regions are not on the Eastern coast, chilled by the icy currents from the North. “Westward the star of empire wends its way,” and the Pacific Coast is destined to witness the development of the highest civilization on the globe. Of the health and beauty of California all its residents can speak, but physicians can give decisive facts. Dr. King, of Banning, Cal., says, “Out here we scarcely know what storms are. All winter long my front yard has been green and beautiful—roses blooming in January, and callas in March. During three and a half years there have been but two cases of acute disease of the chest within six miles of my office. I do not know of any death having occurred in this village or vicinity from an acute disease, since I came here nearly four years ago.” What are the lauded climates of Italy and Greece compared to such a record as this?

DARK CLOUDS.

But what are the clouds that dim the brightness of our coming glory, and already overshadow us? The greatest of all is the curse of intemperance. Secretary Windom said, in his address at the Cooper Union meeting in New York, (May 25):

“I do not think I overstate the case when I say that the 200,000 saloons in this country have been instrumental in destroying more human life in the last five years than the 2,000,000 of armed men during the four years of the Rebellion. There is an irrepressible conflict upon us. This nation cannot endure half drunk and half sober any more than it could endure half slave and half free.”

Gov. St. John, late candidate for the presidency, said, in his New, York address:

“There are about 215,000 retail liquor houses in this nation. Allowing 20 feet to each, it gives us an unbroken liquor front of about 781 miles. Just think of it! Seven hundred and eighty-one miles of profanity and vulgarity. Seven hundred and eighty-one miles of Sabbath-breaking. Seven hundred and eighty-one miles of drunkard-making. Seven hundred and eighty-one miles of filth, debauchery, anarchy, dynamite and bombs. [Applause]. Seven hundred and eighty-one miles of political corruption; seven hundred and eighty-one miles of hot-beds for the propagation of counterfeiters, wife-beaters, gamblers, thieves, and murderers.

“In the High License City of Chicago, in the great Republican State of Illinois, there are, within five blocks of Halstead Street Mission, 325 saloons, 129 bawdy houses, 100 other houses of doubtful repute, theatres, museums and bad hotels, and only two places for the worship of Almighty God. (Cries of ‘Shame!’)”

St. John should have added that intemperance was the most powerful agency for the propagation of intellectual and moral idiocy in offspring.

The increase of insanity in spite of our defective systems of education is universally recognized. The New York Sun says:

“The very rapid increase of insanity in the United States during the last two or three decades continues to be the subject of much discussion among alienists, and all those who are concerned in public charities. That a prime cause of this alarming state of things is the shipment to our shores of the enfeebled and defective of other countries, is now beginning to be understood, and both our own State Board of Charities and the National Conference of Charities and Correction have called on Congress to protect our society against the introduction of these depraved specimens of humanity, who speedily become a charge on the public, or transmit their weakness to their posterity.

“The statistics of insanity show that, in general, the proportion of the insane is greatest in the older States, where the foreign population is most numerous, and it is least where the communities are new, as, for instance, in the pioneer counties of Wisconsin. The South, which has drawn comparatively little from immigration, suffers from insanity to a much less extent than New England and New York; and it is an established fact that the Negro race is much less liable to insanity than the white. The average of insanity in New England is 1 to every 359 of the population; in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 1 to every 424; while in the extreme Southern States the average is only 1 to 935.

“The West, like the South, is more free from insanity than the Northern seaboard States, the average being 1 to every 610 in the interior States, and 1 to 750 for the Northwestern States. In the far Western States and Territories it is only 1 out of 1,263, they being settled by a picked population, whose energy and soundness make them pioneers. It is note-worthy, however, that insanity is as frequent in the Pacific States as in New England, the explanation being that vice and indulgence prevail to an exceptional extent among the population drawn to the Pacific by the mania for gold. The average in Massachusetts, for instance, is 1 to 348; in California 1 to 345. It is also remarkable that the ratio of insanity decreases as we go west and south of New England, as these averages will show: New England, 1 to 359; Middle States, 1 to 424; interior States, 1 to 610; Northwestern States, 1 to 750; Southern States 1 to 629.

