ence of the husband in "moody madness laughing wild," are incidents quite as natural as horrible. The frantic but vain attempts of some in their despair to escape son fleet steeds, or in their chariots, are finely described, although perhaps in some degree extravagantly. The picture of final destruction which follows is overwhelming. The lava-flood is fearfully graphic:

Through the city now
The fire-flood goes, and in a cataract huge
From the steep rocks pours down into the sea.-
Right o'er, with sweep tremendous, the red stream
Launches into the deep:-the deep shrinks back
Hissing and roaring-steaming to the skies
Seething like hottest caldron :-flashing up
Torrents of boiling brine, and darkening all
With clouds of densest mist. Again the waves
Return-again the fiery cataract meets
And drives it bellowing back.-

The city at last sinks in the earth :—

""Tis gone! where late

The mighty city stood no trace is left ;-
Its costly palaces-its splendid streets-
Its awful temples-all are gone. Remains
A dark-hued plain alone, whose rugged face

The lessening lightnings plough ;-o'er which the flood
Of lava slowly settles in a lake..

Years ages centuries-shall pass away

And none shall tell where once that city stood."

Besides a large endowment of the knowing organs, the poem manifests a high degree of the reflecting. Comparison, with all its train of metaphor, simile, and allegory, greatly enriches the composition; and Causality is evident in the well-arranged and necessary sequence of the incidents.

In the same volume there is another poem from which we might enlarge the inferences of the poet's organization, but must be content with referring to it. It is founded on the tragical story in Xenophon of Abradates and Panthea.

The volume is the work of an author, not only of high intellectual powers, fervid imagination, and correct taste, but

of one having all that superiority of moral feeling which nianifests itself in the words, and no doubt in the deeds, of the most considerate kindliness, justice, and generosity,

In inferring the development I have contemplated the whole poem; to which the reader may have access. The quotations, which are necessarily limited, are not of themselves sufficient; they are given as specimens only.

The development inferred, in so far as the poem affords data, may turn out to be something like the following ; and the sccordance, if it appears, will lend support to the doctrine, that, as the instrument of a sound literary criticism, Phrenology stands alone and unrivalled.*

Amativeness, full.
Philoprogenitiveness, large.
Adhesiveness, large.
Combativeness, large.
Destructiveness, large.
Cautiousness, rather large.
Benevolence, large.
Veneration, large.
Hope, large.
Ideality, very large.
Conscientiousness, large.
Firmness, large.

Individuality, large.
Eventuality, large.
Form, rather large.
Weight, rather large.
Colouring, large.
Locality, full.
Time, moderate.
Language, large.
Comparison, large.
Causality, large.
Imitation, large.
Wonder, large.

Since reading to the Phrenological Society the preceding, the author has seen Mr Atherstone's “ Midsummer Day's Dream ;" in which, as an effusion of Ideality, he is not exceeded by any living poet. His Ideality not only fulfils the definition of the power, by ceaselessly aspiring to something yet higher and higher in every kind of excellence, but is seconded by other high powers in realizing these aspirations in description. The descriptions in this poem are strikingly gorgeous and splendid, and in no way belie

• When the author of this paper read his inferential development of the poet, the president, and one or two skilful members, took the cast in their hands, and stated, organ by organ, their opinion of the real development. The inferential was pronounced right in every organ enumerated. For some organs the poems afforded no data, -EDITOR.

.

the organization; while there is a yet larger element than Herculaneum can supply, of kindness and of joyousness, fruit of a beautiful endowment of the moral sentiments, which enjoys nature's sweets and bounties, exquisitely and gratefully, and loves to see them enjoyed by every other sentient being. We cannot withhold the rising sun:

"Towards the east

An atmosphere of golden light, that grew
Momently brighter, and intensely bright,
Proclaim'd the approaching sun.

Now-now he comes:

A dazzling point emerges from the sea;
It spreads;-it rises: Now it seems a dome
Of burning gold :-higher and rounder now
It mounts-it swells:-now, like a huge balloon
Of light and fire, it rests upon the rim

Of waters; lingers there a moment ;-then-
Soars up.-

Exulting I stretch'd forth my arms,
And hail'd the king of summer. Every hill

Put on a face of gladness; every tree

Shook his green leaves in joy: the meadows laugh'd;
The deep glen, where it caught the amber beams,
Began to draw its misty veil aside,

And smile and glisten through its pearly tear.