“The State where the proportion is highest is Vermont, 1 to 327; and New Hampshire comes next, with 1 to 329. We are at a loss to understand why insanity is so frequent in the District of Columbia, the average given being 1 to 189; but perhaps the large average in Vermont and New Hampshire may, in part, be due to the circumstance that those States receive the refuse of Canadian poor-houses, they having a much better organized system of charitable relief than the Dominion can boast of; and it is undeniable that some of the very worst of our immigration comes from over the Canadian border. That immigration, too, is now great, and there are factory towns in New England where the population is largely made up of French Canadians.”

There is a disturbing element in the influx of a foreign population reared under very unfavorable social conditions. In 1882 the immigration was 800,000. On a single day, in May last, nearly ten thousand arrived in Castle Garden. The steamships are overburdened, and the Cunard and White Star lines employ extra ships to accommodate the emigrants. Oppression in Ireland, and oppression all over Europe, drives the people into emigration; but a large portion of the emigration consists of a substantial population; yet we have enough of the turbulent and debased element to make a serious danger in our large cities, and a formidable competition with native American labor. The more laborers, and the fewer employers, the worse it is for labor. But perhaps American wealth and enterprise will find something satisfactory for all to do.

DEFECTIVE EDUCATION.

But there is nothing more unsatisfactory to the philanthropist than our meagre and inadequate system of education,—a system which aims to cram the memory with acquired knowledge, which does not develop original thought, and which does not elevate the moral nature. Such a system will never elevate society, will never repress any vice or crime, will never make the educated generation any happier for being educated. In short, it utterly fails in that which should be its chief end and aim, and simply leads society on as heretofore in the path of increasing intelligence, increasing misery, increasing crime, increasing insanity. What a commentary on our education and civilization is the common estimate that Europe, now, with the most complete educational system ever known, has 50,000 suicides a year. In this, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin take the lead.

(To be continued.)

Miscellaneous Intelligence.

CRANIOSCOPY.

( Continued from page 32. )

I would not say that Napoleon’s brain was to any great degree abnormal, but I am satisfied that criminal’s brains are generally abnormal, for there are many criminals whose heads do not, by their exterior form, indicate their depravity, but wherever I have examined the interior of the skull I have found the basilar organs active, growing and imprinted upon the interior table of the skull, while the superior region reveals the decline of the moral nature by the increased thickness of the bone which is growing inward and has not the digital impressions of the convolutions which are marked wherever the brain is in an active growing condition. The criminal’s skull must be studied by post mortem examination, and the most effective method is by placing a taper through the foramen magnum at the bottom of the skull which will reveal the more active organs by the translucency and thinness of the bones, while the inactive organs are indicated by their opacity and thickness, as in the following convict skull.

A REBELLIOUS CONVICT.

The sketch here presented exhibits the degrees of translucency and opacity in a skull which I obtained at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about fifty years ago. It was the skull of a convict killed in the penitentiary while leading a rebellion in a desperate effort to escape.

The man was of a respectable family, son of the sheriff of Warren County, Ky. He fell into bad company and bad habits at New Orleans, drinking and gaming, until for an act of highway robbery he was sent to the penitentiary. The reader will observe the general activity of the intellect and the adjacent social sentiments indicated by the translucency, and the general torpor, indicated by the opacity in the regions of Religion, Hope, Reverence, Love, Conscientiousness, Industry, Cheerfulness, Love of Approbation, Sense of Honor, and Self-respect. Secretiveness shows opacity, while Combativeness shows intense activity which extends into Adhesiveness and cautiousness.

The translucency at Firmness, Irritability, and Combativeness, which were active to the last moments of his life, is quite characteristic. Upon the whole, the test by the inner light inserted at the foramen magnum in the base of the skull indicates a very low, lawless, desperate and unprincipled character, with enough of adhesiveness to give him comrades in crime, and enough of intelligence to give him some success.

The most extraordinary instance of this was in the skull of a negro woman which I examined in Alabama, which had only a slight translucency at Firmness, while the rest of the upper surface of the skull was so abnormally thick that in lifting it one was reminded of the weight of a block of wood. She had, in a fit of temper, murdered her own child in the field, chopping it down with an axe.

Chapter VII.—Practical Utility of Anthropology in its Psychic Department.

All science should be useful—Anthropology has the supreme utility—Importance of self-knowledge and its rarity—Almost impossible without the aid of Anthropology—Its absence in the college—Immense waste of labor in abortive self-culture—Anthropology an exact guide—The selfish do not want it—Mistakes in education—Unbalanced characters described—Possibility of reform—Conjugal reform most important—The powerful agencies of Anthropology.

Before commencing the study of the organs of the brain and faculties of the soul, it is well to look to its results, its practical utilities; for the pursuit of science merely to gratify an intellectual curiosity is not the noblest employment of our time, although it has been a favorite indulgence of the literary class, and was regarded by the ancient philosopher, Empedocles, as the noblest occupation of man. From this opinion I decidedly dissent, regarding the lawless and excessive indulgence of the intellectual faculties as a species of erratic dissipation, injurious to the manhood of the individual, and pernicious to society by the misleading influence of a bad example.

Not only does this extreme intellectual indulgence, in a life the primary purpose of which is not meditation, but action, impair the individual as to his normal usefulness, and thus diffuse by example a deteriorating influence upon the young, and misleading influence upon all, but it actually leads to false views of life, and an unsound philosophy such as transcendental idealism, pessimism, indolence, and the pursuit of visionary falsehoods which a well-balanced mind would intuitively reject. These follies are cultivated by a pedantic system of education, and by the accumulated literature which such education in the past has developed, feeble and faulty in style, superficial in conception, and sadly misleading as to the principles and purposes of life.

Though tempted to such indulgence by the ceaseless activity of my own mind, I can say that I have never pursued any course of investigation, or study, without a positive certainty of its beneficence and value. No other course would be compatible with the demands of duty; but it is obvious on the face of a large portion of our literature that the ethical sentiments were dormant when it was written. Pre-eminent above all other studies in practical value is the science of Anthropology , so long neglected and unknown; a science which places biology on a new basis, rectifies therapeutics, reforms education, develops ethics or religion, and illuminates all spheres of knowledge by psychometry.

The psychic department of Anthropology in which we are now entering the study of the faculties of the soul, the organs of the brain, and the effects of their varying development upon the characters of men and animals, is rich in very practical instruction for the guidance of life, and the attainment not only of spiritual and physical health and success in this life, but of that nobler and greater success, which is chiefly realized in the coming centuries, in which a grander realm is opened for our expanded powers in the higher life.

One of the most essential things for success in life is a correct self-knowledge. A strong, well-balanced organization with a clear intuitive intellect, generally gives this knowledge, and leads to a correct course in life. But how few are really well developed and well balanced, with intuitive clearness of perception, and again how many are there who, in the unrestrained indulgence of all their passions and propensities, care not whether their lives are right or wrong, according to a correct standard. This class desire no admonition, no explanation of their peculiarities, and the causes of their failures or misfortunes.

Selfish and narrow-minded men charge all their failures and misfortunes either to inevitable destiny, or to the faults and misconduct of others. But the truth which science enforces is that we should charge all our failures to ourselves. Other men have succeeded splendidly in life, winning wealth, power, renown and friendship. If we have not, it must be because we have not exercised the same faculties which made them successful, and we should study most diligently to learn wherein, or how, we have failed.

Nearly all are disqualified for this task of self-inspection either by a selfish bias which is unwilling to recognize a fault, or by the fault itself which biases the judgment. The faculty, or passion, which misleads one becomes a part of his judging faculty, and cannot condemn itself. The miser cannot realize the baseness of his avarice, nor the mercenary soldier the enormity of war. Nor can a defective faculty assist in realizing the defect. The color-blind cannot appreciate painting, the thief cannot appreciate integrity, the brutal wife-beater cannot appreciate love, and a Napoleon cannot appreciate disinterested friendship.

Nor do they who fail to comprehend their own faults learn much from the admonition of friends, for they are too desirous of maintaining a friendly relation to give entirely candid advice, and the criticisms of those who are not friends excite suspicion and anger. Fortunate is the man who can profit by the criticisms of his enemies.

How many are there who go through life with glaring defects of character, injurious to their welfare, who are never warned, either by kind friends or by conscience, and never realize the necessity of any higher wisdom than their own, or the necessity of self-culture.

Hence the imperative necessity of psychic science, not that barren abstraction called psychology in colleges, but a science which, like a faithful mirror, reveals to us that which we cannot see. As the gymnastic teacher reveals by a system of measurement (anthropometry) the defective muscles that need development, so should the psychologist discover in the conformation of the brain the special culture needed by defective faculties.