The birds struck up their chorus; the young lambs
Scour'd over hill and meadow ;-all that lived
Look'd like a new creation, over-fill'd

With health and joy; nay, ev'n the inanimate earth
Seem'd coming into life.

But glorious far
Beyond all else the mighty God of light
Mounting the crystal firmament: no eye
May look upon his overwhelming pomp:
Power and majesty attend his steps;
Ocean and earth adoring gaze on him :—
In lone magnificence he takes his way
Through the bright solitude of heaven.

The sea

Was clear and purely blue, save the broad path
Where the sunbeams danced on the heaving billows,
That seem'd a high road, paved with atom-suns,
Where, on celestial errands, to and fro,

"Tween heaven and earth might gods or angels walk.”

Room ought to be found at the present moment for the

description of a comet's encounter with the earth; but, although a fine effort of Ideality, it is too long.

The poet, traversing boundless space with a celestial conductor, sees a world destroyed and a sun created:

༄། "But He who hath destroy'd can re-create.
In empty space and darkness, suddenly
We have beheld a cloud of pearly light;
And all about, to infinite extent,

The ether thickening like a radiant mist;
Working tumultuously,-and round, and round,
Rushing in endless circles,-wheel in wheel.
Anon the pearly cloud becomes a sphere;
Condenses-brightens-glows-revolves-expands-
Flashes and burns-and darts excessive light,
And grasps the kindled ether as it rolls,
Turning it all to fire; and round and round,
Swifter and faster vehemently whirls and burns,

And gathers prodigious bulk,-till lo!-it is a sun!"

3

Even with the foregoing appendix, added in consequence of seeing the "Midsummer Day's Dream," we are not permitted yet to dismiss Mr Atherstone. Since that appendix itself was written, his genius has given to the world part of a yet more important poetical work, and one which, while it still more strongly confirms our phrenological exposition of his talents, will, there can hardly be a question, rank him among the foremost of living poets. We allude to a regular epic poem on the exalted theme of the fall of Nineveh, with the first six books of which he has, we may safely say, delighted the poetical world. It is out of the question to analyze such a work at the end of a phrenological critique on the poet's lesser productions; we will not even quote from its pages. We have read the six books almost without rising, so much of brilliancy and deep interest do they possess, and so little of the heaviness of most epic poems; and we were witness lately in London to the high popularity of the poem,

Since we wrote this we find our opinion essentially confirmed by that of the Edinburgh Reviewers.

-coming out, as it did, at the same time with Martin's gorgeous picture on the same subject; and, moreover, to the great increase of the interest excited by both of these kindred productions of genius, produced by the circumstance of the artists being intimate friends, who had worked together, though in their separate lines of art, with a reciprocity of poetical feeling from which they respectively reaped the highest advantages. One circumstance singularly confirms what was said above in this paper, of Mr Atherstone's intense love of Colouring. He could scarcely, it seems, be satisfied with the highest touches of his friend's pencil, in this department; but urged him to still farther efforts of colouring, till the effect became quite dazzling. To our pbrenological readers we strongly recommend both the poem and the picture of the “ Fall of Nineveh."

"I 1312

boude voel

An Inquiry concerning the Connexion of the Mind and the

Brain, with Remarks on Phrenology and Materialism, by
William Wildsmith, Member of the Royal College of Sur-
geons in London, and of the Philosophical and Literary
Society of Leeds. London and Leeds, 1828, pp. 74.

This pamphlet was occasioned by opinions expressed by the Rev. R. W. Hamilton, in an “ Essay on Craniology, and in a “ Series of Lectures on the Intellectual Emotions," read before the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. Owing to the exclusion of all useful physiological information from popular education, the great body of the reading public of England are as profoundly ignorant of the structure and functions of the different parts of their own bodies, and of the connexion between the body and mind, as of the geography of the moon, or the rural economy of the Geor