There is nothing of this kind in the universities at present. Glaring faults are seen everywhere, working out their disastrous results, with no preventive method. We have orthopedic and orthopraxic institutions, and gymnastic halls to correct the defects of the body, but no attempt to recognize or correct the far more important defects and deformities of the soul. The orthopneumatic institution for the soul has not yet been conceived. The school or college should be such an institution, and in The New Education I have endeavored to show how it may perform this duty. The pulpit should be a similar institution; but, alas, the pulpit itself, has no adequate system of ethics—its theology has starved its ethics, and it lifts its followers, in the main, no higher than the level of exterior respectability. The task remains for some able critic to show how many of the important duties of life, though plainly implied by the fundamental law of Christianity, are ignored by the pulpit.

Anthropology alone reveals the ethical fulness and symmetry of character, which all should seek; and when science shall be advanced far beyond the barriers that circumscribe it at present, men and women will seek the profound and intuitive anthropologist for consultation, as they now seek the physician for the attainment of health.

It has been for the attainment of a possible superiority that millions have submitted to the discipline of collegiate education, while others with nobler aims have sought in meditation, in prayer, and in imitation of the illustrious, for the ennoblement of their own lives. No book has sold more largely than the Imitation of Christ. But was it not often a blind struggle in the dark, an attempt to reach a goal never clearly seen. Wandering in a labyrinth of fanaticism, agonizing in the effort to distort nature, the biographical record of religious aspiration serves to show how nearly multitudes may approach the boundary line of insanity in their protracted periods of causeless mental agony and in their fierce hostility to heresy and to science. Alike in Brahmin, Buddhist, Mohammedan, and Christian nations have we seen the vast expenditure of spiritual energy in the blind struggle of aspiring souls.

To all this, Anthropology will put an end, for it will give to each a definite conception of the full normal development of humanity, and of the organization or brain development by what it is sustained. To those who fall far short of that development, it gives the means of a definite measurement of the defect, and shows by cranioscopy and psychometry what is to be done in self-culture, as clearly as we learn in the gymnasium what muscles need greater development.

The desire for such improvement is often absent when it is most needed. A vast multitude of inferior people are perfectly content with themselves in a selfish life, wholly absorbed in providing for their own wants, or, if possessed of wealth, using it only in selfishness and ostentation,—content in believing themselves as good as their neighbors, doing nothing to benefit society, unless under the coercion of public opinion, leading such lives that the world is certainly no better, and perhaps a little worse, for their advent.

A very different class, who are more apt to profit by anthropology is composed of those in whom there is a decided predominance of good. In some cases they are deficient in selfish and combative energy, do not know how to assert their rights, are credulous and confiding. Children of that character if reared by timid and over-fond parents, are deprived of the rough contact with society that is necessary to their development. There are many whom the lack of self-confidence, the lack of ambition, and lack of business energy condemn to an obscure life, when their intellectual capacities would fit them for an influential position. A kind but mistaken system of training confirms the defect, and dooms them to an inefficient life, or a stern system of repression deprives them of all self-confidence and energy. Millions of good women are victimized in this manner. This amiable class are amenable to instruction, but are often by their easy credulity, induced to yield to unworthy teachers, or to the guidance of unsound but pretentious or delusive literature. They lack in the energy of criticism which might protect them from error.

Throughout the whole course of education, from infancy to manhood, Anthropology may be an ever-present monitor, warning against excesses, against failures, against errors of opinion, while urging the cultivation of our feebler faculties as the gymnastic teacher urges the cultivation of the feebler muscles.

Unaware of their errors, many would resent all such criticism, but the science which cannot help them, because they will have none of it, will enable us to understand them correctly and know how to deal with them.

There is an intense curiosity in the young to know their capacities, their adaptation to various pursuits, their merits and defects of character, to know what to cultivate, what to repress, and what estimate to put upon themselves. In the age of adolescence such knowledge is very valuable, and is generally willingly received. Moreover, it is very interesting to parents and guardians to know what estimate to form of their charge. The thorough Psychologist (I prefer this word to Phrenologist, which has a more limited meaning) is therefore one of the most useful scientists, and may render invaluable service in the period from ten to twenty years of age, when a guiding wisdom is needed.

That wisdom, though seldom sought later in life, is nevertheless a wisdom which all men need, and especially for this reason, that, with few exceptions,

NO MAN IS COMPETENT TO BE HIS OWN CRITIC.

Unless he is a profound Anthropologist he has no standard of humanity, no absolute standard with which to compare himself, and if he should attempt to form such a standard, his personal defects would vitiate the result.

I never go into society without witnessing examples of those who need earnest psychic admonition. For example, among public speakers, I would mention certain defects: A., with a broad forehead and richly endowed intellect, has not sufficient development of the highest regions of the brain to give him moral dignity or to enable him to discriminate well between the noble upright and the cunning selfish. His superior intellect is shown not by impressive eloquence, but by energetic loquacity, and hence fails to receive full recognition. B. has the dignity and power in which A. is deficient, but lacking in the organs of love, sympathy and liberality, he becomes harsh, censorious and bitterly controversial, making many enemies and leading a wretched home-life. C. has a grand oratorical energy and dignity, but lacking in the organs of reverence and humility, he overrates himself and becomes famous for his vanity. D. has the intellect, wit, humor, and social qualities to shine in company, but from lack of the organ of self-respect, he fails to maintain the dignity of a gentleman and command proper respect in society. E. had the power and genius to rank among the most eloquent and distinguished men of the nation, but the too broad base of his brain overcame all his nobler qualities, and, after becoming an object of general contempt, he ended his life a worthless sot. F. had an intellectual genius of the highest order, and ought to have left a name among the great scientists of the age, but the regions of moral energy, cheerfulness, and adhesiveness were lacking in his brain, and hence he never attained any great success or retained any satisfactory position. His life ran down into pessimism, failure, and premature decay. G. had another splendid intellect and made his mark on the times, but lacking in the region of dignity and self-control, he failed to reach his just position in political life and fell into premature mental decay from over-excitement. H., with much less of intellectual capacity, but a better balanced organization rose to the highest rank in the esteem of his countrymen. I., with an intellect adapted to the exploration of the mysteries of science, of which he gave good evidence, but lacking in all the elements of strength of character lead a life of uniform failure, obscurity and poverty, and yet I felt assured that a different education in youth which would have developed his manhood and ambition and would have carried him to eminence. J. is a man of superior intellect, benevolence and strength of character, but the organ of love is singularly defective in his head and his domestic life is therefore void of happiness.

Neither the men nor the women in whom I have observed the deficiency of the faculty of love, ever seemed to be aware of the fact or to suspect that their intense antipathies were the product of a faulty organization, and their discords chargeable to themselves.

K. and L. are two gentlemen richly endowed in intellect and in the other virtues, but not in conscientiousness, in which they are strangely deficient. This is the only defective region in their heads and it is fully borne out in their lives, which are void of integrity and truth, though they have escaped the condemnation of the law.

M. was a lady of intense ambition in whom the regions of love and religion were deficient. Aspiring to be a leader in philanthropic reform she had a limited following in an erratic course, but ended her labors by obtaining a snug position for herself and repudiating all she had done. N. was another would-be leader in philanthropic reforms, who was at one time quite conspicuous, but while he had the ideal speculative intellect to appreciate theories, he was lacking in love and religion. His philanthropy did not pay, and he abandoned it entirely for a life of selfish self-indulgence.

I might enumerate many more, with whose organic development I was familiar, whose lives displayed conspicuously their organic defects of brain, but who never seemed to understand their own deficiencies or make any effort to correct them. Could they have been corrected in adult life? Much might have been done if they had understood and been admonished by Anthropology. I know of one in whom an organic defect was pointed out, in his first manhood, who, by persistent effort, so far overcame it as to modify the form of his head, and increase its fulness in the moral regions. But, as the world goes, men are not admonished, and they cherish their defects, refusing to believe that they are faults.

It is in childhood and youth that the work of reformation is to be accomplished, when parents and teachers shall have learned the methods.

But reformation must begin farther back, with parents. It must begin in the most faithful care and systematic loving culture during the nine months of unborn life, which may do more than all subsequent education.

And it must begin still farther back, in the refusal to propagate evil, in the selection of mothers who are worthy and competent to bear good children, and the selection of fathers whose characters are worth reproducing, leaving an unchosen remnant to whom marriage should be denied.